It is to me a source of unaffected satisfaction to meet the representatives of the States and the people in Congress assembled, as it will be to receive the aid of their combined wisdom in the administration of public affairs. In performing for the first time the duty imposed on me by the Constitution of giving to you information of the state of the Union and recommending to your consideration such measures as in my judgment are necessary and expedient, I am happy that I can congratulate you on the continued prosperity of our country. Under the blessings of Divine Providence and the benign influence of our free institutions, it stands before the world a spectacle of national happiness. With our unexampled advancement in all the elements of national greatness, the affection of the people is confirmed for the Union of the States and for the doctrines of popular liberty which lie at the foundation of our Government. It becomes us in humility to make our devout acknowledgments to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe for the inestimable civil and religious blessings with which we are favored. In calling the attention of Congress to our relations with foreign powers, I am gratified to be able to state that though with some of them there have existed since your last session serious causes of irritation and misunderstanding, yet no actual hostilities have taken place. Adopting the maxim in the conduct of our foreign affairs "to ask nothing that is not right and submit to nothing that is wrong," it has been my anxious desire to preserve peace with all nations, but at the same time to be prepared to resist aggression and maintain all our just rights. In pursuance of the joint resolution of Congress "for annexing Texas to the United States," my predecessor, on the 3d day of March, 1845, elected to submit the first and second sections of that resolution to the Republic of Texas as an overture on the part of the United States for her admission as a State into our Union. This election I approved, and accordingly the charge' d'affaires of the United States in Texas, under instructions of the 10th of March, 1845, presented these sections of the resolution for the acceptance of that Republic. The executive government, the Congress, and the people of Texas in convention have successively complied with all the terms and conditions of the joint resolution. A constitution for the government of the State of Texas, formed by a convention of deputies, is herewith laid before Congress. It is well known, also, that the people of Texas at the polls have accepted the terms of annexation and ratified the constitution. I communicate to Congress the correspondence between the Secretary of State and our charge' d'affaires in Texas, and also the correspondence of the latter with the authorities of Texas, together with the official documents transmitted by him to his own Government. The terms of annexation which were offered by the United States having been accepted by Texas, the public faith of both parties is solemnly pledged to the compact of their union. Nothing remains to consummate the event but the passage of an act by Congress to admit the State of Texas into the Union upon an equal footing with the original States. Strong reasons exist why this should be done at an early period of the session. It will be observed that by the constitution of Texas the existing government is only continued temporarily till Congress can act, and that the third Monday of the present month is the day appointed for holding the first general election. On that day a governor, a lieutenant-governor, and both branches of the legislature will be chosen by the people. The President of Texas is required, immediately after the receipt of official information that the new State has been admitted into our Union by Congress, to convene the legislature, and upon its meeting the existing government will be superseded and the State government organized. Questions deeply interesting to Texas, in common with the other States, the extension of our revenue laws and judicial system over her people and territory, as well as measures of a local character, will claim the early attention of Congress, and therefore upon every principle of republican government she ought to be represented in that body without unnecessary delay. I can not too earnestly recommend prompt action on this important subject. As soon as the act to admit Texas as a State shall be passed the union of the two Republics will be consummated by their own voluntary consent. This accession to our territory has been a bloodless achievement. No arm of force has been raised to produce the result. The sword has had no part in the victory. We have not sought to extend our territorial possessions by conquest, or our republican institutions over a reluctant people. It was the deliberate homage of each people to the great principle of our federative union. If we consider the extent of territory involved in the annexation, its prospective influence on America, the means by which it has been accomplished, springing purely from the choice of the people themselves to share the blessings of our union, the history of the world may be challenged to furnish a parallel. The jurisdiction of the United States, which at the formation of the Federal Constitution was bounded by the St. Marys on the Atlantic, has passed the capes of Florida and been peacefully extended to the Del Norte. In contemplating the grandeur of this event it is not to be forgotten that the result was achieved in despite of the diplomatic interference of European monarchies. Even France, the country which had been our ancient ally, the country which has a common interest with us in maintaining the freedom of the seas, the country which, by the cession of Louisiana, first opened to us access to the Gulf of Mexico, the country with which we have been every year drawing more and more closely the bonds of successful commerce, most unexpectedly, and to our unfeigned regret, took part in an effort to prevent annexation and to impose on Texas, as a condition of the recognition of her independence by Mexico, that she would never join herself to the United States. We may rejoice that the tranquil and pervading influence of the American principle of self-government was sufficient to defeat the purposes of British and French interference, and that the almost unanimous voice of the people of Texas has given to that interference a peaceful and effective rebuke. From this example European Governments may learn how vain diplomatic arts and intrigues must ever prove upon this continent against that system of self-government which seems natural to our soil, and which will ever resist foreign interference. Toward Texas I do not doubt that a liberal and generous spirit will actuate Congress in all that concerns her interests and prosperity, and that she will never have cause to regret that she has united her "lone star" to our glorious constellation. I regret to inform you that our relations with Mexico since your last session have not been of the amicable character which it is our desire to cultivate with all foreign nations. On the 6th day of March last the Mexican envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the United States made a formal protest in the name of his Government against the joint resolution passed by Congress "for the annexation of Texas to the United States," which he chose to regard as a violation of the rights of Mexico, and in consequence of it he demanded his passports. He was informed that the Government of the United States did not consider this joint resolution as a violation of any of the rights of Mexico, or that it afforded any just cause of offense to his Government; that the Republic of Texas was an independent power, owing no allegiance to Mexico and constituting no part of her territory or rightful sovereignty and jurisdiction. He was also assured that it was the sincere desire of this Government to maintain with that of Mexico relations of peace and good understanding. That functionary, however, notwithstanding these representations and assurances, abruptly terminated his mission and shortly afterwards left the country. Our envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Mexico was refused all official intercourse with that Government, and, after remaining several months, by the permission of his own Government he returned to the United States. Thus, by the acts of Mexico, all diplomatic intercourse between the two countries was suspended. Since that time Mexico has until recently occupied an attitude of hostility toward the United States--has been marshaling and organizing armies, issuing proclamations, and avowing the intention to make war on the United States, either by an open declaration or by invading Texas. Both the Congress and convention of the people of Texas invited this Government to send an army into that territory to protect and defend them against the menaced attack. The moment the terms of annexation offered by the United States were accepted by Texas the latter became so far a part of our own country as to make it our duty to afford such protection and defense. I therefore deemed it proper, as a precautionary measure, to order a strong squadron to the coasts of Mexico and to concentrate an efficient military force on the western frontier of Texas. Our Army was ordered to take position in the country between the Nueces and the Del Norte, and to repel any invasion of the Texan territory which might be attempted by the Mexican forces. Our squadron in the Gulf was ordered to cooperate with the Army. But though our Army and Navy were placed in a position to defend our own and the rights of Texas, they were ordered to commit no act of hostility against Mexico unless she declared war or was herself the aggressor by striking the first blow. The result has been that Mexico has made no aggressive movement, and our military and naval commanders have executed their orders with such discretion that the peace of the two Republics has not been disturbed. Texas had declared her independence and maintained it by her arms for more than nine years. She has had an organized government in successful operation during that period. Her separate existence as an independent state had been recognized by the United States and the principal powers of Europe. Treaties of commerce and navigation had been concluded with her by different nations, and it had become manifest to the whole world that any further attempt on the part of Mexico to conquer her or overthrow her Government would be vain. Even Mexico herself had become satisfied of this fact, and whilst the question of annexation was pending before the people of Texas during the past summer the Government of Mexico, by a formal act, agreed to recognize the independence of Texas on condition that she would not annex herself to any other power. The agreement to acknowledge the independence of Texas, whether with or without this condition, is conclusive against Mexico. The independence of Texas is a fact conceded by Mexico herself, and she had no right or authority to prescribe restrictions as to the form of government which Texas might afterwards choose to assume. But though Mexico can not complain of the United States on account of the annexation of Texas, it is to be regretted that serious causes of misunderstanding between the two countries continue to exist, growing out of unredressed injuries inflicted by the Mexican authorities and people on the persons and property of citizens of the United States through a long series of years. Mexico has admitted these injuries, but has neglected and refused to repair them. Such was the character of the wrongs and such the insults repeatedly offered to American citizens and the American flag by Mexico, in palpable violation of the laws of nations and the treaty between the two countries of the 5th of April, 1831, that they have been repeatedly brought to the notice of Congress by my predecessors. As early as the 6th of February, 1837, the President of the United States declared in a message to Congress that-- The length of time since some of the injuries have been committed, the repeated and unavailing applications for redress, the wanton character of some of the outrages upon the property and persons of our citizens, upon the officers and flag of the United States, independent of recent insults to this Government and people by the late extraordinary Mexican minister, would justify in the eyes of all nations immediate war. He did not, however, recommend an immediate resort to this extreme measure, which, he declared, "should not be used by just and generous nations, confiding in their strength for injuries committed, if it can be honorably avoided," but, in a spirit of forbearance, proposed that another demand be made on Mexico for that redress which had been so long and unjustly withheld. In these views committees of the two Houses of Congress, in reports made to their respective bodies, concurred. Since these proceedings more than eight years have elapsed, during which, in addition to the wrongs then complained of, others of an aggravated character have been committed on the persons and property of our citizens. A special agent was sent to Mexico in the summer of 1838 with full authority to make another and final demand for redress. The demand was made; the Mexican Government promised to repair the wrongs of which we complained, and after much delay a treaty of indemnity with that view was concluded between the two powers on the 11th of April, 1839, and was duly ratified by both Governments. By this treaty a joint commission was created to adjudicate and decide on the claims of American citizens on the Government of Mexico. The commission was organized at Washington on the 25th day of August, 1840. Their time was limited to eighteen months, at the expiration of which they had adjudicated and decided claims amounting to $2,026,139.68 in favor of citizens of the United States against the Mexican Government, leaving a large amount of claims undecided. Of the latter the American commissioners had decided in favor of our citizens claims amounting to $928,627.88, which were left unacted on by the umpire authorized by the treaty. Still further claims, amounting to between three and four millions of dollars, were submitted to the board too late to be considered, and were left undisposed of. The sum of $2,026,139.68, decided by the board, was a liquidated and ascertained debt due by Mexico to the claimants, and there was no justifiable reason for delaying its payment according to the terms of the treaty. It was not, however, paid. Mexico applied for further indulgence, and, in that spirit of liberality and forbearance which has ever marked the policy of the United States toward that Republic, the request was granted, and on the 30th of January, 1843, a new treaty was concluded. By this treaty it was provided that the interest due on the awards in favor of claimants under the convention of the 11th of April, 1839, should be paid out the 30th of April, 1843, and that-- The principal of the said awards and the interest accruing thereon shall be paid in five years, in equal installments every three months, the said term of five years to commence on the 30th day of April, 1843, aforesaid. The interest due on the 30th day of April, 1843, and the three first of the twenty installments have been paid. Seventeen of these installments, remain unpaid, seven of which are now due. The claims which were left undecided by the joint commission, amounting to more than $3,000,000, together with other claims for spoliations on the property of our citizens, were subsequently presented to the Mexican Government for payment, and were so far recognized that a treaty providing for their examination and settlement by a joint commission was concluded and signed at Mexico on the 20th day of November, 1843. This treaty was ratified by the United States with certain amendments to which no just exception could have been taken, but it has not yet received the ratification of the Mexican Government. In the meantime our citizens, who suffered great losses--and some of whom have been reduced from affluence to bankruptcy--are without remedy unless their rights be enforced by their Government. Such a continued and unprovoked series of wrongs could never have been tolerated by the United States had they been committed by one of the principal nations of Europe. Mexico was, however, a neighboring sister republic, which, following our example, had achieved her independence, and for whose success and prosperity all our sympathies were early enlisted. The United States were the first to recognize her independence and to receive her into the family of nations, and have ever been desirous of cultivating with her a good understanding. We have therefore borne the repeated wrongs she has committed with great patience, in the hope that a returning sense of justice would ultimately guide her councils and that we might, if possible, honorably avoid any hostile collision with her. Without the previous authority of Congress the Executive possessed no power to adopt or enforce adequate remedies for the injuries we had suffered, or to do more than to be prepared to repel the threatened aggression on the part of Mexico. After our Army and Navy had remained on the frontier and coasts of Mexico for many weeks without any hostile movement on her part, though her menaces were continued, I deemed it important to put an end, if possible, to this state of things. With this view I caused steps to be taken in the month of September last to ascertain distinctly and in an authentic form what the designs of the Mexican Government were--whether it was their intention to declare war, or invade Texas, or whether they were disposed to adjust and settle in an amicable manner the pending differences between the two countries. On the 9th of November an official answer was received that the Mexican Government consented to renew the diplomatic relations which had been suspended in March last, and for that purpose were willing to accredit a minister from the United States. With a sincere desire to preserve peace and restore relations of good understanding between the two Republics, I waived all ceremony as to the manner of renewing diplomatic intercourse between them, and, assuming the initiative, on the 10th of November a distinguished citizen of Louisiana was appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Mexico, clothed with full powers to adjust and definitively settle all pending differences between the two countries, including those of boundary between Mexico and the State of Texas. The minister appointed has set out on his mission and is probably by this time near the Mexican capital. He has been instructed to bring the negotiation with which he is charged to a conclusion at the earliest practicable period, which it is expected will be in time to enable me to communicate the result to Congress during the present session. Until that result is known I forbear to recommend to Congress such ulterior measures of redress for the wrongs and injuries we have so long borne as it would have been proper to make had no such negotiation been instituted. Congress appropriated at the last session the sum of $275,000 for the payment of the April and July installments of the Mexican indemnities for the year 1844: Provided it shall be ascertained to the satisfaction of the American Government that said installments have been paid by the Mexican Government to the agent appointed by the United States to receive the same in such manner as to discharge all claim on the Mexican Government, and said agent to be delinquent in remitting the money to the United States. The unsettled state of our relations with Mexico has involved this subject in much mystery. The first information in an authentic form from the agent of the United States, appointed under the Administration of my predecessor, was received at the State Department on the 9th of November last. This is contained in a letter, dated the 17th of October, addressed by him to one of our citizens then in Mexico with a view of having it communicated to that Department. From this it appears that the agent on the 20th of September, 1844, gave a receipt to the treasury of Mexico for the amount of the April and July installments of the indemnity. In the same communication, however, he asserts that he had not received a single dollar in cash, but that he holds such securities as warranted him at the time in giving the receipt, and entertains no doubt but that he will eventually obtain the money. As these installments appear never to have been actually paid by the Government of Mexico to the agent, and as that Government has not, therefore, been released so as to discharge the claim, I do not feel myself warranted in directing payment to be made to the claimants out of the Treasury without further legislation. Their case is undoubtedly one of much hardship, and it remains for Congress to decide whether any, and what, relief ought to be granted to them. Our minister to Mexico has been instructed to ascertain the facts of the case from the Mexican Government in an authentic and official form and report the result with as little delay as possible. My attention was early directed to the negotiation which on the 4th of March last I found pending at Washington between the United States and Great Britain on the subject of the Oregon Territory. Three several attempts had been previously made to settle the questions in dispute between the two countries by negotiation upon the principle of compromise, but each had proved unsuccessful. These negotiations took place at London in the years 1818, 1824, and 1826--the two first under the Administration of Mr. Monroe and the last under that of Mr. Adams. The negotiation of 1818, having failed to accomplish its object, resulted in the convention of the 20th of October of that year. By the third article of that convention it was-- 
Agreed that any country that may be claimed by either party on the northwest coast of America westward of the Stony Mountains shall, together with its harbors, bays, and creeks, and the navigation of all rivers within the same, be free and open for the term of ten years from the date of the signature of the present convention to the vessels, citizens, and subjects of the two powers; it being well understood that this agreement is not to be construed to the prejudice of any claim which either of the two high contracting parties may have to any part of the said country, nor shall it be taken to affect the claims of any other power or state to any part of the said country, the only object of the high contracting parties in that respect being to prevent disputes and differences amongst themselves. The negotiation of 1824 was productive of no result, and the convention of 1818 was left unchanged. 
The negotiation of 1826, having also failed to effect an adjustment by compromise, resulted in the convention of August 6, 1827, by which it was agreed to continue in force for an indefinite period the provisions of the third article of the convention of the 20th of October, 1818; and it was further provided that-- It shall be competent, however, to either of the contracting parties, in case either should think fit, at any time after the 20th of October, 1828, on giving due notice of twelve months to the other contracting party, to annul and abrogate this convention; and it shall in such case be accordingly entirely annulled and abrogated after the expiration of the said term of notice. In these attempts to adjust the controversy the parallel of the forty-ninth degree of north latitude had been offered by the United States to Great Britain, and in those of 1818 and 1826, with a further concession of the free navigation of the Columbia River south of that latitude. The parallel of the forty-ninth degree from the Rocky Mountains to its intersection with the northeasternmost branch of the Columbia, and thence down the channel of that river to the sea, had been offered by Great Britain, with an addition of a small detached territory north of the Columbia. Each of these propositions had been rejected by the parties respectively. In October, 1843, the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States in London was authorized to make a similar offer to those made in 1818 and 1826. Thus stood the question when the negotiation was shortly afterwards transferred to Washington, and on the 23d of August, 1844, was formally opened under the direction of my immediate predecessor. Like all the previous negotiations, it was based upon principles of "compromise," and the avowed purpose of the parties was "to treat of the respective claims of the two countries to the Oregon Territory with the view to establish a permanent boundary between them westward of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean." Accordingly, on the 26th of August, 1844, the British plenipotentiary offered to divide the Oregon Territory by the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude from the Rocky Mountains to the point of its intersection with the northeasternmost branch of the Columbia River, and thence down that river to the sea, leaving the free navigation of the river to be enjoyed in common by both parties, the country south of this line to belong to the United States and that north of it to Great Britain. At the same time he proposed in addition to yield to the United States a detached territory north of the Columbia extending along the Pacific and the Straits of Fuca from Bulfinchs Harbor, inclusive, to Hoods Canal, and to make free to the United States any port or ports south of latitude 49° which they might desire, either on the mainland or on Quadra and Vancouvers Island. With the exception of the free ports, this was the same offer which had been made by the British and rejected by the American Government in the negotiation of 1826. This proposition was properly rejected by the American plenipotentiary on the day it was submitted. This was the only proposition of compromise offered by the British plenipotentiary. The proposition on the part of Great Britain having been rejected, the British plenipotentiary requested that a proposal should be made by the United States for "an equitable adjustment of the question." When I came into office I found this to be the state of the negotiation. Though entertaining the settled conviction that the British pretensions of title could not be maintained to any portion of the Oregon Territory upon any principle of public law recognized by nations, yet in deference to what had been done by my predecessors, and especially in consideration that propositions of compromise had been thrice made by two preceding Administrations to adjust the question on the parallel of 49°, and in two of them yielding to Great Britain the free navigation of the Columbia, and that the pending negotiation had been commenced on the basis of compromise, I deemed it to be my duty not abruptly to break it off. In consideration, too, that under the conventions of 1818 and 1827 the citizens and subjects of the two powers held a joint occupancy of the country, I was induced to make another effort to settle this long-pending controversy in the spirit of moderation which had given birth to the renewed discussion. A proposition was accordingly made, which was rejected by the British plenipotentiary, who, without submitting any other proposition, suffered the negotiation on his part to drop, expressing his trust that the United States would offer what he saw fit to call "some further proposal for the settlement of the Oregon question more consistent with fairness and equity and with the reasonable expectations of the British Government." The proposition thus offered and rejected repeated the offer of the parallel of 49° of north latitude, which had been made by two preceding Administrations, but without proposing to surrender to Great Britain, as they had done, the free navigation of the Columbia River. The right of any foreign power to the free navigation of any of our rivers through the heart of our country was one which I was unwilling to concede. It also embraced a provision to make free to Great Britain any port or ports on the cap of Quadra and Vancouvers Island south of this parallel. Had this been a new question, coming under discussion for the first time, this proposition would not have been made. The extraordinary and wholly inadmissible demands of the British Government and the rejection of the proposition made in deference alone to what had been done by my predecessors and the implied obligation which their acts seemed to impose afford satisfactory evidence that no compromise which the United States ought to accept can be effected. With this conviction the proposition of compromise which had been made and rejected was by my direction subsequently withdrawn and our title to the whole Oregon Territory asserted, and, as is believed, maintained by irrefragable facts and arguments. The civilized world will see in these proceedings a spirit of liberal concession on the part of the United States, and this Government will be relieved from all responsibility which may follow the failure to settle the controversy. All attempts at compromise having failed, it becomes the duty of Congress to consider what measures it may be proper to adopt for the security and protection of our citizens now inhabiting or who may hereafter inhabit Oregon, and for the maintenance of our just title to that Territory. In adopting measures for this purpose care should be taken that nothing be done to violate the stipulations of the convention of 1827, which is still in force. The faith of treaties, in their letter and spirit, has ever been, and, I trust, will ever be, scrupulously observed by the United States. Under that convention a year's notice is required to be given by either party to the other before the joint occupancy shall terminate and before either can rightfully assert or exercise exclusive jurisdiction over any portion of the territory. This notice it would, in my judgment, be proper to give, and I recommend that provision be made by law for giving it accordingly, and terminating in this manner the convention of the 6th of August, 1827. It will become proper for Congress to determine what legislation they can in the meantime adopt without violating this convention. Beyond all question the protection of our laws and our jurisdiction, civil and criminal, ought to be immediately extended over our citizens in Oregon. They have had just cause to complain of our long neglect in this particular, and have in consequence been compelled for their own security and protection to establish a provisional government for themselves. Strong in their allegiance and ardent in their attachment to the United States, they have been thus cast upon their own resources. They are anxious that our laws should be extended over them, and I recommend that this be done by Congress with as little delay as possible in the full extent to which the British Parliament have proceeded in regard to British subjects in that Territory by their act of July 2, 1821, "for regulating the fur trade and establishing a criminal and civil jurisdiction within certain parts of North America." By this act Great Britain extended her laws and jurisdiction, civil and criminal, over her subjects engaged in the fur trade in that Territory. By it the courts of the Province of Upper Canada were empowered to take cognizance of causes civil and criminal. Justices of the peace and other judicial officers were authorized to be appointed in Oregon with power to execute all process issuing from the courts of that Province, and to "sit and hold courts of record for the trial of criminal offenses and misdemeanors" not made the subject of capital punishment, and also of civil eases where the cause of action shall not "exceed in value the amount or sum of lbs. 200." Subsequent to the date of this act of Parliament a grant was made from the "British Crown" to the Hudsons Bay Company of the exclusive trade with the Indian tribes in the Oregon Territory, subject to a reservation that it shall not operate to the exclusion "of the subjects of any foreign states who, under or by force of any convention for the time being between us and such foreign states, respectively, may be entitled to and shall be engaged in the said trade." It is much to be regretted that while under this act British subjects have enjoyed the protection of British laws and British judicial tribunals throughout the whole of Oregon, American citizens in the same Territory have enjoyed no such protection from their Government. At the same time, the result illustrates the character of our people and their institutions. In spite of this neglect they have multiplied, and their number is rapidly increasing in that Territory. They have made no appeal to arms, but have peacefully fortified themselves in their new homes by the adoption of republican institutions for themselves, furnishing another example of the truth that self-government is inherent in the American breast and must prevail. It is due to them that they should be embraced and protected by our laws. It is deemed important that our laws regulating trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes east of the Rocky Mountains should be extended to such tribes as dwell beyond them. The increasing emigration to Oregon and the care and protection which is due from the Government to its citizens in that distant region make it our duty, as it is our interest, to cultivate amicable relations with the Indian tribes of that Territory. For this purpose I recommend that provision be made for establishing an Indian agency and such subagencies as may be deemed necessary beyond the Rocky Mountains. For the protection of emigrants whilst on their way to Oregon against the attacks of the Indian tribes occupying the country through which they pass, I recommend that a suitable number of stockades and blockhouse forts be erected along the usual route between our frontier settlements on the Missouri and the Rocky Mountains, and that an adequate force of mounted riflemen be raised to guard and protect them on their journey. The immediate adoption of these recommendations by Congress will not violate the provisions of the existing treaty. It will be doing nothing more for American citizens than British laws have long since done for British subjects in the same territory. It requires several months to perform the voyage by sea from the Atlantic States to Oregon, and although we have a large number of whale ships in the Pacific, but few of them afford an opportunity of interchanging intelligence without great delay between our settlements in that distant region and the United States. An overland mail is believed to be entirely practicable, and the importance of establishing such a mail at least once a month is submitted to the favorable consideration of Congress. It is submitted to the wisdom of Congress to determine whether at their present session, and until after the expiration of the year's notice, any other measures may be adopted consistently with the convention of 1827 for the security of our rights and the government and protection of our citizens in Oregon. That it will ultimately be wise and proper to make liberal grants of land to the patriotic pioneers who amidst privations and dangers lead the way through savage tribes inhabiting the vast wilderness intervening between our frontier settlements and Oregon, and who cultivate and are ever ready to defend the soil, I am fully satisfied. To doubt whether they will obtain such grants as soon as the convention between the United States and Great Britain shall have ceased to exist would be to doubt the justice of Congress; but, pending the year's notice, it is worthy of consideration whether a stipulation to this effect may be made consistently with the spirit of that convention. The recommendations which I have made as to the best manner of securing our rights in Oregon are submitted to Congress with great deference. Should they in their wisdom devise any other mode better calculated to accomplish the same object, it shall meet with my hearty concurrence. At the end of the year's notice, should Congress think it proper to make provision for giving that notice, we shall have reached a period when the national rights in Oregon must either be abandoned or firmly maintained. That they can not be abandoned without a sacrifice of both national honor and interest is too clear to admit of doubt. Oregon is a part of the North American continent, to which, it is confidently affirmed, the title of the United States is the best now in existence. For the grounds on which that title rests I refer you to the correspondence of the late and present Secretary of State with the British plenipotentiary during the negotiation. The British proposition of compromise, which would make the Columbia the line south of 49°, with a trifling addition of detached territory to the United States north of that river, and would leave on the British side two-thirds of the whole Oregon Territory, including the free navigation of the Columbia and all the valuable harbors on the Pacific, can never for a moment be entertained by the United States without an abandonment of their just and dear territorial rights, their own self-respect, and the national honor. For the information of Congress, I communicate herewith the correspondence which took place between the two Governments during the late negotiation. The rapid extension of our settlements over our territories heretofore unoccupied, the addition of new States to our Confederacy, the expansion of free principles, and our rising greatness as a nation are attracting the attention of the powers of Europe, and lately the doctrine has been broached in some of them of a "balance of power" on this continent to check our advancement. The United States, sincerely desirous of preserving relations of good understanding with all nations, can not in silence permit any European interference on the North American continent, and should any such interference be attempted will be ready to resist it at any and all hazards. It is well known to the American people and to all nations that this Government has never interfered with the relations subsisting between other governments. We have never made ourselves parties to their wars or their alliances; we have not sought their territories by conquest; we have not mingled with parties in their domestic struggles; and believing our own form of government to be the best, we have never attempted to propagate it by intrigues, by diplomacy, or by force. We may claim on this continent a like exemption from European interference. The nations of America are equally sovereign and independent with those of Europe. They possess the same rights, independent of all foreign interposition, to make war, to conclude peace, and to regulate their internal affairs. The people of the United States can not, therefore, view with indifference attempts of European powers to interfere with the independent action of the nations on this continent. The American system of government is entirely different from that of Europe. Jealousy among the different sovereigns of Europe, lest any one of them might become too powerful for the rest, has caused them anxiously to desire the establishment of what they term the "balance of power." It can not be permitted to have any application on the North American continent, and especially to the United States. We must ever maintain the principle that the people of this continent alone have the right to decide their own destiny. Should any portion of them, constituting an independent state, propose to unite themselves with our Confederacy, this will be a question for them and us to determine without any foreign interposition. We can never consent that European powers shall interfere to prevent such a union because it might disturb the "balance of power" which they may desire to maintain upon this continent. Near a quarter of a century ago the principle was distinctly announced to the world, in the annual message of one of my predecessors, that-- The American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for colonization by any European powers. This principle will apply with greatly increased force should any European power attempt to establish any new colony in North America. In the existing circumstances of the world the present is deemed a proper occasion to reiterate and reaffirm the principle avowed by Mr. Monroe and to state my cordial concurrence in its wisdom and sound policy. The reassertion of this principle, especially in reference to North America, is at this day but the promulgation of a policy which no European power should cherish the disposition to resist. Existing rights of every European nation should be respected, but it is due alike to our safety and our interests that the efficient protection of our laws should be extended over our whole territorial limits, and that it should be distinctly announced to the world as our settled policy that no future European colony or dominion shall with our consent be planted or established on any part of the North American continent. A question has recently arisen under the tenth article of the subsisting treaty between the United States and Prussia. By this article the consuls of the two countries have the right to sit as judges and arbitrators "in such differences as may arise between the captains and crews of the vessels belonging to the nation whose interests are committed to their charge without the interference of the local authorities, unless the conduct of the crews or of the captain should disturb the order or tranquillity of the country, or the said consuls should require their assistance to cause their decisions to be carried into effect or supported." The Prussian consul at New Bedford in June, 1844, applied to Mr. Justice Story to carry into effect a decision made by him between the captain and crew of the Prussian ship Borussia, but the request was refused on the ground that without previous legislation by Congress the judiciary did not possess the power to give effect to this article of the treaty. The Prussian Government, through their minister here, have complained of this violation of the treaty, and have asked the Government of the United States to adopt the necessary measures to prevent similar violations hereafter. Good faith to Prussia, as well as to other nations with whom we have similar treaty stipulations, requires that these should be faithfully observed. I have deemed it proper, therefore, to lay the subject before Congress and to recommend such legislation as may be necessary to give effect to these treaty obligations. By virtue of an arrangement made between the Spanish Government and that of the United States in December, 1831, American vessels, since the 29th of April, 1832, have been admitted to entry in the ports of Spain, including those of the Balearic and Canary islands, on payment of the same tonnage duty of 5 cents per ton, as though they had been Spanish vessels; and this whether our vessels arrive in Spain directly from the United States or indirectly from any other country. When Congress, by the act of 13th July, 1832, gave effect to this arrangement between the two Governments, they confined the reduction of tonnage duty merely to Spanish vessels "coming from a port in Spain," leaving the former discriminating duty to remain against such vessels coming from a port in any other country. It is manifestly unjust that whilst American vessels arriving in the ports of Spain from other countries pay no more duty than Spanish vessels, Spanish vessels arriving in the ports of the United States from other countries should be subjected to heavy discriminating tonnage duties. This is neither equality nor reciprocity, and is in violation of the arrangement concluded in December, 1831, between the two countries. The Spanish Government have made repeated and earnest remonstrances against this inequality, and the favorable attention of Congress has been several times invoked to the subject by my predecessors. I recommend, as an act of justice to Spain, that this inequality be removed by Congress and that the discriminating duties which have been levied under the act of the 13th of July, 1832, on Spanish vessels coming to the United States from any other foreign country be refunded. This recommendation does not embrace Spanish vessels arriving in the United States from Cuba and Porto Rico, which will still remain subject to the provisions of the act of June 30, 1834, concerning tonnage duty on such vessels. By the act of the 14th of July, 1832, coffee was exempted from duty altogether. This exemption was universal, without reference to the country where it was produced or the national character of the vessel in which it was imported. By the tariff act of the 30th of August, 1842, this exemption from duty was restricted to coffee imported in American vessels from the place of its production, whilst coffee imported under all other circumstances was subjected to a duty of 20 per cent ad valorem. Under this act and our existing treaty with the King of the Netherlands Java coffee imported from the European ports of that Kingdom into the United States, whether in Dutch or American vessels, now pays this rate of duty. The Government of the Netherlands complains that such a discriminating duty should have been imposed on coffee the production of one of its colonies, and which is chiefly brought from Java to the ports of that Kingdom and exported from thence to foreign countries. Our trade with the Netherlands is highly beneficial to both countries and our relations with them have ever been of the most friendly character. Under all the circumstances of the case, I recommend that this discrimination should be abolished and that the coffee of Java imported from the Netherlands be placed upon the same footing with that imported directly from Brazil and other countries where it is produced. Under the eighth section of the tariff act of the 30th of August, 1842, a duty of 15 cents per gallon was imposed on port wine in casks, while on the red wines of several other countries, when imported in casks, a duty of only 6 cents per gallon was imposed. This discrimination, so far as regarded the port wine of Portugal, was deemed a violation of our treaty with that power, which provides that-- No higher or other duties shall be imposed on the importation into the United States of America of any article the growth, produce, or manufacture of the Kingdom and possessions of Portugal than such as are or shall be payable on the like article being the growth, produce, or manufacture of any other foreign country. Accordingly, to give effect to the treaty as well as to the intention of Congress, expressed in a proviso to the tariff act itself, that nothing therein contained should be so construed as to interfere with subsisting treaties with foreign nations, a Treasury circular was issued on the 16th of July, 1844, which, among other things, declared the duty on the port wine of Portugal, in casks, under the existing laws and treaty to be 6 cents per gallon, and directed that the excess of duties which had been collected on such wine should be refunded. By virtue of another clause in the same section of the act it is provided that all imitations of port or any other wines "shall be subject to the duty provided for the genuine article." Imitations of port wine, the production of France, are imported to some extent into the United States, and the Government of that country now claims that under a correct construction of the act these imitations ought not to pay a higher duty than that imposed upon the original port wine of Portugal. It appears to me to be unequal and unjust that French imitations of port wine should be subjected to a duty of 15 cents, while the more valuable article from Portugal should pay a duty of 6 cents only per gallon. I therefore recommend to Congress such legislation as may be necessary to correct the inequality. The late President, in his annual message of December last, recommended an appropriation to satisfy the claims of the Texan Government against the United States, which had been previously adjusted so far as the powers of the Executive extend. These claims arose out of the act of disarming a body of Texan troops under the command of Major Snively by an officer in the service of the United States, acting under the orders of our Government, and the forcible entry into the custom-house at Bryarlys Landing, on Red River, by certain citizens of the United States and taking away therefrom the goods seized by the collector of the customs as forfeited under the laws of Texas. This was a liquidated debt ascertained to be due to Texas when an independent state. Her acceptance of the terms of annexation proposed by the United States does not discharge or invalidate the claim. I recommend that provision be made for its payment. The commissioner appointed to China during the special session of the Senate in March last shortly afterwards set out on his mission in the United States ship Columbus. On arriving at Rio de Janeiro on his passage the state of his health had become so critical that by the advice of his medical attendants he returned to the United States early in the month of October last. Commodore Biddle, commanding the East India Squadron, proceeded on his voyage in the Columbus, and was charged by the commissioner with the duty of exchanging with the proper authorities the ratifications of the treaty lately concluded with the Emperor of China. Since the return of the commissioner to the United States his health has been much improved, and he entertains the confident belief that he will soon be able to proceed on his mission. Unfortunately, differences