SPECIAL MESSAGES.
WASHINGTON, December 10, 1844.
To the Senate of the United States:
I have great pleasure in submitting to the Senate, for its ratification and approval, a treaty which has been concluded between Mr. Cushing, the United States commissioner, and the Chinese Empire.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, December 10, 1844.
To the Senate of the United States:
I submit copies of two private and confidential letters addressed by Mr. Fay, acting in his place during the absence of Mr. Wheaton from Berlin, from which it appears that should the Senate see cause to ratify the treaty with the States composing the Zollverein without reference to the fact that the time limited for the exchange of its ratification had expired the Germanic States would regard the time fixed for the exchange of ratifications as immaterial and would give by their action upon it vitality and force to the treaty. I submit it to your mature consideration whether, in view of the important benefits arising from the treaty to the trade and commerce of the United States and to their agriculture, it would not comport with sound policy to adopt that course.
The Executive, not regarding the action of the Senate upon the treaty as expressive of its decisive opinion, deemed it proper to reopen the negotiations so far as to obtain an extension of time for the interchange of ratifications. The negotiation failed, however, in this particular, out of no disinclination to abide by the terms of the treaty on the part of the Zollverein, but from a belief that it would not fully comport with its dignity to do so.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, December 10, 1844.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I communicate to you an extract of a dispatch from Mr. Hall to the Secretary of State, which has been received by me since my message of the 3d instant, containing the pleasing intelligence that the indemnity assumed to be paid by the Republic of Venezuela in the case of the brig Morris has been satisfactorily arranged.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, December 18, 1844.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith copies of dispatches received from our minister at Mexico since the commencement of your present session, which claim from their importance, and I doubt not will receive, your calm and deliberate consideration. The extraordinary and highly offensive language which the Mexican Government has thought proper to employ in reply to the remonstrance of the Executive, through Mr. Shannon, against the renewal of the war with Texas while the question of annexation was pending before Congress and the people, and also the proposed manner of conducting that war, will not fail to arrest your attention. Such remonstrance, urged in no unfriendly spirit to Mexico, was called for by considerations of an imperative character, having relation as well to the peace of this country and honor of this Government as to the cause of humanity and civilization. Texas had entered into the treaty of annexation upon the invitation of the Executive, and when for that act she was threatened with a renewal of the war on the part of Mexico she naturally looked to this Government to interpose its efforts to ward off the threatened blow. But one course was left the Executive, acting within the limits of its constitutional competency, and that was to protest in respectful, but at the same time strong and decided, terms against it. The war thus threatened to be renewed was promulgated by edicts and decrees, which ordered on the part of the Mexican military the desolation of whole tracts of country and the destruction without discrimination of all ages, sexes, and conditions of existence. Over the manner of conducting war Mexico possesses no exclusive control. She has no right to violate at pleasure the principles which an enlightened civilization has laid down for the conduct of nations at war, and thereby retrograde to a period of barbarism, which happily for the world has long since passed away. All nations are interested in enforcing an observance of those principles, and the United States, the oldest of the American Republics and the nearest of the civilized powers to the theater on which these enormities were proposed to be enacted, could not quietly content themselves to witness such a state of things. They had through the Executive on another occasion, and, as was believed, with the approbation of the whole country, remonstrated against outrages similar but even less inhuman than those which by her new edicts and decrees she has threatened to perpetrate, and of which the late inhuman massacre at Tabasco was but the precursor.
