1761 Messages and Papers of the Presidents . to be prosperous, but as soon as it is checked by any hesitation abroad or by an inability to make payment there in our productions the evils of the system are disclosed. The paper currency, which might serve for domestic purposes, is useless to pay the debt due in Europe. Gold and silver are therefore drawn in exchange for their notes from the banks. To keep up their supply of coin these institutions are obliged to call upon their own debtors, who pay them principally in their own notes, which are as unavailable to them as they are to the merchants to meet the foreign demand. The calls of the banks, therefore, in such emer- gencies of necessity exceed that demand, and produce a corresponding curtailment of their accoinmodations and of the currency at the very moment when the state of trade renders it most inconvenient to be borne. The intensity of this pressure on the community is in proportion to the previous liberality of credit and consequent expansion of the currency. Forced sales of property are made at the time when the means of pur- chasing are most reduced, and the worst calamities to individuals are only at last arrested by an open violation of their obligations by the banks—a refusal to pay specie for their notes and an imposition upon the community of a fluctuating and depreciated-currency. These consequences are inherent in the present system. ‘They are not influenced by the banks being large or small, created by National or State Governments. ‘They are the results of the irresistible laws of trade or credit. In the recent events, which have so strikingly illus- trated the certain effects of these laws, we have seen the bank of the largest capital in the Union, established under a national charter, and lately strengthened, as we were authoritatively informed, by exchanging that for a State charter with new and unusual privileges—in a condition, too, as it was said, of entire soundness and great prosperity—not merely unable to resist these effects, but the first to yield to them. Nor is it to be overlooked that there exists a chain of necessary de- pendence among these institutions which obliges them to a great extent to follow the course of others, notwithstanding its injustice to their own immediate creditors or injury to the particular community in which they are placed. This dependence of a bank, which is in proportion to the extent of its debts for circulation and deposits, is not merely on others in its own vicinity, but on all those which connect it with the center of trade. Distant banks may fail without seriously affecting those in our principal commercial cities, but the failure of the latter is felt at the extremities of the Union. The suspension at New York in 1837 was everywhere, with very few exceptions, fallowed as soon as it was known. That recently at Philadelphia immediately affected the banks of the South and West in a similar manner. This dependence of our whole banking system on the institutions in a few large cities is not found in the laws of their organization, but in those of trade and exchange. The banks at that center, to which currency flows and where it is required in
Martin Van Buren 1762 payments for merchandise, hold the power of controlling those in regions whence it comes, while the latter possess no means of restraining them; so that the value of individual property and the prosperity of trade through the whole interior of the country are made to depend on the good or bad management of the banking institutions in the great seats of trade on the seaboard. But this chain of dependence does not stop here. It does not termi- nate at Philadelphia or New York. It reaches across the ocean and ends in London, the center of the credit system. The same laws of trade which give to the banks in our principal cities power over the whole banking system of the United States subject the former, in their turn, to the money power in Great Britain. It is not denied that the suspension of the New York banks in 1837, which was followed in quick succession throughout the Union, was produced by an application of that power, and it is now alleged, in extenuation of the present condition of so large a portion of our banks, that their embarrassments have arisen from the same cause. From this influence they can not now entirely escape, for it has its origin in the credit currencies of the two countries; it is strengthened by the current of trade and exchange which centers in London, and is ren- dered almost irresistible by the large debts contracted there by our mer- chants, our banks, and our States. It is thus that an introduction of a new bank into the most distant of our villages places the business of that village within the influence of the money power in England; it is thus ’ that every new debt which we contract in that country seriously affects our own currency and extends over the pursuits of our citizens its power- ful influence. We can not escape from this by making new banks, great or small, State or national. The same chains which bind those now exist- ing to the center of this system of paper credit myst equally fetter every similar institution we create. It is only by the extent to which this system has been pushed of late that we have been made fully aware of its irresistible tendency to subject our own banks and currency to a vast controlling power in a foreign land, and it adds a new argument to those which illustrate their precarious situation. Endangered in the first place by their own mismanagement and again by the conduct of every institu- tion which connects them with the center of trade in our own country, they are yet subjected beyond all this to the effect of whatever measures policy, necessity, or caprice may induce those who control the credits of England to resort to. I mean not to comment upon these measures, present or past, and much less to discourage the prosecution of fair com- mercial dealing between the two countries, based on reciprocal bene- fits; but it having now been made manifest that the power of inflicting these and similar injuries is by the resistless law of a credit currency and credit trade equally capable of extending their consequences through ali the ramifications of our banking system, and by that means indirectly
1763 Messages and Papers of the Prestdents obtaining, particularly when our banks are used as depositories of the public moneys, a dangerous political influence in the United States, I have deemed it my duty to bring the subject ¢ to your notice and ask for it your serious consideration. Is an argument required beyond the exposition of these facts to show the impropriety of using our banking institutions as depositories of the public money? Can we venture not only to encounter the risk of their individual and mutual mismanagement, but at the same time to place our foreign and domestic policy entirely under the control of a foreign moneyed interest? To do so is to impair the independence of our Gov- ernment, as the present credit system has already impaired the independ- ence of our banks; it is to submit all its important operations, whether of peace or. war, to be controlled or thwarted, at first by our own banks and then by a power abroad greater than themselves. I can not bring myself to depict the humiliation to which this Government and people might be sooner or later reduced if the means for defending their rights are to be made dependent upon those who may have the most powerful of motives to impair them. Nor is it only in reference to the effect of this state of things on the independence of our Government or of our banks that the subject pre- sents itself for consideration; it is to be viewed also in its relations to the general trade of our country. The time is not long passed when a deficiency of foreign crops was thought to afford a profitable market for the surplus of our industry, but now we await with feverish anxiety the news of the English harvest, not so much from motives of commendable sympathy, but fearful lest its anticipated failure should narrow the field of credit there. Does not this speak volumes to the patriot? Can a system be beneficent, wise, or just which creates greater anxiety for interests dependent on foreign credit than for the general prosperity of our own country and the profitable exportation of the surplus produce of our labor? The circumstances to which I have thus adverted appear to me to afford weighty reasons, developed by late events, to be added to those. which I have on former occasions offered when submitting to your better knowledge and discernment the propriety of separating the custody of the public money from banking institutions. Nor has anything occurred to lessen, in my opinion, the force of what has been heretofore urged. The only ground on which that custody can be desired by the banks is the profitable use which they may make of the money. Such use would be regarded in individuals as a breach of trust or a crime of great mag- nitude, and yet it may be reasonably doubted whether, first and last, it is not attended with more mischievous consequences when permitted to the former than to the latter. The practice of permitting the public money to be used by its keepers, as here, is believed to be peculiar to this country and to exist scarcely anywhere else. To procure it here