continue to exist among some of the nations of South America which, following our example, have established their independence, while in others internal dissensions prevail. It is natural that our sympathies should be warmly enlisted for their welfare; that we should desire that all controversies between them should be amicably adjusted and their Governments administered in a manner to protect the rights and promote the prosperity of their people. It is contrary, however, to our settled policy to interfere in their controversies, whether external or internal. I have thus adverted to all the subjects connected with our foreign relations to which I deem it necessary to call your attention. Our policy is not only peace with all, but good will toward all the powers of the earth. While we are just to all, we require that all shall be just to us. Excepting the differences with Mexico and Great Britain, our relations with all civilized nations are of the most satisfactory character. It is hoped that in this enlightened age these differences may be amicably adjusted. The Secretary of the Treasury in his annual report to Congress will communicate a full statement of the condition of our finances. The imports for the fiscal year ending on the 30th of June last were of the value of $117,254,564, of which the amount exported was $15,346,830, leaving a balance of $101,907,734 for domestic consumption. The exports for the same year were of the value of $114,646,606, of which the amount of domestic articles was $99,299,776. The receipts into the Treasury during the same year were $29,769,133.56, of which there were derived from customs $27,528,122.70, from sales of public lands $2,077,022.30, and from incidental and miscellaneous sources $163,998.56. The expenditures for the same period were $29,968,206.98, of which $8,588,157.62 were applied to the payment of the public debt. The balance in the Treasury on the 1st of July last was $7,658,306.22. The amount of the public debt remaining unpaid on the 1st of October last was $17,075,445.52. Further payments of the public debt would have been made, in anticipation of the period of its reimbursement under the authority conferred upon the Secretary of the Treasury by the acts of July 21, 1841, and of April 15, 1842, and March 3, 1843, had not the unsettled state of our relations with Mexico menaced hostile collision with that power. In view of such a contingency it was deemed prudent to retain in the Treasury an amount unusually large for ordinary purposes. A few years ago our whole national debt growing out of the Revolution and the War of 1812 with Great Britain was extinguished, and we presented to the world the rare and noble spectacle of a great and growing people who had fully discharged every obligation. Since that time the existing debt has been contracted, and, small as it is in comparison with the similar burdens of most other nations, it should be extinguished at the earliest practicable period. Should the state of the country permit, and especially if our foreign relations interpose no obstacle, it is contemplated to apply all the moneys in the Treasury as they accrue, beyond what is required for the appropriations by Congress, to its liquidation. I cherish the hope of soon being able to congratulate the country on its recovering once more the lofty position which it so recently occupied. Our country, which exhibits to the world the benefits of self-government, in developing all the sources of national prosperity owes to mankind the permanent example of a nation free from the blighting influence of a public debt. The attention of Congress is invited to the importance of making suitable modifications and reductions of the rates of duty imposed by our present tariff laws. The object of imposing duties on imports should be to raise revenue to pay the necessary expenses of Government. Congress may undoubtedly, in the exercise of a sound discretion, discriminate in arranging the rates of duty on different articles, but the discriminations should be within the revenue standard and be made with the view to raise money for the support of Government. It becomes important to understand distinctly what is meant by a revenue standard the maximum of which should not be exceeded in the rates of duty imposed. It is conceded, and experience proves, that duties may be laid so high as to diminish or prohibit altogether the importation of any given article, and thereby lessen or destroy the revenue which at lower rates would be derived from its importation. Such duties exceed the revenue rates and are not imposed to raise money for the support of Government. If Congress levy a duty for revenue of 1 per cent on a given article, it will produce a given amount of money to the Treasury and will incidentally and necessarily afford protection or advantage to the amount of 1 per cent to the home manufacturer of a similar or like article over the importer. If the duty be raised to 10 per cent, it will produce a greater amount of money and afford greater protection. If it be still raised to 20, 25, or 30 per cent, and if as it is raised the revenue derived from it is found to be increased, the protection or advantage will also be increased; but if it be raised to 31 per cent, and it is found that the revenue produced at that rate is less than at 30 per cent, it ceases to be a revenue duty. The precise point in the ascending scale of duties at which it is ascertained from experience that the revenue is greatest is the maximum rate of duty which can be laid for the bona fide purpose of collecting money for the support of Government. To raise the duties higher than that point, and thereby diminish the amount collected, is to levy them for protection merely, and not for revenue. As long, then, as Congress may gradually increase the rate of duty on a given article, and the revenue is increased by such increase of duty, they are within the revenue standard. When they go beyond that point, and as they increase the duties, the revenue is diminished or destroyed; the act ceases to have for its object the raising of money to support Government, but is for protection merely. It does not follow that Congress should levy the highest duty on all articles of import which they will bear within the revenue standard, for such rates would probably produce a much larger amount than the economical administration of the Government would require. Nor does it follow that the duties on all articles should be at the same or a horizontal rate. Some articles will bear a much higher revenue duty than others. Below the maximum of the revenue standard Congress may and ought to discriminate in the rates imposed, taking care so to adjust them on different articles as to produce in the aggregate the amount which, when added to the proceeds of the sales of public lands, may be needed to pay the economical expenses of the Government. In levying a tariff of duties Congress exercise the taxing power, and for purposes of revenue may select the objects of taxation. They may exempt certain articles altogether and permit their importation free of duty. On others they may impose low duties. In these classes should be embraced such articles of necessity as are in general use, and especially such as are consumed by the laborer and poor as well as by the wealthy citizen. Care should be taken that all the great interests of the country, including manufactures, agriculture, commerce, navigation, and the mechanic arts, should, as far as may be practicable, derive equal advantages from the incidental protection which a just system of revenue duties may afford. Taxation, direct or indirect, is a burden, and it should be so imposed as to operate as equally as may be on all classes in the proportion of their ability to bear it. To make the taxing power an actual benefit to one class necessarily increases the burden of the others beyond their proportion, and would be manifestly unjust. The terms "protection to domestic industry" are of popular import, but they should apply under a just system to all the various branches of industry in our country. The farmer or planter who toils yearly in his fields is engaged in "domestic industry," and is as much entitled to have his labor "protected" as the manufacturer, the man of commerce, the navigator, or the mechanic, who are engaged also in "domestic industry" in their different pursuits. The joint labors of all these classes constitute the aggregate of the "domestic industry" of the nation, and they are equally entitled to the nation's "protection." No one of them can justly claim to be the exclusive recipient of "protection," which can only be afforded by increasing burdens on the "domestic industry" of the others. If these views be correct, it remains to inquire how far the tariff act of 1842 is consistent with them. That many of the provisions of that act are in violation of the cardinal principles here laid down all must concede. The rates of duty imposed by it on some articles are prohibitory and on others so high as greatly to diminish importations and to produce a less amount of revenue than would be derived from lower rates. They operate as "protection merely" to one branch of "domestic industry" by taxing other branches. By the introduction of minimums, or assumed and false values, and by the imposition of specific duties the injustice and inequality of the act of 1842 in its practical operations on different classes and pursuits are seen and felt. Many of the oppressive duties imposed by it under the operation of these principles range from 1 per cent to more than 200 per cent. They are prohibitory on some articles and partially so on others, and bear most heavily on articles of common necessity and but lightly on articles of luxury. It is so framed that much the greatest burden which it imposes is thrown on labor and the poorer classes, who are least able to bear it, while it protects capital and exempts the rich from paying their just proportion of the taxation required for the support of Government. While it protects the capital of the wealthy manufacturer and increases his profits, it does not benefit the operatives or laborers in his employment, whose wages have not been increased by it. Articles of prime necessity or of coarse quality and low price, used by the masses of the people, are in many instances subjected by it to heavy taxes, while articles of finer quality and higher price, or of luxury, which can be used only by the opulent, are lightly taxed. It imposes heavy and unjust burdens on the farmer, the planter, the commercial man, and those of all other pursuits except the capitalist who has made his investments in manufactures. All the great interests of the country are not as nearly as may be practicable equally protected by it. The Government in theory knows no distinction of persons or classes, and should not bestow upon some favors and privileges which all others may not enjoy. It was the purpose of its illustrious founders to base the institutions which they reared upon the great and unchanging principles of justice and equity, conscious that if administered in the spirit in which they were conceived they would be felt only by the benefits which they diffused, and would secure for themselves a defense in the hearts of the people more powerful than standing armies and all the means and appliances invented to sustain governments founded in injustice and oppression. The well-known fact that the tariff act of 1842 was passed by a majority of one vote in the Senate and two in the House of Representatives, and that some of those who felt themselves constrained, under the peculiar circumstances existing at the time, to vote in its favor, proclaimed its defects and expressed their determination to aid in its modification on the first opportunity, affords strong and conclusive evidence that it was not intended to be permanent, and of the expediency and necessity of its thorough revision. In recommending to Congress a reduction of the present rates of duty and a revision and modification of the act of 1842, I am far from entertaining opinions unfriendly to the manufacturers. On the contrary, I desire to see them prosperous as far as they can be so without imposing unequal burdens on other interests. The advantage under any system of indirect taxation, even within the revenue standard, must be in favor of the manufacturing interest, and of this no other interest will complain. I recommend to Congress the abolition of the minimum principle, or assumed, arbitrary, and false values, and of specific duties, and the substitution in their place of ad valorem duties as the fairest and most equitable indirect tax which can be imposed. By the ad valorem principle all articles are taxed according to their cost or value, and those which are of inferior quality or of small cost bear only the just proportion of the tax with those which are of superior quality or greater cost. The articles consumed by all are taxed at the same rate. A system of ad valorem revenue duties, with proper discriminations and proper guards against frauds in collecting them, it is not doubted will afford ample incidental advantages to the manufacturers and enable them to derive as great profits as can be derived from any other regular business. It is believed that such a system strictly within the revenue standard will place the manufacturing interests on a stable footing and inure to their permanent advantage, while it will as nearly as may be practicable extend to all the great interests of the country the incidental protection which can be afforded by our revenue laws. Such a system, when once firmly established, would be permanent, and not be subject to the constant complaints, agitations, and changes which must ever occur when duties are not laid for revenue, but for the "protection merely" of a favored interest. In the deliberations of Congress on this subject it is hoped that a spirit of mutual concession and compromise between conflicting interests may prevail, and that the result of their labors may be crowned with the happiest consequences. By the Constitution of the United States it is provided that "no money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law." A public treasury was undoubtedly contemplated and intended to be created, in which the public money should be kept from the period of collection until needed for public uses. In the collection and disbursement of the public money no agencies have ever been employed by law except such as were appointed by the Government, directly responsible to it and under its control. The safe-keeping of the public money should be confided to a public treasury created by law and under like responsibility and control. It is not to be imagined that the framers of the Constitution could have intended that a treasury should be created as a place of deposit and safe-keeping of the public money which was irresponsible to the Government. The first Congress under the Constitution, by the act of the 2d of September, 1789, "to establish the Treasury Department," provided for the appointment of a Treasurer, and made it his duty "to receive and keep the moneys of the United States" and "at all times to submit to the Secretary of the Treasury and the Comptroller, or either of them, the inspection of the moneys in his hands." That banks, national or State, could not have been intended to be used as a substitute for the Treasury spoken of in the Constitution as keepers of the public money is manifest from the fact that at that time there was no national bank, and but three or four State banks, of limited Capital, existed in the country. Their employment as depositories was at first resorted to to a limited extent, but with no avowed intention of continuing them permanently in place of the Treasury of the Constitution. When they were afterwards from time to time employed, it was from motives of supposed convenience. Our experience has shown that when banking corporations have been the keepers of the public money, and been thereby made in effect the Treasury, the Government can have no guaranty that it can command the use of its own money for public purposes. The late Bank of the United States proved to be faithless. The State banks which were afterwards employed were faithless. But a few years ago, with millions of public money in their keeping, the Government was brought almost to bankruptcy and the public credit seriously impaired because of their inability or indisposition to pay on demand to the public creditors in the only currency recognized by the Constitution. Their failure occurred in a period of peace, and great inconvenience and loss were suffered by the public from it. Had the country been involved in a foreign war, that inconvenience and loss would have been much greater, and might have resulted in extreme public calamity. The public money should not be mingled with the private funds of banks or individuals or be used for private purposes. When it is placed in banks for safe-keeping, it is in effect loaned to them without interest, and is loaned by them upon interest to the borrowers from them. The public money is converted into banking capital, and is used and loaned out for the private profit of bank stockholders, and when called for, as was the case in 1837, it may be in the pockets of the borrowers from the banks instead of being in the public Treasury contemplated by the Constitution. The framers of the Constitution could never have intended that the money paid into the Treasury should be thus converted to private use and placed beyond the control of the Government. Banks which hold the public money are often tempted by a desire of gain to extend their loans, increase their circulation, and thus stimulate, if not produce, a spirit of speculation and extravagance which sooner or later must result in ruin to thousands. If the public money be not permitted to be thus used, but be kept in the Treasure and paid out to the public creditors in gold and silver, the temptation afforded by its deposit with banks to an undue expansion of their business would be checked, while the amount of the constitutional currency left in circulation would be enlarged by its employment in the public collections and disbursements, and the banks themselves would in consequence be found in a safer and sounder condition. At present State banks are employed as depositories, but without adequate regulation of law whereby the public money can be secured against the casualties and excesses, revulsions, suspensions, and defalcations to which from overissues, overtrading, an inordinate desire for gain, or other causes they are constantly exposed. The Secretary of the Treasury has in all cases when it was practicable taken collateral security for the amount which they hold, by the pledge of stocks of the United States or such of the States as were in good credit. Some of the deposit banks have given this description of security and others have declined to do so. Entertaining the opinion that "the separation of the moneys of the Government from banking institutions is indispensable for the safety of the funds of the Government and the rights of the people," I recommend to Congress that provision be made by law for such separation, and that a constitutional treasury be created for the safe-keeping of the public money. The constitutional treasury recommended is designed as a secure depository for the public money, without any power to make loans or discounts or to issue any paper whatever as a currency or circulation. I can not doubt that such a treasury as was contemplated by the Constitution should be independent of all banking corporations. The money of the people should be kept in the Treasury of the people created by law, and be in the custody of agents of the people chosen by themselves according to the forms of the Constitution--agents who are directly responsible to the Government, who are under adequate bonds and oaths, and who are subject to severe punishments for any embezzlement, private use, or misapplication of the public funds, and for any failure in other respects to perform their duties. To say that the people or their Government are incompetent or not to be trusted with the custody of their own money in their own Treasury, provided by themselves, but must rely on the presidents, cashiers, and stockholders of banking corporations, not appointed by them nor responsible to them, would be to concede that they are incompetent for self-government. In recommending the establishment of a constitutional treasury in which the public money shall be kept, I desire that adequate provision be made by law for its safety and that all Executive discretion or control over it shall be removed, except such as may be necessary in directing its disbursement in pursuance of appropriations made by law. Under our present land system, limiting the minimum price at which the public lands can be entered to $1.25 per acre, large quantities of lands of inferior quality remain unsold because they will not command that price. From the records of the General Land Office it appears that of the public lands remaining unsold in the several States and Territories in which they are situated, 39,105,577 acres have been in the market subject to entry more than twenty years, 49,638,644 acres for more than fifteen years, 73,074,600 acres for more than ten years, and 106,176,961 acres for more than five years. Much the largest portion of these lands will continue to be unsalable at the minimum price at which they are permitted to be sold so long as large territories of lands from which the more valuable portions have not been selected are annually brought into market by the Government. With the view to the sale and settlement of these inferior lands, I recommend that the price be graduated and reduced below the present minimum rate, confining the sales at the reduced prices to settlers and cultivators, in limited quantities. If graduated and reduced in price for a limited term to $1 per acre, and after the expiration of that period for a second and third term to lower rates, a large portion of these lands would be purchased, and many worthy citizens who are unable to pay higher rates could purchase homes for themselves and their families. By adopting the policy of graduation and reduction of price these inferior lands will be sold for their real value, while the States in which they lie will be freed from the inconvenience, if not injustice, to which they are subjected in consequence of the United States continuing to own large quantities of the public lands within their borders not liable to taxation for the support of their local governments. I recommend the continuance of the policy of granting preemptions in its most liberal extent to all those who have settled or may hereafter settle on the public lands, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, to which the Indian title may have been extinguished at the time of settlement. It has been found by experience that in consequence of combinations of purchasers and other causes a very small quantity of the public lands, when sold at public auction, commands a higher price than the minimum rates established by law. The settlers on the public lands are, however, but rarely able to secure their homes and improvements at the public sales at that rate, because these combinations, by means of the capital they command and their superior ability to purchase, render it impossible for the settler to compete with them in the market. By putting down all competition these combinations of capitalists and speculators are usually enabled to purchase the lands, including the improvements of the settlers, at the minimum price of the Government, and either turn them out of their homes or extort from them, according to their ability to pay, double or quadruple the amount paid for them to the Government. It is to the enterprise and perseverance of the hardy pioneers of the West, who penetrate the wilderness with their families, suffer the dangers, the privations, and hardships attending the settlement of a new country, and prepare the way for the body of emigrants who in the course of a few years usually follow them, that we are in a great degree indebted for the rapid extension and aggrandizement of our country. Experience has proved that no portion of our population are more patriotic than the hardy and brave men of the frontier, or more ready to obey the call of their country and to defend her rights and her honor whenever and by whatever enemy assailed. They should be protected from the grasping speculator and secured, at the minimum price of the public lands, in the humble homes which they have improved by their labor. With this end in view, all vexatious or unnecessary restrictions imposed upon them by the existing preemption laws should be repealed or modified. It is the true policy of the Government to afford facilities to its citizens to become the owners of small portions of our vast public domain at low and moderate rates. The present system of managing the mineral lands of the United States is believed to be radically defective. More than 1,000,000 acres of the public lands, supposed to contain lead and other minerals, have been reserved from sale, and numerous leases upon them have been granted to individuals upon a stipulated rent. The system of granting leases has proved to be not only unprofitable to the Government, but unsatisfactory to the citizens who have gone upon the lands, and must, if continued, lay the foundation of much future difficulty between the Government and the lessees. According to the official records, the amount of rents received by the Government for the years 1841, 1842, 1843, and 1844 was $6,354.74, while the expenses of the system during the same period, including salaries of superintendents, agents, clerks, and incidental expenses, were $26,111.11, the income being less than one-fourth of the expenses. To this pecuniary loss may be added the injury sustained by the public in consequence of the destruction of timber and the careless and wasteful manner of working the mines. The system has given rise to much litigation between the United States and individual citizens, producing irritation and excitement in the mineral region, and involving the Government in heavy additional expenditures. It is believed that similar losses and embarrassments will continue to occur while the present System of leasing these lands remains unchanged. These lands are now under the superintendence and care of the War Department, with the ordinary duties of which they have no proper or natural connection. I recommend the repeal of the present system, and that these lands be placed under the superintendence and management of the General Land Office, as other public lands, and be brought into market and sold upon such terms as Congress in their wisdom may prescribe, reserving to the Government an equitable percentage of the gross amount of mineral product, and that the preemption principle be extended to resident miners and settlers upon them at the minimum price which may be established by Congress. I refer you to the accompanying report of the Secretary of War for information respecting the present situation of the Army and its operations during the past year, the state of our defenses, the condition of the public works, and our relations with the various Indian tribes within our limits or upon our borders. I invite your attention to the suggestions contained in that report in relation to these prominent objects of national interest. When orders were given during the past summer for concentrating a military force on the western frontier of Texas, our troops were widely dispersed and in small detachments, occupying posts remote from each other. The prompt and expeditious manner in which an army embracing more than half our peace establishment was drawn together on an emergency so sudden reflects great credit on the officers who were intrusted with the execution of these orders, as well as upon the discipline of the Army itself. To be in strength to protect and defend the people and territory of Texas in the event Mexico should commence hostilities or invade her territories with a large army, which she threatened, I authorized the general assigned to the command of the army of occupation to make requisitions for additional forces from several of the States nearest the Texan territory, and which could most expeditiously furnish them, if in his opinion a larger force than that under his command and the auxiliary aid which under like circumstances he was authorized to receive from Texas should be required. The contingency upon which the exercise of this authority depended has not occurred. The circumstances under which two companies of State artillery from the city of New Orleans were sent into Texas and mustered into the service of the United States are fully stated in the report of the Secretary of War. I recommend to Congress that provision be made for the payment of these troops, as well as a small number of Texan volunteers whom the commanding general thought it necessary to receive or muster into our service. During the last summer the First Regiment of Dragoons made extensive excursions through the Indian country on our borders, a part of them advancing nearly to the possessions of the Hudsons Bay Company in the north, and a part as far as the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains and the head waters of the tributary streams of the Colorado of the West. The exhibition of this military force among the Indian tribes in those distant regions and the councils held with them by the commanders of the expeditions, it is believed, will have a salutary influence in restraining them from hostilities among themselves and maintaining friendly relations between them and the United States. An interesting account of one of these excursions accompanies the report of the Secretary of War. Under the directions of the War Department Brevet Captain Fremont, of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, has been employed since 1842 in exploring the country west of the Mississippi and beyond the Rocky Mountains. Two expeditions have already been brought to a close, and the reports of that scientific and enterprising officer have furnished much interesting and valuable information. He is now engaged in a third expedition, but it is not expected that this arduous service will be completed in season to enable me to communicate the result to Congress at the present session. Our relations with the Indian tribes are of a favorable character. The policy of removing them to a country designed for their permanent residence west of the Mississippi, and without the limits of the organized States and Territories, is better appreciated by them than it was a few years ago, while education is now attended to and the habits of civilized life are gaining ground among them. Serious difficulties of long standing continue to distract the several parties into which the Cherokees are unhappily divided. The efforts of the Government to adjust the difficulties between them have heretofore proved unsuccessful, and there remains no probability that this desirable object can be accomplished without the aid of further legislation by Congress. I will at an early period of your session present the subject for your consideration, accompanied with an exposition of the complaints and claims of the several parties into which the nation is divided, with a view to the adoption of such measures by Congress as may enable the Executive to do justice to them, respectively, and to put an end, if possible, to the dissensions which have long prevailed and still prevail among them. I refer you to the report of the Secretary of the Navy for the present condition of that branch of the national defense and for grave suggestions having for their object the increase of its efficiency and a greater economy in its management. During the past year the officers and men have performed their duty in a satisfactory manner. The orders which have been given have been executed with promptness and fidelity. A larger force than has often formed one squadron under our flag was readily concentrated in the Gulf of Mexico, and apparently without unusual effort. It is especially to be observed that notwithstanding the union of so considerable a force, no act was committed that even the jealousy of an irritated power could construe as an act of aggression, and that the commander of the squadron and his officers, in strict conformity with their instructions, holding themselves ever ready for the most active duty, have achieved the still purer glory of contributing to the preservation of peace. It is believed that at all our foreign stations the honor of our flag has been maintained and that generally our ships of war have been distinguished for their good discipline and order. I am happy to add that the display of maritime force which was required by the events of the summer has been made wholly within the usual appropriations for the service of the year, so that no additional appropriations are required. The commerce of the United States, and with it the navigating interests, have steadily and rapidly increased since the organization of our Government, until, it is believed, we are now second to but one power in the world, and at no distant day we shall probably be inferior to none. Exposed as they must be, it has been a wise policy to afford to these important interests protection with our ships of war distributed in the great highways of trade throughout the world. For more than thirty years appropriations have been made and annually expended for the gradual increase of our naval forces. In peace our Navy performs the important duty of protecting our commerce, and in the event of war will be, as it has been, a most efficient means of defense. The successful use of steam navigation on the ocean has been followed by the introduction of war steamers in great and increasing numbers into the navies of the principal maritime powers of the world. A due regard to our own safety and to an efficient protection to our large and increasing commerce demands a corresponding increase on our part. No country has greater facilities for the construction of vessels of this description than ours, or can promise itself greater advantages from their employment. They are admirably adapted to the protection of our commerce, to the rapid transmission of intelligence, and to the coast defense. In pursuahce of the wise policy of a gradual increase of our Navy, large supplies of live-oak timber and other materials for shipbuilding have been collected and are now under shelter and in a state of good preservation, while iron steamers can be built with great facility in various parts of the Union. The use of iron as a material, especially in the construction of steamers which can enter with safety many of the harbors along our coast now inaccessible to vessels of greater draft, and the practicability of constructing them in the interior, strongly recommend that liberal appropriations should be made for this important object. Whatever may have been our policy in the earlier stages of the Government, when the nation was in its infancy, our shipping interests and commerce comparatively small, our resources limited, our population sparse and scarcely extending beyond the limits of the original thirteen States, that policy must be essentially different now that we have grown from three to more than twenty millions of people, that our commerce, carried in our own ships, is found in every sea, and that our territorial boundaries and settlements have been so greatly expanded. Neither our commerce nor our long line of coast on the ocean and on the Lakes can be successfully defended against foreign aggression by means of fortifications alone. These are essential at important commercial and military points, but our chief reliance for this object must be on a well-organized, efficient navy. The benefits resulting from such a navy are not confined to the Atlantic States. The productions of the interior which seek a market abroad are directly dependent on the safety and freedom of our commerce. The occupation of the Balize below New Orleans by a hostile force would embarrass, if not stagnate, the whole export trade of the Mississippi and affect the value of the agricultural products of the entire valley of that mighty river and its tributaries. It has never been our policy to maintain large standing armies in time of peace. They are contrary to the genius of our free institutions, would impose heavy burdens on the people and be dangerous to public liberty. Our reliance for protection and defense on the land must be mainly on our citizen soldiers, who will be ever ready, as they ever have been ready in times past, to rush with alacrity, at the call of their country, to her defense. This description of force, however, can not defend our coast, harbors, and inland seas, nor protect our commerce on the ocean or the Lakes. These must be protected by our Navy. Considering an increased naval force, and especially of steam vessels, corresponding with our growth and importance as a nation, and proportioned to the increased and increasing naval power of other nations, of vast importance as regards our safety, and the great and growing interests to be protected by it, I recommend the subject to the favorable consideration of Congress. The report of the Postmaster-General herewith communicated contains a detailed statement of the operations of his Department during the pass year. It will be seen that the income from postages will fall short of the expenditures for the year between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000. This deficiency has been caused by the reduction of the rates of postage, which was made by the act of the 3d of March last. No principle has been more generally acquiesced in by the people than that this Department should sustain itself by limiting its expenditures to its income. Congress has never sought to make it a source of revenue for general purposes except for a short period during the last war with Great Britain, nor should it ever become a charge on the general Treasury. If Congress shall adhere to this principle, as I think they ought, it will be necessary either to curtail the present mail service so as to reduce the expenditures, or so to modify the act of the 3d of March last as to improve its revenues. The extension of the mail service and the additional facilities which will be demanded by the rapid extension and increase of population on our western frontier will not admit of such curtailment as will materially reduce the present expenditures. In the adjustment of the tariff of postages the interests of the people demand that the lowest rates be adopted which will produce the necessary revenue to meet the expenditures of the Department. I invite the attention of Congress to the suggestions of the Postmaster-General on this subject, under the belief that such a modification of the late law may be made as will yield sufficient revenue without further calls on the Treasury, and with very little change in the present rates of postage. Proper measures have been taken in pursuance of the act of the 3d of March last for the establishment of lines of mail steamers between this and foreign countries. The importance of this service commends itself strongly to favorable consideration. With the growth of our country the public business which devolves on the heads of the several Executive Departments has greatly increased. In some respects the distribution of duties among them seems to be incongruous, and many of these might be transferred from one to another with advantage to the public interests. A more auspicious time for the consideration of this subject by Congress, with a view to system in the organization of the several Departments and a more appropriate division of the public business, will not probably occur. The most important duties of the State Department relate to our foreign affairs. By the great enlargement of the family of nations, the increase of our commerce, and the corresponding extension of our consular system the business of this Department has been greatly increased. In its present organization many duties of a domestic nature and consisting of details are devolved on the Secretary of State, which do not appropriately belong to the foreign department of the Government and may properly be transferred to some other Department. One of these grows out of the present state of the law concerning the Patent Office, which a few years since was a subordinate clerkship, but has become a distinct bureau of great importance. With an excellent internal organization, it is still connected with the State Department. In the transaction of its business questions of much importance to inventors and to the community frequently arise, which by existing laws are referred for decision to a board of which the Secretary of State is a member. These questions are legal, and the connection which now exists between the State Department and the Patent Office may with great propriety and advantage be transferred to the Attorney-General. In his last annual message to Congress Mr. Madison invited attention to a proper provision for the Attorney-General as "an important improvement in the executive establishment." This recommendation was repeated by some of his successors. The official duties of the Attorney-General have been much increased within a few years, and his office has become one of great importance. His duties may be still further increased with advantage to the public interests. As an executive officer his residence and constant attention at the seat of Government are required. Legal questions involving important principles and large amounts of public money are constantly referred to him by the President and Executive Departments for his examination and decision. The public business under his official management before the judiciary has been so augmented by the extension of our territory and the acts of Congress authorizing suits against the United States for large bodies of valuable public lands as greatly to increase his labors and responsibilities. I therefore recommend that the Attorney-General be placed on the same footing with the heads of the other Executive Departments, with such subordinate officers provided by law for his Department as may be required to discharge the additional duties which have been or may be devolved upon him. Congress possess the power of exclusive legislation over the District of Columbia, and I commend the interests of its inhabitants to your favorable consideration. The people of this District have no legislative body of their own, and must confide their local as well as their general interests to representatives in whose election they have no voice and over whose official conduct they have no control. Each member of the National Legislature should consider himself as their immediate representative, and should be the more ready to give attention to their interests and wants because he is not responsible to them. I recommend that a liberal and generous spirit may characterize your measures in relation to them. I shall be ever disposed to show a proper regard for their wishes and, within constitutional limits, shall at all times cheerfully cooperate with you for the advancement of their welfare. I trust it may not be deemed inappropriate to the occasion for me to dwell for a moment on the memory of the most eminent citizen of our country who during the summer that is gone by has descended to the tomb. The enjoyment of contemplating, at the advanced age of near fourscore years, the happy condition of his country cheered the last hours of Andrew Jackson, who departed this life in the tranquil hope of a blessed immortality. His death was happy, as his life had been eminently useful. He had an unfaltering confidence in the virtue and capacity of the people and in the permanence of that free Government which he had largely contributed to establish and defend. His great deeds had secured to him the affections of his fellow-citizens, and it was his happiness to witness the growth and glory of his country, which he loved so well. He departed amidst the benedictions of millions of free-men. The nation paid its tribute to his memory at his tomb. Coming generations will learn from his example the love of country and the rights of man. In his language on a similar occasion to the present, "I now commend you, fellow-citizens, to the guidance of Almighty God, with a full reliance on His merciful providence for the maintenance of our free institutions, and with an earnest supplication that whatever errors it may be my lot to commit in discharging the arduous duties which have devolved on me will find a remedy in the harmony and wisdom of your counsels."
