Part 21

ANDREW JACKSON.

December 20, 1830. To the Senate of the United States:

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 14th instant, calling for copies of any letters or other communications which may have been received at the Department of War from the chiefs and headmen, or any of them, of the Choctaw tribe of Indians since the treaty entered into by the commissioners on the part of the United States with that tribe of Indians at Dancing Rabbit Creek, and also for information showing the number of Indians belonging to that tribe who have emigrated to the country west of the Mississippi, etc., I submit herewith a report from the Secretary of War, containing the information requested.

ANDREW JACKSON.

Washington, December 20, 1830. To the Senate of the United States:

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 16th instant, calling for certain papers relative to the negotiation of the treaty between the United States and Turkey now before the Senate, I communicate the inclosed report of the Secretary of State, accompanied by the documents and containing the information requested.

ANDREW JACKSON.

December 29, 1830. To the Senate of the United States:

I submit to the consideration of the Senate two treaties--one of peace, the other of cession--concluded at Prairie du Chien on the 10th and 15th July, 1830, by commissioners duly authorized on the part of the United States and by deputations of the confederated tribes of Indians residing on the Upper Mississippi.

ANDREW JACKSON.

December 30, 1830. To the Senate of the United States:

A vacancy having arisen in the office of brigadier in consequence of the removal of General John Nicks from the Territory of Arkansas to Cantonment Gibson, I nominated at your last session William Montgomery to be general of the second brigade of militia of said Territory. By this communication I desire to correct the Journal of the Senate and my message of the 22d of April, 1830, so as to exclude the idea that General Nicks was removed from office.

ANDREW JACKSON.

Washington, December 31, 1830. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

I transmit herewith to Congress a copy of a correspondence which lately passed between Major-General Von Scholten, His Danish Majesty's governor-general of his West India possessions and special minister to the United States, and Mr. Van Buren, Secretary of State, concerning the regulation of the commercial intercourse between those possessions and the United States, which comprehends the propositions that General Von Scholten made to this Government in behalf of his Sovereign upon that subject and the answers of the Secretary of State to the same, the last showing the grounds upon which this Government declined acceding to the overtures of the Danish envoy.

This correspondence is now submitted to the two Houses of Congress in compliance with the wish and request of General Von Scholten himself, and under the full persuasion upon my part that it will receive all the attention and consideration to which the very friendly relations that have so long subsisted between the United States and the King of Denmark especially entitle it in the councils of this Union.

ANDREW JACKSON.

January 3, 1831. To the Senate of the United States:

Since my message of the 20th of December last, transmitting to the Senate a report from the Secretary of War, with information requested by the resolution of the Senate of the 14th December, in relation to the treaty concluded at Dancing Rabbit Creek with the Choctaw Indians, I have received the two letters which are herewith inclosed, containing further information on the subject.

ANDREW JACKSON.

Washington, January 3, 1831. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

I communicate to Congress the papers relating to the recent arrangement with Great Britain with respect to the trade between her colonial possessions and the United States, to which reference was made in my message at the opening of the present session.

It will appear from those documents that owing to the omission in the act of the 29th of May last of a clause expressly restricting importations into the British colonies in American vessels to the productions of the United States, to the amendment engrafted upon that act in the House Of Representatives, providing that when the trade with the West India colonies should be opened the commercial intercourse of the United States with all other parts of the British dominions or possessions should be left on a footing not less favorable to the United States than it now is, and to the act not specifying the terms upon which British vessels coming from the northern colonies should be admitted to entry into the ports of the United States, an apprehension was entertained by the Government of Great Britain that under the contemplated arrangement claims might be set up on our part inconsistent with the propositions submitted by our minister and with the terms to which she was willing to agree, and that this circumstance led to explanations between Mr. McLane and the Earl of Aberdeen respecting the intentions of Congress and the true construction to be given to the act referred to.

To the interpretation given by them to that act I did not hesitate to agree. It was quite clear that in adopting the amendment referred to Congress could not have intended to preclude future alterations in the existing intercourse between the United States and other parts of the British dominions; and the supposition that the omission to restrict in terms the importations to the productions of the country to which the vessels respectively belong was intentional was precluded by the propositions previously made by this Government to that of Great Britain, and which were before Congress at the time of the passage of the act; by the principles which govern the maritime legislation of the two countries and by the provisions of the existing commercial treaty between them.

Actuated by this view of the subject, and convinced that it was in accordance with the real intentions of Congress, I felt it my duty to give effect to the arrangement by issuing the required proclamation, of which a copy is likewise herewith communicated.

ANDREW JACKSON.

January 5, 1831. To the House of Representatives:

In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 17th of December last, calling for information on the subject of internal improvement, I submit herewith a report from the Secretaries of War and Treasury, containing the information required.