ssioned or equipped in a warlike form
within the limits of the United States.

It rests with the wisdom of Congress to correct, improve, or enforce
this plan of procedure; and it will probably be found expedient to
extend the legal code and the jurisdiction of the courts of the United
States to many cases which, though dependent on principles already
recognized, demand some further provisions.

Where individuals shall, within the United States, array themselves
in hostility against any of the powers at war, or enter upon military
expeditions or enterprises within the jurisdiction of the United States,
or usurp and exercise judicial authority within the United States, or
where the penalties on violations of the law of nations may have been
indistinctly marked, or are inadequate--these offenses can not receive
too early and close an attention, and require prompt and decisive
remedies.

Whatsoever those remedies may be, they will be well administered by
the judiciary, who possess a long-established course of investigation,
effectual process, and officers in the habit of executing it.

In like manner, as several of the courts have doubted, under particular
circumstances, their power to liberate the vessels of a nation at peace,
and even of a citizen of the United States, although seized under a
false color of being hostile property, and have denied their power to
liberate certain captures within the protection of our territory, it
would seem proper to regulate their jurisdiction in these points. But if
the Executive is to be the resort in either of the two last-mentioned
cases, it is hoped that he will be authorized by law to have facts
ascertained by the courts when for his own information he shall
request it.

I can not recommend to your notice measures for the fulfillment of our
duties to the rest of the world without again pressing upon you the
necessity of placing ourselves in a condition of complete defense and of
exacting from them the fulfillment of their duties toward us. The United
States ought not to indulge a persuasion that, contrary to the order of
human events, they will forever keep at a distance those painful appeals
to arms with which the history of every other nation abounds. There is
a rank due to the United States among nations which will be withheld,
if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness. If we desire to
avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace,
one