To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: 

I now lay before Congress a statement of the militia of the United States, according to the returns last received from the several States.  It will be perceived that some of these are not of recent dates, and that from the States of Maryland, Delaware, and Tennessee no returns are stated.  As far as appears from our records, none were ever rendered from either of these States.

TH.  JEFFERSON.

FEBRUARY 28, 1805.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: 

I now render to Congress the account of the fund established by the act of May 1, 1802, for defraying the contingent charges of Government.  No occasion having arisen for making use of any part of the balance of $18,560 unexpended on the 31st day of December, 1803, when the last account was rendered by message, that balance has been carried to the credit of the surplus fund.

TH.  JEFFERSON.

SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

Proceeding, fellow-citizens, to that qualification which the Constitution requires before my entrance on the charge again conferred on me, it is my duty to express the deep sense I entertain of this new proof of confidence from my fellow-citizens at large, and the zeal with which it inspires me so to conduct myself as may best satisfy their just expectations.

On taking this station on a former occasion I declared the principles on which I believed it my duty to administer the affairs of our Commonwealth.  My conscience tells me I have on every occasion acted up to that declaration according to its obvious import and to the understanding of every candid mind.

In the transaction of your foreign affairs we have endeavored to cultivate the friendship of all nations, and especially of those with which we have the most important relations.  We have clone them justice on all occasions, favored where favor was lawful, and cherished mutual interests and intercourse on fair and equal terms.  We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction, that with nations as with individuals our interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties, and history bears witness to the fact that a just nation is trusted on its word when recourse is had to armaments and wars to bridle others.

At home, fellow-citizens, you best know whether we have done well or ill.  The suppression of unnecessary offices, of useless establishments and expenses, enabled us to discontinue our internal taxes.  These, covering our land with officers and opening our doors to their intrusions, had already begun that process of domiciliary vexation which once entered is scarcely to be restrained from reaching successively every article of property and produce.  If among these taxes some minor ones fell which had not been inconvenient, it was because their amount would not have paid the officers who collected them, and because, if they had any merit, the State authorities might adopt them instead of others less approved.