The bloody and inhuman murder of Fannin and his companions, equaled only in savage barbarity by the usages of the untutored Indian tribes, proved how little confidence could be placed on the most solemn stipulations of her generals, while the fate of others who became her captives in war—many of whom, no longer able to sustain the fatigues and privations of long journeys, were shot down by the wayside, while their companions who survived were subjected to sufferings even more painful than death—had left an indelible stain on the page of civilization. The Executive, with the evidence of an intention on the part of Mexico to renew scenes so revolting to humanity, could do no less than renew remonstrances formerly urged. For fulfilling duties so imperative Mexico has thought proper, through her accredited organs, because she has had represented to her the inhumanity of such proceedings, to indulge in language unknown to the courtesy of diplomatic intercourse and offensive in the highest degree to this Government and people. Nor has she offended in this only. She has not only violated existing conventions between the two countries by arbitrary and unjust decrees against our trade and intercourse, but withholds installments of debt due to our citizens which she solemnly pledged herself to pay under circumstances which are fully explained by the accompanying letter from Mr. Green, our secretary of legation. And when our minister has invited the attention of her Government to wrongs committed by her local authorities, not only on the property but on the persons of our fellow-citizens engaged in prosecuting fair and honest pursuits, she has added insult to injury by not even deigning for months together to return an answer to his representations. Still further to manifest her unfriendly feelings toward the United States, she has issued decrees expelling from some of her Provinces American citizens engaged in the peaceful pursuits of life, and now denies to those of our citizens prosecuting the whale fishery on the northwest coast of the Pacific the privilege, which has through all time heretofore been accorded to them, of exchanging goods of a small amount in value at her ports in California for supplies indispensable to their health and comfort.
Nor will it escape the observation of Congress that in conducting a correspondence with a minister of the United States, who can not and does not know any distinction between the geographical sections of the Union, charges wholly unfounded are made against particular States, and an appeal to others for aid and protection against supposed wrongs. In this same connection, sectional prejudices are attempted to be excited and the hazardous and unpardonable effort is made to foment divisions amongst the States of the Union and thereby imbitter their peace. Mexico has still to learn that however freely we may indulge in discussion among ourselves, the American people will tolerate no interference in their domestic affairs by any foreign government, and in all that concerns the constitutional guaranties and the national honor the people of the United States have but one mind and one heart.
The subject of annexation addresses itself, most fortunately, to every portion of the Union. The Executive would have been unmindful of its highest obligations if it could have adopted a course of policy dictated by sectional interests and local feelings. On the contrary, it was because the question was neither local nor sectional, but made its appeal to the interests of the whole Union, and of every State in the Union, that the negotiation, and finally the treaty of annexation, was entered into; and it has afforded me no ordinary pleasure to perceive that so far as demonstrations have been made upon it by the people they have proceeded from all portions of the Union. Mexico may seek to excite divisions amongst us by uttering unjust denunciations against particular States, but when she comes to know that the invitations addressed to our fellow-citizens by Spain, and afterwards by herself, to settle Texas were accepted by emigrants from all the States, and when, in addition to this, she refreshes her recollection with the fact that the first effort which was made to acquire Texas was during the Administration of a distinguished citizen from an Eastern State, which was afterwards renewed under the auspices of a President from the Southwest, she will awake to a knowledge of the futility of her present purpose of sowing dissensions among us or producing distraction in our councils by attacks either on particular States or on persons who are now in the retirement of private life.
Considering the appeal which she now makes to eminent citizens by name, can she hope to escape censure for having ascribed to them, as well as to others, a design, as she pretends now for the first time revealed, of having originated negotiations to despoil her by duplicity and falsehood of a portion of her territory? The opinion then, as now, prevailed with the Executive that the annexation of Texas to the Union was a matter of vast importance. In order to acquire that territory before it had assumed a position among the independent powers of the earth, propositions were made to Mexico for a cession of it to the United States. Mexico saw in these proceedings at the time no cause of complaint. She is now, when simply reminded of them, awakened to the knowledge of the fact, which she, through her secretary of state, promulgates to the whole world as true, that those negotiations were founded in deception and falsehood and superinduced by unjust and iniquitous motives. While Texas was a dependency of Mexico the United States opened negotiations with the latter power for the cession of her then acknowledged territory, and now that Texas is independent of Mexico and has maintained a separate existence for nine years, during which time she has been received into the family of nations and is represented by accredited ambassadors at many of the principal Courts of Europe, and when it has become obvious to the whole world that she is forever lost to Mexico, the United States is charged with deception and falsehood in all relating to the past, and condemnatory accusations are made against States which have had no special agency in the matter, because the Executive of the whole Union has negotiated with free and independent Texas upon a matter vitally important to the interests of both countries; and after nine years of unavailing war Mexico now announces her intention, through her secretary of foreign affairs, never to consent to the independence of Texas or to abandon the effort to reconquer that Republic. She thus announces a perpetual claim, which at the end of a century will furnish her as plausible a ground for discontent against any nation which at the end of that time may enter into a treaty with Texas as she possesses at this moment against the United States. The lapse of time can add nothing to her title to independence. A course of conduct such as has been described on the part of Mexico, in violation of all friendly feeling and of the courtesy which should characterize the intercourse between the nations of the earth, might well justify the United States in a resort to any measures to vindicate their national honor; but, actuated by a sincere desire to preserve the general peace, and in view of the present condition of Mexico, the Executive, resting upon its integrity, and not fearing but that the judgment of the world will duly appreciate its motives, abstains from recommending to Congress a resort to measures of redress and contents itself with reurging upon that body prompt and immediate action on the subject of annexation. By adopting that measure the United States will be in the exercise of an undoubted right; and if Mexico, not regarding their forbearance, shall aggravate the injustice of her conduct by a declaration of war against them, upon her head will rest all the responsibility.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, December 23, 1844.
