I trust it may not be deemed inappropriate to the occasion for me to dwell for a moment on the memory of the most eminent citizen of our country who during the summer that is gone by has descended to the tomb.  The enjoyment of contemplating, at the advanced age of near fourscore years, the happy condition of his country cheered the last hours of Andrew Jackson, who departed this life in the tranquil hope of a blessed immortality.  His death was happy, as his life had been eminently useful.  He had an unfaltering confidence in the virtue and capacity of the people and in the permanence of that free Government which he had largely contributed to establish and defend.  His great deeds had secured to him the affections of his fellow-citizens, and it was his happiness to witness the growth and glory of his country, which he loved so well.  He departed amidst the benedictions of millions of freemen.  The nation paid its tribute to his memory at his tomb.  Coming generations will learn from his example the love of country and the rights of man.  In his language on a similar occasion to the present, “I now commend you, fellow-citizens, to the guidance of Almighty God, with a full reliance on His merciful providence for the maintenance of our free institutions, and with an earnest supplication that whatever errors it may be my lot to commit in discharging the arduous duties which have devolved on me will find a remedy in the harmony and wisdom of your counsels.”

JAMES K. POLK.

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

Washington, December 9, 1845.

To the Senate and House of Representatives: 

I communicate herewith a letter received from the President of the existing Government of the State of Texas, transmitting duplicate copies of the constitution formed by the deputies of the people of Texas in convention assembled, accompanied by official information that the said constitution had been ratified, confirmed, and adopted by the people of Texas themselves, in accordance with the joint resolution for annexing Texas to the United States, and in order that Texas might be admitted as one of the States of that Union.

JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, December 10, 1845.

To the Senate of the United States: 

I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of War, in answer to a resolution of the Senate of the 4th instant, calling for information “with respect to the practicability and utility of a fort or forts on Ship Island, on the coast of Mississippi, with a view to the protection of said coast.”

JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, December 15, 1845.

To the Senate of the United States: 

I herewith communicate to the Senate, for its consideration, a convention signed on the 14th May of the present year by the minister of the United States at Berlin with the minister of Saxony at the same Court, for the mutual abolition of the droit d’aubaine, droit de detraction, and taxes on emigration between the United States and Saxony; and I communicate with the convention an explanatory dispatch of the minister of the United States, dated on the 14th May, 1845, and numbered 267.