Part 49

WASHINGTON, June 1, 1852.

To the Senate of the United States:

I communicate to the Senate herewith, for its constitutional action thereon, eighteen treaties negotiated with Indian tribes in California, as described in the accompanying letter of the Secretary of the Interior, dated the 22d ultimo, with a copy of the report of the superintendent of Indian affairs for the State of California and other correspondence in relation thereto.

MILLARD FILLMORE.

WASHINGTON, June 11, 1852.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a convention between the United States and the Sultan of Borneo, signed at Bruni on the 23d of June, 1850. A copy of two dispatches to this department from Mr. Balestier, who concluded the convention on the part of this Government, one dated the 22d of April and the other the 24th June, 1851, is also transmitted for the information of the Senate. As the period limited for the exchange of the ratifications, which is to be effected at Bruni, will expire on the 23d instant, I recommend that if the Senate should approve the convention authority may be given to perform that ceremony within a year from that date. The instrument would have been submitted to the Senate in season for the ratification to be exchanged within the stipulated time had not Mr. Balestier's arrival with it in the United States been unavoidably delayed.

MILLARD FILLMORE.

WASHINGTON, June 11, 1852.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit to Congress a report from the Secretary of State, on the subject of the disorders on the Rio Grande frontier, and recommend the legislation which it suggests, in order that the duties and obligations of this Government occasioned thereby may be more effectually discharged and the peace and security of the inhabitants of the United States in that quarter more efficiently maintained.

MILLARD FILLMORE.

WASHINGTON, June 14, 1852.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith, for your consideration, a report from the Secretary of State, accompanied by a communication from His Excellency Señor Don A. Calderon de la Barca, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Her Catholic Majesty, claiming indemnity for those Spanish subjects in New Orleans who sustained injury from the unlawful violence of the mob in that city consequent upon hearing the news of the execution of those persons who unlawfully invaded Cuba in August, 1851. My own views of the national liability upon this subject were expressed in the note of the Secretary of State to Mr. Calderon of the 13th November, 1851, and I do not understand that Her Catholic Majesty's minister controverts the correctness of the position there taken. He, however, insists that the thirteenth article of the treaty of 1795 promises indemnity for such injuries sustained within one year after the commencement of war between the two nations, and although he admits this is not within the letter of the treaty, yet he conceives that, as between two friendly nations, it is within the spirit of it.

This view of the case is at his request submitted for your consideration, but whether you may deem it correct or not, there is, perhaps, one ground upon which this indemnity, which can not be large in amount, may be granted without establishing a dangerous precedent, and the granting of which would commend itself to the generous feelings of the entire country, and that is this: The Queen of Spain, with a magnanimity worthy of all commendation, in a case where we had no legal right to solicit the favor, granted a free pardon to all the persons who had so unjustifiably invaded her dominions and murdered her subjects in Cuba, in violation of her own laws as well as those of the United States and the public law of nations. Such an act of mercy, which restored many misguided and unfortunate youth of this country to their parents and friends, seems to me to merit some corresponding act of magnanimity and generosity on the part of the Government of this country, and I think that there can be none more appropriate than to grant an indemnity to those Spanish subjects who were resident among us and who suffered by the violence of the mob, not on account of any fault which they themselves had committed, but because they were the subjects of the Queen of Spain. Such an act would tend to confirm that friendship which has so long existed between the two nations and to perpetuate it as a blessing to both, and I therefore recommend it to your favorable consideration.

MILLARD FILLMORE.

WASHINGTON, June 22, 1852.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, with the accompanying documents, in compliance with the Senate's resolution of the 29th of April last.

MILLARD FILLMORE.

WASHINGTON, June 22, 1852.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a convention for the mutual delivery of criminals fugitives from justice in certain cases between the United States on the one part and Prussia and other States of the Germanic Confederation on the other part, signed in this city on the 16th instant.

MILLARD FILLMORE.

WASHINGTON, June 23, 1852.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, with the accompanying documents, in compliance with the Senate's resolution of the 3d instant.