service or labor may be due." This constitutional provision is equally obligatory upon the legislative, the executive, and judicial departments of the government, and upon every citizen of the United States.

Congress, however, must, from necessity, first act upon the subject, by prescribing the proceedings necessary to ascertain that the person is a fugitive, and the means to be used for his restoration to the claimant. This was done by an act passed during the first term of President Washington, which was amended by that enacted by the last Congress, and it now remains for the executive and judicial departments to take care that these laws be faithfully executed. This injunction of the constitution is as peremptory and as binding as any other; it stands exactly on the same foundation as that clause which provides for the return of fugitives from justice, or that which declares that no bill of attainder, or ex post facto law, shall be passed, or that which provides for an equality of taxation according to the census, or the clause declaring that all duties shall be uniform throughout the United States, or the important provision, that the trial of all crimes shall be by jury. These several articles and clauses of the constitution, all resting on the same authority, must stand or fall together. Some objections have been urged against the details of the act for the return of fugitives from labor; but it is worthy of remark, that the main opposition is aimed against the constitution itself, and proceeds from persons, and classes of persons, many of whom declare their wish to see that constitution overturned. They avow their hostility to any law which shall give full and practical effect to this requirement of the constitution. Fortunately, the number of these persons is comparatively small, and is believed to be daily diminishing, but the issue which they present is one which involves the supremacy, and even the existence of the constitution.

Cases have heretofore arisen in which individuals have denied the binding authority of acts of Congress, and even states have proposed to nullify such acts upon the ground that the constitution was the supreme law of the land, and that those acts of Congress were repugnant to that instrument; but nullification is now aimed, not so much against particu lar laws as being inconsistent with the constitution, as against the constitution itself; and it is not to be disguised that a spirit exists, and has been actively at work to rend asunder this Union, which is our cherished inheritance from our revolutionary fathers.

In my last annual message I stated that I considered the series of measures, which had been adopted at the previous session, in reference to the agitation growing out of the territorial and slavery questions, as a final settlement in principle and substance of the dangerous and exciting subjects which they embraced; and I recommend adherence to the adjustment established by those measures, until time and experience should demonstrate the necessity of further legislation to guard against evasion or abuse. I was not induced to make this recommendation because I thought those measures perfect, for no human legislation can be perfect. Wide differences and jarring opinions can only be reconciled by yielding something on all sides, and this result had been reached after an angry conflict of many months, in which one part of the country was arrayed against another, and violent convulsion seemed to be imminent. Looking at the interests of the whole country, I felt it to be my duty to seize upon this compromise as the best that could be obtained amid conflicting interests, and to insist upon it as a final settlement, to be adhered to by all

who value the peace and welfare of the country. A year has now elapsed since that recommendation was made. To that recommendation I still adhere, and I congratulate you and the country upon the general acquiescence in these measures of peace which has been exhibited in all parts of the republic. And not only is there this general acquiescence in these measures, but the spirit of conciliation which has been manifested in regard to them in all parts of the country has removed doubts and uncertainties in the minds of thousands of good men concerning the durability of our popular institutions, and given renewed assurance that our Liberty and our Union may subsist together for the benefit of this and all succeeding generations.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

DECEMBER 15, 1851.

To the Senate of the United States:

I HAVE received a resolution of the senate adopted on the 12th instant, in the following terms:

"Resolved, That the president of the United States be requested to communicate to the senate, if not inconsistent with the public interest, any information the executive may have received respecting the firing into and seizure of the American steamship Prometheus by a British vesselof-war, in November last, near Grey Town, on the Mosquito coast; and also what measures have been taken by the executive to ascertain the state of the fact, and to vindicate the honor of the country."

In answer to this request I submit to the senate the accompanying extracts from a communication addressed to the department of state by Mr. Joseph L. White, as counsel of the American, Atlantic, and Pacific Ship Canal Company, dated 2d instant.

This communication is the principal source of the information received by the executive in relation to the subject alluded to, and is presumed to be essentially correct in its statement of the facts. Upon receiving this communication, instructions such as the occasion seemed to demand, were immediately despatched to the minister of the United States in London. Sufficient time has not elapsed for the return of any answer to this despatch from him, and in my judgment it would at the present moment be inconsistent with the public interest to communicate those instructions. A communication, however, of all the correspondence will be made to the senate at the earliest moment at which a proper regard to the public interest will permit.

At the same time, instructions were given to Commodore Parker, commanding the home squadron, a copy of which, so far as they relate to the case of the Prometheus, is here with transmitted to the senate.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

JANUARY 5, 1852.

To the Senate of the United States:

I TRANSMIT to the senate a report of the secretary of state relative to the persons belonging to the expedition of Lopez, who were taken prisoners in Cuba and afterward sent to Spain, and who have now been pardoned and released by her catholic majesty. The appropriation, the expediency of which is suggested in the report, I cordially recommend to the consideration of Congress, with the single additional suggestion, that to be available, it should be promptly made.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

FEBRUARY 14, 1852.

