SPECIAL MESSAGES.
WASHINGTON, December 17, 1849.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a convention between the United States and His Majesty the Emperor of Brazil, signed at Rio de Janeiro on the 27th of January last, providing for the adjustment of claims of citizens of the United States on the Brazilian Government. A copy of a dispatch from Mr. Tod, the United States minister at Rio de Janeiro, relative to the convention is also herewith communicated. As it is understood that the Emperor's ratification is ready to be exchanged for that of the United States, and as the period limited for the exchange will expire on the 27th of next month, it is desirable that the decision of the Senate in regard to the instrument should be known as soon as may be convenient.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, December 21, 1849.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a treaty between the United States and His Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands, yesterday concluded and signed in this city on the part of the respective Governments by the Secretary of State of the United States and by James Jackson Jarves, His Hawaiian Majesty's special commissioner.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, December 27, 1849.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
In consequence of the unexpected delay in proceeding to business, I deem it necessary to invite the immediate attention of Congress to so much of the report of the Secretary of the Treasury as relates to the appropriations required for the expenses of collecting the revenue for the second half of the current fiscal year.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, January 4, 1850.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
I herewith submit to you copies of a correspondence with the lady of Sir John Franklin, relative to the well-known expedition under his command to the arctic regions for the discovery of a northwest passage. On the receipt of her first letter imploring the aid of the American Government in a search for the missing ships engaged in an enterprise which interested all civilized nations, I anxiously sought the means of affording that assistance, but was prevented from accomplishing the object I had in view in consequence of the want of vessels suitable to encounter the perils of a proper exploration, the lateness of the season, and the want of an appropriation by Congress to enable me to furnish and equip an efficient squadron for that object. All that I could do in compliance with a request which I was deeply anxious to gratify was to cause the advertisements of reward promulged by the British Government and the best information I could obtain as to the means of finding the vessels under the command of Sir John Franklin to be widely circulated among our whalers and seafaring men whose spirit of enterprise might lead them to the inhospitable regions where that heroic officer and his brave followers, who periled their lives in the cause of science and for the benefit of the world, were supposed to be imprisoned among the icebergs or wrecked upon a desert shore.
Congress being now in session, the propriety and expediency of an appropriation for fitting out an expedition to proceed in search of the missing ships, with their officers and crews, is respectfully submitted to your consideration.
Z. TAYLOR.
EXECUTIVE OFFICE, January 14, 1850.
THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.
SIR: I transmit herewith, to be laid before the Senate for its constitutional action thereon, a treaty concluded with the half-breeds of the Dacotah or Sioux Indians for lands reserved for them in the treaty of July 15, 1830, with the Sioux and other Indians, with accompanying papers.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, January 14, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
I herewith transmit reports from the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Navy, containing the information called for by the resolution of the Senate of the 7th instant, in relation to the abduction[2a] of Rey, alias Garcia, from New Orleans.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, January 14, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate, for their consideration, a copy of a correspondence between the Department of State and the chargé d'affaires of Austria near this Government, on the subject of the convention for the extension of certain stipulations contained in the treaty of commerce and navigation of August 27, 1829, between the United States and Austria, concluded and signed on the 8th of May, 1848, and submitted to the Senate on the same day by my predecessor.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, January 23, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate, in answer to a resolution of that body passed on the 17th instant, the accompanying reports of heads of Departments, which contain all the official information in the possession of the Executive asked for by the resolution.
On coming into office I found the military commandant of the Department of California exercising the functions of civil governor in that Territory, and left, as I was, to act under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, without the aid of any legislative provision establishing a government in that Territory, I thought it best not to disturb that arrangement, made under my predecessor, until Congress should take some action on that subject. I therefore did not interfere with the powers of the military commandant, who continued to exercise the functions of civil governor as before; but I made no such appointment, conferred no such authority, and have allowed no increased compensation to the commandant for his services.
With a view to the faithful execution of the treaty so far as lay in the power of the Executive, and to enable Congress to act at the present session with as full knowledge and as little difficulty as possible on all matters of interest in these Territories, I sent the Hon. Thomas Butler King as bearer of dispatches to California, and certain officers to California and New Mexico, whose duties are particularly defined in the accompanying letters of instruction addressed to them severally by the proper Departments.
I did not hesitate to express to the people of those Territories my desire that each Territory should, if prepared to comply with the requisitions of the Constitution of the United States, form a plan of a State constitution and submit the same to Congress with a prayer for admission into the Union as a State, but I did not anticipate, suggest, or authorize the establishment of any such government without the assent of Congress, nor did I authorize any Government agent or officer to interfere with or exercise any influence or control over the election of delegates or over any convention in making or modifying their domestic institutions or any of the provisions of their proposed constitution. On the contrary, the instructions given by my orders were that all measures of domestic policy adopted by the people of California must originate solely with themselves; that while the Executive of the United States was desirous to protect them in the formation of any government republican in its character, to be at the proper time submitted to Congress, yet it was to be distinctly understood that the plan of such a government must at the same time be the result of their own deliberate choice and originate with themselves, without the interference of the Executive.
I am unable to give any information as to laws passed by any supposed government in California or of any census taken in either of the Territories mentioned in the resolution, as I have no information on those subjects.
As already stated, I have not disturbed the arrangements which I found had existed under my predecessor.
In advising an early application by the people of these Territories for admission as States I was actuated principally by an earnest desire to afford to the wisdom and patriotism of Congress the opportunity of avoiding occasions of bitter and angry dissensions among the people of the United States.
Under the Constitution every State has the right of establishing and from time to time altering its municipal laws and domestic institutions independently of every other State and of the General Government, subject only to the prohibitions and guaranties expressly set forth in the Constitution of the United States. The subjects thus left exclusively to the respective States were not designed or expected to become topics of national agitation. Still, as under the Constitution Congress has power to make all needful rules and regulations respecting the Territories of the United States, every new acquisition of territory has led to discussions on the question whether the system of involuntary servitude which prevails in many of the States should or should not be prohibited in that territory. The periods of excitement from this cause which have heretofore occurred have been safely passed, but during the interval, of whatever length, which may elapse before the admission of the Territories ceded by Mexico as States it appears probable that similar excitement will prevail to an undue extent.
