retire within their acknowledged limits when this single object shall have been accomplished.

Resolved, That should Her Britannic Majesty's Government, in violation of the clear understanding between the parties, persist in carrying its avowed determination into execution and attempt by military force to assume exclusive jurisdiction over the disputed territory, all of which they firmly believe rightfully belongs to the State of Maine, the exigency, in the opinion of the Senate, will then have occurred rendering it the imperative duty of the President, under the Constitution and the laws, to call forth the militia and employ the military force of the United States for the purpose of repelling such an invasion. And in this the Senate will cordially cooperate with and sustain the President in defending the rights of the country.

Resolved, That should the British authorities refrain from attempting a military occupation of the territory in dispute and from enforcing their claim to exclusive jurisdiction over it by arms, that then, in the opinion of the Senate, the State of Maine ought, on her part, to pursue a course of similar forbearance. And should she refuse to do so and determine to settle the controversy for herself by force, the adjustment of which is intrusted under the Constitution to the Federal Government, in such an event there will be no obligation imposed on that Government to sustain her by military aid.

March 2, 1839.

On the extension of time for ratification of treaty for the adjustment of claims of citizens of the United States against Mexico, Mr. Buchanan reported as follows:

Whereas the time limited by the twelfth article of the convention for the adjustment of claims of citizens of the United States of America upon the Government of the Mexican Republic, concluded at the city of Washington on the tenth day of September, eighteen hundred and thirty-eight, has expired before an exchange of ratifications has taken place, as provided for by the said article: Be it therefore

Resolved, That the Senate do advise and consent to the exchange of ratifications of the convention aforesaid, at any time prior to the tenth day of December next, whenever the same shall be offered by the Mexican Government; and the said ratifications shall be deemed and taken to have been regularly exchanged, the limitation contained in said convention to the contrary notwithstanding.

(Ex. Jour., vol. 5, p. 220.)

TWENTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION.
January 5, 1843.

On the treaty with Peru, Mr. Archer reported as follows: Whereas the time limited by the seventh article of the treaty between the United States of America and the Republic of Peru, concluded at the city of Lima on the seventeenth of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-one, may expire before an exchange of the ratifications shall take place: Be it therefore

S. Doc. 231, pt 8—3

Resolved, That the Senate do advise and consent to the exchange of ratifications of the treaty aforesaid at any time prior to the twentieth of December next, whenever the same can be effected, and the said ratification, when made, shall be deemed and taken to have been regularly exchanged, the limitation in said treaty to the contrary notwithstanding.

(Ex. Jour., vol. 6, p. 162.)

January 5, 1843.

On the treaty with Texas, Mr. Archer reported as follows:

Resolved, That the Senate do advise and consent to the ratification of the treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation between the United States of America and the Republic of Texas, concluded at Washington on the thirtieth day of July, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and forty-two, with the following amendment:

Strike out the fourth and fifth articles, in the following words:

"ARTICLE IV.

"The two contracting parties agree that the Sabine from its source to the sea, the Red River, and all rivers having their source or origin in the territory of Texas, running in part of their course through that territory, or forming the boundary between Texas and the United States, and emptying into the river Mississippi, and the Mississippi itself, from and including the mouth or mouths of said rivers to the sea shall be free to be navigated and common to both nations, and that no duty shall be levied or collected upon any articles the growth, produce, or manufacture of Texas originally transported down the above-named rivers or transported for the purpose of descent and exportation to any ports or places situated thereon: Provided, however, That it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to establish such rules and regulations as may be necessary for the proper observance within the United States of the stipulations contained in this and the next succeeding article.

"ARTICLE V.

"The two contracting parties agree that on all articles the growth, produce, or manufacture of either country, sent from one country to the other by land, river, or sea, exported to a foreign country, no duties or charges shall be required to be paid to the power within and from out of whose limits such articles shall arrive and depart; that they may be repacked for exportation, under the inspection of the proper authorities, and at the expense of the party interested, and that raw cotton the produce of either country, may be imported into the other free of duty for five years from the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty."

