JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, March 4, 1822.

To the House of Representatives of the United States: 

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 22d ultimo, requesting the President of the United States “to cause to be laid before this House a statement showing the amount of woolens purchased for the use of the Army during the years 1820 and 1821, comprising a description of the articles, of whom the purchases were made, at what prices, and what proportion thereof was of American manufacture,” I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of War.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, March 8, 1822.

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

In transmitting to the House of Representatives the documents called for by the resolution of that House of the 30th January, I consider it my duty to invite the attention of Congress to a very important subject, and to communicate the sentiments of the Executive on it, that, should Congress entertain similar sentiments, there may be such cooperation between the two departments of the Government as their respective rights and duties may require.

The revolutionary movement in the Spanish Provinces in this hemisphere attracted the attention and excited the sympathy of our fellow-citizens from its commencement.  This feeling was natural and honorable to them, from causes which need not be communicated to you.  It has been gratifying to all to see the general acquiescence which has been manifested in the policy which the constituted authorities have deemed it proper to pursue in regard to this contest.  As soon as the movement assumed such a steady and consistent form as to make the success of the Provinces probable, the rights to which they were entitled by the law of nations as equal parties to a civil war were extended to them.  Each party was permitted to enter our ports with its public and private ships, and to take from them every article which was the subject of commerce with other nations.  Our citizens, also, have carried on commerce with both parties, and the Government has protected it with each in articles not contraband of war.  Through the whole of this contest the United States have remained neutral, and have fulfilled with the utmost impartiality all the obligations incident to that character.

This contest has now reached such a stage and been attended with such decisive success on the part of the Provinces that it merits the most profound consideration whether their right to the rank of independent nations, with all the advantages incident to it in their intercourse with the United States, is not complete.  Buenos Ayres assumed that rank by a formal declaration in 1816, and has enjoyed it since 1810 free from invasion by the parent country.  The Provinces composing the Republic of Colombia, after having separately declared their independence, were united by a fundamental