APPENDIX

TO THE REGISTER OF DEBATES IN CONGRESS.

NINETEENTH CONGRESS-SECOND SESSION.

List of Members of the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States.

VERMONT-William C. Bradley, Rollin C.Mallary, John Mattocks, Ezra Meech, George E. Wales-5.

NEW YORK-Parmenio Adams, William G. Angel, Henry Ashley, Luther Badger, Churchill C. Cambreleng, William Deitz, Nicholl Fosdick, Daniel G. Garnsey, John Hallock, Jr. Abraham B. Hasbrouck, Moses Hayden, Michael Hoffman, Daniel Hugunin, Charles Humphrey, Jeromus Johnson, Charles Kellog, William McManus, Henry C. Martindale, Henry Markell, Dudley Marvin, John Miller, Timothy H. Porter, Henry H. Ross, Robert S. Rose, Joshua Sands, Henry R. Storrs, James Strong, John W. Taylor (Speaker) Stephen Van Rensselear, Gulien C. Verplanck, Aaron Ward, Elias Whittemore, Bartow White, Silas Wood-34.

NEW JERSEY-George Cassedy, Lewis Condict, Daniel

19th CONGRESS,} Message of the President, at the opening of the Session. [Sen. and H. of R.

2d

who enjoyed, as he merited, the entire confidence of his new Sovereign, as he had eminently responded to that of his predecessor. But we have had the most satisfactory

At the commencement of the Second Session of assurances, that the sentiments of the reigning Emperor

the Nineteenth Congress.

DECEMBER 5, 1826.

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate,

and of the House of Representatives :

towards the United States are altogether conformable to those which had so long and so constantly animated his imperial brother; and we have reason to hope that they will serve to cement that harmony and good understanding between the two nations, which, founded in congenial interests, cannot but result in the advancement of the welfare and prosperity of both.

The assemblage of the Representatives of our Union in both Houses of Congress, at this time, occurs under circumstances calling for the renewed homage of our grateful acknowledgements to the Giver of all Good. With the exceptions incidental to the most felicitous condition of human existence, we continue to be highly favored in all the elements which contribute to individual comfort and to national prosperity. In the survey of our extensive country, we have generally to observe abodes of health and regions of plenty. In our civil and political relations, we have peace without, and tranquillity within, our borders. We are, as a People, increasing with unabated rapidity in population, wealth, and national re-ation of discriminating duties and charges in the ports of sources; and, whatever' differences of opinion exist among us, with regard to the mode and the means by which we shall turn the beneficence of Heaven to the improvement of our own condition, there is yet a spirit, animating us all, which will not suffer the bounties of Providence to be showered upon us in vain, but will receive them with grateful hearts, and apply them, with unwearied hands, to the advancement of the general good.

Our relations of commerce and navigation with France are, by the operation of the Convention of 24th of June, 1822, with that nation, in a state of gradual and progressive improvement Convinced by all our experience, no less than by the principles of fair and liberal reciprocity, which the United States have constantly tendered to all the nations of the earth, as the rule of commercial intercourse which they would universally prefer, that fair and equal competition is most conducive to the interests of both parties, the United States, in the negotiation of that Convention, earnestly contended for a mutual renuncithe two countries. Unable to obtain the immediate recognition of this principle in its full extent, after reducing the duties of discrimination, so far as it was found attainable, it was agreed that, at the expiration of two years from the 1st of October, 1822, when the Convention was to go into effect, unless a notice of six months on either side should be given to the other that the Convention itself must terminate, those duties should be reduced one-fourth; and that this reduction should be yearly repeated until all discrimination should cease while the Convention itself should continue in force. By the effect of this stipulation, three fourths of the discriminating duties which had been levied by each party upon the vessels of the other in its ports, have already been removed; and, on the 1st of next October, should the Convention be still in force, the remaining fourth will be disconti

Of the subjects recommended to Congress at their last session, some were then definitively acted upon. Others, left unfinished, but partly matured, will recur to your attention, without needing a renewal of notice from me. The purpose of this communication will be, to present to your view the general aspect of our public affairs at this moment, and the measures which have been taken to carry into effect the intentions of the Legislature, as sig-nued. French vessels, laden with French produce, will nified by the laws then and heretofore enacted.

be received in our ports on the same terms as our own; In our intercourse with the other nations of the earth, we and ours, in return, will enjoy the same advantages in the have still the happiness of enjoying peace and a general ports of France. By these approximations to an equality good understanding-qualified, however, in several im- of duties and of charges, not only has the commerce beportant instances, by collisions of interest, and by unsa-tween the two countries prospered, but friendly disposi tisfied claims of justice, to the settlement of which, the tions have been, on both sides, encouraged and promoted. constitutional interposition of the legislative authority They will continue to be cherished and cultivated on the may become ultimately indispensable. part of the United States. It would have been gratifying to have had it in my power to add, that the claims upon the justice of the French Government, involving the property and the comfortable subsistence of many of our fel low-citizens, and which have been so long and so earnestly urged, were in a more promising train of adjustment than at your last meeting; but their condition remains unaltered.

