Special Message

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

In conformity with the practice of all my predecessors, I have during my service in the office of President transmitted to the two Houses of Congress from time to time, by the same private secretary, such messages as a proper discharge of my constitutional duty appeared to me to require. On Tuesday last he was charged with the delivery of a message to each House. Having presented that which was intended for the House of Representatives, whilst he was passing, within the Capitol, from their Hall to the Chamber of the Senate, for the purpose of delivering the other message, he was waylaid and assaulted in the Rotunda by a person, in the presence of a member of the House, who interposed and separated the parties.

I have thought it my duty to communicate this occurrence to Congress, to whose wisdom it belongs to consider whether it is of a nature requiring from them any animadversion, and also whether any further laws or regulations are necessary to insure security in the official intercourse between the President and Congress, and to prevent disorders within the Capitol itself.

In the deliberations of Congress upon this subject it is neither expected nor desired that any consequence shall be attached to the private relation in which my secretary stands to me.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.