Martin  Van  Buren  1770 
more  than  $10,000,000  a  year  to  pay  the  interest.  This  sum  has  to  be 
paid  out  of  the  exports  of  the  country,  and  must  of  necessity  cut  ofiE 
imports  to  that  extent  or  plunge  the  country  liiore  deeply  in  debt  from 
year  to  year.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  the  increase  of  this  foreign  debt  must 
augment  the  annual  demand  on  the  exports  to  pay  the  interest,  and  to  the 
same  extent  diminish  the  imports,  and  in  proportion  to  the  enlargement 
of  the  foreign  debt  and  the  consequent  increase  of  interest  must  be  the 
decrease  of  the  import  trade.  In  lieu  of  the  comforts  which  it  now  brings 
us  we  might  have  our  gigantic  banking  institutions  and  splendid,  but  in 
many  instances  profitless,  railroads  and  canals  absorbing  to  a  great  extent 
in  interest  upon  the  capital  borrowed  to  construct  them  the  surplus  fruits 
of  national  industry  for  years  to  come,  and  securing  to  posterity  no  ade- 
quate return  for  the  comforts  which  the  labors  of  their  hands  might  other- 
wise have  secured.  It  is  not  by  the  increase  of  this  debt  that  relief  is  to 
be  sought,  but  in  its  diminution.  Upon  this  point  there  is,  I  am  happy 
to  say,  hope  before  us;  not  so  much  in  the  return  of  confidence  abroad, 
which  will  enable  the  States  to  borrow  more  money,  as  in  a  change  of  pub- 
lic feeling  at  home,  which  prompts  our  people  to  pause  in  their  career 
and  think  of  the  means  by  which  debts  are  to  be  paid  before  they  are 
contracted.  If  we  would  escape  embarrassment,  public  and  private,  we 
must  cease  to  run  in  debt  except  for  objects  of  necessity  or  such  as  will 
yield  a  certain  return.  Let  the  faith  of  the  States,  corporations,  and 
individuals  already  pledged  be  kept  with  the  most  punctilious  regard. 
It  is  due  to  our  national  character  as  well  as  to  justice  that  this  should  on 
the  part  of  each  be  a  fixed  principle  of  conduct.  But  it  behooves  us  all  to 
be  more  chary  in  pledging  it  hereafter.  By  ceasing  to  run  in  debt  and 
applying  the  surplus  of  our  crops  and  incomes  to  the  discharge  of  existing 
obligations,  buying  less  and  selling  more,  and  managing  all  affairs,  pub- 
lic and  private,  with  strict  economy  and  frugality,  we  shall  see  our  coun- 
try soon  recover  from  a  temporary  depression,  arising  not  from  natural 
and  permanent  causes,  but  from  those  I  have  enumerated,  and  advance 
with  renewed  vigor  in  her  career  of  prosperity. 
Fortunately  for  us  at  this  moment,  when  the  balance  of  trade  is  greatly 
against  us  and  the  difiSculty  of  meeting  it  enhanced  by  the  disturbed 
state  of  our  money  affairs,  the  bounties  of  Providence  have  come  to 
relieve  us  from  the  consequences  of  past  errors.  A  faithful  application 
of  the  immense  results  of  the  labors  of  the  last  season  will  afford  partial 
rehef  for  the  present,  and  perseverance  in  the  same  course  will  in  due 
season  accomplish  the  rest.  We  have  had  full  experience  in  times  past 
of  the  extraordinary  results  which  can  in  this  respect  be  brought  about 
in  a  short  period  by  the  united  and  well-directed  efforts  of  a  community 
like  ours.  Our  surplus  profits,  the  energy  and  industry  of  our  popula- 
tion, and  the  wonderful  advantages  which  Providence  has  bestowed  upon 
our  country  in  its  climate,  its  variotis  productions,  indispensable  to  other 
nations,  will  in  due  time  afford  abundant  means  to  perfect  the  most  useful
1771  }fessages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
of  those  objects  for  which  the  States  have  been  plunging  themselves  of 
late  in  embarrassment  and  debt,  withoiit  imposing  on  ourselves  or  our 
children  such  fearful  burdens. 
But  let  it  be  indelibly  engraved  on  our  minds  that  relief  is  not  to  be 
found  in  expedients.  Indebtedness  can  not  be  lessened  by  borrowing 
more  money  or  by  changing  the  form  of  the  debt.  The  balance  of  trade 
is  not  to  be  turned  in  our  favor  by  creating  new  demands  upon  us  abroad. 
Our  currency  can  not  be  improved  by  the  creation  of  new  banks  or  more 
issues  from  tjiose  which  now  exist.  Although  these  devices  sometimes 
appear  to  give  temporary  relief,  they  almost  invariably  aggravate  the  evil 
in  the  end.  It  is  only  by  retrenchment  and  reform — ^by  curtailing  public 
and  private  expenditures,  by  paying  our  debts,  and  by  reforming  otu: 
banking  system — that  we  are  to  expect  effectual  relief,  security  for  the 
future,  and  an  enduring  prosperity.  In  shaping  the  institutions  and 
policy  of  the  General  Government  so  as  to  promote  as  far  as  it  can  with 
its  limited  powers  these  important  ends,  you  may  rely  on  my  most  cordial 
cooperation. 
That  there  should  have  been  in  the  progress  of  recent  events  doubts 
in  many  quarters  and  in  some  a  heated  opposition  to  every  change  can 
not  surprise  us.  Doubts  are  properly  attendant  on  all  reform,  and  it  is 
peculiarly  in  the  nature  of  such  abuses  as  we  are  now  encountering  to 
seek  to  perpetuate  their  power  by  means  of  the  influence  they  have  been 
permitted  to  acquire.  It  is  their  result,  if  not  their  object,  to  gain  for 
the  few  an  ascendency  over  the  many  by  securing  to  them  a  monopoly 
of  the  currency,  the  medium  through  which  most  of  the  wants  of  man- 
kind are  supplied;  to  produce  throughout  society  a  chain  of  dependence 
which  leads  all  classes  to  look  to  privileged  associations  for  the  means  of 
speculation  and  extravagance;  to  nourish,  in  preference  to  the  manly 
virtues  that  give  dignity  to  human  nature,  a  craving  desire  for  luxuri- 
ous enjoyment  and  sudden  wealth,  which  renders  those  who  seek  them 
dependent  on  those  who  supply  them;  to  substitute  for  republican  sim- 
plicity and  economical  habits  a  sickly  appetite  for  effeminate  indulgence 
and  an  imitation  of  that  reckless  extravagance  which  impoverished  and 
enslaved  the  industrious  people  of  foreign  lands,  and  at  last  to  fix  upon 
us,  instead  of  those  equal  political  rights  the  acquisition  of  which  was 
alike  the  object  and  supposed  reward  of  our  Revolutionary  struggle,  a 
system  of  exclusive  privileges  conferred  by  partial  legislation.  To  remove 
the  influences  which  had  thus  gradually  grown  up  among  us,  to  deprive 
them  of  their  deceptive  advantages,  to  test  them  by  the  light  of  wis- 
dom and  truth,  to  oppose  the  force  which  they  concentrate  in  their  sup- 
port— all  this  was  necessarily  the  work  of  time,  even  among  a  people  so 
enlightened  and  pure  as  that  of  the  United  States.  In  most  other  coun- 
tries, perhaps,  it  could  only  be  accomplished  through  that  series  of  revo- 
lutionary movements  which  are  too  often  found  necessary  to  effect  any 
grsat  and  radical  reform;  but  it  is  the  crowning  merit  of  our  institutions
Martin  Van  Buren  1772 
diat  they  create  and  nourish  in  the  vast  majority  of  our  people  a  dis- 
position and  a  power  peaceably  to  remedy  abuses  which  have  elsewhere 
caused  the  effusion  of  rivers  of  blood  and  the  sacrifice  of  thousands  of  the 
human  race.  The  result  thus  far  is  most  honorable  to  the  self-denial, 
Uie  intelligence,  and  the  patriotism  of  our  citizens;  it  justifies  the  confi- 
dent hope  that  they  will  carry  through  the  reform  which  has  been  so 
well  begun,  and  that  they  will  go  still  further  than  they  have  yet  gone 
in  illustrating  the  important  truth  that  a  people  as  free  and  enlightened 
as  ours  will,  whenever  it  becomes  necessary,  show  themselves  to  be  indeed 
capable  of  self-government  by  voluntarily  adopting  appropriate  remedies 
for  every  abuse,  and  submitting  to  temporary  sacrifices,  however  great, 
to  insure  their  permanent  welfare. 
My  own  exertions  for  the  furtherance  of  these  desirable  objects  have 
been  bestowed  throughout  my  o€Bcial  career  with  a  zeal  that  is  nourished 
by  ardent  wishes  for  the,  welfare  of  my  country,  and  by  an  unlimited 
reliance  on  the  wisdom  that  marks  its  ultimate  decision  on  all  great 
and  controverted  questions.  Impressed  with  the  solemn  obligations 
imposed  upon  me  by  the  Constitution,  desirous  also  of  laying  before  my 
fellow-dtizens,  with  whose  confidence  and  support  I  have  been  so  highly 
honored,  such  measures  as  appear  to  me  conducive  to  their  prosperity, 
and  anxious  to  submit  to  their  fullest  consideration  the  grounds  upon 
which  my  opinions  are  formed,  I  have  on  this  as  on  preceding  occasions 
freely  offered  my  views  on  those  points  of  domestic  policy  that  seem  at 
the  present  time  most  prominently  to  require  the  action  of  the  Govern- 
ment. I  know  that  they  will  receive  from  Congress  that  full  and  able 
consideration  which  the  importance  of  the  subjects  merits,  and  I  can 
repeat  the  assurance  heretofore  made  that  I  shall  cheerfully  and  readily 
cooperate  with  you  in  every  measure  that  will  tend  to  promote  the  wel- 
fare of  the  Union. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
SPECIAL  MESSAGES. 
City  of  Washington,  December  4^  1839. 
To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  herewith  a  report  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
exhibiting  certain  transfers  of  appropriations  that  have  been  made  in 
that  Department  in  pursuance  of  the  powers  vested  in  the  President  of 
the  United  States  by  the  act  of  Congress  of  the  3d  of  March,  1809,  enti- 
tled "An  act  further  to  amend  the  several  acts  for  the  establishment  and 
regulation  of  the  Treasury,  War,  and  Navy  Departments.'* 
M.  VAN  BUREN.
X773  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
City  of  Washington,  December  4,  rS^p. 
To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  herewith  a  report  from  the  Secretary  of  War,  which  exhibits 
certain  transfers  of  appropriations  made  in  the  War  Department  under 
the  authority  conferred  upon  the  President  of  the  United  States  by  the 
acts  of  Congress  of  March  3,  1809,  and  May  i,  1820,  passed  in  addition 
to  and  to  amend  the  several  acts  for  the  establishment  and  regulation  of 
the  Treasury,  War,  and  Navy  Departments. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  December  11, 1839. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  for  the  consideratiqn  and  advice  of  the  Senate  a  treaty  con- 
eluded  on  the  3d  day  of  September  last  with  the  Stockbridge  and  Munsee 
tribes  of  Indians,  with  a  report  from  the  Secretary  of  War  and  other  doc- 
uments in  relation  to  it. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  December  12, 1839. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  UniUd  States: 
I  nominate  the  persons  named  in  the  accompanying  list  for  promotion 
and  appointment  in  the  Army  to  the  several  grades  annexed  to  their 
names,  as  proposed  by  the  Secretary  of  War. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
War  Bbpartmbnt,  December  ir,  /8jg. 
The  President  op  thb  Unitsd  States. 
Sir:  In  submitting  the  accompanying  list*  of  promotions  and  appointments, 
which  I  respectfully  recommend  for  your  approval,  I  beg  leave  to  call  your  atten- 
tion to  that  part  of  it  which  relates  to  the  Quartermaster*8  Department. 
The  seventh  section  of  the  act  of  2d  of  March,  1821,  fixing  the  military  peace  estab- 
lishment, provides  **that  there  shall  be  one  Quartermaster-General;  that  there  shall 
be  two  quartermasters  with  the  rank,  pay,  and  emolimients  of  majors  of  cavalry,  and 
ten  assistant  quartermasters,  who  shall,  in  addition  to  their  pay  in  the  line,  receive  a 
sum  not  less  than  ten  nor  more  than  twenty  dollars  per  month,  to  be  regulated  by  the 
Secretary  of  War.** 
The  third  section  of  the  act  of  the  i8th  May,  1826,  provides  for  *'two  additional 
quartermasters  and  ten  assistant  quartermasters,  to  be  taken  from  the  line  of  the 
Army,  who  shall  have  the  same  rank  and  compensation  as  are  provided  for  likt 
grades  by  the  act  of  the  2d  March,  182 1,"  above  quoted;  that  is  to  say,  the  two  addi- 
tional quartermasters  shall  have  the  ''rank,  pay,  and  emoluments  of  majors  of  cav- 
alry,'' and  the  ten  additional  assistant  quartermasters  "shall,  in  addition  to  their  pay 
in  the  line,  receive  a  stmi  not  less  than  |io  nor  more  than  $20  per  month." 
The  ninth  section  of  the  act  of  the  5th  July,  1838,  provides  **  that  the  President  of 
the  United  States  be  authorized,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,
Martin  Van  Buren  1774 
to  add  to  the  Quartermaster's  Department  not  exceeding  two  assistant  quartermas- 
ters-general  with  the  rank  of  colonel,  two  deputy  quartennafiters-geoeral  with  the 
rank  of  lientenant-colonel»  and  eight  assistant  quartermasters  with  the  rank  of  cap-^ 
tain;  that  the  assistant  quartermasters  now  in  service  shall  have  the  same  rank 
as  is  provided  by  this  act  for  those  hereby  authorized:  *  *  *  Provided^  That 
all  the  appointments  in  the  Quartermaster's  Department  shall  be  made  from  the 
Army,  *  *  «  and  that  promotions  in  said  Department  shall  take  place  as  in 
regiments  and  corps."    • 
These  are  believed  to  be  the  only  laws  now  in  force  which  provide  for  the  organi- 
zation of  the  Quartermaster's  Department,  and  they  are  here  cited  with  a  view  to  a 
full  and  clear  understanding  of  the  question  of  precedence  of  rank  between  certain 
officers  of  that  Department. 
Prior  to  the  act  of  the  5th  of  July,  1838,  last  quoted,  the  assistant  quartermasters 
were  selected  from  the  several  regiments  of  the  line  to  perform  duty  in  the  Quar- 
termaster's Department.  They  were  never  commissioned  in  the  Department;  they 
merely  received  letters  of  appointment  as  assistant  quartermasters,  and  were  allowed 
the  additional  pay  provided  by  the  act  of  the  2d  March,  1821,  and  i6th  May,  1826. 
They  held  no  rank  in  the  Department  separate  from  their  rank  in  the  line,  and  were 
liable  to  be  returned  to  their  regiments  according  to  the  wants  of  the  service  or  at  th» 
pleasure  of  the  President.  In  completing  the  oiganization  of  the  Department  provided 
by  the  act  of  5th  July,  1838,  several  officers  were  selected  from  regiments  for  appoint- 
ment as  assistant  quartermasters  whose  lineal  rank  was  greater  than  that  held  by  the 
assistant  quartermasters  then  doing  duty  in  the  Department,  and  on  the  7th  of  July, 
the  list  being  nearly  coihpleted,  it  was  submitted  to  the  Senate  for  confirmation.  All 
the  assistant  quartermasters  thus  submitted  to  the  Senate  were  confirmed  to  take  rank 
from  the  7th  of  July,  and  in  the  order  they  were  nominated,  which  was  according  to 
their  seniority  in  the  line  and  agreeably  to  what  was  conceived  to  be  the  intention 
of  the  law.  Had  the  op^iosite  course  been  pursued,  the  lieutenants  serving  in  the 
Department  must  either  have  outranked  some  of  the  captains  selected  or  else  the 
selections  must  have  been  confined  altogether  to  the  subaltern  officers  of  the  Army. 
It  will  appear,  therefore,  that  the  relative  rank  of  these  officers  has  been  properly 
settled,  both  by  a  fair  construction  of  the  law  and  the  long-established  regulation  of 
the  service  which  requires  that  "  in  cases  where  commissions  of  the  same  grade  and 
date  interfere  a  retrospect  is  to  be  had  to  former  commissions  in  actual  service  at  the 
time  of  appointment. '  *  But  as  several  of  the  assistant  quartermasters  who  were  doing 
duty  in  the  Department  prior  to  the  act  of  the  5th  of  July,  1838,  have  felt  themselves 
aggrieved  by  this  construction  of  the  law,  and  have  urged  a  consideration  of  their 
claims  to  priority  of  rank,  I  have  felt  it  my  duty  to  lay  their  communications  b^ore 
you,  with  a  view  to  their  being  submitted  to  the  Senate  with  the  accompanying  list,* 
should  you  think  proper  to  do  so. 
I  have  the  honor  to  be,  very  respectfully,  your  most  obedient  servant, 
J.  R.  POINSBTT. 
Washington,  December  77, 1839. 
Hon.  Wm.  R.  Eino, 
President  of  the  Senate. 
Sir:  I  transmit  herewith  a  report  made  to  me  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  with  accompanying  documents,  in  regard  to  some  diflficulties 
which  have  occurred  concerning  the  kind  of  papers  deemed  necessary 
to  be  provided  by  law  for  the  use  and  protection  of  American  vessels 
^Omitted.
17  75  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
engaged  in  the  whale  fisheries,  and  would  respectfully  invite  the  con- 
sideration of  Congress  to  some  new  legislation  on  a  subject  of  so  much 
interest  and  difficulty. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
[The  same  message  was  addressed  to  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Representatives.] 
Washington  City,  December  23,  1839. 
To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  herewith  communicate  to  Congress  copies  of  a  letter  from  the  gov- 
ernor of  Iowa  to  the  Secretary  of  State  and  of  the  documents  transmitted 
with  it,  on  the  subject  of  a  dispute  respecting  the  boundary  line  between 
that  Territory  and  the  State  of  Missouri.  The  disagreement  as  to  the 
extent  of  their  respective  jurisdictions  has  produced  a  state  of  such  great 
excitement  that  I  think  it  necessary  to  invite  your  early  attention  to  the 
report  of  the  commissioner  appointed  to  run  the  line  in  question  under 
the  act  of  the  i8th  of  June,  1838,  which  was  sent  to  both  Houses  of 
Congress  by  the  Secretary  of  6tate  on  the  30th  of  January  last. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Dbcbmbbr  24,  1839. 
To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  herewith  to  Congress  a  report  from  the  Secretary  of  State, 
on  the  subject  of  the  law  providing  for  taking  the  Sixth  Census  of  the 
United  States,  to  which  I  invite  your  early  attention. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  December  28, 1839,  . 
To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  herewith  transmit  a  report  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in 
relation  to  the  employment  of  steam  vessels  in  the  Revenue-Cutter  Serv- 
ice, and  recommend  the  subject  to  tlie  special  and  favorable  considera- 
tion of  Congress. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  December  30,  1839. 
To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives: 
I  transmit  to  Congress  copies  of  a  communication  from  Governor 
Lucas,  and  of  additional  documents,  in  relation  to  the  disputed  boundary 
Xne  between  the  Territory  of  Iowa  and  the  State  of  Missouri. 
M.  VAN  BUREN.
Martin  Van  Buren  1776 
•  Washington,  December  31, 1839. 
To  the  Senate  and  House  0/ Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  communicate  to  Congress  a  report  from  the  Secretary  of  State,  hi 
relation  to  applications  on  the  part  of  France  for  the  extension  to  ves- 
sels coming  from  the  colonies  of  French  Guiana  and  Senegal  of  the  bene^ 
fits  granted  by  the  act  of  the  9th  of  May,  1828,  to  vessels  of  the  same 
nation  coming  from  the  islands  of  Guadaloupe  and  Martinique,,  and 
for  the  repajnnent  of  duties  levied  in  the  district  of  Newport  upon  the 
French  ship  Alexandre  and  part  of  her  cargo.  The  circumstances  under 
which  these  duties  were  demanded  being,  as  stated  by  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  of  a  character  to  entitle  the  parties  to  relief,  I  recom- 
mend the  adoption  of  the  necessary  legislative  provisions  to  authorize 
their  repayment.  I  likewise  invite  your  attention  to  the  evidence  con- 
tained in  the  accompanying  documents  as  to  the  treatment  of  our  ves- 
sels in  the  port  of  Cayenne,  which  will  doubtless  be  found  by  Congress 
such  as  to  authorize  the  application  to  French  vessels  coming  from  that 
colony  of  the  liberal  principles  of  reciprocity  which  have  hitherto  gov- 
erned the  action  of  the  JU^;isIatttre  in  analogous  cases. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  January  6,  18^^. 
To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  herewith  communicate  to  Congress  copies  of  a  communication 
received  from  the  chief  magistrate  of  the  State  of  Maryland  in  respect 
to  the  cession  to  that  State  of  the  interest  of  the  General  Government 
In  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  CanaL  Having  no  authority  to  enter  into 
the  proposed  negotiation,  I  can  only  submit  the  subject  to  the  considera- 
tion of  Congress.  That  body  will,  I  am  confident,  give  to  it  a  careful 
and  favorable  consideration  and  adopt  such  measures  in  tlie  premises 
within  their  competency  as  will  be  just  to  the  State  of  Maryland  and  to 
all  the  other  interests  involved. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington  City,  January  8,  1840. 
To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  herewith  for  your  consideration  and  action  a  commtmica- 
tion  from  the  Secretary  of  War,  which  is  accompanied  by  documents 
from  the  military  and  topo^aphical  en^neer  bureaus,  referred  to  in  his 
late  annual  report  as  relating  to  the  system  of  internal  improvement  car- 
ried on  by  the  General  Government,  and  showing  the  operations  during 
the  past  3^ear  in  that  branch  of  the  public  service  intrusted  to  the  topo- 
graphical bureau. 
M.  VAN  BUREN.
1777  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
Washington  City,  January  8,  ^840. 
To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
In  addition  to  the  papers  accompanying  my  messages  of  the  23d  and 
30th  ultimo,  I  communicate  to  Congress  a  copy  of  a  letter,  with  its  inclo- 
sure,  since  received  at  the  Department  of  State  from  the  governor  of 
Iowa,  in  relation  to  the  disputed  boundary  between  that  Territory  and 
the  State  of  Missouri. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington  City,  January  8, 1840. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
In  compliance  with  a  resolution  that  passed  the  Senate  the  30th  ultimo, 
calling  for  information  as  to  the  banks  which  had  recently  suspended 
specie  payments  and  those  which  had  resumed,  as  well  as  the  cases  where 
they  had  refused  payment  of  the  public  demands  in  specie,  with  several 
other  particulars,  I  requested  the  diflFerent  Departments  to  prepare  reports 
on  the  whole  subject  so  far  as  connected  with  the  business  with  each. 
Having  received  an  answer  from  the  Treasury  Department  which,  with 
the  documents  annexed,  will  probably  cover  most  of  the  inquiries,  I  here- 
with submit  the  sa^e  to  your  consideration,  and  will  present  the  reports 
from  the  other  Departments  so  soon  as  they  are  completed. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  January  10, 1840. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  herewith,  in  compliance  with  a  resolution  of  the  30th  ultimo, 
the  proceedings  of  the  court  of  inquiry  in  the  case  of  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Brant,*  held  at  St.  I/)uis  in  November  last,  and  the  papers  connected 
therewith,  together  with  a  copy  of  that  oflScer's  resignation. 
The  report  of  the  Secretary  of  War  which  accompanies  these  papers 
opntains  the  reasons  for  withholding  the  proceedings  of  the  court-martiaL 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  January  zi,  1840. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  to  the  Senate,  in  compUance  with  its  resolutions  of  the  30th 
ultimo,  two  reports  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  containing  the  answers  of 
the  Commissioner  of  Patents  and  the  disbursing  agent  of  the  Department 
of  State  to  the  inquiries  embraced  in  said  resolutions.! 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
*  Relating  to  his  administratiom  of  the  affairs  of  the  Quartermaster'a  Department  at  St.  Lotiis. 
t  Relating  to  the  sale  or  exchange  of  Government  drafts,  etc.
