in the firm persuasion that as there has subsisted, and does subsist, the most perfect and constant good harmony between the King, my master, and the United States of America, I will spare no pains to preserve it by all the means in my power, being assured of a reciprocity of equal good offices in observing the treaty with good faith, ever keeping it in view that the felicity and glory of nations are deeply concerned in the advantages of a wise and prudently conducted commerce. I have the honor to assure your excellency of the respect and high consideration which I profess for you; and I pray the Most High to preserve your life many years. I kiss your excellency's hands. Your most affectionate servant, MANUEL DE SALCEDO. JANUARY 5, 1803. _Gentlemen of the House of Representatives_: Agreeably to the request of the House of Representatives, I now transmit a statement of the militia of those States from which any returns have been made to the War Office. They are, as you will perceive, but a small proportion of the whole. I send you also the copy of a circular letter written some time since for the purpose of obtaining returns from all the States. Should any others in consequence of this be made during the session of Congress, they shall be immediately communicated. TH. JEFFERSON. JANUARY 7, 1803. _Gentlemen of the Senate_: I submit for your approbation and consent a convention entered into with the Choctaw Nation of Indians for ascertaining and marking the limits of the territory ceded to our nation while under its former government, and lying between the Tombigbee and Mobile rivers on the east and the Chickasawhay River on the west. We are now engaged in ascertaining and marking in like manner the limits of the former cessions of the Choctaws from the river Yazoo to our southern boundary, which will be the subject of another convention, and we expect to obtain from the same nation a new cession of lands of considerable extent between the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers. These several tracts of country will compose that portion of the Mississippi Territory which, so soon as certain individual claims are arranged, the United States will be free to sell and settle immediately. TH. JEFFERSON JANUARY 11, 1803. _Gentlemen of the Senate_: