Part 46

I transmit to the Senate a treaty recently concluded with the Chippewa Indians of the Mississippi and Lake Superior, with communications from the War Department in relation thereto, and ask the advice and consent of the Senate to the ratification of the said treaty.

JOHN TYLER.

WASHINGTON, December 14, 1842.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit to the Senate a treaty recently concluded with the Sac and Fox Indians, with communications from the War Department in relation thereto, and ask the advice and consent of the Senate to the ratification of the said treaty.

JOHN TYLER.

WASHINGTON, December 23, 1842.

To the Senate of the United States:

I have received the resolution of the 22d instant, requesting me "to inform the Senate of the nature and extent of 'the informal communications' which took place between the American Secretary of State and the British special minister during the late negotiations in Washington City upon the subject of the claims of the United States and Great Britain to the territory west of the Rocky Mountains," and also to inform the Senate what were the reasons which prevented "any agreement upon the subject at present" and which made it "inexpedient to include that subject among the subjects of formal negotiation."

In my message to Congress at the commencement of the present session, in adverting to the territory of the United States on the Pacific Ocean north of the forty-second degree of north latitude, a part of which is claimed by Great Britain, I remarked that "in advance of the acquirement of individual rights to these lands sound policy dictates that every effort should be resorted to by the two Governments to settle their respective claims," and also stated that I should not delay to urge on Great Britain the importance of an early settlement. Measures have been already taken in pursuance of the purpose thus expressed, and under these circumstances I do not deem it consistent with the public interest to make any communication on the subject.

JOHN TYLER.

WASHINGTON, December 23, 1842.

To the Senate of the United States:

I herewith communicate to the Senate a report from the Secretary of State, in answer to a resolution of the Senate adopted on the 22d instant.

JOHN TYLER.

WASHINGTON, December 29, 1842.

To the Senate of the United States:

I herewith transmit to the Senate a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying papers, in answer to their resolution of the 27th instant.

JOHN TYLER.

WASHINGTON, December 30, 1842.

To the Senate of the United States:

In reply to the resolution of the Senate of the 14th December, I transmit herewith the accompanying letter from the Secretary of the Navy and the statement thereto appended from the Bureau of Equipment and Construction.

JOHN TYLER.

WASHINGTON, December 30, 1842.

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

I communicate herewith to Congress copies of a correspondence which has recently taken place between certain agents of the Government of the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands and the Secretary of State.

The condition of those islands has excited a good deal of interest, which is increasing by every successive proof that their inhabitants are making progress in civilization and becoming more and more competent to maintain regular and orderly civil government. They lie in the Pacific Ocean, much nearer to this continent than the other, and have become an important place for the refitment and provisioning of American and European vessels.

Owing to their locality and to the course of the winds which prevail in this quarter of the world, the Sandwich Islands are the stopping place for almost all vessels passing from continent to continent across the Pacific Ocean. They are especially resorted to by the great number of vessels of the United States which are engaged in the whale fishery in those seas. The number of vessels of all sorts and the amount of property owned by citizens of the United States which are found in those islands in the course of the year are stated probably with sufficient accuracy in the letter of the agents.