The Congressional Globe, [Volume 27]: Thirty-Second Congress, Second Session, Appendix Page: 2
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APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
[Dec. 6,
32d Cong 2d Sess.
Message of the President,
Senate & Ho. of Reps.
States and Great Britain of the 19th of April, 1850.
Accordingly, a proposition for the same purposes,
addressed to the two Governments in that quarter,
•and tefthe Mosquito Indians, was agreed to in
" April last by the Secretary of State and the Minis-
ter of herBritar.nicMajesty. Besides the wish to
aid in reconciling the differences of the two Re-
publics, I engaged in the negotiation from a desire
to place the great work of a ship-canal between the
two oceans under one jurisdiction, and to establish
the important port of San Juan de Nicaragua un-
der the government of a civilized Power. The
proposition in question was assented to by Costa
Rica and the Mosquito Indians. It has not proved
equally acceptable to Nicaragua; but it is to be
hoped that tlie further negotiations on the subject
which are in train will be carried on in that spirit
ofconciliationand compromise which oughtalways
to prevail on such occasions, and that they will
lead to a satisfactory result.
I have the satisfaction to inform you that the
Executive Government of Venezuela has acknowl-
edged sbme claims of citizens of the United States,
which have for many years past been urged by our
Charge d'Affaires at Cavaccas. It is hoped that
the same sense of justice will actuate the Congress
of that Republic m providing the means for their
payment.
The recent revolution in Buenos Ayres and the
Confederated States having opened the prospect of
&n improved state of things in that quarter, the
Governments of Great Britain and France deter-
mined to negotiate with the Chief of the new Con-
federacy for the free access of their commerce to
the extensive countries watered by the tributaries
of the La Plata; and they gave a friendly notice
of this purpose to the United States, that we might,
if we thought proper, pursue the same course. In
compliance with this invitation, our Minister at
Rio Janeiro and our Charge d'Affaires at Buenos
Ayres have been fully authorized to conclude trea-
ties with the newly-organized Confederation, or
the States composing it. The delays which have
taken place in the formation of the new Govern-
ment have as yet prevented the execution of those
instructions; but there is every reason to hope
that these vast countries will be eventually opened
to our commerce.
A treaty of commerce has been concluded be-
tween the United States and the Oriental Republic
of Uruguay, which will be laid before the Senate.
Should this convention go into operation, it will
"open to the commercial enterprise of our citizens a
country of great extent and unsurpassed m natu-
ral resources, but fiom which foreign nations have
hitherto been almost wholly excluded.
The correspondence of the late .Secretary of
State with the Peruvian Charge d'Affaires relative
to the Lobos Islands was communicated to Con-
gress toward the close of the last session. Since
that time, on further investigation of the subject,
the doubts which had been entertained of the title
of Peru to those Islands have been removed; and
I have deemed it just that the temporary wrong
which had been unintentionally done her, from
want of mfoi marion, .should be repaired by an
unreserved acknowledgment of her sovereignty.
I have the satisfaction to inform you that the
course pursued by Peru has been creditable to the
liberality of her Government. Before it was known
by her that her title would be acknowledged at
Washington, her Minister of Foreign Affairs had
authorized our Charge d'Affaires at Lima to an-
nounce to the American vessels which had gone
to the Lobos for guano, that the Peruvian Gov-
ernment was willing to freight them on its own
account. This intention 1ms been earned into
effect by the Peruvian Minister here, by an ar-
rangement which is believed to be advantageous
to the parties in interest.
Our settlements on the shores of the Pacific have
already given a great extension, and m some re-
spects a new direction, to our commerce in that
ocean. A direct and rapidly-increasing intercourse
his sprang up with Eastern Asia. The waters of
the Northern Pacific, even into the Arctic sea,
have of late years been frequented by our whale-
men. The application of steam to the general
purposes of navigation is becoming daily more
common, and makes it desirable to obtain fuel and
other necessary supplies at convenient points on the
route between Asia and our Pacific shores. Our
unfortunate countrymen who from time f.o time
suffer shipwreck on the coasts of the eastern seas
are entitled to protection. Besides these specific
objects, the general prosperity of our States on the
Pacific requires that an attempt should bemade to
open the opposite regions of Asia to a mutually
beneficial intercourse. It is obvious that this
attempt could be made by no Power to so great
advantage as by the United States, whose consti-
tutional system excludes every idea of distant col-
onial dependencies. I have accordingly been led
to order an appropriate naval force to Japan, under
the command of a discreet and intelligent officer of
the highest rank known to our service. Re is
instructed to endeavor to obtain from the Gov-
ernment of that country some relaxation of the
inhospitable and anti-social system which it has
pursued for about two centuries. He has been
directed particularly to remonstrate, in the strong-
est language, against the cruel treatment to which
our shipwrecked mariners have often been sub-
jected, and to insist that they shall be treated with
humanity. He is instructed, however, at the
same time, to give that Government the amplest
assurances that the objects of the United States are
such, and such only, as Ihave indicated, and that
the expedition is friendly and peaceful. Notwith-
standing the jealousy with which the Governments
of Eastern Asia regard all overtures from foreign-
ers, I am not without hopes of a beneficial result
of the expedition. Should it be crowned with suc-
cess, the advantages will not be confined to the
United States, but, as in the case of China, will be
equally enjoyed by all the other maritime Powers.
I have much satisfaction in stating that in all the
steps preparatory to this expedition, the Govern-
ment of the United States has been materially aided
by the good offices of the King of the Netherlands,
the only European Power having any commercial
relations with Japan.
In passing from this survey of our foreign rela-
tions, I invite the attention of Congress to the
condition of that department of the Government
to which this branch of the public business is in-
trusted. Our intercourse with foreign Powers has
of late years greatly increased, both in conse-
quence of our own growth and the introduction
of many new States into the family of nations.
