“And now, Mr. President, and senators, I bid you a long, a lasting, and a friendly farewell.”
During the month of June, 1842, the Exploring Expedition returned to the United States, having been absent three years and ten months, and having sailed nearly 90,000 miles. The vessels attached to this expedition left the Capes of the Chesapeake, August 19th, 1838, and sailed for Rio Janeiro, whence, on the 6th of January, 1839, they sailed for the north of Patagonia, and thence to Nassau Bay, in Terra del Fuego. The Peacock, Porpoise, and two schooners thence made cruises towards the pole; but as the season was far advanced, they did not quite reach the highest latitude attained by Cook. The Vincennes remained at Nassau Bay to carry on surveys, and magnetic observations. In May, the vessels were again together at Valparaiso, and in July they left the South American coast, and after surveying fourteen or fifteen of the Pawmotee Islands, two of the Society Islands, and all the Navigator’s group, on the 28th of November, they reached Sidney, in New South Wales. On their second antarctic cruise, land was first discovered in longitude 160 degrees east, and latitude 66 degrees, 30 minutes south. The Vincennes and Porpoise pursued the barrier of ice to the westward, as far as 97 degrees east longitude, seeing the land at intervals for fifteen hundred miles. They could not land, however, though many specimens of rocks were collected and brought home. On the 24th of April, the vessels proceeded to the Feejees, where nearly four months were occupied in surveys and scientific observations. They next visited the Sandwich Islands—the Vincennes spending the winter at the group. The Peacock and Flying Fish were cruising in the equatorial regions of the Pacific, visiting and making charts of the various groups of islands scattered throughout the seas. In the spring of 1841, the Vincennes and Porpoise were on the coast of Oregon, where the former was wrecked. They made several land expeditions into the interior, of fromfive hundred to a thousand miles each, and one of eight hundred miles to San Francisco, in California. The vessels left California in November, 1841; and, after touching at the Sandwich Islands, and visiting Manilla, Singapore, and the Cape of Good Hope, reached New York as above stated.
During their absence, they surveyed nearly two hundred and eighty different islands, besides eight hundred miles in Oregon, and one thousand, five hundred miles along the icy barrier of the antarctic continent. The number of sketches of natural scenery brought home, were about five hundred; the number of portraits about two hundred. Of birds about one thousand species, and twice that number of specimens were collected; besides great numbers of fishes, reptiles, insects, shells, &c. This expedition was fitted out at a great expense, and its results have proved highly honorable to the nation which projected, and the officers who executed it. Several volumes containing a history of the expedition, with its discoveries, scientific researches, &c., have been published, at the national expense.
On the 20th of August, 1842, an important treaty with England, the first it is believed ever negotiated with that power in the United States, was ratified by the senate, by a vote of 39 to 9. By this treaty, the north-eastern boundary between the United States and Great Britain was settled. For nearly half a century, this question had agitated both countries; and while the question had thus remained unsettled, events were frequently occurring to create new difficulties in reference to it, until, at length, such was the sensitiveness of parties interested, it was perceived that the controversy must be settled, and that, too, in a spirit of conciliation and compromise, or the countries might find themselves, ere long, involved in war. But in this state of things, the English ministry resolved to gratify at once their sense of the importance of immediate adjustment, and their respect for the government of the United States, by sending a special and extraordinary mission. For this work of reconciliation, they selected Lord Ashburton, a gentleman fully acquainted, for many years, with affairs between his own country and ours; and who was ready to sit down to existing topics in a business-like way, to treat them frankly and fairly, and to remove all obstacles, as far as he was able. He is reported to have said of himself, “I came not to make difficulty, but to make a treaty.” Fortunately for the country, at this most important juncture, Mr. Webster was still in the cabinet. Perhaps no other citizen in the United States was so competent to negotiate on this confessedly important, but difficult subject. The President also manifested a sincere desire to arrange the questions in difference between the United States and England, in a manner honorable and satisfactory. As the states of Massachusetts and Maine were interested in the divisional or boundary line, which should be agreed upon, commissioners were appointed by the legislature of those states, to protect their respective interests—on the part of Maine, EDWARD KAVANAUGH, EDWARD KENT, N. P. PREBLE, and JOHN OTIS; on the part of Massachusetts, ABBOT LAWRENCE, JOHN MILLS, and CHARLES ALLEN.
