Based upon this theory, the act of Congress defined for each Territory the outlines of republican government, distributing public authority among lawfully created agents—executive, judicial, and legislative—to be appointed either by the General Government or by the Territory. The legislative functions were intrusted to a council and a house of representatives, duly elected, and empowered to enact all the local laws which they might deem essential to their prosperity, happiness, and good government. Acting in the same spirit, Congress also defined the persons who were in the first instance to be considered as the people of each Territory, enacting that every free white male inhabitant of the same above the age of 21 years, being an actual resident thereof and possessing the qualifications hereafter described, should be entitled to vote at the first election and be eligible to any office within the Territory, but that the qualification of voters and holding office at all subsequent elections should be such as might be prescribed by the legislative assembly; provided, however, that the right of suffrage and of holding office should be exercised only by citizens of the United States and those who should have declared on oath their intention to become such and have taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States and the provisions of the act; and provided further, that no officer, soldier, seaman, or marine or other person in the Army or Navy of the United States or attached to troops in their service should be allowed to vote or hold office in either Territory by reason of being on service therein.

Such of the public officers of the Territories as by the provisions of the act were to be appointed by the General Government, including the governors, were appointed and commissioned in due season, the law having been enacted on the 30th of May, 1854, and the commission of the governor of the Territory of Nebraska being dated on the 2d day of August, 1854, and of the Territory of Kansas on the 29th day of June, 1854. Among the duties imposed by the act on the governors was that of directing and superintending the political organization of the respective Territories.

The governor of Kansas was required to cause a census or enumeration of the inhabitants and qualified voters of the several counties and districts of the Territory to be taken by such persons and in such mode as he might designate and appoint; to appoint and direct the time and places of holding the first elections, and the manner of conducting them, both as to the persons to superintend such elections and the returns thereof; to declare the number of the members of the council and the house of representatives for each county or district; to declare what persons might appear to be duly elected, and to appoint the time and place of the first meeting of the legislative assembly. In substance, the same duties were devolved on the governor of Nebraska.

While by this act the principle of constitution for each of the Territories was one and the same and the details of organic legislation regarding both were as nearly as could be identical, and while the Territory of Nebraska was tranquilly and successfully organized in the due course of law, and its first legislative assembly met on the 16th of January, 1855, the organization of Kansas was long delayed, and has been attended with serious difficulties and embarrassments, partly the consequence of local maladministration and partly of the unjustifiable interference of the inhabitants of some of the States, foreign by residence, interests, and rights to the Territory.

The governor of the Territory of Kansas, commissioned as before stated, on the 29th of June, 1854, did not reach the designated seat of his government until the 7th of the ensuing October, and even then failed to make the first step in its legal organization, that of ordering the census or enumeration of its inhabitants, until so late a day that the election of the members of the legislative assembly did not take place until the 30th of March, 1855, nor its meeting until the 2d of July, 1855. So that for a year after the Territory was constituted by the act of Congress and the officers to be appointed by the Federal Executive had been commissioned it was without a complete government, without any legislative authority, without local law, and, of course, without the ordinary guaranties of peace and public order.

In other respects the governor, instead of exercising constant vigilance and putting forth all his energies to prevent or counteract the tendencies to illegality which are prone to exist in all imperfectly organized and newly associated communities, allowed his attention to be diverted from official obligations by other objects, and himself set an example of the violation of law in the performance of acts which rendered it my duty in the sequel to remove him from the office of chief executive magistrate of the Territory.

Before the requisite preparation was accomplished for election of a Territorial legislature, an election of Delegate to Congress had been held in the Territory on the 29th day of November, 1854, and the Delegate took his seat in the House of Representatives without challenge. If arrangements had been perfected by the governor so that the election for members of the legislative assembly might be held in the several precincts at the same time as for Delegate to Congress, any question appertaining to the qualification of the persons voting as people of the Territory would have passed necessarily and at once under the supervision of Congress, as the judge of the validity of the return of the Delegate, and would have been determined before conflicting passions had become inflamed by time, and before opportunity could have been afforded for systematic interference of the people of individual States.

This interference, in so far as concerns its primary causes and its immediate commencement, was one of the incidents of that pernicious agitation on the subject of the condition of the colored persons held to service in some of the States which has so long disturbed the repose of our country and excited individuals, otherwise patriotic and law abiding, to toil with misdirected zeal in the attempt to propagate their social theories by the perversion and abuse of the powers of Congress.

The persons and the parties whom the tenor of the act to organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas thwarted in the endeavor to impose, through the agency of Congress, their particular views of social organization on the people of the future new States now perceiving that the policy of leaving the inhabitants of each State to judge for themselves in this respect was ineradicably rooted in the convictions of the people of the Union, then had recourse, in the pursuit of their general object, to the extraordinary measure of propagandist colonization of the Territory of Kansas to prevent the free and natural action of its inhabitants in its internal organization, and thus to anticipate or to force the determination of that question in this inchoate State.

With such views associations were organized in some of the States, and their purposes were proclaimed through the press in language extremely irritating and offensive to those of whom the colonists were to become the neighbors. Those designs and acts had the necessary consequence to awaken emotions of intense indignation in States near to the Territory of Kansas, and especially in the adjoining State of Missouri, whose domestic peace was thus the most directly endangered; but they are far from justifying the illegal and reprehensible countermovements which ensued.

Under these inauspicious circumstances the primary elections for members of the legislative assembly were held in most, if not all, of the precincts at the time and the places and by the persons designated and appointed by the governor according to law.

Angry accusations that illegal votes had been polled abounded on all sides, and imputations were made both of fraud and violence. But the governor, in the exercise of the power and the discharge of the duty conferred and imposed by law on him alone, officially received and considered the returns, declared a large majority of the members of the council and the house of representatives "duly elected," withheld certificates from others because of alleged illegality of votes, appointed a new election to supply the places of the persons not certified, and thus at length, in all the forms of statute, and with his own official authentication, complete legality was given to the first legislative assembly of the Territory.

Those decisions of the returning officers and of the governor are final, except that by the parliamentary usage of the country applied to the organic law it may be conceded that each house of the assembly must have been competent to determine in the last resort the qualifications and the election of its members. The subject was by its nature one appertaining exclusively to the jurisdiction of the local authorities of the Territory. Whatever irregularities may have occurred in the elections, it seems too late now to raise that question. At all events, it is a question as to which, neither now nor at any previous time, has the least possible legal authority been possessed by the President of the United States. For all present purposes the legislative body thus constituted and elected was the legitimate legislative assembly of the Territory.

Accordingly the governor by proclamation convened the assembly thus elected to meet at a place called Pawnee City; the two houses met and were duly organized in the ordinary parliamentary form; each sent to and received from the governor the official communications usual on such occasions; an elaborate message opening the session was communicated by the governor, and the general business of legislation was entered upon by the legislative assembly.

But after a few days the assembly resolved to adjourn to another place in the Territory. A law was accordingly passed, against the consent of the governor, but in due form otherwise, to remove the seat of government temporarily to the "Shawnee Manual Labor School" (or mission), and thither the assembly proceeded. After this, receiving a bill for the establishment of a ferry at the town of Kickapoo, the governor refused to sign it, and by special message assigned for reason of refusal not anything objectionable in the bill itself nor any pretense of the illegality or incompetency of the assembly as such, but only the fact that the assembly had by its act transferred the seat of government temporarily from Pawnee City to the Shawnee Mission. For the same reason he continued to refuse to sign other bills until in the course of a few days he by official message communicated to the assembly the fact that he had received notification of the termination of his functions as governor, and that the duties of the office were legally devolved on the secretary of the Territory; thus to the last recognizing the body as a duly elected and constituted legislative assembly.

It will be perceived that if any constitutional defect attached to the legislative acts of the assembly it is not pretended to consist in irregularity of election or want of qualification of the members, but only in the change of its place of session. However trivial this objection may seem to be, it requires to be considered, because upon it is founded all that superstructure of acts, plainly against law, which now threaten the peace, not only of the Territory of Kansas, but of the Union.