It is to me a source of unaffected satisfaction to meet the representatives of the States and the people in Congress assembled, as it will be to receive the aid of their combined wisdom in the administration of public affairs. In performing for the first time the duty imposed on me by the Constitution of giving to you information of the state of the Union and recommending to your consideration such measures as in my judgment are necessary and expedient, I am happy that I can congratulate you on the continued prosperity of our country. Under the blessings of Divine Providence and the benign influence of our free institutions, it stands before the world a spectacle of national happiness. With our unexampled advancement in all the elements of national greatness, the affection of the people is confirmed for the Union of the States and for the doctrines of popular liberty which lie at the foundation of our Government. It becomes us in humility to make our devout acknowledgments to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe for the inestimable civil and religious blessings with which we are favored. In calling the attention of Congress to our relations with foreign powers, I am gratified to be able to state that though with some of them there have existed since your last session serious causes of irritation and misunderstanding, yet no actual hostilities have taken place. Adopting the maxim in the conduct of our foreign affairs "to ask nothing that is not right and submit to nothing that is wrong," it has been my anxious desire to preserve peace with all nations, but at the same time to be prepared to resist aggression and maintain all our just rights. In pursuance of the joint resolution of Congress "for annexing Texas to the United States," my predecessor, on the 3d day of March, 1845, elected to submit the first and second sections of that resolution to the Republic of Texas as an overture on the part of the United States for her admission as a State into our Union. This election I approved, and accordingly the charge' d'affaires of the United States in Texas, under instructions of the 10th of March, 1845, presented these sections of the resolution for the acceptance of that Republic. The executive government, the Congress, and the people of Texas in convention have successively complied with all the terms and conditions of the joint resolution. A constitution for the government of the State of Texas, formed by a convention of deputies, is herewith laid before Congress. It is well known, also, that the people of Texas at the polls have accepted the terms of annexation and ratified the constitution. I communicate to Congress the correspondence between the Secretary of State and our charge' d'affaires in Texas, and also the correspondence of the latter with the authorities of Texas, together with the official documents transmitted by him to his own Government. The terms of annexation which were offered by the United States having been accepted by Texas, the public faith of both parties is solemnly pledged to the compact of their union. Nothing remains to consummate the event but the passage of an act by Congress to admit the State of Texas into the Union upon an equal footing with the original States. Strong reasons exist why this should be done at an early period of the session. It will be observed that by the constitution of Texas the existing government is only continued temporarily till Congress can act, and that the third Monday of the present month is the day appointed for holding the first general election. On that day a governor, a lieutenant-governor, and both branches of the legislature will be chosen by the people. The President of Texas is required, immediately after the receipt of official information that the new State has been admitted into our Union by Congress, to convene the legislature, and upon its meeting the existing government will be superseded and the State government organized. Questions deeply interesting to Texas, in common with the other States, the extension of our revenue laws and judicial system over her people and territory, as well as measures of a local character, will claim the early attention of Congress, and therefore upon every principle of republican government she ought to be represented in that body without unnecessary delay. I can not too earnestly recommend prompt action on this important subject. As soon as the act to admit Texas as a State shall be passed the union of the two Republics will be consummated by their own voluntary consent. This accession to our territory has been a bloodless achievement. No arm of force has been raised to produce the result. The sword has had no part in the victory. We have not sought to extend our territorial possessions by conquest, or our republican institutions over a reluctant people. It was the deliberate homage of each people to the great principle of our federative union. If we consider the extent of territory involved in the annexation, its prospective influence on America, the means by which it has been accomplished, springing purely from the choice of the people themselves to share the blessings of our union, the history of the world may be challenged to furnish a parallel. The jurisdiction of the United States, which at the formation of the Federal Constitution was bounded by the St. Marys on the Atlantic, has passed the capes of Florida and been peacefully extended to the Del Norte. In contemplating the grandeur of this event it is not to be forgotten that the result was achieved in despite of the diplomatic interference of European monarchies. Even France, the country which had been our ancient ally, the country which has a common interest with us in maintaining the freedom of the seas, the country which, by the cession of Louisiana, first opened to us access to the Gulf of Mexico, the country with which we have been every year drawing more and more closely the bonds of successful commerce, most unexpectedly, and to our unfeigned regret, took part in an effort to prevent annexation and to impose on Texas, as a condition of the recognition of her independence by Mexico, that she would never join herself to the United States. We may rejoice that the tranquil and pervading influence of the American principle of self-government was sufficient to defeat the purposes of British and French interference, and that the almost unanimous voice of the people of Texas has given to that interference a peaceful and effective rebuke. From this example European Governments may learn how vain diplomatic arts and intrigues must ever prove upon this continent against that system of self-government which seems natural to our soil, and which will ever resist foreign interference. Toward Texas I do not doubt that a liberal and generous spirit will actuate Congress in all that concerns her interests and prosperity, and that she will never have because to regret that she has united her "lone star" to our glorious constellation. I regret to inform you that our relations with Mexico since your last session have not been of the amicable character which it is our desire to cultivate with all foreign nations. On the 6th day of March last the Mexican envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the United States made a formal protest in the name of his Government against the joint resolution passed by Congress "for the annexation of Texas to the United States," which he chose to regard as a violation of the rights of Mexico, and in consequence of it he demanded his passports. He was informed that the Government of the United States did not consider this joint resolution as a violation of any of the rights of Mexico, or that it afforded any just because of offense to his Government; that the Republic of Texas was an independent power, owing no allegiance to Mexico and constituting no part of her territory or rightful sovereignty and jurisdiction. He was also assured that it was the sincere desire of this Government to maintain with that of Mexico relations of peace and good understanding. That functionary, however, notwithstanding these representations and assurances, abruptly terminated his mission and shortly afterwards left the country. Our envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Mexico was refused all official intercourse with that Government, and, after remaining several months, by the permission of his own Government he returned to the United States. Thus, by the acts of Mexico, all diplomatic intercourse between the two countries was suspended. Since that time Mexico has until recently occupied an attitude of hostility toward the United States--has been marshaling and organizing armies, issuing proclamations, and avowing the intention to make war on the United States, either by an open declaration or by invading Texas. Both the Congress and convention of the people of Texas invited this Government to send an army into that territory to protect and defend them against the menaced attack. The moment the terms of annexation offered by the United States were accepted by Texas the latter became so far a part of our own country as to make it our duty to afford such protection and defense. I therefore deemed it proper, as a precautionary measure, to order a strong squadron to the coasts of Mexico and to concentrate an efficient military force on the western frontier of Texas. Our Army was ordered to take position in the country between the Nueces and the Del Norte, and to repel any invasion of the Texan territory which might be attempted by the Mexican forces. Our squadron in the Gulf was ordered to cooperate with the Army. But though our Army and Navy were placed in a position to defend our own and the rights of Texas, they were ordered to commit no act of hostility against Mexico unless she declared war or was herself the aggressor by striking the first blow. The result has been that Mexico has made no aggressive movement, and our military and naval commanders have executed their orders with such discretion that the peace of the two Republics has not been disturbed. Texas had declared her independence and maintained it by her arms for more than nine years. She has had an organized government in successful operation during that period. Her separate existence as an independent state had been recognized by the United States and the principal powers of Europe. Treaties of commerce and navigation had been concluded with her by different nations, and it had become manifest to the whole world that any further attempt on the part of Mexico to conquer her or overthrow her Government would be vain. Even Mexico herself had become satisfied of this fact, and whilst the question of annexation was pending before the people of Texas during the past summer the Government of Mexico, by a formal act, agreed to recognize the independence of Texas on condition that she would not annex herself to any other power. The agreement to acknowledge the independence of Texas, whether with or without this condition, is conclusive against Mexico. The independence of Texas is a fact conceded by Mexico herself, and she had no right or authority to prescribe restrictions as to the form of government which Texas might afterwards choose to assume. But though Mexico can not complain of the United States on account of the annexation of Texas, it is to be regretted that serious causes of misunderstanding between the two countries continue to exist, growing out of unredressed injuries inflicted by the Mexican authorities and people on the persons and property of citizens of the United States through a long series of years. Mexico has admitted these injuries, but has neglected and refused to repair them. Such was the character of the wrongs and such the insults repeatedly offered to American citizens and the American flag by Mexico, in palpable violation of the laws of nations and the treaty between the two countries of the 5th of April, 1831, that they have been repeatedly brought to the notice of Congress by my predecessors. As early as the 6th of February, 1837, the President of the United States declared in a message to Congress that-- The length of time since some of the injuries have been committed, the repeated and unavailing applications for redress, the wanton character of some of the outrages upon the property and persons of our citizens, upon the officers and flag of the United States, independent of recent insults to this Government and people by the late extraordinary Mexican minister, would justify in the eyes of all nations immediate war. He did not, however, recommend an immediate resort to this extreme measure, which, he declared, "should not be used by just and generous nations, confiding in their strength for injuries committed, if it can be honorably avoided," but, in a spirit of forbearance, proposed that another demand be made on Mexico for that redress which had been so long and unjustly withheld. In these views committees of the two Houses of Congress, in reports made to their respective bodies, concurred. Since these proceedings more than eight years have elapsed, during which, in addition to the wrongs then complained of, others of an aggravated character have been committed on the persons and property of our citizens. A special agent was sent to Mexico in the summer of 1838 with full authority to make another and final demand for redress. The demand was made; the Mexican Government promised to repair the wrongs of which we complained, and after much delay a treaty of indemnity with that view was concluded between the two powers on the 11th of April, 1839, and was duly ratified by both Governments. By this treaty a joint commission was created to adjudicate and decide on the claims of American citizens on the Government of Mexico. The commission was organized at Washington on the 25th day of August, 1840. Their time was limited to eighteen months, at the expiration of which they had adjudicated and decided claims amounting to $2,026,139.68 in favor of citizens of the United States against the Mexican Government, leaving a large amount of claims undecided. Of the latter the American commissioners had decided in favor of our citizens claims amounting to $928,627.88, which were left unacted on by the umpire authorized by the treaty. Still further claims, amounting to between three and four millions of dollars, were submitted to the board too late to be considered, and were left undisposed of. The sum of $2,026,139.68, decided by the board, was a liquidated and ascertained debt due by Mexico to the claimants, and there was no justifiable reason for delaying its payment according to the terms of the treaty. It was not, however, paid. Mexico applied for further indulgence, and, in that spirit of liberality and forbearance which has ever marked the policy of the United States toward that Republic, the request was granted, and on the 30th of January, 1843, a new treaty was concluded. By this treaty it was provided that the interest due on the awards in favor of claimants under the convention of the 11th of April, 1839, should be paid out the 30th of April, 1843, and that-- The principal of the said awards and the interest accruing thereon shall be paid in five years, in equal installments every three months, the said term of five years to commence on the 30th day of April, 1843, aforesaid. The interest due on the 30th day of April, 1843, and the three first of the twenty installments have been paid. Seventeen of these installments, remain unpaid, seven of which are now due. The claims which were left undecided by the joint commission, amounting to more than $3,000,000, together with other claims for spoliations on the property of our citizens, were subsequently presented to the Mexican Government for payment, and were so far recognized that a treaty providing for their examination and settlement by a joint commission was concluded and signed at Mexico on the 20th day of November, 1843. This treaty was ratified by the United States with certain amendments to which no just exception could have been taken, but it has not yet received the ratification of the Mexican Government. In the meantime our citizens, who suffered great losses--and some of whom have been reduced from affluence to bankruptcy--are without remedy unless their rights be enforced by their Government. Such a continued and unprovoked series of wrongs could never have been tolerated by the United States had they been committed by one of the principal nations of Europe. Mexico was, however, a neighboring sister republic, which, following our example, had achieved her independence, and for whose success and prosperity all our sympathies were early enlisted. The United States were the first to recognize her independence and to receive her into the family of nations, and have ever been desirous of cultivating with her a good understanding. We have therefore borne the repeated wrongs she has committed with great patience, in the hope that a returning sense of justice would ultimately guide her councils and that we might, if possible, honorably avoid any hostile collision with her. Without the previous authority of Congress the Executive possessed no power to adopt or enforce adequate remedies for the injuries we had suffered, or to do more than to be prepared to repel the threatened aggression on the part of Mexico. After our Army and Navy had remained on the frontier and coasts of Mexico for many weeks without any hostile movement on her part, though her menaces were continued, I deemed it important to put an end, if possible, to this state of things. With this view I caused steps to be taken in the month of September last to ascertain distinctly and in an authentic form what the designs of the Mexican Government were--whether it was their intention to declare war, or invade Texas, or whether they were disposed to adjust and settle in an amicable manner the pending differences between the two countries. On the 9th of November an official answer was received that the Mexican Government consented to renew the diplomatic relations which had been suspended in March last, and for that purpose were willing to accredit a minister from the United States. With a sincere desire to preserve peace and restore relations of good understanding between the two Republics, I waived all ceremony as to the manner of renewing diplomatic intercourse between them, and, assuming the initiative, on the 10th of November a distinguished citizen of Louisiana was appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Mexico, clothed with full powers to adjust and definitively settle all pending differences between the two countries, including those of boundary between Mexico and the State of Texas. The minister appointed has set out on his mission and is probably by this time near the Mexican capital. He has been instructed to bring the negotiation with which he is charged to a conclusion at the earliest practicable period, which it is expected will be in time to enable me to communicate the result to Congress during the present session. Until that result is known I forbear to recommend to Congress such ulterior measures of redress for the wrongs and injuries we have so long borne as it would have been proper to make had no such negotiation been instituted. Congress appropriated at the last session the sum of $275,000 for the payment of the April and July installments of the Mexican indemnities for the year 1844: Provided it shall be ascertained to the satisfaction of the American Government that said installments have been paid by the Mexican Government to the agent appointed by the United States to receive the same in such manner as to discharge all claim on the Mexican Government, and said agent to be delinquent in remitting the money to the United States. The unsettled state of our relations with Mexico has involved this subject in much mystery. The first information in an authentic form from the agent of the United States, appointed under the Administration of my predecessor, was received at the State Department on the 9th of November last. This is contained in a letter, dated the 17th of October, addressed by him to one of our citizens then in Mexico with a view of having it communicated to that Department. From this it appears that the agent on the 20th of September, 1844, gave a receipt to the treasury of Mexico for the amount of the April and July installments of the indemnity. In the same communication, however, he asserts that he had not received a single dollar in cash, but that he holds such securities as warranted him at the time in giving the receipt, and entertains no doubt but that he will eventually obtain the money. As these installments appear never to have been actually paid by the Government of Mexico to the agent, and as that Government has not, therefore, been released so as to discharge the claim, I do not feel myself warranted in directing payment to be made to the claimants out of the Treasury without further legislation. Their case is undoubtedly one of much hardship, and it remains for Congress to decide whether any, and what, relief ought to be granted to them. Our minister to Mexico has been instructed to ascertain the facts of the case from the Mexican Government in an authentic and official form and report the result with as little delay as possible. My attention was early directed to the negotiation which on the 4th of March last I found pending at Washington between the United States and Great Britain on the subject of the Oregon Territory. Three several attempts had been previously made to settle the questions in dispute between the two countries by negotiation upon the principle of compromise, but each had proved unsuccessful. These negotiations took place at London in the years 1818, 1824, and 1826--the two first under the Administration of Mr. Monroe and the last under that of Mr. Adams. The negotiation of 1818, having failed to accomplish its object, resulted in the convention of the 20th of October of that year. By the third article of that convention it was-- Agreed that any country that may be claimed by either party on the northwest coast of America westward of the Stony Mountains shall, together with its harbors, bays, and creeks, and the navigation of all rivers within the same, be free and open for the term of ten years from the date of the signature of the present convention to the vessels, citizens, and subjects of the two powers; it being well understood that this agreement is not to be construed to the prejudice of any claim which either of the two high contracting parties may have to any part of the said country, nor shall it be taken to affect the claims of any other power or state to any part of the said country, the only object of the high contracting parties in that respect being to prevent disputes and differences amongst themselves. The negotiation of 1824 was productive of no result, and the convention of 1818 was left unchanged. The negotiation of 1826, having also failed to effect an adjustment by compromise, resulted in the convention of August 6, 1827, by which it was agreed to continue in force for an indefinite period the provisions of the third article of the convention of the 20th of October, 1818; and it was further provided that-- It shall be competent, however, to either of the contracting parties, in case either should think fit, at any time after the 20th of October, 1828, on giving due notice of twelve months to the other contracting party, to annul and abrogate this convention; and it shall in such case be accordingly entirely annulled and abrogated after the expiration of the said term of notice. In these attempts to adjust the controversy the parallel of the forty-ninth degree of north latitude had been offered by the United States to Great Britain, and in those of 1818 and 1826, with a further concession of the free navigation of the Columbia River south of that latitude. The parallel of the forty-ninth degree from the Rocky Mountains to its intersection with the northeasternmost branch of the Columbia, and thence down the channel of that river to the sea, had been offered by Great Britain, with an addition of a small detached territory north of the Columbia. Each of these propositions had been rejected by the parties respectively. In October, 1843, the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States in London was authorized to make a similar offer to those made in 1818 and 1826. Thus stood the question when the negotiation was shortly afterwards transferred to Washington, and on the 23d of August, 1844, was formally opened under the direction of my immediate predecessor. Like all the previous negotiations, it was based upon principles of "compromise," and the avowed purpose of the parties was "to treat of the respective claims of the two countries to the Oregon Territory with the view to establish a permanent boundary between them westward of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean." Accordingly, on the 26th of August, 1844, the British plenipotentiary offered to divide the Oregon Territory by the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude from the Rocky Mountains to the point of its intersection with the northeasternmost branch of the Columbia River, and thence down that river to the sea, leaving the free navigation of the river to be enjoyed in common by both parties, the country south of this line to belong to the United States and that north of it to Great Britain. At the same time he proposed in addition to yield to the United States a detached territory north of the Columbia extending along the Pacific and the Straits of Fuca from Bulfinchs Harbor, inclusive, to Hoods Canal, and to make free to the United States any port or ports south of latitude 49° which they might desire, either on the mainland or on Quadra and Vancouvers Island. With the exception of the free ports, this was the same offer which had been made by the British and rejected by the American Government in the negotiation of 1826. This proposition was properly rejected by the American plenipotentiary on the day it was submitted. This was the only proposition of compromise offered by the British plenipotentiary. The proposition on the part of Great Britain having been rejected, the British plenipotentiary requested that a proposal should be made by the United States for "an equitable adjustment of the question." When I came into office I found this to be the state of the negotiation. Though entertaining the settled conviction that the British pretensions of title could not be maintained to any portion of the Oregon Territory upon any principle of public law recognized by nations, yet in deference to what had been done by my predecessors, and especially in consideration that propositions of compromise had been thrice made by two preceding Administrations to adjust the question on the parallel of 49°, and in two of them yielding to Great Britain the free navigation of the Columbia, and that the pending negotiation had been commenced on the basis of compromise, I deemed it to be my duty not abruptly to break it off. In consideration, too, that under the conventions of 1818 and 1827 the citizens and subjects of the two powers held a joint occupancy of the country, I was induced to make another effort to settle this long-pending controversy in the spirit of moderation which had given birth to the renewed discussion. A proposition was accordingly made, which was rejected by the British plenipotentiary, who, without submitting any other proposition, suffered the negotiation on his part to drop, expressing his trust that the United States would offer what he saw fit to call "some further proposal for the settlement of the Oregon question more consistent with fairness and equity and with the reasonable expectations of the British Government." The proposition thus offered and rejected repeated the offer of the parallel of 49° of north latitude, which had been made by two preceding Administrations, but without proposing to surrender to Great Britain, as they had done, the free navigation of the Columbia River. The right of any foreign power to the free navigation of any of our rivers through the heart of our country was one which I was unwilling to concede. It also embraced a provision to make free to Great Britain any port or ports on the cap of Quadra and Vancouvers Island south of this parallel. Had this been a new question, coming under discussion for the first time, this proposition would not have been made. The extraordinary and wholly inadmissible demands of the British Government and the rejection of the proposition made in deference alone to what had been done by my predecessors and the implied obligation which their acts seemed to impose afford satisfactory evidence that no compromise which the United States ought to accept can be effected. With this conviction the proposition of compromise which had been made and rejected was by my direction subsequently withdrawn and our title to the whole Oregon Territory asserted, and, as is believed, maintained by irrefragable facts and arguments. The civilized world will see in these proceedings a spirit of liberal concession on the part of the United States, and this Government will be relieved from all responsibility which may follow the failure to settle the controversy. All attempts at compromise having failed, it becomes the duty of Congress to consider what measures it may be proper to adopt for the security and protection of our citizens now inhabiting or who may hereafter inhabit Oregon, and for the maintenance of our just title to that Territory. In adopting measures for this purpose care should be taken that nothing be done to violate the stipulations of the convention of 1827, which is still in force. The faith of treaties, in their letter and spirit, has ever been, and, I trust, will ever be, scrupulously observed by the United States. Under that convention a year's notice is required to be given by either party to the other before the joint occupancy shall terminate and before either can rightfully assert or exercise exclusive jurisdiction over any portion of the territory. This notice it would, in my judgment, be proper to give, and I recommend that provision be made by law for giving it accordingly, and terminating in this manner the convention of the 6th of August, 1827. It will become proper for Congress to determine what legislation they can in the meantime adopt without violating this convention. Beyond all question the protection of our laws and our jurisdiction, civil and criminal, ought to be immediately extended over our citizens in Oregon. They have had just because to complain of our long neglect in this particular, and have in consequence been compelled for their own security and protection to establish a provisional government for themselves. Strong in their allegiance and ardent in their attachment to the United States, they have been thus cast upon their own resources. They are anxious that our laws should be extended over them, and I recommend that this be done by Congress with as little delay as possible in the full extent to which the British Parliament have proceeded in regard to British subjects in that Territory by their act of July 2, 1821, "for regulating the fur trade and establishing a criminal and civil jurisdiction within certain parts of North America." By this act Great Britain extended her laws and jurisdiction, civil and criminal, over her subjects engaged in the fur trade in that Territory. By it the courts of the Province of Upper Canada were empowered to take cognizance of causes civil and criminal. Justices of the peace and other judicial officers were authorized to be appointed in Oregon with power to execute all process issuing from the courts of that Province, and to "sit and hold courts of record for the trial of criminal offenses and misdemeanors" not made the subject of capital punishment, and also of civil eases where the because of action shall not "exceed in value the amount or sum of lbs. 200." Subsequent to the date of this act of Parliament a grant was made from the "British Crown" to the Hudsons Bay Company of the exclusive trade with the Indian tribes in the Oregon Territory, subject to a reservation that it shall not operate to the exclusion "of the subjects of any foreign states who, under or by force of any convention for the time being between us and such foreign states, respectively, may be entitled to and shall be engaged in the said trade." It is much to be regretted that while under this act British subjects have enjoyed the protection of British laws and British judicial tribunals throughout the whole of Oregon, American citizens in the same Territory have enjoyed no such protection from their Government. At the same time, the result illustrates the character of our people and their institutions. In spite of this neglect they have multiplied, and their number is rapidly increasing in that Territory. They have made no appeal to arms, but have peacefully fortified themselves in their new homes by the adoption of republican institutions for themselves, furnishing another example of the truth that self-government is inherent in the American breast and must prevail. It is due to them that they should be embraced and protected by our laws. It is deemed important that our laws regulating trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes east of the Rocky Mountains should be extended to such tribes as dwell beyond them. The increasing emigration to Oregon and the care and protection which is due from the Government to its citizens in that distant region make it our duty, as it is our interest, to cultivate amicable relations with the Indian tribes of that Territory. For this purpose I recommend that provision be made for establishing an Indian agency and such subagencies as may be deemed necessary beyond the Rocky Mountains. For the protection of emigrants whilst on their way to Oregon against the attacks of the Indian tribes occupying the country through which they pass, I recommend that a suitable number of stockades and blockhouse forts be erected along the usual route between our frontier settlements on the Missouri and the Rocky Mountains, and that an adequate force of mounted riflemen be raised to guard and protect them on their journey. The immediate adoption of these recommendations by Congress will not violate the provisions of the existing treaty. It will be doing nothing more for American citizens than British laws have long since done for British subjects in the same territory. It requires several months to perform the voyage by sea from the Atlantic States to Oregon, and although we have a large number of whale ships in the Pacific, but few of them afford an opportunity of interchanging intelligence without great delay between our settlements in that distant region and the United States. An overland mail is believed to be entirely practicable, and the importance of establishing such a mail at least once a month is submitted to the favorable consideration of Congress. It is submitted to the wisdom of Congress to determine whether at their present session, and until after the expiration of the year's notice, any other measures may be adopted consistently with the convention of 1827 for the security of our rights and the government and protection of our citizens in Oregon. That it will ultimately be wise and proper to make liberal grants of land to the patriotic pioneers who amidst privations and dangers lead the way through savage tribes inhabiting the vast wilderness intervening between our frontier settlements and Oregon, and who cultivate and are ever ready to defend the soil, I am fully satisfied. To doubt whether they will obtain such grants as soon as the convention between the United States and Great Britain shall have ceased to exist would be to doubt the justice of Congress; but, pending the year's notice, it is worthy of consideration whether a stipulation to this effect may be made consistently with the spirit of that convention. The recommendations which I have made as to the best manner of securing our rights in Oregon are submitted to Congress with great deference. Should they in their wisdom devise any other mode better calculated to accomplish the same object, it shall meet with my hearty concurrence. At the end of the year's notice, should Congress think it proper to make provision for giving that notice, we shall have reached a period when the national rights in Oregon must either be abandoned or firmly maintained. That they can not be abandoned without a sacrifice of both national honor and interest is too clear to admit of doubt. Oregon is a part of the North American continent, to which, it is confidently affirmed, the title of the United States is the best now in existence. For the grounds on which that title rests I refer you to the correspondence of the late and present Secretary of State with the British plenipotentiary during the negotiation. The British proposition of compromise, which would make the Columbia the line south of 49°, with a trifling addition of detached territory to the United States north of that river, and would leave on the British side two-thirds of the whole Oregon Territory, including the free navigation of the Columbia and all the valuable harbors on the Pacific, can never for a moment be entertained by the United States without an abandonment of their just and dear territorial rights, their own self-respect, and the national honor. For the information of Congress, I communicate herewith the correspondence which took place between the two Governments during the late negotiation. The rapid extension of our settlements over our territories heretofore unoccupied, the addition of new States to our Confederacy, the expansion of free principles, and our rising greatness as a nation are attracting the attention of the powers of Europe, and lately the doctrine has been broached in some of them of a "balance of power" on this continent to check our advancement. The United States, sincerely desirous of preserving relations of good understanding with all nations, can not in silence permit any European interference on the North American continent, and should any such interference be attempted will be ready to resist it at any and all hazards. It is well known to the American people and to all nations that this Government has never interfered with the relations subsisting between other governments. We have never made ourselves parties to their wars or their alliances; we have not sought their territories by conquest; we have not mingled with parties in their domestic struggles; and believing our own form of government to be the best, we have never attempted to propagate it by intrigues, by diplomacy, or by force. We may claim on this continent a like exemption from European interference. The nations of America are equally sovereign and independent with those of Europe. They possess the same rights, independent of all foreign interposition, to make war, to conclude peace, and to regulate their internal affairs. The people of the United States can not, therefore, view with indifference attempts of European powers to interfere with the independent action of the nations on this continent. The American system of government is entirely different from that of Europe. Jealousy among the different sovereigns of Europe, lest any one of them might become too powerful for the rest, has caused them anxiously to desire the establishment of what they term the "balance of power." It can not be permitted to have any application on the North American continent, and especially to the United States. We must ever maintain the principle that the people of this continent alone have the right to decide their own destiny. Should any portion of them, constituting an independent state, propose to unite themselves with our Confederacy, this will be a question for them and us to determine without any foreign interposition. We can never consent that European powers shall interfere to prevent such a union because it might disturb the "balance of power" which they may desire to maintain upon this continent. Near a quarter of a century ago the principle was distinctly announced to the world, in the annual message of one of my predecessors, that-- The American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for colonization by any European powers. This principle will apply with greatly increased force should any European power attempt to establish any new colony in North America. In the existing circumstances of the world the present is deemed a proper occasion to reiterate and reaffirm the principle avowed by Mr. Monroe and to state my cordial concurrence in its wisdom and sound policy. The reassertion of this principle, especially in reference to North America, is at this day but the promulgation of a policy which no European power should cherish the disposition to resist. Existing rights of every European nation should be respected, but it is due alike to our safety and our interests that the efficient protection of our laws should be extended over our whole territorial limits, and that it should be distinctly announced to the world as our settled policy that no future European colony or dominion shall with our consent be planted or established on any part of the North American continent. A question has recently arisen under the tenth article of the subsisting treaty between the United States and Prussia. By this article the consuls of the two countries have the right to sit as judges and arbitrators "in such differences as may arise between the captains and crews of the vessels belonging to the nation whose interests are committed to their charge without the interference of the local authorities, unless the conduct of the crews or of the captain should disturb the order or tranquillity of the country, or the said consuls should require their assistance to because their decisions to be carried into effect or supported." The Prussian consul at New Bedford in June, 1844, applied to Mr. Justice Story to carry into effect a decision made by him between the captain and crew of the Prussian ship Borussia, but the request was refused on the ground that without previous legislation by Congress the judiciary did not possess the power to give effect to this article of the treaty. The Prussian Government, through their minister here, have complained of this violation of the treaty, and have asked the Government of the United States to adopt the necessary measures to prevent similar violations hereafter. Good faith to Prussia, as well as to other nations with whom we have similar treaty stipulations, requires that these should be faithfully observed. I have deemed it proper, therefore, to lay the subject before Congress and to recommend such legislation as may be necessary to give effect to these treaty obligations. By virtue of an arrangement made between the Spanish Government and that of the United States in December, 1831, American vessels, since the 29th of April, 1832, have been admitted to entry in the ports of Spain, including those of the Balearic and Canary islands, on payment of the same tonnage duty of 5 cents per ton, as though they had been Spanish vessels; and this whether our vessels arrive in Spain directly from the United States or indirectly from any other country. When Congress, by the act of 13th July, 1832, gave effect to this arrangement between the two Governments, they confined the reduction of tonnage duty merely to Spanish vessels "coming from a port in Spain," leaving the former discriminating duty to remain against such vessels coming from a port in any other country. It is manifestly unjust that whilst American vessels arriving in the ports of Spain from other countries pay no more duty than Spanish vessels, Spanish vessels arriving in the ports of the United States from other countries should be subjected to heavy discriminating tonnage duties. This is neither equality nor reciprocity, and is in violation of the arrangement concluded in December, 1831, between the two countries. The Spanish Government have made repeated and earnest remonstrances against this inequality, and the favorable attention of Congress has been several times invoked to the subject by my predecessors. I recommend, as an act of justice to Spain, that this inequality be removed by Congress and that the discriminating duties which have been levied under the act of the 13th of July, 1832, on Spanish vessels coming to the United States from any other foreign country be refunded. This recommendation does not embrace Spanish vessels arriving in the United States from Cuba and Porto Rico, which will still remain subject to the provisions of the act of June 30, 1834, concerning tonnage duty on such vessels. By the act of the 14th of July, 1832, coffee was exempted from duty altogether. This exemption was universal, without reference to the country where it was produced or the national character of the vessel in which it was imported. By the tariff act of the 30th of August, 1842, this exemption from duty was restricted to coffee imported in American vessels from the place of its production, whilst coffee imported under all other circumstances was subjected to a duty of 20 per cent ad valorem. Under this act and our existing treaty with the King of the Netherlands Java coffee imported from the European ports of that Kingdom into the United States, whether in Dutch or American vessels, now pays this rate of duty. The Government of the Netherlands complains that such a discriminating duty should have been imposed on coffee the production of one of its colonies, and which is chiefly brought from Java to the ports of that Kingdom and exported from thence to foreign countries. Our trade with the Netherlands is highly beneficial to both countries and our relations with them have ever been of the most friendly character. Under all the circumstances of the case, I recommend that this discrimination should be abolished and that the coffee of Java imported from the Netherlands be placed upon the same footing with that imported directly from Brazil and other countries where it is produced. Under the eighth section of the tariff act of the 30th of August, 1842, a duty of 15 cents per gallon was imposed on port wine in casks, while on the red wines of several other countries, when imported in casks, a duty of only 6 cents per gallon was imposed. This discrimination, so far as regarded the port wine of Portugal, was deemed a violation of our treaty with that power, which provides that-- No higher or other duties shall be imposed on the importation into the United States of America of any article the growth, produce, or manufacture of the Kingdom and possessions of Portugal than such as are or shall be payable on the like article being the growth, produce, or manufacture of any other foreign country. Accordingly, to give effect to the treaty as well as to the intention of Congress, expressed in a proviso to the tariff act itself, that nothing therein contained should be so construed as to interfere with subsisting treaties with foreign nations, a Treasury circular was issued on the 16th of July, 1844, which, among other things, declared the duty on the port wine of Portugal, in casks, under the existing laws and treaty to be 6 cents per gallon, and directed that the excess of duties which had been collected on such wine should be refunded. By virtue of another clause in the same section of the act it is provided that all imitations of port or any other wines "shall be subject to the duty provided for the genuine article." Imitations of port wine, the production of France, are imported to some extent into the United States, and the Government of that country now claims that under a correct construction of the act these imitations ought not to pay a higher duty than that imposed upon the original port wine of Portugal. It appears to me to be unequal and unjust that French imitations of port wine should be subjected to a duty of 15 cents, while the more valuable article from Portugal should pay a duty of 6 cents only per gallon. I therefore recommend to Congress such legislation as may be necessary to correct the inequality. The late President, in his annual message of December last, recommended an appropriation to satisfy the claims of the Texan Government against the United States, which had been previously adjusted so far as the powers of the Executive extend. These claims arose out of the act of disarming a body of Texan troops under the command of Major Snively by an officer in the service of the United States, acting under the orders of our Government, and the forcible entry into the custom-house at Bryarlys Landing, on Red River, by certain citizens of the United States and taking away therefrom the goods seized by the collector of the customs as forfeited under the laws of Texas. This was a liquidated debt ascertained to be due to Texas when an independent state. Her acceptance of the terms of annexation proposed by the United States does not discharge or invalidate the claim. I recommend that provision be made for its payment. The commissioner appointed to China during the special session of the Senate in March last shortly afterwards set out on his mission in the United States ship Columbus. On arriving at Rio de Janeiro on his passage the state of his health had become so critical that by the advice of his medical attendants he returned to the United States early in the month of October last. Commodore Biddle, commanding the East India Squadron, proceeded on his voyage in the Columbus, and was charged by the commissioner with the duty of exchanging with the proper authorities the ratifications of the treaty lately concluded with the Emperor of China. Since the return of the commissioner to the United States his health has been much improved, and he entertains the confident belief that he will soon be able to proceed on his mission. Unfortunately, differences continue to exist among some of the nations of South America which, following our example, have established their independence, while in others internal dissensions prevail. It is natural that our sympathies should be warmly enlisted for their welfare; that we should desire that all controversies between them should be amicably adjusted and their Governments administered in a manner to protect the rights and promote the prosperity of their people. It is contrary, however, to our settled policy to interfere in their controversies, whether external or internal. I have thus adverted to all the subjects connected with our foreign relations to which I deem it necessary to call your attention. Our policy is not only peace with all, but good will toward all the powers of the earth. While we are just to all, we require that all shall be just to us. Excepting the differences with Mexico and Great Britain, our relations with all civilized nations are of the most satisfactory character. It is hoped that in this enlightened age these differences may be amicably adjusted. The Secretary of the Treasury in his annual report to Congress will communicate a full statement of the condition of our finances. The imports for the fiscal year ending on the 30th of June last were of the value of $117,254,564, of which the amount exported was $15,346,830, leaving a balance of $101,907,734 for domestic consumption. The exports for the same year were of the value of $114,646,606, of which the amount of domestic articles was $99,299,776. The receipts into the Treasury during the same year were $29,769,133.56, of which there were derived from customs $27,528,122.70, from sales of public lands $2,077,022.30, and from incidental and miscellaneous sources $163,998.56. The expenditures for the same period were $29,968,206.98, of which $8,588,157.62 were applied to the payment of the public debt. The balance in the Treasury on the 1st of July last was $7,658,306.22. The amount of the public debt remaining unpaid on the 1st of October last was $17,075,445.52. Further payments of the public debt would have been made, in anticipation of the period of its reimbursement under the authority conferred upon the Secretary of the Treasury by the acts of July 21, 1841, and of April 15, 1842, and March 3, 1843, had not the unsettled state of our relations with Mexico menaced hostile collision with that power. In view of such a contingency it was deemed prudent to retain in the Treasury an amount unusually large for ordinary purposes. A few years ago our whole national debt growing out of the Revolution and the War of 1812 with Great Britain was extinguished, and we presented to the world the rare and noble spectacle of a great and growing people who had fully discharged every obligation. Since that time the existing debt has been contracted, and, small as it is in comparison with the similar burdens of most other nations, it should be extinguished at the earliest practicable period. Should the state of the country permit, and especially if our foreign relations interpose no obstacle, it is contemplated to apply all the moneys in the Treasury as they accrue, beyond what is required for the appropriations by Congress, to its liquidation. I cherish the hope of soon being able to congratulate the country on its recovering once more the lofty position which it so recently occupied. Our country, which exhibits to the world the benefits of self-government, in developing all the sources of national prosperity owes to mankind the permanent example of a nation free from the blighting influence of a public debt. The attention of Congress is invited to the importance of making suitable modifications and reductions of the rates of duty imposed by our present tariff laws. The object of imposing duties on imports should be to raise revenue to pay the necessary expenses of Government. Congress may undoubtedly, in the exercise of a sound discretion, discriminate in arranging the rates of duty on different articles, but the discriminations should be within the revenue standard and be made with the view to raise money for the support of Government. It becomes important to understand distinctly what is meant by a revenue standard the maximum of which should not be exceeded in the rates of duty imposed. It is conceded, and experience proves, that duties may be laid so high as to diminish or prohibit altogether the importation of any given article, and thereby lessen or destroy the revenue which at lower rates would be derived from its importation. Such duties exceed the revenue rates and are not imposed to raise money for the support of Government. If Congress levy a duty for revenue of 1 per cent on a given article, it will produce a given amount of money to the Treasury and will incidentally and necessarily afford protection or advantage to the amount of 1 per cent to the home manufacturer of a similar or like article over the importer. If the duty be raised to 10 per cent, it will produce a greater amount of money and afford greater protection. If it