OVERLAND  EMIGRATION. 
Sutter's  discovery  of  gold  in  California  was  known  on  the  Atlantic  sea- 
board in  the  winter  of  1848.  Seventeen  thousand  emigrants  immediately  set 
sail  for  El  Dorado.  When  spring  came  an  equal  number  of  gold  hunters 
started  on  the  arduous  journey  overland  to  the  Pacific.  Having  congregated 
at  points  on  the  Missouri  during  the  winter,  the  emigrants,  in  May,  began 
their  arduous  march  over  the  rolling  prairies,  usually  with  eight  oxen  to  haul 
their  wagons.  Before  long,  however,  the  weaker  animals  would  perish  or  be 
eaten  for  food,  and  sights  of  oxen,  horses,  mules,  and  dogs  yoked  together 
Were  common.  Their  route  was  strewn  with  the  debris  of  failure; — ^wagons 
tools,  food,  impedimenta  of  every  description  were  cast  aside  in  the  frantic 
effort  to  get  out  of  the  torments  of  the  desert  more  quickly.  When  the  first  of 
the  overland  emigrants  reached  San  Francisco,  their  description  of  the  piteous 
plight  of  those  in  the  rear  caused  the  army  commandant  there  to  send  troops 
with  supplies  for  their  relief.  They  found  the  trails  strewn  with  wreckage  and 
crowded  with  emigrants  marching  on  foot,  with  their  children  and  wives  fol- 
lowing them.  Winter  caught  the  rear  guard  of  the  emigrants  still  plodding 
along,  and  those  who  had  survived  the  trial  by  fire  in  the  desert  now  under- 
went the  tortures  of  winter  on  the  plains.  By  the  end  of  November  all  the 
argonauts  were  safe  in  San  Francisco. 
See  the  articles  "California"  and  "Gold"  in  the  encyclopedic  index. 
The  trek  to  California  is,  of  course,  typical  of  the  westward  emigration 
toward  an  ever-receding  frontier  which  occurred  from  the  earliest  days  of 
the  Republic. 
One  of  the  agents  in  civilizing  the  new  territory  was  the  pony  express, 
carrying  passengers,  mail,  and  valuables  between  settlements.  Many  thrill- 
ing tales  are  told  of  the  attacks  upon  the  pony  expresses  by  Indians  and  also 
by  highwaymen  in  the  days  when  each  man  was  his  own  policeman.  As 
the  West  became  more  thickly  settled,  thousands  and  thousands  of  the 
buffalo  which  had  inhabited  its  plains  were  killed,  until  that  noble  animal 
became  practically  extinct.
Martin  Van  Buren  1778 
Washington,  Jantuiry  11, 1840. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  herewith  a  report  and  statement  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  furnishing  the  information  called  for  by  the  resolution  of 
the  30th  ultimo,  in  relation  to  the  amount  of  money  drawn  from  the 
Treasury  in  each  of  the  five  'years  preceding  the  commencement  of  the 
present  session  of  Congress,  except  the  amount  drawn  under  the  special 
pension  laws.  The  statement  showing  the  amount,  it  will  be  seen  from 
the  ajxompanying  communication  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  will  take  some 
little  time,  but  will  be  prepared  as  early  as  possible  and  transmitted. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  January  /j,  1840, 
To  the  Senate  of  {he  United  States: 
I  again  submit  to  you  the  amended  treaty  of  June  11,  1838,  with  the 
New  York  Indians.  It  is  accompanied  by  minutes  of  the  proceedings 
of  a  council  held  with  them  at  Cattaraugus  on  the  13th  and  14th  days  of 
August,  1839,  at  which  were  present  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  the 
Secretary  of  War  and  on  the  part  of  the  State  of  Massachusetts  General 
H.  A.  S.  Dearborn,  its  commissioner;  by  various  documentary  testimony, 
and  by  a  memorial  presented  in  behalf  of  the  several  committees  on 
Indian  concerns  appointed  by  the  four  yearly  meetings  of  Friends  of 
Genesee,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore.  In  the  latter  docu- 
ment the  memorialists  not  only  insist  upon  the  irregularity  and  illegality 
of  the  negotiation,  but  urge  a  variety  of  considerations  which  appear  to 
them  to  be  very  conclusive  against  the  policy  of  the  removal  itself.  The 
motives  by  which  they  have  been  induced  to  take  so  deep  an  interest  in 
th4  subject  are  frankly  set  forth,  and  are  doubtless  of  the  most  beneficent 
character.  They  have,  however,  failed  to  remove  my  decided  conviction 
that  the  proposed  removal,  if  it  can  be  accomplished  by  proper  means, 
will  be  alike  beneficial  to  the  Indians,  to  the  State  in  which  the  land  is 
situated,  and  to  the  more  general  interest  of  the  United  States  upon  the 
subject  of  Indian  affairs. 
The  removal  of  the  New  York  Indians  is  not  only  important  to  the 
tribes  themselves,  but  to  an  interesting  portion  of  western  New  York, 
and  especially  to  the  growing  dty  of  Buffalo,  which  is  surrounded  by 
lands  occupied  by  the  Senecas.     To  the  Indians  themselves  it  presents 
the  only  prospect  of  preservation.     Surrounded  as  they  are  by  all  the 
influences  which  work  their  destruction,  by  temptation  they  can  not  resist 
and  artifices  they  can  not  counteract,  they  are  rapidly  declining,  and, 
notwithstanding  the  philanthropic  efforts  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  it  is 
believed  that  where  they  are  they  must  soon  become  extinct;  and  to  this 
portion  of  our  country  the  extraordinary  spectacle  is  presented  of  densely 
populated  and  highly  improved  settlements  inhabited  by  industrious,
1779  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
moral,  and  respectable  citizens,  divided  by  a  wilderness  on  one  side  of 
which  is  a  city  of  more  than  20,000  souls,  whose  advantageous  position 
in  every  other  respect  and  great  commercial  prospects  would  insure  its 
rapid  increase  in  population  and  wealth  if  not  retarded  by  the  circum- 
stance of  a  naturally  fertile  district  remaining  a  barren  waste  in  its 
immediate  vicinity.  Neither  does  it  appear  just  to  those  who  are  entitled 
to  the  fee  simple  of  the  land,  and  who  have  paid  a  part  of  the  purchase 
money,  that  they  should  suffer  from  the  waste  which  is  constantly 
committed  upon  their  reversionary  rights  and  the  great  deterioration  of 
the  land  consequent  upon  such  depredations  without  any  corresponding 
advantage  to  the  Indian  occupants. 
Ths  treaty,  too,  is  recommended  by  the  liberality  of  its  provisions. 
The  cession  contained  in  the  first  article  embraces  the  right,  title,  and 
interest  secured  to  **the  Six  Nations  of  the  New  York  Indians  and  St. 
Regis  tribe"  in  lands  at  Green  Bay  by  the  Menomonee  treaty  of  8th 
February,  1831,  the  supplement  thereto  of  17th  of  same  month,  and  the 
conditions  upon  which  they  were  ratified  by  the  Senate,  except  a  tract 
on  which  a  part  of  the  New  York  Indians  now  reside.  The  Menomonee 
treaty  assigned  them  500,000  acres,  coupled  with  the  original  condition 
that  they  should  remove  to  them  within  three  years  after  the  date  of  the 
treaty,  modified  by  the  supplement  so  as*  to  empower  the  President  to 
prescribe  the  term  within  which  they  should  remove  to  the  Green  Bay 
lands,  and  that  if  they  neglected  to  do  so  within  the  period  limited  so 
much  of  the  land  as  should  be  unoccupied  by  them  at  the  termination 
theieof  should  revert  to  the  United  States.  To  these  lands  the  New 
York  Indians  claimed  title,  which  was  resisted,  and,  for  quieting  the 
controversy,  by  the  treaty  of  1831  the  United  States  paid  a  large  consid- 
eration;  and  it  will  be  seen  that  by  using  the  power  given  in  the  treaty 
the  Executive  might  put  an  end  to  the  Indian  claim.  Instead  of  this 
harsher  measure,  for  a  grant  of  all  their  interest  in  Wisconsin,  which, 
deducting  the  land  in  the  actual  occupancy  of  New  York  Indians, 
amounts  to  about  435,000  acres,  the  treaty  as  amended  by  the  Senate 
gives  1,824,000  acres  of  lands  in  the  West  and  the  sum  ot  $400,000  for 
their  removal  and  subsistence,  for  education  and  agricultural  purposes, 
the  erection  of  mills  and  the  necessary  houses,  and  the  promotion  of  the 
mechanic  arts.  Besides,  there  are  special  money  provisions  for  the  Cayu- 
gas,  the  Onondagas,  the  Oneidas  of  New  York,  the  Tuscaroras,  and  St. 
Regis  Indians,  and  an  engagement  to  receive  from  Ogden  and  Fellows 
for  the  Senecas  $202,000;  to  invest  $100,000  of  this  sum  in  safe  stocks 
and  to  distribute  $102,000  among  the  owners  of  improvements  in  New 
York  according  to  an  appraisement;  to  sell  for  the  Tuscaroras  5,000 
acres  of  land  they  hold  in  Niagara  Cotmty,  N.  Y. ,  and  to  invest  the  pro- 
ceeds, exclusive  of  what  maybe  received  for  improvements,  **the  inoome 
from  which  shall  be  paid  to  the  nation  at  their  new  homes  annually,  and 
the  money  which  shall  be  received  for  improvements  on  said  lands  shall
Martin  Van  Buren  1780 
be  paid  to  the  owners  of  the  improvements  when  the  iands  are  sold." 
These  are  the  substantial  parts  of  the  treaty,  and  are  so  careful  of  Indiap 
advantage  that  one  might  suppose  they  would  be  satisfactory  to  those 
most  anxious  for  their  welfare.  The  right  they  cede  could  be  extin- 
guished by  a  course  that  treaty  provisions  justify  and  authorize.  So  long 
as  they  persevere  in  their  determination  to  remain  in  New  York  it  is  of 
no  service  to  them,  and  for  this  naked  right  it  is  seen  what  the  United 
States  propose  to  give  them  besides  the  sum  of  $202,000,  which  will  be 
due  from  the  purchasers  of  their  occupant  right  to  the  Senecas,  and 
$9,600  to  the  Tuscaroras  for  their  title  to  1,920  acres  of  land  in  Ontario 
County,  N.  Y.,  exclusive  of  the  5,000  acres  above  mentioned. 
But  whilst  such  are  my  views  in  respect  to  the  measure  itself,  and 
while  I  shall  feel  it  to  be  my  duty  to  labor  for  its  accomplishment  by  the 
proper  use  of  all  the  means  that  are  or  shall  be  placed  at  my  disposal  by 
Congress,  I  am  at  the  same  time  equally  desirous  to  avoid  the  use  of  any 
which  are  inconsistent  with  those  principles  of  benevolence  and  justice 
which  I  on  a  former  occasion  endeavored  to  show  have  in  the  main  char- 
acterized the  dealings  of  the  Federal  Government  with  the  Indian  tribes 
from  the  Administration  of  President  Washington  to  the  present  time. 
The  obstacles  to  the  execution  of  the  treaty  grow  out  of  the  following 
considerations:  The  amended  treaty  was  returned  to  me  by  your  body 
at  the  close  of  its  last  session,  accompanied  by  a  resolution  setting  forth 
that  "whenever  the  President  of  the  United  States  shall  be  satisfied  that 
the  assent  of  the  Seneca  tribe  of  Indians  has  been  given  to  the  amended 
treaty  of  June  11,  1838,  with  the  New  York  Indians,  according  to  the 
true  intent  and  meaning' of  the  resolution  of  the  nth  of  June,  1838,  the 
Senate  recommend  that  the  President  make  proclamation  of  said  treaty 
and  carry  the  same  into  effect.'*  The  resolution  of  the  nth  of  Jime, 
1838,  provided  that  **the  said  treaty  shall  have  no  force  or  effect  what- 
ever as  relates  to  any  of  the  said  tribes,  nations,  or  bands  of  New  York 
Indians,  dor  shall  it  be  understood  that  the  Senate  have  assented  to  any 
of  the  contracts  connected  with  it  until  the  same,  with  the  amendments 
herein  proposed,  is  submitted  and  fully  explained  by  the  commissioner  of 
the  United  States  to  each  of  the  said  tribes  or  bands  separately  assem- 
bled in  council,  and  they  have  given  their  free  and  voluntary  consent 
thereto.*'  The  amended  treaty  was  submitted  to  the  chiefs  of  the  several 
tribes  and  its  provisions  explained  to  them  in  council.  A  majority  of 
the  chiefs  of  each  of  the  tribes  of  New  York  Indians  signed  the  treaty 
in  council,  except  the  Senecas.  Of  them  only  16  signed  in  council, 
13  signed  at  the  commissioner's  oflSce,  and  2,  who  wei*e  cc^nfined  by 
Indisposition,  at  home.  This  was  reported  to  the  War  Department  in 
October,  1838,  and  in  January,  1839,  a  final  return  of  the  proceedings 
of  the  commissioner  was  made,  by  which  it  appeared  that  41  signatures 
of  chiefs,  including  6  out  of  the  8  sachems  of  the  nation,  had  been 
affixed  to  the  treaty.     The  number  of  chiefs  of  the  Seneca  Nation.
1 78 1  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
entitled  to  act  for  the  people  is  variously  estimated  from  74  to  80,  and 
by  some  at  a  still  higher  number.  Thus  it  appears  that,  estimating  the 
number  of  chiefs  at  80 — and  it  is  believed  there  are  at  least  that  number — 
there  was  only  a  bare  majority  of  them  who  signed  the  treaty,  and  only 
16  gave  their  assent  to  it  in  council.  The  Secretary  of  War  was  under 
these  circumstances  directed  to  meet  the  chiefs  of  the  New  York  Indians 
in  council,  in  order  to  ascertain,  if  possible,  the  views  of  the  several 
tribes,  and  especially  of  the  Senecas,  in  relation  to  the  amended  treaty. 
He  did  so  in  the  month  of  August  last,  and  the  minutes  of  the  proceed- 
ings of  that  council  are  herewith  submitted.  Much  opposition  was 
manifested  by  a  party  of  the  Senecas,  and  from  some  cause  or  other 
some  of  the  chiefs  of  the  other  tribes  who  had  in  foimer  councils  con- 
sented to  the  treaty  appeared  to  be  now  opposed  to  it.  Documents  were 
presented  showing  that  some  of  the  Seneca  chiefs  had  received  assur- 
ances of  remuneration  from  the  proprietors  of  the  land,  provided  they 
assented  to  the  treaty  and  used  their  influence  to  obtain  that  of  the 
nation,  while  testimony  was  offered  on  the  other  side  to  prove  that  many 
had  been  deterred  from  signing  and  taking  part  in  favor  of  the  treaty  by 
threats  of  violence,  which,  from  the  late  intelligence  of  the  cruel  mur- 
ders committed  upon  the  signers  of  the  Cherokee  treaty,  produced  a 
panic  among  the  partisans  of  that  now  under  consideration.  Whatever 
may  have  been  the  means  used  by  those  interested  in  the  fee  simple  of 
these  lands  to  obtain  the  assent  of  Indians,  it  appears  from  the  disinter- 
s^sted  and  important  testimony  of  the  commissioner  appointed  by  the 
State  of  Massachusetts  that  the  agent  of  the  Government  acted  through- 
out with  the  utmost  fairness,  and  General  Dearborn  declares  hitUself  to 
be  perfectly  satisfied -that  were  it  not  for  the  unremitted  and  disingenu- 
ous exertions  of  a  certain  number  of  white  men  who  are  actuated  by 
their  private  interests,  to  induce  the  chiefs  not  to  assent  to  the  treaty,  it 
would  immediately  have  been  approved  by  an  immense  majority — an 
opinion  which  he  reiterated  at  Cattaraugus.  Statements  were  presented 
to  the  Secretary  of  War  at  Cattaraugus  to  show  that  a  vast  majority  of 
the  New  York  Indians  were  adverse  to  the  treaty,  but  no  reasonable 
doubt  exists  that  the  same  influence  which  obtained  this  expression  of 
opinion  would,  if  exerted  with  equal  zeal  on  the  other  side,  have  pro- 
duced a  directly  opposite  effect  and  shown  a  large  majority  in  favor  of 
emigration.  But  no  advance  toward  obtaining  the  assent  of  the  Seneca 
tribe  to  the  amended  treaty  in  council  was  made,  nor  can  the  assent 
of  a  majority  of  them  in  council  be  now  obtained.  In  the  report  of  the 
committee  of  the  Senate,  upon  the  subject  of  this  treaty,  of  the  28th  of 
February  last  it  is  stated  as  follows: 
But  it  is  in  vain  to  contend  that  the  signatures  of  the  last  ten,  which  were  obtained 
on  the  second  mission,  or  of  the  three  who  have  sent  on  their  assent  lately,  is  such  a 
signing  as  was  contemplated  by  the  resolution  of  the  Senate.  It  is  competent,  how- 
ever, for  the  Senate  to  waive  the  usual  and  customary  forms  in  this  instance  and 
consider  the  signatures  of  these  last  thirteen  as  good  as  though  they  had  been  obtained
Martin  Van  Buren  1782 
m  open  council.  But  the  committee  can  not  recommend  the  adoption  of  such  a  prac- 
rice  in  making  treaties,  for  divers  good  reasons,  which  must  be  obvious  to  the  Senate; 
ind  among  those  reasons  against  these  secret  individual  negotiations  is  the  distrust 
created  that  the  chiefs  so  acting  are  doing  what  a  majority  of  their  peopie  do  not 
approve  of,  or  else  that  they  are  improperly  acted  upon  by  bribery  or  threats  or 
unfair  influences.  In  this  case  we  have  most  ample  illustrations.  Those  opposed  to 
the  treaty  accuse  several  of  those  who  signed  their  assent  to  the  amended  treaty  with 
having  been  bribed,  and  in  at  least  one  instance  they  make  out  the  charge  very 
clearly. 
Although  the  committee,  being  four  in  number,  were  unable  to  agree 
upon  any  recommendation  to  the  Senate,  it  does  not  appear  that  there 
was  any  diversity  of  opinion  amongst  them  in  regard  to  this  part  of  the 
report.  The  provision  of  the  resolution  of  the  Senate  of  the  i  ith  of  June, 
1838,  requiring  the  assent  of  each  of  the  said  tribes  of  Indians  to  the 
amended  treaty  to  be  given  in  council,  and  which  was  also  made  a  con- 
dition precedent  to  the  recommendation  to  me  of  the  Senate  of  the  2d  of 
March,  1839,  to  carry  the  same  into  effect,  has  not,  therefore,  been  com- 
plied with  as  it  respects  the  Seneca  tribe. 
It  is,  however,  insisted  by  the  advocates  for  the  execution  of  the  treaty 
that  it  was  the  intention  of  the  Senate  by  their  resolution  of  the  2d  of 
March,  1839,  to  waive  so  much  of  the  requirement  of  that  of  the  i  ith 
of  June,  1838,  as  made  it  necessary  that  the  assent  of  the  different  tribes 
should  be  given  in  council.  This  assumption  is  tmderstood  to  be  founded 
upon  the  circumstances  that  the  fact  that  only  sixteen  of  the  chiefs  had 
given  their  assent  in  that  form  had  been  distinctly  communicated  to  the 
Senate  before  the  passage  of  the  resolution  of  the  2d  of  March,  and  that 
instead  of  being  a  majority  that  number  constituted  scarcely  one-fifth  of 
She  whole  number  of  chiefs,  and  it  is  hence  insisted  that  unless  the  Sen- 
ate had  so  intended  there  would  have  been  no  use  in  sending  the  amended 
treaty  to  the  President  with  the  advice  contained  in  that  resolution.  This 
has  not  appeared  to  me  to  be  a  necessary  deduction  from  the  foregoing 
facts,  as  the  Senate  may  have  contemplated  that  the  assent  of  the  tribe 
in  the  form  first  required  should  be  thereafter  obtained,  and  before  the 
treaty  was  executed,  and  the  phraseology  of  the  resolution,  viz,  '  *  that 
whenever  the  President  shall  be  satisfied,*'  etc.,  goes  far  to  sustain  this 
construction.  The  interpretation  of  the  acts  of  the  Senate  set  up  by  the 
advocates  for  the  treaty  is,  moreover,  in  direct  opposition  to  the  disclaimer 
contained  in  the  report  of  the  committee  which  has  oeen  adverted  to.  It 
is  at  be^t  an  inference  only,  in  respect  to  the  truth  of  which  the  Senate 
can  alone  speak  with  certainty,  and  which  could  not  with  proprietj''  be 
regarded  as  justifying  the  desired  action  in  relation  to  the  execution  of 
the  treaty. 
This  measure  is  further  objected  to  on  the  ground  of  improper  induce- 
ments held  out  to  the  assenting  chiefs  by  the  agents  of  the  proprietors  of 
the  lands,  which,  it  is  insisted,  ought  to  invalidate  the  treaty  if  even  the 
requirement  that  the  assent  of  the  chiefs  should  be  given  in  council  was
1783  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
dispensed  with.  Documentary  evidence  upon  this  subject  was  laid  befor;^ 
you  at  the  last  session,  and  is  again  communicated,  with  additional  evi« 
dence  upon  the  same  point.  The  charge  appears  by  the  proceedings  or 
the  Senate  to  have  been  investigated  by  your  committee,  but  no  conclu- 
sion upon  the  subject  formed  other  than  that  which  is  contained  in  the 
extract  from  the  report  of  the  committee  I  have  referred  to,  and  which 
usserts  that  at  least  in  one  instance  the  charge  of  bribery  has  been  clearly 
made  out.  That  improper  means  have  been  employed  to  obtain  the  assent 
of  the  Seneca  chiefs  there  is  every  reason  to  believe,  and  I  have  not  been 
able  to  satisfy  myself  that  I  can,  consistently  with  the  resolution  of  the 
Senate  of  the  2d  of  March,  1839,  cause  the  treaty  to  be  carried  into  effect 
in  respect  to  the  Seneca  tribe. 
You  will  perceive  thjit  this  treaty  embraces  the  Six  Nations  of  New 
York  Indians,  occupying  different  reservations,  but  bound  together  by 
tommon  ties,  and  it  will  be  expedient  to  decide  whether  in  the  event  of 
\hat  part  of  it  which  concerns  the  Senecas  being  rejected  it  shall  be  con- 
sidered valid  in  relation  to  the  other  tribes,  or  whether  the  wliole  confed- 
eracy shall  share  one  fate.  In  the  event  of  the  Senate  not  ad:4sing  the 
ratification  of  the  amended  treaty,  I  mvite  your  attention  to  the  proposal 
submitted  by  the  dissentients  to  authorize  a  division  of  the  lands,  so  that 
those  who  prefer  it  may  go  West  and  enjoy  the  advantages  of  a  perma- 
nent home  there,  and  of  their  proportion  of  the  annuities  now  payable,  as 
well  as  of  the  several  pecuniary  and  other  beneficiary  provisions  of  the 
amended  treaty* 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington  City,  January  77, 1840. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  herewith  a  communication  and  statement  from  the  Secre* 
lary  of  War,  containing  the  balance  of  the  information,  not  heretofore 
furnished,  called  for  by  a  resolution  of  the  30th  ultimo,  in  relation  to  the 
amount  of  money  drawn  from  the  Treasury  during  the  five  years  imme- 
diately preceding  the  commencement  of  the  present  session  of  Congress, 
in  consequence  of  the  legislation  of  that  body  upon  private  claims. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  Jantiary  20, 1840. 
To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  a  report  from  the  Secretary  of  State,  explaining  the  causes 
li^hich  have  prevented  a  compliance  with  the  resolution  of  Congress  for 
the  distribution  of  the  Biennial  Register. 