In this way the Department of State has become
overburdened. It has, by the recent establish-
ment of the Department of the Interior, been re-
lieved of some portion of the domestic business,
if the residue of the business of that kind, such
as the distribution of Congressional documents,
the keeping, publishing, and distribution of the
laws of the United States, the execution of the
copyright law, the subject of reprieves and par-
dons?, and some other subjects relating to interior
administration, should be transferred from the
i Department of State, it would unquestionably be
| for the benefit of the public service. I would
also suggest that the building appropriated to the
State Department is not fire-proof; that there is
reason to think there are defects in its cDnstruc-
i tion, and that the archives of the Government in
charge of the Department, with the precious col-
lections of the manuscript papers of Washington,
Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, and Monroe, are
exposed to destruction by fire. A simitar remark
may be made of the buildings appropriated to the
War and Navy Departments.
The condition of the Treasury is exhibited in
the annual report from that Department.
The cash receipts into the Treasury for the fiscal
year ending the 30th June last, exclusive of trust
funds, were forty-nine millions seven hundred and
twenty-eight thousand thieehundred and eighty-six
dollars and eighty-nine cents, ($49,728,386 89,)
and the expenditures for the same period, likewise
exclusive of trust funds, were forty-six millions
seven thousand eight hundred and ninety-six dol-
lars and twenty cents, ($46,007,896 20;) of which
nine millions four hundjed and fifty-five thousand
eight hundred and fifteen dollars and eighty-three
cents ($9,455,815 83) was on account of the prin-
cipal and interest of the pubiic debt, including the
last installment of the indemnity to Mexico, under
the freaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, leaving a balance
of ^14,632,136 37 in the Treasury on the first day
of July last. Since this latter period, further pur-
chases of the principal of the public debt have been
made to the extent of two millions four hundred
and fifty-six thousand five hundred and forty-seven
dollars and forty-nine cents, ($2,456,547 49,) and
the surplus in the Treasury will continue to be
applied to that object, whenever the stock can be
procured within the limits, as to piice, authorized
by law.
The value of foreign merchandise imported
during the last fiscal year was tv;o hundred and
seven millions two hundied and forty thousand one
hundred and one dollars, ($907,240,101;) and the
value of domestic productions exported was one
hundred and forty-nine millions eight hundred
and sixty-one thousand nine hundred and eleven
dollais, ($149,861,911,) besides seventeen millions
two hundred and four thousand and twenty-six
dollars (§17,204,026) of foreign merchandise ex-
ported; making the aggregate of the entire exports
one hundred and sixty-seven millions sixty-five
thousand nine hundred and thirty-seven dollais,
(§167,065,937;) exclusive of the above there was
exported forty-two millions five hundred and sev-
en thousand two hundred and eighty-five dollars
($42,507,285) in specie; and imported from for-
eign ports five millions two hundred and sixty-
two thousand six hundred and forty-three dollars,
($5,262,643.)
In my first annual message to Congress I called
your attention to what seemed to me some defects
in the present tariff, and recommended such mod-
ifications as in my judgment were best adapted to
remedy its evils and promote the prosperity of the
country. Nothing has since occurred to change
my views on this important question.
Without repeating the arguments contained in
my former message, in favor of discriminating,
protective duties, f deem it my duty to call your
attention to one or two other considerations affect-
ing this subject. The first is, the effect of large
importations of foreign goods upon our currency.
Most of the gold of California, as fast as it is
coined, finds its way directly to Europe, in pay-
ment for goods puichased. In the second place,
as our manufacturing establishments are broken
down by competition with foreigners, the capital
invested in them is lost, thousands of honest and
industrious cit)7ens are thrown out of employment,
and the farmer to that extent is deprived of a home
market for the sale of his surplus produce. In
the third place, the destruction of our manufac-
tures leaves the foreigner without competition m
our market, and he consequently raises the price
of the article sent here for sale, as is now seen in
the increased cost of iron imported from England.
The prosperity and wealth of every nation must
depend upon its productive industry. The farmer
is stimulated to exertion by finding a ready mar-
ket for his surplus products, and benefited by being
able to exchange them, without loss of time or ex-
pense of transportation, for the manufactures which
his comfort or convenience requires. This is al-
ways done to the best advantage where a portion
of the community in which he lives is engaged in
other pursuits. But most manufactures require
an amount of capital, and a practical skill, which
cannot be commanded, unless they be protected
for a time from ruinous competition from abroad.
Hence the necessity of laying those duties upon
imported goods which the Constitution authomps
for revenue, in such a manner as to protect and
encourage the labor of our own citizens. Duties,
however, should not be fixed at a rate so high as
to exclude the foreign article, but should be so
'graduated as to enable the domestic manufactuier
fairly to compete with the foreigner in our own
markets; and by^this competition to reduce the
price of the manufactured article to the consumer
to the lowest rate at which it can be produced.
This policy would place the mechanic by the side
of the farmer, create a mutual interchange of their
respective commodities, and thus stimulate the
industry of the whole country, and render us in-
dependent of foreign nations for the supplies re-
quired by the habits or necessities of the people.
Another question, wholly independent of pro-
tection, presents itself; and that is, whether the
duties levied should be upon the value ofthearticle
at the place of shipment, or, where it is practica-
ble, a specific duty, graduated according to quan-
tity, as ascertained by weight or measure. AU our
duties are at present ad valorem. A certain per
centage is levied on the price of the goods at the
port of shipment in a foreign country. Most com-
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe, [Volume 27]: Thirty-Second Congress, Second Session, Appendix, book, 1853; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30784/m1/14/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.