states of Central America in virtue of commissions, subsequent in date to that accrediting me to the republic of Nicaragua alone.

You are aware that early in the 31st Congress, under suggestions from the State Department, an effort was made to substitute a minister plenipotentiary for the two chargés des affaires, resident at remote points from each other, in Leon de Nicaragua and Guatemala. My transfer from New Granada (after nomination and confirmation) to this delicate and responsible post in Central America, was accompanied with a direct intimation of an intended renewal of this effort in the coming Congress. In the meanwhile, I was tendered a commission under date of March 12, 1851, as the chargé d'affaires to the republic of Nicaragua. In May following, two commissions were made out, requesting me to go, officially, to the republics of San Salvador and Guatemela. For just such services, in our earlier history, diplomatic agents have had allowances sometimes in the form of half outfits, and at others of a full outfit. An outfit for these journeys, with letters of credence to the two governments, would barely reimburse me. The city of Guatemala is about fifteen days journey from Leon de Nicaragua, the capital, where I had established my family, and the seat of government of the republic to which I was accredited. A per diem, with all expenses going and returning, exclusive of stay in the respective capitals, is the compensation of a bearer of dispatches or a special messenger. What would be proper enough in this case could not be otherwise than grossly unjust to a resident minister at one court sent on special missions to others. The latter, in his official character, is thrown constantly in the public eye, and he has to encounter expenses commensurate with the position. The calculations of ingenious parsimony would be of little avail, were they allowable.

Besides, in these journeys of nearly two thousand miles, in an unsettled country, there was enough of privation and danger at every turn. I was many times in the saddle from dawn to midnight, lost by the mistakes of my guide in mountain paths. Some months previously, the roads could not have been passed at all, except with a military escort. On the borders of Guatemala, the roads had been infested by lucios, bodies of armed men, partly political, and always predatory, and I passed through districts where the villages, the lurking places of these men, had been recently laid in ashes, the inhabitants having been driven elsewhere.

During my stay in the city of Guatemala, I parted with the British chargé and consul, General W. Frederick Chatfield, whose route to the port of Izabel was over a portion of country held by these lucios in force, watching all the passes, and ready to welcome every comer, native or foreign. This travelling in Central America was no holyday pastime, and these journeys had become absolutely imperative. The governments of San Salvador and Guatemala were restive under the slight implied on the part of the United States in neglecting, for several years, to provide for the due exchange of ratifications of treaties with them. In carrying out the instructions of our government under these letters of credence to San Salvador and Guatemala, I was called to the performance of just such duties as have repeatedly found their only equivalent in payment by outfit.

Let me turn now from these two special missions to San Salvador and Guatemala, so distant and difficult of access from my established residence as chargé to Nicaragua, and in addition to outfit for services in these two republics, I have a further claim to $4,500 consequent upon my appointment as chargé d'affaires to "the national representation of Central America." This was composed of men claiming the entire control over the foreign relations of Nicaragua, San Salvador, and Honduras, and its seat of power, at the time of my reaching the country, was at Leon. The republic of Nicaragua was represented here by an envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, and yet it dared not receive me in the face of arrogant assumptions on the part of this body, very soon after showing itself in its true colors, as factious and revolutionary. The President of the United States was obliged, in this difficult conjuncture, to name me as chargé to the government of the three States into which Nicaragua was then supposed, by the action of its public officers, to have been merged, and the letter of credence rests in me a right to claim an outfit of $4,500. It was so adjudged in 1812, when Mr. Adams was sent specially from his residence to St. Petersburg to join Messrs. Gallatin, Bayard, and others, in a mission to treat with Great Britain. My case, in reference to the letter of credence to "the national representation of Central America," is precisely that of Mr. Donelson, under the administration of the late President Polk. This gentleman resident at Berlin, had a letter of credence to the Germanic Confederation, a quasi revolutionary movement, and for his journey to Frankfort-on-the-Maine he had nine thousand dollars. It was under precedents. Indeed, the only just and equitable mode of payment to a diplomatic agent, in cases of special mission, as clearly shown by Mr. Monroe, after much experience, is that by outfit. Every argument is in its favor, as from a variety of circumstances, a foreign minister is exposed to many "expenses," which he must necessarily overlook

and never claim.

A few more cases similar to mine had as well be cited. In 1800, Mr. Wm. Vans Murray, of Maryland, resident at the Hague, was sent specially to Paris, in order to act jointly with Messrs. Ellsworth and Davis. Mr. Monroe, when stationary at London, was specially sent to Madrid in 1804. Each was allowed, on returning, a full outfit of nine thousand dollars for his journey. In 1806, Mr. Wm. Pinkney, of Maryland, was appointed to Russia and required on his way to present a letter of credence at Naples. For this he was allowed $9,000 "expenses in the form of outfit corresponding with his grade." I ask payment in a similar form, and the equity is the stronger when the difficulties and privations incident to travelling in Central America are considered.

This claim, in my behalf, under the memorial presented by you to the Senate, is a perfectly equitable one, with precedents, early and recent. I was a stationary or resident minister at Leon, the capital of Nicaragua, and under commissions of May 26, 1851, I was sent specially to two other republics. The journeys were made in 1852. subsequent to the receipt of my commission as chargé d'affaires to "the national representation of Central America," enlarging my powers so as to embrace Honduras and Salvador, as well as Nicaragua. The

policy of our government has been carried out in substituting a minister plenipotentiary for all the States in lieu of a chargé, (as during my residence) to one of them. My position during this period was extremely delicate, as it was necessary to act in view of the civil war then flagrant, and with conflicting claims for sovereignty between Nicaragua and "the national representation." There is no avoiding the fact, that with an outfit and salary of a chargé to the republic of Nicaragua, I have been forced to assume official responsibility in every one of the five States of Central America. I was required to act, jointly with others, in an attempted settlement of the conflicting claims between Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

You have kindly taken in charge this matter of so much personal interest to me, and I am in hopes that some favorable action may at once be had upon the memorial.

I am, very faithfully yours,

Hon. J. A. PEARCE.

JOHN B. KERR.

1st Session.

No. 173.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.

MARCH 16, 1854.-Ordered to be printed.

Mr. Rusk made the following

REPORT.

[To accompany Bill S. 283.]

The Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, to whom was referred the petition of Llewellyn Washington, have had the same under consideration and respectfully report:

That it appears from the statement of the Assistant Postmaster General that Llewellyn Washington was employed as a temporary clerk in the dead letter office from the 1st of May, 1851, until the 14th day of July of the same year, at the rate of one thousand dollars per annum. The Postmaster General, among his estimates sent to the Treasury Department, asked for two hundred and five dollars and sixty-two cents, for the payment of the amount due to Mr. Llewellyn Washington, but from some cause no appropriation was made. The committee believing the claim to be entirely just, report a bill for his relief and recommend its passage.