Special Message

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

A letter has been received from the governor of South Carolina covering an act of the legislature of that State ceding to the United States various forts and fortifications and sites for the erection of forts in that State on the conditions therein expressed. This letter and the act it covered are now communicated to Congress.

I am not informed whether the positions ceded are the best which can be taken for securing their respective objects. No doubt is entertained that the legislature deemed them such. The river of Beaufort, particularly, said to be accessible to ships of very large size and capable of yielding them a protection which they can not find elsewhere but very far to the north, is from these circumstances so interesting to the Union in general as to merit particular attention and inquiry as to the positions on it best calculated for health as well as safety.

TH: JEFFERSON.