Under these circumstances I thought, and still think, that it was my duty to endeavor to put it in the power of Congress, by the admission of California and New Mexico as States, to remove all occasion for the unnecessary agitation of the public mind.
It is understood that the people of the western part of California have formed a plan of a State constitution and will soon submit the same to the judgment of Congress and apply for admission as a State. This course on their part, though in accordance with, was not adopted exclusively in consequence of, any expression of my wishes, inasmuch as measures tending to this end had been promoted by the officers sent there by my predecessor, and were already in active progress of execution before any communication from me reached California. If the proposed constitution shall, when submitted to Congress, be found to be in compliance with the requisitions of the Constitution of the United States, I earnestly recommend that it may receive the sanction of Congress.
The part of California not included in the proposed State of that name is believed to be uninhabited, except in a settlement of our countrymen in the vicinity of Salt Lake.
A claim has been advanced by the State of Texas to a very large portion of the most populous district of the Territory commonly designated by the name of New Mexico. If the people of New Mexico had formed a plan of a State government for that Territory as ceded by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and had been admitted by Congress as a State, our Constitution would have afforded the means of obtaining an adjustment of the question of boundary with Texas by a judicial decision. At present, however, no judicial tribunal has the power of deciding that question, and it remains for Congress to devise some mode for its adjustment. Meanwhile I submit to Congress the question whether it would be expedient before such adjustment to establish a Territorial government, which by including the district so claimed would practically decide the question adversely to the State of Texas, or by excluding it would decide it in her favor. In my opinion such a course would not be expedient, especially as the people of this Territory still enjoy the benefit and protection of their municipal laws originally derived from Mexico and have a military force stationed there to protect them against the Indians. It is undoubtedly true that the property, lives, liberties, and religion of the people of New Mexico are better protected than they ever were before the treaty of cession.
Should Congress, when California shall present herself for incorporation into the Union, annex a condition to her admission as a State affecting her domestic institutions contrary to the wishes of her people, and even compel her temporarily to comply with it, yet the State could change her constitution at any time after admission when to her it should seem expedient. Any attempt to deny to the people of the State the right of self-government in a matter which peculiarly affects themselves will infallibly be regarded by them as an invasion of their rights, and, upon the principles laid down in our own Declaration of Independence, they will certainly be sustained by the great mass of the American people. To assert that they are a conquered people and must as a State submit to the will of their conquerors in this regard will meet with no cordial response among American freemen. Great numbers of them are native citizens of the United States, not inferior to the rest of our countrymen in intelligence and patriotism, and no language of menace to restrain them in the exercise of an undoubted right, substantially guaranteed to them by the treaty of cession itself, shall ever be uttered by me or encouraged and sustained by persons acting under my authority. It is to be expected that in the residue of the territory ceded to us by Mexico the people residing there will at the time of their incorporation into the Union as a State settle all questions of domestic policy to suit themselves.
No material inconvenience will result from the want for a short period of a government established by Congress over that part of the territory which lies eastward of the new State of California; and the reasons for my opinion that New Mexico will at no very distant period ask for admission into the Union are founded on unofficial information which, I suppose, is common to all who have cared to make inquiries on that subject.
Seeing, then, that the question which now excites such painful sensations in the country will in the end certainly be settled by the silent effect of causes independent of the action of Congress, I again submit to your wisdom the policy recommended in my annual message of awaiting the salutary operation of those causes, believing that we shall thus avoid the creation of geographical parties and secure the harmony of feeling so necessary to the beneficial action of our political system. Connected, as the Union is, with the remembrance of past happiness, the sense of present blessings, and the hope of future peace and prosperity, every dictate of wisdom, every feeling of duty, and every emotion of patriotism tend to inspire fidelity and devotion to it and admonish us cautiously to avoid any unnecessary controversy which can either endanger it or impair its strength, the chief element of which is to be found in the regard and affection of the people for each other.
Z. TAYLOR.
[A similar message, dated January 21, 1850, was sent to the House of Representatives, in answer to a resolution of that body.]
WASHINGTON, January 23, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate a copy of the convention between the United States and His Majesty the Emperor of Brazil, providing for the satisfaction of claims of citizens of the United States against the Brazilian Government, signed at Rio de Janeiro on the 27th of January last, and the ratifications of which were exchanged in this city on the 18th instant. It is desirable that Congress should prescribe the mode in which the claims referred to are to be adjusted and the money stipulated to be paid by Brazil shall be distributed amongst the claimants. Extracts from dispatches of the minister of the United States at Rio de Janeiro and a copy of a letter from an agent of claimants there are also herewith communicated, to which your attention is invited. I have authorized our minister to demand, receive, and give acquittances for the amount payable by Brazil, and have caused him to be instructed to remit the same to the Treasury of the United States.
Z. TAYLOR.
[The same message was sent to the House of Representatives.]
WASHINGTON, January 30, 1850 .
To the Senate of the United States:
In reply to the resolution of the Senate of the 7th instant, requesting of me all the official correspondence since the 4th of March last between this Government and its military authorities at Santa Fe or with the authorities of the State of Texas relating to the boundary or occupation of Texas, and the reasons why the judicial authority of Texas has not been recognized by the military authority at Santa Fe, I herewith submit the accompanying reports, which contain the information called for by the resolution.
I have not been informed of any acts of interference by the military forces stationed at Santa Fe with the judicial authority of Texas established or sought to be established there. I have received no communication from the governor of Texas on any of the matters referred to in the resolution. And I concur in the opinion expressed by my predecessor in the letter addressed by the late Secretary of State to the governor of Texas on the 12th day of February, 1847, that the boundary between the State of Texas and the Territory of New Mexico "is a subject which more properly belongs to the legislative than to the executive branch of the Government."
