entertained that their future intercourse with the United States will be placed upon a more just and liberal basis. The Florida archives have not yet been selected and delivered. Recent orders have been sent to the agent of the United States at Havannah to return with all that he can obtain, so that they may be in Washington before the session of the supreme court, to be used in the legal questions there pending, to which the government is a party. Internal tranquillity is happily restored to Portugal. The distracted state of the country rendered unavoidable the postponement of a final payment of the just claims of our citizens. Our diplo matic relations will be soon resumed, and the long subsisting friendship with that power affords the strongest guarantee that the balance due will receive prompt attention.

"The first instalment due under the convention of indemnity with the king of the Two Sicilies, has been duly received, and an offer been made to extinguish the whole by a prompt payment-an offer I did not consider myself authorized to accept, as the indemnification provided is the exclusive property of individual citizens of the United States. The original adjustment of our claims, and the anxiety displayed to fulfil at once the stipulations made for the payment of them, are highly honourable to the government of the Two Sicilies. When it is recollected that they were the result of the injustice of an intrusive power, temporarily dominant in its territory, a repugnance to acknowledge and to pay which would have been neither unnatural nor unexpected, the circumstance cannot fail to exalt its character for justice and good faith in the eyes VOL. LXXVI.

of all nations. The treaty of amity and commerce between the United States and Belgium, brought to your notice in my last annual message, is sanctioned by the senate, but the ratifications of which had not been exchanged, owing to a delay in its reception at Brussels, and a subsequent absence of the Belgian minister of foreign affairs, has been, after mature deliberation, finally disavowed by that government, as inconsistent with the powers and instructions given to the minister who negociated it. This disavowal was entirely unexpected, as the liberal principles embodied in the convention, and which form the groundwork of the objections to it, were perfectly satisfactory to the Belgian representative, and were supposed to be not only within the powers granted, but expressly conformable to the instructions given to him. An offer, not yet accepted, has been made by Belgium to renew negotiations for a treaty less liberal in its provisions on questions of general maritime law. Our newly established relations with the Sublime Porte promise to be useful to our commerce, and satisfactory in every respect to this government. Our intercourse with the Barbary Powers continues without important change, except that the present political state of Algiers has induced me to terminate the residence there of a salaried consul, and to substitute an ordinary consulate, to remain as long as the place continues in the possession of France. Our first treaty with one of those powers, the emperor of Morocco, was formed in 1786, and was limited to 50 years. That period has almost expired. I shall take measures to renew it with the greatest satisfaction, as its stipulations are just and 2 A

liberal, and have been, with mutual fidelity and reciprocal advantage, scrupulously fulfilled.

"Intestine dissensions have too frequently occurred to mar the prosperity, interrupt the commerce, and distract the governments of most of the nations of this hemisphere, which have separated themselves from Spain. When a firm and permanent understanding with the parent country shall have produced a formal acknowledgment of their independence, and the idea of danger from that quarter can be no longer entertained, the friends of freedom expect that those countries, so favoured by nature, will be distinguished for their love of justice and their devotion to those peaceful arts, the assiduous cultivation of which confers honour upon nations, and gives value to human life. In the mean time, I confidently hope that the apprehensions entertained that some of the people of these luxuriant regions may be tempted, in a moment of unworthy distrust of their own capacity for the enjoyment of liberty, to commit the too common error of purchasing present repose by bestowing on some favourite leaders the fatal gift of irresponsible power, will not be realized. With all these governments, and with that of the empire of Brazil, no unexpected changes in our relations have occurred in the present year. Frequent causes of that just complaint have arisen upon the part of the citizens of the United States-sometimes from the irregular action of the constituted subordinate authorities of the maritime regions, and sometimes from the leaders or partisans of those in arms against the established government. In all cases representations have been or will be made, and as soon as their poli

tical affairs are in a settled position, it is expected that our friendly remonstrances will be followed by adequate redress. The government of Mexico made known in Decem ber last the appointment of commissioners and a surveyor, on its part, to run, in conjunction with ours, the boundary line between its territories and the United States, and excused the delay for the rea. son anticipated-the prevalence of civil war. The commissioners and surveyors not having met within the time stipulated by the treaty, a new arrangement became necessary, and our chargé d'affaires was instructed in January last to negociate in Mexico an article additional to the pre-existing treaty, This instruction was acknowledged, and no difficulty was apprehended in the accomplishment of that object. By information just received, that additional article to the treaty will be obtained, and transmitted to this country as soon as it can receive the ratification of the Mexican Congress. The re-union of the three states of New Granada, Venezuela, and Ecuador, forming the republic of Columbia, seems every day to become more improbable. The commissioners of the two first are understood to be now negociating a just division of the obligations contracted by them when united under one government. The civil war in Ecuador, it is believed, has prevented even the appointment of a commissioner on its part. I propose at an early day to submit, in the proper form, the appointment of a diplomatic agent to Venezuela: the importance of the commerce of that country to the United States, and the large claims of our citizens upon the government arising before and since the division of Columbia, rendering it, in my judgment, im

proper longer to delay this step. Our representative to Central America, Peru, and Brazil, are either at or on their way to their respective posts. From the Argentine Republic, from which a minister was expected to this government, nothing further has been heard. Occasion has been taken, on the departure of a new consul to Buenos Ayres, to remind that government that its long delayed minister, whose appointment had been made known to us, had not arrived.