By the decease of the Emperor Alexander of Russia, which occurred cotemporaneously with the commencement of the last session of Congress, the United States have been deprived of a long-tried, steady, and faithful friend. Born to the inheritance of absolute power, and trained in the school of adversity, from which no power on earth, however absolute, is exempt, that monarch, from his youth, had been taught to feel the force and value of public opinion, and to be sensible that the interests of his own Government would best be promoted by a frank and friendly intercourse with this Republic, as those of his People would be advanced by à liberal commercial intercourse with our country. A candid and confidential interchange of sentiments between him and the Government of the United States, upon the affairs of Southern America, took place at a period not long preceding his demise, and contributed to fix that course of policy which left to the other Governments of Europe no alternative but that of sooner or later recognizing the independence of our Southern neighbors, of which the example had, by the United States, already been set. The ordinary diplomatic communications between his successor, the Emperor Nicholas, and the United States, have suffered some inrerruption by the illness, departure, and subsequent decease of his Minister residing here,

With the Government of the Netherlands, the mutual abandonment of discriminating duties had been regulated by legislative acts on both sides. The act of Congress of the 20th of April, 1818, abolished all discriminating duties of impost and tonnage, upon the vessels and produce of the Netherlands in the ports of the United States, upon the assurance given by the Government of the Netherlands, that all such duties operating against the shipping and commerce of the United States, in that Kingdom, had been abolished. These reciprocal regulations had continued in force several years, when the discriminating principle was resumed by the Netherlands, in a new and indirect form, by a bounty of ten per cent. in the shape of a return of duties to their national vessels, and in which those of the United States are not permitted to participate. By the act of Congress of 7th January, 1824, all discriminating duties in the United States were again suspended, so far as related to the vessels and produce of

Sen. and H. of R.] Message of the President, at the opening of the Session. {

19th CONGRESS,'

2d SESSION.

the Netherlands, so long as the reciprocal exemption With Prussia, Spain, Portugal, and in general all the should be extended to the vessels and produce of the European Powers, between whom and the United States United States in the Netherlands. But the same act relations of friendly intercourse have existed, their conprovides that, in the event of a restoration of discrimi-dition has not materially varied since the last session of nating duties, to operate against the shipping and com- Congress. I regret not to be able to say the same of our merce of the United States, in any of the foreign coun-commercial intercourse with the Colonial Possessions of tries referred to therein, the suspension of discriminating Great Britain, in America. Negotiations of the highest duties in favor of the navigation of such foreign country importance to our common interests have been for seveshould cease, and all the provisions of the acts imposing ral years in discussion between the two Governments; discriminating foreign tonnage and impost duties in the and, on the part of the United States have been invariaUnited States, should revive, and be in full force with re-bly pursued in the spirit of candor and conciliation. Ingard to that nation. terests of great magnitude and delicacy had been adjustIn the correspondence with the Government of the Ne-ed by the Conventions of 1815 and 1818, while that of therlands upon this subject, they have contended that the favor shown to their own shipping, by this bounty upon their tonnage, is not to be considered as a discriminating duty. But it cannot be denied that it produces all the same effects. Had the mutual abolition been stipulated by treaty, such a bounty upon the national vessels could scarcely have been granted, consistently with good faith. Yet, as the act of Congress of 7th January, 1824, has not expressly authorized the Executive authority to determine what shall be considered as a revival of discriminating duties by a foreign Government to the disadvantage of the United States, and as the retaliatory measure on our part, however just and necessary, may tend rather to that conflict of legislation which we deprecate, than to that concert to which we invite all commercial nations, as most conducive to their interest and our own, I have thought it more consistent with the spirit of our institutions to refer the subject again to the paramount authority of the Legislature to decide what measure the emergency may require, than abruptly, by proclamation, to carry into effect the minatory provisions of the act of 1824.