Martin Van Buren 1764 improper influences are appealed to, unwise connections are established between the Government and vast numbers of powerful State institutions, other motives than the public good are brought to bear both on the exec- utive and legislative departments, and selfish combinations leading to special legislation are formed. It is made the interest of banking insti- tutions and their stockholders throughout the Union to use their exertions for the increase of taxation and the accumulation of a surplus revenue, and while an excuse is afforded the means are furnished for those exces- sive issues which lead to extravagant trading and speculation and are the forerunners of a vast debt abroad and a suspension of the banks at home. Impressed, therefore, as I am with the propriety of the funds of the Government being withdrawn from the private use of either banks or individuals, and the public money kept by duly appointed public agents, and believing as I do that such also is the judgment which discussion, reflection, and experience have produced on the public mind, I leave the subject with you. It is, at all events, essential to the interests of the community and the business of the Government that a decision should be made. Most of the arguments that dissuade us from employing banks in the custody and disbursement of the public-money apply with equal force to the receipt of their notes for public dues. The difference is only in form. In one instance the Government: is a creditor for its deposits, and in the other for the notes it holds. They afford the same opportunity for using the public moneys, and equally lead to all the evils attendant upon it, since a bank can as safely extend its discounts on a deposit of its notes in the hands of a public officer as on one made in its own vaults. On the other hand, it would give to the Government no greater security, fo1 in case of failure the claim cf. the note holder would be no better than that of a depositor. I am aware that the danger of inconvenience to the public and unrea- sonable pressure upon sound banks have been urged as objections to requiring the payment of the revenue in gold and silver. These objec- - tions have been greatly exaggerated. From the best estimates we may safely fix the amount of specie in the country at $85,000,000, and the portion of that which would be employed at any one time in the receipts and disbursements of the Government, even if the proposed change were made at once, would not, it is now, after fuller investigation, believed exceed four or five millions. If the change were gradual, several years would elapse before that sum would be required, with annual opportuni- ties in the meantime to alter the law should experience prove it to be oppressive or inconvenient. The portions of the community on whose business the change would immediately operate are comparatively small, nor is it believed that its effect would be in the least unjust or injurious to them.
\ 1765 Messages and Papers of the Presidents In the payment of duties, which constitute by far the greater portion of the revenue, a very large proportion is derived from foreign commis- sion houses and agents of foreign manufacturers, who sell the goods con- signed to them generally at auction, and after paying the duties out of the avails remit the rest abroad in specie or its equivalent. That the amount of duties should in such cases be also retained in specie can hardly be made a matter of complaint. Our own importing merchants, by whom the residue of the duties is paid, are not only peculiarly interested in maintaining a sound currency, which the measure in question will especially promote, but are from the nature of their dealings best able to know when specie will be needed and to procure it with the least diffi- culty or sacrifice. Residing, too, almost universally in places where the revenue is received and where the drafts used by the Government for its disbursements must concentrate, they have every opportunity to obtain and use them in place of specie should it be for their interest or conven- ience. Of the number of these drafts and the facilities they may afford, as well as of the rapidity with which the public funds are drawn and disbursed, an idea may be formed from the fact that of nearly $20,000,000° paid to collectors and receivers during the present year the average amount in their hands at any one time has not exceeded a million and a half, and of the fifteen millions received by the collector of New York alone during the present year the average amount held by him subject to draft during each week has been less than half a million. The ease and safety of the operations of the Treasury in keeping the public money are promoted by the application of its own drafts to the pub- lic dues. ‘The objection arising from having them too long outstanding might be obviated and they yet made to afford to merchants and banks holding them an equivalent for specie, and in that way greatly lessen the amount actually required. Still less inconvenience will attend the requirement of specie in purchases of public lands. Such purchases, except when made on speculation, are in general but single transactions, rarely repeated by the same person; and it is a fact that for the last year and a half, during which the notes of sound banks have been received, more than a moiety of these payments has been voluntarily made in specie, being a larger proportion than would have been required in three years under the graduation proposed. It is, moreover, a principle than which none is better settled by experi- ence that the supply of the precious metals will always be found adequate to the uses for which they are required. ‘They abound in countries where no other currency is allowed. In our own States, where small notes are excluded, gold and silver supply their place. When driven to their hid- ing places by bank suspensions, a little firmness in the community soon restores them in a sufficient quantity for ordinary purposes. Postage and other public dues have been collected in coin without serious incon- venience even in States where a depreciated paper currency has existed
Martin Van Buren 1766 for years, and this, with the aid of Treasury notes for a part of the time, was done without interruption during the suspension of 1837. At the present moment the receipts and disbursements of the Government are made in legal currency in the largest, portion of the Union. No one suggests a departure from this rule, and if it can now be successfully carried out it will be surely attended with even less difficulty when bank notes are again redeemed in specie. Indeed, I can not think that a serious objection would anywhere be raised to the receipt and payment of gold and silver in all public trans- actions were it not from an apprehension that a surplus in the Treasury might withdraw a large portion of it from circulation and lock it up unprofitably in the public vaults. It would not, in my opinion, be diffi- cult to prevent such an inconvenience from occurring; but the authentic statements which I have already submitted to you in regard to the actual amount in the public Treasury at any one time during the period em- braced in them and the little probability of a different state of the Treas- ury for at least some years to come seem to render it unnecessary to dwell upon it. Congress, moreover, as I have before observed, will in every year have an opportunity to guard against it should the occurrence of any