Such an objection to the proceedings of the legislative assembly was of exceptionable origin, for the reason that by the express terms of the organic law the seat of government of the Territory was "located temporarily at Fort Leavenworth;" and yet the governor himself remained there less than two months, and of his own discretion transferred the seat of government to the Shawnee Mission, where it in fact was at the time the assembly were called to meet at Pawnee City. If the governor had any such right to change temporarily the seat of government, still more had the legislative assembly. The objections are of exceptionable origin for the further reason that the place indicated by the governor, without having any exclusive claim of preference in itself, was a proposed town site only, which he and others were attempting to locate unlawfully upon land within a military reservation, and for participation in which illegal act the commandant of the post, a superior officer in the Army, has been dismissed by sentence of court-martial. Nor is it easy to see why the legislative assembly might not with propriety pass the Territorial act transferring its sittings to the Shawnee Mission. If it could not, that must be on account of some prohibitory or incompatible provision of act of Congress; but no such provision exists. The organic act, as already quoted, says "the seat of government is hereby located temporarily at Fort Leavenworth;" and it then provides that certain of the public buildings there "may be occupied and used under the direction of the governor and legislative assembly." These expressions might possibly be construed to imply that when, in a previous section of the act, it was enacted that "the first legislative assembly shall meet at such place and on such day as the governor shall appoint," the word "place" means place at Fort Leavenworth, not place anywhere in the Territory. If so, the governor would have been the first to err in this matter, not only in himself having removed the seat of government to the Shawnee Mission, but in again removing it to Pawnee City. If there was any departure from the letter of the law, therefore, it was his in both instances. But however this may be, it is most unreasonable to suppose that by the terms of the organic act Congress intended to do impliedly what it has not done expressly—that is, to forbid to the legislative assembly the power to choose any place it might see fit as the temporary seat of its deliberations. That is proved by the significant language of one of the subsequent acts of Congress on the subject—that of March 3, 1855—which, in making appropriation for public buildings of the Territory, enacts that the same shall not be expended "until the legislature of said Territory shall have fixed by law the permanent seat of government." Congress in these expressions does not profess to be granting the power to fix the permanent seat of government, but recognizes the power as one already granted. But how? Undoubtedly by the comprehensive provision of the organic act itself, which declares that "the legislative power of the Territory shall extend to all rightful subjects of legislation consistent with the Constitution of the United States and the provisions of this act." If in view of this act the legislative assembly had the large power to fix the permanent seat of government at any place in its discretion, of course by the same enactment it had the less and the included power to fix it temporarily.

Nevertheless, the allegation that the acts of the legislative assembly were illegal by reason of this removal of its place of session was brought forward to justify the first great movement in disregard of law within the Territory. One of the acts of the legislative assembly provided for the election of a Delegate to the present Congress, and a Delegate was elected under that law. But subsequently to this a portion of the people of the Territory proceeded without authority of law to elect another Delegate.

Following upon this movement was another and more important one of the same general character. Persons confessedly not constituting the body politic or all the inhabitants, but merely a party of the inhabitants, and without law, have undertaken to summon a convention for the purpose of transforming the Territory into a State, and have framed a constitution, adopted it, and under it elected a governor and other officers and a Representative to Congress. In extenuation of these illegal acts it is alleged that the States of California, Michigan, and others were self-organized, and as such were admitted into the Union without a previous enabling act of Congress. It is true that while in a majority of cases a previous act of Congress has been passed to authorize the Territory to present itself as a State, and that this is deemed the most regular course, yet such an act has not been held to be indispensable, and in some cases the Territory has proceeded without it, and has nevertheless been admitted into the Union as a State. It lies with Congress to authorize beforehand or to confirm afterwards, in its discretion. But in no instance has a State been admitted upon the application of persons acting against authorities duly constituted by act of Congress. In every case it is the people of the Territory, not a party among them, who have the power to form a constitution and ask for admission as a State. No principle of public law, no practice or precedent under the Constitution of the United States, no rule of reason, right, or common sense, confers any such power as that now claimed by a mere party in the Territory. In fact what has been done is of revolutionary character. It is avowedly so in motive and in aim as respects the local law of the Territory. It will become treasonable insurrection if it reach the length of organized resistance by force to the fundamental or any other Federal law and to the authority of the General Government. In such an event the path of duty for the Executive is plain. The Constitution requiring him to take care that the laws of the United States be faithfully executed, if they be opposed in the Territory of Kansas he may, and should, place at the disposal of the marshal any public force of the United States which happens to be within the jurisdiction, to be used as a portion of the posse comitatus; and if that do not suffice to maintain order, then he may call forth the militia of one or more States for that object, or employ for the same object any part of the land or naval force of the United States. So, also, if the obstruction be to the laws of the Territory, and it be duly presented to him as a case of insurrection, he may employ for its suppression the militia of any State or the land or naval force of the United States. And if the Territory be invaded by the citizens of other States, whether for the purpose of deciding elections or for any other, and the local authorities find themselves unable to repel or withstand it, they will be entitled to, and upon the fact being fully ascertained they shall most certainly receive, the aid of the General Government.

But it is not the duty of the President of the United States to volunteer interposition by force to preserve the purity of elections either in a State or Territory. To do so would be subversive of public freedom. And whether a law be wise or unwise, just or unjust, is not a question for him to judge. If it be constitutional—that is, if it be the law of the land—it is his duty to cause it to be executed, or to sustain the authorities of any State or Territory in executing it in opposition to all insurrectionary movements.

Our system affords no justification of revolutionary acts, for the constitutional means of relieving the people of unjust administration and laws, by a change of public agents and by repeal, are ample, and more prompt and effective than illegal violence. These means must be scrupulously guarded, this great prerogative of popular sovereignty sacredly respected.

It is the undoubted right of the peaceable and orderly people of the Territory of Kansas to elect their own legislative body, make their own laws, and regulate their own social institutions, without foreign or domestic molestation. Interference on the one hand to procure the abolition or prohibition of slave labor in the Territory has produced mischievous interference on the other for its maintenance or introduction. One wrong begets another. Statements entirely unfounded, or grossly exaggerated, concerning events within the Territory are sedulously diffused through remote States to feed the flame of sectional animosity there, and the agitators there exert themselves indefatigably in return to encourage and stimulate strife within the Territory.

The inflammatory agitation, of which the present is but a part, has for twenty years produced nothing save unmitigated evil, North and South. But for it the character of the domestic institutions of the future new State would have been a matter of too little interest to the inhabitants of the contiguous States, personally or collectively, to produce among them any political emotion. Climate, soil, production, hopes of rapid advancement and the pursuit of happiness on the part of the settlers themselves, with good wishes, but with no interference from without, would have quietly determined the question which is at this time of such disturbing character.

But we are constrained to turn our attention to the circumstances of embarrassment as they now exist. It is the duty of the people of Kansas to discountenance every act or purpose of resistance to its laws. Above all, the emergency appeals to the citizens of the States, and especially of those contiguous to the Territory, neither by intervention of nonresidents in elections nor by unauthorized military force to attempt to encroach upon or usurp the authority of the inhabitants of the Territory.

No citizen of our country should permit himself to forget that he is a part of its Government and entitled to be heard in the determination of its policy and its measures, and that therefore the highest considerations of personal honor and patriotism require him to maintain by whatever of power or influence he may possess the integrity of the laws of the Republic.

Entertaining these views, it will be my imperative duty to exert the whole power of the Federal Executive to support public order in the Territory; to vindicate its laws, whether Federal or local, against all attempts of organized resistance, and so to protect its people in the establishment of their own institutions, undisturbed by encroachment from without, and in the full enjoyment of the rights of self-government assured to them by the Constitution and the organic act of Congress.

Although serious and threatening disturbances in the Territory of Kansas, announced to me by the governor in December last, were speedily quieted without the effusion of blood and in a satisfactory manner, there is, I regret to say, reason to apprehend that disorders will continue to occur there, with increasing tendency to violence, until some decisive measure be taken to dispose of the question itself which constitutes the inducement or occasion of internal agitation and of external interference.

This, it seems to me, can best be accomplished by providing that when the inhabitants of Kansas may desire it and shall be of sufficient number to constitute a State, a convention of delegates, duly elected by the qualified voters, shall assemble to frame a constitution, and thus to prepare through regular and lawful means for its admission into the Union as a State.

I respectfully recommend the enactment of a law to that effect.

