Since that period, on the 14th of January, Colonel Isaac W. Hayne, the attorney-general of South Carolina, called and informed me that he was the bearer of a letter from Governor Pickens to myself which he would deliver the next day.  He was, however, induced by the interposition of Hon. Jefferson Davis and nine other Senators from the seceded and seceding States not to deliver it on the day appointed, nor was it communicated to me until the 31st of January, with his letter of that date.  Their letter to him urging this delay bears date January 15, and was the commencement of a correspondence, the whole of which in my possession I now submit to Congress.  A reference to each letter of the series in proper order accompanies this message.

JAMES BUCHANAN.

WASHINGTON CITY, February 12, 1861.

To the Senate of the United States: 

I herewith submit to the Senate, for their advice, the proceedings and award of the commissioners under the convention between the United States of America and the Republic of Paraguay, proclaimed by the President on the 12th of March, 1860.  It is decided by the award of these commissioners that “the United States and Paraguay Navigation Company have not proved or established any right to damages upon their said claim against the Government of the Republic of Paraguay, and that upon the proofs aforesaid the said Government is not responsible to the said company in any damages or pecuniary compensation whatever in all the premises.”

The question arises, Had the commissioners authority under the convention to make such an award, or were they not confined to the assessment of damages which the company had sustained from the Government of Paraguay?

Our relations with that Republic had for years been of a most unsatisfactory character.  They had been investigated by the preceding and by the present Administration.  The latter came to the conclusion that both the interest and honor of the country required that our rights against that Government for their attack on the Water Witch and for the injuries they had inflicted on this company should, if necessary, be enforced.  Accordingly, the President in his annual message of December, 1857, called the attention of Congress to the subject in the following language: 

A demand for these purposes will be made in a firm but conciliatory spirit.  This will the more probably be granted if the Executive shall have authority to use other means in the event of a refusal.  This is accordingly recommended.

After due deliberation, Congress, on the 2d of June, 1858, authorized the President “to adopt such measures and use such force as in his judgment may be necessary and advisable” in the premises.  A commissioner was accordingly appointed and a force fitted out and dispatched to Paraguay for the purpose, if necessary, of enforcing atonement for these wrongs.