circumstances lead us to apprehend injury from this source. View- ing the subfect in all its aspects, I can not believe that any period will be more auspicious than the present for the adoption of all measures neces- sary to maintain the sanctity of our own engagements and to aid in securing to the community that abundant supply of the precious metals which adds so much to their prosperity and gives such increased stability to all their dealings. ’ In a country so commercial as ours banks in some form will probably always exist, but this serves only to render it the more incumbent on us, notwithstanding the discouragements of the past, to strive in our respec- tive stations to mitigate the evils they produce; to take from them as rapidly as the obligations of public faith and 2 careful consideration of the immediate interests of the community will permit the unjust char- acter of monopolies; to check, so far as may be practicable, by prudent legislation those temptations of interest and those opportunities for their dangerous indulgence which beset them on every side, and to confine them strictly to the performance of their paramount duty—that of aiding the operations of commerce rather than consulting their own exclusive advantage. These and other salutary reforms may, it is believed, be accomplished without the violation of any of the great principles of the social compact, the observance of which is indispensable to its existence, or interfering in any way with the useful and profitable employment of real capital. Institutions so framed have existed and still exist elsewhere, giving to commercial intercourse all necessary facilities without inflating or depre- ciating the currency or stimulating speculation. Thus accomplishitrig
1767 Messages and Papers of the Presidents their legitimate ends, they have gained the surest guaranty for their pro- tection and encouragement in the good will of the community. Among a people so just as ours the same results could not fail to attend a similar course. The direct supervision of the bdnks belongs, from the nature of our Government, to the States who authorize them. It is to their legislatures that the people must mainly look for action on that subject. But as the conduct of the Federal Government in the management of its revenue has alsoa powerful, though less immediate, influence upon them, it becomes our duty to see that a proper direction is given to it. While the keeping of the public revenue in a separate and independent treasury and of collecting it in gold and silver will have a salutary influ- ence on the system of paper credit with which all banks are connected, and thus aid those that are sound and well managed, it will at the same time sensibly check such as are otherwise by at once withholding the means of extravagance afforded by the public funds and restraining them from excessive issues of notes which they would be constantly called upon to redeem. , ; Iam aware it has been urged that this control may be best attained and exerted by means of a national bank. The constitutional objections which I am well known to entertain would prevent me in any event . from proposing or assenting to that remedy; but in addition to this, I can not after past experience bring myself to think that it can any longer be extensively regarded as effective for such a purpose. The history of the late national bank, through all its mutations, shows that it was notso. On the contrary, it may, after a careful consideration of the ' subject, be, I think, safely stated that at every period of banking excess it took tHe lead; that in 1817 and 1818, in 1823, in 1831, and in 1834 its vast expansions, followed by distressing contractions, led to those of the State institutions. It swelled and maddened the tides of the banking system, but seldom allayed or safely directed them. At a few periods only was a salutary control exercised, but an eager desire, on the con- trary, exhibited for profit in the first place; and if afterwards its measures were severe toward other institutions, it was because its own safety com- pelled it to adopt them. It did not differ from them in principle or in form; its measures emanated from the same spirit of gain; it felt the same temptation to overissues; it suffered from and was totally unable to avert those inevitable laws of trade by which it was itself affected equally with them; and at least on one occasion, at an early day, it was saved only by extraordinary exertions from the same fate that attended the weakest institution it professed te supervise. In 1837 it failed equally with others in redeeming its notes (though the two years allowed by its charter for that purpose had not expired), a large amount of which remains to the present time outstanding. It is true that, having so vast a capital and strengthened by the use of all the revenues of the Government, it possessed more power; but while it was itself hy that
Martin Van Buren 1768 circumstance freed from the control which all banks require, ite para- mount object and inducement were left the same—to make the most for its stockholders, not to regulate the currency of the country. Nor has it, as far as we are advised, been tound to be greatly otherwise elsewhere. The national character given to the Bank of England has not prevented excessive fluctuations in their currency, and it proved unable to keep off a suspension of specie payments, which lasted for nearly a quarter of a century. And why should we expect it to be otherwise? A national insti- tution, though deriving its charter from a different source than the State banks, is yet constituted upon the same principles, is conducted by men equally exposed to temptation, and is liable to the same disasters, with the additional disadvantage that its magnitude occasions an extent of confusion and distress which the mismanagement of smaller institutions could not produce. It can scarcely be doubted that the recent suspen- sion of the United States Bank of Pennsylvania, of which the effects are felt not in that State alone, but over half the Union, had its origin in a course of business commenced while it was a national institution, and there is no good reason for supposing that the same consequences would not have followed had it still derived its powers from the General Gov- ernment. It is in vain, when the influences and impulses are the same, to look for a difference in conduct or results, By such creations we do, therefore, but increase the mass of paper credit and paper currency, without checking their attendant evils and fluctuations. The extent of power and the efficiency of organization which we give, so far from being beneficial, are in practice positively injurious. They strengthen the chain of dependence throughout the Union, subject all parts more certainly to common disaster, and bind every bank more effectually in the first instance to those of our commercial cities, and in the end to a foreign power. In a word, I can not but believe that, with the full understanding of the operations of our banking system which experi- ence has produced, public sentiment is not less opposed to the création of a national bank for purposes connected with currency and commerce than for those connected with the fiscal operations of the Government. Yet the commerce and currency of the country are suffering evils from the operations of the State banks which can not and ought not to be overlooked. By their means we have been flooded with a depreciated paper, which it was evidently the design of the framers of the Constitu- tion to prevent when they required Congress to ‘‘coin money and regu- late the value of foreign coins,’’ and when they forbade the States ‘‘to coin money, emit bills of credit, make anything but gold and silver a tender in payment of debts,’’ or ‘‘pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts.’’ If they did not guard more explicitly against the present state of things, it was because they could not have anticipated that the few banks then existing were to swell to an extent which would expel to so great a degree the gold and silver for which they had provided