be still raised to 20, 25, or 30 per cent, and if as it is raised the revenue derived from it is found to be increased, the protection or advantage will also be increased; but if it be raised to 31 per cent, and it is found that the revenue produced at that rate is less than at 30 per cent, it ceases to be a revenue duty. The precise point in the ascending scale of duties at which it is ascertained from experience that the revenue is greatest is the maximum rate of duty which can be laid for the bona fide purpose of collecting money for the support of Government. To raise the duties higher than that point, and thereby diminish the amount collected, is to levy them for protection merely, and not for revenue. As long, then, as Congress may gradually increase the rate of duty on a given article, and the revenue is increased by such increase of duty, they are within the revenue standard. When they go beyond that point, and as they increase the duties, the revenue is diminished or destroyed; the act ceases to have for its object the raising of money to support Government, but is for protection merely. It does not follow that Congress should levy the highest duty on all articles of import which they will bear within the revenue standard, for such rates would probably produce a much larger amount than the economical administration of the Government would require. Nor does it follow that the duties on all articles should be at the same or a horizontal rate. Some articles will bear a much higher revenue duty than others. Below the maximum of the revenue standard Congress may and ought to discriminate in the rates imposed, taking care so to adjust them on different articles as to produce in the aggregate the amount which, when added to the proceeds of the sales of public lands, may be needed to pay the economical expenses of the Government. In levying a tariff of duties Congress exercise the taxing power, and for purposes of revenue may select the objects of taxation. They may exempt certain articles altogether and permit their importation free of duty. On others they may impose low duties. In these classes should be embraced such articles of necessity as are in general use, and especially such as are consumed by the laborer and poor as well as by the wealthy citizen. Care should be taken that all the great interests of the country, including manufactures, agriculture, commerce, navigation, and the mechanic arts, should, as far as may be practicable, derive equal advantages from the incidental protection which a just system of revenue duties may afford. Taxation, direct or indirect, is a burden, and it should be so imposed as to operate as equally as may be on all classes in the proportion of their ability to bear it. To make the taxing power an actual benefit to one class necessarily increases the burden of the others beyond their proportion, and would be manifestly unjust. The terms "protection to domestic industry" are of popular import, but they should apply under a just system to all the various branches of industry in our country. The farmer or planter who toils yearly in his fields is engaged in "domestic industry," and is as much entitled to have his labor "protected" as the manufacturer, the man of commerce, the navigator, or the mechanic, who are engaged also in "domestic industry" in their different pursuits. The joint labors of all these classes constitute the aggregate of the "domestic industry" of the nation, and they are equally entitled to the nation's "protection." No one of them can justly claim to be the exclusive recipient of "protection," which can only be afforded by increasing burdens on the "domestic industry" of the others. If these views be correct, it remains to inquire how far the tariff act of 1842 is consistent with them. That many of the provisions of that act are in violation of the cardinal principles here laid down all must concede. The rates of duty imposed by it on some articles are prohibitory and on others so high as greatly to diminish importations and to produce a less amount of revenue than would be derived from lower rates. They operate as "protection merely" to one branch of "domestic industry" by taxing other branches. By the introduction of minimums, or assumed and false values, and by the imposition of specific duties the injustice and inequality of the act of 1842 in its practical operations on different classes and pursuits are seen and felt. Many of the oppressive duties imposed by it under the operation of these principles range from 1 per cent to more than 200 per cent. They are prohibitory on some articles and partially so on others, and bear most heavily on articles of common necessity and but lightly on articles of luxury. It is so framed that much the greatest burden which it imposes is thrown on labor and the poorer classes, who are least able to bear it, while it protects capital and exempts the rich from paying their just proportion of the taxation required for the support of Government. While it protects the capital of the wealthy manufacturer and increases his profits, it does not benefit the operatives or laborers in his employment, whose wages have not been increased by it. Articles of prime necessity or of coarse quality and low price, used by the masses of the people, are in many instances subjected by it to heavy taxes, while articles of finer quality and higher price, or of luxury, which can be used only by the opulent, are lightly taxed. It imposes heavy and unjust burdens on the farmer, the planter, the commercial man, and those of all other pursuits except the capitalist who has made his investments in manufactures. All the great interests of the country are not as nearly as may be practicable equally protected by it. The Government in theory knows no distinction of persons or classes, and should not bestow upon some favors and privileges which all others may not enjoy. It was the purpose of its illustrious founders to base the institutions which they reared upon the great and unchanging principles of justice and equity, conscious that if administered in the spirit in which they were conceived they would be felt only by the benefits which they diffused, and would secure for themselves a defense in the hearts of the people more powerful than standing armies and all the means and appliances invented to sustain governments founded in injustice and oppression. The well-known fact that the tariff act of 1842 was passed by a majority of one vote in the Senate and two in the House of Representatives, and that some of those who felt themselves constrained, under the peculiar circumstances existing at the time, to vote in its favor, proclaimed its defects and expressed their determination to aid in its modification on the first opportunity, affords strong and conclusive evidence that it was not intended to be permanent, and of the expediency and necessity of its thorough revision. In recommending to Congress a reduction of the present rates of duty and a revision and modification of the act of 1842, I am far from entertaining opinions unfriendly to the manufacturers. On the contrary, I desire to see them prosperous as far as they can be so without imposing unequal burdens on other interests. The advantage under any system of indirect taxation, even within the revenue standard, must be in favor of the manufacturing interest, and of this no other interest will complain. I recommend to Congress the abolition of the minimum principle, or assumed, arbitrary, and false values, and of specific duties, and the substitution in their place of ad valorem duties as the fairest and most equitable indirect tax which can be imposed. By the ad valorem principle all articles are taxed according to their cost or value, and those which are of inferior quality or of small cost bear only the just proportion of the tax with those which are of superior quality or greater cost. The articles consumed by all are taxed at the same rate. A system of ad valorem revenue duties, with proper discriminations and proper guards against frauds in collecting them, it is not doubted will afford ample incidental advantages to the manufacturers and enable them to derive as great profits as can be derived from any other regular business. It is believed that such a system strictly within the revenue standard will place the manufacturing interests on a stable footing and inure to their permanent advantage, while it will as nearly as may be practicable extend to all the great interests of the country the incidental protection which can be afforded by our revenue laws. Such a system, when once firmly established, would be permanent, and not be subject to the constant complaints, agitations, and changes which must ever occur when duties are not laid for revenue, but for the "protection merely" of a favored interest. In the deliberations of Congress on this subject it is hoped that a spirit of mutual concession and compromise between conflicting interests may prevail, and that the result of their labors may be crowned with the happiest consequences. By the Constitution of the United States it is provided that "no money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law." A public treasury was undoubtedly contemplated and intended to be created, in which the public money should be kept from the period of collection until needed for public uses. In the collection and disbursement of the public money no agencies have ever been employed by law except such as were appointed by the Government, directly responsible to it and under its control. The safe-keeping of the public money should be confided to a public treasury created by law and under like responsibility and control. It is not to be imagined that the framers of the Constitution could have intended that a treasury should be created as a place of deposit and safe-keeping of the public money which was irresponsible to the Government. The first Congress under the Constitution, by the act of the 2d of September, 1789, "to establish the Treasury Department," provided for the appointment of a Treasurer, and made it his duty "to receive and keep the moneys of the United States" and "at all times to submit to the Secretary of the Treasury and the Comptroller, or either of them, the inspection of the moneys in his hands." That banks, national or State, could not have been intended to be used as a substitute for the Treasury spoken of in the Constitution as keepers of the public money is manifest from the fact that at that time there was no national bank, and but three or four State banks, of limited Capital, existed in the country. Their employment as depositories was at first resorted to to a limited extent, but with no avowed intention of continuing them permanently in place of the Treasury of the Constitution. When they were afterwards from time to time employed, it was from motives of supposed convenience. Our experience has shown that when banking corporations have been the keepers of the public money, and been thereby made in effect the Treasury, the Government can have no guaranty that it can command the use of its own money for public purposes. The late Bank of the United States proved to be faithless. The State banks which were afterwards employed were faithless. But a few years ago, with millions of public money in their keeping, the Government was brought almost to bankruptcy and the public credit seriously impaired because of their inability or indisposition to pay on demand to the public creditors in the only currency recognized by the Constitution. Their failure occurred in a period of peace, and great inconvenience and loss were suffered by the public from it. Had the country been involved in a foreign war, that inconvenience and loss would have been much greater, and might have resulted in extreme public calamity. The public money should not be mingled with the private funds of banks or individuals or be used for private purposes. When it is placed in banks for safe-keeping, it is in effect loaned to them without interest, and is loaned by them upon interest to the borrowers from them. The public money is converted into banking capital, and is used and loaned out for the private profit of bank stockholders, and when called for, as was the case in 1837, it may be in the pockets of the borrowers from the banks instead of being in the public Treasury contemplated by the Constitution. The framers of the Constitution could never have intended that the money paid into the Treasury should be thus converted to private use and placed beyond the control of the Government. Banks which hold the public money are often tempted by a desire of gain to extend their loans, increase their circulation, and thus stimulate, if not produce, a spirit of speculation and extravagance which sooner or later must result in ruin to thousands. If the public money be not permitted to be thus used, but be kept in the Treasure and paid out to the public creditors in gold and silver, the temptation afforded by its deposit with banks to an undue expansion of their business would be checked, while the amount of the constitutional currency left in circulation would be enlarged by its employment in the public collections and disbursements, and the banks themselves would in consequence be found in a safer and sounder condition. At present State banks are employed as depositories, but without adequate regulation of law whereby the public money can be secured against the casualties and excesses, revulsions, suspensions, and defalcations to which from overissues, overtrading, an inordinate desire for gain, or other causes they are constantly exposed. The Secretary of the Treasury has in all cases when it was practicable taken collateral security for the amount which they hold, by the pledge of stocks of the United States or such of the States as were in good credit. Some of the deposit banks have given this description of security and others have declined to do so. Entertaining the opinion that "the separation of the moneys of the Government from banking institutions is indispensable for the safety of the funds of the Government and the rights of the people," I recommend to Congress that provision be made by law for such separation, and that a constitutional treasury be created for the safe-keeping of the public money. The constitutional treasury recommended is designed as a secure depository for the public money, without any power to make loans or discounts or to issue any paper whatever as a currency or circulation. I can not doubt that such a treasury as was contemplated by the Constitution should be independent of all banking corporations. The money of the people should be kept in the Treasury of the people created by law, and be in the custody of agents of the people chosen by themselves according to the forms of the Constitution--agents who are directly responsible to the Government, who are under adequate bonds and oaths, and who are subject to severe punishments for any embezzlement, private use, or misapplication of the public funds, and for any failure in other respects to perform their duties. To say that the people or their Government are incompetent or not to be trusted with the custody of their own money in their own Treasury, provided by themselves, but must rely on the presidents, cashiers, and stockholders of banking corporations, not appointed by them nor responsible to them, would be to concede that they are incompetent for self-government. In recommending the establishment of a constitutional treasury in which the public money shall be kept, I desire that adequate provision be made by law for its safety and that all Executive discretion or control over it shall be removed, except such as may be necessary in directing its disbursement in pursuance of appropriations made by law. Under our present land system, limiting the minimum price at which the public lands can be entered to $1.25 per acre, large quantities of lands of inferior quality remain unsold because they will not command that price. From the records of the General Land Office it appears that of the public lands remaining unsold in the several States and Territories in which they are situated, 39,105,577 acres have been in the market subject to entry more than twenty years, 49,638,644 acres for more than fifteen years, 73,074,600 acres for more than ten years, and 106,176,961 acres for more than five years. Much the largest portion of these lands will continue to be unsalable at the minimum price at which they are permitted to be sold so long as large territories of lands from which the more valuable portions have not been selected are annually brought into market by the Government. With the view to the sale and settlement of these inferior lands, I recommend that the price be graduated and reduced below the present minimum rate, confining the sales at the reduced prices to settlers and cultivators, in limited quantities. If graduated and reduced in price for a limited term to $1 per acre, and after the expiration of that period for a second and third term to lower rates, a large portion of these lands would be purchased, and many worthy citizens who are unable to pay higher rates could purchase homes for themselves and their families. By adopting the policy of graduation and reduction of price these inferior lands will be sold for their real value, while the States in which they lie will be freed from the inconvenience, if not injustice, to which they are subjected in consequence of the United States continuing to own large quantities of the public lands within their borders not liable to taxation for the support of their local governments. I recommend the continuance of the policy of granting preemptions in its most liberal extent to all those who have settled or may hereafter settle on the public lands, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, to which the Indian title may have been extinguished at the time of settlement. It has been found by experience that in consequence of combinations of purchasers and other causes a very small quantity of the public lands, when sold at public auction, commands a higher price than the minimum rates established by law. The settlers on the public lands are, however, but rarely able to secure their homes and improvements at the public sales at that rate, because these combinations, by means of the capital they command and their superior ability to purchase, render it impossible for the settler to compete with them in the market. By putting down all competition these combinations of capitalists and speculators are usually enabled to purchase the lands, including the improvements of the settlers, at the minimum price of the Government, and either turn them out of their homes or extort from them, according to their ability to pay, double or quadruple the amount paid for them to the Government. It is to the enterprise and perseverance of the hardy pioneers of the West, who penetrate the wilderness with their families, suffer the dangers, the privations, and hardships attending the settlement of a new country, and prepare the way for the body of emigrants who in the course of a few years usually follow them, that we are in a great degree indebted for the rapid extension and aggrandizement of our country. Experience has proved that no portion of our population are more patriotic than the hardy and brave men of the frontier, or more ready to obey the call of their country and to defend her rights and her honor whenever and by whatever enemy assailed. They should be protected from the grasping speculator and secured, at the minimum price of the public lands, in the humble homes which they have improved by their labor. With this end in view, all vexatious or unnecessary restrictions imposed upon them by the existing preemption laws should be repealed or modified. It is the true policy of the Government to afford facilities to its citizens to become the owners of small portions of our vast public domain at low and moderate rates. The present system of managing the mineral lands of the United States is believed to be radically defective. More than 1,000,000 acres of the public lands, supposed to contain lead and other minerals, have been reserved from sale, and numerous leases upon them have been granted to individuals upon a stipulated rent. The system of granting leases has proved to be not only unprofitable to the Government, but unsatisfactory to the citizens who have gone upon the lands, and must, if continued, lay the foundation of much future difficulty between the Government and the lessees. According to the official records, the amount of rents received by the Government for the years 1841, 1842, 1843, and 1844 was $6,354.74, while the expenses of the system during the same period, including salaries of superintendents, agents, clerks, and incidental expenses, were $26,111.11, the income being less than one-fourth of the expenses. To this pecuniary loss may be added the injury sustained by the public in consequence of the destruction of timber and the careless and wasteful manner of working the mines. The system has given rise to much litigation between the United States and individual citizens, producing irritation and excitement in the mineral region, and involving the Government in heavy additional expenditures. It is believed that similar losses and embarrassments will continue to occur while the present System of leasing these lands remains unchanged. These lands are now under the superintendence and care of the War Department, with the ordinary duties of which they have no proper or natural connection. I recommend the repeal of the present system, and that these lands be placed under the superintendence and management of the General Land Office, as other public lands, and be brought into market and sold upon such terms as Congress in their wisdom may prescribe, reserving to the Government an equitable percentage of the gross amount of mineral product, and that the preemption principle be extended to resident miners and settlers upon them at the minimum price which may be established by Congress. I refer you to the accompanying report of the Secretary of War for information respecting the present situation of the Army and its operations during the past year, the state of our defenses, the condition of the public works, and our relations with the various Indian tribes within our limits or upon our borders. I invite your attention to the suggestions contained in that report in relation to these prominent objects of national interest. When orders were given during the past summer for concentrating a military force on the western frontier of Texas, our troops were widely dispersed and in small detachments, occupying posts remote from each other. The prompt and expeditious manner in which an army embracing more than half our peace establishment was drawn together on an emergency so sudden reflects great credit on the officers who were intrusted with the execution of these orders, as well as upon the discipline of the Army itself. To be in strength to protect and defend the people and territory of Texas in the event Mexico should commence hostilities or invade her territories with a large army, which she threatened, I authorized the general assigned to the command of the army of occupation to make requisitions for additional forces from several of the States nearest the Texan territory, and which could most expeditiously furnish them, if in his opinion a larger force than that under his command and the auxiliary aid which under like circumstances he was authorized to receive from Texas should be required. The contingency upon which the exercise of this authority depended has not occurred. The circumstances under which two companies of State artillery from the city of New Orleans were sent into Texas and mustered into the service of the United States are fully stated in the report of the Secretary of War. I recommend to Congress that provision be made for the payment of these troops, as well as a small number of Texan volunteers whom the commanding general thought it necessary to receive or muster into our service. During the last summer the First Regiment of Dragoons made extensive excursions through the Indian country on our borders, a part of them advancing nearly to the possessions of the Hudsons Bay Company in the north, and a part as far as the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains and the head waters of the tributary streams of the Colorado of the West. The exhibition of this military force among the Indian tribes in those distant regions and the councils held with them by the commanders of the expeditions, it is believed, will have a salutary influence in restraining them from hostilities among themselves and maintaining friendly relations between them and the United States. An interesting account of one of these excursions accompanies the report of the Secretary of War. Under the directions of the War Department Brevet Captain Fremont, of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, has been employed since 1842 in exploring the country west of the Mississippi and beyond the Rocky Mountains. Two expeditions have already been brought to a close, and the reports of that scientific and enterprising officer have furnished much interesting and valuable information. He is now engaged in a third expedition, but it is not expected that this arduous service will be completed in season to enable me to communicate the result to Congress at the present session. Our relations with the Indian tribes are of a favorable character. The policy of removing them to a country designed for their permanent residence west of the Mississippi, and without the limits of the organized States and Territories, is better appreciated by them than it was a few years ago, while education is now attended to and the habits of civilized life are gaining ground among them. Serious difficulties of long standing continue to distract the several parties into which the Cherokees are unhappily divided. The efforts of the Government to adjust the difficulties between them have heretofore proved unsuccessful, and there remains no probability that this desirable object can be accomplished without the aid of further legislation by Congress. I will at an early period of your session present the subject for your consideration, accompanied with an exposition of the complaints and claims of the several parties into which the nation is divided, with a view to the adoption of such measures by Congress as may enable the Executive to do justice to them, respectively, and to put an end, if possible, to the dissensions which have long prevailed and still prevail among them. I refer you to the report of the Secretary of the Navy for the present condition of that branch of the national defense and for grave suggestions having for their object the increase of its efficiency and a greater economy in its management. During the past year the officers and men have performed their duty in a satisfactory manner. The orders which have been given have been executed with promptness and fidelity. A larger force than has often formed one squadron under our flag was readily concentrated in the Gulf of Mexico, and apparently without unusual effort. It is especially to be observed that notwithstanding the union of so considerable a force, no act was committed that even the jealousy of an irritated power could construe as an act of aggression, and that the commander of the squadron and his officers, in strict conformity with their instructions, holding themselves ever ready for the most active duty, have achieved the still purer glory of contributing to the preservation of peace. It is believed that at all our foreign stations the honor of our flag has been maintained and that generally our ships of war have been distinguished for their good discipline and order. I am happy to add that the display of maritime force which was required by the events of the summer has been made wholly within the usual appropriations for the service of the year, so that no additional appropriations are required. The commerce of the United States, and with it the navigating interests, have steadily and rapidly increased since the organization of our Government, until, it is believed, we are now second to but one power in the world, and at no distant day we shall probably be inferior to none. Exposed as they must be, it has been a wise policy to afford to these important interests protection with our ships of war distributed in the great highways of trade throughout the world. For more than thirty years appropriations have been made and annually expended for the gradual increase of our naval forces. In peace our Navy performs the important duty of protecting our commerce, and in the event of war will be, as it has been, a most efficient means of defense. The successful use of steam navigation on the ocean has been followed by the introduction of war steamers in great and increasing numbers into the navies of the principal maritime powers of the world. A due regard to our own safety and to an efficient protection to our large and increasing commerce demands a corresponding increase on our part. No country has greater facilities for the construction of vessels of this description than ours, or can promise itself greater advantages from their employment. They are admirably adapted to the protection of our commerce, to the rapid transmission of intelligence, and to the coast defense. In pursuahce of the wise policy of a gradual increase of our Navy, large supplies of live-oak timber and other materials for shipbuilding have been collected and are now under shelter and in a state of good preservation, while iron steamers can be built with great facility in various parts of the Union. The use of iron as a material, especially in the construction of steamers which can enter with safety many of the harbors along our coast now inaccessible to vessels of greater draft, and the practicability of constructing them in the interior, strongly recommend that liberal appropriations should be made for this important object. Whatever may have been our policy in the earlier stages of the Government, when the nation was in its infancy, our shipping interests and commerce comparatively small, our resources limited, our population sparse and scarcely extending beyond the limits of the original thirteen States, that policy must be essentially different now that we have grown from three to more than twenty millions of people, that our commerce, carried in our own ships, is found in every sea, and that our territorial boundaries and settlements have been so greatly expanded. Neither our commerce nor our long line of coast on the ocean and on the Lakes can be successfully defended against foreign aggression by means of fortifications alone. These are essential at important commercial and military points, but our chief reliance for this object must be on a well-organized, efficient navy. The benefits resulting from such a navy are not confined to the Atlantic States. The productions of the interior which seek a market abroad are directly dependent on the safety and freedom of our commerce. The occupation of the Balize below New Orleans by a hostile force would embarrass, if not stagnate, the whole export trade of the Mississippi and affect the value of the agricultural products of the entire valley of that mighty river and its tributaries. It has never been our policy to maintain large standing armies in time of peace. They are contrary to the genius of our free institutions, would impose heavy burdens on the people and be dangerous to public liberty. Our reliance for protection and defense on the land must be mainly on our citizen soldiers, who will be ever ready, as they ever have been ready in times past, to rush with alacrity, at the call of their country, to her defense. This description of force, however, can not defend our coast, harbors, and inland seas, nor protect our commerce on the ocean or the Lakes. These must be protected by our Navy. Considering an increased naval force, and especially of steam vessels, corresponding with our growth and importance as a nation, and proportioned to the increased and increasing naval power of other nations, of vast importance as regards our safety, and the great and growing interests to be protected by it, I recommend the subject to the favorable consideration of Congress. The report of the Postmaster-General herewith communicated contains a detailed statement of the operations of his Department during the pass year. It will be seen that the income from postages will fall short of the expenditures for the year between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000. This deficiency has been caused by the reduction of the rates of postage, which was made by the act of the 3d of March last. No principle has been more generally acquiesced in by the people than that this Department should sustain itself by limiting its expenditures to its income. Congress has never sought to make it a source of revenue for general purposes except for a short period during the last war with Great Britain, nor should it ever become a charge on the general Treasury. If Congress shall adhere to this principle, as I think they ought, it will be necessary either to curtail the present mail service so as to reduce the expenditures, or so to modify the act of the 3d of March last as to improve its revenues. The extension of the mail service and the additional facilities which will be demanded by the rapid extension and increase of population on our western frontier will not admit of such curtailment as will materially reduce the present expenditures. In the adjustment of the tariff of postages the interests of the people demand that the lowest rates be adopted which will produce the necessary revenue to meet the expenditures of the Department. I invite the attention of Congress to the suggestions of the Postmaster-General on this subject, under the belief that such a modification of the late law may be made as will yield sufficient revenue without further calls on the Treasury, and with very little change in the present rates of postage. Proper measures have been taken in pursuance of the act of the 3d of March last for the establishment of lines of mail steamers between this and foreign countries. The importance of this service commends itself strongly to favorable consideration. With the growth of our country the public business which devolves on the heads of the several Executive Departments has greatly increased. In some respects the distribution of duties among them seems to be incongruous, and many of these might be transferred from one to another with advantage to the public interests. A more auspicious time for the consideration of this subject by Congress, with a view to system in the organization of the several Departments and a more appropriate division of the public business, will not probably occur. The most important duties of the State Department relate to our foreign affairs. By the great enlargement of the family of nations, the increase of our commerce, and the corresponding extension of our consular system the business of this Department has been greatly increased. In its present organization many duties of a domestic nature and consisting of details are devolved on the Secretary of State, which do not appropriately belong to the foreign department of the Government and may properly be transferred to some other Department. One of these grows out of the present state of the law concerning the Patent Office, which a few years since was a subordinate clerkship, but has become a distinct bureau of great importance. With an excellent internal organization, it is still connected with the State Department. In the transaction of its business questions of much importance to inventors and to the community frequently arise, which by existing laws are referred for decision to a board of which the Secretary of State is a member. These questions are legal, and the connection which now exists between the State Department and the Patent Office may with great propriety and advantage be transferred to the Attorney-General. In his last annual message to Congress Mr. Madison invited attention to a proper provision for the Attorney-General as "an important improvement in the executive establishment." This recommendation was repeated by some of his successors. The official duties of the Attorney-General have been much increased within a few years, and his office has become one of great importance. His duties may be still further increased with advantage to the public interests. As an executive officer his residence and constant attention at the seat of Government are required. Legal questions involving important principles and large amounts of public money are constantly referred to him by the President and Executive Departments for his examination and decision. The public business under his official management before the judiciary has been so augmented by the extension of our territory and the acts of Congress authorizing suits against the United States for large bodies of valuable public lands as greatly to increase his labors and responsibilities. I therefore recommend that the Attorney-General be placed on the same footing with the heads of the other Executive Departments, with such subordinate officers provided by law for his Department as may be required to discharge the additional duties which have been or may be devolved upon him. Congress possess the power of exclusive legislation over the District of Columbia, and I commend the interests of its inhabitants to your favorable consideration. The people of this District have no legislative body of their own, and must confide their local as well as their general interests to representatives in whose election they have no voice and over whose official conduct they have no control. Each member of the National Legislature should consider himself as their immediate representative, and should be the more ready to give attention to their interests and wants because he is not responsible to them. I recommend that a liberal and generous spirit may characterize your measures in relation to them. I shall be ever disposed to show a proper regard for their wishes and, within constitutional limits, shall at all times cheerfully cooperate with you for the advancement of their welfare. I trust it may not be deemed inappropriate to the occasion for me to dwell for a moment on the memory of the most eminent citizen of our country who during the summer that is gone by has descended to the tomb. The enjoyment of contemplating, at the advanced age of near fourscore years, the happy condition of his country cheered the last hours of Andrew Jackson, who departed this life in the tranquil hope of a blessed immortality. His death was happy, as his life had been eminently useful. He had an unfaltering confidence in the virtue and capacity of the people and in the permanence of that free Government which he had largely contributed to establish and defend. His great deeds had secured to him the affections of his fellow-citizens, and it was his happiness to witness the growth and glory of his country, which he loved so well. He departed amidst the benedictions of millions of free-men. The nation paid its tribute to his memory at his tomb. Coming generations will learn from his example the love of country and the rights of man. In his language on a similar occasion to the present, "I now commend you, fellow-citizens, to the guidance of Almighty God, with a full reliance on His merciful providence for the maintenance of our free institutions, and with an earnest supplication that whatever errors it may be my lot to commit in discharging the arduous duties which have devolved on me will find a remedy in the harmony and wisdom of your counsels."
it is to me a source of unaffected satisfaction to meet the representatives of the states and the people in congress assembled as it will be to receive the aid of their combined wisdom in the administration of public affairs in performing for the first time the duty imposed on me by the constitution of giving to you information of the state of the union and recommending to your consideration such measures as in my judgment are necessary and expedient i am happy that i can congratulate you on the continued prosperity of our country under the blessings of divine providence and the benign influence of our free institutions it stands before the world a spectacle of national happiness with our unexampled advancement in all the elements of national greatness the affection of the people is confirmed for the union of the states and for the doctrines of popular liberty which lie at the foundation of our government it becomes us in humility to make our devout acknowledgments to the supreme ruler of the universe for the inestimable civil and religious blessings with which we are favored in calling the attention of congress to our relations with foreign powers i am gratified to be able to state that though with some of them there have existed since your last session serious causes of irritation and misunderstanding yet no actual hostilities have taken place adopting the maxim in the conduct of our foreign affairs to ask nothing that is not right and submit to nothing that is wrong it has been my anxious desire to preserve peace with all nations but at the same time to be prepared to resist aggression and maintain all our just rights in pursuance of the joint resolution of congress for annexing texas to the united states my predecessor on the 3d day of march 1845 elected to submit the first and second sections of that resolution to the republic of texas as an overture on the part of the united states for her admission as a state into our union this election i approved and accordingly the charge of the united states in texas under instructions of the 10th of march 1845 presented these sections of the resolution for the acceptance of that republic the executive government the congress and the people of texas in convention have successively complied with all the terms and conditions of the joint resolution a constitution for the government of the state of texas formed by a convention of deputies is herewith laid before congress it is well known also that the people of texas at the polls have accepted the terms of annexation and ratified the constitution i communicate to congress the correspondence between the secretary of state and our charge in texas and also the correspondence of the latter with the authorities of texas together with the official documents transmitted by him to his own government the terms of annexation which were offered by the united states having been accepted by texas the public faith of both parties is solemnly pledged to the compact of their union nothing remains to consummate the event but the passage of an act by congress to admit the state of texas into the union upon an equal footing with the original states strong reasons exist why this should be done at an early period of the session it will be observed that by the constitution of texas the existing government is only continued temporarily till congress can act and that the third monday of the present month is the day appointed for holding the first general election on that day a governor a and both branches of the legislature will be chosen by the people the president of texas is required immediately after the receipt of official information that the new state has been admitted into our union by congress to convene the legislature and upon its meeting the existing government will be superseded and the state government organized questions deeply interesting to texas in common with the other states the extension of our revenue laws and judicial system over her people and territory as well as measures of a local character will claim the early attention of congress and therefore upon every principle of republican government she ought to be represented in that body without unnecessary delay i can not too earnestly recommend prompt action on this important subject as soon as the act to admit texas as a state shall be passed the union of the two republics will be consummated by their own voluntary consent this accession to our territory has been a bloodless achievement no arm of force has been raised to produce the result the sword has had no part in the victory we have not sought to extend our territorial possessions by conquest or our republican institutions over a reluctant people it was the deliberate homage of each people to the great principle of our federative union if we consider the extent of territory involved in the annexation its prospective influence on america the means by which it has been accomplished springing purely from the choice of the people themselves to share the blessings of our union the history of the world may be challenged to furnish a parallel the jurisdiction of the united states which at the formation of the federal constitution was bounded by the marys on the atlantic has passed the capes of florida and been peacefully extended to the del norte in contemplating the grandeur of this event it is not to be forgotten that the result was achieved in despite of the diplomatic interference of european monarchies even france the country which had been our ancient ally the country which has a common interest with us in maintaining the freedom of the seas the country which by the cession of louisiana first opened to us access to the gulf of mexico the country with which we have been every year drawing more and more closely the bonds of successful commerce most unexpectedly and to our unfeigned regret took part in an effort to prevent annexation and to impose on texas as a condition of the recognition of her independence by mexico that she would never join herself to the united states we may rejoice that the tranquil and pervading influence of the american principle of was sufficient to defeat the purposes of british and french interference and that the almost unanimous voice of the people of texas has given to that interference a peaceful and effective rebuke from this example european governments may learn how vain diplomatic arts and intrigues must ever prove upon this continent against that system of which seems natural to our soil and which will ever resist foreign interference toward texas i do not doubt that a liberal and generous spirit will actuate congress in all that concerns her interests and prosperity and that she will never have because to regret that she has united her lone star to our glorious constellation i regret to inform you that our relations with mexico since your last session have not been of the amicable character which it is our desire to cultivate with all foreign nations on the 6th day of march last the mexican envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the united states made a formal protest in the name of his government against the joint resolution passed by congress for the annexation of texas to the united states which he chose to regard as a violation of the rights of mexico and in consequence of it he demanded his passports he was informed that the government of the united states did not consider this joint resolution as a violation of any of the rights of mexico or that it afforded any just because of offense to his government that the republic of texas was an independent power owing no allegiance to mexico and constituting no part of her territory or rightful sovereignty and jurisdiction he was also assured that it was the sincere desire of this government to maintain with that of mexico relations of peace and good understanding that functionary however notwithstanding these representations and assurances abruptly terminated his mission and shortly afterwards left the country our envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to mexico was refused all official intercourse with that government and after remaining several months by the permission of his own government he returned to the united states thus by the acts of mexico all diplomatic intercourse between the two countries was suspended since that time mexico has until recently occupied an attitude of hostility toward the united states has been marshaling and organizing armies issuing proclamations and avowing the intention to make war on the united states either by an open declaration or by invading texas both the congress and convention of the people of texas invited this government to send an army into that territory to protect and defend them against the menaced attack the moment the terms of annexation offered by the united states were accepted by texas the latter became so far a part of our own country as to make it our duty to afford such protection and defense i therefore deemed it proper as a precautionary measure to order a strong squadron to the coasts of mexico and to concentrate an efficient military force on the western frontier of texas our army was ordered to take position in the country between the nueces and the del norte and to repel any invasion of the texan territory which might be attempted by the mexican forces our squadron in the gulf was ordered to cooperate with the army but though our army and navy were placed in a position to defend our own and the rights of texas they were ordered to commit no act of hostility against mexico unless she declared war or was herself the aggressor by striking the first blow the result has been that mexico has made no aggressive movement and our military and naval commanders have executed their orders with such discretion that the peace of the two republics has not been disturbed texas had declared her independence and maintained it by her arms for more than nine years she has had an organized government in successful operation during that period her separate existence as an independent state had been recognized by the united states and