Part 22

ANDREW JACKSON.

January 7, 1831. To the House of Representatives:

I beg leave to call the attention of Congress to the accompanying report from the Navy Department, upon the state of the accounts of the Navy in the office of the Fourth Auditor, and to suggest the necessity of correcting the evils complained of by early legislation.

ANDREW JACKSON.

Washington, January 11, 1831. The Speaker of the House of Representatives:

I transmit to Congress a report of the Secretary of State, with the report to him from the Patent Office which accompanied it, in relation to the concerns of that office, and recommend the whole subject to early and favorable consideration.

ANDREW JACKSON.

(The same message was sent to the Senate.)

January 15, 1831. To the Senate of the United States:

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 23d ultimo, requesting to be informed of the quantity of live-oak timber in the United States, where it is, and what means are employed to preserve it, I present herewith a report of the Secretary of the Navy, containing the information required,

ANDREW JACKSON.

January 15, 1831. To the House of Representatives:

I submit to the consideration of Congress the accompanying report and documents from the Navy Department, in relation to the capture of the Spanish slave vessel called The Fenix, and recommend that suitable legislative provision be made for the maintenance of the unfortunate captives pending the legislation which has grown out of the case.

ANDREW JACKSON.

January 24, 1831. To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of War, containing the information requested by the resolution of the Senate of the 21st instant, in relation to "the state of the British establishments in the valley of the Columbia and the state of the fur trade as carried on by the citizens of the United States and the Hudsons Bay Company."

ANDREW JACKSON.

January 25, 1831. To the House of Representatives:

I beg leave to call the attention of Congress to the inclosed communication from the Secretary of the Navy, in relation to the pay and other allowances of the officers of the Marine Corps, and to recommend the adoption of the legislative provisions suggested in it.

ANDREW JACKSON.

Washington, D.C., January 26, 1831. To the Senate of the United States:

In pursuance of the advice and consent of the Senate as expressed in their resolution of the 10th February, 1830, the treaty of commerce and navigation between the United States and Austria concluded in this city on the 27th of August, 1829, was duly ratified by this Government on the 11th day of the same month of February; but the treaty itself containing a stipulation that the ratifications of the two parties to it should be exchanged within twelve months from the date of its signature, and that of the Austrian Government not having been received here till after the expiration of the time limited, I have not thought myself at liberty under these circumstances, without the additional advice and consent of the Senate, to authorize that ceremony on the part of this Government. Information having been received at the Department of State from the Austrian representative in the United States that he is prepared to proceed to the exchange of the ratifications of his Government for that of this, the question is therefore submitted to the Senate for their advice and consent upon the occasion.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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

I respectfully submit to the Senate, in answer to their legislative resolution of the 20th ultimo, in relation to the sales of land at the Crawfordsville land office in November last, reports from the Secretary of the Treasury and the Commissioner of the General Land Office.

Concurring with the Secretary of the Treasury in the views he has taken of the treaties and act of Congress touching the subject, I can not discover that the President is invested with any power under the Constitution or laws to withhold a patent from a purchaser who has given a fair and valuable consideration for land, and thereby acquired a vested right to the same; nor do I perceive that the sole legislative resolution of the Senate can confer such a power, or suspend the right of the citizens to enter the lands that have been offered for sale in said district and remain unsold, so long as the law authorizing the same remains unrepealed.

I beg leave, therefore, to present the subject to the reconsideration of the Senate.

ANDREW JACKSON.