M.  VAN  BURBN.
Martin  Van  Buren  1784 
To  the  Smate  of  the  United  States:         Washington.  January,  ,840. 
I  transmit  to  the  Senate,  for  their  consideration  with  a  view  to  its  rati- 
fication, a  treaty  of  peace,  friendship,  navigation,  and  commerce  between 
the  United  States  of  America  and  the  Republic  of  Ecuador,  signed  at 
Quito  on  the  13th  day  of  June  last.  With  a  view  to  enable  the  Senate 
to  understand  the  motives  which  led  to  this  compact,  the  progress  of  its 
negotiation,  and  the  grounds  upon  which  it  was  concluded,  I  also  com- 
municate a  copy  of  the  instructions  from  the  Secretary  of  State  to  Mi 
Pickett  in  relation  to  it,  and  the  original  official  dispatches  of  the  latter. 
It  is  requested  that  the  dispatches  may  be  returned  when  the  convention 
shall  have  been  disposed  of  by  the  Senate.  -^  VAN  BUREN 
Washington,  January  ^7, 1840. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  to  the  Senate,  in  compliance  with  the  request  of  the  gov- 
ernor of  Massachusetts,  a  copy  of  a  letter  addressed  to  him  by  one  of  the 
chiefs  of  the  Seneca  tribe  of  Indians  in  the  State  of  New  York,  written 
on  behalf  of  that  portion  of  the  tribe  opposed  to  the  treaty  of  Buffalo. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  Jantutry  22 ^  1840. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
In  compliance  with  the  resolution  of  the  Senate  of  the  17th  instant,  I 
communicate  a  report  and  documents  from  the  Secretary  of  State  and  a 
report  from  the  Secretary  of  War.*  ^  ^^^  BUREN. 
Washington,  January  23,  1840. 
To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  herewith  transmit  a  communication  from  the  Secretary  of  the  T.ieas- 
ury ,  inclosing  a  letter  addressed  to  him  from  the  Solicitor  of  the  Treasury, 
and  have  to  invite  the  earliest  attention  of  Congress  to  the  subject  con- 
tained therein.!  ^  y^jj  BUREN. 
WASHTSGros,  January  25,  1840. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
The  accompanying  report  J  from  the  Secretary  of  State  is,  with  its 
inclosures,  communicated  to  the  Senate  in  compliance  with  their  resolu- 
tion of  the  14th  instant.  ^  ^^^  BUREN. 
*  Transmitting  correspondence  with  the  British  Government  on  the  subject  of  the  northeastern 
bonndnrv  rnd  the  jurisdiction  of  the  disputed  territory;  also  with  tl^e  governor  of  Maine  and  the 
minister  of  Great  Britain  relative  to  the  invasion  of  Maine,  etc 
t  Relating  to  the  discharge  of  liens  and  incumbrances  upon  real  estate  which  has  or  may  become 
the  property  of  the  United  States. 
X  Relating  to  the  compensation  by  Great  Britain  in  the  case  of  the  brigs  Enterprise^  Encomium^ 
andComet,  slaves  on  board  which  were  forcibly  seized  and  detained  by  local  authorities  of  Bermuda 
and  Bahama  islands.
1785  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
Washington,  January  25,  1840. 
The  President  of  the  Senate. 
Sir:  I  transmit  a  report  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  containing 
information  required  by  a  resolution  of  the  Senate  of  the  2d  of  March, 
1839,  in  relation  to  the  military  and  naval  defenses  of  the  United  States. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington  City,  January  28,  1840. 
To  the  Senate  and  House  0/  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  present  for  your  information  a  communication  from  the  Secretary  of 
War,  accompanied  by  a  report  and  documents  from  the  Chief  Engineer,  in 
relation  to  certain  works*  under  the  superintendence  of  that  officer  dur- 
ing the  past  year.  These  documents  were  intended  as  a  supplement  to 
the  annual  report  of  the  Chief  Engineer,  which  was  laid  before  Congress 
at  the  commencement  of  the  session.  j^  VAN  BUREN 
Washington,  January  29,  1840. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
I  herewith  transmit  to  the  Senate,  with  reference  to  their  resolutions 
of  the  17th  instant,  copies  of  two  official  notes  which  have  passed  sub- 
sequently to  the  date  of  my  message  of  the  2  2d  between  the  Secretary  of 
State  and  the  British  minister  at  Washington,  containing  additional 
information  in  answer  to  the  resolutions  referred  to. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Mr.  Fox  to  Mr.  Forsyth. 
Washington, /afftMtrv  i6, 1840. 
Hon.  John  Porsvth,  etc: 
The  undersigned,  Her  Britannic  Majesty's  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  pleni- 
potentiary, has  the  honor  to  acquaint  Mr.  Fors3rth,  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United 
States,  that  since  the  date  of  his  last  official  note,  of  the  12th  instant,  he  has  been 
famished  by  Her  Majesty's  authorities  in  North  America  with  more  correct  infor- 
mation than  he  then  possessed  respecting  certain  reported  movements  of  British 
troops  within  the  disputed  territory,  which  formed  the  subject  of  a  part  of  that  offi- 
cial note,  as  well  as  of  the  two  official  notes  addressed  by  the  Secretary  of  State  to  the 
undersigned  on  the  24th  of  December  and  on  the  i6th  of  the  present  month.  The 
same  reported  movements  of  troops  were  referred  to  in  a  recent  message  from  the 
governor  of  Maine  to  the  legislatiure  of  the  State,  and  also  in  a  published  official 
letter  addressed  by  the  governor  of  Maine  to  the  President  of  the  United  States  on 
the  23d  of  December. 
I^  appears  from  accurate  information  now  in  the  possession  of  the  undersigned 
that  the  governor  of  Maine  and  through  him  the  President  and  General  Govem- 
^tient  of  the  United  States  have  been  misinformed  as  to  the  facts.  In  the  first  place, 
no  reenforcement  has  been  marched  to  the  British  post  at  the  Lake  Temiscouata ;  the 
*  operations  in  the  Missouri,  Arkansas,  Ohio,  and  Mississippi  riven,  etc
Martin  Van  Buren  1786 
only  change  occurring  there  has  been  the  relief  of  a  detachment  of  Her  Majesty's 
Twenty-fourth  Regiment  by  a  detachment  of  equal  force  of  the  Eleventh  Regiment, 
this  force  of  one  company  beingf  now  stationed  at  the  Temiscouata  post,  as  it  always 
has  been,  for  the  necessary  purpose  of  protecting  the  stores  and  accommodations 
provided  for  the  use  of  Her  Majesty's  troops  who  may  be  required,  as  heretofore, 
to  march  by  that  route  to  and  from  the  Provinces  of  Canada  and  New  Brunswick.  In 
the  second  place,  it  is  not  true  that  the  British  authorities  either  have  built  or  are 
building  barracks  on  both  sides  of  the  St.  John^River  or  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mada- 
waska  River;  no  new  barracks  have  in  fact  been  built  anywhere.  In  the  third  place, 
Her  Majesty's  authorities  are  not  concentrating  a  military  force  at  the  Grand  Falls; 
the  same  trifling  force  of  sixteen  men  is  now  stationed  at  the  post  of  the  Grand 
Falls  which  has  been  stationed  there  for  the  last  twelvemonth.  It  was  perhaps, 
however,  needless  for  the  undersigned  to  advert  to  this  last  matter  at  all,  as  the  post 
of  the  Grand  Falls  is  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  disputed  territory  and  within  the 
acknowledged  limits  of  New  Brunswick. 
The  undersigned,  while  conveying  the  above  information  upon  a  matter  of  fact  to 
the  Secretary  of  State  of.  the  United  States,  takes  occasion  to  repeat  distinctly  his 
former  declaration  that  there  exists  no  intention  on  the  part  of  Her  Majesty's 
authorities  to  infringe  the  terms  of  those  provisional  agreements  which  were  entered 
into  at  the  beginning  of  last  year  so  long  as  there  is  reason  to  trust  that  the  same 
will  b»  faithfully  adhered  to  by  the  opposite  party;  but  it  is  the  duty  of  the  under- 
signed at  the  same  time  clearly  to  state  that  Her  Majesty's  authorities  in  North 
America,  taking  into  view  the  attitude  assumed  by  the  State  of  Maine  with  refer- 
ence to  the  boundary  question,  will,  as  at  present  advised,  be  governed  entirely  by 
circumstances  in  adopting  such  measures  of  defense  and  protection  (whether  along 
the  confines  of  the  disputed  territory  or  within  that  portion  of  it  where,  it  has  been 
before  explained,  the  authority  of  Great  Britain,  according  to  the  existing  agree- 
ments, was  not  to  be  interfered  with)  as  may  seem  to  them  necessary  for  guarding 
against  or  for  promptly  repelling  the  fmther  acts  of  hostile  aggression  over  the  whole 
of  the  disputed  territory  which  it  appears  to  be  the  avowed  design  of  the  State  of 
Maine  sooner  or  later  to  attempt. 
For  the  undersign^  has  to  observe  that  not  only  is  the  extensive  system  of 
encroachment  which  was  denounced  and  remonstrated  against  by  the  imdersigned 
in  his  official  note  of  the  2d  of  last  November  still  carried  on  and  persisted  in  by 
armed  bands  employed  by  the  authorities  of  Maine  in  the  districts  above  the  Aroos- 
took and  Fish  rivers,  but  that  acts,  as  above  stated,  of  a  character  yet  more  violent 
and  obnoxious  to  the  rights  of  Great  Bri^in  and  more  dangerous  to  the  preservation 
of  the  general  peace  are  with  certainty  meditated  by  the  inhabitants  of  that  State. 
The  existence  of  such  designs  has  for  months  past  been  a  matter  of  notoriety  by 
public  report.  Those  designs  were  plainly  indicated  in  the  recent  message  of  the 
governor  of  Maine  to  the  legislature  of  the  State,  and  they  are  avowed  in  more 
explicit  terms  in  the  letter  addressed  to  the  President  of  the  United  States  by  the 
governor  of  Maine  on  the  21st  of  November,  which  letter  has  within  the  last  few 
days  been  communicated  to  Congress  and  published. 
The  undersigned,  it  is  true,  has  been  assured  by  the  Secretary  of  State,  in  his  note 
of  the  i6th  instant,  that  the  General  Government  see  no  reason  to  doubt  the  disposi- 
tion of  the  governor  of  Maine  to  adhere  to  the  existing  arrangements  and  to  avoid 
all  acts  tending  to  render  more  difficult  and  distant  the  final  adjustment  of  the  bound- 
ary question;  but  in  face  of  the  above  clear  indications  of  the  intentions  of  Maine  as 
given  out  by  the  parties  themselves  the  Secretary  of  State  has  not  given  to  the 
undersigned  any  adequate  assurance  that  Maine  will  be  constrained  to  desist  from 
carrying  those  intentions  into  effect  if,  contrary  to  the  expectation  of  the  General 
Government,  the  legislature  or  the  executive  of  the  State  should  think  fit  to  make 
the  attempt.
1787  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
The  undersigned  not  only  preserves  the  hope,  but  he  entertains  the  firm  belief, 
that  if  the  duty  of  negotiating  the  boundary  question  be  left  in  the  hands  of  the  two 
national  Governments,  to  whom  alone  of  right  it  belongs,  the  difficulty  of  conduct- 
ing the  negotiation  to  an  amicable  issue  will  not  be  found  so  great  as  has  been  by 
many  persons  apprehended.  But  the  case  will  become  wholly  altered  if  the  people 
of  the  State  of  Maine,  who,  though  interested  in  the  result,  are  not  charged  with  the 
negotiation,  shall  attempt  to  interrupt  it  by  violence. 
Her  Majesty's  authorities  in  North  America  have  on  their  part  no  desire  or  inten- 
tion to  interfere  with  the  course  of  the  pending  negotiation  by  an  exertion  of  military 
force,  but  they  will,  as  at  present  advised,  consult  their  own  discretion  in  adopting 
the  measures  of  defense  that  may  be  rendered  necessary  by  the  threats  of  a  violent 
interruption  to  the  negotiation  which  have  been  used  by  all  parties  in  Maine  and 
which  the  undersigned  regrets  to  find  confirmed  by  the  language  (as  above  referred 
to)  employed  by  the  highest  official  authority  in  that  State. 
The  undersigned  avails  himself  of  this  occasion  to  renew  to  the  Secretary  of  State 
of  the  United  States  the  assurance  of  his  distinguished  considetation. 
H.  S.  FOX. 
Mr.  Forsyth  to  Mr.  Fox. 
Dbpartmbnt  of  Statb, 
Washington^  January  28^  1840. 
Hbnrt  S.  I'ox,  Eflq.,  etc,: 
The  undersigned.  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States,  has  tht  honor  to  reply, 
by  direction  of  the  President,  to  the  note  addressed  to  him  on  the  26th  instant  by 
Mr.  Fox,  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  plenipotentiary  of  Great  Britain. 
The  President  derives  great  satisfaction  from  the  information  conveyed  by  Mr. 
Fox's  note  that,  with  reference  to  the  reported  movements  of  British  troops  within 
the  territory  in  dispute,  no  actual  change  has  taken  place  in  the  attitude  of  Her 
Majesty's  authorities  in  the  territory  since  the  arrangements  entered  into  by  the  two 
Governments  at  the  commencement  of  last  year  for  the  preservation  of  tranquillity 
within  its  limits,  and  from  his  assurances  that  there  exists  no  intention  on  the  part 
of  Her  Majesty's  authorities  to  infringe  the  terms  of  those  arrangements  so  long  aa 
they  are  faithfully  observed  on  the  side  of  the  United  States.  The  President,  how- 
ever, can  not  repress  a  feeling  of  regret  that  the  British  colonial  authorities,  without 
graver  motives  than  the  possibility  of  a  departure  from  the  arrangements  referred  to 
by  the  State  of  Maine,  should  take  upon  themselves  the  discretion,  and  along  with  it 
the  fearful  responsibility  of  probable  consequences,  of  being  guided  by  circumstances 
liable,  as  these  are,  to  be  misapprehended  and  misjudged  in  the  adoption  within 
the  disputed  territory  of  measures  of  defense  and  precaution  in  manifest  violation  of 
the  understanding  between  the  two  countries  whenever  they  may  imagine  that  acta 
of  hostile  aggression  over  the  disputed  territory  are  meditated  or  threatened  on  the 
part  of  the  State  of  Maine.  The  President  can  not  but  hope  that  when  Her  Majesty's 
Government  at  home  shall  be  apprised  of  the  position  assumed  in  this  regard  by  ita 
colonial  agents  proper  steps  will  be  taken  to  place  the  performance  of  express  and 
solemn  agreements  upon  a  more  secure  basis  than  colonial  discretion,  to  be  exercised 
on  apprehended  disregard  of  such  agreements  on  the  part  of  the  State  of  Maine. 
It  is  gratifying  to  the  President  to  perceive  that  Mr.  Fox  entertains  the  firm  belief 
that  the  difficulty  of  conducting  to  an  amicable  issue  the  pending  negotiation  for 
the  adjustment  of  the  question  of  boundary  is  not  so  great  as  has  by  many  persona 
been  apprehended.  As,  under  a  corresponding  conviction,  the  United  States  have, 
with  a  view  to  the  final  settlement  of  that  exciting  question,  submitted  a  proposition 
for  the  consideration  of  Her  Majesty's  Government,  the  President  hopes  that  the 
sentiments  expressed  by  Mr.  Fox  have  their  foundation  in  an  expectation  of  his
Martin  Van  Buren  1788 
having  it  in  his  power  at  an  early  day  to  communicate  to  this  Government  a  resolt 
of  the  deliberations  had  by  that  of  Her  Britannic  Majesty  upon  t^e  proposition 
alluded  to  which  will  present  the  prospect  of  a  prompt  and  satisfactcxry  settlement, 
and  which,  when  known  by  the  State  of  Maine,  will  put  an  end  to  all  grounds  of 
apprehensions  of  intentions  or  disposition  on  her  part  to  adopt  any  measures  calcu- 
lated to  embarrass  the  negotiation  or  to  involve  a  departure  from  the  provisional 
arrangements.  In  the  existence  of  those  arrangements  the  United  States  behold  an 
earnest  of  the  mutual  desire  of  the  two  Governments  to  divest  a  question  abounding 
in  causes  of  deep  and  growing  excitement  of  as  much  as  possible  of  the  asperity  and 
hostile  feeling  it  is  calculated  to  engender;  but  unless  attended  with  the  most  scru- 
pulous observance  of  the  spirit  and  letter  of  their  provisions,  it  would  prove  but  one 
more  cause  added  to  the  many  already  prevailing  of  enmity  and  discord.  Mr.  Fox 
has  already  been  made  the  channel  of  conve3rance  to  his  Government  of  the  desire 
and  determination  of  the  President  that  the  obligations  of  the  country  shall  be  faith- 
fully  discharged;  that  desire  is  prompted  by  a  sense  of  expediency  as  well  as  of  jus- 
tice, and  by  an  anxious  wish  to  preserve  the  amicable  relations  now,  so  manifestly 
for  the  advantage  of  both,  subsisting  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain. 
The  undersigned  avails  himself  of  the  occasion  to  renew  to  Mr.  Fox  assurances  of 
his  distinguished  consideration.  lOHN  FORSYTH 
To  the  SenaU  of  the  United  States: 
In  compliance  with  two  resolutions  of  the  Senate,  dated  the  3otli 
ultimo,  calling  for  information  in  relation  to  the  disputed  boundary 
between  the  State  of  Missouri  and  the  Territory  of  Iowa,  I  transmit  a 
report  from  the  Secretary  of  State,  which,  with  inclosures,  contains  all 
the  information  in  the  executive  department  on  the  subject  not  already 
communicated  to  Congress.  ^  y^j^  BUREN. 
January  31,  184a 
Washington,  February  4,  1840. 
To  the  Honorable  the  House  of  Representatives: 
I  lay  before  you  a  report  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  with  sev- 
eral doctunents  annexed,  by  which  it  will  be  seen  that  judicial  construc- 
tions have  been  giv^n  to  the  existing  laws  for  the  collection  of  imposts, 
affecting  extensively  and  injuriously  the  accruing  revenue. 
They  embrace,  with  many  others,  the  important  articles  of  linens, 
woolens,  and  cottons,  the  last  two  of  which  are  often  treated  as  silks, 
because  that  material  constitutes  a  component  part  of  them,  and  thus 
exempted  them  from  duty  altogether.  Assessments  of  duties  which 
have  prevailed  for  years,  and  in  some  cases  since  the  passage  of  the  laws 
themselves,  are  in  this  manner  altered,  and  uncertainty  and  litigation 
introduced  in  regard  to  the  future. 
The  effects  which  these  proceedings  have  already  produced  in  dimin- 
ishing the  amount  of  the  revenue,  and  which  are  likely  to  increase  here- 
after, deserve  your  early  (Consideration. 
I  have  therefore  deemed  it  necessary  to  bring  the  matter  to  your 
notice,  with  a  view  to  such  legislative  action  as  the  exigencies  of  the  case
1789  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
may  in  your  judgment  require.  It  is  not  believed  that  any  law  which 
can  now  be  passed  upon  the  subject  can  affect  the  revenue  favorably  for 
several  months  to  come,  and  could  not,  therefore,  be  safely  regarded  as  a 
substitute  for  the  early  provision  of  certain  and  adequate  means  to  enable 
the  Treasury  to  guard  the  public  credit  and  meet  promptly  and  faithfully 
any  deficiencies  that  may  occur  in  the  revenue,  from  whatever  cause  they 
may  arise.  » 
The  reasons  in  favor  of  the  propriety  of  adopting  at  an  early  period 
proper  measures  for  that  purpose  were  explained  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  in  his  annual  report  and  recommended  to  your  attention  by 
myself.  The  experience  of  the  last  two  months,  and  especially  the  recent 
decisions  of  the  courts,  with  the  continued  suspension  of  specie  payments 
by  the  banks  over  large  sections  of  the  United  States,  operating  unfavor- 
ably upon  the  revenue,  have  greatly  strengthened  the  views  then  taken 
of  the  subject.  j^  ^^  BUREN. 
Washington  City,  February  14, 1846. 
To  the  House  0/  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  lay  before  you  a  communication  from  the  Secretary  of  War,  accom- 
panied by  a  report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Pensions,  showing  the  great 
importance  of  early  action  on  the  bill  from  the  Senate  providing  for  the 
continuance  of  the  office  of  Commissioner  of  Pensions.  The  present  law 
will  expire  by  its  own  limitation  on  the  4th  day  of  themext  month,  and, 
sensible  of  the  suffering  which  would  be  experienced  by  the^  pensioners 
from  its  suspension,  I  have  deemed  it  my  duty  to  bring  the  subject  to 
your  notice  and  invite  your  early  attention  to  it. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
FSBRUARY   17,  1840. 
To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  submit  to  Congress  a  communication  from,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  repeating  suggestions  contained  in  his  annual  report  in  regard 
to  the  necessity  of  an  early  provision  by  law  for  the  protection  of  the 
Treasury  against  the  fluctuations  and  contingencies  to  which  its  receipts 
are  exposed,  with  additional  facts  and  reasons  in  favor  of  the  propriety 
of  the  legislation  then  desired. 
The  application  assumes  that  although  the  means  of  the  Treasury  for 
the  whole  year  may  be  equal  to  the  expenditures  of  the  year,  the  Depart- 
ment may,  notwithstanding,  be  rendered  unable  to  meet  the  claims  upon 
it  at  the  times  when  they  fall  due. 
This  apprehension  arises  partly  from  the  circumstance  that  the  largest 
proportion  of  the  charges  upon  the  Treasury,  including  the  payment  of 
pensions  and  the  redemption  of  Treasury  notes,  fall  due  in  the  early  part 
of  this  year,  viz,  in  the  months  of  March  and  May,  while  the  resoiurces
Martin  Van  Buren  i79^ 
on  which  it  might  otherwise  rely  to  discharge  them  can  not  be  made 
available  until  the  last  half  of  the  year,  and  partly  from  the  fact  that 
a  portion  of  the  means  of  the  Treasury  consists  of  debts  due  from  banks, 
for  some  of  which  delay  has  already  been  asked,  and  which  may  not  be 
punctually  paid. 
Considering  the  injurious  consequences  to  the  character,  credit,  and 
business  of  the  cotmtry  which  would  result  from  a  failure  by  the  Gov- 
ernment for  ever  so  short  a  period  to  meet  its  engagements;  that  the 
happening  of  such  a  contingency  can  only  be  effectually  guarded  against 
by  the  exercise  of  legislative  authority;  that  the  period  when  such  dis- 
ability must  arise,  if  at  all,  and  which  at  the  commencement  of  the 
session  was  comparatively  remote,  has  now  approached  so  near  as  a  few 
days;  and  that  the  provision  asked  for  is  only  intended  to  enable  the 
Executive  to  fulfill  existing  obligations,  anc'  chiefly  by  anticipating 
funds  not  yet  due,  without  making  any  additions  to  the  public  burdens, 
I  have  deemed  the  subject  of  sufficient  urgency  and  importance  again  to 
ask  for  it  your  early  attention.  ^j  ^^  BUREN. 
Washinoton,  February  21^  1840. 
