JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, December 12, 1848.

To the Senate of the United States: 

I transmit herewith, for the consideration and advice of the Senate with regard to its ratification, a treaty concluded on the 18th of October, 1848, by William Medill, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, on the part of the United States, and the chiefs and headmen of the Menomonee Indians, together with a report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and other papers explanatory of the same.

JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, December 27, 1848.

To the House of Representatives: 

In compliance with the resolution of the House of the 11th instant, requesting the President to inform that body “whether he has received any information that American citizens have been imprisoned or arrested by British authorities in Ireland, and, if so, what have been the causes thereof and what steps have been taken for their release, and if not, in his opinion, inconsistent with public interest to furnish this House with copies of all correspondence in relation thereto,” I communicate herewith a report of the Secretary of State, together with the accompanying correspondence upon the subject.

JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, December 27, 1848.

To the Senate of the United States: 

I communicate herewith, in compliance with the request contained in the resolution of the Senate of the 19th instant, a report of the Secretary of the Treasury, with the accompanying statement, prepared by the Register of the Treasury, which exhibits the annual amount appropriated on account of the Coast Survey from the commencement of said Survey.

JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, January 2, 1849.

To the House of Representatives of the United States: 

In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 18th of December, 1848, requesting information “under what law or provision of the Constitution, or by what other authority,” the Secretary of the Treasury, with the “sanction and approval” of the President, established “a tariff of duties in the ports of the Mexican Republic during the war with Mexico,” and “by what legal, constitutional, or other authority” the “revenue thus derived” was appropriated to “the support of the Army in Mexico,” I refer the House to my annual message of the 7th of December, 1847, to my message to the Senate of the 10th of February, 1848, responding to a call of that body, a copy of which is herewith communicated, and to my message to the House of Representatives of the 24th of July, 1848, responding to a call of that House.  The resolution assumes that the Secretary of the Treasury “established a tariff of duties in the ports of the Mexican Republic.”  The contributions collected in this mode were not established by the Secretary of the Treasury, but by a military order issued by the President through the War and Navy Departments.  For his information the President directed the Secretary of the Treasury to prepare and report to him a scale of duties.  That report was made, and the President’s military order of the 31st of March, 1847, was based upon it.  The documents communicated to Congress with my annual message of December, 1847, show the true character of that order.