war until the collector appointed under the act of March 3, 1849, entered upon his duties; the objects for which said money has been expended, and the authority under which the collections and disbursements were made.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

JUNE 27, 1850.

To the Senate of the United States:

In compliance with the resolution of the senate of the 3d instant, requesting information in regard to the indemnity stipulated to be paid by the government of Peru to the government of the United States, pursuant to the modified convention of the 17th of March, 1841, I transmit a report from the secretary of state, and the documents by which it was accompanied. The sums paid by that government under the convention are mentioned in the letters of Messrs. E. M'Call and Company, of Lima, who were appointed by my predecessor the agents to receive the instalments as they might fall due.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

JULY 1, 1850.

To the Senate of the United States :

I HEREWITH transmit a report from the secretary of war, prepared in answer to a resolution of the senate of the 27th ultimo, requesting information of the proceedings of the executive in regard to the appointment of the officer now commanding in New Mexico, the orders and instructions given to and correspondence with him, and upon other subjects men. tioned in the resolution.

ADMINISTRATION OF TAYLOR.

Ar the appointed time, Monday, March 5, 1849, the inauguration of General Zachary Taylor as president of the United States, took place, in front of the great portico of the capitol. The multitude of people assembled on the occasion from every part of the Union, for the purpose of witnessing the interesting ceremony, is supposed to have been much larger than was ever before collected in Washington. The weather, although the sky was clouded, was as pleasant as usual at this season of the year. At the break of day the strains of martial music resounded along the principal avenues of the city, and hundreds of national flags were unfolded to the breeze. The bells of the city then rang a stirring peal, and long before the usual hour of breakfast, the people were wending their way in immense masses to the capitol.

At nine o'clock, one hundred citizens who officiated as marshals on horseback, proceeded in a body to Willard's hotel, for the purpose of paying their respects to General Taylor. After the ceremony of introduction, the marshals retired to attend to their official duties, and the president elect, who was dressed in a plain suit of black, and in the enjoyment of his usual good health, returned to his apartments to prepare for the procession.

ance.

At half past eleven o'clock, the procession took up its line of march from the hotel to the capitol. The military of Washington, Baltimore, &c., who formed part of the procession, presented an imposing appearThe carriage containing the president elect was drawn by four gray horses. Ex-President Polk, Mr. Speaker Winthrop, and Mr. Seaton, mayor of Washington, accompanied General Taylor in the carriage. Pennsylvania avenue, along which the procession passed, was thronged with thousands of people; many of the roofs of the houses were also covered, and every window was occupied by spectators. The time occupied by the procession in reaching the east front of the capitol was about an hour; and after the conclusion of the inaugural ceremonies, the booming of artillery resounded through the city.

The senate being convened at eleven o'clock, after prayer by the chaplain, the Hon. David R. Atchison, of Missouri, was chosen president pro

tem. The diplomatic corps, representing various foreign nations, were next announced. The brilliancy of some of their costumes appeared in fine contrast with the dark robes of the judges of the supreme court, seated opposite to them.

The late vice-president, Mr. Dallas, then conducted to the chair the Hon. Millard Fillmore, the vice-president elect, to whom the oath of office was administered by Mr. Atchison, after which Mr. Fillmore delivered, with calmness and dignity, an appropriate address, and took his seat as president of the senate.

At twelve o'clock, the members of the late executive cabinet appeared, and occupied places on the left of the vice-president.

All things were now in readiness for the appearance of the president elect, who, after an interval, entered the senate-chamber in company with Ex-President Polk, and took a seat which had been prepared for him; Mr. Polk occupying another upon his left hand.

After a brief pause the order of procession was announced, and the company retired from the chamber of the senate in the order prescribed, to the east portico of the capitol, where an extensive staging had been erected. At about one o'clock, the president elect, in full view of at least twenty thousand people from all parts of the Union, pronounced his inaugural address. It was delivered in a remarkably distinct voice, and many parts of it were enunciated with a full and clear emphasis, and enthusiastically responded to by the cheers of the surrounding spectators As soon as the applause which marked the conclusion of the address had subsided, the oath of office was administered to the president by Chief-Justice Taney. The president then received congratulations from numerous persons present, Chief-Justice Taney and Ex-President Polk taking the lead.

The ceremonies at the capitol were terminated by salvos of artillery, and the president and the procession returned down the avenue leading from the capitol to the White-House, appropriated to the residence of the successive presidents of the United States. At this mansion the president received with his accustomed courtesy the salutes of some thousands of his fellow-citizens, and in the evening visited several balls given in honor of the occasion.

On the 6th of March, the president nominated to the senate the following gentlemen to compose his cabinet, and they were, the following day, confirmed by that body, viz.: John M. Clayton, of Delaware, secretary of state; William M. Meredith, of Pennsylvania, secretary of the treasury; George W. Crawford, of Georgia, secretary of war; William B. Preston, of Virginia, secretary of the navy; Thomas Ewing, of Ohio, secretary of the interior; Jacob Collamer, of Vermont, postmaster-general; Reverdy Johnson of Maryland, attorney-general.