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, February 6, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
In reply to the resolution of the Senate of the 28th ultimo, I have to state that the resolution of the Senate of the 2d of March, 1849, respecting James W. Schaumburg, was in April of that year submitted for the opinion of the Attorney-General upon questions arising in the case. No opinion had been given by him when it became necessary, prior to the meeting of the Senate, to prepare the nominations for promotions in the Army. The nomination of Lieutenant Ewell was then decided upon, after due consideration was given to the resolution of the Senate of the 2d of March, 1849.
I herewith submit a report from the Secretary of War, showing the grounds upon which the decision above referred to was made.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, February 13, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
I have received a resolution of the Senate of the 28th ultimo, requesting the President of the United States "to cause to be laid before the Senate, in open session if in his opinion consistent with the public interest, otherwise in executive session, copies of all instructions and communications of the late Secretary of State to our late chargé d'affaires to Guatemala and all dispatches and communications from said chargé d'affaires to the Department of State, including any conventions or treaties he may have concluded with either of the States composing the late Republic of Central America; and also all correspondence between our said chargé d'affaires and the Government or representatives of either of said States; and also all instructions and communications from the present Secretary of State to our late chargé d'affaires or our present chargé d'affaires to either of said States and all dispatches or communications from our chargé d'affaires to the Department of State, including any conventions or treaties he may have concluded with either of said States; and also all correspondence between the Department of State and either of said chargés d'affaires touching the so-called Kingdom of the Mosquitos and the right of way from the Atlantic to the Pacific through Lake Nicaragua."
The information called for by this resolution will be cheerfully communicated to the Senate as soon as it shall be found to be compatible with the public interest.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, February 13, 1850.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
I have received a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 24th ultimo, requesting the President of the United States "to communicate to that body (provided the publication thereof be not prejudicial to the public interest) all such information as may be within the knowledge of the executive department relative to the alleged extraordinary proceedings of the English Government in the forcible seizure and occupation of the island of Tigre, in the State of Nicaragua, Central America; also all facts, circumstances, or communications within the knowledge of the Executive relative to any seizure, occupation, or attempted seizure or occupation, by the English Government of any port, river, town, territory, or island belonging to or claimed by any of the States of Central America; also that he be requested to communicate to this House, if not incompatible with the public interest, all treaties not heretofore published which may have been negotiated with any of the States of Central America by any person acting by authority from the late Administration or under the auspices of the present Executive." The information called for by this resolution will be cheerfully communicated to the House as soon as it shall be found compatible with the public interest.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, February 13, 1850.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
I transmit herewith to the House of Representatives, for the information of that body, an authenticated copy of the constitution of the State of California, received by me from General Riley.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, February 13, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit herewith to the Senate, for the information of that body, an authenticated copy of the constitution of California, received by me from the Hon. William M. Gwyn.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, March 1, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
In reply to the resolution of the Senate of the 12th ultimo, requesting the President of the United States "to inform the Senate of the amount of prize money paid into the Treasury in conformity with the eighteenth section of the act of March 3, 1849," etc., I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of the Navy, with accompanying documents.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, March 4, 1850.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
I herewith transmit to Congress copies of a recent correspondence between the Department of State and the British minister at Washington, relating to subjects[3a] which seem to require the consideration of the legislative rather than the executive branch of the Government.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, March 6, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
In answer to the inquiries contained in the resolution of the Senate of the 4th instant, in relation to the appointment of postmasters by the Postmaster-General, I send to the Senate herewith the letter of the Postmaster-General furnishing the desired information.
Z. TAYLOR.
MARCH 8, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
The Postmaster-General has this day communicated to me the letter herewith transmitted, in addition to his communication by me sent to the Senate on the 6th instant, in relation to the inquiries contained in the resolution of the Senate as to the appointment of postmasters.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, March 19, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit herewith, for the consideration and constitutional action of the Senate, a communication from the Secretary of the Interior, covering two treaties with Indians of New Mexico, one negotiated with the Navajo tribe on the 9th of September last by Colonel John Washington, of the Army, and J.S. Calhoun, United States Indian agent at Santa Fe, and the other with the Utah tribe, negotiated by J.S. Calhoun on the 13th of December last.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, March 19, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
I herewith transmit to the Senate, for their advice in regard to its ratification, "a general treaty of amity, navigation, and commerce" between the United States of America and the State of Nicaragua, concluded at Leon by E. George Squier, chargé d'affaires of the United States, on their part, and Señor Zepeda, on the part of the Republic of Nicaragua.
I also transmit, for the advice of the Senate in regard to its ratification, "a general treaty of amity, navigation, and commerce" negotiated by Mr. Squier with the Republic of San Salvador.
I also transmit to the Senate a copy of the instructions to and correspondence with the said chargé d'affaires relating to those treaties.
I also transmit, for the advice of the Senate in regard to its ratification, "a general treaty of peace, amity, commerce, and navigation" negotiated by Elijah Hise, our late chargé d'affaires, with the State of Guatemala.
I also transmit, for the information of the Senate, a copy of a treaty negotiated by Mr. Hise with the Government of Nicaragua on the 21st of June last, accompanied by copies of his instructions from and correspondence with the Department of State.
On the 12th day of November, 1847, Señor Buétrago, secretary of state and of the affairs of war and foreign relations and domestic administration of the Supreme Government of the State of Nicaragua, addressed a letter from the Government House at Leon to Mr. Buchanan, then Secretary of State of the United States, asking the friendly offices of this Government to prevent an attack upon the town of San Juan de Nicaragua, then contemplated by the British authorities as the allies of the Mosquito King. That letter, a translation of which is herewith sent, distinctly charges that—
The object of the British in taking this key of the continent is not to protect the small tribe of the Mosquitos, but to establish their own empire over the Atlantic extremity of the line, by which a canal connecting the two oceans is most practicable, insuring to them the preponderance on the American continent, as well as their direct relations with Asia, the East Indies, and other important countries in the world.
No answer appears to have been returned to this letter.
A communication was received by my predecessor from Don José Guerrero, President and Supreme Director of the State of Nicaragua, dated the 15th day of December, 1847, expressing his desire to establish relations of amity and commerce with the United States, a translation of which is herewith inclosed. In this the President of Nicaragua says:
My desire was carried to the utmost on seeing in your message at the opening of the Twenty-ninth Congress of your Republic a sincere profession of political faith in all respects conformable with the principles professed by these States, determined, as they are, to sustain with firmness the continental cause, the rights of Americans in general, and the noninterference of European powers in their concerns.