To the Senate of the United States:
The messenger who lately bore to Berlin the ratified copy of the convention for the mutual abolition of the droit d'aubaine and taxes on emigration between the United States of America and the Grand Duchy of Hesse, has just returned to Washington, bearing with him the exchange copy of said convention. It appears that the exchange of ratifications did not take place until the 16th day of October, twenty days after the period fixed by the convention itself for that purpose. This informality, which it would seem was occasioned by the absence from Berlin of the plenipotentiary from Hesse and by the time necessarily required for the preparation of the document, has been waived by the representative of that Government.
This subject is now submitted for the consideration of the Senate.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, December 23, 1844.
To the Senate of the United States:
I herewith transmit a letter from the Secretary of State, accompanied by copies of the correspondence[136] asked for by your resolution of the 12th instant.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, January 2, 1845.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit herewith a letter from the Secretary of State, accompanied by a copy of a letter[137] from Mr. Raymond, secretary of legation and chargé d'affaires ad interim of the Republic of Texas, in answer to the Senate's resolution of the 16th December last.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, January 2, 1845.
To the Senate of the United States:
In answer to your resolution of the 19th December last, I herewith transmit a letter[138] from the Secretary of State and the accompanying documents.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, January 9, 1845.
To the House of Representatives:
I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives, in reply to their resolution of the 14th of June last, a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying papers.[139]
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, January 9, 1845.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit herewith additional documents having relation to the treaty with China, which may enable the Senate more satisfactorily to act upon it.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, January 22, 1845.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
I communicate herewith an abstract of the treaty between the United States of America and the Chinese Empire concluded at Wang-Hiya on the 3d of July last, and ratified by the Senate on the 16th instant, and which, having also been ratified by the Emperor of China, now awaits only the exchange of the ratifications in China, from which it will be seen that the special mission authorized by Congress for this purpose has fully succeeded in the accomplishment so far of the great objects for which it was appointed, and in placing our relations with China on a new footing eminently favorable to the commerce and other interests of the United States.
In view of the magnitude and importance of our national concerns, actual and prospective, in China, I submit to the consideration of Congress the expediency of providing for the preservation and cultivation of the subsisting relations of amity between the United States and the Chinese Government, either by means of a permanent minister or commissioner with diplomatic functions, as in the case of certain of the Mohammedan States. It appears by one of the extracts annexed that the establishment of the British Government in China consists both of a plenipotentiary and also of paid consuls for all the five ports, one of whom has the title and exercises the functions of consul-general; and France has also a salaried consul-general, and the interests of the United States seem in like manner to call for some representative in China of a higher class than an ordinary commercial consulate.
I also submit to the consideration of Congress the expediency of making some special provision by law for the security of the independent and honorable position which the treaty of Wang-Hiya confers on citizens of the United States residing or doing business in China. By the twenty-first and twenty-fifth articles of the treaty (copies of which are subjoined in extenso) citizens of the United States in China are wholly exempted, as well in criminal as in civil matters, from the local jurisdiction of the Chinese Government and made amenable to the laws and subject to the jurisdiction of the appropriate authorities of the United States alone. Some action on the part of Congress seems desirable in order to give full effect to these important concessions of the Chinese Government.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, January 29, 1845.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with the request of the governor of the State of Illinois, I transmit herewith a copy of certain resolutions[140] adopted by the general assembly of that State.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 3, 1845.
