PUBLIC DOCUMi: 



G87 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. Mcusn-je of i 

 d< at LINCOLN at the second session of the 

 Thirty-eighth Congress, Dcccmlcr 6th, 1SG4. 



Felloic-ciiizens of the Senate 



and ifouse of Representatives : 

 .in the blessings of health and abundant har- 

 laiui our proibuudest gratitude to Almighty 

 God. 



The condition of our foreign affairs is reasonably 

 satisfactory. 



Mexico continues to be a theatre of civil war. 

 While our political relations with that country have 

 undergone no change, we have, at the same time, 

 strictly maintained neutrality between the two bel- 

 ligerents. 



At the request of the States of Costa Rica and 

 Nicaragua, a competent engineer has been author- 

 ized to make a survey of the river San Juan and the 

 port of San Juan. It is a source of much satisfac- 

 tion that the difficulties which for a moment excited 

 some political apprehensions, and caused a closing 

 of the mter-oceanic transit route, have been amicably 

 adjusted, and that there is a good prospect that the 

 route will soon be reopened with an increase of ca- 

 pacity and adaptation. We could not exaggerate 

 either the commercial or the political importance of 

 that great improvement. 



It would be doing injustice to an important South 

 American State not to acknowledge the directness, 

 frankness, and cordiality with which the United 

 States of Colombia have .entered into intimate rela- 

 tions with this Government. A claims convention 

 has been constituted to complete the unfinished 

 work of the one which closed its session in 1861. 



The new liberal constitution of Venezuela having 

 gone into effect with the universal acquiescence of 

 the people, the Government under it has been recog- 

 nized, and diplomatic intercourse with it has opened 

 in a cordial and friendly spirit. The long deferred 

 Aves Island claim has been satisfactorily paid and 

 discharged. 



Mutual payments have been made of the claims of 

 the late joint commission for the settlement of claims 

 between the United States and Peru. An earnest 

 and cordial friendship continues to exist between 

 the two countries, and such efforts as were in my 

 power have been used to remove misunderstanding 

 and avert a threatened war between Peru and Spain. 



Our relations are of the most friendly nature with 

 Chili, the Argentine Republic, Bolivia, Costa Rica, 

 Paraguay, San Salvador, and Ilayti. 



During the past year no differences of any kind 

 nave arisen with any of those republics, and, "on the 

 other hand, their sympathies with the United States 

 are constantly expressed with cordiality and earnest- 

 ness. 



The claim arising from the seizure of the cargo of 

 the brig Macedonian in 1821, has been paid in full by 

 the Government of Chili. 



Civil war continues in the Spanish part of San 

 Domingo, apparently without prospect of an early 

 close. 



Official correspondence has been freely opened 

 with Liberia, and it gives us a pleasing" view of 

 social and political progress in that Republic. It 

 may be expected to derive a new vigor from Amer- 

 ican influence, improved by the rapid disappearance 

 of slavery in the united States. 



I solicit your authority to furnish to the Repablic 

 a gunboat at moderate cost, to be reimbursed to the 

 United States by instalments. Such a vessel is 

 needed for the safety of that State against the native 

 African races; and in Liberian hands it would be 

 more effective in arresting the African slave trade 

 than a squadron in our own hands. The possession 

 of the least organized naval force would stimulate a 

 generous ambition in the Republic, and the con- 

 fidence whivh we should manifest by furnishing it 



would win forbearance and favor toward the colony 

 from all civilized nations. 



The proposed overland telegraph between America 

 and Europe, by the way of Behring's Straits and 

 Asiatic Russia, which was sanctioned by Co, 

 at the last session, has been undertaken under very 

 favorable circumstances, by an association of Amer- 

 ican citizens, with the cordial good-will and support 

 as well of this Government as those of Great Britain 

 and Russia. Assurances have been received from 

 most of the South American States of their high ap- 

 preciation of the enterprise, and their readiness to 

 cooperate in constructing lines tributary to that 

 world-encircling communication. I learn, with much 

 satisfaction, that the noble design of a telegraph 

 communication between the eastern coast of Amer- 

 ica and Great Britain has been renewed with full ex- 

 pectation of its early accomplishment. Thus it is 

 hoped that with the return of domestic peace the 

 country will be able to resume with energy and ad- 

 vantage its former high career of commerce and 

 civilization. 



Our very popular and estimable representative in 

 Eirypt died m April last. An unpleasant altercation 

 which arose between the temporary incumbent of the 

 office and the Government of the Pacha resulted in 

 a suspension of intercourse. The evil was promptly 

 corrected on the arrival of the successor in the con- 

 sulate, and our relations with the Barbary powers 

 are entirely satisfactory. 



The rebellion which has so long been flagrant in 

 China has at last been suppressed, with the cooper- 

 ating good offices of this Government and of the 

 other western commercial St^es. The judicial con- 

 sular establishment there ha^ become very difficult 

 and onerous, and it will need legislative revision to 

 adapt it to the extension of our commerce, and to 

 the more intimate intercourse which has been insti- 

 tuted with the Government and people of that vast 

 empire. China seems to be accepting with hearty 

 good will the conventional laws which regulate com- 

 mercial and social intercourse among the western 

 nations. 



Owing to the peculiar situation of Japan, and the 

 anomalous forms of its Government, the action of 

 that empire in performing treaty stipulations is in- 

 consistent and capricious. Nevertheless, good pro- 

 gress has been effected by the Western Powers, 

 moving with enlightened concert. Our own pecu- 

 niary claims have been allowed, or put in course of 

 settlement, and the inland sea has been reopened to 

 commerce. There is reason also to believe that these 

 proceedings have increased rather than diminished 

 the friendship of Japan toward the United States. 



The ports of Norfolk, Fernandina, and Pensacola, 

 have been opened by proclamation. It is hop_ed that 

 foreign merchants will now consider whether it is not 

 safer and more profitable to themselves, as well as 

 just to the United States, to resort to these and 

 other open ports, than it is to pursue, through many 

 hazards and at vast cost, a contraband trade with 

 other ports which are closed, if not by actual mili- 

 tary occupation, at least by a lawful and effective 

 blockade. 



For mvself, I have no doubt of the power and duty 

 of the Executive, under the law of nations, to ex- 

 clude enemies of the human race from an asylum in 

 the United States. If Congress should think that 

 proceedings in such cases lack the authority of law, 

 or ought to be further regulated by it, I recommend 

 that provision be made for effectually preventing 

 foreign slave traders from acquiring domicile and 

 facilities for their criminal occupation in our country. 



It is possible that, if it were a new and open ques- 

 tion, the maritime powers, with the lights they now 

 enjoy, would not concede the privileges of a naval 

 belligerent to the insurgents of the United States, 

 destitute, as they are, and always have been, equally 

 of snips of war and of ports and harbors. Disloyal 

 emissaries have been neither less assiduous nor more 