This letter announces the critical situation in which Nicaragua was placed and charges upon the Court of St. James a "well-known design to establish colonies on the coast of Nicaragua and to render itself master of the interoceanic canal, for which so many facilities are presented by the isthmus in that State." No reply was made to this letter.
The British ships of war Alarm and Vixen arrived at San Juan de Nicaragua on the 8th day of February, 1848, and on the 12th of that month the British forces, consisting of 260 officers and men, attacked and captured the post of Serapaqui, garrisoned, according to the British statements, by about 200 soldiers, after a sharp action of one hour and forty minutes.
On the 7th day of March, 1848, articles of agreement were concluded by Captain Locke, on the part of Great Britain, with the commissioners of the State of Nicaragua in the island of Cuba, in the Lake of Nicaragua, a copy of which will be found in the correspondence relating to the Mosquito Territory presented to and published by the House of Commons of Great Britain on the 3d day of July, 1848, herewith submitted. A copy of the same document will also be found accompanying the note of the minister for foreign affairs of Nicaragua to the Secretary of State of the United States under date the 17th March, 1848.
By the third article of the agreement it is provided that Nicaragua "shall not disturb the inhabitants of San Juan, understanding that any such act will be considered by Great Britain as a declaration of open hostilities." By the sixth article it is provided that these articles of agreement will not "hinder Nicaragua from soliciting by means of a commissioner to Her Britannic Majesty a final arrangement of these affairs."
The communication from Señor Sebastian Salinas, the secretary of foreign affairs of the State of Nicaragua, to Mr. Buchanan, the Secretary of State of the United States, dated 17th March, 1848, a translation of which is herewith submitted, recites the aggressions of Great Britain and the seizure of a part of the Nicaraguan territory in the name of the Mosquito King. No answer appears to have been given to this letter.
On the 28th day of October, 1847, Joseph W. Livingston was appointed by this Government consul of the United States for the port of San Juan de Nicaragua. On the 16th day of December, 1847, after having received his exequatur from the Nicaraguan Government, he addressed a letter to Mr. Buchanan, Secretary of State, a copy of which is herewith submitted, representing that he had been informed that the English Government would take possession of San Juan de Nicaragua in January, 1848.
In another letter, dated the 8th of April, 1848, Mr. Livingston states that "at the request of the minister for foreign affairs of Nicaragua he transmits a package of papers containing the correspondence relative to the occupation of the port of San Juan by British forces in the name of the Mosquito nation."
On the 3d day of June, 1848, Elijah Hise, being appointed chargé d'affaires of the United States to Guatemala, received his instructions, a copy of which is herewith submitted. In these instructions the following passages occur:
The independence as well as the interests of the nations on this continent require that they should maintain the American system of policy entirely distinct from that which prevails in Europe. To suffer any interference on the part of the European Governments with the domestic concerns of the American Republics and to permit them to establish new colonies upon this continent would be to jeopard their independence and to ruin their interests. These truths ought everywhere throughout this continent to be impressed on the public mind. But what can the United States do to resist such European interference whilst the Spanish American Republics continue to weaken themselves by division and civil war and deprive themselves of the ability of doing anything for their own protection?
This last significant inquiry seems plainly to intimate that the United States could do nothing to arrest British aggression while the Spanish American Republics continue to weaken themselves by division and civil war and deprive themselves of the ability of doing anything for their protection.
These instructions, which also state the dissolution of the Central American Republic, formerly composed of the five States of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, San Salvador, and Guatemala, and their continued separation, authorize Mr. Hise to conclude treaties of commerce with the Republics of Guatemala and San Salvador, but conclude with saying that it was not deemed advisable to empower Mr. Hise to conclude a treaty with either Nicaragua, Honduras, or Costa Rica until more full and statistical information should have been communicated by him to the Department in regard to those States than that which it possesses.
The States of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Honduras are the only Central American States whose consent or cooperation would in any event be necessary for the construction of the ship canal contemplated between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans by the way of Lake Nicaragua.
In pursuance of the sixth article of the agreement of the 7th of March, 1848, between the forces of Great Britain and the authorities of Nicaragua, Señor Francisco Castillon was appointed commissioner from Nicaragua to Great Britain, and on the 5th day of November, 1848, while at Washington on his way to London, addressed a letter to the Secretary of State, a translation of which is herewith submitted, asking this Government to instruct its minister plenipotentiary residing in London to sustain the right of Nicaragua to her territory claimed by Mosquito, and especially to the port of San Juan, expressing the hope of Nicaragua "that the Government of the Union, firmly adhering to its principle of resisting all foreign intervention in America, would not hesitate to order such steps to be taken as might be effective before things reached a point in which the intervention of the United States would prove of no avail."
To this letter also no answer appears to have been returned, and no instructions were given to our minister in London in pursuance of the request contained in it.
On the 3d day of March, 1847, Christopher Hempstead was appointed consul at Belize, and an application was then made for his exequatur through our minister in London, Mr. Bancroft. Lord Palmerston referred Mr. Bancroft's application for an exequatur for Mr. Hempstead to the colonial office. The exequatur was granted, and Mr. Hempstead, in a letter to the Department of State bearing date the 12th day of February, 1848, a copy of which is herewith submitted, acknowledged the receipt of his exequatur from Her Britannic Majesty, by virtue of which he has discharged his consular functions. Thus far this Government has recognized the existence of a British colony at Belize, within the territory of Honduras. I have recalled the consul, and have appointed no one to supply his place.
On the 26th day of May, 1848, Mr. Hempstead represented in a letter to the Department of State that the Indians had "applied to Her Majesty's superintendent at Belize for protection, and had desired him to take possession of the territory which they occupied and take them under his protection as British subjects;" and he added that in the event of the success of their application "the British Government would then have possession of the entire coast from Cape Conte to San Juan de Nicaragua." In another letter, dated the 29th day of July, 1848, he wrote:
I have not a doubt but the designs of Her Majesty's officers here and on the Mosquito shore are to obtain territory on this continent.