To  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
In  compliance  with  a  resolution  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
7th  instant,  I  cojpmunicate  a  report*  from  the  Secretary  of  State,  con- 
taining all  the  information  in  possession  of  the  Executive  respecting  the 
matters  referred  to  in  that  resolution.  j^  VAN  BUREN 
Washington,  February  27, 1840. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  to  the  Senate,  for  their  consideration  with  a  view  to  its 
ratification,  a  convention  for  the  adjustment  of  claims  pf  citizens  of  the 
United  States  upon  the  Government  of  the  Mexican  Republic,  concluded 
and  signed  in  the  dty  of  Washington  on  the  i  ith  of  April  last.  I  also 
communicate,  as  explanatory  of  the  motives  to  the  adoption  of  a  new 
convention  and  illustrative  of  the  course  of  the  negotiation,  the  corre- 
spondence between  the  Secretary  of  State  and  Mr.  Martinez,  the  late 
minister  of  Mexico  accredited  to  this  Government,  and  also,  such  parts 
of  the  correspondence  between  the  former  and  Mr.  Ellis  as  relate  to  the 
same  subject.  By  the  letters  of  Mr.  Ellis  it  will  be  seen  that  the  con- 
vention now  transmitted  to  the  Senate  has  been  already  ratified  by  the 
Government  of  Mexico.  As  some  of  the  papers  are  originals,  it  is 
requested  that  they  may  be  returned  to  the  Department  of  State  when 
the  convention  shall  have  been  disposed  of  by  the  Senate. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
•  Rtlfttiac  to  the  tnde  with  China,  etc.
1 79 1  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
Washington,  March  4, 1840. 
To  the  Senate: 
I  communicate  a  report  from  the  Secretary  of  State,  with  documents* 
accompanying  it,  in  compliance  with  the  resolution  of  the  Senate  of  the 
17th  of  February  last.  ^  ^^  B^REN. 
'  Washington,  March  p,  1840. 
To  the  Senate: 
In  addition  to  information  already  communicated  in  compliance  with 
the  resolutions  of  the  Senate  of  the  17th  January  last,  I  think  it  proper 
to  transmit  to  the  Senate  copies  of  two  letters,  with  inclosures,  since 
received  from  the  governor  of  Maine,  and  of  a  correspondence  relative 
thereto  between  the  Secretary  of  State  and  the  British  minister. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
BXKCUTIVK  Dkpartbcbnt, 
Au£ytsta,  Pedruafy  75,  iS^^. 
His  Excellency  M.  Van  BiTStBN, 
President  United  States. 
Sir:  A  communication  fxx>m  Mr.  Fox,  the  British  minister,  to  Mr.  Forsyth,  Secre- 
tary of  State,  under  date  of  January  26,  contains  the  following  statement: 
"  It  appears  from  accurate  information  now  in  possession  of  the  undersigned  that 
the  governor  of  Maine  and  through  him  the  President  and  General  Government  of 
the  United  States  have  been  misinformed  as  to  the  facts.  In  the  first  place,  no  reen- 
forcetnent  has  been  marched  to  the  British  post  at  the  Lake  Temiscouata;  the  only 
change  occurring  there  has  been  the  relief  of  a  detachment  of  Her  Majesty's  Twenty- 
fourth  Regiment  by  adetachment  of  equal  force  of  the  Eleventh  Regiment,  this  force 
of  one  company  being  now  stationed  at  the  Temiscouata  post,  as  it  alzvays  has  been^ 
for  the  necessary  purpose  of  protecting  the  stores  and  accommodations  provided  for 
the  use  of  Her  Majesty's  troops  who  may  be  required,  as  heretofore,  to  march  by  that 
route  to  and  from  the  Provinces  of  Canada  and  New  Brunswick.  In  the  second  place, 
it  is  not  true  that  the  British  authorities  either  have  built  or  are  building  barracks 
on  both  sides  of  the  St.  John  River  or  at  the  mouth  of  the  Madawaska  River;  no 
new  barracks  have  in  fact  been  built  anywhere  y 
This  statement  has  been  read  by  the  citizens  of  this  State  with  the  most  profound 
astonishment,  and  however  high  may  be  the  source  from  which  it  emanates  I  must 
be  permitted  to  say,  in  the  language  of  that  high  functionary,  that  **  it  is  not  true," 
though  in  justice  to  him  I  should  add  that  he  has  undoubtedly  been  misinformed. 
Though  this  State,  in  the  vindication  of  her  rights  and  maintenance  of  her  interests 
relative  to  her  territorial  boundary,  from  past  experience  had  no  reason  to  expect  any 
material  admissions  of  the  truth  on  the  part  of  the  British  authorities,  she  was  not 
prepared  to  meet  such  a  positive  and  unqualified  denial  of  facts  as  the  foregoing 
exhibits,  especially  of  facts  so  easily  susceptible  of  proof.  The  ^*^ accuracy^"*  of  the 
information  alleged  to  be  in  the  possession  of  the  minister  is  only  equaled  by 
the  justice  of  the  pretensions  heretofore  set  up  in  regard  to  title. 
But  not  to  be  bandying  assertions  where  proof  is  abundant,  I  deem  it  my  duty  to 
transmit  to  "Vour  Excellency  the  depositions  f  of  a  number  of  gentlemen,  citizens  of 
*  ContaininiT  information  relative  to  the  necessity  of  amending  the  ezistinir  law  reffiilatinff  the 
transfer  of  proi>erty  in  American  vessels  abroad. 
t  Omitted.
Martin  Van  Buren  1792 
this  State,  of  great  respectability,  and  whose  atatements  are  entitled  to  the  most 
implicit  confidence. 
These  depositions  abundantly  prove  that  np  to  May  last,  nearly  two  months  sub* 
sequent  to  the  arrangement  entered  into  through  the  mediation  of  General  Scott,  no 
troops  whatever  were  stationed  at  Temiscouata  Lake;  that  in  August,  September,  and 
October  the  number  did  not  exceed  25,  while  now  it  has  been  increased  to  about 
«oo;  that  prior  to  May  no  barracks  had  been  erected  at  Temiscouata,  but  that  since 
that  time  two  have  been  built  at  the  head  of  the  lake,  besides  some  five  or  six  other 
buildings  apparently  adapted  to  the  establishment  of  a  permanent  military  post,  and 
at  the  ftfot  of  the  lake  two  or  more  buildings  for  barracks  and  other  military  pur« 
poses;  that  though  no  new  barracks  have  been  erected  at  Madawaska,  certain  build- 
ings heretofofk^  erected  have  been  engaged  for  use  as  such;  that  a  road  has  been 
constructed  connecting  the  military  post  at  the  head  and  foot  of  the  lake,  a  tow- 
path  made  the  whole  length  of  the  Madawaska  River,  the  road  from  the  head  of  the 
lake  to  the  military  post  at  the  river  Des  Loup  thoroughly  repaired,  transport  boats 
built,  etc.         ( 
I  would  further  inform  Your  Excellency  that  an  agent  has  been  dispatched  to  Tem- 
iscouata and  Madawaska  for  the  pmrpose  of  procuring  exact  information  of  the  state  of 
things  there  at  the  present  moment;  but  having  incidentally  found  some  evidence 
of  the  state  of  things  prior  to  Novernber  last,  I  have  thought  best  to  forward  it  with- 
out delay  for  the  purpose  of  disabusing  the  Government  and  the  country  of  the  errors 
into  which  they  may  have  been  led  by  the  commimication  before  alluded  to.  The 
report  of  the  agent  will  be  transmitted  u  soon  as  received,  which  may  not  be  short 
of  two  weeks. 
Under  these  circtmistances,  I  have  only  to  repeat  my  official  call  upon  the  General 
Government  for  the  protection  of  this  State  from  invasion, 
I  have  the  honor  to  be,  with  great  respect,  Your  Excellency's  most  obedient 
servant, 
JOHN  FAIRFIELD, 
Governor  0/ Maine. 
DSSPARTMrnUT  OF  STATB, 
Washington^  February  27^  1840. 
His  Excellency  John  Fairfibu), 
Governor  0/ Maine, 
Sir:  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  at  this  Department  of  your 
excellency's  letter  to  the  President  of  the  15th  instant,  inclosing  three  depositions 
of  citizens  of  Maine  in  relation  to  certain  movements  of  British  troops  in  the  dis- 
puted territory.  The  depositions  have  been  informally  communicated  to  the  British 
minister  by  direction  of  the  President,  who  desires  me  to  apprise  your  excellency  of 
his  intention  to  cause  an  official  communication  to  be  addressed  to  the  minister  on 
the  subject  so  soon  as  the  report  of  the  agent  dispatched  by  your  order  to  Temi3- 
couata  and  Madawaska  for  the  purpose  of  procuring  exact  information  as  to  the 
present  state  of  things  there  shall  have  been  received. 
I  have  the  honor  to  be,  sir,  your  obedient  servant, 
JOHN  FORSYTH. 
Executive  Department, 
Augusta^  February  ^7,  1840. 
His  Excellency  M.  Van  Buren, 
President  United  States. 
Sir  :  Having  received  the  report  of  Benjamin  Wiggin,  esq.,  the  agent  referred  to 
in  my  last  communication,  dispatched  by  me  to  the  disputed  territory  to  obtain  exact 
information  of  British  military  movements  in  that  quarter  and  of  the  existing  state
1793  %     Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
of  things,  I  hasten  to  lay  the  same*  before  yon,  aooompanied  by  his  plan*  of  the  Brit 
ish  military  post  at  the  head  of  Lake  Temiscouata.  It  will  be  perceived  that  it  goes 
to  confirm  in  every  essential  particular  the  evidence  already  forwarded  in  the  depo- 
sitions of  Messrs.  Vanmm,  Bartlett,  and  Little,  and  is  directly  opposed  to  the  state- 
ment contained  in  the  letter  of  Mr.  Fox  to  Mr.  Forsyth  under  date  of  26th  of  January 
last. 
The  course  thus  clearly  proved  to  have  been  pursued  by  the  British  Government 
upon  the  disputed  territory  is  utterly  inconsistent  with  the  arrangement  heretofore 
subsisting,  and  evinces  anything  but  a  disposition  to  submit  to  an  a^fordi^  termina* 
tion  of  the  question  relating  to  the  boundary.  * 
Permit  me  to  add  that  the  citizens  of  Maine  are  awaiting  with  deep  solicitude  that 
action  on  the  part  of  the  General  Government  which  shall  vindicate  the  national 
honor  and  be  fulfilling  in  part  a  solemn  obligation  to  a  member  of  the  Union. 
I  have  the  hoiior  to  be,  with  high  respect,  your  moat  obedient  servant,    - 
JOHN  FAIRFIELD, 
Governor  qf  Maine. 
Mr.  Fbrsyih  to  Mr.  Fox. 
DRPARTMBNT  of  SftATEt 
Washington^  March  d,  1840. 
Hhnry  S.  Fox,  Esq.,  etc.: 
By  the  directions  of  the  President,  the  undersigned,  Secretary  of  State  of  the 
United  States,  commimicates  to  Mr.  Fox,  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  pleni- 
potentiary of  Great  Britain,  the  inclosed  copy  of  a  report*  made  to  the  governor  of 
the  State  of  Maine  by  the  agent  commissioned  on  the  part  of  the  authorities  of  that 
State  to  ascertain  the  precise  character  and  extent  of  the  occupation  of  parts  of  the 
disputed  territory  by  troops  of  Her  Britannic  Majesty  and  of  the  buildings  and  other 
public  works  constructed  for  their  use  and  accommodation. 
By  that  report  and  the  three  depositions  which  the  undersigned  informally  com- 
municated to  Mr.  Fox  a  few  days  since  he  will  perceive  that  there  must  be  some 
extraordinary  misapprehension  on  his  part  of  the  facts  in  relation  to  the  occupation 
by  British  troops  of  portions  of  the  disputed  territory.  The  statements  contained  in 
these  documents  and  that  given  by  Mr.  Fox  in  his  note  of  the  20th  of  January  last 
exhibit  a  striking  discrepancy  as  to  the  number  of  troops  now  in  the  territory  as 
compared  with  those  who  were  in  it  when  the  arrangement  between  Governor  Fair- 
£eld  and  Lieutenant-Governor  Harvey  was  agreed  upon,  and  also  as  to  the  present 
and  former  state  of  the  buildings  tjbere.  The  extensive  accommodations  prepared 
and  preparing  at  an  old  and  at  new  stations,  the  works  finished  and  in  the  course  of 
construction  on  the  land  and  on  the  water,  are  not  in  harmony  with  the  assurance 
that  the  only  object  is  the  preservation  of  a  few  unimportant  buildings  and  store- 
houses for  the  temporary  protection  of  the  number  of  troops  Her  Majesty's  ordinary 
service  can  require  to  pass  on  the  road  from  New  Brunswick  to  Canada. 
The  undersigned  will  abstain  from  any  remarks  upon  these  contradictory  state- 
ments until  Mr.  Fox  shall  have  had  an  opportunity  to  obtain  the  means  of  fully 
explaining  them.  How  essential  it  is  that  this  should  be  promptly  done,  and  tliat 
the  steps  necessary  to  a  faithful  observance  on  the  part  of  Her  Majesty's  colonial 
authorities  of  the  existing  agreements  between  the  two  Governments  should  be 
immediately  taken,  Mr.  Fox  can  not  fail  fully  to  understand. 
The  imdersigned  avails  himself  of  the  occasion  to  renew  to  Mr.  Fox  assurances  of 
his  high  consideration. 
JOHN  FORSYTH. 
*  Omitted.
Martin  Van  Buren  i794 
Mr,  Fox  io  Mr  Forsyth. 
Was^ing^n,  March  7, 1840. 
The  tmdersignedy  Her  Britannic  Majesty's  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  pleni- 
potentiary, has  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  the  official  note  of  yester- 
day's date  addressed  to  him  by  Mr.  Forsyth,  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States, 
to  which  is  annexed  the  copy  of  a  report  from  Mr.  Benjamin  Wiggin,  an  agent 
employed  by  the  State  of  Maine  to  visit  the  British  military  post  at  Lake  Temisconata, 
and  in  whidi  reference  is  made  to  other  papers  upon  the  same  subject,  which  were 
informally  commtmicated  to  the  undersigned  by  Mr.  Forsyth  a  few  ^ys  before; 
and  the  attention  of  the  imdersigned  is  called  by  Mr.  Forsyth  to  different  points 
upon  which  the  information  contained  in  the  said  papers  is  considered  to  be  mate- 
•rially  at  variance  with  that  which  was  conveyed  to  the  United  States  Government 
by  the  undersigned  in  his  officicd  note  of  the  26th  of  last  January. 
The  undersigned  had  already  been  made  acquainted  by  the  lieutenant-governor  <A 
New  Brunswick  with  the  circumstance  of  Mr.  Wiggin's  vish  to  the  military  post  at 
IfikA  Temisconata,  where  the  officer  in  command  very  properly  furnished  to  Mr.  Wig- 
gin  the  requisite  information  upon  all  matters  connected  with  the  British  station 
which  he  appeared  desirous  to  inquire  about 
The  alleged  points  of  variance,  after  deducting  what  is  fanciful  and  conjectural  in 
the  reports  now  produced  and  after  comparing  what  is  there  stated  in  contradiction 
to  other  reports  before  produced  from  the  same  quarters,  do  not  appear  to  the  under- 
signed to  be  by  any  means  so  material  as  they  seem  to  have  been  considered  by  the 
Government  of  the  United  States.  The  British  military  detachment  stationed  at 
Lake  Temisconata,  which  the  agents  employed  by  the  State  of  Maine^had,  in  the  first 
instance  with  singular  exaggeration  represented  as  amounting  to  two  regiments,  is 
now  discovered  by  the  same  parties  to  amotmt  to  175  men,  which  inst^d  of  two 
regiments  is  something  less  than  two  companies.  It  is  indeed  true,  should  such  a 
point  be  considered  worth  discussing,  that  the  undersigned  might  have  used  a  mora 
technically  correct  expression  in  his  note  of  the  26th  of  January  if  he  had  stated  the 
detachment  in  question  to  consist  of  from  one  to  two  companies  instead  of  stating  it 
to  consist  of  one  company.  But  a  detachment  of  Her  Majesty's  troops  has  been 
stationed  at  the  Lake  Temiscouata  from  time  to  time  ever  since  the  winter  of  1837 
and  1838,  when  the  necessity  arose  from  marching  reenforcements  by  that  route  from 
New  Brunswick  to  Canada;  and  it  will  be  remembered  that  a  temporary  right  of  using 
that  route  for  the  same  purpose  was  expressly  reserved  to  Great  Britain  in  the  pro* 
visional  agreement  entered  into  at  the  beginning  of  last  year. 
It  is  not,  therefore,  true  that  the  stationing  a  military  force  at  the  Lake  Temis* 
couata  is  a  new  measure  on  the  part  of  Her  Majesty's  authorities;  neither  b  it  true 
that  that  measure  has  been  adopted  for  other  purposes  than  to  maintain  the  security 
of  the  customary  line  of  communication  and  to  protect  the  buildings,  stores,  and 
accommodations  provided  for  the  use  of  Her  Majesty's  troops  when  on  march  by 
that  route;  and  it  was  with  a  view  to  correct  misapprehensions  which  appeared  to 
exist  upon  these  points,  and  thus  to  do  away  with  one  needless  occasion  of  dispute, 
that  the  undersigned  conveyed  to  the  United  States  Government  the  information 
contained  in  his  note  of  the  26th  of  January. 
With  regard  again  to  the  construction  of  barracks  and  other  buildings  and  the 
preserving  them  in  an  efficient  state  of  repair  and  defense,  a  similar  degree  of  error 
and  misapprehension  appears  still  to  prevail  in  the  minds  of  the  American  authorities. 
The  erection  of  those  buildings  within  the  portion  of  the  disputed  territory  now 
referred  to,  for  the  shelter  of  Her  Majesty's  troops  while  on  their  march  and  for  the 
safe  lodgment  of  the  stores,  is  no  new  act  on  the  part  of  Her  Majesty's  authorities. 
The  building^  in  question  have  been  in  the  course  of  construction  from  a  period 
antecedent  to  the  provisional  agreements  of  last  year,  and  they  are  now  maintained
1 795  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
and  occupied  along  the  line  of  march  with  a  view  to  the  same  objects  above  speci- 
fied, for  which  the  small  detachments  of  troops  also  referredto  are  in  like  manner 
there  stationed. 
The  undersigned  will  not  refrain  from  here  remarking  upon  one  point  of  com- 
parison exhibited  in  the  present  controversy.  It  is  admitted  by  the  United  States 
authorities  that  the  armed  bands  stationed  by  the  government  of  Maine  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  Aroostook  River  have  fortified  those  stations  with  artillery,  and  it  is 
now  objected  as  matter  of  complaint  against  the  British  authorities  with  reference 
to  the  buildings  at  Lake  Temiscouata,  not  that  those  buildings  are  furnished  with 
artillery,  but  only  that  they  are  defended  by  palisades  capable  of  resisting  artillery. 
It  would  be  difficult  to  adduce  stronger  evidence  of  the  acts  on  the  one  side  being 
those  of  aggression  and  on  the  other  of  defense. 
The  fact,  shortly,  is  (and  this  is  the  essential  point  of  the  argument)  that  Her* 
Majesty's  authorities  have  not  as  yet  altered  their  state  of  preparation  or  strength* 
ened  their  military  means  within  the  disputed  territory  with  a  view  to  settling  the 
question  of  the  boundary,  although  the  attitude  assumed  by  the  State  of  Maine  with 
reference  to  that  question  would  be  a  clear  justification  of  such  measures,  and  it  i& 
much  to  be  apprehended  that  the  adoption  of  such  measures  will  sooner  or  later 
become  indispensable  if  the  people  of  Maine  be  not  compelled  to  desist  from  the 
extensive  system  of  armed  aggression  which  they  are  continuing  to  carry  on  in  other 
parts  of  the  same  disputed  territory. 
The  undersigned  avails  himself  of  this  occasion  to  renew  to  the  Secretary  of  State 
of  the  United  States  the  assoraivBe  of  his  distinguished  consideration. 
H.  S.  FOX. 
Washington,  March  p,  184,0. 
To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  to  Congress,  for  their'consideration,  copies  and  translations 
of  a  correspondence  between  the  Secretary  of  State  and  the  Spanish  lega- 
tion, growing  out  of  an  application  on  the  part  of  Spain  for  a  reduction 
of  tonnage  duty  on  her  vessels  in  certain  cases. 
By  a  royal  order  issued  on  the  29th  of  April,  1832,  by  the  King  of 
Spain,  in  consequence  of  a  representation  made  to  his  Government  by 
the  minister  of  the  United  States  against  the  discriminating  tonnage 
duty  then  levied  in  the  ports  of  Spain  upon  American  vessels,  said  duty 
was  reduced  to  i  real  de  vellon,  equal  to  5  cents,  per  ten,  without  refer- 
ence to  the  place  from  whence  the  vessel  came,  being  the  same  rate  as 
paid  by  those  of  all  other  nations,  including  Spain. 
By  the  act  approved  on  the  13th  of  July,  1832,  a  corresponding  reduc- 
tion of  tonnage  duty  upon  Spanish  vessels  in  ports  of  the  United  States 
was  authorized,  but  confined  to  vessels  coming  from  ports  in  Spain;  in 
consequence  of  which  said  reduction  has  been  applied  to  such  Spanish 
vessels  only  as  came  directly  from  ports  in  the  Spanish  Peninsula. 
The  application  of  the  Spanish  Government  is  for  the  extension  of  the 
provisions  of  the  act  to  vessels  coming  from  other  places,  and  I  submit 
for  the  consideration  of  Congress  whether  the  principle  of  reciprocity 
would  not  justify  it  in  regard  to  all  vessels  owned  in  the  Peninsula  and 
its  dependencies  of  the  Balearic  and  Canary  islands,  and  coming  from  all
Martin  Van  Buren  1796 
places  other  tlian  the  islands  of  Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  atjd  the  Philippine, 
and  the  repayment  of  such  duties  as  may  have  been  levied  upon  Spanish 
vessels  of  that  class  which  have  Altered  our  ports  since  the  act  of  1832 
went  into  operation.  ^  ^^^  BUREN. 
Washington,  March  10, 1840. 
To  the  House  0/ Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
In  compliance  with  a  resolution  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  2d  of  March,  1839,  I  communicate  reports*  from  the  several  Depart- 
ments, containing  the  information  requested  by  the  resolution. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  March  77,  1840. 
To  the  Senate: 
In  compliance  with  the  resolution  of  the  Senate  dated  the  4th  ol 
February,  1840, 1  have  the  honor  to  transmit  herewith  copies  of  the  cor- 
respondence between  the  Department  of  War  and  Governor  Call  con- 
cerning the  war  in  Florida. 
Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington  City,  March,  1840. 
To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  lay  before  you  for  your  consideration  a  communication  of  the  Secre- 
tary of  War,  accompanied  by  a  report  of  the  Surgeon-General  of  the 
Army,  in  relation  to  sites  for  marine  hospitals  selected  in  conformity 
with  the  provisions  of  the  act  of  March  3,  1837,  from  which  it  will  be 
seen  that  some  action  on  the  subject  by  Congress  seems  to  be  necessary. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  D.  C,  March  12,  1840. 
To  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  to  the  House  of  Representatives,  in  ans^yer  to  resolution 
of  that  body  dated  on  the  9th  instant,  the  inclosed  report  of  the  Secre- 
^^  ^^  ^^^^  M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Department  of  State, 
Washington,  March  12, 1840. 
The  President  op  the  United  States: 
The  Secretary  of  State,  to  whom  has  been  referred  a  resolutioti  of  the  House  of  Rep. 
resentatives  dated  the  9th  instant,  requesting  the  President  to  oonununicate  to  that 
body  *'  whether  any,  and,  if  any,  what,  measures  have  been  taken  since  the  rejection 
*  Transmitting  lists  of  removals  from  office  since  March  3.  1789.
1797  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
of  the  recommendation  of  the  King  of  Holland  of  a  new  line  of  boundary  between 
the  United  States  and  the  Province  of  New  Brunswick  to  obtain  information  in  respect 
to  the  topography  of  the  territory  in  dispute  by  a  survey  or  exploration  of  the  same 
on  the  part  of  the  United  States  alone,  and  also  whether  any  measures  have  been 
adopted  whereby  the  accuracy  of  the  survey  lately  made  under  the  authority  of  the 
British  Government,  when  communicated,  may  be  tested  or  examined,"  has  the  honor 
to  report  to  the  President  that  no  steps  have  been  thought  necessary  by  this  Govern- 
ment since  the  date  above  referred  to  to  obtain  topographical  information  regarding 
the  disputed  territory,  either  by  exploration  or  survey  on  its  part  alone,  nor  has  it 
thought  proper  to  adopt  any  measures  to  test  the  accuracy  of  the  topographical 
examination  recently  made  by  a  British  commission,  the  result  of  which  has  not 
been  made  public  or  communicated  to  the  United  States. 