To the Senate of the United States:
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 2d ultimo, calling for information in reference to the indemnities stipulated to be paid pursuant to the convention between the United States and the Mexican Republic of the 30th of January, 1843, I transmit herewith reports from the Secretaries of State and of the Treasury and the documents which accompanied them.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 3, 1845.
To the House of Representatives:
In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 23d ultimo, requesting information upon the subject of embezzlement of public money, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 3, 1845.
To the House of Representatives:
In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 16th ultimo, calling for information upon the subject of the boundaries, of the Republic of Texas and for copies of treaties between that Republic and other powers, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State and the documents which accompanied it.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 4, 1845.
To the Senate of the United States:
In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 5th December, I herewith transmit copies of the proceedings in the case of the inquiry into the official conduct of Silas Reed, principal surveyor of Missouri and Illinois, together with all the complaints against him and all the evidence taken in relation thereto. I did not consider the irregularities into which the surveyor-general had fallen as of sufficient magnitude to induce his dismissal from office at the time that the papers reached me, having become convinced, upon inquiry of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, of the ability, efficiency, and fidelity of the surveyor-general in all things appertaining to his office; but since the passage of the resolution by the Senate I regarded the matter as so augmented in importance as to induce me to refer the subject to the Commissioner of the General Land Office for a minute and thorough examination. A copy of the report which he has made, and also the defense of Dr. Reed, accompanies the papers. It has seemed to me that the facts set forth by the report exhibit certain irregularities which are properly reprehensible, but from which neither the surveyor-general, in a pecuniary point of view, derived profit nor the Government sustained loss, and which the reproof contained in the Commissioner's report will in all future cases restrain; while the high testimony borne by the Commissioner to the generally excellent deportment in office of the surveyor-general has seemed to me to mark the case more as one meriting disapproval and correction in future than the severe punishment of dismissal.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 5, 1845.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives, in answer to its resolution of the 31st ultimo, a report from the Secretary of State, together with copies of documents[141] therein referred to.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 5, 1845.
To the Senate of the United States:
In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 10th of December last, requesting further correspondence touching the relations between the United States and the Mexican Republic, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State and the documents which accompanied it.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 7, 1845.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit herewith the report[142] requested by the resolution of the Senate of the 2d of January last.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 7, 1845.
To the Senate of the United States:
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 4th instant, requesting information relative to the employment of Mr. Duff Green in the service of this Government, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 12, 1845.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
I transmit herewith a copy of the correspondence relating to the claims of citizens of the United States upon the Mexican Republic, requested by the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 10th of January, 1844.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 12, 1845.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit herewith a copy of the correspondence relative to claims of citizens of the United States on the Mexican Republic, requested by the resolution of the Senate of the 26th December, 1843.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON CITY, February 13, 1845.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit herewith, for the advice and approbation of the Senate, a treaty with the Creek and Seminole tribes of Indians, concluded on the 4th day of January last.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 14, 1845.
To the Senate of the United States:
I herewith transmit certain documents connected with the case of Silas Reed,[143] and which were inadvertently omitted in the packet of papers which accompanied my message to the Senate on this subject.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 17, 1845.
To the House of Representatives:
In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 30th of December last, requesting information with reference to indemnities for claims of citizens of the United States upon the Mexican Government, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State and the documents which accompanied it.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 19, 1845.
To the Senate of the United States:
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 11th December, 1844, requesting the President "to lay before the Senate, if in his judgment that may be done without prejudice to the public interests, a copy of any instructions which may have been given by the Executive to the American minister in England on the subject of the title to and occupation of the Territory of Oregon since the 4th day of March, 1841; also a copy of any correspondence which may have passed between this Government and that of Great Britain, or between either of the two Governments and the minister of the other, in relation to that subject since that time," I have to say that in my opinion, as the negotiation is still pending, the information sought for cannot be communicated without prejudice to the public service.