The receipt of this letter was regularly acknowledged on the 29th day of August, 1848.
When I came into office I found the British Government in possession of the port of San Juan, which it had taken by force of arms after we had taken possession of California and while we were engaged in the negotiation of a treaty for the cession of it, and that no official remonstrance had been made by this Government against the aggression, nor any attempt to resist it. Efforts were then being made by certain private citizens of the United States to procure from the State of Nicaragua by contract the right to cut the proposed ship canal by the way of the river San Juan and the lakes of Nicaragua and Managua to Realejo, on the Pacific Ocean. A company of American citizens entered into such a contract with the State of Nicaragua. Viewing the canal as a matter of great importance to the people of the United States, I resolved to adopt the policy of protecting the work and binding the Government of Nicaragua, through whose territory it would pass, also to protect it. The instructions to E. George Squier, appointed by me chargé d'affaires to Guatemala on the 2d day of April, 1849, are herewith submitted, as fully indicating the views which governed me in directing a treaty to be made with Nicaragua. I considered the interference of the British Government on this continent in seizing the port of San Juan, which commanded the route believed to be the most eligible for the canal across the Isthmus, and occupying it at the very moment when it was known, as I believe, to Great Britain that we were engaged in the negotiation for the purchase of California, as an unfortunate coincidence, and one calculated to lead to the inference that she entertained designs by no means in harmony with the interests of the United States.
Seeing that Mr. Hise had been positively instructed to make no treaty, not even a treaty of commerce, with Nicaragua, Costa Rica, or Honduras, I had no suspicion that he would attempt to act in opposition to his instructions, and in September last I was for the first time informed that he had actually negotiated two treaties with the State of Nicaragua, the one a treaty of commerce, the other a treaty for the construction of the proposed ship canal, which treaties he brought with him on his return home. He also negotiated a treaty of commerce with Honduras; and in each of these treaties it is recited that he had full powers for the purpose. He had no such powers, and the whole proceeding on his part with reference to those States was not only unauthorized by instructions, but in opposition to those he had received from my predecessor and after the date of his letter of recall and the appointment of his successor. But I have no evidence that Mr. Hise, whose letter of recall (a copy of which is herewith submitted) bears date the 2d day of May, 1849, had received that letter on the 21st day of June, when he negotiated the treaty with Nicaragua. The difficulty of communicating with him was so great that I have reason to believe he had not received it. He did not acknowledge it.
The twelfth article of the treaty negotiated by Mr. Hise in effect guarantees the perfect independence of the State of Nicaragua and her sovereignty over her alleged limits from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean, pledging the naval and military power of the United States to support it. This treaty authorizes the chartering of a corporation by this Government to cut a canal outside of the limits of the United States, and gives to us the exclusive right to fortify and command it. I have not approved it, nor have I now submitted it for ratification; not merely because of the facts already mentioned, but because on the 31st day of December last Señor Edwardo Carcache, on being accredited to this Government as chargé d'affaires from the State of Nicaragua, in a note to the Secretary of State, a translation of which is herewith sent, declared that he was "only empowered to exchange ratifications of the treaty concluded with Mr. Squier, and that the special convention concluded at Guatemala by Mr. Hise, the chargé d'affaires of the United States, and Señor Selva, the commissioner of Nicaragua, had been, as was publicly and universally known, disapproved by his Government."
We have no precedent in our history to justify such a treaty as that negotiated by Mr. Hise since the guaranties we gave to France of her American possessions. The treaty negotiated with New Granada on the 12th day of December, 1846, did not guarantee the sovereignty of New Granada on the whole of her territory, but only over "the single Province of the Isthmus of Panama," immediately adjoining the line of the railroad, the neutrality of which was deemed necessary by the President and Senate to the construction and security of the work.
The thirty-fifth article of the treaty with Nicaragua, negotiated by Mr. Squier, which is submitted for your advice in regard to its ratification, distinctly recognizes the rights of sovereignty and property which the State of Nicaragua possesses in and over the line of the canal therein provided for. If the Senate doubt on that subject, it will be clearly wrong to involve us in a controversy with England by adopting the treaty; but after the best consideration which I have been able to give to the subject my own judgment is convinced that the claims of Nicaragua are just, and that as our commerce and intercourse with the Pacific require the opening of this communication from ocean to ocean it is our duty to ourselves to assert their justice.
This treaty is not intended to secure to the United States any monopoly or exclusive advantage in the use of the canal. Its object is to guarantee protection to American citizens and others who shall construct the canal, and to defend it when completed against unjust confiscations or obstructions, and to deny the advantages of navigation through it to those nations only which shall refuse to enter into the same guaranties. A copy of the contract of the canal company is herewith transmitted, from which, as well as from the treaty, it will be perceived that the same benefits are offered to all nations in the same terms.
The message of my predecessor to the Senate of the 10th February, 1847, transmitting for ratification the treaty with New Granada, contains in general the principles by which I have been actuated in directing the negotiation with Nicaragua. The only difference between the two cases consists in this: In that of Nicaragua the British Government has seized upon part of her territory and was in possession of it when we negotiated the treaty with her. But that possession was taken after our occupation of California, when the effect of it was to obstruct or control the most eligible route for a ship communication to the territories acquired by us on the Pacific. In the case of New Granada, her possession was undisturbed at the time of the treaty, though the British possession in the right of the Mosquito King was then extended into the territories claimed by New Granada as far as Boca del Toro. The professed objects of both the treaties are to open communications across the Isthmus to all nations and to invite their guaranties on the same terms. Neither of them proposes to guarantee territory to a foreign nation in which the United States will not have a common interest with that nation. Neither of them constitutes an alliance for any political object, but for a purely commercial purpose, in which all the navigating nations of the world have a common interest. Nicaragua, like New Granada, is a power which will not excite the jealousy of any nation.