(Ex. Jour., vol. 6, pp. 162, 188.)

TWENTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION.

January 16, 1844.

On the convention with Mexico for the settlement of claims, Mr. Archer reported as follows:

Resolved, That the United States do advise and consent to the

ratification of the convention for the settlement of the claims of the citizens and Government of the Mexican Republic against the Government of the United States, and of the citizens and Government of the United States against the Government of the Mexican Republic, concluded at the city of Mexico on the twentieth day of November, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and forty-three, with the following amendments:

Article 4, line 2, strike out the word "Mexico" and insert Washington.

Article 7, line 22, strike out the word "Mexico" and insert Washington.

Article 16, strike out the whole thereof, in the following words:

66 ARTICLE 16.

"Whereas the high contracting parties to this convention desire to remove all causes of complaint between the two countries, and therefore to provide for the adjustment of all claims which the two Governments may have against each other, of a pecuniary character, shall be presented to the Government against which such claim is made; and if reparation is not made within six months the same shall be immediately referred to the arbiter provided for in the seventh article of this convention, and who is to decide, in case of difference, the claims of the citizens of the two countries. His decision in these cases shall be final and conclusive, and all such cases shall be decided within one year after they are submitted to him, and according to the principles herein before expressed. And all such cases as involve the good name and national honor of either of the two countries shall be treated diplomatically, and in the manner usual among nations in the settlement of questions of international rights; and more especially it is understood that it is not intended to submit to the aforesaid umpire the question of boundaries between the two countries, which shall be arranged according to the stipulations of existing treaties between the two countries."

Article 17, line 3, strike out the word "three" and insert six. (Ex. Jour., vol. 6, pp. 211, 228.)

June 12, 1844.

On the extradition treaty with France, Mr. Archer reported as follows:

Resolved, That the Senate do advise and consent to the ratification of an additional article to the convention for the surrender of criminals between the United States of America and His Majesty the King of the French, concluded at Washington the fifteenth of April, eighteen hundred and forty-four, with the following amendments:

Strike out the words "the crimes of robbery and burglary," and insert:

The crime of robbery, defining the same to be the felonious and forcible taking from the person of another of goods or money to any value, by violating or putting him in fear; and the crime of burglary, defining the same to be breaking and entering by night into a mansion house of another with the intent to commit felony, and the corresponding crimes included under the French law in the words "vol, qualifié crime."

(Ex. Jour., vol. 6, pp. 319, 346.)

June 14, 1844.

On the convention with Prussia and the other States of the Ger manic Association of Customs and Commerce, Mr. Choate reported as follows:

That the Senate ought not to advise and consent to the ratification of the convention aforesaid.

In submitting this report the committee do not think it necessary to say anything on the general object sought to be accomplished by the convention, or on the details of the actual arrangement; nor to attempt to determine, by the weight and measure of the reciprocal concessions, which Government, if either, has the best of the transaction. These subjects have not escaped their notice, but they propose to confine themselves to a very brief exhibition of another and single ground, upon which, without reference to the particular merits of the treaty, they advise against its ratification.

The committee, then, are not prepared to sanction so large an innovation upon ancient and uniform practice in respect of the department of government by which duties on imports shall be imposed. The convention which has been submitted to the Senate changes duties which have been laid by law. It changes them either ex directo and by its own vigor, or it engages the faith of the nation and the faith of the legislature through which the nation acts to make the change. In either aspect it is the President and Senate who, by the instrumentality of negotiation, repeal or materially vary regulations of commerce and laws of revenue which Congress had ordained. More than this, the executive department, by the same instrumentality of negotiations, places it beyond the power of Congress to exceed the stipulated maximum of import duties for at least three years, whatever exigency may intervene to require it.