the principal powers of europe treaties of commerce and navigation had been concluded with her by different nations and it had become manifest to the whole world that any further attempt on the part of mexico to conquer her or overthrow her government would be vain even mexico herself had become satisfied of this fact and whilst the question of annexation was pending before the people of texas during the past summer the government of mexico by a formal act agreed to recognize the independence of texas on condition that she would not annex herself to any other power the agreement to acknowledge the independence of texas whether with or without this condition is conclusive against mexico the independence of texas is a fact conceded by mexico herself and she had no right or authority to prescribe restrictions as to the form of government which texas might afterwards choose to assume but though mexico can not complain of the united states on account of the annexation of texas it is to be regretted that serious causes of misunderstanding between the two countries continue to exist growing out of unredressed injuries inflicted by the mexican authorities and people on the persons and property of citizens of the united states through a long series of years mexico has admitted these injuries but has neglected and refused to repair them such was the character of the wrongs and such the insults repeatedly offered to american citizens and the american flag by mexico in palpable violation of the laws of nations and the treaty between the two countries of the 5th of april 1831 that they have been repeatedly brought to the notice of congress by my predecessors as early as the 6th of february 1837 the president of the united states declared in a message to congress that the length of time since some of the injuries have been committed the repeated and unavailing applications for redress the wanton character of some of the outrages upon the property and persons of our citizens upon the officers and flag of the united states independent of recent insults to this government and people by the late extraordinary mexican minister would justify in the eyes of all nations immediate war he did not however recommend an immediate resort to this extreme measure which he declared should not be used by just and generous nations confiding in their strength for injuries committed if it can be honorably avoided but in a spirit of forbearance proposed that another demand be made on mexico for that redress which had been so long and unjustly withheld in these views committees of the two houses of congress in reports made to their respective bodies concurred since these proceedings more than eight years have elapsed during which in addition to the wrongs then complained of others of an aggravated character have been committed on the persons and property of our citizens a special agent was sent to mexico in the summer of 1838 with full authority to make another and final demand for redress the demand was made the mexican government promised to repair the wrongs of which we complained and after much delay a treaty of indemnity with that view was concluded between the two powers on the 11th of april 1839 and was duly ratified by both governments by this treaty a joint commission was created to adjudicate and decide on the claims of american citizens on the government of mexico the commission was organized at washington on the 25th day of august 1840 their time was limited to eighteen months at the expiration of which they had adjudicated and decided claims amounting to in favor of citizens of the united states against the mexican government leaving a large amount of claims undecided of the latter the american commissioners had decided in favor of our citizens claims amounting to which were left unacted on by the umpire authorized by the treaty still further claims amounting to between three and four millions of dollars were submitted to the board too late to be considered and were left undisposed of the sum of decided by the board was a liquidated and ascertained debt due by mexico to the claimants and there was no justifiable reason for delaying its payment according to the terms of the treaty it was not however paid mexico applied for further indulgence and in that spirit of liberality and forbearance which has ever marked the policy of the united states toward that republic the request was granted and on the 30th of january 1843 a new treaty was concluded by this treaty it was provided that the interest due on the awards in favor of claimants under the convention of the 11th of april 1839 should be paid out the 30th of april 1843 and that the principal of the said awards and the interest accruing thereon shall be paid in five years in equal installments every three months the said term of five years to commence on the 30th day of april 1843 aforesaid the interest due on the 30th day of april 1843 and the three first of the twenty installments have been paid seventeen of these installments remain unpaid seven of which are now due the claims which were left undecided by the joint commission amounting to more than together with other claims for spoliations on the property of our citizens were subsequently presented to the mexican government for payment and were so far recognized that a treaty providing for their examination and settlement by a joint commission was concluded and signed at mexico on the 20th day of november 1843 this treaty was ratified by the united states with certain amendments to which no just exception could have been taken but it has not yet received the ratification of the mexican government in the meantime our citizens who suffered great losses and some of whom have been reduced from affluence to bankruptcy are without remedy unless their rights be enforced by their government such a continued and unprovoked series of wrongs could never have been tolerated by the united states had they been committed by one of the principal nations of europe mexico was however a neighboring sister republic which following our example had achieved her independence and for whose success and prosperity all our sympathies were early enlisted the united states were the first to recognize her independence and to receive her into the family of nations and have ever been desirous of cultivating with her a good understanding we have therefore borne the repeated wrongs she has committed with great patience in the hope that a returning sense of justice would ultimately guide her councils and that we might if possible honorably avoid any hostile collision with her without the previous authority of congress the executive possessed no power to adopt or enforce adequate remedies for the injuries we had suffered or to do more than to be prepared to repel the threatened aggression on the part of mexico after our army and navy had remained on the frontier and coasts of mexico for many weeks without any hostile movement on her part though her menaces were continued i deemed it important to put an end if possible to this state of things with this view i caused steps to be taken in the month of september last to ascertain distinctly and in an authentic form what the designs of the mexican government were whether it was their intention to declare war or invade texas or whether they were disposed to adjust and settle in an amicable manner the pending differences between the two countries on the 9th of november an official answer was received that the mexican government consented to renew the diplomatic relations which had been suspended in march last and for that purpose were willing to accredit a minister from the united states with a sincere desire to preserve peace and restore relations of good understanding between the two republics i waived all ceremony as to the manner of renewing diplomatic intercourse between them and assuming the initiative on the 10th of november a distinguished citizen of louisiana was appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to mexico clothed with full powers to adjust and definitively settle all pending differences between the two countries including those of boundary between mexico and the state of texas the minister appointed has set out on his mission and is probably by this time near the mexican capital he has been instructed to bring the negotiation with which he is charged to a conclusion at the earliest practicable period which it is expected will be in time to enable me to communicate the result to congress during the present session until that result is known i forbear to recommend to congress such ulterior measures of redress for the wrongs and injuries we have so long borne as it would have been proper to make had no such negotiation been instituted congress appropriated at the last session the sum of for the payment of the april and july installments of the mexican indemnities for the year 1844 provided it shall be ascertained to the satisfaction of the american government that said installments have been paid by the mexican government to the agent appointed by the united states to receive the same in such manner as to discharge all claim on the mexican government and said agent to be delinquent in remitting the money to the united states the unsettled state of our relations with mexico has involved this subject in much mystery the first information in an authentic form from the agent of the united states appointed under the administration of my predecessor was received at the state department on the 9th of november last this is contained in a letter dated the 17th of october addressed by him to one of our citizens then in mexico with a view of having it communicated to that department from this it appears that the agent on the 20th of september 1844 gave a receipt to the treasury of mexico for the amount of the april and july installments of the indemnity in the same communication however he asserts that he had not received a single dollar in cash but that he holds such securities as warranted him at the time in giving the receipt and entertains no doubt but that he will eventually obtain the money as these installments appear never to have been actually paid by the government of mexico to the agent and as that government has not therefore been released so as to discharge the claim i do not feel myself warranted in directing payment to be made to the claimants out of the treasury without further legislation their case is undoubtedly one of much hardship and it remains for congress to decide whether any and what relief ought to be granted to them our minister to mexico has been instructed to ascertain the facts of the case from the mexican government in an authentic and official form and report the result with as little delay as possible my attention was early directed to the negotiation which on the 4th of march last i found pending at washington between the united states and great britain on the subject of the oregon territory three several attempts had been previously made to settle the questions in dispute between the two countries by negotiation upon the principle of compromise but each had proved unsuccessful these negotiations took place at london in the years 1818 1824 and 1826 the two first under the administration of monroe and the last under that of adams the negotiation of 1818 having failed to accomplish its object resulted in the convention of the 20th of october of that year by the third article of that convention it was agreed that any country that may be claimed by either party on the northwest coast of america westward of the stony mountains shall together with its harbors bays and creeks and the navigation of all rivers within the same be free and open for the term of ten years from the date of the signature of the present convention to the vessels citizens and subjects of the two powers it being well understood that this agreement is not to be construed to the prejudice of any claim which either of the two high contracting parties may have to any part of the said country nor shall it be taken to affect the claims of any other power or state to any part of the said country the only object of the high contracting parties in that respect being to prevent disputes and differences amongst themselves the negotiation of 1824 was productive of no result and the convention of 1818 was left unchanged the negotiation of 1826 having also failed to effect an adjustment by compromise resulted in the convention of august 6 1827 by which it was agreed to continue in force for an indefinite period the provisions of the third article of the convention of the 20th of october 1818 and it was further provided that it shall be competent however to either of the contracting parties in case either should think fit at any time after the 20th of october 1828 on giving due notice of twelve months to the other contracting party to annul and abrogate this convention and it shall in such case be accordingly entirely annulled and abrogated after the expiration of the said term of notice in these attempts to adjust the controversy the parallel of the degree of north latitude had been offered by the united states to great britain and in those of 1818 and 1826 with a further concession of the free navigation of the columbia river south of that latitude the parallel of the degree from the rocky mountains to its intersection with the northeasternmost branch of the columbia and thence down the channel of that river to the sea had been offered by great britain with an addition of a small detached territory north of the columbia each of these propositions had been rejected by the parties respectively in october 1843 the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the united states in london was authorized to make a similar offer to those made in 1818 and 1826 thus stood the question when the negotiation was shortly afterwards transferred to washington and on the 23d of august 1844 was formally opened under the direction of my immediate predecessor like all the previous negotiations it was based upon principles of compromise and the avowed purpose of the parties was to treat of the respective claims of the two countries to the oregon territory with the view to establish a permanent boundary between them westward of the rocky mountains to the pacific ocean accordingly on the 26th of august 1844 the british plenipotentiary offered to divide the oregon territory by the parallel of north latitude from the rocky mountains to the point of its intersection with the northeasternmost branch of the columbia river and thence down that river to the sea leaving the free navigation of the river to be enjoyed in common by both parties the country south of this line to belong to the united states and that north of it to great britain at the same time he proposed in addition to yield to the united states a detached territory north of the columbia extending along the pacific and the straits of fuca from bulfinchs harbor inclusive to hoods canal and to make free to the united states any port or ports south of latitude which they might desire either on the mainland or on quadra and vancouvers island with the exception of the free ports this was the same offer which had been made by the british and rejected by the american government in the negotiation of 1826 this proposition was properly rejected by the american plenipotentiary on the day it was submitted this was the only proposition of compromise offered by the british plenipotentiary the proposition on the part of great britain having been rejected the british plenipotentiary requested that a proposal should be made by the united states for an equitable adjustment of the question when i came into office i found this to be the state of the negotiation though entertaining the settled conviction that the british pretensions of title could not be maintained to any portion of the oregon territory upon any principle of public law recognized by nations yet in deference to what had been done by my predecessors and especially in consideration that propositions of compromise had been thrice made by two preceding administrations to adjust the question on the parallel of and in two of them yielding to great britain the free navigation of the columbia and that the pending negotiation had been commenced on the basis of compromise i deemed it to be my duty not abruptly to break it off in consideration too that under the conventions of 1818 and 1827 the citizens and subjects of the two powers held a joint occupancy of the country i was induced to make another effort to settle this controversy in the spirit of moderation which had given birth to the renewed discussion a proposition was accordingly made which was rejected by the british plenipotentiary who without submitting any other proposition suffered the negotiation on his part to drop expressing his trust that the united states would offer what he saw fit to call some further proposal for the settlement of the oregon question more consistent with fairness and equity and with the reasonable expectations of the british government the proposition thus offered and rejected repeated the offer of the parallel of of north latitude which had been made by two preceding administrations but without proposing to surrender to great britain as they had done the free navigation of the columbia river the right of any foreign power to the free navigation of any of our rivers through the heart of our country was one which i was unwilling to concede it also embraced a provision to make free to great britain any port or ports on the cap of quadra and vancouvers island south of this parallel had this been a new question coming under discussion for the first time this proposition would not have been made the extraordinary and wholly inadmissible demands of the british government and the rejection of the proposition made in deference alone to what had been done by my predecessors and the implied obligation which their acts seemed to impose afford satisfactory evidence that no compromise which the united states ought to accept can be effected with this conviction the proposition of compromise which had been made and rejected was by my direction subsequently withdrawn and our title to the whole oregon territory asserted and as is believed maintained by irrefragable facts and arguments the civilized world will see in these proceedings a spirit of liberal concession on the part of the united states and this government will be relieved from all responsibility which may follow the failure to settle the controversy all attempts at compromise having failed it becomes the duty of congress to consider what measures it may be proper to adopt for the security and protection of our citizens now inhabiting or who may hereafter inhabit oregon and for the maintenance of our just title to that territory in adopting measures for this purpose care should be taken that nothing be done to violate the stipulations of the convention of 1827 which is still in force the faith of treaties in their letter and spirit has ever been and i trust will ever be scrupulously observed by the united states under that convention a year notice is required to be given by either party to the other before the joint occupancy shall terminate and before either can rightfully assert or exercise exclusive jurisdiction over any portion of the territory this notice it would in my judgment be proper to give and i recommend that provision be made by law for giving it accordingly and terminating in this manner the convention of the 6th of august 1827 it will become proper for congress to determine what legislation they can in the meantime adopt without violating this convention beyond all question the protection of our laws and our jurisdiction civil and criminal ought to be immediately extended over our citizens in oregon they have had just because to complain of our long neglect in this particular and have in consequence been compelled for their own security and protection to establish a provisional government for themselves strong in their allegiance and ardent in their attachment to the united states they have been thus cast upon their own resources they are anxious that our laws should be extended over them and i recommend that this be done by congress with as little delay as possible in the full extent to which the british parliament have proceeded in regard to british subjects in that territory by their act of july 2 1821 for regulating the fur trade and establishing a criminal and civil jurisdiction within certain parts of north america by this act great britain extended her laws and jurisdiction civil and criminal over her subjects engaged in the fur trade in that territory by it the courts of the province of upper canada were empowered to take cognizance of causes civil and criminal justices of the peace and other judicial officers were authorized to be appointed in oregon with power to execute all process issuing from the courts of that province and to sit and hold courts of record for the trial of criminal offenses and misdemeanors not made the subject of capital punishment and also of civil eases where the because of action shall not exceed in value the amount or sum of lbs 200 subsequent to the date of this act of parliament a grant was made from the british crown to the hudsons bay company of the exclusive trade with the indian tribes in the oregon territory subject to a reservation that it shall not operate to the exclusion of the subjects of any foreign states who under or by force of any convention for the time being between us and such foreign states respectively may be entitled to and shall be engaged in the said trade it is much to be regretted that while under this act british subjects have enjoyed the protection of british laws and british judicial tribunals throughout the whole of oregon american citizens in the same territory have enjoyed no such protection from their government at the same time the result illustrates the character of our people and their institutions in spite of this neglect they have multiplied and their number is rapidly increasing in that territory they have made no appeal to arms but have peacefully fortified themselves in their new homes by the adoption of republican institutions for themselves furnishing another example of the truth that is inherent in the american breast and must prevail it is due to them that they should be embraced and protected by our laws it is deemed important that our laws regulating trade and intercourse with the indian tribes east of the rocky mountains should be extended to such tribes as dwell beyond them the increasing emigration to oregon and the care and protection which is due from the government to its citizens in that distant region make it our duty as it is our interest to cultivate amicable relations with the indian tribes of that territory for this purpose i recommend that provision be made for establishing an indian agency and such subagencies as may be deemed necessary beyond the rocky mountains for the protection of emigrants whilst on their way to oregon against the attacks of the indian tribes occupying the country through which they pass i recommend that a suitable number of stockades and blockhouse forts be erected along the usual route between our frontier settlements on the missouri and the rocky mountains and that an adequate force of mounted riflemen be raised to guard and protect them on their journey the immediate adoption of these recommendations by congress will not violate the provisions of the existing treaty it will be doing nothing more for american citizens than british laws have long since done for british subjects in the same territory it requires several months to perform the voyage by sea from the atlantic states to oregon and although we have a large number of whale ships in the pacific but few of them afford an opportunity of interchanging intelligence without great delay between our settlements in that distant region and the united states an overland mail is believed to be entirely practicable and the importance of establishing such a mail at least once a month is submitted to the favorable consideration of congress it is submitted to the wisdom of congress to determine whether at their present session and until after the expiration of the year notice any other measures may be adopted consistently with the convention of 1827 for the security of our rights and the government and protection of our citizens in oregon that it will ultimately be wise and proper to make liberal grants of land to the patriotic pioneers who amidst privations and dangers lead the way through savage tribes inhabiting the vast wilderness intervening between our frontier settlements and oregon and who cultivate and are ever ready to defend the soil i am fully satisfied to doubt whether they will obtain such grants as soon as the convention between the united states and great britain shall have ceased to exist would be to doubt the justice of congress but pending the year notice it is worthy of consideration whether a stipulation to this effect may be made consistently with the spirit of that convention the recommendations which i have made as to the best manner of securing our rights in oregon are submitted to congress with great deference should they in their wisdom devise any other mode better calculated to accomplish the same object it shall meet with my hearty concurrence at the end of the year notice should congress think it proper to make provision for giving that notice we shall have reached a period when the national rights in oregon must either be abandoned or firmly maintained that they can not be abandoned without a sacrifice of both national honor and interest is too clear to admit of doubt oregon is a part of the north american continent to which it is confidently affirmed the title of the united states is the best now in existence for the grounds on which that title rests i refer you to the correspondence of the late and present secretary of state with the british plenipotentiary during the negotiation the british proposition of compromise which would make the columbia the line south of with a trifling addition of detached territory to the united states north of that river and would leave on the british side of the whole oregon territory including the free navigation of the columbia and all the valuable harbors on the pacific can never for a moment be entertained by the united states without an abandonment of their just and dear territorial rights their own and the national honor for the information of congress i communicate herewith the correspondence which took place between the two governments during the late negotiation the rapid extension of our settlements over our territories heretofore unoccupied the addition of new states to our confederacy the expansion of free principles and our rising greatness as a nation are attracting the attention of the powers of europe and lately the doctrine has been broached in some of them of a balance of power on this continent to check our advancement the united states sincerely desirous of preserving relations of good understanding with all nations can not in silence permit any european interference on the north american continent and should any such interference be attempted will be ready to resist it at any and all hazards it is well known to the american people and to all nations that this government has never interfered with the relations subsisting between other governments we have never made ourselves parties to their wars or their alliances we have not sought their territories by conquest we have not mingled with parties in their domestic struggles and believing our own form of government to be the best we have never attempted to propagate it by intrigues by diplomacy or by force we may claim on this continent a like exemption from european interference the nations of america are equally sovereign and independent with those of europe they possess the same rights independent of all foreign interposition to make war to conclude peace and to regulate their internal affairs the people of the united states can not therefore view with indifference attempts of european powers to interfere with the independent action of the nations on this continent the american system of government is entirely different from that of europe jealousy among the different sovereigns of europe lest any one of them might become too powerful for the rest has caused them anxiously to desire the establishment of what they term the balance of power it can not be permitted to have any application on the north american continent and especially to the united states we must ever maintain the principle that the people of this continent alone have the right to decide their own destiny should any portion of them constituting an independent state propose to unite themselves with our confederacy this will be a question for them and us to determine without any foreign interposition we can never consent that european powers shall interfere to prevent such a union because it might disturb the balance of power which they may desire to maintain upon this continent near a quarter of a century ago the principle was distinctly announced to the world in the annual message of one of my predecessors that the american continents by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for colonization by any european powers this principle will apply with greatly increased force should any european power attempt to establish any new colony in north america in the existing circumstances of the world the present is deemed a proper occasion to reiterate and reaffirm the principle avowed by monroe and to state my cordial concurrence in its wisdom and sound policy the reassertion of this principle especially in reference to north america is at this day but the promulgation of a policy which no european power should cherish the disposition to resist existing rights of every european nation should be respected but it is due alike to our safety and our interests that the efficient protection of our laws should be extended over our whole territorial limits and that it should be distinctly announced to the world as our settled policy that no future european colony or dominion shall with our consent be planted or established on any part of the north american continent a question has recently arisen under the tenth article of the subsisting treaty between the united states and prussia by this article the consuls of the two countries have the right to sit as judges and arbitrators in such differences as may arise between the captains and crews of the vessels belonging to the nation whose interests are committed to their charge without the interference of the local authorities unless the conduct of the crews or of the captain should disturb the order or tranquillity of the country or the said consuls should require their assistance to because their decisions to be carried into effect or supported the prussian consul at new bedford in june 1844 applied to justice story to carry into effect a decision made by him between the captain and crew of the prussian ship borussia but the request was refused on the ground that without previous legislation by congress the judiciary did not possess the power to give effect to this article of the treaty the prussian government through their minister here have complained of this violation of the treaty and have asked the government of the united states to adopt the necessary measures to prevent similar violations hereafter good faith to prussia as well as to other nations with whom we have similar treaty stipulations requires that these should be faithfully observed i have deemed it proper therefore to lay the subject before congress and to recommend such legislation as may be necessary to give effect to these treaty obligations by virtue of an arrangement made between the spanish government and that of the united states in december 1831 american vessels since the 29th of april 1832 have been admitted to entry in the ports of spain including those of the balearic and canary islands on payment of the same tonnage duty of 5 cents per ton as though they had been spanish vessels and this whether our vessels arrive in spain directly from the united states or indirectly from any other country when congress by the act of 13th july 1832 gave effect to this arrangement between the two governments they confined the reduction of tonnage duty merely to spanish vessels coming from a port in spain leaving the former discriminating duty to remain against such vessels coming from a port in any other country it is manifestly unjust that whilst american vessels arriving in the ports of spain from other countries pay no more duty than spanish vessels spanish vessels arriving in the ports of the united states from other countries should be subjected to heavy discriminating tonnage duties this is neither equality nor reciprocity and is in violation of the arrangement concluded in december 1831 between the two countries the spanish government have made repeated and earnest remonstrances against this inequality and the favorable attention of congress has been several times invoked to the subject by my predecessors i recommend as an act of justice to spain that this inequality be removed by congress and that the discriminating duties which have been levied under the act of the 13th of july 1832 on spanish vessels coming to the united states from any other foreign country be refunded this recommendation does not embrace spanish vessels arriving in the united states from cuba and porto rico which will still remain subject to the provisions of the act of june 30 1834 concerning tonnage duty on such vessels by the act of the 14th of july 1832 coffee was exempted from duty altogether this exemption was universal without reference to the country where it was produced or the national character of the vessel in which it was imported by the tariff act of the 30th of august 1842 this exemption from duty was restricted to coffee imported in american vessels from the place of its production whilst coffee imported under all other circumstances was subjected to a duty of 20 per cent ad valorem under this act and our existing treaty with the king of the netherlands java coffee imported from the european ports of that kingdom into the united states whether in dutch or american vessels now pays this rate of duty the government of the netherlands complains that such a discriminating duty should have been imposed on coffee the production of one of its colonies and which is chiefly brought from java to the ports of that kingdom and exported from thence to foreign countries our trade with the netherlands is highly beneficial to both countries and our relations with them have ever been of the most friendly character under all the circumstances of the case i recommend that this discrimination should be abolished and that the coffee of java imported from the netherlands be placed upon the same footing with that imported directly from brazil and other countries where it is produced under the eighth section of the tariff act of the 30th of august 1842 a duty of 15 cents per gallon was imposed on port wine in casks while on the red wines of several other countries when imported in casks a duty of only 6 cents per gallon was imposed this discrimination so far as regarded the port wine of portugal was deemed a violation of our treaty with that power which provides that no higher or other duties shall be imposed on the importation into the united states of america of any article the growth produce or manufacture of the kingdom and possessions of portugal than such as are or shall be payable on the like article being the growth produce or manufacture of any other foreign country accordingly to give effect to the treaty as well as to the intention of congress expressed in a proviso to the tariff act itself that nothing therein contained should be so construed as to interfere with subsisting treaties with foreign nations a treasury circular was issued on the 16th of july 1844 which among other things declared the duty on the port wine of portugal in casks under the existing laws and treaty to be 6 cents per gallon and directed that the excess of duties which had been collected on such wine should be refunded by virtue of another clause in the same section of the act it is provided that all imitations of port or any other wines shall be subject to the duty provided for the genuine article imitations of port wine the production of france are imported to some extent into the united states and the government of that country now claims that under a correct construction of the act these imitations ought not to pay a higher duty than that imposed upon the original port wine of portugal it appears to me to be unequal and unjust that french imitations of port wine should be subjected to a duty of 15 cents while the more valuable article from portugal should pay a duty of 6 cents only per gallon i therefore recommend to congress such legislation as may be necessary to correct the inequality the late president in his annual message of december last recommended an appropriation to satisfy the claims of the texan government against the united states which had been previously adjusted so far as the powers of the executive extend these claims arose out of the act of disarming a body of texan troops under the command of major snively by an officer in the service of the united states acting under the orders of our government and the forcible entry into the at bryarlys landing on red river by certain citizens of the united states and taking away therefrom the goods seized by the collector of the customs as forfeited under the laws of texas this was a liquidated debt ascertained to be due to texas when an independent state her acceptance of the terms of annexation proposed by the united states does not discharge or invalidate the claim i recommend that provision be made for its payment the commissioner appointed to china during the special session of the senate in march last shortly afterwards set out on his mission in the united states ship columbus on arriving at rio de janeiro on his passage the state of his health had become so critical that by the advice of his medical attendants he returned to the united states early in the month of october last commodore biddle commanding the east india squadron proceeded on his voyage in the columbus and was charged by the commissioner with the duty of exchanging with the proper authorities the ratifications of the treaty lately concluded with the emperor of china since the return of the commissioner to the united states his health has been much improved and he entertains the confident belief that he will soon be able to proceed on his mission unfortunately differences continue to exist among some of the nations of south america which following our example have established their independence while in others internal dissensions prevail it is natural that our sympathies should be warmly enlisted for their welfare that we should desire that all controversies between them should be amicably adjusted and their governments administered in a manner to protect the rights and promote the prosperity of their people it is contrary however to our settled policy to interfere in their controversies whether external or internal i have thus adverted to all the subjects connected with our foreign relations to which i deem it necessary to call your attention our policy is not only peace with all but good will toward all the powers of the earth while we are just to all we require that all shall be just to us excepting the differences with mexico and great britain our relations with all civilized nations are of the most satisfactory character it is hoped that in this enlightened age these differences may be amicably adjusted the secretary of the treasury in his annual report to congress will communicate a full statement of the condition of our finances the imports for the fiscal year ending on the 30th of june last were of the value of of which the amount exported was leaving a balance of for domestic consumption the exports for the same year were of the value of of which the amount of domestic articles was the receipts into the treasury during the same year were of which there were derived from customs from sales of public lands and from incidental and miscellaneous sources the expenditures for the same period were of which were applied to the payment of the public debt the balance in the treasury on the 1st of july last was the amount of the public debt remaining unpaid on the 1st of october last was further payments of the public debt would have been made in anticipation of the period of its reimbursement under the authority conferred upon the secretary of the treasury by the acts of july 21 1841 and of april 15 1842 and march 3 1843 had not the unsettled state of our relations with mexico menaced hostile collision with that power in view of such a contingency it was deemed prudent to retain in the treasury an amount unusually large for ordinary purposes a few years ago our whole national debt growing out of the revolution and the war of 1812 with great britain was extinguished and we presented to the world the rare and noble spectacle of a great and growing people who had fully discharged every obligation since that time the existing debt has been contracted and small as it is in comparison with the similar burdens of most other nations it should be extinguished at the earliest practicable period should the state of the country permit and especially if our foreign relations interpose no obstacle it is contemplated to apply all the moneys in the treasury as they accrue beyond what is required for the appropriations by congress to its liquidation i cherish the hope of soon being able to congratulate the country on its recovering once more the lofty position which it so recently occupied our country which exhibits to the world the benefits of in developing all the sources of national prosperity owes to mankind the permanent example of a nation free from the blighting influence of a public debt the attention of congress is invited to the importance of making suitable modifications and reductions of the rates of duty imposed by our present tariff laws the object of imposing duties on imports should be to raise revenue to pay the necessary expenses of government congress may undoubtedly in the exercise of a sound discretion discriminate in arranging the rates of duty on different articles but the discriminations should be within the revenue standard and be made with the view to raise money for the support of government it becomes important to understand distinctly what is meant by a revenue standard the maximum of which should not be exceeded in the rates of duty imposed it is conceded and experience proves that duties may be laid so high as to diminish or prohibit altogether the importation of any given article and thereby lessen or destroy the revenue which at lower rates would be derived from its importation such duties exceed the revenue rates and are not imposed to raise money for the support of government if congress levy a duty for revenue of 1 per cent on a given article it will produce a given amount of money to the treasury and will incidentally and necessarily afford protection or advantage to the amount of 1 per cent to the home manufacturer of a similar or like article over the importer if the duty be raised to 10 per cent it will produce a greater amount of money and afford greater protection if it be still raised to 20 25 or 30 per cent and if as it is raised the revenue derived from it is found to be increased the protection or advantage will also be increased but if it be raised to 31 per cent and it is found that the revenue produced at that rate is less than at 30 per cent it ceases to be a revenue duty the precise point in the ascending scale of duties at which it is ascertained from experience that the revenue is greatest is the maximum rate of duty which can be laid for the bona fide purpose of collecting money for the support of government to raise the duties higher than that point and thereby diminish the amount collected is to levy them for protection merely and not for revenue as long then as congress may gradually increase the rate of duty on a given article and the revenue is increased by such increase of duty they are within the revenue standard when they go beyond that point and as they increase the duties the revenue is diminished or destroyed the act ceases to have for its object the raising of money to support government but is for protection merely it does not follow that congress should levy the highest duty on all articles of import which they will bear within the revenue standard for such rates would probably produce a much larger amount than the economical administration of the government would require nor does it follow that the duties on all articles should be at the same or a horizontal rate some articles will bear a much higher revenue duty than others below the maximum of the revenue standard congress may and ought to discriminate in the rates imposed taking care so to adjust them on different articles as to produce in the aggregate the amount which when added to the proceeds of the sales of public lands may be needed to pay the economical expenses of the government in levying a tariff of duties congress exercise the taxing power and for purposes of revenue may select the objects of taxation they may exempt certain articles altogether and permit their importation free of duty on others they may impose low duties in these classes should be embraced such articles of necessity as are in general use and especially such as are consumed by the laborer and poor as well as by the wealthy citizen care should be taken that all the great interests of the country including manufactures agriculture commerce navigation and the mechanic arts should as far as may be practicable derive equal advantages from the incidental protection which a just system of revenue duties may afford taxation direct or indirect is a burden and it should be so imposed as to operate as equally as may be on all classes in the proportion of their ability to bear it to make the taxing power an actual benefit to one class necessarily increases the burden of the others beyond their proportion and would be manifestly unjust the terms protection to domestic industry are of popular import but they should apply under a just system to all the various branches of industry in our country the farmer or planter who toils yearly in his fields is engaged in domestic industry and is as much entitled to have his labor protected as the manufacturer the man of commerce the navigator or the mechanic who are engaged also in domestic industry in their different pursuits the joint labors of all these classes constitute the aggregate of the domestic industry of the nation and they are equally entitled to the nation protection no one of them can justly claim to be the exclusive recipient of protection which can only be afforded by increasing burdens on the domestic industry of the others if these views be correct it remains to inquire how far the tariff act of 1842 is consistent with them that many of the provisions of that act are in violation of the cardinal principles here laid down all must concede the rates of duty imposed by it on some articles are prohibitory and on others so high as greatly to diminish importations and to produce a less amount of revenue than would be derived from lower rates they operate as protection merely to one branch of domestic industry by taxing other branches by the introduction of minimums or assumed and false values and by the imposition of specific duties the injustice and inequality of the act of 1842 in its practical operations on different classes and pursuits are seen and felt many of the oppressive duties imposed by it under the operation of these principles range from 1 per cent to more than 200 per cent they are prohibitory on some articles and partially so on others and bear most heavily on articles of common necessity and but lightly on articles of luxury it is so framed that much the greatest burden which it imposes is thrown on labor and the poorer classes who are least able to bear it while it protects capital and exempts the rich from paying their just proportion of the taxation required for the support of government while it protects the capital of the wealthy manufacturer and increases his profits it does not benefit the operatives or laborers in his employment whose wages have not been increased by it articles of prime necessity or of coarse quality and low price used by the masses of the people are in many instances subjected by it to heavy taxes while articles of finer quality and higher price or of luxury which can be used only by the opulent are lightly taxed it imposes heavy and unjust burdens on the farmer the planter the commercial man and those of all other pursuits except the capitalist who has made his investments in manufactures all the great interests of the country are not as nearly as may be practicable equally protected by it the government in theory knows no distinction of persons or classes and should not bestow upon some favors and privileges which all others may not enjoy it was the purpose of its illustrious founders to base the institutions which they reared upon the great and unchanging principles of justice and equity conscious that if administered in the spirit in which they were conceived they would be felt only by the benefits which they diffused and would secure for themselves a defense in the hearts of the people more powerful than standing armies and all the means and appliances invented to sustain governments founded in injustice and oppression the fact that the tariff act of 1842 was passed by a majority of one vote in the senate