As there is nothing narrow, selfish, illiberal, or exclusive in the views of the United States as set forth in this treaty, as it is indispensable to the successful completion of the contemplated canal to secure protection to it from the local authorities and this Government, and as I have no doubt that the British pretension to the port of San Juan in right of the Mosquito King is without just foundation in any public law ever before recognized in any other instance by Americans or Englishmen as applicable to Indian titles on this continent, I shall ratify this treaty in case the Senate shall advise that course. Its principal defect is taken from the treaty with New Granada, the negotiator having made it liable to be abrogated on notice after twenty years. Both treaties should have been perpetual or limited only by the duration of the improvements they were intended to protect. The instructions to our chargé d'affaires, it will be seen, prescribe no limitation for the continuance of the treaty with Nicaragua. Should the Senate approve of principle of the treaty, an amendment in this respect is deemed advisable; and it will be well to invite by another amendment the protection of other nations, by expressly offering them in the treaty what is now offered by implication only—the same advantages which we propose for ourselves on the same conditions upon which we shall have acquired them. The policy of this treaty is not novel, nor does it originate from any suggestion either of my immediate predecessor or myself. On the 3d day of March, 1835, the following resolution, referred to by the late President in his message to the Senate relative to the treaty with New Granada, was adopted in executive session by the Senate without division:
Resolved, That the President of the United States be respectfully requested to consider the expediency of opening negotiations with the Governments of Central America and New Granada for the purpose of effectually protecting, by suitable treaty stipulations with them, such individuals or companies as may undertake to open a communication between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by the construction of a ship canal across the isthmus which connects North and South America, and of securing forever by such stipulations the free and equal rights of navigating such a canal to all such nations on the payment of such reasonable tolls as may be established to compensate the capitalists who may engage in such undertaking and complete the work.
President Jackson accorded with the policy suggested in this resolution, and in pursuance of it sent Charles Biddle as agent to negotiate with the Governments of Central America and New Granada. The result is fully set forth in the report of a select committee of the House of Representatives of the 20th of February, 1849, upon a joint resolution of Congress to authorize the survey of certain routes for a canal or railroad between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The policy indicated in the resolution of the 3d March, 1835, then adopted by the President and Senate, is that now proposed for the consideration and sanction of the Senate. So far as my knowledge extends, such has ever been the liberal policy of the leading statesmen of this country, and by no one has it been more earnestly recommended than by my lamented predecessor.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, March 26, 1850.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
I herewith transmit, for the information of Congress, a copy of the report[4a] of Thomas Butler King, esq., appointed bearer of dispatches and special agent to California, made in pursuance of instructions issued from the Department of State on the 3d day of April last.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, March 28, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 22d instant, requesting the President of the United States to communicate to that body a copy of the instructions given to the agent of the United States who was employed to visit Hungary during the recent war between that country and Austria, and of the correspondence by and with such agent, so far as the publication of the same may be consistent with the public interest, I herewith transmit to the Senate a copy of the instructions to A. Dudley Mann, esq., relating to Hungary, he having been appointed by me special agent to that country on the 18th day of June last, together with a copy of the correspondence with our late chargé d'affaires to Austria referred to in those instructions and of other papers disclosing the policy of this Government in reference to Hungary and her people. I also transmit, in compliance with the resolution of the Senate, but in a separate packet, a copy of the correspondence of Mr. Mann with the Department of State. The latter I have caused to be marked "executive"—the information contained in it being such as will be found on examination most appropriately to belong to the Senate in the exercise of its executive functions. The publication of this correspondence of the agent sent by me to Hungary is a matter referred entirely to the judgment and discretion of the Senate.
It will be seen by the documents now transmitted that no minister or agent was accredited by the Government of Hungary to this Government at any period since I came into office, nor was any communication ever received by this Government from the minister of foreign affairs of Hungary or any other executive officer authorized to act in her behalf.
My purpose, as freely avowed in this correspondence, was to have acknowledged the independence of Hungary had she succeeded in establishing a government de facto on a basis sufficiently permanent in its character to have justified me in doing so according to the usages and settled principles of this Government; and although she is now fallen and many of her gallant patriots are in exile or in chains, I am free still to declare that had she been successful in the maintenance of such a government as we could have recognized we should have been the first to welcome her into the family of nations.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, April 3, 1850.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
I transmit a translation of a note, under date the 20th of last month, addressed to the Secretary of State by the minister of the Mexican Republic accredited to this Government, expressing the views of that Government with reference to the control of the wild Indians of the United States on the frontier of Mexico, as stipulated for in the eleventh article of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, April 22, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
I herewith transmit to the Senate, for their advice with regard to its ratification, a convention between the United States and Great Britain, concluded at Washington on the 19th instant by John M. Clayton, Secretary of State, on the part of the United States, and by the Right Hon. Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer, on the part of Great Britain.
This treaty has been negotiated in accordance with the general views expressed in my message to Congress in December last. Its object is to establish a commercial alliance with all great maritime states for the protection of a contemplated ship canal through the territory of Nicaragua to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and at the same time to insure the same protection to the contemplated railways or canals by the Tehuantepec and Panama routes, as well as to every other interoceanic communication which may be adopted to shorten the transit to or from our territories on the Pacific.
It will be seen that this treaty does not propose to take money from the public Treasury to effect any object contemplated by it. It yields protection to the capitalists who may undertake to construct any canal or railway across the Isthmus, commencing in the southern part of Mexico and terminating in the territory of New Granada. It gives no preference to any one route over another, but proposes the same measure of protection for all which ingenuity and enterprise can construct. Should this treaty be ratified, it will secure in future the liberation of all Central America from any kind of foreign aggression.
At the time negotiations were opened with Nicaragua for the construction of a canal through her territory I found Great Britain in possession of nearly half of Central America, as the ally and protector of the Mosquito King. It has been my object in negotiating this treaty not only to secure the passage across the Isthmus to the Government and citizens of the United States by the construction of a great highway dedicated to the use of all nations on equal terms, but to maintain the independence and sovereignty of all the Central American Republics. The Senate will judge how far these objects have been effected.
If there be any who would desire to seize and annex any portion of the territories of these weak sister republics to the American Union, or to extend our dominion over them, I do not concur in their policy; and I wish it to be understood in reference to that subject that I adopt the views entertained, so far as I know, by all my predecessors.