I recommend also that a special appropriation be made to defray any expense which may become requisite in the execution of the laws or the maintenance of public order in the Territory of Kansas.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, January 25, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

By the inclosed letter of the Secretary of the Treasury it appears that $24,233 belonging to the Chickasaw Indians should be invested in stocks of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. I therefore recommend that the necessary authority be given for that purpose.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, January 28, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, in answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 10th of January, calling for the correspondence between the Secretary of State and Edward Worrell while the latter was acting as consul at Matanzas in relation to the estates of deceased American citizens on the island of Cuba.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, January, 1856.

To the Senate:

I transmit herewith a copy of the "proceedings of the court-martial in the case of Colonel Montgomery, of the United States Army," as requested by the resolution of the Senate of the 7th instant.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, February 5, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

In further compliance with the Senate's resolution adopted in executive session on the 15th January last, in respect to the correspondence relating to the estates of deceased American citizens on the island of Cuba, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, with the papers which accompanied it.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, February 14, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, in answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 17th ultimo, requesting transcripts of certain correspondence and other papers touching the Republics of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, the Mosquito Indians, and the convention between the United States and Great Britain of April 19, 1850.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, February 18, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 4th instant, requesting transcripts of certain papers relative to the affairs of the Territory of Kansas, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents which accompanied it.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, February 21, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I communicate herewith a report of the Secretary of War and accompanying documents, also of the Secretary of the Navy and accompanying documents, in answer to a resolution of the Senate passed the 11th February, "that the President of the United States be requested to communicate to the Senate copies of all the correspondence between the different Departments of the Government and the officers of the Army and Navy (not heretofore communicated) on the Pacific Coast touching the Indian disturbances in California, Oregon, and Washington."

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, February 25, 1856.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit a copy of a letter of the 7th of March last from the acting commissioner of the United States in China, and of the regulations and notification which accompanied it, for such revision thereof as Congress may deem expedient, pursuant to the sixth section of the act approved 11th August, 1848.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, February 25, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I communicate to the Senate herewith, for its constitutional action thereon, a treaty made and concluded on the 17th October, 1855, by and between A. Cumming and Isaac I. Stevens, commissioners on the part of the United States, and the Blackfeet and other tribes of Indians on the Upper Missouri and Yellowstone rivers.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, February 26, 1856.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

I herewith transmit and recommend to the favorable consideration of Congress a communication from the Secretary of War, asking a special appropriation of $3,000,000 to prepare armaments and ammunition for the fortifications, to increase the supply of improved small arms, and to apply recent improvements to arms of old patterns belonging to the United States and the several States.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, February 27, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 25th instant, I transmit reports[52] from the Secretary of State and the Attorney-General, to whom the resolution was referred.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.

[Footnote 52: Relating to the enlistment of soldiers within the United States by agents of the British Government.]



WASHINGTON, February 29, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying papers,[53] in answer to the resolution of the Senate of yesterday.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.

[Footnote 53: Relating to an offer of the British Government to refer to the arbitrament of some friendly power the questions of difference between the United States and Great Britain upon the construction of the convention of April 19, 1850.]



WASHINGTON, March 4, 1856.

To the House of Representatives:

I transmit a report on the commercial relations of the United States with all foreign nations, in answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of December 14, 1853.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, March, 4, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I herewith communicate to the Senate, for its constitutional action thereon, two treaties recently negotiated by Francis Huebochmann, the superintendent of Indian affairs for the northern superintendency, one with the Menominee Indians and the other with the Stockbridge and Munsee Indians, and more particularly referred to in the accompanying communications of the Secretary of the Interior of this date.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, March 5, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 21st ultimo, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of the Interior, with accompanying papers.[54]

FRANKLIN PIERCE.

[Footnote 54: Correspondence relative to transportation of the mails, etc., over the Illinois Central Railroad.]



EXECUTIVE OFFICE, March 5, 1856.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

I present herewith a communication from the Secretary of the Interior, in relation to Indian disturbances in the Territories of Oregon and Washington, and recommending an immediate appropriation of $300,000. I commend this subject to your early consideration.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, March 5, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 26th ultimo, requesting information in regard to the site selected for the building to be used for the preservation of the ordnance, arms, etc., of the United States, under the act approved March 3, 1855, I transmit a letter from the Secretary of War, with an accompanying report of the Chief of Ordnance, containing the information.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, March 10, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 21st ultimo, requesting the President of the United States to "communicate to the Senate any correspondence which may have taken place between the Illinois Central Railroad Company and any of the Departments of the Government," etc., I transmit herewith communications from the Secretary of the Treasury and from the Postmaster-General, together with the accompanying papers.[55]

FRANKLIN PIERCE.

[Footnote 55: Correspondence relative to transportation of the mails, etc., over the Illinois Central Railroad.]



WASHINGTON, March 14, 1856.

To the House of Representatives:

I herewith communicate to the House of Representatives, in compliance with their resolution of the 28th ultimo, a report from the Secretary of the Interior, containing such information as is in possession of his Department touching the cause of the difficulties existing between the Creek and Seminole Indians since their emigration west of the Mississippi River.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



To the House of Representatives:

I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives a report of the Secretary of War, with copies prepared in compliance with a resolution of the House of the 28th ultimo, requesting "copies of all correspondence, documents, and papers in relation to the compensation and emoluments of Brevet Lieutenant-General Scott under the joint resolution of Congress approved February 15, 1855."

FRANKLIN PIERCE.

MARCH 17, 1856.



WASHINGTON, March 17, 1856.

To the House of Representatives:

In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 27th ultimo, on the subject of correspondence between this Government and that of Great Britain touching the Clayton and Bulwer convention, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, to whom the resolution was referred.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, March 17, 1856.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit to Congress the copy of a correspondence which has recently taken place between Her Britannic Majesty's minister accredited to this Government and the Secretary of State, in order that the expediency of sanctioning the acceptance by the officers of the United States who were in the American expedition in search of Sir John Franklin of such token of thankfulness as may be offered to them on the part of Her Majesty's Government for their services on the occasion referred to may be taken into consideration.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, March 20, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 26th ultimo, I herewith communicate "a copy of the report, with the maps, of an exploration of the Big Witchitaw and the head waters of the Brazos rivers, made by Captain R.B. Marcy, of the United States Army, while engaged in locating lands for the Indians of Texas in the year 1854."

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, March 24, 1856.

To the House of Representatives:

In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 18th of last month, requesting the transmission of documents touching the affairs of the Territory of Kansas, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, to whom the resolution was referred.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



EXECUTIVE OFFICE,

Washington, March 24, 1856.

Hon. NATHANIEL P. BANKS,

Speaker of the House of Representatives:

I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives, in obedience to their resolution of the 17th instant, a communication from the Secretary of the Interior, accompanied by a copy of the report of Superintendent Cumming in regard to his late expedition among the tribes of Indians on the Upper Missouri.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, April 1, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a convention between the United States and the Grand Duchy of Baden for the mutual surrender of fugitive criminals, concluded at Berlin on the 10th ultimo.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, April 3, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 27th ultimo, requesting additional documents relating to the condition of affairs in Kansas Territory, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, to whom the resolution was referred.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, April 9, 1856.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

In execution of an act of Congress entitled "An act to provide for the accommodation of the courts of the United States for the district of Maryland and for a post-office at Baltimore city, Md.," approved February 17, 1855, I communicate herewith, for the consideration of Congress, copies of conditional contracts which I have caused to be executed for two sites, with buildings thereon, together with plans and estimates for fitting up and furnishing the same.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, April 9, 1856.

To the House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying document,[56] in compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 4th instant.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.

[Footnote 56: Dispatch from the United States minister at Naples relative to the saving from shipwreck of certain American vessels and their crews by officers of the Neapolitan navy and marine service.]



WASHINGTON, April 10th, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of the Interior, with accompanying documents, in compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 6th ultimo. The documents, it is believed, contain all the information in the Executive Departments upon the subject[57] to which the resolution refers.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.

[Footnote 57: Claim of Richard W. Thompson for alleged services to the Menominee Indians.]