1769 Messages and Papers of the Presidents from the channels of circulation, and fill them with a currency that defeats the objects they had in view. The remedy for this must chiefly rest with the States from whose legislation it has sprung. No good that might accrue in a particular case from the exercise of powers not obvi- ously conferred on the General Government would authorize its inter- ference or justify a course that might in the slightest degree increase at the expense of the States the power of the Federal authorities; nor do I doubt that the States will apply the remedy. Within the last few years events have appealed to them too strongly to be disregarded. They have seen that the Constitution, though theoretically adhered to, is sub- verted in practice; that while on the statute books there is no legal ten- der but gold and silver, no law impairing the obligations of contracts, yet that in poitit of fact the privileges conferred on banking corporations have made their notes the currency of the country; that the obligations imposed by these notes are violated under the impulses of interest or convenience, and that the number and power of the persons connected with these corporations or placed under their influence give them a fearful weight when their interest is in opposition to the spirit of the Constitution and laws. ‘To the people it is immaterial whether these results are produced by open violations of the latter or by the workings of a system of which the result is the same. An inflexible execution even of the existing statutes of most of the States would redress many evils now endured, would effectually show the banks the dangers of mismanagement which impunity encourages them to repeat, and would teach all corporations the useful lesson that they are the subjects of the law and the servants of the people. What is still wanting to effect these objects must be sought in additional legislation, or, if that be inad- equate, in such further constitutional grants or restrictions as may bring us back into the path from which we have so widely wandered. In the meantime it is the duty of the General Government to cooperate with the States by a wise exercise of its constitutional powers and the enforcement of its existing laws. The extent to which it may do so by further enactments I havealready adverted to, and the wisdom of Congress may yet enlarge them. But above all, it is incumbent upon us to hold erect the principles of morality and law, constantly executing our own contracts in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, arid thus serving as a rallying point by which our whole country may be brought back to that safe and honored standard. Our people will not long be insensible to the extent of the burdens entailed upon them by the false system that has been operating on their sanguine, energetic, and industrious character, nor to the means necessary to extricate themselves from these embarrassments. The weight which presses upon a large portion of the people and the States is an enormous debt, foreign and domestic. The foreign debt of our States, corporations, and men of business can scarcely be less than $200,000,000, requiring
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 off imports to that extent or plunge the country thore 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, 1 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 difficulty 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 relief 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 various productions, indispensable to other nations, will in due time afford abundant means to perfect the most useful
1771 Messages and Papers of the Presidents of those objects for which the States have been plunging themselves of late in embarrassment and debt, without 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 those 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 our 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 great and radical reform; but it is the crowning merit of our institutions
Martin Van Buren 1772 that 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, “he 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 official 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-citizens, 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 or WasHinctTon, December 4, 1839. Zo 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.
31773 Messages and Papers of the Presidents Crry or Wasuincton, December 4, 1839. 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 1, 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. ’ Wasuincton, December rr, 1839. Zo the Senate of the United States: I transmit for the consideration and advice of the Senate a treaty con- cluded 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. Wasuincton, December 12, 1839. To the Senate of the United States: I nominate the persons named in the accompanying list for promotiou and appointment in the Army to the several grades annexed to their names, as proposed by the Secretary of War. M. VAN BUREN. War DEPARTMENT, December 11, 1839. The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Sm: 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’s 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 emoluments 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 18th 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 like grades by the act of the 2d March, 1821,’’ 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 sum not less than $10 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, * Omitted,
- 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 quartermasters-general with the rank of lieutenant-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 beligved 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 toa full and clear understanding of the question of precedence of rank between certain officers of that Department. Prior to the act of the sth 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 wierely received letters of appointment as assistant quartermasters, and were allowed the additional pay provided by the act of the 2d March, 1821, and 16th 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 the pleasure of the President. In completing the organization 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 completed, 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 intentian of the law. Had the op osite 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 before you, with a view to their being submitted to the Senate with the accompanying list,* should you think proper to do so. Ihave the honor to be, very respectfully, your moet obedient servant, J. R. POINSETT. Wasxincton, December 17, 1839. Hon. Ws. R. ‘Xie, President of the Senate. Str: I transmit herewith a report made to me by the Secretary of the Treasury, with accompanying documents, in regard to some difficulties which have occurred concerning the kind of papers deemed necessary to be provided by law for the use and protection of American vessels * Omitted.
1775 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 18th of June, 1838, which was sent to both Houses of Congress by the Secretary of State on the 3oth of January last. M. VAN BUREN. DECEMBER 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. Wasuincton, December 28, 1839. . Zo 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 the special and favorable considera- tion of Congress. A RE M. VAN BUREN. WASHINGTON, December 30, 1839. Zo 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 tine between the Territory of Iowa and the State of Missouri. M. VAN BUREN.
Martin Van Buren 1776 ° Wasuincron, December 31, 1839. Zo the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: I communicate to Congress a report from the Secretary of State, in 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 oth of May, 1828, to vessels of the same nation coming from the islands of Guadaloupe and Martinique,, and for the repayment of duties levied in the district of Newport upon the French ship 4/exandre and part of her cargo. The circumstances under which these duties were demanded being, as stated by the Secretary oi 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 Legislature in analogous cases. M. VAN BUREN. WASHINGTON, January 6, 1840. 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 the premises within their competency as will be just to the Statc 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 communica- tion from the Secretary of War, which is accompanied by documents from the military and topographical engineer 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 year in that branch of the public service intrusted to the topo- gtaphical bureau. M. VAN BUREN.