To the Senate of the United States:

I COMMUNICATE to the senate, herewith, a report to me, dated the 13th instant, from the secretary of the interior, respecting the delay and difficulty in making the apportionment among the several states, of the representatives in the 33d Congress, as required by the act of 23d of May, 1850, in consequence of the want of full returns of the population of the state of California, and suggesting the necessity for remedial legislation. The subject is one of much importance, and I earnestly commend it to the early consideration of Congress.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

MARCH 4, 1852.

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

I TRANSMIT to Congress a despatch addressed to the secretary of state by the minister of the United States at Mexico, and the papers therein referred to, relative to the cemetery which has been constructed in the neighborhood of that city, as a place of sepulture for the remains of the officers and soldiers of the United States who died or were killed in that vicinity during the late war, and for such citizens of the United States as may hereafter die there. A copy of the report of the agent who was sent for the purpose of superintending the work, is also herewith transmitted. It will be seen that a sum of twenty-five hundred or three thousand dollars, in addition to the amount appropriated by the act of Congress, approved 28th September, 1850, is represented to be necessary to carry the objects of that appropriation into full effect. I accordingly recommend that provision therefor be made.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

MARCH 25, 1852.

To the House of Representatives:

As a further answer to the resolution of the house of representatives of the 5th of January last, requesting information in regard to a circular of her Britannic majesty's secretary of state for colonial affairs, in respect to the encouragement of the emigration of colored laborers from the United States to the British West India islands, I transmit another despatch addressed to the department of state by the minister of the United States at London.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

MARCH 26, 1852.

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

AT the close of the commission to adjudicate upon the claims of citizens of the United States under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, I directed a list to be made of papers which had been presented to that commission and pursuant to the act of Congress, approved 3d March, 1849, the papers themselves to be carefully arranged and deposited for safekeeping in the department of state. I deemed all this necessary as well for the interest of the claimants, as to secure the government against fraudulent claims which might be preferred hereafter. A few days since I was surprised to learn that some of these papers had been fraudulently abstracted by one of the claimants; and upon the case being made known to me by the secretary of state, I referred it to the attorney-general, for the purpose of ascertaining what punishment could be inflicted upon the person who had been guilty of this offence.

I now communicate to you his opinion, and that of the attorney of the United States for this district, by which you will perceive that it is doubtful whether there be any law for punishing the very grave offence of fraudulently abstracting or mutilating the papers and public documents in the several departments of this government. It appears to me that the protection of the public records and papers requires that such acts should be made penal, and a suitable punishment inflicted upon the offender, and I therefore bring the subject to your consideration, to enable you to act upon it should you concur with me in this opinion.

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SPECIAL MESSAGE.

APRIL 6, 1852.

To the House of Representatives :

IN compliance with the resolution of the house of the 31st ultimo, I have the honor herewith to transmit a report from the secretary of war, accompanied by the original manuscript report of Captain Thomas J. Crane, dated February 3, 1844, on the best mode of improving the navigation of the Ohio river at the falls of Louisville, together with the original map accompanying the same.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

APRIL 19, 1852.

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

I INVITE the attention of Congress to the state of affairs in the territory of Oregon, growing out of a conflict of opinion among the authorities of that territory, in regard to a proper construction of the acts of Congress, approved the 14th August, 1848, and 11th June, 1850, the former entitled "An act to establish a territorial government of Oregon," and the latter entitled "An act to make further appropriations for public buildings in the territories of Minnesota and Oregon." In order to enable Congress to understand the controversy, and apply such remedy with a view to adjust it, as may be deemed expedient, I transmit

1. An act of the legislative assembly of that territory, passed February 1, 1851, entitled "An act to provide for the selection of places for the location and erection of public buildings of the territory of Oregon;"

2. Governor Gaines's message to the legislative assembly of the 3d February, 1851;

3. The opinion of the attorney-general of the United States, of 23d April, in regard to the act of the legislative assembly of the 1st February, 1851;

4. The opinion of the supreme court of Oregon, pronounced on the 9th December, 1851;

5. A letter of Judge Pratt, of the 15th December, 1851, dissenting from that opinion;

6. Governor Gaines's letter to the president of the 1st January, 1852; 7. Report of the attorney-general of the United States on that letter, dated 22d March, 1852.

If it should be the sense of Congress that the seat of government of Oregon has not already been established by the local authorities pursuant to the law of the United States, for the organization of that territory, or if so established, should be deemed objectionable, in order to appease the strife upon the subject which seems to have arisen in that territory, I recommend that the seat of government be either permanently or temporarily ordained by act of Congress; and that that body should, in the