WASHINGTON, April, 1856.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

I communicate to Congress herewith a letter from the Secretary of the Interior and a copy of a conditional contract entered into, under instructions from that Department, for the purchase of a lot and the building thereon, for the use of the United States courts at Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, and recommend that an appropriation of $78,000 be made to complete the same.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, April 14, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit herewith the report of the Secretary of War, with the accompanying documents, in answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 7th instant, respecting "the steps pursued in execution of the clause of the act making appropriations for the civil and diplomatic expenses of the Government, approved March 3, 1855, which provides for the construction of an armory for the District of Columbia."

The selection of the site was made after a full hearing of the parties interested and a personal examination by myself of all the sites suggested as suitable for the purpose.

It will be perceived upon an examination of the accompanying documents that although two additional purposes were added by Congress after the estimate of the War Department was made, and the expense of the structure consequently increased, still by the terms of my indorsement on the report of the colonel of ordnance fixing the site, the size and arrangement of the building were to be such that it could be completed without exceeding the appropriation of $30,000, and that this requirement has been strictly adhered to in every stage of the proceedings.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, April 14, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit herewith the report of the Secretary of State, with the accompanying documents, in answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 20th ultimo, respecting the adjustment of the boundary line and the payment of the three millions under the treaty with Mexico of the 30th June [December], 1853.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, April 17, 1856.

The SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:

I transmit herewith reports of the Secretaries of the War and Interior Departments, in response to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 31st ultimo, calling for information in relation to the origin, progress, and present condition of Indian hostilities in the Territories of Oregon and Washington, and also of the means which have been adopted to preserve peace and protect the inhabitants of said Territories.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, April 29, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit herewith the report of the Secretary of State, with the accompanying documents, in answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 24th February, 1855, in relation to the settlement of the controversy respecting the Lobos Islands.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, April 30, 1856.

To the House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith to the House of Representatives a report[58] from the Secretary of State, in answer to their resolution of the 7th instant.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.

[Footnote 58: Relating to indemnification by the Spanish Government of the captains, owners, and crews of the bark Georgiana and the brig Susan Loud for their capture and confiscation by the Spanish authorities.]



WASHINGTON, May 3, 1856.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I communicate herewith a letter of the Postmaster-General, with accompanying correspondence, in relation to mail transportation between our Atlantic and Pacific possessions, and earnestly commend the subject to the early consideration of Congress.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, May 3, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I communicate herewith a letter from the Secretary of War, with accompanying papers, in response to a resolution of the Senate of the 21st ultimo, upon the subject of damages which will be "incurred by the United States in case of the repeal of so much of the act of March 3, 1855, as provides for the construction of an armory in the District of Columbia," and also a further answer from the Secretary of War to the resolution of the Senate of the 7th ultimo, requesting a full report of the steps pursued in execution of the clause of the act making appropriations for the civil and diplomatic expenses of the Government, approved March 2, 1855, which provides for the construction of the armory in this District before referred to.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, May 15, 1856.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith reports of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Attorney-General, in reply to a resolution of the Senate of the 24th of March last, and also to a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 8th of May instant, both having reference to the routes of transit between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Republics of New Granada and Nicaragua and to the condition of affairs in Central America.

These documents relate to questions of the highest importance and interest to the people of the United States.

The narrow isthmus which connects the continents of North and South America, by the facilities it affords for easy transit between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, rendered the countries of Central America an object of special consideration to all maritime nations, which has been greatly augmented in modern times by the operation of changes in commercial relations, especially those produced by the general use of steam as a motive power by land and sea. To us, on account of its geographical position and of our political interest as an American State of primary magnitude, that isthmus is of peculiar importance, just as the Isthmus of Suez is, for corresponding reasons, to the maritime powers of Europe. But above all, the importance to the United States of securing free transit across the American isthmus has rendered it of paramount interest to us since the settlement of the Territories of Oregon and Washington and the accession of California to the Union.

Impelled by these considerations, the United States took steps at an early day to assure suitable means of commercial transit by canal railway, or otherwise across this isthmus.

We concluded, in the first place, a treaty of peace, amity, navigation, and commerce with the Republic of New Granada, among the conditions of which was a stipulation on the part of New Granada guaranteeing to the United States the right of way or transit across that part of the Isthmus which lies in the territory of New Granada, in consideration of which the United States guaranteed in respect of the same territory the rights of sovereignty and property of New Granada.

The effect of this treaty was to afford to the people of the United States facilities for at once opening a common road from Chagres to Panama and for at length constructing a railway in the same direction, to connect regularly with steamships, for the transportation of mails, specie, and passengers to and fro between the Atlantic and Pacific States and Territories of the United States.

The United States also endeavored, but unsuccessfully, to obtain from the Mexican Republic the cession of the right of way at the northern extremity of the Isthmus by Tehuantepec, and that line of communication continues to be an object of solicitude to the people of this Republic.

In the meantime, intervening between the Republic of New Granada and the Mexican Republic lie the States of Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, the several members of the former Republic of Central America. Here, in the territory of the Central American States, is the narrowest part of the Isthmus, and hither, of course, public attention has been directed as the most inviting field for enterprises of interoceanic communication between the opposite shores of America, and more especially to the territory of the States of Nicaragua and Honduras.

Paramount to that of any European State, as was the interest of the United States in the security and freedom of projected lines of travel across the Isthmus by the way of Nicaragua and Honduras, still we did not yield in this respect to any suggestions of territorial aggrandizement, or even of exclusive advantage, either of communication or of commerce. Opportunities had not been wanting to the United States to procure such advantage by peaceful means and with full and free assent of those who alone had any legitimate authority in the matter. We disregarded those opportunities from considerations alike of domestic and foreign policy, just as, even to the present day, we have persevered in a system of justice and respect for the rights and interests of others as well as our own in regard to each and all of the States of Central America.

It was with surprise and regret, therefore, that the United States learned a few days after the conclusion of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, by which the United States became, with the consent of the Mexican Republic, the rightful owners of California, and thus invested with augmented special interest in the political condition of Central America, that a military expedition, under the authority of the British Government, had landed at San Juan del Norte, in the State of Nicaragua, and taken forcible possession of that port, the necessary terminus of any canal or railway across the Isthmus within the territories of Nicaragua.

It did not diminish the unwelcomeness to us of this act on the part of Great Britain to find that she assumed to justify it on the ground of an alleged protectorship of a small and obscure band of uncivilized Indians, whose proper name had even become lost to history, who did not constitute a state capable of territorial sovereignty either in fact or of right, and all political interest in whom and in the territory they occupied Great Britain had previously renounced by successive treaties with Spain when Spain was sovereign to the country and subsequently with independent Spanish America.

Nevertheless, and injuriously affected as the United States conceived themselves to have been by this act of the British Government and by its occupation about the same time of insular and of continental portions of the territory of the State of Honduras, we remembered the many and powerful ties and mutual interests by which Great Britain and the United States are associated, and we proceeded in earnest good faith and with a sincere desire to do whatever might strengthen the bonds of peace between us to negotiate with Great Britain a convention to assure the perfect neutrality of all interoceanic communications across the Isthmus and, as the indispensable condition of such neutrality, the absolute independence of the States of Central America and their complete sovereignty within the limits of their own territory as well against Great Britain as against the United States. We supposed we had accomplished that object by the convention of April 19, 1850, which would never have been signed nor ratified on the part of the United States but for the conviction that in virtue of its provisions neither Great Britain nor the United States was thereafter to exercise any territorial sovereignty in fact or in name in any part of Central America, however or whensoever acquired, either before or afterwards. The essential object of the convention—the neutralization of the Isthmus—would, of course, become a nullity if either Great Britain or the United States were to continue to hold exclusively islands or mainland of the Isthmus, and more especially if, under any claim of protectorship of Indians, either Government were to remain forever sovereign in fact of the Atlantic shores of the three States of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras.

I have already communicated to the two Houses of Congress full information of the protracted and hitherto fruitless efforts which the United States have made to arrange this international question with Great Britain. It is referred to on the present occasion only because of its intimate connection with the special object now to be brought to the attention of Congress.

The unsettled political condition of some of the Spanish American Republics has never ceased to be regarded by this Government with solicitude and regret on their own account, while it has been the source of continual embarrassment in our public and private relations with them. In the midst of the violent revolutions and the wars by which they are continually agitated, their public authorities are unable to afford due protection to foreigners and to foreign interests within their territory, or even to defend their own soil against individual aggressors, foreign or domestic, the burden of the inconveniences and losses of which therefore devolves in no inconsiderable degree upon the foreign states associated with them in close relations of geographical vicinity or of commercial intercourse.