1822, mediated by the late Emperor Alexander, had promised a satisfactory compromise of claims which the Government of the United States, in justice to the rights of a numerous class of their citizens, was bound to sustain. But, with regard to the commercial intercourse between the United States and the British Colonies in America, it has been hitherto found impracticable to bring the parties to an understanding satisfactory to both. The relative geographical position, and the respective products of nature cultivated by human industry, had constituted the elements of a commercial intercourse between the United States and British America, insular and continental, important to the inhabitants of both countries. But, it had been interdicted by Great Britain, upon a principle heretofore practised upon by the colonizing nations of Europe, of holding the trade of their Colonies, each in exclusive monopoly to herself. After the termination of the late war, this interdiction had been revived, and the British Government declined including this portion of our intercourse with her possessions in the negotiation of the Convention of 1815. The trade was then carried on During the last session of Congress, Treaties of Amity, exclusively in British vessels, till the act of Congress conNavigation, and Commerce, were negotiated and signed cerning navigation, of 1818, and the supplemental act of at this place, with the Government of Denmark, (in Eu- 1820, met the interdict by a corresponding measure on rope,) and with the Federation of Central America, (in the part of the United States. These measures, not of this hemisphere.) These Treaties then received the con- retaliation, but of necessary self-defence, were soon sucstitutional sanction of the Senate, by the advice and con- ceeded by an Act of Parliament, opening certain colosent to their ratification. They were accordingly ratified, nial ports to the vessels of the United States, coming dion the part of the United States, and, during the recess rectly from them, and to the importation from them of of Congress, have been also ratified by the other respect- certain articles of our produce, burdened with heavy duive contracting parties. The ratifications have been ex- ties, and excluding some of the most valuable articles of changed, and they have been published by proclamations, our exports. The United States opened their ports to copies of which are herewith communicated to Congress. British vessels from the Colonies, upon terms as exactly These Treaties have established between the contracting corresponding with those of the Act of Parliament, as, in parties the principles of equality and reciprocity in their the relative position of the parties, could be made.' broadest and most liberal extent: each party admitting a negotiation was commenced by mutual consent, with the vessels of the other into its ports, laden with cargoes the hope, on our part, that a reciprocal spirit of accomthe produce or manufacture of any quarter of the globe, modation and a common sentiment of the importance of upon the payment of the same duties of tonnage and im- the trade to the interests of the two countries, between post that are chargeable upon their own. They have fur- whom it must be carried on, would ultimately bring the ther stipulated, that the parties shall hereafter grant no parties to a compromise, with which both might be safavor of navigation or commerce to any other nation, which tisfied. With this view, the Government of the United shall not, upon the same terms, be granted to each other; States had determined to sacrifice something of that enand that neither party will impose upon articles of mer-tire reciprocity which, in all commercial arrangements chandise, the produce or manufacture of the other, any other or higher duties than upon the like articles, being the produce or manufacture of any other country. To these principles there is, in the Convention with Den'mark, an exception, with regard to the Colonies of that Kingdom in the Arctic Seas, but none with regard to her Colonies in the West Indies.

In the course of the last Summer, the term to which our last Commercial Treaty with Sweden was limited, has expired. A continuation of it is in the contemplation of the Swedish Government, and is believed to be desirable on the part of the United States. It has been proposed by the King of Sweden, that, pending the negotiation of renewal, the expired Treaty should be mutually consider ed as still in force--a measure which will require the sanction of Congress to be carried into effect on our part, and which I therefore recommend to your consideration.

And

with foreign Powers, they are entitled to demand, and to acquiesce in some inequalities disadvantageous to ourselves, rather than to forego the benefit of a final and permanent adjustment of this interest, to the satisfaction of Great Britain herself. The negotiation, repeatedly suspended by accidental circumstances, was, however, by mutual agreement and express assent, considered as pending, and to be speedily resumed. In the mean time, another Act of Parliament, so doubtful and ambiguous in its import as to have been misunderstood by the offi. cers in the Colonies who were to carry it into execution, opens again certain colonial ports, upon new conditions and terms, with a threat to close them against any nation which may not accept those terms, as prescribed by the British Government. This act passed in July, 1825, not communicated to the Government of the United States, not understood by the British officers of the Customs in

19th CONGRESS, 2d SESSION.

} Message of the President, at the opening of the Session. [Sen. and H. of R.

the Colonies where it was to be enforced, was, nevertheless, submitted to the consideration of Congress, at their last session. With the knowledge that a negotiation upon the subject had long been in progress, and pledges given of its resumption at an early day, it was deemed expedient to await the result of that negotiation, rather than to subscribe implicitly to terms the import of which was not clear, and which the British authorities themselves, in this hemisphere, were not prepared to explain. Immediately after the close of the last Session of Congress, one of our most distinguished citizens was despatched as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain, furnished with instructions which we could not doubt would lead to a conclusion of this long-controverted interest, upon terms acceptable to Great Britain. Upon his arrival, and before he had delivered his letters of credence, he was met by an Order of the British Council, excluding, from and after the first of December, now current, the vessels of the United States from all the Colonial British ports, excepting those immediately bordering upon our Territories. In answer to his expostulations upon a measure thus unexpected, he is informed that, according to the ancient maxims of policy of European nations having colonies, their trade is an exclusive possession of the mother country. That all participation in it by other nations is a boon or favor, not forming a subject of negotiation, but to be regulated by the Legislative Acts of the Power owning the colony. That the British Government, therefore, declines negotiating concerning it; and that, as the United States did not forthwith accept purely and simply the terms offered by the Act of Parliament, of July 1825, Great Britain would not now admit the vessels of the United States, even upon the terms on which she has opened them to the navigation of other nations. We have been accustomed to consider the trade which we have enjoyed with the British Colonies, rather as an interchange of mutual benefits, than as a mere favor received; that, under every circumstance, we have given an ample equivalent. We have seen every other nation, holding Colonies, negotiate with other nations, and grant them, freely, admission to the Colonies by Treaty; and, so far are the other colonizing nations of Europe now from refusing to negotiate for trade with their Colonies that we ourselves have secured access to the Colonies of more than one of them by Treaty. The refusal, however, of Great Britain to negotiate, leaves to the United States no other alternative than that of regulating, or interdicting alto gether, the trade on their part, according as either measure may affect the interests of our own country; and, with that exclusive object, I would recommend the whole subject to your calm and candid deliberations.

