can ever consent to ratify any treaty containing the tenth article of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in favor of grantees of land in Texas or elsewhere." And again: "Should the Mexican government persist in retaining this article, then all prospect of immediate peace is ended; and of this you may give them an absolute assurance."

On this point the language of the protocol is free from ambiguity; but, if it were otherwise, is there any individual American or Mexican who would place such a construction upon it as to convert it into a vain attempt to revive this article which had been so often and so solemnly condemned? Surely no person could for one moment suppose that either the commissioners of the United States or the Mexican minister for foreign affairs ever entertained the purpose of thus setting at naught the deliberate decision of the president and senate, which had been communicated to the Mexican government with the assurance that their abandonment of this obnoxious article was essential to the restoration of peace.

But the meaning of the protocol is plain. It is simply that the nullification of this article was not intended to destroy valid legitimate titles to land which existed, and were in full force independently of the provisions and without the aid of this article. Notwithstanding it has been expunged from the treaty, these grants were to "preserve the legal value which they may possess." The refusal to revive grants which had become extinct was not to invalidate those which were in full force and vigor. That such was the clear understanding of the senate of the United States, and this in perfect accordance with the protocol, is manifest from the fact that, while they struck from the treaty this unjust article, they at the same time sanctioned and ratified the last paragraph of the eighth article of the treaty, which declares that, "in the said territories, property of every kind, now belonging to Mexicans not established there, shall be inviolably respected. The present owners, the heirs of these, and all Mexicans who may hereafter acquire said property by contract, shall enjoy, with respect to it, guaranties equally ample as if the same belonged to citizens of the United States."

Without any stipulation in the treaty to this effect, all such valid titles, under the Mexican government, would have been protected under the constitution and laws of the United States.

The third and last explanation contained in the protocol is, that "the government of the United States, by suppressing the concluding paragraph of article twelfth of the treaty, did not intend to deprive the Mexican republic of the free and unrestrained faculty of ceding, conveying, or transferring, at any time (as it may judge best), the sum of the twelve millions of dollars which the same government of the United States is to deliver in the places designated by the amended article."

The concluding paragraph of the original twelfth article, thus suppressed by the senate, is in the following language: "Certificates in proper form, for the said instalments respectively, in such sums as shall be desired by the Mexican government, and transferable by it, shall be delivered to the said government by that of the United States."

ous.

From this bare statement of facts, the meaning of the protocol is obviAlthough the senate had declined to create a government stock for the twelve millions of dollars, and issue transferable certificates for the amount, in such sums as the Mexican government might desire, yet they could not have intended thereby to deprive that government of the faculty which every creditor possesses of transferring for his own benefit the ob

ligation of his debtor, whatever this may be worth, according to his will and pleasure.

It can not be doubted, that the twelfth article of the treaty, as it now stands, contains a positive obligation, "in consideration of the extension acquired by the boundaries of the United States," to pay to the Mexican republic twelve millions of dollars, in four equal annual instalments of three millions each. This obligation may be assigned by the Mexican government to any person whatever; but the assignee in such case would stand in no better condition than the government. The amendment of the senate, prohibiting the issue of a government transferable stock for the amount, produces this effect and no more.

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 despatch to the state department.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

FEBRUARY 12, 1849.

To the Senate of the United States :—

I COMMUNICATE here with 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 the 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."

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

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 ult., requesting the president "to transmit to the senate, so far as is consistent with the public service, any correspondence be

tween the department of state and the Spanish authorities in the island of Cuba, relating to the imprisonment in said island of William Henry Bush, a citizen of the United States."

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

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 24th, 1828."

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

MARCH 2, 1849.

To the House of Representatives of the United States:

I COMMUNICATE herewith, a report of the secretary of state, togethe 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 consalates 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."

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK.