Such is more emphatically the situation of the United States with respect to the Republics of Mexico and of Central America. Notwithstanding, however, the relative remoteness of the European States from America, facts of the same order have not failed to appear conspicuously in their intercourse with Spanish American Republics. Great Britain has repeatedly been constrained to recur to measures of force for the protection of British interests in those countries. France found it necessary to attack the castle of San Juan de Uloa and even to debark troops at Vera Cruz in order to obtain redress of wrongs done to Frenchmen in Mexico.

What is memorable in this respect in the conduct and policy of the United States is that while it would be as easy for us to annex and absorb new territories in America as it is for European States to do this in Asia or Africa, and while if done by us it might be justified as well on the alleged ground of the advantage which would accrue therefrom to the territories annexed and absorbed, yet we have abstained from doing it, in obedience to considerations of right not less than of policy; and that while the courageous and self-reliant spirit of our people prompts them to hardy enterprises, and they occasionally yield to the temptation of taking part in the troubles of countries near at hand, where they know how potential their influence, moral and material, must be, the American Government has uniformly and steadily resisted all attempts of individuals in the United States to undertake armed aggression against friendly Spanish American Republics.

While the present incumbent of the executive office has been in discharge of its duties he has never failed to exert all the authority in him vested to repress such enterprises, because they are in violation of the law of the land, which the Constitution requires him to execute faithfully; because they are contrary to the policy of the Government, and because to permit them would be a departure from good faith toward those American Republics in amity with us, which are entitled to, and will never cease to enjoy, in their calamities the cordial sympathy, and in their prosperity the efficient good will, of the Government and of the people of the United States.

To say that our laws in this respect are sometimes violated or successfully evaded is only to say what is true of all laws in all countries, but not more so in the United States than in any one whatever of the countries of Europe. Suffice it to repeat that the laws of the United States prohibiting all foreign military enlistments or expeditions within our territory have been executed with impartial good faith, and, so far as the nature of things permits, as well in repression of private persons as of the official agents of other Governments, both of Europe and America.

Among the Central American Republics to which modern events have imparted most prominence is that of Nicaragua, by reason of its particular position on the Isthmus. Citizens of the United States have established in its territory a regular interoceanic transit route, second only in utility and value to the one previously established in the territory of New Granada. The condition of Nicaragua would, it is believed, have been much more prosperous than it has been but for the occupation of its only Atlantic port by a foreign power, and of the disturbing authority set up and sustained by the same power in a portion of its territory, by means of which its domestic sovereignty was impaired, its public lands were withheld from settlement, and it was deprived of all the maritime revenue which it would otherwise collect on imported merchandise at San Juan del Norte.

In these circumstances of the political debility of the Republic of Nicaragua, and when its inhabitants were exhausted by long-continued civil war between parties neither of them strong enough to overcome the other or permanently maintain internal tranquillity, one of the contending factions of the Republic invited the assistance and cooperation of a small body of citizens of the United States from the State of California, whose presence, as it appears, put an end at once to civil war and restored apparent order throughout the territory of Nicaragua, with a new administration, having at its head a distinguished individual, by birth a citizen of the Republic, D. Patricio Rivas, as its provisional President.

It is the established policy of the United States to recognize all governments without question of their source or their organization, or of the means by which the governing persons attain their power, provided there be a government de facto accepted by the people of the country, and with reserve only of the time as to the recognition of revolutionary governments arising out of the subdivision of parent states with which we are in relations of amity. We do not go behind the fact of a foreign government exercising actual power to investigate questions of legitimacy; we do not inquire into the causes which may have led to a change of government. To us it is indifferent whether a successful revolution has been aided by foreign intervention or not; whether insurrection has overthrown existing government, and another has been established in its place according to preexisting forms or in a manner adopted for the occasion by those whom we may find in the actual possession of power. All these matters we leave to the people and public authorities of the particular country to determine; and their determination, whether it be by positive action or by ascertained acquiescence, is to us a sufficient warranty of the legitimacy of the new government.

During the sixty-seven years which have elapsed since the establishment of the existing Government of the United States, in all which time this Union has maintained undisturbed domestic tranquillity, we have had occasion to recognize governments de facto, founded either by domestic revolution or by military invasion from abroad, in many of the Governments of Europe.

It is the more imperatively necessary to apply this rule to the Spanish American Republics, in consideration of the frequent and not seldom anomalous changes of organization or administration which they undergo and the revolutionary nature of most of these changes, of which the recent series of revolutions in the Mexican Republic is an example, where five successive revolutionary governments have made their appearance in the course of a few months and been recognized successively, each as the political power of that country, by the United States.

When, therefore, some time since, a new minister from the Republic of Nicaragua presented himself, bearing the commission of President Rivas, he must and would have been received as such, unless he was found on inquiry subject to personal exception, but for the absence of satisfactory information upon the question whether President Rivas was in fact the head of an established Government of the Republic of Nicaragua, doubt as to which arose not only from the circumstances of his avowed association with armed emigrants recently from the United States, but that the proposed minister himself was of that class of persons, and not otherwise or previously a citizen of Nicaragua.

Another minister from the Republic of Nicaragua has now presented himself, and has been received as such, satisfactory evidence appearing that he represents the Government de facto and, so far as such exists, the Government de jure of that Republic.

That reception, while in accordance with the established policy of the United States, was likewise called for by the most imperative special exigencies, which require that this Government shall enter at once into diplomatic relations with that of Nicaragua. In the first place, a difference has occurred between the Government of President Rivas and the Nicaragua Transit Company, which involves the necessity of inquiry into rights of citizens of the United States, who allege that they have been aggrieved by the acts of the former and claim protection and redress at the hands of their Government. In the second place, the interoceanic communication by the way of Nicaragua is effectually interrupted, and the persons and property of unoffending private citizens of the United States in that country require the attention of their Government. Neither of these objects can receive due consideration without resumption of diplomatic intercourse with the Government of Nicaragua.

Further than this, the documents communicated show that while the interoceanic transit by the way of Nicaragua is cut off, disturbances at Panama have occurred to obstruct, temporarily at least, that by the way of New Granada, involving the sacrifice of the lives and property of citizens of the United States. A special commissioner has been dispatched to Panama to investigate the facts of this occurrence with a view particularly to the redress of parties aggrieved. But measures of another class will be demanded for the future security of interoceanic communication by this as by the other routes of the Isthmus.

It would be difficult to suggest a single object of interest, external or internal, more important to the United States than the maintenance of the communication, by land and sea, between the Atlantic and Pacific States and Territories of the Union It is a material element of the national integrity and sovereignty.

I have adopted such precautionary measures and have taken such action for the purpose of affording security to the several transit routes of Central America and to the persons and property of citizens of the United States connected with or using the same as are within my constitutional power and as existing circumstances have seemed to demand. Should these measures prove inadequate to the object, that fact will be communicated to Congress with such recommendations as the exigency of the case may indicate.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



EXECUTIVE OFFICE,

Washington, May 16, 1856.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I communicate to Congress a report from the Secretary of the Interior, containing estimates of appropriations required in the fulfillment of treaty stipulations with certain Indian tribes, and recommend that the appropriations asked for be made in the manner therein suggested.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, May 19, 1856.

To the House of Representatives:

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 7th ultimo, requesting the President "to communicate what information he may possess in regard to citizens of the United States being engaged in the slave trade, or in the transportation in American ships of coolies from China to Cuba and other countries with the intention of placing or continuing them in a state of slavery or servitude, and whether such traffic is not, in his opinion, a violation of the spirit of existing treaties, rendering those engaged in it liable to indictment for piracy; and especially that he be requested to communicate to this House the facts and circumstances attending the shipment from China of some 500 coolies in the ship Sea Witch, of the city of New York, lately wrecked on the coast of Cuba," I transmit the accompanying report of the Secretary of State.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, May 20, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit a copy of and extracts from dispatches of the late minister of the United States at London, and of his correspondence with Lord Clarendon which accompanied them, relative to the enlistment of soldiers for the British army within the United States by agents of the Government of Great Britain. These dispatches have been received since my message to the Senate upon the subject of the 2th of February last.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, May 22, 1856.

