WASHINGTON, May 7, 1838.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate, for their consideration with a view to its ratification, a convention signed at Houston on the 11th ultimo by Alcée La Branche, chargé d'affaires of the United States, and R.A. Irion, secretary of state of the Republic of Texas, stipulating for the adjustment and satisfaction of claims of citizens of the United States on that Government in the cases of the brigs Pocket and Durango. This convention having been concluded in anticipation of the receipt from the Department of a formal power for that purpose, an extract from a dispatch of Mr. La Branche to the Secretary of State explanatory of his motives for that act is also transmitted for the information of the Senate.
M. VAN BUREN.
WASHINGTON, May 10, 1838.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I submit to the consideration of Congress a statement prepared by the Secretary of the Treasury, by which it appears that the United States, with over twenty-eight millions in deposit with the States and over fifteen millions due from individuals and banks, are, from the situation in which those funds are placed, in immediate danger of being rendered unable to discharge with good faith and promptitude the various pecuniary obligations of the Government. The occurrence of this result has for some time been apprehended, and efforts made to avert it. As the principal difficulty arises from a prohibition in the present law to reissue such Treasury notes as might be paid in before they fell due, and may be effectually obviated by giving the Treasury during the whole year the benefit of the full amount originally authorized, the remedy would seem to be obvious and easy.
The serious embarrassments likely to arise from a longer continuance of the present state of things induces me respectfully to invite the earliest attention of Congress to the subject which may be consistent with a due regard to other public interests.
M. VAN BUREN.
WASHINGTON, May 11, 1838.