JAMES K. POLK.

[Footnote 17:  Relating to the publication of a letter from General Taylor to General Gaines concerning the operations of the United States forces in Mexico.]

WASHINGTON, February 8, 1848.

To the House of Representatives of the United States: 

In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 31st January last, I communicate herewith the report of the Secretary of State, accompanied by “the documents and correspondence not already published relating to the final adjustment of the difficulties between Great Britain and the United States concerning rough rice and paddy.”

JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, February 10, 1848.

To the Senate of the United States: 

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 1st instant, requesting to be informed whether “any taxes, duties, or imposts” have been “laid and collected upon goods and merchandise belonging to citizens of the United States exported by such citizens from the United States to Mexico, and, if so, what is the rate of such duties, and what amount has been collected, and also by what authority of law the same have been laid and collected,” I refer the Senate to my annual message of the 7th of December last, in which I informed Congress that orders had been given to our military and naval commanders in Mexico to adopt the policy, as far as practicable, of levying military contributions upon the enemy for the support of our Army.

As one of the modes adopted for levying such contributions, it was stated in that message that—­

On the 31st of March last I caused an order to be issued to our military and naval commanders to levy and collect a military contribution upon all vessels and merchandise which might enter any of the ports of Mexico in our military occupation, and to apply such contributions toward defraying the expenses of the war.  By virtue of the right of conquest and the laws of war, the conqueror, consulting his own safety or convenience, may either exclude foreign commerce altogether from all such ports or permit it upon such terms and conditions as he may prescribe.  Before the principal ports of Mexico were blockaded by our Navy the revenue derived from import duties under the laws of Mexico was paid into the Mexican treasury.  After these ports had fallen into our military possession the blockade was raised and commerce with them permitted upon prescribed terms and conditions.  They were opened to the trade of all nations upon the payment of duties more moderate in their amount than those which had been previously levied by Mexico, and the revenue, which was formerly paid into the Mexican treasury, was directed to be collected by our military and naval officers and applied to the use of our Army and Navy.  Care was taken that the officers, soldiers, and sailors of our Army and Navy should be exempted from the operations of the order, and,