and two in the house of representatives and that some of those who felt themselves constrained under the peculiar circumstances existing at the time to vote in its favor proclaimed its defects and expressed their determination to aid in its modification on the first opportunity affords strong and conclusive evidence that it was not intended to be permanent and of the expediency and necessity of its thorough revision in recommending to congress a reduction of the present rates of duty and a revision and modification of the act of 1842 i am far from entertaining opinions unfriendly to the manufacturers on the contrary i desire to see them prosperous as far as they can be so without imposing unequal burdens on other interests the advantage under any system of indirect taxation even within the revenue standard must be in favor of the manufacturing interest and of this no other interest will complain i recommend to congress the abolition of the minimum principle or assumed arbitrary and false values and of specific duties and the substitution in their place of ad valorem duties as the fairest and most equitable indirect tax which can be imposed by the ad valorem principle all articles are taxed according to their cost or value and those which are of inferior quality or of small cost bear only the just proportion of the tax with those which are of superior quality or greater cost the articles consumed by all are taxed at the same rate a system of ad valorem revenue duties with proper discriminations and proper guards against frauds in collecting them it is not doubted will afford ample incidental advantages to the manufacturers and enable them to derive as great profits as can be derived from any other regular business it is believed that such a system strictly within the revenue standard will place the manufacturing interests on a stable footing and inure to their permanent advantage while it will as nearly as may be practicable extend to all the great interests of the country the incidental protection which can be afforded by our revenue laws such a system when once firmly established would be permanent and not be subject to the constant complaints agitations and changes which must ever occur when duties are not laid for revenue but for the protection merely of a favored interest in the deliberations of congress on this subject it is hoped that a spirit of mutual concession and compromise between conflicting interests may prevail and that the result of their labors may be crowned with the happiest consequences by the constitution of the united states it is provided that no money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law a public treasury was undoubtedly contemplated and intended to be created in which the public money should be kept from the period of collection until needed for public uses in the collection and disbursement of the public money no agencies have ever been employed by law except such as were appointed by the government directly responsible to it and under its control the of the public money should be confided to a public treasury created by law and under like responsibility and control it is not to be imagined that the framers of the constitution could have intended that a treasury should be created as a place of deposit and of the public money which was irresponsible to the government the first congress under the constitution by the act of the 2d of september 1789 to establish the treasury department provided for the appointment of a treasurer and made it his duty to receive and keep the moneys of the united states and at all times to submit to the secretary of the treasury and the comptroller or either of them the inspection of the moneys in his hands that banks national or state could not have been intended to be used as a substitute for the treasury spoken of in the constitution as keepers of the public money is manifest from the fact that at that time there was no national bank and but three or four state banks of limited capital existed in the country their employment as depositories was at first resorted to to a limited extent but with no avowed intention of continuing them permanently in place of the treasury of the constitution when they were afterwards from time to time employed it was from motives of supposed convenience our experience has shown that when banking corporations have been the keepers of the public money and been thereby made in effect the treasury the government can have no guaranty that it can command the use of its own money for public purposes the late bank of the united states proved to be faithless the state banks which were afterwards employed were faithless but a few years ago with millions of public money in their keeping the government was brought almost to bankruptcy and the public credit seriously impaired because of their inability or indisposition to pay on demand to the public creditors in the only currency recognized by the constitution their failure occurred in a period of peace and great inconvenience and loss were suffered by the public from it had the country been involved in a foreign war that inconvenience and loss would have been much greater and might have resulted in extreme public calamity the public money should not be mingled with the private funds of banks or individuals or be used for private purposes when it is placed in banks for it is in effect loaned to them without interest and is loaned by them upon interest to the borrowers from them the public money is converted into banking capital and is used and loaned out for the private profit of bank stockholders and when called for as was the case in 1837 it may be in the pockets of the borrowers from the banks instead of being in the public treasury contemplated by the constitution the framers of the constitution could never have intended that the money paid into the treasury should be thus converted to private use and placed beyond the control of the government banks which hold the public money are often tempted by a desire of gain to extend their loans increase their circulation and thus stimulate if not produce a spirit of speculation and extravagance which sooner or later must result in ruin to thousands if the public money be not permitted to be thus used but be kept in the treasure and paid out to the public creditors in gold and silver the temptation afforded by its deposit with banks to an undue expansion of their business would be checked while the amount of the constitutional currency left in circulation would be enlarged by its employment in the public collections and disbursements and the banks themselves would in consequence be found in a safer and sounder condition at present state banks are employed as depositories but without adequate regulation of law whereby the public money can be secured against the casualties and excesses revulsions suspensions and defalcations to which from overissues overtrading an inordinate desire for gain or other causes they are constantly exposed the secretary of the treasury has in all cases when it was practicable taken collateral security for the amount which they hold by the pledge of stocks of the united states or such of the states as were in good credit some of the deposit banks have given this description of security and others have declined to do so entertaining the opinion that the separation of the moneys of the government from banking institutions is indispensable for the safety of the funds of the government and the rights of the people i recommend to congress that provision be made by law for such separation and that a constitutional treasury be created for the of the public money the constitutional treasury recommended is designed as a secure depository for the public money without any power to make loans or discounts or to issue any paper whatever as a currency or circulation i can not doubt that such a treasury as was contemplated by the constitution should be independent of all banking corporations the money of the people should be kept in the treasury of the people created by law and be in the custody of agents of the people chosen by themselves according to the forms of the constitution agents who are directly responsible to the government who are under adequate bonds and oaths and who are subject to severe punishments for any embezzlement private use or misapplication of the public funds and for any failure in other respects to perform their duties to say that the people or their government are incompetent or not to be trusted with the custody of their own money in their own treasury provided by themselves but must rely on the presidents cashiers and stockholders of banking corporations not appointed by them nor responsible to them would be to concede that they are incompetent for in recommending the establishment of a constitutional treasury in which the public money shall be kept i desire that adequate provision be made by law for its safety and that all executive discretion or control over it shall be removed except such as may be necessary in directing its disbursement in pursuance of appropriations made by law under our present land system limiting the minimum price at which the public lands can be entered to per acre large quantities of lands of inferior quality remain unsold because they will not command that price from the records of the general land office it appears that of the public lands remaining unsold in the several states and territories in which they are situated acres have been in the market subject to entry more than twenty years acres for more than fifteen years acres for more than ten years and acres for more than five years much the largest portion of these lands will continue to be unsalable at the minimum price at which they are permitted to be sold so long as large territories of lands from which the more valuable portions have not been selected are annually brought into market by the government with the view to the sale and settlement of these inferior lands i recommend that the price be graduated and reduced below the present minimum rate confining the sales at the reduced prices to settlers and cultivators in limited quantities if graduated and reduced in price for a limited term to 1 per acre and after the expiration of that period for a second and third term to lower rates a large portion of these lands would be purchased and many worthy citizens who are unable to pay higher rates could purchase homes for themselves and their families by adopting the policy of graduation and reduction of price these inferior lands will be sold for their real value while the states in which they lie will be freed from the inconvenience if not injustice to which they are subjected in consequence of the united states continuing to own large quantities of the public lands within their borders not liable to taxation for the support of their local governments i recommend the continuance of the policy of granting preemptions in its most liberal extent to all those who have settled or may hereafter settle on the public lands whether surveyed or unsurveyed to which the indian title may have been extinguished at the time of settlement it has been found by experience that in consequence of combinations of purchasers and other causes a very small quantity of the public lands when sold at public auction commands a higher price than the minimum rates established by law the settlers on the public lands are however but rarely able to secure their homes and improvements at the public sales at that rate because these combinations by means of the capital they command and their superior ability to purchase render it impossible for the settler to compete with them in the market by putting down all competition these combinations of capitalists and speculators are usually enabled to purchase the lands including the improvements of the settlers at the minimum price of the government and either turn them out of their homes or extort from them according to their ability to pay double or quadruple the amount paid for them to the government it is to the enterprise and perseverance of the hardy pioneers of the west who penetrate the wilderness with their families suffer the dangers the privations and hardships attending the settlement of a new country and prepare the way for the body of emigrants who in the course of a few years usually follow them that we are in a great degree indebted for the rapid extension and aggrandizement of our country experience has proved that no portion of our population are more patriotic than the hardy and brave men of the frontier or more ready to obey the call of their country and to defend her rights and her honor whenever and by whatever enemy assailed they should be protected from the grasping speculator and secured at the minimum price of the public lands in the humble homes which they have improved by their labor with this end in view all vexatious or unnecessary restrictions imposed upon them by the existing preemption laws should be repealed or modified it is the true policy of the government to afford facilities to its citizens to become the owners of small portions of our vast public domain at low and moderate rates the present system of managing the mineral lands of the united states is believed to be radically defective more than acres of the public lands supposed to contain lead and other minerals have been reserved from sale and numerous leases upon them have been granted to individuals upon a stipulated rent the system of granting leases has proved to be not only unprofitable to the government but unsatisfactory to the citizens who have gone upon the lands and must if continued lay the foundation of much future difficulty between the government and the lessees according to the official records the amount of rents received by the government for the years 1841 1842 1843 and 1844 was while the expenses of the system during the same period including salaries of superintendents agents clerks and incidental expenses were the income being less than of the expenses to this pecuniary loss may be added the injury sustained by the public in consequence of the destruction of timber and the careless and wasteful manner of working the mines the system has given rise to much litigation between the united states and individual citizens producing irritation and excitement in the mineral region and involving the government in heavy additional expenditures it is believed that similar losses and embarrassments will continue to occur while the present system of leasing these lands remains unchanged these lands are now under the superintendence and care of the war department with the ordinary duties of which they have no proper or natural connection i recommend the repeal of the present system and that these lands be placed under the superintendence and management of the general land office as other public lands and be brought into market and sold upon such terms as congress in their wisdom may prescribe reserving to the government an equitable percentage of the gross amount of mineral product and that the preemption principle be extended to resident miners and settlers upon them at the minimum price which may be established by congress i refer you to the accompanying report of the secretary of war for information respecting the present situation of the army and its operations during the past year the state of our defenses the condition of the public works and our relations with the various indian tribes within our limits or upon our borders i invite your attention to the suggestions contained in that report in relation to these prominent objects of national interest when orders were given during the past summer for concentrating a military force on the western frontier of texas our troops were widely dispersed and in small detachments occupying posts remote from each other the prompt and expeditious manner in which an army embracing more than half our peace establishment was drawn together on an emergency so sudden reflects great credit on the officers who were intrusted with the execution of these orders as well as upon the discipline of the army itself to be in strength to protect and defend the people and territory of texas in the event mexico should commence hostilities or invade her territories with a large army which she threatened i authorized the general assigned to the command of the army of occupation to make requisitions for additional forces from several of the states nearest the texan territory and which could most expeditiously furnish them if in his opinion a larger force than that under his command and the auxiliary aid which under like circumstances he was authorized to receive from texas should be required the contingency upon which the exercise of this authority depended has not occurred the circumstances under which two companies of state artillery from the city of new orleans were sent into texas and mustered into the service of the united states are fully stated in the report of the secretary of war i recommend to congress that provision be made for the payment of these troops as well as a small number of texan volunteers whom the commanding general thought it necessary to receive or muster into our service during the last summer the first regiment of dragoons made extensive excursions through the indian country on our borders a part of them advancing nearly to the possessions of the hudsons bay company in the north and a part as far as the south pass of the rocky mountains and the head waters of the tributary streams of the colorado of the west the exhibition of this military force among the indian tribes in those distant regions and the councils held with them by the commanders of the expeditions it is believed will have a salutary influence in restraining them from hostilities among themselves and maintaining friendly relations between them and the united states an interesting account of one of these excursions accompanies the report of the secretary of war under the directions of the war department brevet captain fremont of the corps of topographical engineers has been employed since 1842 in exploring the country west of the mississippi and beyond the rocky mountains two expeditions have already been brought to a close and the reports of that scientific and enterprising officer have furnished much interesting and valuable information he is now engaged in a third expedition but it is not expected that this arduous service will be completed in season to enable me to communicate the result to congress at the present session our relations with the indian tribes are of a favorable character the policy of removing them to a country designed for their permanent residence west of the mississippi and without the limits of the organized states and territories is better appreciated by them than it was a few years ago while education is now attended to and the habits of civilized life are gaining ground among them serious difficulties of long standing continue to distract the several parties into which the cherokees are unhappily divided the efforts of the government to adjust the difficulties between them have heretofore proved unsuccessful and there remains no probability that this desirable object can be accomplished without the aid of further legislation by congress i will at an early period of your session present the subject for your consideration accompanied with an exposition of the complaints and claims of the several parties into which the nation is divided with a view to the adoption of such measures by congress as may enable the executive to do justice to them respectively and to put an end if possible to the dissensions which have long prevailed and still prevail among them i refer you to the report of the secretary of the navy for the present condition of that branch of the national defense and for grave suggestions having for their object the increase of its efficiency and a greater economy in its management during the past year the officers and men have performed their duty in a satisfactory manner the orders which have been given have been executed with promptness and fidelity a larger force than has often formed one squadron under our flag was readily concentrated in the gulf of mexico and apparently without unusual effort it is especially to be observed that notwithstanding the union of so considerable a force no act was committed that even the jealousy of an irritated power could construe as an act of aggression and that the commander of the squadron and his officers in strict conformity with their instructions holding themselves ever ready for the most active duty have achieved the still purer glory of contributing to the preservation of peace it is believed that at all our foreign stations the honor of our flag has been maintained and that generally our ships of war have been distinguished for their good discipline and order i am happy to add that the display of maritime force which was required by the events of the summer has been made wholly within the usual appropriations for the service of the year so that no additional appropriations are required the commerce of the united states and with it the navigating interests have steadily and rapidly increased since the organization of our government until it is believed we are now second to but one power in the world and at no distant day we shall probably be inferior to none exposed as they must be it has been a wise policy to afford to these important interests protection with our ships of war distributed in the great highways of trade throughout the world for more than thirty years appropriations have been made and annually expended for the gradual increase of our naval forces in peace our navy performs the important duty of protecting our commerce and in the event of war will be as it has been a most efficient means of defense the successful use of steam navigation on the ocean has been followed by the introduction of war steamers in great and increasing numbers into the navies of the principal maritime powers of the world a due regard to our own safety and to an efficient protection to our large and increasing commerce demands a corresponding increase on our part no country has greater facilities for the construction of vessels of this description than ours or can promise itself greater advantages from their employment they are admirably adapted to the protection of our commerce to the rapid transmission of intelligence and to the coast defense in pursuahce of the wise policy of a gradual increase of our navy large supplies of timber and other materials for shipbuilding have been collected and are now under shelter and in a state of good preservation while iron steamers can be built with great facility in various parts of the union the use of iron as a material especially in the construction of steamers which can enter with safety many of the harbors along our coast now inaccessible to vessels of greater draft and the practicability of constructing them in the interior strongly recommend that liberal appropriations should be made for this important object whatever may have been our policy in the earlier stages of the government when the nation was in its infancy our shipping interests and commerce comparatively small our resources limited our population sparse and scarcely extending beyond the limits of the original thirteen states that policy must be essentially different now that we have grown from three to more than twenty millions of people that our commerce carried in our own ships is found in every sea and that our territorial boundaries and settlements have been so greatly expanded neither our commerce nor our long line of coast on the ocean and on the lakes can be successfully defended against foreign aggression by means of fortifications alone these are essential at important commercial and military points but our chief reliance for this object must be on a efficient navy the benefits resulting from such a navy are not confined to the atlantic states the productions of the interior which seek a market abroad are directly dependent on the safety and freedom of our commerce the occupation of the balize below new orleans by a hostile force would embarrass if not stagnate the whole export trade of the mississippi and affect the value of the agricultural products of the entire valley of that mighty river and its tributaries it has never been our policy to maintain large standing armies in time of peace they are contrary to the genius of our free institutions would impose heavy burdens on the people and be dangerous to public liberty our reliance for protection and defense on the land must be mainly on our citizen soldiers who will be ever ready as they ever have been ready in times past to rush with alacrity at the call of their country to her defense this description of force however can not defend our coast harbors and inland seas nor protect our commerce on the ocean or the lakes these must be protected by our navy considering an increased naval force and especially of steam vessels corresponding with our growth and importance as a nation and proportioned to the increased and increasing naval power of other nations of vast importance as regards our safety and the great and growing interests to be protected by it i recommend the subject to the favorable consideration of congress the report of the herewith communicated contains a detailed statement of the operations of his department during the pass year it will be seen that the income from postages will fall short of the expenditures for the year between and this deficiency has been caused by the reduction of the rates of postage which was made by the act of the 3d of march last no principle has been more generally acquiesced in by the people than that this department should sustain itself by limiting its expenditures to its income congress has never sought to make it a source of revenue for general purposes except for a short period during the last war with great britain nor should it ever become a charge on the general treasury if congress shall adhere to this principle as i think they ought it will be necessary either to curtail the present mail service so as to reduce the expenditures or so to modify the act of the 3d of march last as to improve its revenues the extension of the mail service and the additional facilities which will be demanded by the rapid extension and increase of population on our western frontier will not admit of such curtailment as will materially reduce the present expenditures in the adjustment of the tariff of postages the interests of the people demand that the lowest rates be adopted which will produce the necessary revenue to meet the expenditures of the department i invite the attention of congress to the suggestions of the on this subject under the belief that such a modification of the late law may be made as will yield sufficient revenue without further calls on the treasury and with very little change in the present rates of postage proper measures have been taken in pursuance of the act of the 3d of march last for the establishment of lines of mail steamers between this and foreign countries the importance of this service commends itself strongly to favorable consideration with the growth of our country the public business which devolves on the heads of the several executive departments has greatly increased in some respects the distribution of duties among them seems to be incongruous and many of these might be transferred from one to another with advantage to the public interests a more auspicious time for the consideration of this subject by congress with a view to system in the organization of the several departments and a more appropriate division of the public business will not probably occur the most important duties of the state department relate to our foreign affairs by the great enlargement of the family of nations the increase of our commerce and the corresponding extension of our consular system the business of this department has been greatly increased in its present organization many duties of a domestic nature and consisting of details are devolved on the secretary of state which do not appropriately belong to the foreign department of the government and may properly be transferred to some other department one of these grows out of the present state of the law concerning the patent office which a few years since was a subordinate clerkship but has become a distinct bureau of great importance with an excellent internal organization it is still connected with the state department in the transaction of its business questions of much importance to inventors and to the community frequently arise which by existing laws are referred for decision to a board of which the secretary of state is a member these questions are legal and the connection which now exists between the state department and the patent office may with great propriety and advantage be transferred to the in his last annual message to congress madison invited attention to a proper provision for the as an important improvement in the executive establishment this recommendation was repeated by some of his successors the official duties of the have been much increased within a few years and his office has become one of great importance his duties may be still further increased with advantage to the public interests as an executive officer his residence and constant attention at the seat of government are required legal questions involving important principles and large amounts of public money are constantly referred to him by the president and executive departments for his examination and decision the public business under his official management before the judiciary has been so augmented by the extension of our territory and the acts of congress authorizing suits against the united states for large bodies of valuable public lands as greatly to increase his labors and responsibilities i therefore recommend that the be placed on the same footing with the heads of the other executive departments with such subordinate officers provided by law for his department as may be required to discharge the additional duties which have been or may be devolved upon him congress possess the power of exclusive legislation over the district of columbia and i commend the interests of its inhabitants to your favorable consideration the people of this district have no legislative body of their own and must confide their local as well as their general interests to representatives in whose election they have no voice and over whose official conduct they have no control each member of the national legislature should consider himself as their immediate representative and should be the more ready to give attention to their interests and wants because he is not responsible to them i recommend that a liberal and generous spirit may characterize your measures in relation to them i shall be ever disposed to show a proper regard for their wishes and within constitutional limits shall at all times cheerfully cooperate with you for the advancement of their welfare i trust it may not be deemed inappropriate to the occasion for me to dwell for a moment on the memory of the most eminent citizen of our country who during the summer that is gone by has descended to the tomb the enjoyment of contemplating at the advanced age of near fourscore years the happy condition of his country cheered the last hours of andrew jackson who departed this life in the tranquil hope of a blessed immortality his death was happy as his life had been eminently useful he had an unfaltering confidence in the virtue and capacity of the people and in the permanence of that free government which he had largely contributed to establish and defend his great deeds had secured to him the affections of his and it was his happiness to witness the growth and glory of his country which he loved so well he departed amidst the benedictions of millions of the nation paid its tribute to his memory at his tomb coming generations will learn from his example the love of country and the rights of man in his language on a similar occasion to the present i now commend you to the guidance of almighty god with a full reliance on his merciful providence for the maintenance of our free institutions and with an earnest supplication that whatever errors it may be my lot to commit in discharging the arduous duties which have devolved on me will find a remedy in the harmony and wisdom of your counsels
source unaffected satisfaction meet representatives states people congress assembled receive aid combined wisdom administration public affairs performing first time duty imposed constitution giving information state union recommending consideration measures judgment necessary expedient happy congratulate continued prosperity country blessings divine providence benign influence free institutions stands world spectacle national happiness unexampled advancement elements national greatness affection people confirmed union states doctrines popular liberty lie foundation government becomes us humility make devout acknowledgments supreme ruler universe inestimable civil religious blessings favored calling attention congress relations foreign powers gratified able state though existed since last session serious causes irritation misunderstanding yet actual hostilities taken place adopting maxim conduct foreign affairs ask nothing right submit nothing wrong anxious desire preserve peace nations time prepared resist aggression maintain rights pursuance joint resolution congress annexing texas united states predecessor 3d day march 1845 elected submit first second sections resolution republic texas overture part united states admission state union election approved accordingly charge united states texas instructions 10th march 1845 presented sections resolution acceptance republic executive government congress people texas convention successively complied terms conditions joint resolution constitution government state texas formed convention deputies herewith laid congress well known also people texas polls accepted terms annexation ratified constitution communicate congress correspondence secretary state charge texas also correspondence latter authorities texas together official documents transmitted government terms annexation offered united states accepted texas public faith parties solemnly pledged compact union nothing remains consummate event passage act congress admit state texas union upon equal footing original states strong reasons exist done early period session observed constitution texas existing government continued temporarily till congress act third monday present month day appointed holding first general election day governor branches legislature chosen people president texas required immediately receipt official information new state admitted union congress convene legislature upon meeting existing government superseded state government organized questions deeply interesting texas common states extension revenue laws judicial system people territory well measures local character claim early attention congress therefore upon every principle republican government ought represented body without unnecessary delay earnestly recommend prompt action important subject soon act admit texas state shall passed union two republics consummated voluntary consent accession territory bloodless achievement arm force raised produce result sword part victory sought extend territorial possessions conquest republican institutions reluctant people deliberate homage people great principle federative union consider extent territory involved annexation prospective influence america means accomplished springing purely choice people share blessings union history world may challenged furnish parallel jurisdiction united states formation federal constitution bounded marys atlantic passed capes florida peacefully extended del norte contemplating grandeur event forgotten result achieved despite diplomatic interference european monarchies even france country ancient ally country common interest us maintaining freedom seas country cession louisiana first opened us access gulf mexico country every year drawing closely bonds successful commerce unexpectedly unfeigned regret took part effort prevent annexation impose texas condition recognition independence mexico would never join united states may rejoice tranquil pervading influence american principle sufficient defeat purposes british french interference almost unanimous voice people texas given interference peaceful effective rebuke example european governments may learn vain diplomatic arts intrigues must ever prove upon continent system seems natural soil ever resist foreign interference toward texas doubt liberal generous spirit actuate congress concerns interests prosperity never regret united lone star glorious constellation regret inform relations mexico since last session amicable character desire cultivate foreign nations 6th day march last mexican envoy extraordinary minister plenipotentiary united states made formal protest name government joint resolution passed congress annexation texas united states chose regard violation rights mexico consequence demanded passports informed government united states consider joint resolution violation rights mexico afforded offense government republic texas independent power owing allegiance mexico constituting part territory rightful sovereignty jurisdiction also assured sincere desire government maintain mexico relations peace good understanding functionary however notwithstanding representations assurances abruptly terminated mission shortly afterwards left country envoy extraordinary minister plenipotentiary mexico refused official intercourse government remaining several months permission government returned united states thus acts mexico diplomatic intercourse two countries suspended since time mexico recently occupied attitude hostility toward united states marshaling organizing armies issuing proclamations avowing intention make war united states either open declaration invading texas congress convention people texas invited government send army territory protect defend menaced attack moment terms annexation offered united states accepted texas latter became far part country make duty afford protection defense therefore deemed proper precautionary measure order strong squadron coasts mexico concentrate efficient military force western frontier texas army ordered take position country nueces del norte repel invasion texan territory might attempted mexican forces squadron gulf ordered cooperate army though army navy placed position defend rights texas ordered commit act hostility mexico unless declared war aggressor striking first blow result mexico made aggressive movement military naval commanders executed orders discretion peace two republics disturbed texas declared independence maintained arms nine years organized government successful operation period separate existence independent state recognized united states principal powers europe treaties commerce navigation concluded different nations become manifest whole world attempt part mexico conquer overthrow government would vain even mexico become satisfied fact whilst question annexation pending people texas past summer government mexico formal act agreed recognize independence texas condition would annex power agreement acknowledge independence texas whether without condition conclusive mexico independence texas fact conceded mexico right authority prescribe restrictions form government texas might afterwards choose assume though mexico complain united states account annexation texas regretted serious causes misunderstanding two countries continue exist growing unredressed injuries inflicted mexican authorities people persons property citizens united states long series years mexico admitted injuries neglected refused repair character wrongs insults repeatedly offered american citizens american flag mexico palpable violation laws nations treaty two countries 5th april 1831 repeatedly brought notice congress predecessors early 6th february 1837 president united states declared message congress length time since injuries committed repeated unavailing applications redress wanton character outrages upon property persons citizens upon officers flag united states independent recent insults government people late extraordinary mexican minister would justify eyes nations immediate war however recommend immediate resort extreme measure declared used generous nations confiding strength injuries committed honorably avoided spirit forbearance proposed another demand made mexico redress long unjustly withheld views committees two houses congress reports made respective bodies concurred since proceedings eight years elapsed addition wrongs complained others aggravated character committed persons property citizens special agent sent mexico summer 1838 full authority make another final demand redress demand made mexican government promised repair wrongs complained much delay treaty indemnity view concluded two powers 11th april 1839 duly ratified governments treaty joint commission created adjudicate decide claims american citizens government mexico commission organized washington 25th day august 1840 time limited eighteen months expiration adjudicated decided claims amounting favor citizens united states mexican government leaving large amount claims undecided latter american commissioners decided favor citizens claims amounting left unacted umpire authorized treaty still claims amounting three four millions dollars submitted board late considered left undisposed sum decided board liquidated ascertained debt due mexico claimants justifiable reason delaying payment according terms treaty however paid mexico applied indulgence spirit liberality forbearance ever marked policy united states toward republic request granted 30th january 1843 new treaty concluded treaty provided interest due awards favor claimants convention 11th april 1839 paid 30th april 1843 principal said awards interest accruing thereon shall paid five years equal installments every three months said term five years commence 30th day april 1843 aforesaid interest due 30th day april 1843 three first twenty installments paid seventeen installments remain unpaid seven due claims left undecided joint commission amounting together claims spoliations property citizens subsequently presented mexican government payment far recognized treaty providing examination settlement joint commission concluded signed mexico 20th day november 1843 treaty ratified united states certain amendments exception could taken yet received ratification mexican government meantime citizens suffered great losses reduced affluence bankruptcy without remedy unless rights enforced government continued unprovoked series wrongs could never tolerated united states committed one principal nations europe mexico however neighboring sister republic following example achieved independence whose success prosperity sympathies early enlisted united states first recognize independence receive family nations ever desirous cultivating good understanding therefore borne repeated wrongs committed great patience hope returning sense justice would ultimately guide councils might possible honorably avoid hostile collision without previous authority congress executive possessed power adopt enforce adequate remedies injuries suffered prepared repel threatened aggression part mexico army navy remained frontier coasts mexico many weeks without hostile movement part though menaces continued deemed important put end possible state things view caused steps taken month september last ascertain distinctly authentic form designs mexican government whether intention declare war invade texas whether disposed adjust settle amicable manner pending differences two countries 9th november official answer received mexican government consented renew diplomatic relations suspended march last purpose willing accredit minister united states sincere desire preserve peace restore relations good understanding two republics waived ceremony manner renewing diplomatic intercourse assuming initiative 10th november distinguished citizen louisiana appointed envoy extraordinary minister plenipotentiary mexico clothed full powers adjust definitively settle pending differences two countries including boundary mexico state texas minister appointed set mission probably time near mexican capital instructed bring negotiation charged conclusion earliest practicable period expected time enable communicate result congress present session result known forbear recommend congress ulterior measures redress wrongs injuries long borne would proper make negotiation instituted congress appropriated last session sum payment april july installments mexican indemnities year 1844 provided shall ascertained satisfaction american government said installments paid mexican government agent appointed united states receive manner discharge claim mexican government said agent delinquent remitting money united states unsettled state relations mexico involved subject much mystery first information authentic form agent united states appointed administration predecessor received state department 9th november last contained letter dated 17th october addressed one citizens mexico view communicated department appears agent 20th september 1844 gave receipt treasury mexico amount april july installments indemnity communication however asserts received single dollar cash holds securities warranted time giving receipt entertains doubt eventually obtain money installments appear never actually paid government mexico agent government therefore released discharge claim feel warranted directing payment made claimants treasury without legislation case undoubtedly one much hardship remains congress decide whether relief ought granted minister mexico instructed ascertain facts case mexican government authentic official form report result little delay possible attention early directed negotiation 4th march last found pending washington united states great britain subject oregon territory three several attempts previously made settle questions dispute two countries negotiation upon principle compromise proved unsuccessful negotiations took place london years 1818 1824 1826 two first administration monroe last adams negotiation 1818 failed accomplish object resulted convention 20th october year third article convention agreed country may claimed either party northwest coast america westward stony mountains shall together harbors bays creeks navigation rivers within free open term ten years date signature present convention vessels citizens subjects two powers well understood agreement construed prejudice claim either two high contracting parties may part said country shall taken affect claims power state part said country object high contracting parties respect prevent disputes differences amongst negotiation 1824 productive result convention 1818 left unchanged negotiation 1826 also failed effect adjustment compromise resulted convention august 6 1827 agreed continue force indefinite period provisions third article convention 20th october 1818 provided shall competent however either contracting parties case either think fit time 20th october 1828 giving due notice twelve months contracting party annul abrogate convention shall case accordingly entirely annulled abrogated expiration said term notice attempts adjust controversy parallel degree north latitude offered united states great britain 1818 1826 concession free navigation columbia river south latitude parallel degree rocky mountains intersection northeasternmost branch columbia thence channel river sea offered great britain addition small detached territory north columbia propositions rejected parties respectively october 1843 envoy extraordinary minister plenipotentiary united states london authorized make similar offer made 1818 1826 thus stood question negotiation shortly afterwards transferred washington 23d august 1844 formally opened direction immediate predecessor like previous negotiations based upon principles compromise avowed purpose parties treat respective claims two countries oregon territory view establish permanent boundary westward rocky mountains pacific ocean accordingly 26th august 1844 british plenipotentiary offered divide oregon territory parallel north latitude rocky mountains point intersection northeasternmost branch columbia river thence river sea leaving free navigation river enjoyed common parties country south line belong united states north great britain time proposed addition yield united states detached territory north columbia extending along pacific straits fuca bulfinchs harbor inclusive hoods canal make free united states port ports south latitude might desire either mainland quadra vancouvers island exception free ports offer made british rejected american government negotiation 1826 proposition properly rejected american plenipotentiary day submitted proposition compromise offered british plenipotentiary proposition part great britain rejected british plenipotentiary requested proposal made united states equitable adjustment question came office found state negotiation though entertaining settled conviction british pretensions title could maintained portion oregon territory upon principle public law recognized nations yet deference done predecessors especially consideration propositions compromise thrice made two preceding administrations adjust question parallel two yielding great britain free navigation columbia pending negotiation commenced basis compromise deemed duty abruptly break consideration conventions 1818 1827 citizens subjects two powers held joint occupancy country induced make another effort settle controversy spirit moderation given birth renewed discussion proposition accordingly made rejected british