With the American Governments of this hemisphere, we continue to maintain an intercourse altogether friendly, and between their nations and ours, that commercial interchange, of which mutual benefit is the source, and mutual comfort and harmony the result, is in a continual state of improvement. The war between Spain and them, since the total expulsion of the Spanish military force from their continental territories, has been little more than nominal; and their internal tranquillity, though occasionally menaced by the agitations which civil wars never fail to leave behind them, has not been affected by any serious calamity.

The Congress of Ministers from several of those nations which assembled at Panama, after a short session there, adjourned to meet again, at a more favorable season, in the neighborhood of Mexico. The decease of one of our Ministers on his way to the Isthmus, and the impediments of the season, which delayed the departure of the other, deprived us of the advantage of being represented at the first meeting of the Congress. There is, however, no reason to believe that any of the transac tions of the Congress were of a nature to affect injuriously the interests of the United States, or to require the interposition of our Ministers, had they been present. Their absence has, indeed, deprived us of the opportuni ty of possessing precise and authentic information of the treaties which were concluded at Panama; and the whole result has confirmed me in the conviction of the expediency to the United States of being represented at the Congress. The surviving member of the Mission, appointed during your last session, has accordingly proceeded to his destination, and a successor to his distinguished and lamented associate will be nominated to the Senate. A Treaty of Amity, Navigation, and Commerce, has, in the course of the last Summer, been concluded by our Minister Plenipotentiary at Mexico, with the United States of that Confederacy, which will also be laid before the Senate, for their advice with regard to its ratification.

In adverting to the present condition of our fiscal concerns, and to the prospects of our Revenue, the first remark that calls our attention, is, that they are less exuberantly prosperous than they were at the corresponding period of the last year. The severe shock so extensively sustained by the commercial and manufacturing interests in Great Britain, has not been without a perceptible recoil upon ourselves. A reduced importation from abroad is necessarily succeeded by a reduced return to the Treasury at home. The nett revenue of the present year will not equal that of the last. And the receipts of that which is to come will fall short of those in the current year. The diminution, however, It is hoped that our unavailing exertions to accomplish is in part attributable to the flourishing condition of some a cordial good understanding on this interest will not of our domestic manufactures, and so far is compensated have an unpropitious effect upon the other great topics by an equivalent more profitable to the nation. It is also of discussion between the two Governments. Our North-highly gratifying to perceive, that the deficiency in the eastern and Northwestern boundaries are still unadjusted. revenue, while it scarcely exceeds the anticipations of The Commissioners under the 7th article of the Treaty the last year's estimates from the Treasury, has not inof Ghent have nearly come to the close of their labors; terrupted the application of more than eleven millions nor can we renounce the expectation, enfeebled as it is, during the present year, to the discharge of the principal that they may agree upon their report to the satisfaction and interest of the debt, nor the reduction of upwards of or acquiescence of both parties. The Commission for li- seven millions of the capital of the debt itself. The ba quidating the claims for indemnity for slaves carried away lance in the Treasury on the 1st of January last, was five after the close of the war, has been sitting with doubtful millions two hundred and one thousand six hundred and prospects of success. Propositions of compromise have, fifty dollars and forty-three cents. The receipts from however, passed between the two Governments, the re- that time to the 30th of September last, were nineteen sult of which, we flatter ourselves, may yet prove satis-millions five hundred and eighty-five thousand nine hunfactory. Our own disposition and purposes towards Great Britain are all friendly and conciliatory; nor can we abandon, but with strong reluctance, the belief that they will, ultimately, meet a return, not of favors, which we neither ask nor desire, but of equal reciprocity and good will.

dred and thirty-two dollars and fifty cents. The receipts of the current quarter, estimated at six millions of dollars, yield, with the sums already received, a revenue of about twenty-five millions and a half for the year. The expenditures for the three first quarters of the year have amounted to eighteen millions seven hundred and four