Respectfully  submitted. 
JOHN  FORSYTH. 
WASHmGTON  City,  March  /p,  184.0. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
I  submit  herewith  for  your  consideration  and  constitutional  action 
the  treaty  accompanying  the  inclosed  communication  of  the  Secretary 
of  War,  made  with  the  Shawnee  Indians  west  of  the  Mississippi  River, 
for  the  purchase  of  a  portion  of  their  lands,  with  the  view  of  procur- 
ing for  the  Wyandot  Indians  of  Ohio  a  satisfactory  residence  west. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
War  Dspa&tmbnt,  March,  1840, 
The  President  of  thb  United  States. 
Sir:  I  have  the  honor  to  submit  for  your  consideration,  and,  if  it  meets  your 
approbation,  for  transmission  to  the  Senate,  a  treaty  concluded  on  the  i8th  Decem- 
ber last  with  the  Shawnee  Indians  by  their  chiefs,  headmen,  and  counselors,  and  an 
explanatory  commtmication  of  the  17th  instant  from  the  Commissioner  of  Indian 
Affairs. 
Very  req>ectfully,  your  obedient  servant,  .  j^  POINSETT 
War  DEPARTMEZ9T,  Office  Indian  Affairs, 
March  77, 1840. 
Hon.  J.  R.  Poinsett, 
Secretary  of  War, 
Sir:  Negotiations  with  the  Wyandots  for  a  cession  of  their  lands  in  Ohio  and 
removal  to  the  couptry  west  of  the  Mississippi  have  been  pending  for  some  years. 
During  the  past  season  two  exploring  parties  from  that  tribe  have  visited  the  West 
and  were  tolerably  well  pleased  with  the  district  to  which  it  was  proposed  to  remove 
them,  but  expressed  a  strong  preference  for  a  tract  which  the  Shawnees  and  Dela- 
wares  offered  to  sell  to  the  United  States  for  them.  The  commissioner  charged  with 
the  business  of  treating  with  the  Wyandots  was  of  opinion  that  if  this  tract  could  be 
procured  there  would  be  little  difficulty  in  concluding  a  treaty.  He  was  therefore 
under  these  circumstances  instructed  to  make  the  purchase,  subject  to  the  ratifica- 
tion of  the  President  and  Senate  and  dependent  on  the  condition  that  the  Wyandots 
will  accept  it,  and  on  the  i8th  of  December  last  effected  a  treaty  with  the  Shawnees 
by  which  they  ceded  a  tract  of  about  58,000  acres  on  those  conditions  at  the  price  of 
$1.50  per  acre.     No  purchase  has  been  made  from  the  Delawares,  as  they  refuse  to
Martin  Van  Buren  1798 
sen  at  a  less  price  than  I5  pet  acre,  and  it  is  thought  that  the  land  ceded  by  the 
Shawnees  will  be  amply  sufficient  for  the  present. 
I  have  the  honor  herewith  to  submit  the  treaty  with  the  Shawnees,  to  be  laid,  if 
you  think  proper,  before  the  President  and  Senate  for  ratification. 
Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 
T.  HARTLEY  CRAWFORD. 
Washington,  March  24,  1840. 
To  the  House  0/ Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  herewith  a  report  from  the  Secretaries  of  State,  Treas- 
ury, and  Navy  and  the  Postmaster-General,  with  the  documents  which 
accompanied  it,  in  compliance  with  the  resolution  of  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives of  the  5th  instant,  r-^lative  to  the  General  Post-OflSce  building 
and  the  responsibilities  of  the  architect  and  Commissioner  of  the  Public 
Buildings,  etc. 
M.  VAN  BUREK 
Washington,  March  26,  1840, 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  to  the  Senate  herewith  copies  of  official  notes  which  have 
passed  between  the  Secretary  of  State  and  the  British  minister  since  my 
last  message  on  the  subject  of  the  resolutions  of  the  17th  of  January. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Mr.  Fox  to  Mr,  Forsyth, 
Washington,  Mardi,  13, 1840. 
Hon.  John  Forsyth,  etc: 
The  undersigned.  Her  Britannic  Majesty's  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  pleni* 
potentiary,  has  been  instructed  by  his  Government  to  make  the  following  commu- 
nication to  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States  in  reference  to  the  boundary 
negotiation  and  the  a£fairs  of  the  disputed  territory. 
Her  Majesty's  Government  have  had  under  their  consideration  the  official  note 
addressed  to  the  undersigned  by  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States  on  the 
24th  of  last  December  in  reply  to  a  note  from  the  undersigned  of  the  2d  of  November 
precedinir  in  which  the  undersigned  protested  in  the  name  of  his  Government 
against  the  extensive  system  of  aggression  pursued  by  the  people  of  the  State  of 
Maine  within  the  disputed  territory,  to  the  prejudice  of  the  rights  of  Great  Britain 
and  in  manifest  violation  of  the  provisional  agreements  entered  into  between  the 
authorities  of  the  two  countries  at  the  beginning  of  the  last  year. 
Her  Majesty's  Government  have  also  had  their  attention  directed  to  the  public 
message  transmitted  by  the  governor  of  Maine  tolhe  legislature  of  the  State  on  the 
3d  of  January  of  the  present  year. 
Upon  a  cpnsideration  of  the  statements  contained  in  these  two  official  documents, 
Her  Majesty's  Government  regret  to  find  that  the  principal  acts  of  encroachment 
which  were  denounced  and  complained  of  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain,  so  far  from 
being  either  disproved  or  discontinued  or  satisfactorily  explained  by  the  authorities 
of  the  State  of  Maine,  are,  on  the  contrary,  persisted  in  and  publicly  avowed. 
Her  Majesty's  Government  have  consequently  instructed  the  undersigned  once 
more  formally  to  protest  against  those  acto  of  encroachment  and  sggression.
1799  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
Her  Majesty's  Government  claim  and  expect,  from  the  good  faith  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States,  that  the  people  of  Maine  shall  replace  themselves  in  the 
situation  in  which  they  stood  before  the  agreements  of  last  year  were  signed;  that 
they  shall,  therefore,  retire  from  the  valley  of  the  St  John  and  confine  themselves  to 
the  valley  of  the  Aroostook;  that  they  shall  occupy  that  valley  in  a  temporary  man- 
ner only,  for  the  purpose,  as  agreed  upon,  of  preventing  depredations;  and  that  they 
shall  not  construct  fortifications  nor  make  roads  or  permanent  settlements. 
Until  this  be  done  by  the  people  of  the  State  of  Maine,  and  so  long  as  that  people 
shall  persist  in  the  present  system  of  aggression.  Her  Majesty's  Government  will  feel 
it  their  duty  to  make  such  military  arrangements  as  may  be  required  for  the  pro- 
tection of  Her  Majesty's  rights.  And  Her  Majesty's  Government  deem  it  right  to 
declare  that  if  the  result  of  the  unjustifiable  proceedings  of  the  State  of  Maine  should 
be  collision  between  Her  Majesty's  troops  and  the  people  of  that  State  the  respon- 
sibility of  all  the  consequences  that  may  ensue  therefrom,  be  they  what  they  may, 
will  rest  with  the  people  and  Government  of  the  United  States. 
The  undersigned  has  been  instructed  to  add  to  this  communication  that  Her  Maj- 
esty's Government  are  only  waiting  for  the  detailed  report  of  the  British  commis- 
sioners recently  employed  to  smrvey  the  disputed  territory,  which  report  it  was 
believed  would  be  completed  and  delivered  to  Her  Majesty's  Government  by  the 
end  of  the  present  month,  in  order  to  transmit  to  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  a  reply  to  their  last  proposal  upon  the  subject  of  the  botmdary  tiegotiation. 
The  undersigned  avails  himself  of  this  occasion  to  renew  to  the  Secretary  of  State 
of  the  United  States  the  assurance  of  his  distinguished  consideration. 
H.  &  FOX. 
Mr.  Forsyth  to  Mr.  Fbx. 
Department  oe  State, 
Washington^  March  25^  1840, 
Henry  S.  Fox,  Esq.,  etc.: 
The  imdersigned,  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States,  acknowledges  to  have 
received  Mr.  Pox's  communication  of  the  13th  instant,  in  reference  to  the  boundary 
negotiation  and  the  a£fairs  of  the  disputed  territory.  The  information  given  in  the 
closing  part  of  it — that  a  reply  to  the  last  proposition  of  the  United  States  upon 
the  subject  of  the  boundary  may  be  expected  in  a  short  time — is  highly  gratif3ring 
to  the  President,  who  has,  however,  given  directions  to  the  undersigned,  in  making 
this  acknowledgment,  to  accompany  it  with  the  expression  of  his  profotmd  regret 
that  Mr.  Fox's  note  is  in  no  other  respect  satisfactory. 
After  the  arrangements  which  in  the  beginning  of  last  year  were  entered  into  on 
the  part  of  the  two  Governments  with  regard  to  the  occupation  of  the  disputed  terri- 
tory, the  President  had  indulged  the  hope  that  the  causes  of  irritation  which  had 
grown  out  of  this  branch  of  the  subject  could  have  been  removed.  Rel3ring  on  the 
disposition  of  Maine  to  cooperate  with  the  Federal  Government  in  all  {hat  could 
lead  to  a  pacific  adjustment  of  the  principal  question,  the  President  felt  confident 
that  his  determination  to  maintain  order  and  peace  on  the  border  would  be  hilly 
carried  out.  He  looked  upon  all  apprehensions  of  designs  by  the  people  of  Maine  to 
take  possession  of  the  territory  as  without  adequate  foundation,  deeming  it  improb- 
able that  on  the  eve  of  an  amicable  adjustment  of  the  question  any  portion  of  the 
American  people  would  without  cause  and  without  object  jeopard  the  success  of 
the  negotiation  and  endanger  the  peace  of  the  country.  A  troublesome,  irritating, 
and  comparatively  unimportant,  because  subordinate,  subject  being  thus  disposed  of, 
the  President  hoped  that  the  parties  would  be  left  free  at  once  to  discuss  and  finally 
adjust  the  principal  question.  In  this  he  has  been  disappointed.  While  the  pro- 
ceedings of  Her  Majesty's  Government  at  home  have  been  attended  with  unlooked-
Martin  Van  Buren  1800 
foe  delays,  Its  attention  has  been  diverted  from  the  great  subject  in  coutroveisj^  by 
repeated  complaints  imputing  to  a  portion  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  designs 
to  violate  the  engagements  of  their  Government— designs  which  have  never  been 
entertained,  and  which  Mr.  Fox  knows  would  receive  no  countenance  from  this 
Government. 
It  is  to  be  regretted  that  at  this  late  hour  so  much  misapprehension  still  exists  on 
the  side  of  the  British  Government  as  to  the  object  and  obvious  meaning  of  the 
existing  arrangements  respecting  the  disputed  territory.  The  iU  success  which 
appears  to  have  attended  the  efforts  made  by  the  undersigned  to  convey  through 
Mr.  Fox  to  Her  Majesty's  Government  more  correct  impressions  respecting  them 
calls  for  a  recurrence  to  the  subject,  and  a  brief  review  of  the  correspondence  which 
has  grown  out  of  it  may  tend  to  remove  the  erroneous  views  which  prevail  as  to  the 
manner  in  which  the  terms  of  the  arrangements  referred  to  have  been  observed. 
As  Mr.  Fox  had  no  authority  to  make  any  agreement  respecting  the  exercise 
of  jurisdiction  over  the  disputed  territory,  that  between  him  and  the  undersigned  of 
the  27th  of  February,  1839.  had  for  its  object  some  provisional  arrangement  for  the 
restoration  and  preservation  of  peace  in  the  territory.  To  accomplish  this  object 
it  provided  that  Her  Majesty's  officers  should  not  seek  to  expel  by  military  force 
the  armed  party  which  had  been  sent  by  Maine  into  the  district  bordering  on  the 
Restook  River,  and  that,  on  the  other  hand,  the  government  of  Maine  would  vol* 
untarily  and  without  needless  delay  withdraw  beyond  the  boimds  of  the  disputed 
territory  any  armed  force  then  within  them.  Besides  this,  the  arrangement  had 
other  objects—the  dispersion  of  notorious  trespassers  and  the  protection  of  public 
property  from  depredation.  In  case  future  necessity  should  arise  for  this,  the  opera- 
tion was  to  be  conducted  by  concert,  jointly  or  separately,  according  to  agreement 
between  the  governments  of  Maine  and  New  Brunswick. 
In  this  last-mentioned  respect  the  agreement  looked  to  some  further  arrangement 
between  Maine  and  New  Brunswick.  Through  the  agency  of  General  Scott  one 
was  agreed  to  on  the  23d  and  25th  of  March  following,  by  which  Sir  John  Harvey 
bound  himself  not  to  seek,  without  renewed  instructions  to  that  effect  from  his  Gov* 
ernment,  to  take  military  possession  of  the  territory  or  to  expel  from  it  by  military 
force  the  armed  civil  posse  or  the  troops  of  Maine.  On  the  part  of  Maine  it  ^iraa 
agreed  by  her  governor  that  no  attempt  should  be  made,  without  renewed  instmc* 
tions  from  the  legislature,  to  disturb  by  arms  the  Province  of  New  Brunswick  jn 
the  possession  of  the  Madawaska  settlements  or  interrupt  the  usual  commtmicationa 
between  that  and  the  upper  Provinces.  As  to  possession  and  jurisdiction,  they  were 
to  remain  unchanged— each  party  holding,  in  fact,  possession  of  part  of  the  disputed 
territory,  but  ^ch  denying  the  right  of  the  other  to  do  so.  With  that  understanding 
Maine  was  without  unnecessary  delay  to  withdraw  her  military  force,  leaving  only» 
under  a  land  agent,  a  small  civil  posse,  armed  or  unarmed,  to  protect  the  timber 
recently  cut  and  to  prevent  further  depredations. 
In  the  complaints  of  infractions  of  the  agreements  by  the  State  of  Maine  addressed 
to  the  undersigned  Mr.  Fox  has  assumed  two  positions  which  are  not  authorized  by 
the  terms  of  those  agreements:  First.  Admitting  the  right  of  Maine  to  maintain  a 
civil  posse  in  the  disputed  territory  for  the  purposes  stated  in  the  agreement,  he  does 
so  with  the  restriction  that  the  action  of  the  posse  was  to  be  confined  within  certain 
limits;  and,  second,  by  making  the  advance  of  the  Maine  posse  into  the  valley  of  the 
Upper  St.  John  the  ground  of  bis  complaint  of  encroachment  upon  the  Madawaska 
settlement,  he  assumes  to  extend  the  limits  of  that  settlement  beyond  tho^e  it  occu- 
pied at  the  date  of  the  agreement. 
OThe  United  States  can  not  acquiesce  in  either  of  these  positions. 
In  the  first  place,  nothing  is  found  in  the  agreement  subscribed  to  by  Governor 
Fairfield  and  Sir  John  Harvey  defining  any  limits  in  the  disputed  territory  within 
which  the  operations  of  the  civil  posse  of  Maine  were  to  be  circumscribed.     The  task
i8oi  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
of  preserving  the  timber  recently  cut  and  of  preventing  further  depredations  within « 
the  disputed  territory  was  assigned  to  the  State  of  Maine  after  her  military  force 
should  have  been  withdrawn  from  it,  and  it  was  to  be  accomplished  by  a  civil  posse, 
armed  or  unarmed,  which  was  to  continue  in  the  territory  and  to  operate  in  every 
part  of  it  where  its  agency  might  be  required  to  protect  the  timber  already  cut  and 
prevent  further  depredations,  without  any  limitation  whatever  or  any  restrictions 
except  such  as  might  be  construed  into  an  attempt  to  disturb  by  arms  the  Province 
of  New  Brunswick  in  her  possession  of  the  Madawaska  settlement  or  interrupt  the 
usual  communication  between  the  Provinces. 
It  is  thus,  in  the  exercise  of  a  legitimate  right  and  in  the  conscientious  discharged 
an  obligation  imposed  upon  her  by  a  solemn  compact,  that  the  State  of  Maine  has  done  . 
those  acts  which  have  given  rise  to  complaints  for  which  no  adequate  cause  is  per- 
ceived. The  undersigned  feels  confident  that  when  those  acts  shall  have  been  con- 
sidered by  Her  Majesty's  Government  at  home  as  explained  in  his  note  to  Mr.  Pox 
of  the  24th  of  December  last  and  in  connection  with  the  foregoing  remarks  they  will 
no  longer  be  viewed  as  calculated  to  excite  the  apprehensions  of  Her  Majesty's  Gov- 
ernment that  the  faith  of  existing  arrangements  is  to  be  broken  on  the  part  of  the 
United  States. 
With  regard  to  the  second  position  assumed  by  Mr.  Pox— that  the  advance  of  the 
Maine  posse  along*  the  valley  of  the  llestook  to  the  mouth  of  Pish  River  and  into 
the  valley  of  the  Upper  St.  John  is  at  variance  with  the  terms  and  spirit  of  the  agree- 
ments—the undersigned  must  observe  that  if  at  variance  with  any  of  their  provisions 
it  could  only  be  with  those  which  secure  Her  Majesty's  Province  of  New  Brunswick 
against  any  attempt  to  disturb  the  possession  of  the  Madawaska  settlements  and  to 
interrupt  the  usual  communications  between  New  Brunswick  and  the  upper  Prov- 
inces. The  agreement  could  only  have  reference  to  the  Madawaska  settlements  as 
confined  within  their  actual  limits  at  the  time  it  was  sul  cribed.  The  undersigned 
in  his  note  of  the  24th  of  December  last  stated  the  reasons  why  the  mouth  of  Pish 
River  and  the  portion  of  the  valley  of  the  St.  John  through  which  it  passes  could  in 
no  proper  sense  be  considered  as  embraced  in  the  Madawaska  settlements.  Were  the 
United  States  to  admit  the  pretension  set  up  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain  to  give 
to  the  Madawaska  settlements  a  degree  of  constructive  extension  that  might  at  this 
time  suit  the  purposes  of  Her  Majesty's  colonial  authorities,  those  settlements  might 
soon  be  made  with  like  justice  to  embrace  any  portions  of  the  disputed  territory,  and 
the  right  given  to  the  Province  of  New  Brunswick  to  occupy  them  temporarily 
and  for  a  special  purpose  might  by  inference  quite  as  plausible  give  the  jtuisdiction 
exercised  by  Her  Majesty's  authorities  an  extent  which  would  render  the  present 
state  of  the  question,  so  long  as  it  could  be  maintained,  equivalent  to  a  decision  on 
the  merits  of  the  whole  controversy  in  favor  of  Great  Britain.  If  the  small  settle* 
ment  at  Madawaska  on  the  north  side  of  the  St.  John  means  the  whole  valley  of 
that  river,  if  a  boofn  across  the  Pish  River  and  a  station  of  a  small  posse  on  the  south 
side  of  the  St.  John  at  the  mouth  of  Pish  River  is  a  disturbance  of  that  settlement, 
which  is  25  miles  below,  within  the  meaning  of  the  agreement,  it  is  difficult  to  con:' 
ceive  that  there  are  any  limitations  to  the  pretensions  of  Her  Majesty's  Government 
under  it  or  how  the  State  of  Maine  could  exercise  the  preventive  power  with  regard 
to  trespassers,  which  was  on  her  part  the  great  object  of  the  temporary  arrangement. 
The  movements  of  British  troops  lately  witnessed  in  the  disputed  territory  and 
the  erection  of  military  works  for  their  protection  and  accommodation,  of  which 
authentic  information  recently  received  at  the  Department  of  State  has  been  com- 
mimicated  to  Mr.  Pox,  impart  a  still  graver  aspect  to  Ihe  matter  immediately  under 
consideration.  The  fact  of  those  military  operations,  established  beyond  a  doubt,  left 
unexplained  or  unsatisfactorily  accounted  for  by  Mr.  Pox's  note  of  the  7th  instant, 
continues  an  abiding  cause  of  complaint  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  against  Iler 
Majesty's  colonial  agents  as  inconsistent  with  arrangements  whose  main  object  was
Martin  Van  Buren  1802 
to  divest  a  question  already  stifficiently  perplexed  and  complicated  from  such  embar- 
rassments as  those  with  which  the  proceedings  of  the  British  authorities  can  not  fail 
to  surround  it. 
If,  as  Mr.  Fox  must  admit,  the  objects  of  the  late  agreements  were  the  removal  of 
all  military  force  and  the  preservation  of  the  property  from  further  spoliations,  leav« 
ing  the  possession  and  jiuisdiction  as  they  stood  before  the  State  of  Maine  found 
itself  compelled  to  act  against  the  trespassers,  the  President  can  not  but  consider  that 
the  conduct  of  the  American  local  audiorities  strongly  and  mostjfavorably  contrasts 
with  that  of  the  colonial  authorities  of  Her  Majesty's  Government.  While  the  one, 
promptly  withdrawing  its  military  force,  has  confined  itself  to  the  use  of  the  small 
posse,  armed  as  agreed  upon,  and  has  done  no  act  not  necessary  to  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  conventional  objects,  every  measure  taken  or  indicated  by  the  other  party 
is  essentially  military  in  its  character,  and  can  be  justified  only  by  a  well-founded 
apprehension  that  hostilities  must  ensue. 
With  such  feelings  and  convictions  the  President  coidd  not  see  without  painful 
surprise  the  attempt  of  Mr.  Pox,  under  instructions  from  his  Government,  to  give 
to  die  existing  state  of  things  a  character  not  warranted  by  the  friendly  disposition  of 
the  United  States  or  the  conduct  of  the  authorities  and  people  of  Maine;  much  more 
is  he  surprised  to  find  it  alleged  as  a  ground  for  strengthening  a  military  force  and 
preparing  for  a  hostile  collision  with  the  unarmed  inhabitants  of  a  friendly  State, 
pursuing  within  their  own  borders  their  peaceful  occupations  or  exerting  themselves 
in  compliance  with  their  agreements  to  protect  the  property  in  dispute  from  unau- 
thorized spoliation. 
,  OThe  President  wishes  that  he  could  dispel  the  fear  that  these  dark  forebodings  can 
be  realized.  Unless  Her  Majesty's  Government  shall  forthwith  arrest  all  military 
interference  in  the  question,  unless  it  shaU  apply  to  the  subject  more  determined 
efforts  than  have  hitherto  been  made  to  bring  the  dispute  to  a  certain  and  pacific 
adjustment,  the  misfortunes  predicted  by  Mr.  Fox  in  the  name  of  his  Government 
may  most  unfortunately  happen. 
But  no  apprehension  of  the  consequences  aUuded  to  by  Mr.  Fox  can  be  permitted 
to  divert  the  Government  and  people  of  the  United  States  from  the  performance  of 
their  duty  to  the  State  of  Maine.  That  duty  is  as  simple  as  it  is  imperative.  The 
construction  which  is  given  by  her  to  the  treaty  of  17S3  has  been  again  and  again, 
and  in  the  most  solemn  manner,  asserted  also  by  the  Federal  Government,  and  must 
be  maintained  unless  Maine  freely  consents  to  a  new  boundary  or  unless  that  con- 
struction of  the  treaty  is  found  to  be  erroneous  by  the  decision  of  a  disinterested  and 
independent  tribunal  selected  by  the  parties  for  its  final  adjustment.  The  President 
on  assuming  the  duties  of  his  station  avowed  his  determination,  all  other  means  of 
negotiation  failing,  to  submit  a  proposition  to  the  Government  of  Great  Britain  to 
refer  the  decision  of  the  question  once  more  to  a  third  party. 