plenipotentiary without submitting proposition suffered negotiation part drop expressing trust united states would offer saw fit call proposal settlement oregon question consistent fairness equity reasonable expectations british government proposition thus offered rejected repeated offer parallel north latitude made two preceding administrations without proposing surrender great britain done free navigation columbia river right foreign power free navigation rivers heart country one unwilling concede also embraced provision make free great britain port ports cap quadra vancouvers island south parallel new question coming discussion first time proposition would made extraordinary wholly inadmissible demands british government rejection proposition made deference alone done predecessors implied obligation acts seemed impose afford satisfactory evidence compromise united states ought accept effected conviction proposition compromise made rejected direction subsequently withdrawn title whole oregon territory asserted believed maintained irrefragable facts arguments civilized world see proceedings spirit liberal concession part united states government relieved responsibility may follow failure settle controversy attempts compromise failed becomes duty congress consider measures may proper adopt security protection citizens inhabiting may hereafter inhabit oregon maintenance title territory adopting measures purpose care taken nothing done violate stipulations convention 1827 still force faith treaties letter spirit ever trust ever scrupulously observed united states convention year notice required given either party joint occupancy shall terminate either rightfully assert exercise exclusive jurisdiction portion territory notice would judgment proper give recommend provision made law giving accordingly terminating manner convention 6th august 1827 become proper congress determine legislation meantime adopt without violating convention beyond question protection laws jurisdiction civil criminal ought immediately extended citizens oregon complain long neglect particular consequence compelled security protection establish provisional government strong allegiance ardent attachment united states thus cast upon resources anxious laws extended recommend done congress little delay possible full extent british parliament proceeded regard british subjects territory act july 2 1821 regulating fur trade establishing criminal civil jurisdiction within certain parts north america act great britain extended laws jurisdiction civil criminal subjects engaged fur trade territory courts province upper canada empowered take cognizance causes civil criminal justices peace judicial officers authorized appointed oregon power execute process issuing courts province sit hold courts record trial criminal offenses misdemeanors made subject capital punishment also civil eases action shall exceed value amount sum lbs 200 subsequent date act parliament grant made british crown hudsons bay company exclusive trade indian tribes oregon territory subject reservation shall operate exclusion subjects foreign states force convention time us foreign states respectively may entitled shall engaged said trade much regretted act british subjects enjoyed protection british laws british judicial tribunals throughout whole oregon american citizens territory enjoyed protection government time result illustrates character people institutions spite neglect multiplied number rapidly increasing territory made appeal arms peacefully fortified new homes adoption republican institutions furnishing another example truth inherent american breast must prevail due embraced protected laws deemed important laws regulating trade intercourse indian tribes east rocky mountains extended tribes dwell beyond increasing emigration oregon care protection due government citizens distant region make duty interest cultivate amicable relations indian tribes territory purpose recommend provision made establishing indian agency subagencies may deemed necessary beyond rocky mountains protection emigrants whilst way oregon attacks indian tribes occupying country pass recommend suitable number stockades blockhouse forts erected along usual route frontier settlements missouri rocky mountains adequate force mounted riflemen raised guard protect journey immediate adoption recommendations congress violate provisions existing treaty nothing american citizens british laws long since done british subjects territory requires several months perform voyage sea atlantic states oregon although large number whale ships pacific afford opportunity interchanging intelligence without great delay settlements distant region united states overland mail believed entirely practicable importance establishing mail least month submitted favorable consideration congress submitted wisdom congress determine whether present session expiration year notice measures may adopted consistently convention 1827 security rights government protection citizens oregon ultimately wise proper make liberal grants land patriotic pioneers amidst privations dangers lead way savage tribes inhabiting vast wilderness intervening frontier settlements oregon cultivate ever ready defend soil fully satisfied doubt whether obtain grants soon convention united states great britain shall ceased exist would doubt justice congress pending year notice worthy consideration whether stipulation effect may made consistently spirit convention recommendations made best manner securing rights oregon submitted congress great deference wisdom devise mode better calculated accomplish object shall meet hearty concurrence end year notice congress think proper make provision giving notice shall reached period national rights oregon must either abandoned firmly maintained abandoned without sacrifice national honor interest clear admit doubt oregon part north american continent confidently affirmed title united states best existence grounds title rests refer correspondence late present secretary state british plenipotentiary negotiation british proposition compromise would make columbia line south trifling addition detached territory united states north river would leave british side whole oregon territory including free navigation columbia valuable harbors pacific never moment entertained united states without abandonment dear territorial rights national honor information congress communicate herewith correspondence took place two governments late negotiation rapid extension settlements territories heretofore unoccupied addition new states confederacy expansion free principles rising greatness nation attracting attention powers europe lately doctrine broached balance power continent check advancement united states sincerely desirous preserving relations good understanding nations silence permit european interference north american continent interference attempted ready resist hazards well known american people nations government never interfered relations subsisting governments never made parties wars alliances sought territories conquest mingled parties domestic struggles believing form government best never attempted propagate intrigues diplomacy force may claim continent like exemption european interference nations america equally sovereign independent europe possess rights independent foreign interposition make war conclude peace regulate internal affairs people united states therefore view indifference attempts european powers interfere independent action nations continent american system government entirely different europe jealousy among different sovereigns europe lest one might become powerful rest caused anxiously desire establishment term balance power permitted application north american continent especially united states must ever maintain principle people continent alone right decide destiny portion constituting independent state propose unite confederacy question us determine without foreign interposition never consent european powers shall interfere prevent union might disturb balance power may desire maintain upon continent near quarter century ago principle distinctly announced world annual message one predecessors american continents free independent condition assumed maintain henceforth considered subjects colonization european powers principle apply greatly increased force european power attempt establish new colony north america existing circumstances world present deemed proper occasion reiterate reaffirm principle avowed monroe state cordial concurrence wisdom sound policy reassertion principle especially reference north america day promulgation policy european power cherish disposition resist existing rights every european nation respected due alike safety interests efficient protection laws extended whole territorial limits distinctly announced world settled policy future european colony dominion shall consent planted established part north american continent question recently arisen tenth article subsisting treaty united states prussia article consuls two countries right sit judges arbitrators differences may arise captains crews vessels belonging nation whose interests committed charge without interference local authorities unless conduct crews captain disturb order tranquillity country said consuls require assistance decisions carried effect supported prussian consul new bedford june 1844 applied justice story carry effect decision made captain crew prussian ship borussia request refused ground without previous legislation congress judiciary possess power give effect article treaty prussian government minister complained violation treaty asked government united states adopt necessary measures prevent similar violations hereafter good faith prussia well nations similar treaty stipulations requires faithfully observed deemed proper therefore lay subject congress recommend legislation may necessary give effect treaty obligations virtue arrangement made spanish government united states december 1831 american vessels since 29th april 1832 admitted entry ports spain including balearic canary islands payment tonnage duty 5 cents per ton though spanish vessels whether vessels arrive spain directly united states indirectly country congress act 13th july 1832 gave effect arrangement two governments confined reduction tonnage duty merely spanish vessels coming port spain leaving former discriminating duty remain vessels coming port country manifestly unjust whilst american vessels arriving ports spain countries pay duty spanish vessels spanish vessels arriving ports united states countries subjected heavy discriminating tonnage duties neither equality reciprocity violation arrangement concluded december 1831 two countries spanish government made repeated earnest remonstrances inequality favorable attention congress several times invoked subject predecessors recommend act justice spain inequality removed congress discriminating duties levied act 13th july 1832 spanish vessels coming united states foreign country refunded recommendation embrace spanish vessels arriving united states cuba porto rico still remain subject provisions act june 30 1834 concerning tonnage duty vessels act 14th july 1832 coffee exempted duty altogether exemption universal without reference country produced national character vessel imported tariff act 30th august 1842 exemption duty restricted coffee imported american vessels place production whilst coffee imported circumstances subjected duty 20 per cent ad valorem act existing treaty king netherlands java coffee imported european ports kingdom united states whether dutch american vessels pays rate duty government netherlands complains discriminating duty imposed coffee production one colonies chiefly brought java ports kingdom exported thence foreign countries trade netherlands highly beneficial countries relations ever friendly character circumstances case recommend discrimination abolished coffee java imported netherlands placed upon footing imported directly brazil countries produced eighth section tariff act 30th august 1842 duty 15 cents per gallon imposed port wine casks red wines several countries imported casks duty 6 cents per gallon imposed discrimination far regarded port wine portugal deemed violation treaty power provides higher duties shall imposed importation united states america article growth produce manufacture kingdom possessions portugal shall payable like article growth produce manufacture foreign country accordingly give effect treaty well intention congress expressed proviso tariff act nothing therein contained construed interfere subsisting treaties foreign nations treasury circular issued 16th july 1844 among things declared duty port wine portugal casks existing laws treaty 6 cents per gallon directed excess duties collected wine refunded virtue another clause section act provided imitations port wines shall subject duty provided genuine article imitations port wine production france imported extent united states government country claims correct construction act imitations ought pay higher duty imposed upon original port wine portugal appears unequal unjust french imitations port wine subjected duty 15 cents valuable article portugal pay duty 6 cents per gallon therefore recommend congress legislation may necessary correct inequality late president annual message december last recommended appropriation satisfy claims texan government united states previously adjusted far powers executive extend claims arose act disarming body texan troops command major snively officer service united states acting orders government forcible entry bryarlys landing red river certain citizens united states taking away therefrom goods seized collector customs forfeited laws texas liquidated debt ascertained due texas independent state acceptance terms annexation proposed united states discharge invalidate claim recommend provision made payment commissioner appointed china special session senate march last shortly afterwards set mission united states ship columbus arriving rio de janeiro passage state health become critical advice medical attendants returned united states early month october last commodore biddle commanding east india squadron proceeded voyage columbus charged commissioner duty exchanging proper authorities ratifications treaty lately concluded emperor china since return commissioner united states health much improved entertains confident belief soon able proceed mission unfortunately differences continue exist among nations south america following example established independence others internal dissensions prevail natural sympathies warmly enlisted welfare desire controversies amicably adjusted governments administered manner protect rights promote prosperity people contrary however settled policy interfere controversies whether external internal thus adverted subjects connected foreign relations deem necessary call attention policy peace good toward powers earth require shall us excepting differences mexico great britain relations civilized nations satisfactory character hoped enlightened age differences may amicably adjusted secretary treasury annual report congress communicate full statement condition finances imports fiscal year ending 30th june last value amount exported leaving balance domestic consumption exports year value amount domestic articles receipts treasury year derived customs sales public lands incidental miscellaneous sources expenditures period applied payment public debt balance treasury 1st july last amount public debt remaining unpaid 1st october last payments public debt would made anticipation period reimbursement authority conferred upon secretary treasury acts july 21 1841 april 15 1842 march 3 1843 unsettled state relations mexico menaced hostile collision power view contingency deemed prudent retain treasury amount unusually large ordinary purposes years ago whole national debt growing revolution war 1812 great britain extinguished presented world rare noble spectacle great growing people fully discharged every obligation since time existing debt contracted small comparison similar burdens nations extinguished earliest practicable period state country permit especially foreign relations interpose obstacle contemplated apply moneys treasury accrue beyond required appropriations congress liquidation cherish hope soon able congratulate country recovering lofty position recently occupied country exhibits world benefits developing sources national prosperity owes mankind permanent example nation free blighting influence public debt attention congress invited importance making suitable modifications reductions rates duty imposed present tariff laws object imposing duties imports raise revenue pay necessary expenses government congress may undoubtedly exercise sound discretion discriminate arranging rates duty different articles discriminations within revenue standard made view raise money support government becomes important understand distinctly meant revenue standard maximum exceeded rates duty imposed conceded experience proves duties may laid high diminish prohibit altogether importation given article thereby lessen destroy revenue lower rates would derived importation duties exceed revenue rates imposed raise money support government congress levy duty revenue 1 per cent given article produce given amount money treasury incidentally necessarily afford protection advantage amount 1 per cent home manufacturer similar like article importer duty raised 10 per cent produce greater amount money afford greater protection still raised 20 25 30 per cent raised revenue derived found increased protection advantage also increased raised 31 per cent found revenue produced rate less 30 per cent ceases revenue duty precise point ascending scale duties ascertained experience revenue greatest maximum rate duty laid bona fide purpose collecting money support government raise duties higher point thereby diminish amount collected levy protection merely revenue long congress may gradually increase rate duty given article revenue increased increase duty within revenue standard go beyond point increase duties revenue diminished destroyed act ceases object raising money support government protection merely follow congress levy highest duty articles import bear within revenue standard rates would probably produce much larger amount economical administration government would require follow duties articles horizontal rate articles bear much higher revenue duty others maximum revenue standard congress may ought discriminate rates imposed taking care adjust different articles produce aggregate amount added proceeds sales public lands may needed pay economical expenses government levying tariff duties congress exercise taxing power purposes revenue may select objects taxation may exempt certain articles altogether permit importation free duty others may impose low duties classes embraced articles necessity general use especially consumed laborer poor well wealthy citizen care taken great interests country including manufactures agriculture commerce navigation mechanic arts far may practicable derive equal advantages incidental protection system revenue duties may afford taxation direct indirect burden imposed operate equally may classes proportion ability bear make taxing power actual benefit one class necessarily increases burden others beyond proportion would manifestly unjust terms protection domestic industry popular import apply system various branches industry country farmer planter toils yearly fields engaged domestic industry much entitled labor protected manufacturer man commerce navigator mechanic engaged also domestic industry different pursuits joint labors classes constitute aggregate domestic industry nation equally entitled nation protection one justly claim exclusive recipient protection afforded increasing burdens domestic industry others views correct remains inquire far tariff act 1842 consistent many provisions act violation cardinal principles laid must concede rates duty imposed articles prohibitory others high greatly diminish importations produce less amount revenue would derived lower rates operate protection merely one branch domestic industry taxing branches introduction minimums assumed false values imposition specific duties injustice inequality act 1842 practical operations different classes pursuits seen felt many oppressive duties imposed operation principles range 1 per cent 200 per cent prohibitory articles partially others bear heavily articles common necessity lightly articles luxury framed much greatest burden imposes thrown labor poorer classes least able bear protects capital exempts rich paying proportion taxation required support government protects capital wealthy manufacturer increases profits benefit operatives laborers employment whose wages increased articles prime necessity coarse quality low price used masses people many instances subjected heavy taxes articles finer quality higher price luxury used opulent lightly taxed imposes heavy unjust burdens farmer planter commercial man pursuits except capitalist made investments manufactures great interests country nearly may practicable equally protected government theory knows distinction persons classes bestow upon favors privileges others may enjoy purpose illustrious founders base institutions reared upon great unchanging principles justice equity conscious administered spirit conceived would felt benefits diffused would secure defense hearts people powerful standing armies means appliances invented sustain governments founded injustice oppression fact tariff act 1842 passed majority one vote senate two house representatives felt constrained peculiar circumstances existing time vote favor proclaimed defects expressed determination aid modification first opportunity affords strong conclusive evidence intended permanent expediency necessity thorough revision recommending congress reduction present rates duty revision modification act 1842 far entertaining opinions unfriendly manufacturers contrary desire see prosperous far without imposing unequal burdens interests advantage system indirect taxation even within revenue standard must favor manufacturing interest interest complain recommend congress abolition minimum principle assumed arbitrary false values specific duties substitution place ad valorem duties fairest equitable indirect tax imposed ad valorem principle articles taxed according cost value inferior quality small cost bear proportion tax superior quality greater cost articles consumed taxed rate system ad valorem revenue duties proper discriminations proper guards frauds collecting doubted afford ample incidental advantages manufacturers enable derive great profits derived regular business believed system strictly within revenue standard place manufacturing interests stable footing inure permanent advantage nearly may practicable extend great interests country incidental protection afforded revenue laws system firmly established would permanent subject constant complaints agitations changes must ever occur duties laid revenue protection merely favored interest deliberations congress subject hoped spirit mutual concession compromise conflicting interests may prevail result labors may crowned happiest consequences constitution united states provided money shall drawn treasury consequence appropriations made law public treasury undoubtedly contemplated intended created public money kept period collection needed public uses collection disbursement public money agencies ever employed law except appointed government directly responsible control public money confided public treasury created law like responsibility control imagined framers constitution could intended treasury created place deposit public money irresponsible government first congress constitution act 2d september 1789 establish treasury department provided appointment treasurer made duty receive keep moneys united states times submit secretary treasury comptroller either inspection moneys hands banks national state could intended used substitute treasury spoken constitution keepers public money manifest fact time national bank three four state banks limited capital existed country employment depositories first resorted limited extent avowed intention continuing permanently place treasury constitution afterwards time time employed motives supposed convenience experience shown banking corporations keepers public money thereby made effect treasury government guaranty command use money public purposes late bank united states proved faithless state banks afterwards employed faithless years ago millions public money keeping government brought almost bankruptcy public credit seriously impaired inability indisposition pay demand public creditors currency recognized constitution failure occurred period peace great inconvenience loss suffered public country involved foreign war inconvenience loss would much greater might resulted extreme public calamity public money mingled private funds banks individuals used private purposes placed banks effect loaned without interest loaned upon interest borrowers public money converted banking capital used loaned private profit bank stockholders called case 1837 may pockets borrowers banks instead public treasury contemplated constitution framers constitution could never intended money paid treasury thus converted private use placed beyond control government banks hold public money often tempted desire gain extend loans increase circulation thus stimulate produce spirit speculation extravagance sooner later must result ruin thousands public money permitted thus used kept treasure paid public creditors gold silver temptation afforded deposit banks undue expansion business would checked amount constitutional currency left circulation would enlarged employment public collections disbursements banks would consequence found safer sounder condition present state banks employed depositories without adequate regulation law whereby public money secured casualties excesses revulsions suspensions defalcations overissues overtrading inordinate desire gain causes constantly exposed secretary treasury cases practicable taken collateral security amount hold pledge stocks united states states good credit deposit banks given description security others declined entertaining opinion separation moneys government banking institutions indispensable safety funds government rights people recommend congress provision made law separation constitutional treasury created public money constitutional treasury recommended designed secure depository public money without power make loans discounts issue paper whatever currency circulation doubt treasury contemplated constitution independent banking corporations money people kept treasury people created law custody agents people chosen according forms constitution agents directly responsible government adequate bonds oaths subject severe punishments embezzlement private use misapplication public funds failure respects perform duties say people government incompetent trusted custody money treasury provided must rely presidents cashiers stockholders banking corporations appointed responsible would concede incompetent recommending establishment constitutional treasury public money shall kept desire adequate provision made law safety executive discretion control shall removed except may necessary directing disbursement pursuance appropriations made law present land system limiting minimum price public lands entered per acre large quantities lands inferior quality remain unsold command price records general land office appears public lands remaining unsold several states territories situated acres market subject entry twenty years acres fifteen years acres ten years acres five years much largest portion lands continue unsalable minimum price permitted sold long large territories lands valuable portions selected annually brought market government view sale settlement inferior lands recommend price graduated reduced present minimum rate confining sales reduced prices settlers cultivators limited quantities graduated reduced price limited term 1 per acre expiration period second third term lower rates large portion lands would purchased many worthy citizens unable pay higher rates could purchase homes families adopting policy graduation reduction price inferior lands sold real value states lie freed inconvenience injustice subjected consequence united states continuing large quantities public lands within borders liable taxation support local governments recommend continuance policy granting preemptions liberal extent settled may hereafter settle public lands whether surveyed unsurveyed indian title may extinguished time settlement found experience consequence combinations purchasers causes small quantity public lands sold public auction commands higher price minimum rates established law settlers public lands however rarely able secure homes improvements public sales rate combinations means capital command superior ability purchase render impossible settler compete market putting competition combinations capitalists speculators usually enabled purchase lands including improvements settlers minimum price government either turn homes extort according ability pay double quadruple amount paid government enterprise perseverance hardy pioneers west penetrate wilderness families suffer dangers privations hardships attending settlement new country prepare way body emigrants course years usually follow great degree indebted rapid extension aggrandizement country experience proved portion population patriotic hardy brave men frontier ready obey call country defend rights honor whenever whatever enemy assailed protected grasping speculator secured minimum price public lands humble homes improved labor end view vexatious unnecessary restrictions imposed upon existing preemption laws repealed modified true policy government afford facilities citizens become owners small portions vast public domain low moderate rates present system managing mineral lands united states believed radically defective acres public lands supposed contain lead minerals reserved sale numerous leases upon granted individuals upon stipulated rent system granting leases proved unprofitable government unsatisfactory citizens gone upon lands must continued lay foundation much future difficulty government lessees according official records amount rents received government years 1841 1842 1843 1844 expenses system period including salaries superintendents agents clerks incidental expenses income less expenses pecuniary loss may added injury sustained public consequence destruction timber careless wasteful manner working mines system given rise much litigation united states individual citizens producing irritation excitement mineral region involving government heavy additional expenditures believed similar losses embarrassments continue occur present system leasing lands remains unchanged lands superintendence care war department ordinary duties proper natural connection recommend repeal present system lands placed superintendence management general land office public lands brought market sold upon terms congress wisdom may prescribe reserving government equitable percentage gross amount mineral product preemption principle extended resident miners settlers upon minimum price may established congress refer accompanying report secretary war information respecting present situation army operations past year state defenses condition public works relations various indian tribes within limits upon borders invite attention suggestions contained report relation prominent objects national interest orders given past summer concentrating military force western frontier texas troops widely dispersed small detachments occupying posts remote prompt expeditious manner army embracing half peace establishment drawn together emergency sudden reflects great credit officers intrusted execution orders well upon discipline army strength protect defend people territory texas event mexico commence hostilities invade territories large army threatened authorized general assigned command army occupation make requisitions additional forces several states nearest texan territory could expeditiously furnish opinion larger force command auxiliary aid like circumstances authorized receive texas required contingency upon exercise authority depended occurred circumstances two companies state artillery city new orleans sent texas mustered service united states fully stated report secretary war recommend congress provision made payment troops well small number texan volunteers commanding general thought necessary receive muster service last summer first regiment dragoons made extensive excursions indian country borders part advancing nearly possessions hudsons bay company north part far south pass rocky mountains head waters tributary streams colorado west exhibition military force among indian tribes distant regions councils held commanders expeditions believed salutary influence restraining hostilities among maintaining friendly relations united states interesting account one excursions accompanies report secretary war directions war department brevet captain fremont corps topographical engineers employed since 1842 exploring country west mississippi beyond rocky mountains two expeditions already brought close reports scientific enterprising officer furnished much interesting valuable information engaged third expedition expected arduous service completed season enable communicate result congress present session relations indian tribes favorable character policy removing country designed permanent residence west mississippi without limits organized states territories better appreciated years ago education attended habits civilized life gaining ground among serious difficulties long standing continue distract several parties cherokees unhappily divided efforts government adjust difficulties heretofore proved unsuccessful remains probability desirable object accomplished without aid legislation congress early period session present subject consideration accompanied exposition complaints claims several parties nation divided view adoption measures congress may enable executive justice respectively put end possible dissensions long prevailed still prevail among refer report secretary navy present condition branch national defense grave suggestions object increase efficiency greater economy management past year officers men performed duty satisfactory manner orders given executed promptness fidelity larger force often formed one squadron flag readily concentrated gulf mexico apparently without unusual effort especially observed notwithstanding union considerable force act committed even jealousy irritated power could construe act aggression commander squadron officers strict conformity instructions holding ever ready active duty achieved still purer glory contributing preservation peace believed foreign stations honor flag maintained generally ships war distinguished good discipline order happy add display maritime force required events summer made wholly within usual appropriations service year additional appropriations required commerce united states navigating interests steadily rapidly increased since organization government believed second one power world distant day shall probably inferior none exposed must wise policy afford important interests protection ships war distributed great highways trade throughout world thirty years appropriations made annually expended gradual increase naval forces peace navy performs important duty protecting commerce event war efficient means defense successful use steam navigation ocean followed introduction war steamers great increasing numbers navies principal maritime powers world due regard safety efficient protection large increasing commerce demands corresponding increase part country greater facilities construction vessels description promise greater advantages employment admirably adapted protection commerce rapid transmission intelligence coast defense pursuahce wise policy gradual increase navy large supplies timber materials shipbuilding collected shelter state good preservation iron steamers built great facility various parts union use iron material especially construction steamers enter safety many harbors along coast inaccessible vessels greater draft practicability constructing interior strongly recommend liberal appropriations made important object whatever may policy earlier stages government nation infancy shipping interests commerce comparatively small resources limited population sparse scarcely extending beyond limits original thirteen states policy must essentially different grown three twenty millions people commerce carried ships found every sea territorial boundaries settlements greatly expanded neither commerce long line coast ocean lakes successfully defended foreign aggression means fortifications alone essential important commercial military points chief reliance object must efficient navy benefits resulting navy confined atlantic states productions interior seek market abroad directly dependent safety freedom commerce occupation balize new orleans hostile force would embarrass stagnate whole export trade mississippi affect value agricultural products entire valley mighty river tributaries never policy maintain large standing armies time peace contrary genius free institutions would impose heavy burdens people dangerous public liberty reliance protection defense land must mainly citizen soldiers ever ready ever ready times past rush alacrity call country defense description force however defend coast harbors inland seas protect commerce ocean lakes must protected navy considering increased naval force especially steam vessels corresponding growth importance nation proportioned increased increasing naval power nations vast importance regards safety great growing interests protected recommend subject favorable consideration congress report herewith communicated contains detailed statement operations department pass year seen income postages fall short expenditures year deficiency caused reduction rates postage made act 3d march last principle generally acquiesced people department sustain limiting expenditures income congress never sought make source revenue general purposes except short period last war great britain ever become charge general treasury congress shall adhere principle think ought necessary either curtail present mail service reduce expenditures modify act 3d march last improve revenues extension mail service additional facilities demanded rapid extension increase population western frontier admit curtailment materially reduce present expenditures adjustment tariff postages interests people demand lowest rates adopted produce necessary revenue meet expenditures department invite attention congress suggestions subject belief modification late law may made yield sufficient revenue without calls treasury little change present rates postage proper measures taken pursuance act 3d march last establishment lines mail steamers foreign countries importance service commends strongly favorable consideration growth country public business devolves heads several executive departments greatly increased respects distribution duties among seems incongruous many might transferred one another advantage public interests auspicious time consideration subject congress view system organization several departments appropriate division public business probably occur important duties state department relate foreign affairs great enlargement family nations increase commerce corresponding extension consular system business department greatly increased present organization many duties domestic nature consisting details devolved secretary state appropriately belong foreign department government may properly transferred department one grows present state law concerning patent office years since subordinate clerkship become distinct bureau great importance excellent internal organization still connected state department transaction business questions much importance inventors community frequently arise existing laws referred decision board secretary state member questions legal connection exists state department patent office may great propriety advantage transferred last annual message congress madison invited attention proper provision important improvement executive establishment recommendation repeated successors official duties much increased within years office become one great importance duties may still increased advantage public interests executive officer residence constant attention seat government required legal questions involving important principles large amounts public money constantly referred president executive departments examination decision public business official management judiciary augmented extension territory acts congress authorizing suits united states large bodies valuable public lands greatly increase labors responsibilities therefore recommend placed footing heads executive departments subordinate officers provided law department may required discharge additional duties may devolved upon congress possess power exclusive legislation district columbia commend interests inhabitants favorable consideration people district legislative body must confide local well general interests representatives whose election voice whose official conduct control member national legislature consider immediate representative ready give attention interests wants responsible recommend liberal generous spirit may characterize measures relation shall ever disposed show proper regard wishes within constitutional limits shall times cheerfully cooperate advancement welfare trust may deemed inappropriate occasion dwell moment memory eminent citizen country summer gone descended tomb enjoyment contemplating advanced age near fourscore years happy condition country cheered last hours andrew jackson departed life tranquil hope blessed immortality death happy life eminently useful unfaltering confidence virtue capacity people permanence free government largely contributed establish defend great deeds secured affections happiness witness growth glory country loved well departed amidst benedictions millions nation paid tribute memory tomb coming generations learn example love country rights man language similar occasion present commend guidance almighty god full reliance merciful providence maintenance free institutions earnest supplication whatever errors may lot commit discharging arduous duties devolved find remedy harmony wisdom counsels