i 1777 Messages and Papers of the Presidents WassIncTon City, January 8, ‘r8go. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: In addition to the papers accompanying my messages of the 23d and 3oth 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. Wasuincton Cry, January 8, 1840. Zo the Senate of the United States: In compliance with a resolution that passed the Senate the 3oth 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 different 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 same to your consideration, and will present the reports from the other Departments so soon as they are completed. M. VAN BUREN. WASHINGTON, /an ro, r84o. To the Senate of the Untied States: denuary f 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. Louis in November last, and the papers connected therewith, together with a copy of that officer’s resignation. The report of the Secretary of War which accompanies these papers contains the reasons for withholding the proceedings of the court-martial M. VAN BUREN. WasHINGTON, January 11, 1840. To the Senate of the United States: I transmit to the Senate, in compliance 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. f M. VAN BUREN. * Relating to his administration of the affairs of the Quartermaster's Department at St. Louis. 7? 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 débris 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 tor 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, January 117,-I840. 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 3oth 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 accompanying communication of the Secretary of War, will take some little time, but will be prepared as early as possible and transmitted. M. VAN BUREN. WasuHincton, January 13, 1840. To the Senate of the 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 the 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 city 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 positior 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 comniitted upon their reversionary rights and the great deterioration of the land consequent upon such depredations without any corresponding advantage to the Indian occupants. The treaty, too, is recommended by the liberality of its provisions. The cession contajned 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 Febrnary, 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 thereof 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 County, N. Y., and to invest the pro- ceeds, exclusive of what may be received for improvements, ‘‘the income 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 impfovements when the Jands are sold.” These are the substantial parts of the treaty, and are so careful of Indian 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 usé 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 11th of June, 1838, the Senate recommend that the President make proclamation of said treaty and carry the same into effect.’? The resolution of the 11th of June, 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, nor shall it be understood that the Senate have assented to any of the contracts corinected 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 office, and 2, who wete confined 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.
1781 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 former 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- ested 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 himself 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 mopen council. But the committee can not recommend the adoption of such a prac- tice in making treaties, for divers good reasons, which must be obvious to the Senate; md among those reasons against these secret individual negotiations is the distrust created that the chiefs so acting are doing what a majority of their peopre 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 11th 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- jlied 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 rth of June, 1838, as made it necessary that the assent of the different tribes should be given incouncil. This assumption is understood 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 the 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 reaty 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 peen adverted to. It is at. best an inference only, in respect to the truth of which the Senate can alone speak with certainty, and which could not with propriety 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 before you at the last session, and is again communicated, with additional evi- dence upon the same point. The charge appears by the proceedings oi 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 asserts 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 that this treaty embraces the Six Nations of New York Indians, occupying different reservations, but bound together by tommon ties, and it will be expedien. tc decide whether in the event of that part of it which concerns the Senecas being r=jected it shall be con- sidered valid in relation to the other tribes, or whether the wnole confed- eracy shall share one fate. In the event of the Senate not ad-ising the ratification of the amended treaty, I invite your attention to the proposal submitted by the dissentients to au.horize 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 CrTv, January 17, 1840. To the Senate of the United States: , I transmit herewith a communication and statement from the Secre- ary of War, containing the balance of the information, not heretofore furnished, called for by a resolution of the 3oth 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. Wasuncron, January 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 which have prevented a compliance with the resolution of Congress for the distribution of the Biennial Register. M. VAN BUREN.
Martin Van Buren 1784 To the Senate of the United States; WASHINGTON, January, 1840. 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 Mr 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. M. VAN BUREN. WASHINGTON, January 21, 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, January 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 teport from the Secretary of War.* M. VAN BUREN. WasuIncTon, 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-eas- 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. f M. VAN BUREN. WASHINGTON, January 25, 1840. To the Senate of the United States: The accompanying report { from the Secretary of State is, with its * inclosures, communicated to the Senate in compliance with their resolu- tion of the 14th instant. M. VAN BUREN. * Transmitting correspondence with the British Government on the subject of the northeastern bonndary rnd the jurisdiction of the disputed territory; also with the governor of Maine and the minister of Great Britain relative to the invasion of Maine, etc. + Relating to the discharge of liens and incumbrances upon real estate which has or may become the property of the United States, } Relating to the compensation by Great Britain in the case of the brigs Enterprise, Encomiume, and Comet, 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. Wasuincton Crrv, January 28, 18go. To the Senate and House of 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. M. 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 22d 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. WasHrncron, Jan 26, 1840. Hon. JoHNn ForsytT#, etc.: » January as The undersigned, Her Britannic Majesty’s envoy extraordinary and minister pleni- potentiary, has the honor to acquaint Mr. Forsyth, Secretary of State of the United States, that since the date of his last official note, of the 12th instant, he has been furnished 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 16th of the present month. The same reported movements of troops were referred to in a recent message from the . governor of Maine to the legislature 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. It appears from accurate information now in the possession of the undersigned that the governor cf Maine and through him the President and General Govern- ‘nent of the United States have been misinformed as to tle 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 rivers, 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 being’ 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 be 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 boufidary 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 further 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 undersigned has to observe that not only is the extensive system_of encroachment which was denounced and remonstrated against by the undersigned 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 Arcos- took and Fish rivers, but that acts, as above stated, of a character yet more violent and obnoxious to the rights of Great Britain 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 16th 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 consideration. H. S. FOX. Mr, Forsyth to Mr. Fox. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, January 28, 1840. Henry S. Fox, Eeq., ete.: The undersigned, Secretary of State of the United States, has th 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 as 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 acts 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 its 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 persons 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 result of the deliberations had by that of Her Britannic Majesty upon the proposition alluded to which will present the prospect of a prompt and satisfactory 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 conveyance 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. JOHN FORSYTH. Zo the Senate of the United States: In compliance with two resolutions of the Senate, dated the 3oth 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. -M. VAN BUREN. JANUARY 31, 1840. Wasuincton, 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 documents annexed, by which it will be seen that judicial construc- tions have been given 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 asa 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: "carly 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. M. VAN BUREN. Wasuincton City, February 14, 1840. To the House of 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 thesnext 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. FEBRUARY 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 resources
Martin Van Buren 1790 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 country 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. M. VAN BUREN. Wasuincton, 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 communicate 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. M. VAN BUREN. WasHIncton, 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 of citizens of the United States upon the Government of the Mexican Republic, concluded and signed in the city of Washington on the 11th 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. * Relating to the trade with China, etc.