By the first article of this treaty, the north-eastern boundary line is defined and established. “It is hereby agreed and declared, that the line of boundary shall be as follows:—Beginning at the monument at the source of the river St. Croix, as designated and agreed to by the commissioners under the 5th article in the treaty of 1794, between the governments of the United States and Great Britain; thence, north, following the exploring line run and marked by the surveyors of the two governments, in the years 1817 and 1818, underthe 5th article of the treaty of Ghent, to its intersection with the river St. John, and to the middle of the channel thereof; thence, up the middle of the main channel of said river St. John, to the mouth of the river St. Francis; thence up the middle of the main channel of said river St. Francis, and of the lakes through which it flows, to the outlet of the lake Pohenagamook; thence, south-westerly, in a straight line, to a point on the north-west branch of the river St. John, which point shall be ten miles distant from the main branch of the St. John, in a straight line, and in the nearest direction; but if said point shall be found to be less than seven miles from the nearest point of the summit or crest of the highlands that divide those rivers, which empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence, from those which fall into the river St. John, then the said point shall be made to recede down the said north-west branch of the river St. John, to a point seven miles in a straight line from the said summit or crest; thence, in a straight line, in a course about south eight degrees west, to the point where the parallel of latitude of 46 degrees, 25 minutes north, intersects the south-west branch of the St. John; thence, southerly, by the said branch, to the source thereof in the highlands, at the Metjarmette portage; thence, down along the said highlands which divide the waters which empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence, from those which fall into the Atlantic ocean, to the head of Hall’s stream; thence, down the middle of said stream, till the line thus run intersects the old line of boundary surveyed and marked by Valentine and Collins, previously to the year 1774, as the 45th degree of north latitude, and which has been known and understood to be the line of actual division between the states of New York and Vermont on one side, and the British province of Canada on the other; and, from said point of intersection, west along the said dividing line as heretofore known and understood, to the Iroquois or St. Lawrence river.”
It was also stipulated that each country should maintain on the coast of Africa, a naval force of vessels sufficient to carry in all not less than eighty guns, to be independent of each other, but to act in concert and co-operation, for the suppression of the slave trade. By the 10th article, it was stipulated that fugitives from justice found in either country should be delivered up by the two governments respectively upon complaint and upon what should be deemed sufficient evidence to sustain the charge.
On the 10th of November, 1842, the President issued his proclamation, announcing the ratification of the treaty, and the exchange of ratifications between the two governments, which was done at London on the 13th of October, 1842, by Mr. Everett and the Earl of Aberdeen.
Thus was settled a controversy, which for half a century had disturbed the harmony of the two governments—which had given birth to frequent disturbances, within and in the neighborhood of the disputed territory, and which as the controversy remained unsettled, was becoming more perplexed and intricate, and every year more likely to engender hostilities between the two nations.
Among the measures of a public nature, which occupied the attention of the 2d session of the 27th congress, no one excited more interest than the revision of the tariff. The government was in debt, and its credit in the wane. Authorized loans could not be negotiated. The revenue was falling off. The manufacturing interests were suffering; all branches of industry were drooping. Said the Committee, to whom the subject was referred, in their report, “A well regulated tariff, on a scale sufficient for the wants of the governmentis the only effectual remedy for the evils the government and the people are now suffering. It will inspire confidence throughout the country. It will again set every wheel in motion. It will improve and enlarge the currency. It will send out its life, giving influence to the extremity of the nation, and give vigor and activity to the whole system. It will (and nothing else will) restore credit to the country. The people of this country know that our resources are abundant. Let them but see that congress has provided a proper revenue, and has done it in such a manner, as at the same time to encourage and protect their own protective industry in all its branches, whether it relates to commerce, agriculture, manufactures, or the mechanic arts, throughout the broad extent of our lands, and the credit of the government will commence at once, and receive all the aid it may need.”
In accordance with these views, a bill was reported by the above committee, providing, 1st, a general ad valorem duty of 30 per cent. with free exceptions, where the duty was on that principle. 2. A discrimination was made for the security of such interests as could not be preserved without it, as well as for revenue, by specific duties on valuations, some higher, and some lower than the general ad valorem duty.