JAMES K. POLK.

[Footnote 15: Addressed to the Secretaries of War and of the Navy.]

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, _June 10, 1847_.

The PRESIDENT.

SIR: In compliance with your directions, I have examined the questions
presented by the Secretary of War in regard to the military
contributions proposed to be levied in Mexico under the tariff and
regulations sanctioned by you on the 31st of March last, and
respectfully recommend the following modifications, namely:

First. On all manufactures of cotton, or of cotton mixed with any other
material except wool, worsted, and silk, in the piece or in any other
form, a duty, as a military contribution, of 30 per cent _ad valorem_.

Second. When goods on which the duties are levied by weight are imported
into said ports in the package, the duties shall be collected on the net
weight only; and in all cases an allowance shall be made for all
deficiencies, leakage, breakage, or damage proved to have actually
occurred during the voyage of importation, and made known before the
goods are warehoused.

Third. The period named in the eighth of said regulations during which
the goods may remain in warehouse before the payment of duties is
extended from thirty to ninety days, and within said period of ninety
days any portion of the said goods on which the duties, as a military
contribution, have been paid may be taken, after such payment, from the
warehouse and entered free of any further duty at any other port or
ports of Mexico in our military possession, the facts of the case, with
a particular description of said goods and a statement that the duties
thereon have been paid, being certified by the proper officer of the
port or ports of reshipment.

Fourth. It is intended to provide by the treaty of peace that all goods
imported during the war into any of the Mexican ports in our military
possession shall be exempt from any new import duty or confiscation by
Mexico in the same manner as if said goods had been imported and paid
the import duties prescribed by the Government of Mexico.

Most respectfully, your obedient servant,

R.J. WALKER,
_Secretary of the Treasury_.

JUNE 11, 1847.

The modifications as above recommended by the Secretary of the Treasury
are approved by me, and the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the
Navy will give the proper orders to carry them into effect.

JAMES K. POLK.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, _November 5, 1847_.

The PRESIDENT.