source unaffected satisfaction meet representative state people congress assemble receive aid combine wisdom administration public affair perform first time duty impose constitution give information state union recommend consideration measure judgment necessary expedient happy congratulate continue prosperity country blessing divine providence benign influence free institution stand world spectacle national happiness unexampled advancement element national greatness affection people confirm union state doctrines popular liberty lie foundation government become u humility make devout acknowledgment supreme ruler universe inestimable civil religious blessing favor call attention congress relation foreign power gratify able state though exist since last session serious cause irritation misunderstand yet actual hostility take place adopt maxim conduct foreign affair ask nothing right submit nothing wrong anxious desire preserve peace nation time prepared resist aggression maintain right pursuance joint resolution congress annex texas united state predecessor 3d day march 1845 elect submit first second section resolution republic texas overture part united state admission state union election approve accordingly charge united state texas instruction 10th march 1845 present section resolution acceptance republic executive government congress people texas convention successively comply term condition joint resolution constitution government state texas form convention deputy herewith laid congress well know also people texas poll accept term annexation ratify constitution communicate congress correspondence secretary state charge texas also correspondence latter authority texas together official document transmitted government term annexation offer united state accept texas public faith party solemnly pledge compact union nothing remain consummate event passage act congress admit state texas union upon equal footing original state strong reason exist do early period session observe constitution texas exist government continue temporarily till congress act third monday present month day appoint hold first general election day governor branch legislature choose people president texas require immediately receipt official information new state admit union congress convene legislature upon meet exist government supersede state government organize question deeply interest texas common state extension revenue law judicial system people territory well measure local character claim early attention congress therefore upon every principle republican government ought represent body without unnecessary delay earnestly recommend prompt action important subject soon act admit texas state shall pass union two republic consummate voluntary consent accession territory bloodless achievement arm force raise produce result sword part victory seek extend territorial possession conquest republican institution reluctant people deliberate homage people great principle federative union consider extent territory involve annexation prospective influence america mean accomplished spring purely choice people share blessing union history world may challenge furnish parallel jurisdiction united state formation federal constitution bound marys atlantic pass cape florida peacefully extend del norte contemplate grandeur event forget result achieve despite diplomatic interference european monarchy even france country ancient ally country common interest u maintain freedom sea country cession louisiana first open u access gulf mexico country every year draw closely bond successful commerce unexpectedly unfeigned regret take part effort prevent annexation impose texas condition recognition independence mexico would never join united state may rejoice tranquil pervade influence american principle sufficient defeat purpose british french interference almost unanimous voice people texas give interference peaceful effective rebuke example european government may learn vain diplomatic art intrigue must ever prove upon continent system seem natural soil ever resist foreign interference toward texas doubt liberal generous spirit actuate congress concern interest prosperity never regret united lone star glorious constellation regret inform relation mexico since last session amicable character desire cultivate foreign nation 6th day march last mexican envoy extraordinary minister plenipotentiary unite state make formal protest name government joint resolution pass congress annexation texas united state choose regard violation right mexico consequence demand passport informed government unite state consider joint resolution violation right mexico afford offense government republic texas independent power owe allegiance mexico constitute part territory rightful sovereignty jurisdiction also assure sincere desire government maintain mexico relation peace good understanding functionary however notwithstanding representation assurance abruptly terminate mission shortly afterwards leave country envoy extraordinary minister plenipotentiary mexico refuse official intercourse government remain several month permission government return united state thus act mexico diplomatic intercourse two country suspend since time mexico recently occupy attitude hostility toward united state marshal organize army issue proclamation avow intention make war united state either open declaration invade texas congress convention people texas invited government send army territory protect defend menace attack moment term annexation offer united state accept texas latter become far part country make duty afford protection defense therefore deem proper precautionary measure order strong squadron coast mexico concentrate efficient military force western frontier texas army order take position country nueces del norte repel invasion texan territory might attempt mexican force squadron gulf order cooperate army though army navy place position defend right texas order commit act hostility mexico unless declare war aggressor strike first blow result mexico make aggressive movement military naval commander execute order discretion peace two republic disturb texas declared independence maintain arm nine year organized government successful operation period separate existence independent state recognize united state principal power europe treaty commerce navigation conclude different nation become manifest whole world attempt part mexico conquer overthrow government would vain even mexico become satisfied fact whilst question annexation pending people texas past summer government mexico formal act agree recognize independence texas condition would annex power agreement acknowledge independence texas whether without condition conclusive mexico independence texas fact concede mexico right authority prescribe restriction form government texas might afterwards choose assume though mexico complain united state account annexation texas regret serious cause misunderstand two country continue exist grow unredressed injury inflict mexican authority people person property citizen united state long series year mexico admit injury neglect refuse repair character wrong insult repeatedly offer american citizen american flag mexico palpable violation law nation treaty two country 5th april 1831 repeatedly bring notice congress predecessor early 6th february 1837 president united state declare message congress length time since injury commit repeat unavailing application redress wanton character outrage upon property person citizens upon officer flag united state independent recent insults government people late extraordinary mexican minister would justify eye nation immediate war however recommend immediate resort extreme measure declare use generous nation confide strength injury commit honorably avoid spirit forbearance propose another demand make mexico redress long unjustly withhold view committee two house congress report make respective body concur since proceeding eight year elapse addition wrong complain others aggravated character commit person property citizen special agent sent mexico summer 1838 full authority make another final demand redress demand make mexican government promise repair wrong complain much delay treaty indemnity view conclude two power 11th april 1839 duly ratify government treaty joint commission create adjudicate decide claim american citizen government mexico commission organize washington 25th day august 1840 time limit eighteen month expiration adjudicate decide claim amount favor citizen united state mexican government leave large amount claim undecided latter american commissioner decide favor citizen claim amount leave unacted umpire authorize treaty still claim amount three four million dollar submit board late consider leave undisposed sum decide board liquidate ascertained debt due mexico claimant justifiable reason delay payment accord term treaty however pay mexico apply indulgence spirit liberality forbearance ever mark policy united state toward republic request grant 30th january 1843 new treaty conclude treaty provide interest due award favor claimant convention 11th april 1839 pay 30th april 1843 principal say award interest accrue thereon shall pay five year equal installment every three month say term five year commence 30th day april 1843 aforesaid interest due 30th day april 1843 three first twenty installment pay seventeen installment remain unpaid seven due claim leave undecided joint commission amount together claim spoliation property citizen subsequently present mexican government payment far recognize treaty provide examination settlement joint commission conclude sign mexico 20th day november 1843 treaty ratify united state certain amendment exception could take yet receive ratification mexican government meantime citizen suffer great loss reduce affluence bankruptcy without remedy unless right enforce government continue unprovoked series wrong could never tolerate united state commit one principal nation europe mexico however neighboring sister republic follow example achieve independence whose success prosperity sympathy early enlist united state first recognize independence receive family nation ever desirous cultivate good understanding therefore borne repeat wrong commit great patience hope return sense justice would ultimately guide council might possible honorably avoid hostile collision without previous authority congress executive possess power adopt enforce adequate remedy injury suffer prepared repel threaten aggression part mexico army navy remain frontier coast mexico many week without hostile movement part though menace continue deem important put end possible state thing view cause step take month september last ascertain distinctly authentic form design mexican government whether intention declare war invade texas whether disposed adjust settle amicable manner pending difference two country 9th november official answer receive mexican government consent renew diplomatic relation suspend march last purpose willing accredit minister united state sincere desire preserve peace restore relation good understand two republic waive ceremony manner renew diplomatic intercourse assume initiative 10th november distinguish citizen louisiana appoint envoy extraordinary minister plenipotentiary mexico clothe full power adjust definitively settle pending difference two country include boundary mexico state texas minister appoint set mission probably time near mexican capital instruct bring negotiation charge conclusion early practicable period expect time enable communicate result congress present session result know forbear recommend congress ulterior measure redress wrong injury long borne would proper make negotiation instituted congress appropriate last session sum payment april july installment mexican indemnity year 1844 provide shall ascertained satisfaction american government say installment pay mexican government agent appoint united state receive manner discharge claim mexican government say agent delinquent remit money united state unsettle state relation mexico involve subject much mystery first information authentic form agent united state appoint administration predecessor receive state department 9th november last contained letter date 17th october address one citizen mexico view communicate department appear agent 20th september 1844 give receipt treasury mexico amount april july installment indemnity communication however assert receive single dollar cash hold security warrant time give receipt entertain doubt eventually obtain money installment appear never actually paid government mexico agent government therefore release discharge claim feel warrant direct payment make claimant treasury without legislation case undoubtedly one much hardship remain congress decide whether relief ought grant minister mexico instruct ascertain fact case mexican government authentic official form report result little delay possible attention early direct negotiation 4th march last find pending washington united state great britain subject oregon territory three several attempt previously make settle question dispute two country negotiation upon principle compromise prove unsuccessful negotiation take place london year 1818 1824 1826 two first administration monroe last adams negotiation 1818 fail accomplish object result convention 20th october year third article convention agree country may claim either party northwest coast america westward stony mountains shall together harbor bay creeks navigation river within free open term ten year date signature present convention vessel citizens subject two power well understood agreement construe prejudice claim either two high contract party may part say country shall take affect claim power state part say country object high contracting party respect prevent dispute difference amongst negotiation 1824 productive result convention 1818 leave unchanged negotiation 1826 also fail effect adjustment compromise result convention august 6 1827 agree continue force indefinite period provision third article convention 20th october 1818 provide shall competent however either contract party case either think fit time 20th october 1828 give due notice twelve month contract party annul abrogate convention shall case accordingly entirely annul abrogated expiration say term notice attempt adjust controversy parallel degree north latitude offer united state great britain 1818 1826 concession free navigation columbia river south latitude parallel degree rocky mountain intersection northeasternmost branch columbia thence channel river sea offer great britain addition small detach territory north columbia proposition reject party respectively october 1843 envoy extraordinary minister plenipotentiary unite state london authorize make similar offer make 1818 1826 thus stood question negotiation shortly afterwards transfer washington 23d august 1844 formally open direction immediate predecessor like previous negotiation base upon principle compromise avow purpose party treat respective claim two country oregon territory view establish permanent boundary westward rocky mountains pacific ocean accordingly 26th august 1844 british plenipotentiary offer divide oregon territory parallel north latitude rocky mountain point intersection northeasternmost branch columbia river thence river sea leave free navigation river enjoy common party country south line belong united state north great britain time propose addition yield united state detach territory north columbia extend along pacific strait fuca bulfinchs harbor inclusive hood canal make free united state port port south latitude might desire either mainland quadra vancouver island exception free port offer make british reject american government negotiation 1826 proposition properly reject american plenipotentiary day submit proposition compromise offer british plenipotentiary proposition part great britain reject british plenipotentiary request proposal make united state equitable adjustment question come office found state negotiation though entertain settle conviction british pretension title could maintain portion oregon territory upon principle public law recognize nation yet deference do predecessor especially consideration proposition compromise thrice make two preceding administration adjust question parallel two yield great britain free navigation columbia pending negotiation commence basis compromise deem duty abruptly break consideration convention 1818 1827 citizen subject two power hold joint occupancy country induce make another effort settle controversy spirit moderation give birth renew discussion proposition accordingly make reject british plenipotentiary without submit proposition suffer negotiation part drop express trust united state would offer saw fit call proposal settlement oregon question consistent fairness equity reasonable expectation british government proposition thus offer reject repeat offer parallel north latitude make two preceding administration without propose surrender great britain do free navigation columbia river right foreign power free navigation river heart country one unwilling concede also embrace provision make free great britain port port cap quadra vancouver island south parallel new question come discussion first time proposition would make extraordinary wholly inadmissible demand british government rejection proposition make deference alone do predecessor imply obligation act seem impose afford satisfactory evidence compromise united state ought accept effected conviction proposition compromise make reject direction subsequently withdraw title whole oregon territory assert believe maintain irrefragable fact argument civilized world see proceeding spirit liberal concession part united states government relieve responsibility may follow failure settle controversy attempt compromise fail becomes duty congress consider measure may proper adopt security protection citizen inhabit may hereafter inhabit oregon maintenance title territory adopt measure purpose care take nothing do violate stipulation convention 1827 still force faith treaty letter spirit ever trust ever scrupulously observe united state convention year notice require give either party joint occupancy shall terminate either rightfully assert exercise exclusive jurisdiction portion territory notice would judgment proper give recommend provision make law give accordingly terminate manner convention 6th august 1827 become proper congress determine legislation meantime adopt without violate convention beyond question protection law jurisdiction civil criminal ought immediately extend citizen oregon complain long neglect particular consequence compel security protection establish provisional government strong allegiance ardent attachment united state thus cast upon resource anxious law extend recommend do congress little delay possible full extent british parliament proceed regard british subject territory act july 2 1821 regulating fur trade establish criminal civil jurisdiction within certain part north america act great britain extend law jurisdiction civil criminal subject engage fur trade territory court province upper canada empower take cognizance cause civil criminal justice peace judicial officer authorize appoint oregon power execute process issue court province sit hold court record trial criminal offense misdemeanor make subject capital punishment also civil eas action shall exceed value amount sum lbs 200 subsequent date act parliament grant make british crown hudson bay company exclusive trade indian tribe oregon territory subject reservation shall operate exclusion subject foreign state force convention time u foreign state respectively may entitle shall engage say trade much regret act british subject enjoy protection british law british judicial tribunal throughout whole oregon american citizen territory enjoy protection government time result illustrate character people institution spite neglect multiplied number rapidly increase territory make appeal arm peacefully fortify new home adoption republican institution furnish another example truth inherent american breast must prevail due embrace protected law deem important law regulate trade intercourse indian tribe east rocky mountain extend tribe dwell beyond increase emigration oregon care protection due government citizen distant region make duty interest cultivate amicable relation indian tribes territory purpose recommend provision make establish indian agency subagencies may deem necessary beyond rocky mountain protection emigrant whilst way oregon attack indian tribe occupy country pas recommend suitable number stockade blockhouse fort erect along usual route frontier settlement missouri rocky mountain adequate force mount rifleman raise guard protect journey immediate adoption recommendation congress violate provision exist treaty nothing american citizen british law long since do british subject territory require several month perform voyage sea atlantic state oregon although large number whale ship pacific afford opportunity interchange intelligence without great delay settlement distant region united state overland mail believe entirely practicable importance establish mail least month submit favorable consideration congress submit wisdom congress determine whether present session expiration year notice measure may adopt consistently convention 1827 security right government protection citizen oregon ultimately wise proper make liberal grant land patriotic pioneer amidst privation danger lead way savage tribes inhabit vast wilderness intervene frontier settlement oregon cultivate ever ready defend soil fully satisfy doubt whether obtain grant soon convention united state great britain shall cease exist would doubt justice congress pending year notice worthy consideration whether stipulation effect may make consistently spirit convention recommendation make best manner secure right oregon submit congress great deference wisdom devise mode well calculate accomplish object shall meet hearty concurrence end year notice congress think proper make provision give notice shall reach period national right oregon must either abandon firmly maintain abandon without sacrifice national honor interest clear admit doubt oregon part north american continent confidently affirm title united state best existence ground title rest refer correspondence late present secretary state british plenipotentiary negotiation british proposition compromise would make columbia line south trifle addition detach territory united state north river would leave british side whole oregon territory include free navigation columbia valuable harbor pacific never moment entertain united state without abandonment dear territorial right national honor information congress communicate herewith correspondence take place two government late negotiation rapid extension settlement territory heretofore unoccupied addition new state confederacy expansion free principle rise greatness nation attract attention power europe lately doctrine broach balance power continent check advancement united state sincerely desirous preserve relation good understanding nation silence permit european interference north american continent interference attempt ready resist hazard well know american people nation government never interfere relation subsist government never make party war alliance seek territory conquest mingle party domestic struggle believe form government best never attempt propagate intrigue diplomacy force may claim continent like exemption european interference nation america equally sovereign independent europe possess right independent foreign interposition make war conclude peace regulate internal affair people united state therefore view indifference attempt european power interfere independent action nation continent american system government entirely different europe jealousy among different sovereign europe l one might become powerful rest cause anxiously desire establishment term balance power permit application north american continent especially united state must ever maintain principle people continent alone right decide destiny portion constitute independent state propose unite confederacy question u determine without foreign interposition never consent european power shall interfere prevent union might disturb balance power may desire maintain upon continent near quarter century ago principle distinctly announce world annual message one predecessor american continent free independent condition assume maintain henceforth consider subject colonization european power principle apply greatly increase force european power attempt establish new colony north america exist circumstance world present deem proper occasion reiterate reaffirm principle avow monroe state cordial concurrence wisdom sound policy reassertion principle especially reference north america day promulgation policy european power cherish disposition resist exist right every european nation respect due alike safety interest efficient protection law extend whole territorial limit distinctly announce world settle policy future european colony dominion shall consent plant established part north american continent question recently arise tenth article subsist treaty united state prussia article consul two country right sit judge arbitrator difference may arise captain crews vessel belong nation whose interest commit charge without interference local authority unless conduct crew captain disturb order tranquillity country say consuls require assistance decision carry effect support prussian consul new bedford june 1844 applied justice story carry effect decision make captain crew prussian ship borussia request refuse ground without previous legislation congress judiciary possess power give effect article treaty prussian government minister complain violation treaty ask government united state adopt necessary measure prevent similar violation hereafter good faith prussia well nation similar treaty stipulation require faithfully observe deem proper therefore lay subject congress recommend legislation may necessary give effect treaty obligation virtue arrangement make spanish government unite state december 1831 american vessel since 29th april 1832 admit entry port spain include balearic canary island payment tonnage duty 5 cent per ton though spanish vessel whether vessel arrive spain directly united state indirectly country congress act 13th july 1832 give effect arrangement two government confine reduction tonnage duty merely spanish vessel come port spain leave former discriminate duty remain vessel come port country manifestly unjust whilst american vessel arrive port spain country pay duty spanish vessel spanish vessel arrive port united state country subject heavy discriminating tonnage duty neither equality reciprocity violation arrangement conclude december 1831 two country spanish government make repeat earnest remonstrance inequality favorable attention congress several time invoked subject predecessor recommend act justice spain inequality remove congress discriminate duty levy act 13th july 1832 spanish vessel come united state foreign country refund recommendation embrace spanish vessel arrive united state cuba porto rico still remain subject provision act june 30 1834 concern tonnage duty vessel act 14th july 1832 coffee exempt duty altogether exemption universal without reference country produce national character vessel import tariff act 30th august 1842 exemption duty restrict coffee import american vessel place production whilst coffee import circumstance subject duty 20 per cent ad valorem act exist treaty king netherlands java coffee import european port kingdom united state whether dutch american vessel pay rate duty government netherlands complains discriminate duty impose coffee production one colonies chiefly bring java port kingdom export thence foreign country trade netherlands highly beneficial country relation ever friendly character circumstance case recommend discrimination abolish coffee java import netherlands place upon foot import directly brazil country produce eighth section tariff act 30th august 1842 duty 15 cent per gallon impose port wine cask red wine several country import cask duty 6 cent per gallon impose discrimination far regard port wine portugal deem violation treaty power provide high duty shall impose importation united state america article growth produce manufacture kingdom possession portugal shall payable like article growth produce manufacture foreign country accordingly give effect treaty well intention congress express proviso tariff act nothing therein contain construe interfere subsist treaty foreign nation treasury circular issue 16th july 1844 among thing declare duty port wine portugal cask exist law treaty 6 cent per gallon direct excess duty collect wine refund virtue another clause section act provide imitation port wine shall subject duty provide genuine article imitation port wine production france import extent united states government country claim correct construction act imitation ought pay high duty impose upon original port wine portugal appear unequal unjust french imitation port wine subject duty 15 cent valuable article portugal pay duty 6 cent per gallon therefore recommend congress legislation may necessary correct inequality late president annual message december last recommended appropriation satisfy claim texan government united state previously adjust far power executive extend claim arise act disarm body texan troop command major snively officer service unite state act order government forcible entry bryarlys land red river certain citizen united state take away therefrom good seize collector custom forfeit law texas liquidate debt ascertain due texas independent state acceptance term annexation propose united state discharge invalidate claim recommend provision make payment commissioner appoint china special session senate march last shortly afterwards set mission united state ship columbus arrive rio de janeiro passage state health become critical advice medical attendant return united state early month october last commodore biddle command east india squadron proceed voyage columbus charge commissioner duty exchange proper authority ratification treaty lately concluded emperor china since return commissioner united state health much improve entertain confident belief soon able proceed mission unfortunately difference continue exist among nation south america follow example establish independence others internal dissension prevail natural sympathy warmly enlist welfare desire controversy amicably adjust government administered manner protect right promote prosperity people contrary however settled policy interfere controversy whether external internal thus advert subject connect foreign relation deem necessary call attention policy peace good toward power earth require shall u except difference mexico great britain relation civilize nation satisfactory character hop enlightened age difference may amicably adjust secretary treasury annual report congress communicate full statement condition finance import fiscal year end 30th june last value amount export leave balance domestic consumption export year value amount domestic article receipt treasury year derive custom sale public land incidental miscellaneous source expenditures period applied payment public debt balance treasury 1st july last amount public debt remain unpaid 1st october last payment public debt would make anticipation period reimbursement authority confer upon secretary treasury act july 21 1841 april 15 1842 march 3 1843 unsettled state relation mexico menace hostile collision power view contingency deem prudent retain treasury amount unusually large ordinary purpose year ago whole national debt grow revolution war 1812 great britain extinguish presented world rare noble spectacle great grow people fully discharge every obligation since time exist debt contract small comparison similar burden nation extinguish early practicable period state country permit especially foreign relation interpose obstacle contemplate apply moneys treasury accrue beyond required appropriation congress liquidation cherish hope soon able congratulate country recover lofty position recently occupy country exhibit world benefit develop source national prosperity owe mankind permanent example nation free blight influence public debt attention congress invite importance make suitable modification reduction rate duty impose present tariff law object impose duty import raise revenue pay necessary expense government congress may undoubtedly exercise sound discretion discriminate arrange rate duty different article discrimination within revenue standard make view raise money support government becomes important understand distinctly mean revenue standard maximum exceed rate duty impose conceded experience prove duty may lay high diminish prohibit altogether importation give article thereby lessen destroy revenue low rate would derive importation duty exceed revenue rate impose raise money support government congress levy duty revenue 1 per cent give article produce give amount money treasury incidentally necessarily afford protection advantage amount 1 per cent home manufacturer similar like article importer duty raise 10 per cent produce great amount money afford great protection still raise 20 25 30 per cent raise revenue derive find increase protection advantage also increase raise 31 per cent find revenue produce rate less 30 per cent cease revenue duty precise point ascend scale duty ascertain experience revenue great maximum rate duty lay bona fide purpose collect money support government raise duty higher point thereby diminish amount collect levy protection merely revenue long congress may gradually increase rate duty give article revenue increase increase duty within revenue standard go beyond point increase duty revenue diminish destroy act cease object raise money support government protection merely follow congress levy high duty article import bear within revenue standard rate would probably produce much large amount economical administration government would require follow duty article horizontal rate article bear much high revenue duty others maximum revenue standard congress may ought discriminate rate impose take care adjust different article produce aggregate amount add proceeds sale public land may need pay economical expense government levy tariff duty congress exercise tax power purpose revenue may select object taxation may exempt certain article altogether permit importation free duty others may impose low duty class embrace article necessity general use especially consume laborer poor well wealthy citizen care take great interest country include manufacture agriculture commerce navigation mechanic art far may practicable derive equal advantage incidental protection system revenue duty may afford taxation direct indirect burden impose operate equally may class proportion ability bear make tax power actual benefit one class necessarily increase burden others beyond proportion would manifestly unjust term protection domestic industry popular import apply system various branch industry country farmer planter toil yearly field engage domestic industry much entitle labor protect manufacturer man commerce navigator mechanic engage also domestic industry different pursuit joint labor class constitute aggregate domestic industry nation equally entitle nation protection one justly claim exclusive recipient protection afford increase burden domestic industry others view correct remain inquire far tariff act 1842 consistent many provision act violation cardinal principle lay must concede rate duty imposed article prohibitory others high greatly diminish importation produce less amount revenue would derive low rate operate protection merely one branch domestic industry tax branch introduction minimum assume false value imposition specific duty injustice inequality act 1842 practical operation different class pursuit see felt many oppressive duty impose operation principle range 1 per cent 200 per cent prohibitory article partially others bear heavily article common necessity lightly article luxury frame much great burden imposes throw labor poorer class least able bear protects capital exempts rich pay proportion taxation require support government protects capital wealthy manufacturer increase profit benefit operative laborer employment whose wage increase article prime necessity coarse quality low price use mass people many instance subject heavy tax article finer quality high price luxury use opulent lightly tax imposes heavy unjust burden farmer planter commercial man pursuits except capitalist make investment manufacture great interest country nearly may practicable equally protected government theory know distinction person class bestow upon favor privilege others may enjoy purpose illustrious founder base institution rear upon great unchanging principle justice equity conscious administer spirit conceive would felt benefit diffuse would secure defense heart people powerful stand army mean appliance invent sustain government found injustice oppression fact tariff act 1842 pass majority one vote senate two house representative felt constrained peculiar circumstance exist time vote favor proclaim defect express determination aid modification first opportunity affords strong conclusive evidence intend permanent expediency necessity thorough revision recommend congress reduction present rate duty revision modification act 1842 far entertaining opinion unfriendly manufacturer contrary desire see prosperous far without impose unequal burden interest advantage system indirect taxation even within revenue standard must favor manufacturing interest interest complain recommend congress abolition minimum principle assume arbitrary false value specific duty substitution place ad valorem duty fairest equitable indirect tax impose ad valorem principle article tax accord cost value inferior quality small cost bear proportion tax superior quality great cost article consume taxed rate system ad valorem revenue duty proper discrimination proper guard frauds collect doubt afford ample incidental advantage manufacturer enable derive great profit derive regular business believe system strictly within revenue standard place manufacturing interest stable footing inure permanent advantage nearly may practicable extend great interest country incidental protection afford revenue law system firmly establish would permanent subject constant complaint agitation change must ever occur duty lay revenue protection merely favored interest deliberation congress subject hop spirit mutual concession compromise conflict interest may prevail result labor may crown happy consequence constitution unite state provide money shall draw treasury consequence appropriation make law public treasury undoubtedly contemplate intend create public money keep period collection need public us collection disbursement public money agency ever employ law except appointed government directly responsible control public money confide public treasury create law like responsibility control imagine framer constitution could intend treasury create place deposit public money irresponsible government first congress constitution act 2d september 1789 establish treasury department provide appointment treasurer make duty receive keep money united state time submit secretary treasury comptroller either inspection money hand bank national state could intend use substitute treasury speak constitution keeper public money manifest fact time national bank three four state bank limit capital exist country employment depository first resort limited extent avow intention continue permanently place treasury constitution afterwards time time employ motif suppose convenience experience show banking corporation keeper public money thereby make effect treasury government guaranty command use money public purpose late bank united state prove faithless state bank afterwards employ faithless year ago million public money keep government bring almost bankruptcy public credit seriously impaired inability indisposition pay demand public creditor currency recognize constitution failure occur period peace great inconvenience loss suffer public country involve foreign war inconvenience loss would much great might result extreme public calamity public money mingle private fund bank individual use private purpose place bank effect loan without interest loan upon interest borrower public money convert banking capital use loaned private profit bank stockholder call case 1837 may pocket borrower bank instead public treasury contemplate constitution framer constitution could never intend money pay treasury thus convert private use place beyond control government bank hold public money often tempt desire gain extend loan increase circulation thus stimulate produce spirit speculation extravagance sooner later must result ruin thousand public money permit thus use kept treasure pay public creditor gold silver temptation afford deposit bank undue expansion business would check amount constitutional currency leave circulation would enlarge employment public collection disbursement bank would consequence find safe sound condition present state bank employ depository without adequate regulation law whereby public money secure casualty excesses revulsion suspension defalcation overissues overtrading inordinate desire gain cause constantly expose secretary treasury case practicable take collateral security amount hold pledge stock united state state good credit deposit bank give description security others decline entertaining opinion separation moneys government banking institution indispensable safety fund government right people recommend congress provision make law separation constitutional treasury create public money constitutional treasury recommend design secure depository public money without power make loan discount issue paper whatever currency circulation doubt treasury contemplate constitution independent banking corporation money people keep treasury people create law custody agent people choose accord form constitution agent directly responsible government adequate bond oath subject severe punishment embezzlement private use misapplication public fund failure respect perform duty say people government incompetent trust custody money treasury provide must rely president cashier stockholder bank corporation appoint responsible would concede incompetent recommend establishment constitutional treasury public money shall keep desire adequate provision make law safety executive discretion control shall remove except may necessary direct disbursement pursuance appropriation make law present land system limit minimum price public land enter per acre large quantity land inferior quality remain unsold command price record general land office appear public land remain unsold several state territory situate acre market subject entry twenty year acres fifteen year acres ten year acres five year much large portion land continue unsalable minimum price permit sell long large territory land valuable portion select annually brought market government view sale settlement inferior land recommend price graduate reduced present minimum rate confine sale reduce price settler cultivator limit quantity graduate reduced price limit term 1 per acre expiration period second third term lower rate large portion land would purchase many worthy citizen unable pay high rate could purchase home family adopt policy graduation reduction price inferior land sell real value state lie free inconvenience injustice subject consequence united state continue large quantity public land within border liable taxation support local government recommend continuance policy grant preemption liberal extent settle may hereafter settle public land whether survey unsurveyed indian title may extinguish time settlement find experience consequence combination purchaser cause small quantity public land sell public auction command high price minimum rate establish law settler public land however rarely able secure home improvement public sale rate combination mean capital command superior ability purchase render impossible settler compete market put competition combination capitalist speculator usually enable purchase land include improvement settler minimum price government either turn home extort accord ability pay double quadruple amount pay government enterprise perseverance hardy pioneer west penetrate wilderness family suffer danger privation hardship attend settlement new country prepare way body emigrants course year usually follow great degree indebted rapid extension aggrandizement country experience prove portion population patriotic hardy brave men frontier ready obey call country defend right honor whenever whatever enemy assail protected grasping speculator secure minimum price public land humble home improve labor end view vexatious unnecessary restriction impose upon exist preemption law repeal modified true policy government afford facility citizens become owner small portion vast public domain low moderate rate present system manage mineral land united state believe radically defective acre public land suppose contain lead mineral reserve sale numerous lease upon grant individual upon stipulate rent system grant lease prove unprofitable government unsatisfactory citizen go upon land must continue lay foundation much future difficulty government lessee accord official record amount rent receive government year 1841 1842 1843 1844 expense system period include salary superintendent agent clerk incidental expense income less expense pecuniary loss may add injury sustain public consequence destruction timber careless wasteful manner work mine system give rise much litigation united state individual citizen produce irritation excitement mineral region involve government heavy additional expenditure believe similar loss embarrassment continue occur present system lease land remain unchanged land superintendence care war department ordinary duty proper natural connection recommend repeal present system land place superintendence management general land office public land brought market sell upon term congress wisdom may prescribe reserve government equitable percentage gross amount mineral product preemption principle extend resident miner settler upon minimum price may establish congress refer accompany report secretary war information respect present situation army operation past year state defense condition public work relation various indian tribe within limit upon border invite attention suggestion contain report relation prominent object national interest order give past summer concentrate military force western frontier texas troop widely disperse small detachment occupy post remote prompt expeditious manner army embrace half peace establishment drawn together emergency sudden reflect great credit officer intrusted execution order well upon discipline army strength protect defend people territory texas event mexico commence hostility invade territory large army threaten authorized general assign command army occupation make requisition additional force several state near texan territory could expeditiously furnish opinion large force command auxiliary aid like circumstance authorize receive texas require contingency upon exercise authority depend occurred circumstance two company state artillery city new orleans send texas mustered service united state fully state report secretary war recommend congress provision make payment troop well small number texan volunteer command general think necessary receive muster service last summer first regiment dragoon make extensive excursion indian country border part advance nearly possession hudson bay company north part far south pas rocky mountain head water tributary stream colorado west exhibition military force among indian tribe distant region council hold commander expedition believe salutary influence restrain hostility among maintain friendly relation united state interest account one excursion accompany report secretary war direction war department brevet captain fremont corp topographical engineer employ since 1842 explore country west mississippi beyond rocky mountain two expedition already bring close report scientific enterprising officer furnish much interest valuable information engage third expedition expect arduous service complete season enable communicate result congress present session relation indian tribe favorable character policy remove country design permanent residence west mississippi without limit organize state territory well appreciate year ago education attend habit civilize life gain ground among serious difficulty long stand continue distract several party cherokee unhappily divide effort government adjust difficulty heretofore proved unsuccessful remain probability desirable object accomplish without aid legislation congress early period session present subject consideration accompany exposition complaint claim several party nation divide view adoption measure congress may enable executive justice respectively put end possible dissension long prevail still prevail among refer report secretary navy present condition branch national defense grave suggestion object increase efficiency great economy management past year officer men perform duty satisfactory manner order give execute promptness fidelity large force often form one squadron flag readily concentrate gulf mexico apparently without unusual effort especially observe notwithstanding union considerable force act commit even jealousy irritated power could construe act aggression commander squadron officer strict conformity instruction hold ever ready active duty achieve still pure glory contribute preservation peace believe foreign station honor flag maintain generally ships war distinguish good discipline order happy add display maritime force require event summer make wholly within usual appropriation service year additional appropriation require commerce united state navigate interest steadily rapidly increase since organization government believe second one power world distant day shall probably inferior none expose must wise policy afford important interest protection ship war distribute great highway trade throughout world thirty year appropriation make annually expended gradual increase naval force peace navy performs important duty protect commerce event war efficient mean defense successful use steam navigation ocean follow introduction war steamer great increase number navy principal maritime power world due regard safety efficient protection large increase commerce demand correspond increase part country great facility construction vessel description promise great advantage employment admirably adapt protection commerce rapid transmission intelligence coast defense pursuahce wise policy gradual increase navy large supply timber material shipbuilding collected shelter state good preservation iron steamer build great facility various part union use iron material especially construction steamer enter safety many harbor along coast inaccessible vessel great draft practicability construct interior strongly recommend liberal appropriation make important object whatever may policy earlier stages government nation infancy ship interest commerce comparatively small resource limited population sparse scarcely extend beyond limit original thirteen state policy must essentially different grown three twenty million people commerce carry ship find every sea territorial boundary settlement greatly expand neither commerce long line coast ocean lake successfully defend foreign aggression mean fortification alone essential important commercial military point chief reliance object must efficient navy benefit result navy confine atlantic state production interior seek market abroad directly dependent safety freedom commerce occupation balize new orleans hostile force would embarrass stagnate whole export trade mississippi affect value agricultural product entire valley mighty river tributary never policy maintain large stand army time peace contrary genius free institution would impose heavy burden people dangerous public liberty reliance protection defense land must mainly citizen soldier ever ready ever ready time past rush alacrity call country defense description force however defend coast harbor inland sea protect commerce ocean lake must protect navy consider increased naval force especially steam vessel correspond growth importance nation proportion increase increase naval power nation vast importance regard safety great grow interest protect recommend subject favorable consideration congress report herewith communicate contains detailed statement operation department pas year see income postage fall short expenditure year deficiency cause reduction rate postage make act 3d march last principle generally acquiesce people department sustain limit expenditure income congress never seek make source revenue general purpose except short period last war great britain ever become charge general treasury congress shall adhere principle think ought necessary either curtail present mail service reduce expenditures modify act 3d march last improve revenue extension mail service additional facility demand rapid extension increase population western frontier admit curtailment materially reduce present expenditure adjustment tariff postage interest people demand low rate adopt produce necessary revenue meet expenditures department invite attention congress suggestion subject belief modification late law may make yield sufficient revenue without call treasury little change present rate postage proper measure take pursuance act 3d march last establishment line mail steamer foreign country importance service commend strongly favorable consideration growth country public business devolves head several executive department greatly increase respect distribution duty among seem incongruous many might transfer one another advantage public interest auspicious time consideration subject congress view system organization several department appropriate division public business probably occur important duty state department relate foreign affair great enlargement family nation increase commerce correspond extension consular system business department greatly increase present organization many duty domestic nature consist detail devolve secretary state appropriately belong foreign department government may properly transfer department one grow present state law concern patent office year since subordinate clerkship become distinct bureau great importance excellent internal organization still connect state department transaction business question much importance inventor community frequently arise exist law refer decision board secretary state member question legal connection exists state department patent office may great propriety advantage transfer last annual message congress madison invite attention proper provision important improvement executive establishment recommendation repeat successor official duty much increase within year office become one great importance duty may still increase advantage public interest executive officer residence constant attention seat government required legal question involve important principle large amount public money constantly refer president executive department examination decision public business official management judiciary augment extension territory act congress authorize suit unite state large body valuable public land greatly increase labor responsibility therefore recommend place footing head executive department subordinate officer provide law department may require discharge additional duty may devolve upon congress possess power exclusive legislation district columbia commend interest inhabitant favorable consideration people district legislative body must confide local well general interest representative whose election voice whose official conduct control member national legislature consider immediate representative ready give attention interest want responsible recommend liberal generous spirit may characterize measure relation shall ever dispose show proper regard wish within constitutional limit shall time cheerfully cooperate advancement welfare trust may deem inappropriate occasion dwell moment memory eminent citizen country summer go descended tomb enjoyment contemplate advanced age near fourscore year happy condition country cheer last hour andrew jackson depart life tranquil hope bless immortality death happy life eminently useful unfaltering confidence virtue capacity people permanence free government largely contribute establish defend great deed secure affection happiness witness growth glory country love well depart amidst benediction million nation pay tribute memory tomb come generation learn example love country right man language similar occasion present commend guidance almighty god full reliance merciful providence maintenance free institution earnest supplication whatever error may lot commit discharge arduous duty devolve find remedy harmony wisdom counsel