JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, February 28, 1823.

To the House of Representatives: 

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 24th of January, requesting the President to communicate to the House the number of persons and the amount due from each whose compensation has been withheld or suspended, in pursuance of the law prohibiting payments to persons in arrears to the United States; whether the amount withheld has been applied in all cases to the extinguishment of their debts to the Government; whether the said laws have been enforced in all cases against securities who are liable for the payment of any arrears due; whether any disbursing officer, within the knowledge of the President, has given conclusive evidence of his insolvency, and, if so, whether he is still retained in the service of the United States, I transmit to the House a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, with the documents mentioned therein.

The report has been confined to the operations of the law.  Respecting the circumstances of individuals in their transactions without the sphere of their public duties I have no means of information other than those which are common to all.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, March 7, 1823.

To the House of Representatives of the United States: 

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of this day, requesting information of the measures taken with regard to the illegal blockade of the ports of the Spanish Main, and to depredations of privateers fitted out from Porto Rico and other Spanish islands on the commerce of the United States, I transmit to the House a report from the Secretary of State containing the information required by the resolution.

JAMES MONROE.

SEVENTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.

WASHINGTON, December 2, 1823.

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives: 

Many important subjects will claim your attention during the present session, of which I shall endeavor to give, in aid of your deliberations, a just idea in this communication.  I undertake this duty with diffidence, from the vast extent of the interests on which I have to treat and of their great importance to every portion of our Union.  I enter on it with zeal from a thorough conviction that there never was a period since the establishment of our Revolution when, regarding the condition of the civilized world and its bearing on us, there was greater necessity for devotion in the public servants to their respective duties, or for virtue, patriotism, and union in our constituents.