The principles by which I have been regulated in the negotiation of this treaty are in accordance with the sentiments well expressed by my immediate predecessor on the 10th of February, 1847, when he communicated to the Senate the treaty with New Granada for the protection of the railroad at Panama. It is in accordance with the whole spirit of the resolution of the Senate of the 3d of March, 1835, referred to by President Polk, and with the policy adopted by President Jackson immediately after the passage of that resolution, who dispatched an agent to Central America and New Granada "to open negotiations with those Governments for the purpose of effectually protecting, by suitable treaty stipulations with them, such individuals or companies as might undertake to open a communication between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by the construction of a ship canal across the isthmus which connects North and South America, and of securing forever by such stipulations the free and equal right of navigating such canal to all such nations on the payment of such reasonable tolls as might be established to compensate the capitalists who should engage in such undertaking and complete the work."
I also communicate herewith a copy of the correspondence between the American Secretary of State and the British plenipotentiary at the time of concluding the treaty. Whatever honor may be due to the party first proposing such a treaty justly belongs to the United States. My predecessor, in his message of the 10th of February, 1847, referring to the treaty with New Granada for the protection of the Panama Railroad, observes that—
Should the proposition thus tendered be rejected we may deprive the United States of the just influence which its acceptance might secure to them, and confer the glory and benefits of being the first among the nations in concluding such an arrangement upon the Government either of Great Britain or France. That either of these Governments would embrace the offer can not be doubted, because there does not appear to be any other effectual means of securing to all nations the advantages of this important passage but the guaranty of great commercial powers that the Isthmus shall be neutral territory. The interests of the world at stake are so important that the security of this passage between the two oceans can not be suffered to depend upon the wars and revolutions which may arise among different nations.
Should the Senate in its wisdom see fit to confirm this treaty, and the treaty heretofore submitted by me for their advice in regard to its ratification, negotiated with the State of Nicaragua on the 3d day of September last, it will be necessary to amend one or both of them, so that both treaties may stand in conformity with each other in their spirit and intention. The Senate will discover by examining them both that this is a task of no great difficulty.
I have good reason to believe that France and Russia stand ready to accede to this treaty, and that no other great maritime state will refuse its accession to an arrangement so well calculated to diffuse the blessings of peace, commerce, and civilization, and so honorable to all nations which may enter into the engagement.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, May 6, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a consular convention between the United States and the Republic of New Granada, signed in this city on the 4th of this month by the Secretary of State on the part of the United States, and by Señor Don Rafael Rivas, chargé d'affaires of New Granada, on the part of that Republic.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, May 7, 1850.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives copies of a correspondence between the Department of State and the British legation in this city, relative to the reciprocal admission of the natural products of the United States and Canada free of duty into the territories of both countries. It will be seen by the accompanying documents that the late Secretary of the Treasury recommended, in his correspondence with the Committee on Commerce in the House of Representatives, reciprocal free trade in the natural products of the United States and Canada; that in March and June, 1849, a correspondence was opened between the British chargé d'affaires then residing in Washington and the Secretary of State upon the subject of a commercial convention or treaty to carry out the views of Her Majesty's Government in relation thereto, and that the proposition for such a convention or treaty was declined on the part of the American Government for reasons which are fully set forth in the note of the Secretary of State to Mr. Crampton of the 26th of June last. During the negotiations connected with this correspondence, not considering the markets of Canada as an equivalent for those of the United States, I directed the Secretary of State to inquire what other benefits of trade and commerce would be yielded by the British authorities in connection with such a measure, and particularly whether the free navigation of the St. Lawrence would be conceded to us. That subject has accordingly been presented to the British Government, and the result was communicated by Her Majesty's minister in Washington on the 27th of March last in reply to a note from the Secretary of State of the 26th of that month. From these papers it will be perceived that the navigation of the St. Lawrence and of the canals connecting it with the Western lakes will be opened to the citizens of the United States in the event that the bill referred to in the correspondence, providing for the admission of their natural products, should become a law. The whole subject is now submitted to the consideration of Congress, and especially whether the concession proposed by Great Britain is an equivalent for the reciprocity desired by her.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, May 8, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
With reference to the convention between the United States and Her Britannic Majesty relative to interoceanic communication by the way of Nicaragua, recently submitted to the Senate, I transmit a copy of a note, under date the 29th ultimo, addressed to the Secretary of State by Sir Henry L. Bulwer, Her Britannic Majesty's minister here, and of Mr. Clayton's reply, under date the 30th ultimo. Intelligence received from the chargé d'affaires of the United States in Central America and from other quarters having led to an apprehension that Mr. Chatfield, Her Britannic Majesty's minister in that country, had concluded a treaty with the Government of Costa Rica placing that State under the protection of the British Government, I deemed it my duty to cause inquiries upon the subject to be addressed to Her Majesty's Government through Sir Henry L. Bulwer. The note of that functionary communicates the answer to those inquiries, and may be deemed satisfactory, both from the denial of the fact that any such treaty has been concluded and from its positive disavowal on behalf of the British Government of the policy intended to be subserved by such treaties.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, May 18, 1850.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives a report of the Secretary of State, with accompanying papers,[5a] in answer to its resolution of the 28th of March last.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, May 20, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit herewith reports from the Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of War, in reply to the resolution of the Senate of the 30th ultimo, calling for information in relation to the hostilities and outrages committed during the past year by the Seminole Indians in Florida, the steps taken for their removal west of the Mississippi, the area now occupied by them, etc.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, May 22, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
I herewith transmit to the Senate reports of the several heads of Departments, to whom were referred the resolutions of the Senate of the 9th instant, "requesting the President of the United States to furnish to the Senate copies of all correspondence between any of the Executive Departments and General Persifor F. Smith and Brigadier-General B. Riley, or either of them, relative to affairs in California, which had not been communicated to the Senate; and also all information existing in any of the Executive Departments respecting the transactions of the convention in California by which the project of a State government was prepared, and particularly a copy of the journals of said convention and of such of the ordinances adopted by it as may in any way have been communicated to any of the said Departments; and likewise to inform the Senate if the surrender of General Riley to the jurisdiction and civil authority of the government made by the aforesaid convention was by order of the Executive of the United States, and, if not, whether the proclamation of General Riley recognizing the said State government and submitting to its jurisdiction has received the sanction of the Executive; and also that he furnish to the Senate whatever intelligence may have been received in the executive department respecting the condition of civil affairs in the Oregon Territory."