In  all  the  subsequent  steps  which  have  been  taken  upon  the  subject  by  his  direc- 
tion he  has  been  actuated  by  the  same  spirit.  Neither  his  dispositions  in  the  matter 
nor  his  opinion  as  to  the  propriety  of  that  coiu-se  has  tmdergone  any  change.  Should 
the  fulfillment  of  his  wishes  be  defeated,  either  by  an  unwillingness  on  the  part  of  Her 
Majesty's  Government  to  meet  the  offer  of  the  United  States  in  the  spirit  in  which 
it  is  made  or  from  adverse  circumstances  of  any  description,  the  President  will  in 
any  event  derive  great  satisfaction  from  the  consciousness  that  no  effort  on  his  part 
has  been  spared  to  bring  the  question  to  an  amicable  conclusion,  and  that  there  has 
been  nothing  in  the  conduct  either  of  the  Governments  and  people  of  the  United 
States  or  of  the  State  of  Maine  to  justify  the  emplojrment  of  Her  Majesty's  forces  as 
indicated  by  Mr.  Fox's  letter.  The  President  can  not  under  such  circumstances 
apprehend  that  the  responsibility  for  any  consequences  which  may  unhappily  ensue 
will  by  the  just  judgment  of  an  impartial  world  be  imputed  to  the  United  States 
The  undersigned  avails  himself,  etc. 
JOHN  FORSYTH.
i8o3  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
Mr.  Fox  to  Mr  Forsyth. 
Washington,  March  26,  /840. 
Hon.  John  Fossvth,  etc.: 
The  undersigned,  Her  Britannic  Majesty's  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  pleni- 
potentiary, has  had  the  honor  to  receive  the  official  note  of  yesterday's  date  addressed 
to  him  by  Mr.  Forsyth,  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States,  in  reply  to  a  note 
dated  the  13th  in^^t,  wherein  the  undersigned,  in  conformity  with  instructions 
received  from  his  Government,  had  anew  formally  protested  against  the  acts  of 
encroachment  and  aggression  which  are  still  persisted  in  by  armed  bands  in  the 
emplo3rment  of  the  State  of  Maine  within  certain  portions  of  the  disputed  territory. 
It  will  be  the  duty  of  the  undersigned  immediately  to  transmit  Mr.  Forsyth's  note 
to  Her  Majesty's  Government  in  England,  and  until  thie  statements  and  propositions 
whicfaf  it  contains  shaU  have  received  the  due  consideration  of  Her  Majesty's  Gov- 
ernment the  undersigned  will  not  deem  it  right  to  add  any  further  reply  thereto 
excepting  to  refer  to  and  repeat,  as  he  now  formally  and  distinctly  does,  the  several 
declarations  which  it  has  from  time  to  time  been  his  duty  to  make  to  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  with  reference  to  the  existing  posture  of  affairs  in  the 
disputed  territory,  and  to  record  his  opinion  that  an  inflexible  adherence  to  the  reso- 
lutions that  have  been  announced  by  Her  Majesty's  Government  for  the  defense 
of  Her  Majesty's  rights  pending  the  negotiation  of  the  boundary  question  offers  to 
Her  Majesty's  Government  the  only  means  of  protecting  those  rights  from  being  in 
a  continually  aggravated  manner  encroached  upon  and  violated. 
The  undersigned  avails  himself  of  this  occasion  to  renew  to  the  Secretary  of  State 
of  the  United  States  the  assurance  of  his  distinguished  consideration. 
H.  S.  FOX. 
Washington,  March  28,  1840. 
To  the  SenaU: 
I  communicate  to  the  Senate,  in  compliance  with  their  resolution  of 
the  1 2th  instant,  a  report  from  the  Secretary  of  War,  containing  infor- 
mation on  the  subject  of  that  resolution. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
War  DBPARTifENT,  March  27, 1840. 
The  President  o?  the  United  States. 
Sir:  The  resolution  of  the  Senate  of  the  12th  instant,  *'that  the  President  of  the 
United  States  be  requested  to  conmiunicate  to  the  Senate,  if  in  his  judgment  com- 
patible with  the  public  interest,  any  information  which  may  be  in  the  possession  of 
the  Government,  or  which  can  be  conveniently  obtained,  of  the  military  and  naval 
preparations  of  the  British  authorities  on  the  northern  frontier  of  the  United  States 
from  Lake  Superior  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  designating  the  permanent  from  the  tem- 
porary and  field  works,  and  particularly  by  noting  those  which  are  within  the  claimed 
Limits  of  the  United  States,"  having  been  referred  by  you  to  this  Department,  it  was 
immediately  referred  to  Major-General  Scott  and  other  officers  who  have  been  sta- 
^  tioned  on  the  frontier  referred  to  for  such  information  on  the  subjects  as  they  pos- 
sessed and  could  readily  procure,  and  an  examination  is  now  in  progress  for  such  as 
may  be  contained  in  the  files  of  this  Department.  General  Scott  is  the  only  officer 
yet  heard  from,  and  a  copy  of  his  report  is  herewith  submitted,  together  with  a  copy 
of  that  to  which  he  refers,  made  upon  the  resolution  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives of  the  9th  instant     As  soon  as  the  other  officers  who  have  been  called  upon
Martin  Van  Buren  1804 
are  heard  from  and  fhe  ezamixiation  of  the  files  of  the  Department  is  completed,  any 
Airther  information  which  may  be  thus  acquired  will  be  immediately  laid  before  you. 
Very  respectfully,  your  most  obedient  servant, 
J.  R.  POINSBTT. 
Headquarters,  Eastern  Division, 
Elizabethtotvn,  N.J.,  March  ij,  1840. 
Brigadier-General  R.  JONES, 
Adjutant-General  United  States  Army. 
Sir:  I  have  received  from  your  office  copies  of  two  resolutions,  passed,  respec- 
tively, the  1 2th  and  9th  instant,  one  by  the  Senate  and  the  other  by  the  House  of 
Representatives,  and  I  am  asked  for  "any  information  on  the  subject  of  both  or 
either  of  the  resolutions  that  may  be  in  [my]  possession." 
In  respect  to  the  naval  force  recently  maintained  upon  the  American  lakes  by 
Great  Britain,  I  have  just  had  the  honor  to  report  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  by  whom 
the  resolution  of  the  House  of  Representatives  (of  the  9th  instant)  was  directly 
referred  to  me. 
I  now  confine  myself  to  the  Senate's  resolution,  respecting  ''military  [I  omit 
naval]  prepatations  of  the  British  authorities  on  the  northern  frontiers  of  the  United 
States  from  Lake  Superior  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  distinguishing  the  permanent  from 
the  temporary  and  field  works,  and  particularly  noting  those  which  are  within  the 
claimed  limits  of  the  United  States.*' 
I  will  here  remark  that  however  well  my  duties  have  made  me  acquainted  with 
the  greater  part  of  the  line  in  question,  I  have  paid  but  slight  attention  to  the  forts 
and  barracks  erected  by  the  British  authorities  near  the  borders  of  Maine  above 
Prederickton,  in  New  Brunswick,  or  in  Upper  Canada  above  Cornwall,  being  of  the 
fixed  opinion  (which  need  not  here  be  developed)  that  all  such  structures  would  be 
of  little  or  no  military  value  to  either  of  the  parties  in  the  event  of  a  new  war  between 
the  United  States  and  Great  Britain.  > 
I  was  last  stmimer  at  the  foot  of  I^e  Superior,  and  neither  saw  nor  heard  of  any 
British  fort  or  barrack  on  the  St  Marys  River,  the  outlet  of  that  lake. 
Between  Lakes  Huron  and  Erie  the  British  have  three  sets  of  barracks— one  at  Wind- 
sor, opposite  to  Detroit;  one  at  Sandwich,  a  little  lower  down;  and  the  third  at 
Maiden,  18  miles  from  the  first — all  built  of  sawed  logs,  strengthened  by  blockhouses, 
loopholes,  etc  Maiden  has  long  been  a  military  post,  with  slight  defenses.  These 
have  been  recently  strengthened.  The  works  at  Sandwich  and  Windsor  have  also, 
I  think,  been  erected  within  the  last  six  or  eight  months. 
Near  the  mouth  of  the  Niagara  the  British  have  two  small  forts — George  and  Mis- 
sissauga;  both  existed  dtu4ng  the  last  war.  The  latter  may  be  termed  a  permanent 
work.  Slight  barracks  have  been  erected  within  the  last  two  years  on  the  same  side 
near  the  Falls  and  at  Chippewa,  with  breastworks  at  the  latter  place,  but  nothing,  I 
believe,  above  the  works  first  named  on  the  Niagara  which  can  be  termed  a  fort 
Since  the  commencement  of  recent  troubles  in  the  Canadas  and  (consequent  there- 
upon) within  our  limits  Port  William  Henry,  at  Kingston,  and  Fort  Wellington, 
opposite  to  Ogdensburg  (old  works),  have  both  been  strengthened  within  them* 
selves,  besides  the  addition  of  dependencies.    These  forts  may  be  called  permanent 
On  the  St.  Lawrence  below  Prescott,  and  confronting  our  territory,  I  know  of  no 
other  military  post.  Twelve  miles  above,  at  BrockviUe,  there  may  be  temporary 
barracks  and  breastworks.    I  know  that  of  late  BrockviUe  has  been  a  military  station. 
In  the  system  of  defenses  on  the  approaches  to  Montreal  the  Isle  aux  Noix,  a 
few  miles  below  our  line,  and  in  the  outlet  of  Lake  Champlain,  stands  at  the  head. 
This  island  contains  within  itself  a  system  of  permanent  works  of  great  streng^. 
On  them  the  British  Government  has  from  time  to  time  since  the  peace  of  181 5 
expended  much  skill  and  labor.
i8o5  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
Odletown,  near  our  line,  on  the  western  side  of  Lake  Champlain,  has  been  a 
station  for  a  body  of  Canadian  militia  for  two  years,  to  guard  the  neighborhood 
from  refugee  incendiaries  from  our  side.  I  think  that  barracks  have  been  erected 
there  for  the  accommodation  of  those  troops,  and  also  at  a  station,  with  the  like 
object,  near  Alburgh,  in  Vermont. 
It  is  believed  that  there  are  no  important  British  forts  or  extensive  British  barracks 
on  our  borders  from  Vermont  to  Maine. 
In  respect  to  such  structures  on  the  disputed  territory^  Governor  Fairfield's  pub- 
lished letters  contain  fuller  information  than  has  reached  me  through  any  other 
channel.  I  have  heard  of  no  new  military  preparations  by  the  British  authorities  on 
the  St.  Croix  or  Passamaquoddy  Bay. 
Among  such  preparations,  perhaps  I  ought  not  to  omit  the  fact  that  Great  Britain* 
besides  numerous  corps  of  well-oiganized  and  well-instructed  militia,  has  at  this 
time  within  her  North  American  Provinces  more  than  20,000  of  her  best  regular 
troops.  The  whole  of  those  forces  might  be  brought  to  the  verge  of  our  territory 
in  a  few  days.  Two-thirds  of  that  regular  force  has  arrived  out  since  the  spring 
of  1838. 
I  remain,  sir,  with  great  respect,  your  most  obedient  servant, 
WINFIELB  SCOTT. 
Washington,  March  28,  184.0. 
To  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  communicate  to  the  House  of  Representatives,  in  compliance  with 
their  resolution  of  the  9th  instant,  reports*  from  the  Secretaries  of  State 
and  War,  with  documents,  which  contain  information  on  the  subject  of 
that  resolution. 
M,  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  March  jr,  184.0. 
To  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  communicate  to  the  House  of  Representatives  a  report  t  from  the 
Secretary  of  State,  with  documents,  containing  the  information  called 
for  by  their  resolution  of  the  23d  instant. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington  City,  April  j,  1840, 
Hon.  R.  M.  T.  Huntbr, 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
Sir:  In  compliance  with  a  resolution  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
of  the  9th  ultimo,  I  communicate  herewith,  accompanied  by  a  report  from 
the  Secretary  of  War,  **  copies  of  the  arrangement  entered  into  between 
the  governor  of  Maine  and  Sir  John  Harvey,  lieutenant-governor  of  New 
Brunswick,  through  the  mediation  of  Major-General  Scott,  in  the  month 
of  March  last  (1839),  together  with  copies  of  the  instructions  given  to 
*  Relating  to  the  British  naval  armament  on  the  American  lakes,  etc. 
tRelatiuff  to  the  demand  of  the  minister  of  Spain  for  the  surrender  of  the  schooner  Amistad, 
with  Africans  on  board,  detained  by  the  American  brir  of  war  Washington,  etc.
Martin  Van  Buren  1806 
General  Scott  and  of  all  correspondence  with  him  relating  to  the  sub- 
ject of  controversy  between  the  State  of  Maine  and  the  Province  of  New 
Brunswick." 
M.  VAN  BUREN, 
Washington,  April  10,  1840. 
To  the  House  0/  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
In  comphance  with  the  resolution  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  23d  March  last,  I  transmit  a  report*  from  the  Secretary  of  State, 
which,  with  the  documents  accompanying  it,  contains  the  information  in 
possession  of  the  Department  in  relation  to  the  subject  of  the  resolution. 
M.  Vj^N  buren, 
Washington,  AprU,  1840. 
To  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  herewith  communications  from  the  Secretary  of  War  and 
Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs,  giving  the  information  "in  possession  of 
the  Government  respecting  the  assemblage  of  Indians  on  the  northwestern 
frontier,  and  especially  as  to  the  interference  of  the  officers  or  agents  of 
any  foreign  power  with  the  Indians  of  the  United  States  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  Great  I<akes,"  which  I  was  requested  to  communicate  by  the  reso- 
lution of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  9th  ultimo. 
M.  VAN  BUREN, 
Washington,  April  14,  1840, 
To  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  to  the  House  of  Representatives  a  report  t  from  the  Secre- 
tary of  State,  with  documents,  containing  the  information  required  by 
their  resolution  of  the  9th  March  last 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Aprii,  15,  1840. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
In  further  comphance  with  a  resolution  of  the  Senate  passed  December 
30,  1839, 1  herewith  submit  reports  J  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  and 
the  Postmaster-General,  together  with  a  supplemental  statement  from  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasurj^  and  the  correspondence  annexed. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
*  Relating  to  the  seizure  and  condemnation  by  British  authorities  of  American  vessels  engaged 
in  the  fisheries. 
.  t  Relating  to  the  tobacco  trade  between  the  United  States  and  foreign  countries. 
*  Rclatinsr  to  the  sale  or  exchansre  of  Government  drafts  for  bank  notes  and  the  payment  of 
Government  creditors  in  depreciated  currency.'
i8o7  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
Washington,  April  75,  18^0. 
To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  a  copy  of  a  convention  for  the  adjustment  of  claims  of  dli- 
zens  of  the  United  States  upon  the  Government  of  the  Mexican  Republic, 
for  such  legislative  action  on  the  part  of  Congress  as  may  be  necessary 
to  carry  the  engagements  of  the  United  States  under  the  convention  into 
fullefiEect, 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington  City,  Aiml  18, 1840. 
To  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  herewith  a  communication  from  the  Secretary  of  War, 
accompanied  by  a  letter  from  the  Commissioner  of  Indian  AfiFairs,  indi- 
cating the  importance  of  an  extension  of  the  authority  given  by  the  six- 
teenth clause  of  the  first  section  of  the  act  entitled  **An  act  providing  for 
the  salaries  of  certain  oflBcers  therein  named,  and  for  other  purposes," 
approved  9th  May,  1836, 
M.  VAN  BUREN, 
Washington  City,  AprU  24, 1840. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States:. 
I  transmit  herewith  a  report  and  accompanying  documents  from  the 
Secretary  of  War,  which  furnish  the  information  in  relation  to  that  por- 
tion of  the  defenses*  of  the  country  intrusted  to  the  charge  and  direction 
of  the  Department  of  War,  called  for  by  the  resolution  of  the  Senate  of 
the  2d  of  March,  1839, 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  April  27,  184.0. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
I  lay  before  the  Senate  a  report  f  of  the  Postmaster-General,  in  further 
compliance  with  a  resolution  of  the  Senate  of  the  30th  December,  1839. 
M.  VAN  BUREN, 
Washington,  May  2,  184.0. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  to  the  Senate  a  report  J  from  the  Secretary  of  State,  which, 
with  the  papers  accompanying  it,  contains  in  part  the  information 
requested  by  a  resolution  of  the  Senate  of  the  30th  December  last. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
*  Military  and  oaval. 
t  Relating  to  the  sale  or  ezchansre  of  Government  drafts,  etc 
tRelatins:  to  bonds  ot  the  Territory  of  Florida.
Martin  Van  Buren  1808 
Washington,  May  p,  i84r^ 
To  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  communicate  to  the  House  of  Representatives  a  report*  from  tjiiie 
Secretary  of  State,  which,  with  the  documents  accompanying  it,  furnishes 
the  information  requested  by  their  resolution  of  the  23d  of  March  last. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States:  **^^  "'  ^^'^^• 
In  part  compliance  with  the  resolution  of  the  Senate  of  the  29th  of 
December  last,  I  herewith  submit  a  report  f  from  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  with  the  documents  therein  referred  to. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  May  12,  1840. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
I  communicate  to  the  Senate  a  copy  of  a  letter  J  from  the  secretary  of 
the  Territory  of  Florida,  with  documents  accompanying  it,  received  at  the 
Department  of  State  since  my  message  of  the  2d  instant  and  containing 
additional  information  on  the  subject  of  the  resolution  of  the  Senate  of 
the  30th  of  December  last  ^  ^^  BUREN. 
Washington,  May  16,  184,0. 
To  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  the  report  of  the  Secretary  of  War  furnishing  a  statement 
of  the  amounts  paid  to  persons  concerned  in  negotiating  Indian  treaties 
since  1829,  ^^c.,  which  completes  the  information  called  for  by  the  reso- 
lution of  the  House  of  Representatives  dated  the  28th  January,  1839, 
upon  that  subject  and  the  disbursing  officers  in  the  War  Department. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  May  z8,  1849, 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
I  communicate  to  the  Senate  a  copy  of  a  letter  J  from  the  governor  of 
Florida  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  containing,  with  the  documents  accom- 
panying it,  further  information  on  the  subject  of  the  resolution  of  the 
Senate  of  the  30th  of  December  last.  ^  VAN  BTTREN 
.* Transmitting  correspondence  with  Prance,  Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Prussia  relating  to  the  sur- 
render to  the  United  States  of  persons  charged  with  piracy  and  murder  on  board  the  TTnited  States 
schooner  Ffattsburg  in  1817;  correspondence  relating  to  the  demand  by  the  charge  d'affaires  of 
Great  Britain  for  the  surrender  of  a  mutineer  in  the  British  armed  ship  Lee  in  1819;  opinion  of  the 
Attorney-General  with  regard  to  the  right  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  or  the  governor 
of  a  state  to  deliver  up^  on  the  demand  of  any  foreign  government,  persons  chatged  witii  crimet 
committed  without  the  Jurisdiction  of  the  United  States. 
t  Relating  to  the  sale  or  exchange  of  Government  drafte.  cte. 
%  Relating  to  bonds  of  the  Territory  of  Florida.
i8oQ  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
Washington,  May  2t,  184,0. 
To  tne  Senate  and  Hotise  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
i  communicate  to  Congress  sundry  papers,  from  which  it  will  be  per- 
ceived that  the  Imaum  of  Muscat  has  transmitted  to  this  country  and, 
through  the  agency  of  the  commander  of  one  of  his  vessels,  offered  for 
my  acceptance  a  present,  consisting  of  horses,  pearls,  and  other  articles 
of  value.  The  answer  of  the  Secretary  of  State  to  a  letter  from  the 
agents  of  the  vessel  communicating  the  offer  of  the  present,  and  my  own 
letter  to  the  Imaum  in  reply  to  one  which  he  s^dressed  to  me,  were 
intended  to  make  known  in  the  proper  quarter  the  reasons  which  had 
precluded  my  acceptance  of  the  proffered  gift.  Inasmuch,  however,  as 
the  commander  of  the  vessel,  with  the  view,  as  he  alleges,  of  carrying 
out  the  wishes  of  his  Sovereign,  now  offers  the  presents  to  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States,  I  deem  it  my  duty  to  lay  the  proposition 
before  Congress  for  such  disposition  as  they  may  think  fit  to  make  of  it; 
and  I  take  the  opportunity  to  suggest  for  their  consideration  the  adop- 
tion of  legislative  provisions  pointing  out  the  course  which  they  may 
deem  proper  for  the  Executive  to  pursue  in  any  future  instances  where 
offers  of  presents  by  foreign  states,  either  to  the  Government,  its  legis- 
lative or  executive  branches,  or  its  agents  abroad,  may  be  made  under 
circumstances  precluding  a  refusal  without  the  risk  of  giving  offense. 
The  correspondence  between  the  Department  of  State  and  our  consul 
at  Tangier  will  acquaint  Congress  with  such  an  instance,  in  which  every 
proper  exertion  on  the  part  of  the  consul  to  refrain  from  taking  charge 
of  an  intended  present  proved  unavailing.  The  animals  constituting  it 
may  consequently,  under  the  instructions  from  the  Secretary  of  State, 
be  expected  soon  to  arrive  in  the  United  States,  when  the  authority  of 
Congress  as  to  the  disposition  to  be  made  of  them  will  be  necessary. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  May  23,  1840, 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  a  communication  from  the  Secretary  of  War,  together  with 
the  papers  therein  referred  to,  relative  to  the  proceedings  instituted  under 
a  resolution  of  Congress  to  try  the  title  to  the  Pea  Patch  Island,  in  the 
Delaware  River,  and  recommend  that  Congress  pass  a  special  act  giv- 
ing to  the  circuit  court  of  the  district  of  Maryland  jurisdiction  to  try  the 
^^^-  M.  VAN  BUREN. 
JuNB  4,  1840. 
To  the  Hotise  of  Representatives: 
I  herewith  submit  a  report  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  showing 
the  progress  made  in  complying  with  the  requirements  of  a  resolution 
passed  February  6,  1839,  concerning  mineral  lands  of  the  United  States.
Martin  VaH  Buren  1810 
The  documents  he  commtinicates  contain  much  important  information  on 
the  subject  of  those  lands,  and  a  plan  for  the  sale  of  them  is  in  a  course 
of  preparation  and  will  be  presented  as  soon  as  completed. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  June  5, 184.0. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
In  compliance  with  the  resolution  of  the  Senate  dated  the  30th  Decern 
ber,  1839,  I  transmit  herewith  the  report*  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  fui. 
nishing  so  much  of  the  information  called  for  by  said  resolution  as  relates 
to  the  Executive  Department  under  his  charge. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  June  5,  1840. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
In  compliance  with  the  resolution  of  the  Senate  of  the  30th  Decembei. 
1839, 1  communicate  the  report  f  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  containing  the 
information  called  for  by  that  resolution  as  far  as  it  relates  to  the  Depart* 
ment  under  his  charge.  ^  j^  ^^^  BUREN. 
Washington,  JuTie  6, 1840. 
To  the  House  of  Representatives: 
I  herewith  submit  a  report  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  rela- 
tion to  certain  lands  falUng  within  the  Chickasaw  cession  which  have 
been  sold  at  Chocchuma  and  Columbus,  in  Mississippi,  and  invite  the 
attention  of  Congress  to  the  subject  of  further  legislation  in  relation  to 
^^^'  M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  June  13,  1840, 
To  the  House  of  Representatives: 
I  communicate  to  the  House  of  Representatives  a  report  J  from  the 
Secretary  of  State,  with  documents,  containing  the  information  requested 
by  their  resolution  of  the  26th  of  May  last.  *,  VAN  BUREN 
Washington,  June  /p,  1840. 
The  Speaker  of  the  House  op  Representatives  op  the  United 
^TATES. 
