their part the Government has neither the right nor, I trust, the disposition to interfere.  But whether the interest or the honor of the United States requires that they should be made a party to any such struggle, and by inevitable consequence to the war which is waged in its support, is a question which by our Constitution is wisely left to Congress alone to decide.  It is by the laws already made criminal in our citizens to embarrass or anticipate that decision by unauthorized military operations on their part.  Offenses of this character, in addition to their criminality as violations of the laws of our country, have a direct tendency to draw down upon our own citizens at large the multiplied evils of a foreign war and expose to injurious imputations the good faith and honor of the country.  As such they deserve to be put down with promptitude and decision.  I can not be mistaken, I am confident, in counting on the cordial and general concurrence of our fellow-citizens in this sentiment.  A copy of the proclamation which I have felt it my duty to issue is herewith communicated.  I can not but hope that the good sense and patriotism, the regard for the honor and reputation of their country, the respect for the laws which they have themselves enacted for their own government, and the love of order for which the mass of our people have been so long and so justly distinguished will deter the comparatively few who are engaged in them from a further prosecution of such desperate enterprises.  In the meantime the existing laws have been and will continue to be faithfully executed, and every effort will be made to carry them out in their full extent.  Whether they are sufficient or not to meet the actual state of things on the Canadian frontier it is for Congress to decide.

It will appear from the correspondence herewith submitted that the Government of Russia declines a renewal of the fourth article of the convention of April, 1824, between the United States and His Imperial Majesty, by the third article of which it is agreed that “hereafter there shall not be formed by the citizens of the United States or under the authority of the said States any establishment upon the northwest coast of America, nor in any of the islands adjacent, to the north of 54° 40’ of north latitude, and that in the same manner there shall be none formed by Russian subjects or under the authority of Russia south of the same parallel;” and by the fourth article, “that during a term of ten years, counting from the signature of the present convention, the ships of both powers, or which belong to their citizens or subjects, respectively, may reciprocally frequent, without any hindrance whatever, the interior seas, gulfs, harbors, and creeks upon the coast mentioned in the preceding article, for the purpose of fishing and trading with the natives of the country.”  The reasons assigned for declining to renew the provisions of this article are, briefly, that the only use made by our citizens