In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 22d ultimo, I communicate a report[127] from the Secretary of State, which embraces the information called for by said resolution.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, May 20. 1844.
To the House of Representatives:
I herewith transmit a letter from the Secretary of the Navy, accompanied by a report from the Bureau of Construction and Equipment and a communication from Lieutenant Hunter, of the Navy, prepared at the request of the Secretary, upon the subject of a plan for the establishment in connection with the Government of France of a line of steamers between the ports of Havre and New York, with estimates of the expense which may be necessary to carry the said plan into effect.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, May 23, 1844.
To the Senate of the United States:
Your resolution of the 18th instant, adopted in executive session, addressed to the Secretary of the Treasury ad interim, has been communicated to me by that officer. While I can not recognize this call thus made on the head of a Department as consistent with the constitutional rights of the Senate when acting in its executive capacity, which in such case can only properly hold correspondence with the President of the United States, nevertheless, from an anxious desire to lay before the Senate all such information as may be necessary to enable it with full understanding to act upon any subject which may be before it, I herewith transmit communications[128] which have been made to me by the Secretaries of the War and Navy Departments, in full answer to the resolution of the Senate.
JOHN TYLER.