I deem it, however, proper to add that considerable progress has been made in the discussion, which has been carried on in a very amicable spirit between the two Governments, and that there is reason to hope that it may be terminated and the negotiation brought to a close within a short period.
I have delayed answering the resolution under the expectation expressed in my annual message that the negotiation would have been terminated before the close of the present session of Congress, and that the information called for by the resolution of the Senate might be communicated.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 20, 1845.
To the Senate of the United States:
I herewith communicate to the Senate a report[144] from the Secretary of State, in reply to the inquiries contained in their resolution of the 17th instant.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 20, 1845.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
I transmit herewith, for the information of Congress, copies of certain dispatches recently received from Mr. Wise, our envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary at the Court of Brazil, upon the subject of the slave trade, developing the means used and the devices resorted to in order to evade existing enactments upon that subject.
Anxiously desirous as are the United States to suppress a traffic so revolting to humanity, in the efforts to accomplish which they have been the pioneers of civilized states, it can not but be a subject of the most profound regret that any portion of our citizens should be found acting in cooperation with the subjects of other powers in opposition to the policy of their own Government, thereby subjecting to suspicion and to the hazard of disgrace the flag of their own country. It is true that this traffic is carried on altogether in foreign parts and that our own coasts are free from its pollution; but the crime remains the same wherever perpetrated, and there are many circumstances to warrant the belief that some of our citizens are deeply involved in its guilt. The mode and manner of carrying on this trade are clearly and fearlessly set forth in the accompanying documents, and it would seem that a regular system has been adopted for the purpose of thwarting the policy and evading the penalties of our laws. American vessels, with the knowledge, as there are good reasons to believe, of the owners and masters, are chartered, or rather purchased, by notorious slave dealers in Brazil, aided by English brokers and capitalists, with this intent. The vessel is only nominally chartered at so much per month, while in truth it is actually sold, to be delivered on the coast of Africa; the charter party binding the owners in the meantime to take on board as passengers a new crew in Brazil, who, when delivered on the coast, are to navigate her back to the ports of Brazil with her cargo of slaves. Under this agreement the vessel clears from the United States for some port in Great Britain, where a cargo of merchandise known as "coast goods," and designed especially for the African trade, is purchased, shipped, and consigned, together with the vessel, either directly to the slave dealer himself or to his agents or accomplices in Brazil. On her arrival a new crew is put on board as passengers and the vessel and cargo consigned to an equally guilty factor or agent on the coast of Africa, where the unlawful purpose originally designed is finally consummated. The merchandise is exchanged for slaves, the vessel is delivered up, her name obliterated, her papers destroyed, her American crew discharged, to be provided for by the charterers, and the new or passenger crew put in command to carry back its miserable freight to the first contrivers of the voyage, or their employees in Brazil.
During the whole progress of this tortuous enterprise it is possible that neither the American crew originally enlisted nor the passenger crew put on board in the Brazilian ports are aware of the nature of the voyage, and yet it is on these principally, ignorant if not innocent, that the penalties of the law are inflicted, while the guilty contrivers—the charterers, brokers, owners, and masters; in short, all who are most deeply concerned in the crime and its rewards—for the most part escape unpunished.
It will be seen from the examinations which have recently taken place at Rio that the subjects of Her Britannic Majesty as well as our own citizens are deeply implicated in this inhuman traffic. British factors and agents, while they supply Africa with British fabrics in exchange for slaves, are chiefly instrumental in the abuse of the American flag; and the suggestions contained in the letter of Mr. Wise (whose judicious and zealous efforts in the matter can not be too highly commended), addressed to Mr. Hamilton, the British envoy, as to the best mode of suppressing the evil, deserve your most deliberate consideration, as they will receive, I doubt not, that of the British Government.