These officers, with the exception of Mr. Crawford, who arrived from

Georgia a few days afterward, respectively took the oath of office and entered upon their duties on the 8th of March, 1849.

The home department, first organized under the administration of General Taylor, was a new branch of the government, created at the close of the last session of Congress under Mr. Polk's administration, and added another member to the president's cabinet. The head of the department is called the secretary of the interior, a term taken from the title of a similar functionary in the cabinet of the government of France. The act creating this new department, places under the supervision of the secretary of the interior, the bureau of the commissioner of patents; the general land office; the accounts of marshals, clerks, and other officers of the courts of law; the bureau of Indian affairs; the pension-office; the patentoffice; the census-office; the commissioner of public buildings; and the board of inspectors and warden of the penitentiary of the District of Columbia. The bill was reported in the house of representatives by Mr. Vinton, of Ohio, from the committee of ways and means, in the 30th Congress, and, after it had been stated to the house that it was essentially the plan of the then secretary of the treasury, Mr. Walker, whose department was overburdened with business, and no better plan could be devised, it passed the house in February, 1849, being engrossed by a vote of 111 to 76. The senate took it up on the last afternoon of the session. Senator Allen, of Ohio, said it would be followed up next session by another bill for another hundred clerks. Mr. Webster heartily approved of it; the government had outgrown the means of performing its duties; the business was fast increasing; he did not know of a single clerkship that could be considered a sinecure. Mr. Niles, of Connecticut, considered the measure an improper enlargement of executive power and patronage. Mr. Mason, of Virginia, said: "You create fifty new offices where you diminish one. We progress in these respects, but we never go back." Mr. Calhoun, of South Carolina, called the measure monstrous and ominous, tending to the consolidation and concentration of power. Many hours of debate, marked by real ability, with six records of yeas and nays, ended in the passage of the bill, 31 to 25, late in the evening of the 3d of March, 1849. The home department was the first new branch of the cabinet which had been created since 1798, when the navy department was organized, under the administration of John Adams. The postmaster-general was not considered a member of the cabinet until the administration of General Jackson, although the department of the general postoffice was organized under Washington's administration, in 1789.

At the extra session of the senate on the 5th of March, 1849, the president pro tem., Mr. Atchison, of Missouri, being in the chair, the senators elect were requested to advance to the chair and take the oath prescribed for them, when fourteen senators, whose term commenced on the 4th inst., were qualified and took their seats. When the name of the Hon. James

Shields, of Illinois, was called, Mr. Walker of Wisconsin, rose and submitted a resolution to refer the credentials of Mr. Shields to the committee on the judiciary, with instructions to inquire into his eligibility. Mr. Berrien moved that, in order that the proceedings of the day might not be interfered with (the inauguration of the president) by the discussion to which that resolution might lead, its further consideration should be postponed till the following day; to which course Mr. Walker assented. On the 6th of March, two other senators elect having been qualified and taken their seats, the colleague of Mr. Shields, Mr. Douglass, asked, on behalf of the state of Illinois, that the oath might be administered to Mr. Shields. His credentials, he said, were in due form, and therefore those credentials entitled him to a seat in the senate upon precisely the same grounds as the senators who were admitted to their seats. The senate, he said, had no jurisdiction over Mr. Shields or the matter until he was admitted to his seat as one of its members. Mr. Douglass then adduced as precedents the cases of Mr. Gallatin and others, in which the parties had been sworn in, and the question of ineligibility discussed after they had taken their seats. Mr. Webster, Mr. Mangum, and other senators, thought the proper course to be adopted was to allow Mr. Shields to be sworn in at once. After some discussion this was agreed to; General Shields was then qualified and took his seat. On the 7th of March, Messrs. Benton, Felch, Mason, Webster, and Pearce, were appointed to inquire into his eligibility, and on the 13th they reported, through Mr. Mason, of Virginia, that James Shields had been elected by the state of Illinois on the 13th of January, 1849; that he had admitted that he was by birth an alien; that he was naturalized October 21, 1840; and that his election was void, as he lacked several months of being a citizen for nine years. The oath of General Shields, when naturalized, October 21, 1840, stated that he was born in Tyrone county, Ireland, May 17, 1810; came to the United States when a minor; and had resided in this country since he was 18 years old. The committee reported the following resolution: "That the election of James Shields to be a senator of the United States was void, he not having been a citizen of the United States the term of years required as a qualification to be a senator of the United States."

He

On the question being stated, viz., on the adoption of the resolution, General Shields rose and remarked, that there was no competitor to contest his seat; no memorial questioning his right to a seat in the senate. had resided in Illinois 17 years; been a member of the legislature, an auditor, a judge of the supreme court of that state, commissioner of the general land-office, a general in the United States army, and even, for three days, governor of Oregon-offices requiring naturalization. The senator from Wisconsin (Mr. Walker), however, had a perfect right to do what no citizen of Illinois would have done; and he did not complain of the conduct of Mr. Walker. Perhaps it was his duty to do so. But the