To the House of Representatives:

I communicate herewith a report from the Secretary of War, in response to a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 12th instant, requesting me to inform the House "whether United States soldiers have been employed in the Territory of Kansas to arrest persons charged with a violation of certain supposed laws enacted by a supposed legislature assembled at Shawnee Mission."

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, May 29, 1856.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I have ceased to hold intercourse with the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland near this Government.

In making communication of this fact it has been deemed by me proper also to lay before Congress the considerations of indispensable public duty which have led to the adoption of a measure of so much importance. They appear in the documents herewith transmitted to both Houses.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, May 29, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

In further answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 17th of January last, requesting a copy of any official correspondence not previously communicated touching the construction and purport of the convention between the United States and Great Britain of the 19th of April, 1850, I transmit a copy of an instruction of the 24th instant from the Secretary of State to the minister of the United States at London.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, June 3, 1856.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

I herewith communicate a letter of the 26th instant from the Secretary of the Interior, and accompanying papers, relative to the conflict of jurisdiction between the Federal and Cherokee courts and the inadequacy of protection against the intrusion of improper persons into the Cherokee country, and recommend the subject to the consideration of Congress.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, June 3, 1856.

To the House of Representatives:

I transmit a report[59] from the Secretary of State, in answer to a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 29th ultimo.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.

[Footnote 59: Stating that no information relative to the action of the leading powers of Europe on the subject of privateering has been officially communicated by any foreign government.]



WASHINGTON, June 4, 1856.

To the House of Representatives:

In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 8th of last month, requesting information in regard to a contemplated imposition of additional duties on American leaf tobacco by the Zollverein or Commercial Union of the German States, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, to whom the resolution was referred.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, June 13, 1856.

To the House of Representatives:

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 18th of February last, requesting me to communicate to the House "the report of Captain E.B. Boutwell, and all the documents accompanying it, relative to the operations of the United States sloop of war John Adams, under his command, at the Fejee Islands in the year 1855," I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of the Navy.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, June 18, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying documents,[60] in answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 16th instant.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.

[Footnote 60: Instructions to Mr Buchanan, late minister to England, on the subject of free ships making free goods, and letter from Mr. Buchanan to Lord Clarendon on the same subject.]



WASHINGTON, June 20, 1856.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

I communicate herewith a letter from the Secretary of the Interior and accompanying papers, respecting the sum of $16,024.80 now in the hands of the agent of the Choctaw Indians, being a balance remaining from the sales of Choctaw orphan reservations under the nineteenth article of the treaty of 1830, and commend the subject to the favorable consideration of Congress.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, June 23, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a convention for the mutual delivery of criminals fugitives from justice in certain cases, and for other purposes, concluded at The Hague on the 29th ultimo between the United States and His Majesty the King of the Netherlands.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, July 3, 1856.

To the House of Representatives of the United States:

In response to a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 18th ultimo, requesting me to inform the House "what measures, if any, have been taken to carry out the provisions of a late act of Congress authorizing the President to contract with Hiram Powers, the great American sculptor, now in Italy, for some work of art for the new Capitol, and appropriating $25,000 for that purpose," I transmit herewith copies of three letters—one from Mr. Powers to Hon. Edward Everett and two from myself to the same gentleman.

Since the date of my letter of July 24, 1855, I have communicated with Mr. Everett upon the subject verbally and in writing, and the final proposition on my part, resulting therefrom, will be found in the accompanying extract of a letter dated June 5, 1856.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, July 7 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 6th ultimo, respecting the location of the District armory upon the Mall in this city, I transmit the accompanying report from the Secretary of War.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, July 7, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a convention for the mutual delivery of criminals fugitives from justice between the United States and Austria, signed in this city on the 3d instant.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, July 8, 1856.

To the House of Representatives:

I communicate herewith a report of the Secretary of War, in reply to a resolution of the House of the 25th ultimo, "on the subject of Indian hostilities in Oregon and Washington Territories."

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, July 11, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

In reply to a resolution of the Senate of May 23, requesting a "detailed statement of the sums which have been paid to newspapers published in Washington for advertisements or other printing published or executed under the orders or by authority of the several Departments since the 4th day of March, 1853," I communicate herewith reports from the several Departments.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, July 15, 1856.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit a copy of a letter of November 27, 1854, from the commissioner of the United States in China, and of the regulations, orders, and decrees which accompanied it, for such revision thereof as Congress may deem expedient, pursuant to the sixth section of the act approved August 11, 1848.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



EXECUTIVE OFFICE,

Washington, July 21, 1856.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

I communicate to Congress herewith a letter from the Postmaster-General and a copy of a conditional contract entered into under instructions from me for the purchase of a lot and building thereon for a post-office in the city of Philadelphia, together with a copy of a report of Edward Clark, architect of the Patent Office building, in relation to the site and building selected, and recommend that an appropriation of $250,000 be made to complete the purchase, and also an appropriation of $50,000 to make the required alterations and furnish the necessary cases, boxes, etc., to fit it up for a city post-office.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, July 22, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a treaty of friendship, commerce, navigation, and extradition between the United States and the Republic of Chili, signed at Santiago, in that Republic, on the 27th of May last.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, July 24, 1856.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I herewith present to Congress a copy of "minutes of a council held at Fort Pierre, Nebraska Territory, on the 1st day of March, 1856, by Brevet Brigadier-General William S. Harney, United States Army, commanding the Sioux expedition, with the delegations from nine of the bands of the Sioux;" also copies of sundry papers upon the same subject.

Regarding the stipulations between General Harney and the nine bands of the Sioux as just and desirable, both for the United States and for the Indians, I respectfully recommend an appropriation by Congress of the sum of $100,000 to enable the Government to execute the stipulations entered into by General Harney.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, July 29, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I herewith lay before the Senate, for its constitutional action thereon, a treaty made and concluded at Muckl-te-oh, or Point Elliott, by Isaac I. Stevens, governor and superintendent of Indian affairs of Washington Territory, on the part of the United States, and chiefs, headmen, and delegates of the Dwamish, Suquamish, Sk-tahl-mish, Sam-ahmish, Smalh-kamish, Skope-ahmish, St-kah-mish, Snoqualmoo, Skai-wha-mish, N'Quentl-ma-mish, Sk-tah-le-jum, Stoluck-wha-mish, Sno-ho-mish, Ska-git, Kik-i-allus, Swin-a-mish, Squin-ah-mish, Sah-ku-mehu, Noo-wha-ha, Nook-wa-chah-mish, Mee-see-qua-guilch, Cho-bah-ah-bish, and other allied and subordinate tribes and bands of Indians in said Territory.

Also a treaty made and concluded at Hahd Skus, or Point no Point, on the 26th day of January, 1855, by and between the same commissioner on the part of the United States and the chiefs, headmen, and delegates of the different villages of the S'Klallams Indians in said Territory.

Also a treaty made and concluded at Neah Bay on the 31st day of January, 1855, by and between the same commissioner on the part of the United States and the chiefs, headmen, and delegates of the same villages of the Makah tribe of Indians in the said Territory.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, July 29, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I herewith lay before the Senate, for its constitutional action thereon, a treaty made and concluded by and between Isaac I. Stevens, governor and superintendent of Indian affairs of the Territory of Washington, on the part of the United States, and the chiefs, headmen, and delegates of the different tribes and bands of the Qui-nai-elt and Quil-leh-ute Indians in Washington Territory.