1791 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. M. VAN BUREN. ‘ Wasuincton, March 9, 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. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Augusta, February 15, 1840. His Excellency M. VAN BUREN, ada "45, 1840 President United States. Srr: A communication from 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- forcement 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 a detachment of equal force of the Eleventh Regiment, this force of one company being now stationed at the Temiscouata post, as it always has been, for the necessary puzpose 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; #0 new barracks have in fact been built anywhere.” 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 languzge 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 Your Excellency the depositions t of a number of gentlemen, citizens of * Containing information relative to the necessity of amending the existing law regulating the transfer of property in American vessels abroad. t Omitted.
Martin Van Buren . 1792 this State, of great respectability, and whose statements are entitled to the most implicit confidence. These depositions abundantly prove that up to May last, nearly two months sub. sequent to the arrangement entered into through the mediation of General Scott, 20 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 eco; 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 feot of the lake two or more buildings for barracks and other military pur- poses; that though no sew barracks have been erected at Madawaska, certain build- ings heretofons 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 mtary 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 purpose 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 November 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 communication before alluded to. The report of the agent will be transmitted «s soon as received, which may not be short of two weeks. Under these circumstances, I have only to repeat my official call upon the General Government for the protection of this State from éxvasion. I have the honor to be, with great respect, Your Excellency’s most obedient servant, . JOHN FAIRFIELD, Governor of Maine. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, February 27, 1840. His Excellency JoHN FAIRFIELD, . Governor of Maine. Srr: 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 Temis- couata and Madewaska for the purpose of procuring exact information as to the present state of things there shall have been received. T have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, JOHN FORSYTH. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Augusta, February 27, 1840. His Excellency M. VAN BUREN, oe Yr 0 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 you, accompanied 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. Varnum, 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 amicable 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. _*  Thave the honor to be, with high respect, your most obedient servant, - JOHN FAIRFIELD, Governor of Maine. My. Forsyth to Mr. Fox. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, March 6, 1: Hewry S. Fox, Esq., etc.: “enn » 7840. By the directions of the President, the undersigned, Secretary of State of the United States, communicates 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- field and Lieutenant-Governor Harvey was agreed upon, and also as to the present and former state of the buildings there. 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 that 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 undersigned avails himself of the occasion to renew to Mr. Fox assurances of his high consideration. JOHN FORSYTH. * Omitted.
| Martin Van Buren 1794 Mr. Fox to Mr. Forsyth. , Wasyincton, March 7, 1840. The undersigned, 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 Temiscouata, and in which reference is made to other papers upon the same subject, which were informally communicated to the undersigned by Mr. Forsyth a few days before; and the attention of the undersigned is called by Mr. Forsyth to different points upon which the information contained in the said papers is considered to be mate- srially at variance with that which was conveyed to the United States Government by the undersigned in his official note of the 26th of last January. The undersigned had already been made acquainted by the lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick with the circumstance of Mr. Wiggin’s visit to the military post at Lake Temiscouata, 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 Temiscouata, 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 amount to 175 men, which instead 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 more 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 is 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 buildings 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
1795" 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 referred to 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 is 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 assurance of his distinguished consideration. H. S. FOX. Wasxincton, March 9, 1840. 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 1 real de vellon, equal to 5 cents, per tca, 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 than the islands of Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippine, and the repayment of such duties as may have been levied upon Spanish vessels of that class which have entered our ports since the act of 1832 went into operation. M. VAN BUREN. Wasuincton, March ro, 1840. To the House of 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. Wasuincrton, March 11, 1840. To the Senate: In compliance with the resolution of the Senate dated the 4th of February, 1840, I 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. Wasxuincron Crry, March, EGO. 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. Wasurncton, D. C., March 12, 1840. To the House of Representatives of the United States: I transmit to the House of Representatives, in answer to resolution of that body dated on the oth instant, the inclosed report of the Secre- tary of State. M. VAN BUREN. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, March ra, 1840. The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Secretary of State, to whom has been referred a resolution of the House of Rep. resentatives dated the gth instant, requesting the President to communicate 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. Wasuincron Crry, March 79, 1840. To the Senaie 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. ° The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Str: 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 18th Decem- ber last with the Shawnee Indians by their chiefs, headmen, and counselors, and an explanatory communication of the 17th instant from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, . Very respectfully, your obedient servant, J. R. POINSETT. War DEPARTMENT, March, 1840. Wak DEPARTMENT, OFFICE INDIAN AFFAIRS, March 17, 1840. Hon. J. R. PornseTt, Secretary of War. Sir: Negotiations with the Wyandots for a cession of their lands in Ohio and removal to the country 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 18th 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 sell at a less price than $5 pex 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. Wasuincton, March 24, 18go. To the House of 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, relative to the General Post-Office building and the responsibilities of the architect and Commissioner of the Public Buildings, etc. , M. VAN BUREN. Wasuincton, 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. ’ WasHIncton, March 13, 1840. Hon. Jonnw Forsyts, 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 affairs 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 precedine, 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 tothe legislature of the State on the 3d of January of the present year. Upon a consideration 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 acts of encroachment and aggression.