On the fourth of March, 1845, James K. Polk was inaugurated as president of the United States. A concourse of people seldom congregated in the city of Washington were present to witness the ceremony. The weather proved unfavorable. The morning was lowering; and before the procession reached the capitol it commenced raining, and continued wet during the day, marring the enjoyments, and defeating the expectations of many, also much of the intended exhibition and display.

The ceremony at the capitol was imposing. The occasion was one of those striking displays of our republican system which he must be a stoic indeed that could contemplate with indifference. The flagstaffs of the whigs, as well as those of their triumphant rivals, were decorated, as an acknowledgment that the chief of the nation was there, and must be recognised.

The inaugural procession moved about eleven o'clock, A. M., from the quarters of the president elect, at Coleman's hotel, to the capitol, under the direction of General M'Calla and his aids. In the procession were the nilitary of Washington, officers and soldiers of the revolution, the clergy, resident elect and his predecessor, in an open carriage, President Tyler's cabinet, justices of the supreme court, diplomatic corps, members and exmembers of Congress, members of the Baltimore democratic national convention of 1844, officers of the army and navy, &c., democratic associations and clubs of the District of Columbia, and others from a distance, among whom was a detachment of the Empire club of the city of New York, citizens of states and territories, citizens of the District of Columbia, &c.

The senate convened at eleven o'clock, A. M. The oath being administered to Hon. George M. Dallas, vice-president elect, he delivered a brief address to the senators on taking his seat, after which the new senators were qualified. The justices of the supreme court, in gowns, and the diplomatic corps, twenty-nine in number, entered and took their seats; also General Scott, and other officers of the army and navy. About noon, the president elect, Mr. Polk, attended by President Tyler and Senator

Woodbury, entered the senate-chamber, when a procession was formed to the platform on the east front of the capitol, from which the president delivered his inaugural address. Chief-Justice Taney, then administered to the president the oath of office, after which the president, quitting the capitol, drove rapidly, by an indirect route, to the president's house, where he received, during the afternoon, the congratulations of his fellow-citizens. In the evening he and his lady attended the two inauguration balls which were given in the city.

The senate being in session, the president, on the fifth of March, made the following nominations for members of the cabinet, which were confirmed: James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, secretary of state; Robert J. Walker, of Mississippi, secretary of the treasury; William L. Marcy, of New York, secretary of war; George Bancroft, of Massachusetts, secretary of the navy; Cave Johnson, of Tennessee, postmaster-general; John Y. Mason, of Virginia, attorney-general.

The tone of the inaugural address of Mr. Polk, on the subjects of the annexation of Texas to the territory of the United States, and of the occupation of the whole of Oregon, both of which questions had been adopted as watchwords by the democratic party, which had been triumphant at the recent presidential election, showed that the new administration entered upon its duties at a critical period, in the foreign relations of the United States. On the one hand, the annexation of Texas threatened to involve the nation in hostilities with Mexico, as the constituted authorities of that republic, had declared that they should view the admission of Texas into the Union of the North American republic of states, as an act of hostility toward Mexico; while, on the other hand, the claims of Great Britain to a large proportion of the Oregon territory, were not to be disregarded, without the danger of a rupture between that powerful kingdom and the United States.

With regard to the Texas question, resolutions for annexing that republic to the United States, had passed both houses of Congress (as we have stated on page 1535), and were approved by President Tyler, on the first of March, 1845, being one of the last acts of his administration. These resolutions of annexation had been objected to by Messrs. Benton and Bagby, senators of the democratic party, on the ground of its being indispensable to the accomplishment of annexation, that a treaty must be made with the government of Texas, as a foreign power, and that the treatymaking power, by the constitution, is vested in the president and senate, and not in Congress. At the suggestion of those two senators, an amendment was added to the resolutions from the house of representatives, giving a discretion to the president to adopt the latter method, of proceeding by treaty, if he thought proper, instead of the method of direct annexation contemplated by the resolutions from the house. It was understood that without that modification, the resolutions which passed the senate by a