Said treaty was made on the 1st of July, 1855, and 25th January, 1856.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, July 29, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I herewith lay before the Senate, for its constitutional action thereon, a treaty made and concluded at the treaty ground at Hell Gate, in the Bitter Root Valley, on the 16th day of July, 1855, by and between Isaac I. Stevens, governor and superintendent of Indian affairs for the Territory of Washington, on the part of the United States, and the chiefs, headmen, and delegates of the confederate tribes of the Flathead, Koo-tenay, and Upper Pend d'Oreilles Indians, who by the treaty are constituted a nation, under the name of the Flat Head Nation.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, July 29, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I herewith lay before the Senate, for its constitutional action thereon, a treaty made and concluded at Wasco, near the Dalles of the Columbia River, in Oregon Territory, by and between Joel Palmer, superintendent of Indian affairs, on the part of the United States, and the chiefs and headmen of the confederated tribes and bands of Walla-Wallas and Was-coes Indians residing in middle Oregon. Said treaty was made on the 25th day of June, 1855.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, July 29, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I herewith lay before the Senate, for its constitutional action thereon, a treaty made and concluded on the 21st day of December, 1855, by and between Joel Palmer, superintendent of Indian affairs, on the part of the United States, and the chiefs and headmen of the Mo-lal-la-las, or Molel, tribe of Indians in Oregon Territory.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, July 29, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I herewith lay before the Senate, for its constitutional action thereon, a treaty made on the 9th of June, 1855, by and between Isaac I. Stevens, governor and superintendent of Indian affairs of the Territory of Washington, and Joel Palmer, superintendent of Indian affairs of the Territory of Oregon, on the part of the United States, and the chiefs, headmen, and delegates of the Walla-Wallas, Cayuses, and Umatilla tribes and bands of Indians, who for the purposes of the treaty are to be regarded as one nation. Also a treaty made on the 11th of June, 1855, by and between the same commissioners on the part of the United States and the chiefs, headmen, and delegates of the Nez Perce tribe of Indians.

The lands ceded by the treaties herewith lie partly in Washington and partly in Oregon Territories.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, July 29, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I herewith lay before the Senate, for its constitutional action thereon, a treaty made and concluded at Camp Stevens, Walla Walla Valley, on the 9th day of June, 1855, by and between Isaac I. Stevens, governor of and superintendent of Indian affairs for Washington Territory, on the part of the United States, and the head chiefs, chiefs, headmen, and delegates of the Yakama, Palouse, Pisquouse, Wenatshapam, Klikatat, Klin-quit, Kow-was-say-ee, Li-ay-was, Skin-pah, Wish-ham, Shyiks, Oche-chotes, Kah-milt-pah, and Se-ap-cat tribes and bands of Indians, who for the purposes of the treaty are to be known as the "Yakama" Nation of Indians.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, July 30, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

By the sixteenth article of the treaty of 4th March, 1853, between the United States and the Republic of Paraguay, as amended by a resolution of the Senate of the 1st May, 1854, it was provided that the exchange of the ratifications of that instrument should be effected within twenty-four months of its date; that is, on or before the 4th March, 1855.

From circumstances, however, over which the Government of the United States had no control, but which are not supposed to indicate any indisposition on the part of the Paraguayan Government to consummate the final formalities necessary to give full force and validity to the treaty, the exchange of ratifications has not yet been effected.

A similar condition exists in regard to the treaty between the United States and the Oriental Republic of Uruguay of the 28th August, 1852. The Senate, by a resolution of 13th June, 1854, extended the time within which the ratifications of that treaty might be exchanged to thirty months from its date. That limit, however, has expired, and the exchange has not been effected.

I deem it expedient to direct a renewal of negotiations with the Governments referred to, with a view to secure the exchange of the ratifications of these important conventions. But as the limit prescribed by the Senate in both cases has passed by, it is necessary that authority be conferred on the Executive for that purpose.

I consequently recommend that the Senate sanction an exchange of the ratifications of the treaties above mentioned at any time which may be deemed expedient by the President within three years from the date of the resolution to that effect.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, August 1, 1856.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

I communicate to Congress herewith the report of Major W.H. Emory, United States commissioner, on the survey of the boundary between the United States and the Republic of Mexico, referred to in the accompanying letter of this date from the Secretary of the Interior.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



EXECUTIVE OFFICE,

Washington, August 4, 1856.

To the House of Representatives of the United States:

I herewith lay before the House of Representatives a report of the Secretary of War, in reply to a resolution of the House requesting "information in regard to the construction of the Capitol and Post-Office extensions."

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



EXECUTIVE OFFICE,

August 4, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I communicate herewith a report of the Secretary of War, in response to a resolution of the Senate calling for information in relation to instructions "issued to any military officer in command in Kansas to disperse any unarmed meeting of the people of that Territory, or to prevent by military power any assemblage of the people of that Territory."

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, August 4, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 1st instant, requesting a copy of papers touching recent events in the Territory of Washington, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents by which it was accompanied.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



EXECUTIVE OFFICE,

Washington, August 6, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 28th ultimo, requesting the President to inform the Senate in relation to any application "by the governor of the State of California to maintain the laws and peace of the said State against the usurped authority of an organization calling itself the committee of vigilance in the city and county of San Francisco," and also "to lay before the Senate whatever information he may have in respect to the proceedings of the said committee of vigilance," I transmit the accompanying reports from the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Navy.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, August 8, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I herewith submit to the Senate, for its constitutional action thereon, a treaty negotiated with the Creek and Seminole Indians, together with the accompanying papers.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, August 9, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

With a message of the 23d of June last I transmitted, for the consideration of the Senate, a convention for the mutual delivery of criminals fugitives from justice in certain cases, and for other purposes, concluded at The Hague on the 29th of May last between the United States and His Majesty the King of the Netherlands. Deeming it advisable to withdraw that instrument from the consideration of the Senate, I request that it may be returned to me.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation, and for the surrender of fugitive criminals, between the United States and the Republic of Venezuela, signed at Caracas on the 10th of July last.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.

AUGUST 9, 1856.



WASHINGTON, August 11, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 3d March, 1855, requesting information relative to the proceedings of the commissioners for the adjustment of claims under the convention with Great Britain of the 8th of February, 1853, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, to whom the resolution was referred.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, August 11, 1856.

To the House of Representatives of the United States:

I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of War, in reply to a resolution of the House of Representatives of May 26, 1856, in relation to the Capitol and Post-Office extensions.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, August 12, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying papers,[61] in answer to the resolution of the Senate of yesterday.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.

[Footnote 61: Relating to "The declaration concerning maritime law," adopted by the plenipotentiaries of Great Britain, Austria, France, Prussia, Russia, Sardinia, and Turkey at Paris April 16, 1856.]



WASHINGTON, August 12, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 7th instant, in relation to the refusal of the Government of Honduras to receive a commercial agent from this country, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents which accompanied it.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, August 13, 1856.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith a communication from the Secretary of War, inclosing a report of Captain M.C. Meigs, stating that the sum of $750,000 will be necessary for the prosecution of the Capitol extension until the close of the next session of Congress, and recommend that that amount may be appropriated.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, August 15, 1856.

To the House of Representatives:

In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 4th instant, requesting a copy of letters and papers touching the pardons or remission of the imprisonment of Daniel Drayton and Edward Sayres in August, 1852, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, to whom the resolution was referred.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, August 15, 1856.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of War, in relation to an error in a communication[62] of Captain Meigs.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.

[Footnote 62: Relating to the Capitol extension.]



WASHINGTON, August 16, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 11th instant, in relation to the public accounts of John C. Fremont, I transmit the accompanying report from the Secretary of the Treasury, to whom the resolution was referred.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, August 16, 1856.

To the House of Representatives:

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 17th April, 1856, requesting me to have prepared and presented to the House of Representatives "a statement showing the appropriations made by the Thirty-first, Thirty-second, and Thirty-third Congresses, distinguishing the appropriations made at each session of each Congress, distinguishing also the appropriations made on the recommendations of the President, heads of Departments, or heads of bureaus from those that were made without such recommendation, and showing what expenditures have been made by the Government in each fiscal year, commencing with the 1st day of July, 1850, and ending on the 30th day of June, 1855; and also what, if any, defalcations have occurred from the 30th day of June, 1850, to the 1st day of July, 1855, and the amount of such defalcations severally, and such other information as may be in his power bearing upon the matters above mentioned," I submit the following reports from the Secretaries of the Treasury, War, Navy, and Interior Departments and the Postmaster-General.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



VETO MESSAGES.

WASHINGTON, May 19, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I return herewith to the Senate, in which it originated, the bill entitled "An act to remove obstructions to navigation in the mouth of the Mississippi River at the Southwest Pass and Pass a l'Outre," which proposes to appropriate a sum of money, to be expended under the superintendence of the Secretary of War, "for the opening and keeping open ship channels of sufficient capacity to accommodate the wants of commerce through the Southwest Pass and Pass a l'Outre, leading from the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico."

