indispensable to allow him a handsome salary. I should confer on such a
consul a superintending power over the consulates for the States of
Tunis and Tripoli, especially in respect to pecuniary engagements, which
should not be made without his approbation.

While the present salary of $2,000 a year appears adequate to the
consulates of Tunis and Tripoli, twice that sum probably will be
requisite for Algiers.

JOHN ADAMS.



UNITED STATES, _July 3, 1797_.

_Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives_:

The whole of the intelligence which has for some time past been received
from abroad, the correspondences between this Government and the
ministers of the belligerent powers residing here, and the advices
from the officers of the United States, civil and military, upon the
frontiers all conspire to shew in a very strong light the critical
situation of our country. That Congress might be enabled to form a more
perfect judgment of it and of the measures necessary to be taken,
I have directed the proper officers to prepare such collections of
extracts from the public correspondences as might afford the clearest
information. The reports made to me from the Secretary of State and the
Secretary of War, with a collection of documents from each of them, are
now communicated to both Houses of Congress. I have desired that the
message, reports, and documents may be considered as confidential merely