In the judgment of the committee the legislature is the department of government by which commerce should be regulated and laws of revenue be passed. The Constitution, in terms, communicates the power to regulate commerce and to impose duties to that department. It communicates it, in terms, to no other. Without engaging at all in an examination of the extent, limits, and objects of the power to make treaties, the committee believe that the general rule of our system is indisputably that the control of trade and the function of taxing belong, without abridgement or participation, to Congress. They infer this from the language of the Constitution, from the nature and principles of our Government, from the theory of republican liberty itself, from the unvaried practice, evidencing the universal belief of all, in all periods and of all parties and opinions. They think, too, that, as the general rule, the representatives of the people, sitting in their legislative capacity, with open doors, under the eye of the country, communicating freely with their constituents, may exercise this power more intelligently, more discreetly, may acquire more accurate and more minute information concerning the employments and the interests on which this description of measures will press, and may better discern what true policy prescribes and rejects than is within the competence of the executive department of the Government.

To follow, not to lead; to fulfill, not to ordain the law; to carry into effect, by negotiation and compact with foreign governments, the legislative will, when it has been announced, upon the great subjects of trade and revenue; not to interpose with controlling influence; not to go forward with too ambitious enterprise-these seem to the committee to be the appropriate functions of the Executive.

Holding this to be the general rule upon the subject, the committee discern nothing in the circumstances of this case, nothing in the object to be attained or in the difficulties in the way of obtaining it, which should induce a departure from the rule. If Congress think the proposed arrangement a beneficial one, it is quite easy to pass a law which shall impose the rates of duty contemplated by it, to take effect when satisfactory information is conveyed to the President that the stipulated equivalents are properly secured.

Upon this single ground, then, the committee advise that the treaty be rejected. It may help to reconcile the Senate to this conclusion if they add that they do not regard the stipulated concessions of the foreign contracting power as in any degree equivalent to the considerations by which we obtain them. Against the imposition of a duty on cotton and against the enhancement of the duty on rice we have in the enlightened self-interest of Germany all, or almost all, the security which we could have in her plighted faith, sacred and inviolable as that would ever be.

The gain to the United States is confined to a restriction of the duty on lard to 137 cents on the centner, a measure of weight equivalent to 113 pounds, and the reduction of the imposition on tobacco in leaf of about a cent and a third per pound. On a liberal estimate of the addition which might be expected in the consumption of tobacco from this rate of reduction of duty, in the States of the Zoll Verein, it can not be counted as extending beyond a few thousand, say from five to six thousand hogsheads a year. This estimate is formed on the rate of progression for some years past of the export of tobacco from the United States to Germany. The price of tobacco, independently of the reduction which might follow a diminished rate of duty, is already so moderate in the Zoll Verein States that increased consumption to any considerable extent can hardly be inferred as the effect of the diminution.

Such, then, is the paucity of advantages promised from the acceptance of the treaty. To these are to be opposed the reductions of duty conceded in compensation, extending to whole classes and large varieties of articles comprehended in our present tariff and descending to rates of 20, 15, and 10 per cent.

ARTICLE I

The United States of America agree not to impose duties on the importation of the following articles, the growth, produce, and manufacture of the States of the Germanic Association of Customs and Commerce, exceeding

I. Twenty per cent ad valorem on the importation of

1. All woolen, worsted, and cotton mitts, caps and bindings, and woolen, worsted, and cotton bosiery-that is to say, stockings, socks, drawers. shirts, and all other similar manufactures made on frames.

2. On all musical instruments of every kind, except pianofortes.

II. Fifteen per cent ad valorem on the importation of

1. All articles manufactured of flax or hemp, or of which flax or hemp shall be the component part of chief value, except cotton bagging or any other manufacture suitable for the uses to which cotton bagging is applied.

2. All manufactures of silk or of which silk shall be the component part of chief value.

3. Thibet, merinos. merino shawls, and all manufactures of combed wool or of worsted and silk combined.

4. Polished plate glass, silvered or not silvered; small pocket looking-glasses from three to ten inches long and from one and a half to six inches broad; toys of every description; snuff boxes of papier maché; lead pencils: lithographic stones, and wooden clocks, known under the name of Schwarzwälder clocks.

5. Cologne water, needles, bronze wares of all kinds, planes, scissors, scythes,