Special Message

Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

I lay before Congress copies of acts passed by the legislatures of the States of Vermont, Massachusetts, and New York, ratifying the amendment proposed by the Senate and House of Representatives at their last session to the Constitution of the United States respecting the judicial power thereof.

The minister of the French Republic having communicated to the Secretary of State certain proceedings of the committee of public safety respecting weights and measures, I lay these also before Congress.

The letter from the governor of the Western territory, copies of which are now transmitted, refers to a defect in the judicial system of that territory deserving the attention of Congress.

The necessary absence of the judge of the district of Pennsylvania upon business connected with the late insurrection is stated by him in a letter of which I forward copies to have produced certain interruptions in the judicial proceedings of that district which can not be removed without the interposition of Congress.

GO. WASHINGTON.