In a communication addressed by me to the two Houses of Congress on the 30th of December, 1854, my views were exhibited in full on the subject of the relation of the General Government to internal improvements. I set forth on that occasion the constitutional impediments, which in my mind are insuperable, to the prosecution of a system of internal improvements by means of appropriations from the Treasury of the United States, more especially the consideration that the Constitution does not confer on the General Government any express power to make such appropriations, that they are not a necessary and proper incident of any of the express powers, and that the assumption of authority on the part of the Federal Government to commence and carry on a general system of internal improvements, while exceptionable for the want of constitutional power, is in other respects prejudicial to the several interests and inconsistent with the true relation to one another of the Union and of the individual States.

These objections apply to the whole system of internal improvements, whether such improvements consist of works on land or in navigable waters, either of the seacoast or of the interior lakes or rivers.

I have not been able, after the most careful reflection, to regard the bill before me in any other light than as part of a general system of internal improvements, and therefore feel constrained to submit it, with these objections, to the reconsideration of Congress.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, May 19, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I return herewith to the Senate, in which it originated, a bill entitled "An act making an appropriation for deepening the channel over the St. Clair flats, in the State of Michigan," and submit it for reconsideration, because it is, in my judgment, liable to the objections to the prosecution of internal improvements by the General Government which have already been presented by me in previous communications to Congress.

In considering this bill under the restriction that the power of Congress to construct a work of internal improvement is limited to cases in which the work is manifestly needful and proper for the execution of some one or more of the powers expressly delegated to the General Government, I have not been able to find for the proposed expenditure any such relation, unless it be to the power to provide for the common defense and to maintain an army and navy. But a careful examination of the subject, with the aid of information officially received since my last annual message was communicated to Congress, has convinced me that the expenditure of the sum proposed would serve no valuable purpose as contributing to the common defense, because all which could be effected by it would be to afford a channel of 12 feet depth and of so temporary a character that unless the work was done immediately before the necessity for its use should arise it could not be relied on for the vessels of even the small draft the passage of which it would permit.

Under existing circumstances, therefore, it can not be considered as a necessary means for the common defense, and is subject to those objections which apply to other works designed to facilitate commerce and contribute to the convenience and local prosperity of those more immediately concerned—an object not to be constitutionally and justly attained by the taxation of the people of the whole country.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, May 22, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

Having considered the bill, which originated in the Senate, entitled "An act making an appropriation for deepening the channel over the flats of the St. Marys River, in the State of Michigan," it is herewith returned without my approval.

The appropriation proposed by this bill is not, in my judgment, a necessary means for the execution of any of the expressly granted powers of the Federal Government. The work contemplated belongs to a general class of improvements, embracing roads, rivers, and canals, designed to afford additional facilities for intercourse and for the transit of commerce, and no reason has been suggested to my mind for excepting it from the objections which apply to appropriations by the General Government for deepening the channels of rivers wherever shoals or other obstacles impede their navigation, and thus obstruct communication and impose restraints upon commerce within the States or between the States or Territories of the Union. I therefore submit it to the reconsideration of Congress, on account of the same objections which have been presented in my previous communications on the subject of internal improvements.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, August 11, 1856.

To the House of Representatives:

I return herewith to the House of Representatives, in which it originated, a bill entitled "An act for continuing the improvement of the Des Moines Rapids, in the Mississippi River," and submit it for reconsideration, because it is, in my judgment, liable to the objections to the prosecution of internal improvements by the General Government set forth at length in a communication addressed by me to the two Houses of Congress on the 30th day of December, 1854, and in other subsequent messages upon the same subject, to which on this occasion I respectfully refer.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



WASHINGTON, August 14, 1856.

To the Senate of the United States:

I return herewith to the Senate, in which it originated, a bill entitled "An act for the improvement of the navigation of the Patapsco River and to render the port of Baltimore accessible to the war steamers of the United States," and submit it for reconsideration, because it is, in my judgment, liable to the objections to the prosecution of internal improvements by the General Government set forth at length in a communication addressed by me to the two Houses of Congress on the 30th day of December, 1854, and other subsequent messages upon the same subject, to which on this occasion I respectfully refer.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.



PROCLAMATIONS.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas information has been received by me that sundry persons, citizens of the United States and others resident therein, are preparing, within the jurisdiction of the same, to enlist, or enter themselves, or to hire or retain others to participate in military operations within the State of Nicaragua:

Now, therefore, I, Franklin Pierce, President of the United States, do warn all persons against connecting themselves with any such enterprise or undertaking, as being contrary to their duty as good citizens and to the laws of their country and threatening to the peace of the United States.

I do further admonish all persons who may depart from the United States, either singly or in numbers, organized or unorganized, for any such purpose, that they will thereby cease to be entitled to the protection of this Government.

I exhort all good citizens to discountenance and prevent any such disreputable and criminal undertaking as aforesaid, charging all officers, civil and military, having lawful power in the premises, to exercise the same for the purpose of maintaining the authority and enforcing the laws of the United States.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed to these presents.

[SEAL.]

Done at the city of Washington, the 8th day of December, 1855, and of the Independence of the United States the eightieth.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.

By the President: W.L. MARCY, Secretary of State.



BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas on the second section of an act of the Congress of the United States approved the 5th day of August, 1854, entitled "An act to carry into effect a treaty between the United States and Great Britain signed on the 5th day of June, 1854," it is provided that whenever the island of Newfoundland shall give its consent to the application of the stipulations and provisions of the said treaty to that Province and the legislature thereof and the Imperial Parliament shall pass the necessary laws for that purpose, grain, flour, and breadstuffs of all kinds; animals of all kinds; fresh, smoked, and salted meats; cotton wool, seeds and vegetables, undried fruits, dried fruits, fish of all kinds, products of fish and all other creatures living in the water, poultry, eggs; hides, furs, skins, or tails, undressed; stone or marble in its crude or unwrought state, slate, butter, cheese, tallow, lard, horns, manures, ores of metals of all kinds, coal, pitch, tar, turpentine, ashes; timber and lumber of all kinds, round, hewed, and sawed, unmanufactured in whole or in part; firewood; plants, shrubs, and trees; pelts, wool, fish oil, rice, broom corn, and bark; gypsum, ground or unground; hewn or wrought or unwrought burr or grind stones, dyestuffs; flax, hemp, and tow, unmanufactured; unmanufactured tobacco, and rags—shall be admitted free of duty from that Province into the United States from and after the date of a proclamation by the President of the United States declaring that he has satisfactory evidence that the said Province has consented in a due and proper manner to have the provisions of the treaty extended to it and to allow the United States the full benefits of all the stipulations therein contained; and

Whereas I have satisfactory evidence that the Province of Newfoundland has consented in a due and proper manner to have the provisions of the aforesaid treaty extended to it and to allow the United States the full benefits of all the stipulations therein contained, so far as they are applicable to that Province:

Now, therefore, I, Franklin Pierce, President of the United States of America, do hereby declare and proclaim that from this date the articles enumerated in the preamble of this proclamation, being the growth and produce of the British North American colonies, shall be admitted from the aforesaid Province of Newfoundland into the United States free of duty so long as the aforesaid treaty shall remain in force.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed to these presents.

[SEAL.]

Done at the city of Washington, the 12th day of December, A.D. 1855, and of the Independence of the United States the eightieth.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.

By the President: W.L. MARCY, Secretary of State.



BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas indications exist that public tranquillity and the supremacy of law in the Territory of Kansas are endangered by the reprehensible acts or purposes of persons, both within and without the same, who propose to direct and control its political organization by force. It appearing that combinations have been formed therein to resist the execution of the Territorial laws, and thus in effect subvert by violence all present constitutional and legal authority; it also appearing that persons residing without the Territory, but near its borders, contemplate armed intervention in the affairs thereof; it also appearing that other persons, inhabitants of remote States, are collecting money, engaging men, and providing arms for the same purpose; and it further appearing that combinations within the Territory are endeavoring, by the agency of emissaries and otherwise, to induce individual States of the Union to intervene in the affairs thereof, in violation of the Constitution of the United States; and