Part 40

I beg leave to call the attention of Congress to the accompanying communication from the Secretary of State, inclosing a correspondence between him and the artist employed to execute the statue of Washington which is to be placed in the Rotunda of the Capitol.

It appears from this correspondence that the present appropriation for the execution of this work is inadequate to the object, and I therefore feel it my duty before concluding the contract to ascertain whether the additional sum recommended as proper by the Secretary of State and the terms proposed by the artist will meet the approbation of Congress.

For this purpose the papers are respectfully submitted.

ANDREW JACKSON.

WASHINGTON, December 27, 1832. To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I beg leave to call the attention of Congress to the accompanying reports--one from the engineer selected under the act of the 14th July last to take charge of the survey of the bridge across the Potomac which that act authorized the President to cause to be erected, and showing, after a careful survey, the propriety of applying a part of the sum appropriated to the repairing the old bridge; the other showing the considerations which, in the opinion of the same engineer and that of General Gratiot, should determine the choice between a superstructure of wood and of iron on the same foundation of granite.

Concurring in the reasons stated by these officers for the preference of the superstructure of wood, I have adopted it accordingly, and propose to take the measures necessary for the execution of the work. Previously, however, to inviting contracts for this purpose I deem it advisable to submit the subject to Congress, in order that the necessary appropriations may be supplied.

ANDREW JACKSON.

WASHINGTON, December 28, 1832. To the House of Representatives:

I have taken into consideration the resolution of the House requesting me to communicate to it, so far as in my opinion may be consistent with the public interest, "the correspondence between the Government of the United States and that of the Republic of Buenos Ayres which has resulted in the departure of the chargé d'affaires of the United States from that Republic, together with the instructions given to the said chargé d'affaires," and in answer to the said request state for the information of the House that although the chargé d'affaires of the United States has found it necessary to return, yet the negotiation between the two countries for the arrangement of the differences between them are not considered as broken off, but are suspended only until the arrival of a minister, who, it is officially announced, will be sent to this country with powers to treat on the subject.

This fact, it is believed, will justify the opinion I have formed that it will not be consistent with the public interest to communicate the correspondence and instructions requested by the House so long as the negotiation shall be pending.

ANDREW JACKSON.

WASHINGTON, January 2, 1833. The Speaker of the House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State on the subject of the French ship Pactole, upon the cargo of which a discriminating duty seems to have been levied in 1827 by the collector at Pensacola, in contravention, as is alleged, with the convention of 1822 with France.

ANDREW JACKSON.

Washington, January 6, 1833. To the House of Representatives:

I beg leave to call the attention of Congress to the accompanying report from the Secretary of State, recommending an appropriation to refund the amount of duties that have been collected in the ports of the United States on the tonnage of foreign vessels belonging to nations that have abolished in their ports discriminating duties on the vessels of the United States.

I also transmit herewith another report from the Secretary of State, stating the losses to which certain Swedish subjects allege they were exposed by the taking out of one of the ports of St. Bartholomew, in the year 1828, a vessel under the flag of the Republic of Buenos Ayres, by the commander of the United States ship Erie, and for the payment of which it is thought provision ought to be made by Congress.

ANDREW JACKSON.

WASHINGTON, January 7, 1833. The Speaker of the House of Representatives:

I transmit to the House of Representatives the report of the Secretary of State upon the subject of the duties on the cargo of the French ship Pactole, prepared in obedience to the resolution of that House of the 20th of December, 1832, which was referred to him.

ANDREW JACKSON.

To the Senate:

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 28th ultimo, requesting the President of the United States to communicate to the Senate a copy of the treaty concluded at Franklin, in the State of Tennessee, between the United States and the Chickasaw tribe of Indians, on the ---- day of August, 1830, together with a copy of the instructions, if any, to the commissioner who negotiated the treaty with said tribe of Indians, bearing date the 30th day of October, 1832, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of War, containing the information required.

ANDREW JACKSON. January 8, 1833.

WASHINGTON, January 10, 1833. The Speaker of the House of Representatives:

In compliance with the resolution of the House of the 4th instant, requesting to be furnished with such information as the President may possess "in relation to the survey of the northern boundary of the State of Ohio under the provisions of the act of Congress passed for that purpose on the 14th of July, 1832," I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of War containing it.

ANDREW JACKSON.