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 survey 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 boundary negotiation. 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. Mr. Forsyth to Mr. Fox. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, March 25, 1 Henry S. Fox, Esq., etc.: é ir 2g The undersigned, Secretary of State of the United States, acknowledges to have received Mr. Fox’s communication of the 13th instant, in reference to the boundary negotiation and the affairs 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 subjéct of the boundary may be expected in a short time—is highly gratifying to the President, who has, however, given directions to the undersigned, in making this acknowledgment, to accompany it with the expression of his profound regret that Mr. Fox's note is in no other respect satisfactory. After the arrangements which in the beginning of last 5ear 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. Relying on the disposition of Maine to cooperate with the Federal Government in all that 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 fully 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 for delays, its attention has been diverted from the great subject in controversy 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 ill success which appears to have attended the efforts made by the undersigned to cénvey 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 providéd 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 bounds 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, joint)y 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 was agreed by her governor that no attempt should be made, without renewed instruc- tions from the legislature, to disturb by arms the Province of New Brunswick in the possession of the Madawaska settlements or interrupt the usual communications 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 gach denying the right of the other todoso. 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 his complaint of encroachment upon the Madawaska settlement, he assumes to extend the limits of that settlement beyond those it occu- pied at the date of the agreement. The 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
1801 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 discharge of an obligation imposed upon her by a solemn compact, that the State of Maine hasdone . 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. Fox 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. Fox—that the advance of the Maine posse along’ the valley of the Restook to the mouth of Fish 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 Fish 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 jurisdiction 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 boom across the Fish River and a station of a small posse on the south side of the St. John at the mouth of Fish 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- municated to Mr. Fox, impart a still graver aspect to the matter immediately under consideration. The fact of those military operations, established beyond a doubt, left unexplained or unsatisfactorily accounted for by Mr. Fox’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 sufficiently perplexed and cumplicated 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 jurisdiction 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 authorities strongly and most favorably 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 could not see without painful surprise the attempt of Mr. Fox, under instructions from his Government, to give to the 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. . ‘The 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 shall 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 alluded 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 1733 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 course has undergone 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 descript’on, 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 employment 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.
1803 Messages and Papers of the Presidents Mr, Fox to Mr. Forsyth. WasHINGTON, March 26, 1840. Hon. JOHN ForsytT#, 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 x to him by Mr. Forsyth, Secretary of State of the United States, in reply to a note dated the 13th ingtant, 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 employment 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 the statements and propositions which’ it contains shal! 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. WasHINcToN, March 28, r8go. To the Senate: I communicate to the Senate, in compliance with their resolution of the 12th instant, a report from the Secretary of War, containing infor- mation on the subject of that resolution. ; M. VAN BUREN. War DEPARTMENT, March 27, 1840. The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, ° Str: The resolution of the Senate of the 12th instant, ‘‘that the President of the United States be requested to communicate 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 reters, 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 ere heard from and the examination of the files of the Department is completed, any further information which may be thus acquired will be immediately laid before you. Very respectfully, your most obedient servant, J. R. POINSETT. HEADQUARTERS, EASTERN DrvisIon, Elizabethtown, N. J., March 23, 1840. Brigadier-General R. JonEs, Adjutant-General United States Army. Srr: I have received from your office copies of two resolutions, passed, respec- tively, the 12th and oth 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 aval] 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 howeve: 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 Frederickton, 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 summer at the foot of Lake Superior, and neither saw nor beard 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 Malden, 18 miles from the first—all built of sawed logs, strengthened by blockhouses, loopholes, etc. Malden 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 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 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 Fort 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 Brockville, there may be temporary barracks and breastworks. I know that of late Brockville 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 strength. On them the British Government has from time to time since the peace of 1815 expended much skill and labor.
1805 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-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. I remain, sir, with great respect, your most obedient servant, WINFIELD SCOTT. WasHiIncton, March 28, 1840. 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. Wasuincton, March 31, 1840. To the House of Representatives of the United States: I communicate to the House of Representatives a report} from the Secretary of State, with documents, containing the information called for by their resolution of the 23d instant. M. VAN BUREN. WaAsHINGTON City, Apri! 3, 7840. Hon. R. M. T. Hunter, Speaker of the House of Representatives. Srr: 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. tRelating to the demand of the minister of Spain for the surrender of the schooner Amistad, with Africans on board, detained by the American brig of war Washingion, 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. Wasuincton, April ro, 1840. To the House of Representatives of the United States: ‘ In compliance 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. VAN BUREN. Wasuincton, April, 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 Goverment 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 Lakes,’’ which I was requested to communicate by the reso- lution of the House of Representatives of the 9th ultimo. M. VAN BUREN. Wasuincton, April 14, 1840. Zo 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. APRIL, 15, 1840. To the Senate of the United States: In further compliance with a resolution of the Senate passed December 30, 1839, I herewith submit reports} from the Secretary of the Navy and the Postmaster-General, together with a supplemental statement from the Secretary of the Treasury, and the correspondence annexed. M. VAN BUREN. *Relating to the seizure and condemnation by British authorities of American vessels engaged in the fisheries. . tRelating to the tobacco trade between the United States and foreign countries. * Relating to the sale or exchange of Government drafts for bank notes and the payment of Government ereditors in depreciated currency.
1807 Messages and Papers of the Presidents WASHINGTON, April 15, 1840. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: I transmit a copy of a convention for the adjustment of claims of citi- 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 full effect, M. VAN BUREN. Wasuincton City, Abril 78, 7840. 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 Affairs, indi- cating the importance of an extensior 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 officers therein named, and for other purposes,’’ approved 9th May, 1836. M. VAN BUREN. Wasnincton Crry, April 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. WasuinctTon, April 27, r8go. To the Senate of the United States: I lay before the Senate a report t of the Postmaster-General, in further compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 3oth December, 1839. M. VAN BUREN. WASHINGTON, May 2, 18¢o. To the Senate of the United States: I transmit to the Senate a report} 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 naval. t Relating to the sale or exchange of Government drafts, etc, t Relating to bonds ot the Territory of Florida.
Martin Van Buren 1808 WasuincTon, May 9, 184%, To the House of Representatives of the United States: I communicate to the House of Representatives a report* from tie Secretary of State, which, with the documerits 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: MAY 11, 1840. In part compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 29th of December last, I herewith submit a reportt 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 ¢ 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 i) Wasuincton, May 16, 1840. 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, etc., 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. Wasuincton, May 18, 1840. Zo the Senate of the United States: I communicate to the Senate a copy of a letter { 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. M.'VAN BUREN. .* Transmitting correspondence with France, Sweden, Denmark, and Prussia relating to the sur- render to the United States of persons charged with piracy and murder on board the United States schooner Plattsburg in 1817; correspondence relating to the demand by the chargé 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 charged with crimes committed without the jurisdiction of the United States. t Relating to the sale or exchange of Government drafts, ete. ¢ Relating to bonds of the Territory of Florida.
