Chapter 41

The protocol contains nothing from which it can be inferred that the assignee could rightfully demand the payment of the money in case the consideration should fail which is stated on the face of the obligation.

With this view of the whole protocol, and considering that the explanations which it contained were in accordance with the treaty, I did not deem it necessary to take any action upon the subject. Had it varied from the terms of the treaty as amended by the Senate, although it would even then have been a nullity in itself, yet duty might have required that I should make this fact known to the Mexican Government, This not being the case, I treated it in the same manner I would have done had these explanations been made verbally by the commissioners to the Mexican minister for foreign affairs and communicated in a dispatch to the State Department.

JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, _February 9, 1849_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 6th instant, requesting the President to cause to be laid before that body, in "executive or open session, in his discretion, any instructions given to Ambrose H. Sevier and Nathan Clifford, commissioned as ministers plenipotentiary on the part of the United States to the Government of Mexico, or to either of said ministers, prior to the ratification by the Government of Mexico of the treaty of peace between the United States and that Republic," and certain correspondence and other papers specified in the said resolution, I communicate herewith a report from the Secretary of State, together with copies of the documents called for.

Having on the 8th instant, in compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives in its terms more comprehensive than that of the Senate, communicated these and all other papers appertaining to the same subject, with a message to that House, this communication is made to the Senate in "open" and not in "executive" session.

JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, _February 12, 1849_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I communicate herewith a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, with the accompanying documents, in answer to the resolution of the Senate of December 28, 1848, requesting "to be informed of the number of vessels annually employed in the Coast Survey, and the annual cost thereof, and out of what fund they were paid; also the number of persons annually employed in said Survey who were not of the Army and Navy of the United States; also the amount of money received by the United States for maps and charts made under such Survey and sold under the act of 1844."

JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, _February 14, 1849_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of War, together with the accompanying papers, in compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 12th instant, requesting the President to communicate to that body the proceedings under the act of Congress of the last session to compensate R.M. Johnson for the erection of certain buildings for the use of the Choctaw academy; also the evidence of the cost of said buildings.

JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1849_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I communicate herewith a report of the Secretary of State, together with the accompanying documents, in compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 23d ultimo, requesting the President "to transmit to the Senate, so far as is consistent with the public service, any correspondence between the Department of State and the Spanish authorities in the island of Cuba relating to the imprisonment in said island of William Henry Rush, a citizen of the United States."

JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, _February 27, 1849_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I communicate herewith a report from the Secretary of State, in compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 3d ultimo, requesting the President to communicate to the Senate a list of all the treaties of commerce and navigation between the United States and foreign nations conferring upon the vessels of such nations the right of trading between the United States and the rest of the world in the productions of every country upon the same terms with American vessels, with the date of the proclamation of such treaties; also a list of the proclamations conferring similar rights upon the vessels of foreign nations issued by the President of the United States under the provisions of the first section of the act entitled "An act in addition to an act entitled 'An act concerning discriminating duties on tonnage and impost and to equalize the duties on Prussian vessels and their cargoes,'" approved May 24, 1828.

JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, _March 2, 1849_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

I communicate herewith a report of the Secretary of State, together with the accompanying papers, in compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 23d of December, 1848, requesting the President "to cause to be transmitted to the House, if compatible with the public interest, the correspondence of George W. Gordon, late, and Gorham Parks, the present, consul of the United States at Rio de Janeiro, with the Department of State on the subject of the African slave trade; also any unpublished correspondence on the same subject by the Hon. Henry A. Wise, our late minister to Brazil."

JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, _March 2, 1849_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States:_

I communicate herewith a report of the Secretary of State, together with the accompanying papers, in compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 20th ultimo, requesting the President to communicate to that House a list of all consuls, vice-consuls, and commercial agents now in the service of the United States, their residence, distinguishing such as are citizens of the United States from such as are not, and to inform the said House whether regular returns of their fees and perquisites and the tonnage and commerce of the United States within their respective consulates or agencies have been regularly made by each, and to communicate the amount of such fees and perquisites for certain years therein specified, together with the number of vessels and amount of tonnage which entered and cleared within each of the consulates and agencies for the same period; also the number of seamen of the United States who have been provided for and sent home from each of the said consulates for the time aforesaid.

JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, _March 2, 1849_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I herewith transmit a communication from the Secretary of the Treasury, accompanying a report from the Solicitor of the Treasury presenting a view of the operations of that office since its organization.

JAMES K. POLK.

PROCLAMATIONS.

[From Senate Journal, Thirtieth Congress, second session, p. 349.]

WASHINGTON, _January 2, 1849_.

_To the Senators of the United States, respectively_.

SIR: Objects interesting to the United States requiring that the Senate should be in session on Monday, the 5th of March next, to receive and act upon such communications as may be made to it on the part of the Executive, your attention in the Senate Chamber, in this city, on that day at 10 o'clock in the forenoon is accordingly requested.

JAMES K. POLK.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States of the 10th January, 1849, entitled "An act to extend certain privileges to the town of Whitehall, in the State of New York," the President of the United States, on the recommendation of the Secretary of the Treasury, is authorized to extend to the town of Whitehall the same privileges as are conferred on certain ports named in the seventh section of an act entitled "An act allowing drawback upon foreign merchandise exported in the original packages to Chihuahua and Santa Fe, in Mexico, and to the British North American Provinces adjoining the United States," passed 3d March, 1845, in the manner prescribed by the proviso contained in said section; and

Whereas the Secretary of the Treasury has duly recommended to me the extension of the privileges of the law aforesaid to the port of Whitehall, in the collection district of Champlain, in the State of New York:

Now, therefore, I, James K. Polk, President of the United States of America, do hereby declare and proclaim that the port of Whitehall, in the collection district of Champlain, in the State of New York, is and shall be entitled to all the privileges extended to the other ports enumerated in the seventh section of the act aforesaid from and after the date of this proclamation.

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

[SEAL.]

Done at the city of Washington, this 2d day of March, A.D. 1849, and of the Independence of the United States of America the seventy-third.

JAMES K. POLK.

By the President: JAMES BUCHANAN, _Secretary of State_.