were it possible for the statesmen of one nation, by stratagem and management, to obtain from the weakness or ignorance of another an overreaching treaty, such a compact would prove an incentive to war rather than a bond of peace. Our conventions with Great Britain are founded upon the principles of reciprocity. The commercial intercourse between the two countries is greater in magnitude and amount than between any two other nations on the globe. It is, for all purposes of benefit or advantage to both, as precious, and in all probability far more extensive, than if the parties were still constituent parts of one and the same nation. Treaties between such States, regulating the intercourse of peace between them, and adjusting interests of such transcendent importance to both, which have been found in a long experience of years mutually advantageous, should not be lightly canceled or discontinued. Two conventions for continuing in force those above mentioned have been concluded between the plenipotentiaries of the two governments, on the 6th of August last, and will be forthwith laid before the Senate for the exercise of their Constitutional authority concerning them.

In the execution of the treaties of peace of November, 1782, and September, 1783, between the United States and Great Britain, and which terminated the war of our independence, a line of boundary was drawn as the demarkation of territory ' between the two countries, extending over near twenty degrees of latitude, and ranging over seas, lakes, and mountains, then very imperfectly explored, and scarcely opened to the geographical knowledge of the age. In the progress of discovery and settlement by both parties, since that time, several questions of boundary between their respective territories have arisen, which have been found of exceedingly difficult adjustment. At the close of the last war with Great Britain, four of these questions pressed themselves upon the consideration of the negotiation of the Treaty of Ghent, but without the means of concluding a definitive arrangement concerning them. They were referred to three separate commissions, consisting of two commissioners, one appointed by each party, to examine and decide upon their respective claims. In the event of disagreement between the commissioners, it was provided that they should make reports to their several governments, and that the reports should finally be referred to the decision of a sovereign, the common friend of both.

Of these commissions two have already terminated their

sessions and investigations, one by entire, and the other by partial agreement. The commissioners of the fifth article of the Treaty of Ghent have finally disagreed, and made their conflicting reports to their own governments. But from these reports a great difficulty has occurred in making up a question to be decided by the arbitrator. This purpose has, however, been affected by a fourth convention, concluded at London by the plenipotentiaries of the two governments, on the 29th of September last. It will be submitted, together with the others, to the consideration of the Senate.

While these questions have been pending, incidents have occurred of conflicting pretensions, and of a dangerous character, upon the territory itself in dispute between the two nations. By a common understanding between the governments, it was agreed that no exercise of exclusive jurisdiction by either party, while the negotiation was pending, should change the state of the question of right to be definitively settled. Such collision has, nevertheless, recently taken place by occurrences the precise character of which has not yet been ascertained. A communication from the Governor of the State of Maine, with accompanying documents, and a correspondence between the Secretary of State and the Minister of Great Britain, on this subject, are now communicated. Measures have been taken to ascertain the state of the facts more correctly, by the employment of a special agent to visit the spot where the alleged outrages have occurred; the result of those inquiries, when received, will be transmitted to Congress.

While so many of the subjects of high interest to the friendly relations between the two countries have been so far adjusted, it is matter of regret that their views respecting commercial intercourse between the United States and the British Colonial possessions have not equally approximated to a friendly agreement.

At the commencement of the last session of Congress they were informed of the sudden and unexpected exclusion, by the British Government, of access, in vessels of the United States, to all their Colonial ports, except those immediately bordering upon our own territories. In the amicable discussions which have succeeded the adoption of this measure, which, as it affected harshly the interests of the United States, became a subject of expostulation on our part, the principles upon which its justification has been placed have been of a diversified character. It

has been at once ascribed to a mere recurrence to the old, longestablished principle of Colonial monopoly, and at the same time. to a feeling of resentment, because the offers of an act of Parliament, opening the Colonial ports upon certain conditions, had not been grasped at with sufficient eagerness by an instantaneous conformity to them. At a subsequent period it has been intimated that the new exclusion was in resentment, because a prior act of Parliament, of 1822, opening certain Colonial ports, under heavy and burdensome restrictions to vessels of the United States, had not been reciprocated by an admission of British vessels from the Colonies, and their cargoes, without any restriction or discrimination whatever. But, be the motive for the interdiction what it may, the British Government have manifested no disposition, either by negotiation or by corresponding legislative enactments, to recede from it, and we have been given distinctly to understand that neither of the bills which were under the consideration of Congress, at their last session, would have been deemed sufficient in their concessions to have been rewarded by any relaxation from the British interdict. It is one of the inconveniences inseparably connected with the attempt to adjust, by reciprocal legislation, interests of this nature, that neither party can know what would be satisfactory to the other; and that after enacting a statute for the avowed and sincere purpose of conciliation, it will generally be found utterly inadequate to the expectations of the other party, and will terminate in mutual disappointment.