1809 Messages and Papers of the Presidents WASHINGTON, May 217, 1840. Zo ine Senate and House 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 addressed 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. Wasuincton, May 23, 1840. Zo 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 cause. M. VAN BUREN. JUNE 4, 1840. To the House 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 Van Buren 1810 The documents he communicates 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, 1840. Zo the Senate of the United States: ' In compliance with the resolution of the Senate dated the 30th Decem _ ber, 1839, I transmit herewith the report* of the Secretary of War, fur. 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, I8&go. To the Senate of the United States: In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 30th December. 1839, I communicate the report t 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. . M. VAN BUREN WASHINGTON, June 6, 1840. To the House of Representatives: I herewith submit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, in rela- tion to certain lands falling 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 them. M. VAN BUREN. WASHINGTON, June 13, 1840. To the House of Representatives: I communicate to the House of Representatives a report{ from the Secretary of State, with documents, containing the information requested by their resolution of the 26th of May last. M. VAN BUREN. WASHINGTON, June rg, r8go. The SPEAKER OF THE Housg oF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES. Sir: I transmit a communication from the Secretary of the Navy, suggesting that an appropriation of $50,000 be made by Congress to * Relating to the refusal of banks to paythe Government demands in specie since the general resumption in 1838, and the payment of Government creditors in depreciated currency. + Relating to the manner in which the public funds have been paid out by disbursing officers and agents during 1838 and 1839. t Relating to charges preferred by Dr. John Baldwin, of Louisiana, against Marmaduke Bur- roughs, consul at Vera Cruz. 60
1811 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, 18¢0. 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, /une 27, 1840. 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 sufficiently 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 them to enable the Executive to carry it into effect will be necessary. M. VAN BUREN.
: Martin Van Buren 1812 Mr. Fox to Mr. Forsyth. ‘WASHINGTON, June 22, 1840. Hon. JoHN FORSYTH, 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. Featherstonhaugh, the commissioners employed 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 States 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 frequent 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 bincere 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 survey 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.
1813 Messages and Papers of the Presidents But the Government of the United States did not think proper to assent to the 2onvention 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 undersigned 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 agréement 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 courtries. 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 the 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 agree. 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 Buren 1814, submitted to the consideration of the President. And the undersigned expects to be at the same time furnished with instructions to propose! 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. H. S. FOX. Mr. Forsyth to Mr. Fox. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, H. S. Fox, Esq., etc.: Washington, June 26, 1840. Ss. , oy @CC. 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. Fox, 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 the President duly appreciates the motives of courtesy which prompted the British Government to communicate to that of the United States the documents 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 the 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 the 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 calculated 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. Fox renewed assurances of his distinguished consideration. JOHN FORSYTH.
1815 Messages and Papers of the Presidents WASHINGTON, June 29, 1840. 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 Lake Superior to the Atlantic Ocean. M. VAN BUREN. War DEPARTMENT, June 27, 1840. The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Sm: 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 res: ully, your most obedient servant, : y respectfully, y J. R. POINSETT. Hk*DQUARTERS OF THE ARMY, Washington, June 26, 1840. The SECRETARY OF WAR. S1r: 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, 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, distinguishing 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 communicates the following facts: That he.has paid but little attention to the forts and barracks erected by the British authorities near the borders of Maine aéove 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 Malden, 18 miles below the first—all built of sawed logs, strengthened by
Martin Van Buren 1816. blockhousres, loopholes, etc.; that Malden 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 have 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 Falls 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 Ogdensburg (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, afew 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 neighborhood 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 no 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 Malden, 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 cov- structed last fall at Niagara City by and for the service of the Government; that tre 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;
1817 Messages and Papers of the Presidents that the authorities of Upper Canada had last summer in their service on Leake Erie two steamboats, which were at first hired from citizens of Buffalo, but 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 Fort 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 Plattsburg 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 Fort 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-General’s Office have been examined, but no further information has been * elicited. Respectfully submitted. : ALEX. MACOMB, Major-General, | WASHINGTON, June 29, 1840. © 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 Grcat Britain in case of war. M. VAN BUREN.
Martin Van Buren 1818 WASHINGTON City, June 29, 1840. To the House of 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 inté between that Gov- ernment and the United States in the month of April, 1817, 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. Sr: 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. ' 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 Yeneficial 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 accomplish 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. M. VAN BUREN. JULY 2, 1840. [The same message was addressed to the Speaker of the House c Representatives. } WasHINGTON, /uly 20, 1840. To the Senate of the United States: I transmit herewith, in reply to the resolution of the Senate of the t1th March last, a report* from the Secretary of War, accompanied by a communication and other documents from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. M. VAN BUREN. _' * Relating to purchases of Indian lands since the establishment of the Federal Government. ‘
1819 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 2oth 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 France. M. VAN BUREN, EXECUTIVE ORDER. Wasuincton City, March 37, 1840. 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. Wasuincton, December 5, 1840. Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives: Our devout gratitude is due to the Supreme Being for having gra- ciously continued to our beloved country 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 rigid 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 concede 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 portion of the earth to which their enterprising and adventurous 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 intercourse 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 irritation 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- ciple and consistent with a due regard to the just rights of the United ¢
1821 Messages and Papers of the Presidents States and of the State of Maine concurred 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 the 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 by, 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 relations continue to be of the most friendly character, With Belgium a treaty of commerce and navi- gation, based upon liberal principles of reciprocity aud equality, was concluded in March last, and, having beer! ratified by the Belgian Gov- ernment, will be duly laid before the Senate. It is a sulyject 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. J am happy to announce to you that after many delays 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 arid 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 chargé 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 r2th 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 1819, 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 16th of June last, to reassemble on the rst 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
1823 Messages and Papers of the Presidents overflowing Treasury, however it may be regarded as an evidence of public prosperity, 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 four years in relation to revenue, we have during the same period been subjected to an unayoida- 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 Treasury 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