"It becomes my unpleasant duty to inform you, that this pacific and highly gratifying picture of our foreign relations, does not include those with France at this time. It is not possible that any government and people could be more sincerely desirous of conciliating a just and friendly intercourse with another nation, than are those of the United States with their ancient ally and friend. This disposition is founded as well on the most grateful and honourable recollections, associated with our struggle for independence, as upon a well-grounded conviction that it is consonant with the true policy of both. The people of the United States could not, therefore, see without the deepest regret, even a temporary interruption of the friendly relations between the two countries a regret which would, I am sure, be greatly aggravated if there should turn out to be any reasonable ground for attributing such a result to any act of omission or commission on our part. I derive, therefore, the highest satisfaction from being able to assure you, that the whole course of this government has been characterized by a spirit so conciliatory and forbearing, as to make it impossible

that our justice and moderation should be questioned, whatever may be the consequences of a longer perseverance on the part of the French Government in her omission to satisfy the conceded claims of our citizens.

"The history of the accumulated and unprovoked aggressions upon our commerce, committed by authority of the existing Govern ments of France, between the years 1800 and 1817, has been rendered too painfully familiar to Americans to make its repetition either necessary or desirable. It will be sufficient here to remark, that there has for many years been scarcely a single administration of the French Government by whom the justice and legality of the claims of our citizens to indemnity were not, to a very considerable extent, admitted; and yet near a quarter of a century has been wasted in ineffectual negotiations to secure it.

"Deeply sensible of the injurious effects resulting from this state of things upon the interests and character of both nations, I regarded it as among my first duties to cause one more effort to be made to satisfy France that a just and liberal settlement of our claims was as well due to her own honour as to their own incontestable validity. The negotiation for this purpose was commenced by the late Government of France, and was prosecuted with such success, as to leave no reasonable ground to doubt that a settlement of a character quite as liberal as that which was subsequently made would have been effected, had not the revolution by which the negotiation was cut off taken place. The discussions were resumed with the present government, and the result showed

we were not wrong in supposing, that an event by which the two governments were made to approach each other so much nearer in their political principles, and by which the motives for the most liberal and friendly intercourse were so greatly multiplied, could exercise no other than a salutary influence upon the negotiation. After the most deliberate and thorough examination of the whole subject, a treaty between the two governments was concluded and signed at Paris on the 4th of July, 1831, by which it was stipulated that "the French government, in order to liberate itself from all the reclamations preferred against it by the citizens of the United States, for unlawful seizures, captures, sequestrations, confiscations, or destruction of their vessels, cargoes, or other property, engages to pay a sum of 25,000,000 francs to the United States, who shall distribute it among those entitled, in the manner, and according to the rules it shall determine; and it was also stipulated on the part of the French Government, that this 25,000,000 francs should "be paid at Paris in six annual instalments of 4,166,666 francs, and sixty-six centimes each, into the hands of such person or persons as shall be authorized by the government of the United States to receive it:" the first instalment to be paid "at the expiration of one year next following the exchange of the ratifications of this convention, and the others at the successive intervals of a year, one after another, till the whole shall be paid. To the amount of each of the said instalments shall be added interest at four per centum thereupon, as upon the other instalments then

remaining unpaid, the said interest to be computed from the day of the exchange of the present convention."

"It was also stipulated on the part of the United States, for the purpose of being completely liberated from all the reclamations presented by France on behalf of its citizens, that the sum of 1,500,000 francs should be paid to the government of France in six annual instalments to be deducted out of the annual sums which France had agreed to pay, interest thereupon being in like manner computed from the day of the exchange of the ratifications. In addition to this stipulation important advantages were secured to France by the following articlenamely: "The wines of France, from and after the exchange of the ratification of the present convention, shall be admitted to consumption in the states of the Union at duties which shall not exceed the following rates by the gallon (such as it is used at present for wines in the United States)-to wit, six cents for red wines in casks; ten cents for white wines in casks; and twentytwo cents for wines of all sorts in bottles. The proportions existing between the duties on French wines thus reduced, and the general rates of the tariff, which went into operation the 1st of January, 1829, shall be maintained, in case the government of the United States should think proper to diminish those general rates in a new tariff." In consideration of this stipulation, which shall be binding on the United States for ten years, the French government abandons the reclamations which it had formed in relation to the