It is also worthy of consideration whether any other measures than those now existing are necessary to give greater efficacy to the just and humane policy of our laws, which already provide for the restoration to Africa of slaves captured at sea by American cruisers. From time to time provision has been made by this Government for their comfortable support and maintenance during a limited period after their restoration, and it is much to be regretted that this liberal policy has not been adopted by Great Britain. As it is, it seems to me that the policy it has adopted is calculated rather to perpetuate than to suppress the trade by enlisting very large interests in its favor. Merchants and capitalists furnish the means of carrying it on; manufactures, for which the negroes are exchanged, are the products of her workshops; the slaves, when captured, instead of being returned back to their homes are transferred to her colonial possessions in the West Indies and made the means of swelling the amount of their products by a system of apprenticeship for a term of years; and the officers and crews who capture the vessels receive on the whole number of slaves so many pounds sterling per capita by way of bounty.
It must be obvious that while these large interests are enlisted in favor of its continuance it will be difficult, if not impossible, to suppress the nefarious traffic, and that its results would be in effect but a continuance of the slave trade in another and more cruel form; for it can be but a matter of little difference to the African whether he is torn from his country and transported to the West Indies as a slave in the regular course of the trade, or captured by a cruiser, transferred to the same place, and made to perform the same labor under the name of an apprentice, which is at present the practical operation of the policy adopted.
It is to be hoped that Her Britannic Majesty's Government will, upon a review of all the circumstances stated in these dispatches, adopt more efficient measures for the suppression of the trade, which she has so long attempted to put down, with, as yet, so little success, and more consonant with the original policy of restoring the captured African to his home.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 21, 1845.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a treaty of peace, friendship, navigation, and commerce between the United States and the Republic of New Granada, signed at Bogota on the 20th of December last. A copy of the papers on file in the Department of State relating to the treaty is also herewith communicated, for the information of the Senate.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 21, 1845.
To the Senate of the United States:
I herewith transmit to the Senate, in answer to their resolution of the 14th instant, a report of the Secretary of State, with the accompanying papers.[145]
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 21, 1845.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with your resolution of the 23d January last, asking information "if any, and what, officers of the United States have been guilty of embezzlement of public money since the 19th August, 1841, and, further, whether such officers have been criminally prosecuted for such embezzlement, and, if not, that the reasons why they have not been so prosecuted be communicated," I herewith transmit letters from the Secretaries of the Treasury, War, and Navy Departments and the Postmaster-General, and from various heads of bureaus, from which it will be seen that no case of embezzlement by any person holding office under the Government is known to have occurred since the 19th August, 1841, unless exceptions are to be found in the cases of the postmaster at Tompkinsville, Ky., who was instantly removed from office, and all papers necessary for his prosecution were transmitted to the United States district attorney, and John Flanagan, superintendent of lead mines of the Upper Mississippi, who was also removed, and whose place of residence, as will be seen by the letter of the head of the Ordnance Bureau, has been, and still is, unknown.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 24, 1845.
To the Senate of the United States:
I herewith communicate to the Senate, for its consideration, a convention concluded by the minister of the United States at Berlin with the Kingdom of Bavaria, dated on the 21st day of January, 1845, for the mutual abolition of the droit d'aubaine and taxes on emigration between that Government and the United States, and also a copy of a dispatch from the minister explanatory of the sixth article of the same.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 26, 1845.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit herewith a communication from the Secretary of the Treasury, inclosing reports from the Commissioner of the General Land Office, dated the 25th instant, and accompanying papers, in compliance with your resolution of the 17th instant, asking for information relative to reservations of mineral lands in the State of Illinois south of the base line and west of the third principal meridian.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 26, 1845.
To the Senate of the United States:
I herewith communicate a dispatch recently received, and an extract from one of a prior date, from our minister at Mexico, which I deem it important to lay confidentially before the Senate.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 26, 1845.
To the Senate of the United States:
In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 3d instant, I herewith transmit the information[146] called for.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 26, 1845.
To the Senate of the United States:
I herewith transmit to the Senate, for its approval, an additional article to the treaty of extradition between the United States and France of the 9th of November, 1843. It will be found to contain the amendments suggested by the resolution of the Senate of the 15th of June last.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 28, 1845.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit herewith to the Senate, in answer to its resolution of the 17th instant, a report[147] from the Secretary of State, together with the copies of papers therein referred to.
JOHN TYLER.