The reports, with the official correspondence accompanying them, it is believed, embrace all the information in the Departments called for by the resolutions.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, May 24, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
In the month of January last I nominated Thomas Sewall to be consul of the United States for the port of Santiago de Cuba, to which office he had been appointed by me during the recess of the Senate. The Spanish Government having refused to recognize Mr. Sewall as consul for that port, I now withdraw that nomination and nominate William N. Adams to fill the vacancy thus occasioned.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, May 29, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate a copy of a dispatch from the minister of the United States at London, together with the memorial and other documents addressed to the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States by Count de Bronno Bronski which accompanied it, relative to an improved breed of silkworms which he desires to have introduced into this country.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, June 3, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate herewith reports from the several heads of Departments, which contain all the information in possession of the Executive relative to the subject of the resolution of the 23d instant [ultimo].
No information has been received establishing the existence of any revolutionary movement in the island of Cuba among the inhabitants of that island. The correspondence submitted discloses, however, the fact that repeated attempts have been made under the direction of foreigners enjoying the hospitality of this country to get up armed expeditions in the United States for the purpose of invading Cuba. It will be seen by that correspondence that this Government has been faithful in the discharge of its treaty obligations with Spain and in the execution of the acts of Congress which have for their object the maintenance in this regard of the peace and honor of this country.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, June 10, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
I submit herewith, in reply to a resolution of the Senate of the 3d instant, calling for "copies of the instructions given and orders issued in relation to the assemblage of persons on Round Island, coast of Mississippi, during the summer of 1849, and of the correspondence between the President or heads of Departments and the governor of Mississippi and the officers, naval or military, of the United States in reference to the observation, investment, and dispersion of said assemblage upon said island," a report from the Secretary of the Navy and accompanying documents, which contain all the information on the subject not heretofore communicated to the Senate.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, June 13, 1850.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
I transmit to the House of Representatives a copy of a dispatch addressed by the minister of the United States at Paris to the Secretary of State, with a translation of the documents which accompanied it, relative to the memorial of Pierre Piron, a citizen of the French Republic, who, it will be perceived, presents a just claim to pecuniary remuneration from this Government on account of services rendered to citizens of the United States.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, June 17, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
I have received a copy of the resolution of the Senate of the 11th June instant, requesting me "to inform the Senate whether any orders have been issued to any military officer or officers at Santa Fe to hold possession against the authority of Texas, or in any way to embarrass or prevent the exercise of her jurisdiction over that country, and to furnish the Senate with copies of any correspondence which may have taken place between the War Department and the military stationed at Santa Fe since the date of my last communication to the Senate on that subject."
In reply to that resolution I state that no such orders have been given.
I herewith present to the Senate copies of all the correspondence referred to in the resolution. All the other orders relating to the subject-matter of the resolution have been heretofore communicated to the Senate.
I have already, in a former message, referred to the fact that the boundary between Texas and New Mexico is disputed. I have now to state that information has been recently received that a certain Robert S. Neighbors, styling himself commissioner of the State of Texas, has proceeded to Santa Fe with a view of organizing counties in that district under the authority of Texas. While I have no power to decide the question of boundary, and no desire to interfere with it, as a question of title, I have to observe that the possession of the territory into which it appears that Mr. Neighbors has thus gone was actually acquired by the United States from Mexico, and has since been held by the United States, and, in my opinion, ought so to remain until the question of boundary shall have been determined by some competent authority. Meanwhile, I think there is no reason for seriously apprehending that Texas will practically interfere with the possession of the United States.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, June 26, 1850.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
I herewith transmit a report of the Secretary of War, communicating the information, as far as it can be furnished, required by the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 17th instant, respecting the amount of money collected from customs in California from the conclusion of the war until the collector appointed under the act of March 3, 1849, entered upon his duties, the objects for which said money has been expended, and the authority under which the collections and disbursements were made.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, June 27, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 3d instant, requesting information in regard to the indemnity stipulated to be paid by the Government of Peru to the Government of the United States pursuant to the modified convention of the 17th of March, 1841, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents by which it was accompanied. The sums paid by that Government under the convention are mentioned in the letters of Messrs. E. McCall & Co., of Lima, who were appointed by my predecessor the agents to receive the installments as they might fall due.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, July 1, 1850.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In reply to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 17th ultimo, in regard to the number of vessels, guns, and men constituting the African squadron, the annual expenses of that squadron, etc., I submit herewith a report from the Secretary of the Navy, with accompanying documents.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, July 1, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of War, prepared in answer to a resolution of the Senate of the 27th ultimo, requesting information of the proceedings of the Executive in regard to the appointment of the officer now commanding in New Mexico, the orders and instructions given to and correspondence with him, and upon other subjects mentioned in the resolution.
Z. TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, July 2, 1850.
To the Senate of the United States:
In the month of March last I nominated William McNeir to be a justice of the peace in and for the county of Washington, in the District of Columbia, and on the 24th day of June the Senate advised and consented to the nomination. Since then I have learned from the late mayor of the city of Washington, upon whose recommendation the nomination was made, that the person whom he intended to recommend for that office was George McNeir, whom I now nominate to be a justice of the peace in and for the county of Washington, in the District of Columbia.
In the month of February last I nominated Benjamin Riddells as consul of the United States for Chihuahua, and on the 10th day of June last the Senate advised and consented to that nomination. I have since learned that the persons recommending the appointment of Mr. Riddells by the praenomen of Benjamin intended to recommend Bennet Riddells, whom I now nominate to be consul of the United States for Chihuahua in order to correct the mistake thus inadvertently made.
Z. TAYLOR.