Sir:  I  transmit  a  communication  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
suggesting  that  an  appropriation  of  $50,000  be  made  by  Congress  to 
*RelatiBg  to  the  refusal  of  batiks  to  paythe  Government  demands  in  specie  since  the  gener^ 
resumption  in  1838,  and  the  payment  of  Government  creditors  in  depreciated  currency. 
t  Relating  to  the  manner  in  which  the  public  funds  have  been  paid  out  by  disbursing  officers  and 
agents  during  1938  and  1839. 
tRelatiag  to  diaiges  preferred  by  Dr.  John  Baldwin,  of  Louisiana,  asrainst  Marmaduke  Bur- 
rouirbs,  consul  at  Vera  Cruz.
i8ii  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
meet  claims  of  navy  pensioners,  payable  on  the  ist  of  July  next,  reim- 
bursable by  a  transfer  of  stocks  belonging  to  the  fund  at  their  nominal 
value  to  the  amount  so  appropriated,  and  respectfully  recommend  the 
measure  to  the  consideration  and  action  of  Congress. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  June  22,  1S40. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States:   • 
I  lay  before  you,  for  your  consideration,  a  treaty  of  commerce  and 
navigation  between  the  United  States  of  America  and  His  Majesty 
the  King  of  Hanover,  signed  by  their  ministers  on  the  20th  day  of  May 
last. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  June  27, 184.0. 
To  the  Senate: 
The  importance  of  the  subject  to  the  tranquillity  of  our  country  makes 
it  proper  that  I  should  communicate  to  the  Senate,  in  addition  to  the 
information  heretofore  transmitted  in  reply  to  their  resolution  of  the  17th 
of  January  last,  the  copy  of  a  letter  just  received  from  Mr.  Fox,  announ- 
cing the  determination  of  the  British  Government  to  consent  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  our  last  proposition  for  the  settlement  of  the  question  of  the 
northeastern  boundary,  with  a  copy  of  the  answer  made  to  it  by  the  Sec- 
retary of  State.  I  can  not  doubt  that,  with  the  sincere  disposition  which 
actuates  both  Governments  to  prevent  any  other  than  an  amicable  termi- 
nation of  the  controversy,  it  will  be  found  practicable  so  to  arrange  the 
details  of  a  conventional  agreement  on  the  principles  alluded  to  as  to 
effect  that  object. 
The  British  commissioners,  in  their  report  communicated  by  Mr.  Fox, 
express  an  opinion  that  the  true  line  of  the  treaty  of  1783  is  materially 
different  from  that  so  long  contended  for  by  Great  Britain.  The  report 
is  altogether  ex  parte  in  its  character,  and  has  not  yet,  as  far  as  we  are 
informed,  been  adopted  by  the  British  Government.  It  has,  however, 
assumed  a  form  suflSdently  authentic  and  important  to  justify  the  belief 
that  it  is  to  be  used  hereafter  by  the  British  Government  in  the  discus- 
sion of  the  question  of  boundary;  and  as  it  differs  essentially  from  the 
line  claimed  by  the  United  States,  an  immediate  preparatory  exploration 
and  survey  on  our  part,  by  commissioners  appointed  for  that  purpose,  of 
the  portions  of  the  territory  therein  more  particularly  brought  into  view 
would,  in  my  opinion,  be  proper.  If  Congress  concur  with  me  in  this 
view  of  the  subject,  a  provision  by  than  to  enable  theExecutiva  to  canry 
it  into  effect  will  be  necessary. 
M.  VAN  BUREN.
Martin  Van  Buren  1812 
Mr,  Fox  to  Mr.  Forsyth, 
Washington,  June  22, 1840. 
Hon.  John  Porsvth,  ecc: 
The  undersigned,  Her  Britannic  Majesty's  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  pleni- 
potentiary, has  the  honor  to  transmit  to  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States, 
by  order  of  his  Government,  the  accompanying  printed  copies  of  a  report  and  map 
which  have  been  presented  to  Her  Majesty's  Government  by  Colonel  Mudge  and 
Mr.  Featherstonhangh,  the  commissioners  emplo3red  during  the  last  season  to  survey 
the  disputed  territory. 
The  undersigned  is  instructed  to  say  that  it  will  of  course  have  become  the  duty 
of  Her  Majesty's  Government  to  lay  the  said  report  and  map  before  Parliament;  but 
Her  Majesty's  Government  have  been  desirous,  as  a  mark  of  courtesy  and  considera- 
tion toward  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  that  documents  bearing  upon  a 
question  of  so  much  interest  and  importance  to  the  two  countries  should  in  the  first 
instance  be  communicated  to  the  President.  The  documents  had  been  officially 
placed  in  the  hands  of  Her  Majesty's  Government  only  a  few  days  previously  to  the 
date  of  the  instruction  addressed  to  the  undersigned. 
Her  Majesty's  Government  feel  an  unabated  desire  to  bring  the  long*pending  ques- 
tions connected  with  the  boundary  between  the  United  Statjes  and  the  British  posses- 
sions in  North  America  to  a  final  and  satisfactory  settlement,  being  well  aware  that 
questions  of  this  nature,  as  long  as  they  remain  open  between  two  countries,  must  be 
the  source  of  f  request  irritation  on  both  sides  and  are  liable  at  any  moment  to  lead  to 
events  that  may  endanger  the  existence  of  friendly  relations. 
It  is  obvious  that  the  questions  at  issue  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States  must  be  beset  with  various  and  really  existing  difficulties,  or  else  those  ques- 
tions would  not  have  remained  open  ever  since  the  year  1783,  notwithstanding  the 
frequent  and  earnest  endeavors  made  by  each  Government  to  bring  them  to  an 
adjustment;  but  Her .  Majesty's  Government  do  not  relinquish  the  hope  that  the 
kincere  desire  which  is  felt  by  both  parties  to  arrive  at  an  amicable  settlement  will  at 
length  be  attended  with  success. 
The  best  clew  to  guide  the  two  Governments  in  their  future  proceedings  may  per- 
haps be  obtained  by  an  examination  of  the  causes  of  past  failure;  and  the  most  promi- 
nent amongst  these  causes  has  certainly  been  a  want  of  correct  information  as  to  the 
topographical  features  and  physical  character  of  the  district  in  dispute. 
This  want  of  adequate  information  may  be  traced  as  one  of  the  difficulties  which 
embarrassed  the  Netherlands  Government  in  its  endeavors  to  decide  the  points  sub- 
mitted to  its  arbitration  in  1830.  The  same  has  been  felt  by  the  Government  in 
England;  it  has  been  felt  and  admitted  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  and 
even  by  the  local  government  of  the  contiguous  State  of  Maine. 
The  British  Government  and  the  Government  of  the  United  States  agreed,  there- 
fore, two  years  ago  that  a  smrvey  of  the  disputed  territory  by  a  joint  commission 
would  be  the  measure  best  calculated  to  elucidate  and  solve  the  questions  at  issue. 
The  President  proposed  such  a  commission  and  He^  Majesty's  Government  con- 
sented to  it,  and  it  was  believed  by  Her  Majesty's  Government  that  the  general 
principles  upon  which  the  commission  was  to  be  guided  in  its  local  operations  had 
been  settled  by  mutual  agreement,  arrived  at  by  means  of  a  correspondence  which 
took  place  between  the  two  Governments  in  1837  and  1838.  Her  Majesty's  Govern- 
ment accordingly  transmitted  in  April  of  last  year,  for  the  consideration  of  the  Presi- 
dent, the  draft  of  a  convention  to  regulate  the  proceedings  of  the  proposed  commis- 
sion. The  preamble  of  that  draft  recited  textually  the  agreement  that  had  been  come 
to  by  means  of  notes  which  had  been  exchanged  between  the  two  Governments,  and 
the  articles  of  the  draft  were  framed,  as  Her  Majesty's  Government  considered,  in 
strict  conformity  with  that  agreement
i8i3  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
But  the  Government  of  the  United  States  did  not  think  proper  to  assent  to  the 
convention  so  proposed. 
The  United  States  Government  did  not,  indeed,  allege  that  the  proposed  convention 
was  at  variance  with  the  result  of  the  previous  correspondence  between  the  two  Gov- 
ernments, but  it  thought  that  the  convention  would  establish  a  commission  of  ''mere 
exploration  and  survey,''  and  the  President  was  of  opinion  that  the  step  next  to  be 
taken  by  the  two  Governments  should  be  to  contract  stipulations  bearing  upon  the 
face  of  them  the  promise  of  a  final  settlement  under  some  form  or  other  and  within  a 
reasonable  time. 
The  United  States  Government  accordingly  transmitted  to  the  undersigned,  for 
communication  to  Her  Majesty's  Government,  in  the  month  of  July  last  a  counter 
draft  of  convention  varying  considerably  in  some  parts  (as  the  Secretary  of  State  of 
the  United  States  admitted  in  his  letter  to  the  imdersigned  of  the  29th  of  July  last) 
from  the  draft  proposed  by  Great  Britain,  but  the  Secretary  of  State  added  that  the 
United  States  Government  did  not  deem  it  necessary  to  comment  upon  the  alterations 
so  made,  as  the  text  itself  of  the  counter  draft  would  be  found  sufficiently  perspicuqus. 
Her-  Majesty's  Government  might  certainly  well  have  expected  that  some  reasons 
would  have  been  given  to  explain  why  the  United  States  Government  declined  to 
confirm  an  arrangement  which  was  founded  upon  propositions  made  by  that  Govern- 
ment itself  and  upon  modifications  to  which  that  Government  had  agreed,  or  that 
if  the  American  Government  thought  the  draft  of  convention  thus  proposed  was  not 
in  conformity  with  the  previous  agr^iement  it  would  have  pointed  out  in  what  respect 
the  two  were  considered  to  differ. 
Her  Majesty's  Government,  considering  the  present  state  of  the  boundary  ques- 
tion, concur  with  the  Government  of  the  United  States  in  thinking  that  it  is  on 
every  account  expedient  that  the  next  measure  to  be  adopted  by  the  two  Govern- 
ments should  contain  arrangements  which  will  necessarily  lead  to  a  final  settlement, 
and  they  think  that  the  convention  which  they  proposed  last  year  to  the  President, 
instead  of  being  framed  so  as  to  constitute  a  mere  commission  of  exploration  and 
survey,  did,  on  the  contrary,  contain  stipulations  calculated  to  lead  to  the  final 
ascertainment  of  the  boundary  between  the  two  countries. 
There  was,  however,  undoubtedly  one  essential  difference  between  the  British 
draft  and  the  American  counter  draft  The  British  draft  contained  no  provision 
embodying  the  principle  of  arbitration;  the  American  counter  draft  did  contain 
such  a  provision. 
The  British  draft  contained  no  provision  for  arbitration,  because  the  principle  of 
arbitration  had  not  been  proposed  on  either  side  during  the  negotiations  upon  which 
that  draft  was  founded,  and  because,  moreover,  it  was  understood  at  that  time  that 
the  principle  of  arbitration  would  be  decidedly  objected  to  by  the  United  States. 
But  as  the  United  States  Government  have  now  expressed  a  wish  to  embody  the 
principle  of  arbitration  in  the  proposed  convention,  Her  Majesty's  Government  are 
perfectly  willing  to  accede  to  that  wish. 
The  undersigned  is  accordingly  instructed  to  state  officially  to  Mr.  Forsyth  that 
Her  Majesty's  Government  consent  to  the  two  principles  which  form  the  main  foun- 
dation of  the  American  counter  draft,  namely:  First,  that  the  commission  to  be 
appointed  shall  be  so  constituted  as  necessarily  to  lead  to  a  final  settlement  of  the 
questions  of  boundary  at  issue  between  the  two  countries,  and,  secondly,  that  in 
order  to  secure  such  a  result  th^  convention  by  which  the  commission  is  to  be  cre- 
ated shall  contain  a  provision  for  arbitration  upon  points  as  to  which  the  British  and 
American  commissioners  may  not  be  able  to  ag^ree. 
The  undersigned  is,  however,  instructed  to  add  that  there  are  many  matters  of 
detail  in  the  American  counter  draft  which  Her  Majesty's  Government  can  not 
adopt  The  undersigned  will  be  furnished  from  his  Government  by  an  early  oppor- 
tunity, with  an  amended  draft  in  conformity  with  the  principles  above  stated,  to  be
Martin  Van  Bitren  1814 
submitted  to  the  consideration  of  the  President.  And  the  undersigned  expects  to  be 
at  the  same  time  furnished  with  instructions  to  proposet  to  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  a  fresh,  local,  and  temporary  convention  for  the  better  prevention 
of  incidental  border  collisions  within  the  disputed  territory  during  the  time  that 
may  be  occupied  in  carrying  through  the  operations  of  survey  or  arbitration. 
The  undersigned  avails  himself  of  this  occasion  to  renew  to  the  Secretary  of  State 
the  assurance  of  his  distinguished  consideration.  ^  c  tj'ox. 
Mr.  Forsyth  to  Mr  Fox. 
Dkpartmbnt  of  STATK, 
H.  S.  Fox,  Esq.,  etc.:  Washington  June  26, 1840. 
The  undersigned,  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States,  has  had  the  honor  to 
receive  a  note  addressed  to  him  on  the  22d  instant  by  Mr.  Pox,  envoy  extraordi- 
nary and  minister  plenipotentiary  of  Great  Britain,  inclosing  printed  copies  of  the 
report  and  map  laid  before  the  British  Government  by  the  commissioners  employed 
during  the  last  season  to  survey  the  territory  in  dispute  between  the  two  countries, 
and  communicating  the  consent  of  Her  Britannic  Majesty's  Government  to  the  two 
principles  which  form  the  main  foundation  of  the  counter  proposition  of  the  United 
States  for  the  adjustment  of  the  question. 
The  undersigned,  having  laid  Mr.  Fox's  note  before  the  President,  is  instructed  to 
say  in  answer  that  tiie  President  duly  appreciates  the  motives  of  courtesy  which 
prompted  the  British  Government  to  communicate  to  that  of  the  United  States  the 
docimients  referred  to,  and  that  he  derives  great  satisfaction  from  the  announcement 
that  Her  Majesty's  Government  do  not  relinquish  the  hope  that  the  sincere  desire 
which  is  felt  by  both  parties  to  arrive  at  an  amicable  settlement  will  at  length  be 
attended  with  success,  and  from  the  prospect  held  out  by  Mr.  Fox  of  his  being  accord- 
ingly furnished  by  an  early  opportunity  with  the  draft  of  a  proposition  amended  in 
conformity  with  the  principles  to  which  Her  Majesty's  Government  has  acceded,  to 
be  submitted  to  tiie  consideration  of  this  Government. 
Mr.  Fox  states  that  his  Government  might  have  expected  that  when  the  American 
counter  draft  was  communicated  to  him  some  reasons  would  have  been  given  to 
explain  why  the  United  States  Government  declined  accepting  the  British  draft  of 
convention,  or  that  if  it  thought  the  draft  was  not  in  conformity  with  previous  agree- 
ment it  would  have  pointed  out  in  what  respect  the  two  were  considered  to  differ. 
In  tiie  note  which  the  undersigned  addressed  to  Mr.  Fox  on  the  29th  July  of  last 
year,  transmitting  the  American  counter  draft,  he  stated  that  in  consequence  of  the 
then  recent  events  on  the  frontier  and  the  danger  of  collision  between  the  citizens 
and  subjects  of  the  two  Governments  a  mere  commission  of  exploration  and  survey 
would  be  inadequate  to  the  exigencies  of  the  occasion  and  fall  behind  the  just  expec- 
tations of  the  people  of  both  countries,  and  referred  to  the  importance  of  having  the 
measure  next  adopted  bear  upon  its  face  stipulations  which  must  result  in  a  final 
settlement  under  some  form  and  in  a  reasonable  time.  These  were  the  reasons 
which  induced  the  President  to  introduce  in  the  new  project  the  provisions  which 
he  thought  calctdated  for  the  attainment  of  so  desirable  an  object,  and  which  in  his 
opinion  rendered  obviously  unnecessary  any  allusion  to  the  previous  agreements 
referred  to  by  Mr.  Fox.  The  President  is  gratified  to  find  that  a  concurrence  in  those 
views  has  brought  the  minds  of  Her  Majesty's  Government  to  a  similar  conclusion, 
and  from  this  fresh  indication  of  harmony  in  the  wishes  of  the  two  cabinets  he 
permits  himself  to  anticipate  the  most  satisfactory  result  from  the  measure  under 
consideration. 
'  The  undersigned  avails  himself  of  the  opportunity  to  offer  to  Mr.  Foz  renewed 
assurances  of  his  distinguished  consideration.  JOHN  FORSYTH.
i8is  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
Washington,  June  29i  184.0. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit,  in  answer  to  a  resolution  of  the  Senate  of  the  12th  of  March 
last,  a  communication  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  accompanied  by  such 
information  as  could  be  obtained  in  relation  to  the  military  and  naval 
preparations  of  the  British  authorities  on  the  northern  frontier  of  the 
United  States  from  I^ake  Superior  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
War  DBPARTMai7T,/«fff^  ^7, 1S40, 
The  Prbsidbnt  op  thb  United  Statbs. 
Sir:  I  have  the  honor  to  transmit  herewith  a  report  of  the  Commanding  General, 
embracing  the  substance  of  the  answers  of  the  several  officers  who  were  applied  to 
to  furnish  the  information  required  by  a  resolution  of  the  Senate  of  the  12th  March 
last,  referred  by  you  to  this  Department,  requesting  the  President  to  communicate  to 
the  Senate,  if  in  his  judgment  compatible  with  the  public  interests,  any  information 
which  may  be  in  the  possession  of  the  Government,  or  which  can  be  conveniently 
obtained,  of  the  military  and  naval  preparations  of  the  British  authorities  on  the 
northern  frontier  of  the  United  States  from  Lake  Superior  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean, 
distinguishing  the  permanent  from  the  temporary  and  field  works,  and  particularly 
by  noticing  those  which  are  within  the  claimed  limits  of  the  United  States. 
This  report  and  a  letter  of  General  Scott  on  the  subject,  which  was  transmitted  to 
the  Senate  on  the,  27th  of  March  last,  furnish  all  the  information  the  Department  is 
in  possession  of  in  relation  to  the  requirements  of  the  above  resolution. 
Very  respectfully,  your  most  obedient  servant, 
J.  R.  POINSETT. 
HBADQUARTSRS  of  the  ARBiY. 
Washington^  June  26^  1840. 
The  Skcrbtary  of  War. 
Sir:  I  have  the  honor  to  report  that  in  obedience  to  your  instructions  letters  have 
been  addressed  to  the  various  officers  who  it  was  supposed  might  be  able  to  procure 
the  information  required  by  the  resolution  of  the  Senate  of  the  12th  of  March,  to  wit: 
*^ Resolved y  That  the  President  of  the  United  States  be  requested  to  communicate  to 
the  Senate,  if  in  his  judgment  compatible  with  the  public  interest,  any  information 
which  may  be  in  possession  of  the  Government,  or  which  can  be  conveniently  obtained, 
of  the  military  and  naval  preparations  of  the  British  authorities  on  the  northern  fron- 
tier of  the  United  States  from  Lake  Superior  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  distingruishing 
the  permanent  from  the  temporary  and  field  works,  and  particularly  by  noting  those 
which  are  within  the  claimed  limits  of  the  United  States.*'  In  .answer  to  the  letter 
addressed  to  him  on  the  subject,  and  with  regard  to  the  Senate's  resolution  as  far  as 
relates  to  **  military  preparations  of  the  British  authorities  on  the  northern  frontier 
of  the  United  States,"  General  Scott  commimicates  the  following  facts:  That  hejiias 
paid  but  little  attention  to  the  forts  and  barracks  erected  by  the  British  authorities 
near  the  borders  of  Maine  above  Frederickton,  in  New  Brunswick,  or  in  Upper 
Canada  above  Cornwall,  being  of  the  fixed  opinion  that  all  such  structures  would  be 
of  little  or  no  military  value  to  either  of  the  parties  in  the  event  of  a  new  war  between 
the  United  States  and  Great  Britain;  that  he  was  last  summer  at  the  foot  of  Lake 
Superior,  and  neither  saw  nor  heard  of  any  British  fort  or  barracks  on  the  St.  Marys 
River;  that  between  Lakes  Huron  and  Erie  the  British  have  three  sets  of  barracks— 
one  at  Windsor,  opposite  to  Detroit;  one  at  Sandwich,  a  little  lower  down;  and  the 
third  at  Maiden,  18  miles  below  the  first — all  built  of  sawed  logs,  strengthened  by
Martin  Van  Buren  i8id 
blockhouses,  loopholes,  etc.;  that  Maiden  has  long  been  a  military  post,  with  slight 
defenses;  these  have  been  recently  strengthened.  The  works  at  Sandwich  and  Wind- 
sor have  also,  he  thinks,  been  erected  within  the  last  six  or  eight  months.  That  near 
the  mouth  of  the  Niagara  the  British  hfive  two  small  forts — George  and  Mississauga; 
both  existed  during  the  last  war;  the  latter  may  be  termed  a  permanent  work.  Slight 
barracks  have  been  erected  within  the  last  two  years  on  the  same  side  near  the  Palls 
and  at  Chippewa,  with  breastworks  at  the  latter  place,  but  nothing,  he  believes,  above 
the  work  first  named  on  the  Niagara  which  can  be  termed  a  fort. 
That  since  the  commencement  of  recent  troubles  and  (consequent  thereon)  within 
our  own  limits  Fort  William  Henry,  at  Kingston,  and  Fort  Wellington,  opposite  to 
Ogdensbuig  (old  works),  have  both  been  strengthened  within  themselves,  besides 
the  addition  of  dependencies.  These  forts  may  be  called  permanent.  That  on  the 
St.  Lawrence  below  Prescott,  and  confronting  our  territory,  he  knows  of  no  other 
military  post.  Twelve  miles  above,  at  Brockville,  there  may  be  temporary  barracks 
and  breastworks;  that  he  knows  that  of  late  Brockville  has  been  a  military  station. 
•  That  in  the  system  of  defenses  on  the  approaches  to  Montreal  the  Isle  aux  Noix, 
a  few  miles  below  our  line,  and  in  the  outlet  of  Lake  Champlain,  stands  at  the  head. 
This  island  contains  within  itself  a  system  of  permanent  works  of  great  strength;  on 
them  the  British  Government  has  from  time  to  time  expended  much  skill  and  labor. 
That  Odletown,  near  our  line,  on  the  western  side  of  Lake  Champlain,  has  been 
a  station  for  a  body  of  Canadian  militia  for  two  years,  to  guard  the  neighboihood 
from  refugee  incendiaries  from  our  side.  He  thinks  that  barracks  have  been  erected 
there  for  the  accommodation  of  those  troops,  and  also  at  a  station,  with  the  like 
object,  near  Alburgh,  Vt.  He  believes  that  there  are  ho  important  British  forts  or 
extensive  British  barracks  on  our  borders  from  Vermont  to  Maine.  In  respect  to 
such  structures  on  the  disputed  territory,  that  Governor  Fairfield's  published  letters 
contain  fuller  information  than  has  reached  him  through  any  other  channel;  that 
he  has  heard  of  no  new  military  preparations  by  the  British  authorities  on  the  St. 
Croix  or  Passamaquoddy  Bay. 
That  among  such  preparations,  perhaps  he  ought  not  to  omit  the  fact  that  Great 
Britain,  besides  numerous  corps  of  well-organized  and  well-instructed  militia,  has  at 
this  time  within  her  North  American  Provinces  more  than  20,000  of  her  best  regular 
troops.  The  whole  of  those  forces  might  be  brought  to  the  verge  of  our  territory  in 
a  few  days.  Two-thirds  of  that  regular  force  has  arrived  out  since  the  spring  of 
1838.  General  Scott  states  that  he  has  had  the  honor  to  report  directly  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  War  with  regard  to  the  naval  force  recently  maintained  upon  the  American 
lakes  by  Great  Britain.  In  answer  to  a  similar  letter  to  that  addressed  to  General 
Scott,  General  Brady  writes  from  Detroit  that  the  only  permanent  work  of  which  he 
has  any  knowledge  is  the  one  at  Fort  Maiden,  which  has  in  the  last  year  been  thor- 
oughly  repaired,  and  good  substantial  barracks  of  wood  have  been  erected  within  the 
works,  sufficient,  he  thinks,  to  contain  six  if  not  eight  hundred  men;  that  the  timber 
on  the  island  of  Bois  Blanc  has  been  partly  taken  off  and  three  small  blockhouses 
erected  on  the  island.  These  are  all  the  military  improvements  he  knows  of  between 
the  mouth  of  Detroit  River  and  the  outlet  of  Lake  Superior.  That  temporary  bar- 
racks of  wood  capable  of  containing  perhaps  150  men  have  been  erected  opposite  to 
Detroit;  that  some  British  militia  are  stationed  along  the  St.  Clair  River. 