The session of Congress having terminated without any act upon the subject, a proclamation was issued, on the 17th of March last, conformably to the provisions of the sixth section of the act of 1st March, 1823, declaring the fact that the trade and intercourse authorized by the British act of Parliament, of 24th June, 1822, between the United States and the British enumer ated Colonial ports, had been, by the subsequent acts of Parliament, of 5th July, 1825, and the order of council, of 27th July, 1826, prohibited. The effect of this proclamation, by the terms of the act under which it was issued, has been, that each and every provision of the act concerning navigation, of 18th of April, 1818, and of the act supplementary thereto, of 15th of May, 1820, revived, and is in full force. Such, then, is the present condition of the trade, that, useful as it is to both parties, it can, with a single momentary exception, be carried on

directly by the vessels of neither. That exception itself is found in a proclamation of the Governor of the Island of St. Christopher and of the Virgin Islands, inviting, for three months from the 28th of August last, the importation of the articles of the produce of the United States, which constitute their export portion of this trade, in the vessels of all nations. That period having already expired, the state of mutual interdiction has again taken place. The British Government have not only declined negotiation upon this subject, but by the principle they have assumed with reference to it, have precluded even the means of negotiation. It becomes not the self-respect of the United States either to solicit gratuitous favors, or to accept as the grant of a favor that for which an ample equivalent is exacted. It remains to be determined by the respective governments whether the trade shall be opened by acts of reciprocal legislation. It is, in the meantime, satisfactory to know that, apart from the inconveniences resulting from a disturbance of the usual channels of trade, no loss has been sustained by the commerce, the navigation, or the revenue of the United States, and none of magnitude is to be apprehended from this existing state of mutual interdict.

With the other maritime and commercial nations of Europe our intercourse still continues with little variation. Since the cessation by the convention of 24th June, 1822, of all discriminating duties upon the vessels of the United States and of France, in either country, our trade with that nation has increased and is increasing. A disposition on the part of France has been manifested to renew that negotiation; and, in acceding to the proposal, we have expressed the wish that it might be extended to other objects upon which a good understanding between the parties would be beneficial to the interests of both. The origin of the political relations between the United States and France is coeval with the first years of our independence. The memory of it is interwoven with that of our arduous struggle for national existence. Weakened as it has occasionally been since that time, it can by us never be forgotten; and we should hail with exultation the moment which should indicate a recollection equally friendly in spirit on the part of France. A fresh effort has recently been made, by the Minister of the United States residing at Paris, to obtain a consideration of the just claims of citizens of the United States to the reparation of wrongs long since committed, many of them frankly acknowledged, and all of them

entitled, upon every principle of justice, to a candid examinaThe proposal last made to the French Government has been to refer the subject, which has formed an obstacle to this consideration, to the determination of a sovereign the common friend of both. To this offer no definitive answer has yet been received; but the gallant and honorable spirit which has at all times been the pride and glory of France, will not ultimately permit the demands of innocent sufferers to be extinguished in the mere consciousness of the power to reject them.

A new treaty of amity, navigation, and commerce has been concluded with the kingdom of Sweden, which will be submitted to the Senate for their advice with regard to its ratification. At a more recent date a minister plenipotentiary from the Hanseatic republics of Hamburg, Lubeck, and Bremen has been received, charged with a special mission for the negotiation of a treaty of amity and commerce between that ancient and renowned league and the United States. This negotiation has, accordingly, been commenced, and is now in progress, the result of which will, if successful, be also submitted to the Senate for their consideration.

Since the accession of the Emperor Nicholas to the imperial throne of all the Russias, the friendly dispositions toward the United States, so constantly manifested by his predecessor, have continued unabated, and have been recently testified by the appointment of a minister plenipotentiary to reside at this place. From the interest taken by this sovereign in behalf of the suffering Greeks, and from the spirit with which others of the great European powers are co-operating with him, the friends of freedom and of humanity may indulge the hope that they will obtain relief from that most unequal of conflicts which they have so long and so gallantly sustained; that they will enjoy the blessings of self-government, which, by their sufferings in the cause of liberty, they have richly earned; and that their independence will be secured by those liberal institutions of which their country furnished the earliest examples in the history of mankind, and which have consecrated to immortal remembrance the very soil for which they are now again profusely pouring forth their blood. The sympathies which the people and the Government of the United States have so warmly indulged with their cause, have been acknowledged by their government, in a letter of thanks which I have received from their illustrious President, a translation of which is now communicated to Congress, the representa