Shortly before the meeting of Congress a letter was received at the War Department from Colonel Brooke, the officer commanding at Pensacola, requesting instructions how far he was to consider these requisitions as authoritative, but the assurance that a new organization of the government was immediately to be authorized by Congress was a motive for superseding any specific decision upon the inquiry.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, April 6, 1822.

To the House of Representatives of the United States: 

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives requesting the President of the United States to cause to be furnished to that House certain information relating to the amount of the public money paid to the Attorney-General over and above his salary fixed by law since the 1st of January, 1817, specifying the time when paid and the fund out of which such payments have been made, I transmit a paper, marked A, containing the information desired.  I transmit also a paper, marked B, containing a statement of sums paid to Attorney General of the United States prior to the 1st of January, 1817, and in the paper marked C a like statement of sums advanced to district attorneys for services not required of them by law.  These latter documents being necessary to a full view of the subject, it is thought proper to comprise them in this communication.

By the act of 24th September, 1789, instituting the office of Attorney General, it was made his duty to prosecute and conduct all suits in the Supreme Court in which the United States should be concerned, and to give his advice and opinion upon questions of law when required by the President of the United States, or when requested by the head of any of the Departments, touching any matters that might concern their Departments.  It will be seen, therefore, by the statement communicated that no money whatever has been paid to the Attorney General for his services in that character, nor for any duty belonging to his office, beyond his salary as fixed by law.

It will also be shewn by the documents communicated that the construction given of the laws imposing duties on the Attorney General and district attorneys have been invariably the same since the institution of the Government.  On the same authority it was thought that the compensation allowed to the present Attorney General for certain services, considering their importance and the time employed in rendering them, did not exceed, regarding precedents, what might fairly be claimed.

JAMES MONROE.

APRIL, 13, 1822.

To the Senate of the United States: 

Having cause to infer that the reasons which led to the construction which I gave to the act of the last session entitled “An act to reduce and fix the peace establishment of the United States” have not been well understood, I consider it my duty to explain more fully the view which I took of that act and of the principles on which I executed the very difficult and important duty enjoined on me by it.