Colonel  Bankhead  writes  that  of  the  military  and  naval  preparations  of  the  British 
on  the  northern  frontier  of  the  United  States,  he  can  only  state  that  Fort  Mississauga, 
nearly  opposite  our  Fort  Niagara,  has  been  enlarged  and  strengthened;  that  per- 
manent and  extensive  barracks  were  commenced  last  summer  at  Toronto  and  are 
probably  completed  by  this  time,  and  that  a  large  vessel  for  a  steamer  was  being  con- 
structed last  fall  at  Niagara  City  by  and  for  the  service  of  the  Government;  that  ri< 
British  Government  has  on  Lake  Ontario  a  steamboat  commanded  and  officered  by 
officers  of  the  navy,  and  is  commissioned,  he  presumes,  as  a  Government  vessel;
1 8 1 7  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
that  the  authorities  of  Upper  Canada  had  last  summer  in  their  service  on  Lake  Brie 
two  steamboats,  which  were  at  first  hired  from  citizens  of  Buffalo,  ^ut  which  they 
'subsequently  purchased,  as  he  was  informed. 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Crane  writes  from  Buffalo  that  the  only  military  work  in  that 
vicinity  undergoing  repairs  (within  his  knowledge)  is  Port  Mississauga,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Niagara  River,  on  the  Canada  side,  which  the  English  have  been 
repairing  and  extending  for  two  years  past,  and  it  is  believed  to  be  now  in  a  very 
efficient  state;  that  there  have  been  rumors  of  armed  steamers  being  built  or  build- 
ing at  Chippewa,  but  on  inquiry  he  could  learn  of  none  except  the  ordinary  steam- 
boats for  the  navigation  of  the  lakes.  It  has  been  said,  however,  that  one  is  building 
on  Lake  Ontario  by  the  English,  and  intended  for  the  revenue  service,  but  he  does 
not  know  what  truth  there  is  in  this  statement. 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Pierce  reports  from  Plattsbutg  that  he  has  no  knowledge  of 
any  military  or  naval  preparations  of  the  British  authorities  on  the  line  of  frontier 
adjacent  to  his  command,  comprising  what  is  generally  called  the  Lake  Champlain 
frontier,  except  the  introduction  of  troops  at  Odletown  and  Napierville,  near  the 
boundary  line  between  New  York  and  Canada,  on  the  west  side  of  the  lake,  and  also 
the  establishment  of  a  line  of  posts  from  Missisquoi  Bay,  on  the  east  side  of  the  lake, 
along  and  near  to  the  Vermont  frontier  as  far  as  the  Connecticut  River,  the  erection 
of  a  new  barrack  and  fieldwork  at  St.  John,  and  the  repairs  and  armament  of  the 
Isle  aux  Noix,  with  increased  force  at  both  of  these  posts;  that  none  of  the  posi- 
tions so  occupied  by  British  troops  are  within  the  claimed  limits  of  the  United  States; 
that  these  military  preparations  (it  has  been  heretofore  understood)  have  been  made 
by  the  British  authorities  to  suppress  rebellion  and  insurrection  among  the  Canadian 
population. 
Captain  Johnson  reports  from  Port  Brady  that  he  has  heard  nothing  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  resolution  but  mere  rumors,  and  that  there  is  no  appearance  of  any  works 
going  up  anywhere  on  the  Canada  side  of  the  St.  Marys  River.  The  files  of  the 
Adjutant-Generars  Office  have  been  examined,  but  no  further  information  has  been 
elicited. 
Respectfully  submitted. 
ALBX.  MACOMB. 
Major-Generaim  \ 
Washington,  June  2p,  T84b. 
To  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  herewith  a  communication  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  accom- 
panied  by  a  report  of  the  Commanding  General  of  the  Army,  embracing 
all  the  information  which  can  be  obtained  in  answer  to  a  resolution  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  6th  of  April,  1840,  requesting  to  be 
furnished  with  any  information  in  possession  of  the  executive  department 
showing  the  military  preparation  of  Great  Britain  by  introducing  troops 
into  Canada  or  New  Brunswick  or  erecting  or  repairing  fortifications 
on  our  northern  or  northeastern  boundary  or  by  preparing  naval  arma- 
ments on  any  of  the  great  northern  lakes,  and  what  preparations,  if  any, 
have  been  made  by  this  Government  to  put  the  United  States,  and  espe- 
cially those  frontiers,  in  a  posture  of  defense  against  Great  Britain  in  case 
of  war. 
M.  VAN  BUREN.
Martin  Van  Buren  1818 
Washington  City,  June  sg^  184.0, 
To  the  House  cf  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  the  inclosed  report  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  with  accom- 
panying documents,  furnishing  all  the  information  the  Department  has 
been  able  to  obtain  in  relation  to  any  violation  of  or  desire  on  the  part 
of  Great  Britain  to  annul  the  agreement  entered  int6  between  that  Gov- 
ernment and  the  United  States  in  the  month  of  April,  18 17,  relative  to 
the  naval  force  to  be  maintained  upon  the  American  lakes,  called  for  by 
a  resolution  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  9th  March  last. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Hon.  R.  M.  Johnson, 
President  of  the  Senate. 
Sir:  I  transmit  herewith  to  the  Senate  a  statement  from  the  Secretary 
of  the  Navy  of  the  transfers  which  have  been  made  since  the  commence- 
ment of  the  present  year  from  different  appropriations  for  the  naval 
service  to  other  appropriations  for  the  same  service,  which  had  become 
necessary  for  the  public  interests.  r 
The  law  under  which  these  transfers  were  made  conveys  no  authority 
for  refunding  the  different  amounts  which  may  be  transferred.  On  the 
contrary,  so  soon  as  the  appropriations  for  the  year  shall  pass  and  the 
means  be  furnished  for  refunding  these  sums  the  repayments  would  be 
prohibited  by  the  law  of  3d  March,  1809,  in  relation  to  general  transfers. 
Some  authority  to  refund  the  amounts  which  may  be  transferred  under ' 
the  law  of  30th  of  June,  1834,  seems  so  obviously  indispensable  to  any 
beneficial  exercise  of  the  power  which  it  grants  that  its  omission  may  be 
presumed  to  have  been  accidental. 
The  subject  is  respectfully  referred  to  the  consideration  of  Congress 
for  such  action  as  they  may  deem  proper  to  accompUsh  the  restoration 
of  these  transfers,  and  thus  confirm  the  original  appropriations  as  they 
are  established  by  Congress,  instead  of  leaving  their  expenditure  discre- 
tionary with  the  Executive.  ^  ^^^  BUREN. 
July  2,  1840. 
[The  same  message  was  addressed  to  the  Speaker  of  the  House  c 
Representatives.] 
Washington,  July  20,  184.0. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  herewith,  in  reply  to  the  iLesolution  of  the  Senate  of  the 
nth  March  last,  a  report*  from  the  Secretary  of  War,  accompanied  by 
a  communication  and  other  documents  from  the  Commissioner  of  Indian 
A*^^-  M.  VAN  BUREN. 
.    ^  Relating  to  purchases  of  Indian  lands  since  the  establishment  of  the  Federal  Government.         «
i8i9  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
July  25,  1840. 
The  President  of  the  United  States,  in  pursuance  of  a  resolution  of  the 
Senate  of  the  20th  instant,  herewith  transmits  to  the  honorable  Secretary 
of  the  Senate  a  copy  of  the  report  of  Captain  M,  C.  Perry  in  relation  to 
the  light-houses  of  England  and  Prance. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
EXECUTIVE  ORDER. 
Washington  City,  March  31,  184.0. 
The  President  of  the  United  States,  finding  that  different  rules  prevail 
at  different  places  as  well  in  respect  to  the  hours  of  labor  by  persons 
employed  on  the  public  works  under  the  immediate  authority  of  himself 
and  the  Departments  as  also  in  relation  to  the  different  classes  of  work- 
men, and  believing  that  much  inconvenience  and  dissatisfaction  would 
be  removed  by  adopting  a  uniform  course,  hereby  directs  that  all  such 
persons,  whether  laborers  or  mechanics,  be  required  to  work  only  the 
number  of  hours  prescribed  by  the  ten-hour  system. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
FOURTH  ANNUAL  MESSAGE. 
Washington,  December  5,  1840. 
FeUoW'Citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives: 
Our  devout  gratitude  is  due  to  the  Supreme  Being  for  having  gra- 
ciously continued  to  otu*  beloved  coimtry  through  the  vicissitudes  of 
another  year  the  invaluable  blessings  of  health,  plenty,  and  peace.  Sel- 
dom has  this  favored  land  been  so  generally  exempted  from  the  ravages 
of  disease  or  the  labor  of  the  husbandman  more  amply  rewarded,  and 
never  before  have  our  relations  with  other  countries  been  placed  on  a 
more  favorable  basis  than  that  which  they  so  happily  occupy  at  this  crit- 
ical conjuncture  in  the  affairs  of  the  world.  A  ri^d  and  persevering 
abstinence  from  all  interference  with  the  domestic  and  political  relations 
of  other  States,  alike  due  to  the  genius  and  distinctive  character  of  our 
Government  and  to  the  principles  by  which  it  is  directed;  a  faithful 
observance  in  the  management  of  our  foreign  relations  of  the  practice  of 
speaking  plainly,  dealing  justly,  and  requiring  truth  and  justice  in  return 
as  the  best  conservatives  of  the  peace  of  nations;  a  strict  impartiality  in 
our  manifestations  of  friendship  in  the  commercial  privileges  we  conoede 
and  those  we  require  from  others — ^these,  accompanied  by  a  disposition  as
Martin  Van  Buren  1820 
*     • 
prompt  to  maintain  in  every  emergency  our  own  rights  as  we  are  from 
principle  averse  to  the  invasion  of  those  of  others,  have  given  to  our 
country  and  Government  a  standing  in  the  great  family  of  nations  of 
which  we  have  just  cause  to  be  proud  and  the  advantages  of  which  are 
experienced  by  our  citizens  throughout  every  jwrtion  of  the  earth  to 
which  their  enterprising  and  adventurdus  spirit  may  carry  them.     Few, 
if  any,  remain  insensible  to  the  value  of  our  friendship  or  ignorant  of 
the  terms  on  which  it  can  be  acquired  and  by  which  .it  can  alone  be 
preserved. 
A  series  of  questions  of  long  standing,  difficult  in  their  adjustment  and 
important  in  their  consequences,  in  which  the  rights  of  our  citizens 
and  the  honor  of  the  country  were  deeply  involved,  have  in  the  course 
of  a  few  years  (the  most  of  them  during  the  successful  Administration  of 
my  immediate  predecessor)  been  brought  to  a  satisfactory  conclusion; 
and  the  most  important  of  those  remaining  are,  I  am  happy  to  believe, 
in  a  fair  way  of  being  speedily  and  satisfactorily  adjusted. 
With  all  the  powers  of  the  world  our  relations  are  those  of  honorable 
peace.  Since  your  adjournment  nothing  serious  has  occurred  to  inter- 
rupt or  threaten  this  desirable  harmony.  If  clouds  have  lowered  above 
the  other  hemisphere,  they  have  not  cast  their  portentous  shadows  upon 
our  happy  shores.  Bound  by  no  entangling  alliances,  yet  linked  by  a 
common  nature  and  interest  with  the  other  nations  of  mankind,  our 
aspirations  are  for  the  preservation  of  peace,  in  whose  solid  and  civiliz- 
ing triumphs  all  may  participate  with  a  generous  emulation.  Yet  it 
behooves  us  to  be  prepared  for  any  event  and  to  be  always  ready  to  main-' 
tain  those  just  and  enlightened  principles  of  national  interco«rse  for 
which  this  Government  has  ever  contended.  In  the  shock  of  contend-* 
ing  empires  it  is  only  by  assuming  a  resolute  bearing  and  clothing 
themselves  with  defensive  armor  that  neutral  nations  can  maintain  their 
independent  rights. 
The  excitement  which  grew  out  of  the  territorial  controversy  between 
the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  having  in  a  great  measure  subsided, 
it  is  hoped  that  a  favorable  period  is  approaching  for  its  final  settlement. 
Both  Governments  must  now  be  convinced  of  the  dangers  with  which 
the  question  is  fraught,  and  it  must  be  their  desire,  as  it  is  their  interest, 
that  this  perpetual  cause  of  itritation  should  be  removed  as  speedily  as 
practicable.  In  my  last  annual  message  you  were  informed  that  the 
proposition  for  a  commission  of  exploration  and  survey  promised  by 
Great  Britain  had  been  received,  and  that  a  counter  project,  including 
also  a  provision  for  the  certain  and  final  adjustment  of  the  limits  in 
dispute,  was  then  before  the  British  Government  for  its  consideration. 
The  answer  of  that  Government,  accompanied  by  additional  propositions 
of  its  own,  was  received  through  its  minister  here  since  your  separation. 
These  were  promptly  considered,  such  as  were  deemed  correct  in  prin- 
dple  and  consistent  with  a  due  regard  to  the  just  rights  of  the  United
l82i  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
States  and  of  the  State  of  Maine  concorred  in,  and  the  reasons  for  dis- 
senting from  the  residue,  with  an  additional  suggestion  on  our  part,  com- 
municated by  the  Secretary  of  State  to  Mr.  Fox.  That  minister,  not 
feeling  himself  sufficiently  instructed  upon  some  of  the  points  raised  in 
the  discussion,  felt  it  to  be  his  duty  to  refer  the  matter  to  his  own  Gov- 
ernment for  its  further  decision.  '  Having  now  been  for  some  time  under 
its  advisement,  a  speedy  answer  may  be  confidently  expected.  From  the 
character  of  the.  points  still  in  difference  and  the  undoubted  disposition 
of  both  parties  to  bring  the  matter  to  an  early  conclusion,  I  look  with 
entire  confidence  to  a  prompt  and  satisfactory  termination  of  the  nego- 
tiation. Three  commissioners  were  appointed  shortly  after  the  adjourn- 
ment of  Congress  under  the  act  of  the  last  session  providing  for  the 
exploration  and  survey  of  the  line  which  separates  the  States  of  Maine 
and  New  Hampshire  from  the  British  Provinces.  They  have  been 
actively  employed  until  their  progress  was  interrupted  by  the  inclem- 
ency of  the  season,  and  will  resume  their  labors  as  soon  as  practicable  in 
the  ensuing  year. 
It  is  understood  that  their  respective  examinations  will  throw  new 
light  upon  the  subject  in  controversy  and  serve  to  remove  any  erroneous 
impressions  which  may  have  been  made  elsewhere  prejudicial  to  tKe  rights 
of  the  United  States.  It  was,  among  other  reasons,  with  a  view  of  pre- 
venting the  embarrassments  which  in  our  peculiar  system  of  govern- 
ment impede  and  complicate  negotiations  involving  the  territorial  rights 
of  a  State  that  I  thought  it  my  duty,  as  you  have  been  informed  on^  a 
previous  occasion,  to  propose  to  the  British  Government,  through  its 
minister  at  Washington,  that  early  steps  should  be  taken  to  adjust  the 
points  of  difference  on  the  line  of  boundary  from  the  entrance  of  Lake 
Superior  to  the  most  northwestern  point  of  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  bx 
the  arbitration  of  a  friendly  power  in  conformity  with  the  seventh  article 
of  the  treaty  of  Ghent.  No  answer  has  yet  been  returned  by  the  British 
Government  to  this  proposition. 
With  Austria,  France,  Prussia,  Russia,  and  the  remaining  powers  of 
Europe  I  am  happy  to  inform  you  our  relation?  continue  to  be  of  the 
most  friendly  character.  With  Belgium  a  treaty  of  commerce  and  navi- 
gation, based  upon  liberal  principles  of  reciprocity  and  equality,  was 
concluded  in  March  last,  and,  having  been"  ratified  by  the  Belgian  Gov- 
ernment, will  be  duly  laid  before  the  Senate.  It  is  a  subject  of  congratu- 
lation that  it  provides  for  the  satisfactory  adjustment  of  a  long-standing 
question  of  controversy,  thus  removing  the  only  obstacle  which  could 
obstruct  the  friendly  and  mutually  advantageous  intercourse  between  the 
two  nations.  A  messenger  has  been  dispatched  with  the  Hanoverian 
treaty  to  Berlin,  where,  according  to  stipulation,  the  ratifications  are  to  be 
exchanged.  I  am  happy  to  announce  to  you  that  after  many  dela3rs  and 
difficulties  a  treaty  of  commerce  and  navigation  between  the  United 
States  and  Portugal  was  concluded  and  signed  at  Lisbon  on  the  26th  of
Martin  Van  Buren  1822^ 
August  last  by  the  plenipotentiaries  of  the  two  Governments.  Its  stipu* 
lations  are  founded  upon  those  principles  of  mutal  liberality  and  advan- 
tage which  the  United  States  have  always  sought  to  make  the  basis  of 
their  intercourse  with  foreign  powers,  and  it  is  hoped  they  will  tend 
to  foster  and  strengthen  the  commercial  intercourse  of  the  two  countries. 
Under  the  appropriation  of  the  last  session  of  Congress  an  agent  has 
been  sent  to  Germany  for  the  purpose  of  promoting  the  interests  of  our 
tobacco  trade. 
The  commissioners  appointed  under  the  convention  for  the  adjustment 
of  claims  of  citizens  of  the  United  States  upon  Mexico  having  met  aUd 
organized  at  Washington  in  August  last,  the  papers  in  the  possession 
of  the  Government  relating  to  those  claims  were  communicated  to  the 
board.  The  claims  not  embraced  by  that  convention  are  now  the  subject 
of  negotiation  between  the  two  Governments  through  the  medium  of  our 
minister  at  Mexico.    . 
Nothing  has  occurred  to  disturb  the  harmony  of  our  relations  with 
the  different  Governments  of  South  America.  I  regret,  however,  to  be 
obliged  to  inform  you  that  the  claims  of  our  citizens  upon  the  late  Repub- 
lic of  Colombia  have  not  yet  been  satisfied  by  the  separate  Governments 
into  which  it  has  been  resolved. 
The  charg6  d'affaires  of  Brazil  having  expressed  the  intention  of  his 
Government  not  to  prolong  the  treaty  of  1828,  it  will  cease  to  be  obliga- 
tory upon  either  party  on  the  12th  day  of  December,  1841,  when  the 
extensive  commercial  intercourse  between  the  United  States  and  that 
vast  Empire  will  no  longer  be  regulated  by  express  stipulations. 
It  affords  me  pleasure  to  communicate  to  you  that  the  Government  of 
Chili  has  entered  into  an  agreement  to  indemnify  the  claimants  in  the 
case  of  the  Macedonian  for  American  property  seized  in  18 19,  and  to 
add  that  information  has  also  been  received  which  justifies  the  hope  of 
an  early  adjustment  of  the  remaining  claims  upon  that  Government. 
The  commissioners  appointed  in  pursuance  of  the  convention  between 
the  United  States  and  Texas  for  marking  the  boundary  between  them 
have,  according  to  the  last  report  received  from  our  commissioner,  sur- 
veyed and  established  the  whole  extent  of  the  boundary  north  along 
the  western  bank  of  the  Sabine  River  from  its  entrance  into  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  to  the  thirty-second  degree  of  north  latitude.  The  commission 
adjourned  on  the  i6th  of  June  last,  to  reassemble  on  the  ist  of  Novem- 
ber for  the  purpose  of  establishing  accurately  the  intersection  of  the 
thirty-second  degree  of  latitude  with  the  western  bank  of  the  Sabine  and 
the  meridian  line  thence  to  Red  River.  It  is  presumed  that  the  work 
will  be  concluded  in  the  present  season. 
The  present  sound  condition  of  their  finances  and  the  success  with 
which  embarrassments  in  regard  to  them,  at  times  apparently  insurmount- 
able, have  been  overcome  are  matters  upon  which  the  people  and  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  may  well  congratulate  themselves.    An
t823  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
overflowing  Treasury^  however  it  may  be  regarded  as  an  evidence  of 
public  proq)erity,  is  seldom  conducive  to  the  permanent  welfare  of  any 
people,  and  experience  has  demonstrated  its  incompatibility  with  the 
salutary  action  of  political  institutions  like  those  of  the  United  States. 
Our  safest  reliance  for  financial  efficiency  and  independence  has,  on  the 
contrary,  been  found  to  consist  in  ample  resources  unencumbered  with 
debt,  and  in  this  respect  the  Federal  Government  occupies  a  singularly 
fortunate  and  truly  enviable  position. 
When  I  entered  upon  the  discharge  of  my  official  duties  in  March,  1837, 
the  act  for  the  distribution  of  the  surplus  revenue  was  in  a  course  of  rapid 
execution.  Nearly  $28,000,000  of  the  public  moneys  were,  in  pursuance 
of  its  provisions,  deposited  with  the  States  in  the  monthsof  January,  April, 
and  July  of  that  year.  In  May  there  occurred  a  general  suspension  of 
specie  payments  by  the  banks,  including,  with  very  few  exceptions,  those 
in  which  the  public  moneys  were  deposited  and  upon  whose  fidelity  the 
Government  had  unfortunately  made  itself  dependent  for  the  revenues 
which  had  been  collected  from  the  people  and  were  indispensable  to  the 
public  service. 
This  suspension  and  the  excesses  in  banking  and  commerce  out  of 
which  it  arose,  and  which  were  greatly  aggravated  by  its  occurrence, 
made  to  a  great  extent  unavailable  the  principal  part  of  the  public 
money  then  on  hand,  suspended  the  collection  of  many  millions  accruing 
on  merchants'  bonds,  and  greatly  reduced  the  revenue  arising  from  cus- 
toms and  the  public  lands.  These  effects  have  continued  to  operate  in 
various  degrees  to  the  present  period,  and  in  addition  to  the  decrease 
in  the  revenue  thus  produced  two  and  a  half  millions  of  duties  have  been 
relinquished  by  two  biennial  reductions  under  the  act  of  1833,  and  prob- 
ably as  much  more  upon  the  importation  of  iron  for  railroads  by  special 
legislation. 
Whilst  such  has  been  our  condition  for  the  last  f otu"  years  in  relation  to 
revenue,  we  have  during  the  same  period  been  subjected  to  an  unavoida- 
ble continuance  of  large  extraordinary  expenses  necessarily  growing  out 
of  past  transactions,  and  which  could  not  be  immediately  arrested  with- 
out great  prejudice  to  the  public  interest.  Of  these,  the  charge  upon  the 
Treasurer  in  consequence  of  the  Cherokee  treaty  alone,  without  adverting 
to  others  arising  out  of  Indian  treaties,  has  already  exceeded  $5,000,000; 
that  for  the  prosecution  of  measures  for  the  removal  of  the  Seminole 
Indians,  which  were  found  in  progress,  has  been  nearly  fourteen  millions, 
and  the  public  buildings  have  required  the  unusual  sum  of  nearly  three 
millions. 
It  affords  me,  however,  great  pleasure  to  be  able  to  say  that  from  the 
commencement  of  this  period  to  the  present  day  every  demand  upon  the 
Government,  at  home  or  abroad,  has  been  promptly  met.  This  has  been 
done  not  only  without  creating  a  permanent  debt  or  a  resort  to  addi- 
tional taxation  in  any  form,  but  in  the  midst  of  a  steadily  progressive