Part 10

Such are the objects in which it is expected that the plenipotentiaries of the United States, when commissioned to attend the meeting at the Isthmus, will take part, and such are the motives and purposes with which the invitation of the three Republics was accepted. It was, however, as the House will perceive from the correspondence, accepted only upon condition that the nomination of commissioners for the mission should receive the advice and consent of the Senate.

The concurrence of the House to the measure by the appropriations necessary for carrying it into effect is alike subject to its free determination and indispensable to the fulfillment of the intention.

That the congress at Panama will accomplish all, or even any, of the transcendent benefits to the human race which warmed the conceptions of its first proposer it were perhaps indulging too sanguine a forecast of events to promise. It is in its nature a measure speculative and experimental. The blessing of Heaven may turn it to the account of human improvement; accidents unforeseen and mischances not to be anticipated may baffle all its high purposes and disappoint its fairest expectations. But the design is great, is benevolent, is humane.

It looks to the melioration of the condition of man. It is congenial with that spirit which prompted the declaration of our independence, which inspired the preamble of our first treaty with France, which dictated our first treaty with Prussia and the instructions under which it was negotiated, which filled the hearts and fired the souls of the immortal founders of our Revolution.

With this unrestricted exposition of the motives by which I have been governed in this transaction, as well as of the objects to be discussed and of the ends, if possible, to be attained by our representation at the proposed congress, I submit the propriety of an appropriation to the candid consideration and enlightened patriotism of the Legislature.

John Quincy Adams.

Washington, March 16, 1826.

To the Senate of the United States:

Some additional documents having relation to the objects of the mission to the congress at Panama, and received since the communication of those heretofore sent, are now transmitted to the Senate.

John Quincy Adams.

To the House of Representatives of the United States:

In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 10th instant, requesting information in possession of the Government relating to certain resolves of the Congress of the Confederation of the 21st of October, 1780, and the 21st March, 1783, concerning allowances to the officers of the Revolutionary army, and to the manner of carrying into effect those resolves, and other particulars appertaining thereto, I transmit reports from the Secretaries of State, of the Treasury, and of War, with documents, comprising the information desired by the House.

John Quincy Adams.

MARCH 22, 1826.

Washington, March 24, 1826.

To the House of Representatives of the United States:

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 14th ultimo, requesting statements of the amount of compensation allowed to the paymaster and quartermaster of the Marine Corps for the two years preceding the 1st of January, 1826, and of other particulars relating to the same Corps, I communicate a report from the Secretary of the Navy, with documents, containing the information desired by the resolution.

John Quincy Adams.

Washington, March 24, 1826.

To the House of Representatives of the United States:

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 16th ultimo, requesting statements of the net amount of revenue derived from imports and tonnage received by the Treasury from the ports within the bay of Delaware, the bay of Chesapeake, the harbor of New York, and at Boston from the 1st of January, 1790, to the last of December, 1825, and of the amount of expenditures paid from the Treasury for forts, light-houses, beacons, and other public works erected to aid commerce or for the purposes of defense within the said bays and harbors during the said time, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, with several documents, containing the information desired by the resolution.

John Quincy Adams.

Washington, March 29, 1826.

To the House of Representatives of the United States:

In compliance with a resolution of the House of the 227th instant, requesting a copy of such parts of the answer of the Secretary of State to Mr. Poinsett's letter to Mr. Clay, dated Mexico, 28th September, 1825, No. 22, as relates to the pledge of the United States therein mentioned; and also requesting me to inform the House whether the United States have in any manner made any pledge to the Governments of Mexico and South America that the United States would not permit the interference of any foreign power with the independence or form of government of these nations, and, if so, when, in what manner, and to what effect; and also to communicate to the House a copy of the communication from our minister at Mexico in which he informed the Government of the United States that the Mexican Government called upon this Government to fulfill the memorable pledge of the President of the United States in his message to Congress of December, 1823, I transmit to the House a report from the Secretary of State, with the documents containing the information desired by the resolution.

John Quincy Adams.

Washington, March 30, 1826.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: