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 pro ceeds 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 particular 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 recommended 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. MILLARD FILLMORE. SPECIAL MESSAGES. WASHINGTON, December 12, 1851. To the Senate of the United States: I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a treaty of friendship, commerce, and navigation between the United States and the Republic of Costa Rica, signed in this city on the 10th day of July last. To the Senate of the United States: MILLARD FILLMORE. WASHINGTON, December 15, 1851. I transmit to the Senate a report* of the Secretary of State, in answer to their resolution of the 8th of March last. MILLARD FILLMORE. To the Senate of the United States: WASHINGTON, December 15, 1851. 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 vessel of war in November last near Greytown, on the Mosquito Coast, and also what measures have been taken by the Executive to ascertain the state of the facts and to vindicate the honor of the country. *Relating to the free navigation of the St. Lawrence, St. John, and other large rivers, and to the free enjoyment of the British North American fisheries by United States citizens. 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 dispatched to the minister of the United States in London. Sufficient time has not elapsed for the return of any answer to this dispatch 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 herewith transmitted to the Senate. MILLARD FILLMORE. To the Senate of the United States: WASHINGTON, December 16, 1851. In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 9th instant, requesting information in regard to the imprisonment of John S. Thrasher at Havana, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents which accompanied it. MILLARD FILLMORE. To the Senate of the United States: WASHINGTON, December 16, 1851. In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 8th instant, requesting the communication of a dispatch* addressed to the Department of State by Mr. Niles, late chargé d'affaires of the United States at Turin, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, which is accompanied by a copy of the dispatch. MILLARD FILLMORE. To the House of Representatives: WASHINGTON, December 23, 1851. I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary of State, in answer to the first part† of a resolution of the 15th Decem *On the subject of a ship canal between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. + Relating to the conclusion of a treaty between Spain, France, and Great Britain in respect to the island of Cuba. ber, 1851, and also a report from the Secretary of the Navy, in answer to the remaining part* of the same resolution. MILLARD FILLMORE. To the House of Representatives: WASHINGTON, December 23, 1851. In answer to a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 15th instant, requesting information in regard to the imprisonment, trial, and sentence of John S. Thrasher in the island of Cuba, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents which accompanied it. MILLARD FILLMORE. WASHINGTON, December 29, 1851. To the Senate and House of Representatives: I transmit herewith a copy of a letter of the 26th instant, addressed to the Secretary of State by the contractors for paying the next installment due to Mexico pursuant to the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, representing the necessity of an immediate appropriation by Congress of the money necessary for that purpose. MILLARD FILLMORE. To the House of Representatives: WASHINGTON, January 2, 1852. As a further answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 15th ultimo, calling for information respecting the imprisonment, trial, and sentence of John S. Thrasher in the island of Cuba, I transmit another report from the Secretary of State. MILLARD FILLMORE. WASHINGTON, January 2, 1852. To the House of Representatives of the United States: I transmit to the House of Representatives a copy of the resolution adopted by the Legislative Council of Canada, together with the copy of the note by which the resolution was communicated to this Government, expressing the satisfaction of that Council at receiving intelligence of certain donations in aid of the reconstruction of the library of the Canadian Parliament. MILLARD FILLMORE. [The same message, dated January 6, 1852, was sent to the Senate.] *Pertaining to the relative strength of the British, French, and United States squadrons in the West India seas, and whether additional appropriations are necessary to increase the United States force on that station. To the Senate of the United States: WASHINGTON, January 3, 1852. I nominate Elisha Whittlesey and Elias S. Terry to be commissioners under the seventeenth article of the treaty concluded with the Cherokee tribe of Indians at New Echota on the 29th day of December, 1835, to adjudicate the claim of David Taylor for 640 acres of land, which has been duly appraised in accordance with the terms of the ninth article of said treaty, but not paid for. The facts of the case will more fully appear in the accompanying papers from the Department of the Interior. To the House of Representatives: MILLARD FILLMORE. WASHINGTON, January 5, 1852. I transmit to the House of Representatives a report of the Secretary of State, relative to the persons belonging to the expedition of Lopez who were taken prisoners in Cuba and afterwards 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 commend to the consideration of Congress, with the single additional suggestion that to be available it should be promptly made. MILLARD FILLMORE. [The same message was sent to the Senate.] To the House of Representatives: WASHINGTON, January 9, 1852. In answer to a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 15th ultimo, requesting information in regard to the Territory of Utah, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, to whom the resolution was referred. To the House of Representatives: MILLARD FILLMORE. WASHINGTON, January 12, 1852. In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 5th instant, I herewith transmit to it a report and accompanying papers* from the Secretary of State. MILLARD FILLMORE. To the House of Representatives: WASHINGTON, January 16, 1852. I transmit a copy of a letter which has been addressed to me by the secretary of the Territory of Utah since my recent message to the House Relating to a circular issued by the secretary of state for the British colonial department relative to the employment in the British West India colonies of free blacks and liberated slaves from the United States. |