in the possession of the United States, and the interest
as it fell due has been regularly paid upon them. Our commercial
intercourse with Cuba stands as regulated by the act of Congress.
No recent information has been received as to the disposition of the
Government of Madrid on this subject, and the lamented death of our
recently appointed minister on his way to Spain, with the pressure of
their affairs at home, renders it scarcely probable that any change is
to be looked for during the coming year. Further portions of the Florida
archives have been sent to the United States, although the death of one
of the commissioners at a critical moment embarrassed the progress of
the delivery of them. The higher officers of the local government have
recently shewn an anxious desire, in compliance with the orders from the
parent Government, to facilitate the selection and delivery of all we
have a right to claim.

Negotiations have been opened at Madrid for the establishment of a
lasting peace between Spain and such of the Spanish American Governments
of this hemisphere as have availed themselves of the intimation given
to all of them of the disposition of Spain to treat upon the basis of
their entire independence. It is to be regretted that simultaneous
appointments by all of ministers to negotiate with Spain had not been
made. The negotiation itself would have been simplified, and this
long-standing dispute, spreading over a large portion of the world,
would have been brought to a more speedy conclusion.

Our political and commercial relations with Austria, Prussia, Sweden,
and Denmark stand on the usual favorable bases. One of the articles of
our treaty with Russia in relation to the trade on the northwest coast
of America having expired, instructions have been given to our minister
at St. Petersburg to negotiate a renewal of it. The long and unbroken
amity between the two Governments gives every reason for supposing the
article will be renewed, if stronger motives do not exist to prevent
it than with our view of the subject can be anticipated here.

I ask your attention to the message of my predecessor at the opening
of the second session of the Nineteenth Congress, relative to our
commercial intercourse with Holland, and to the documents connected with
that subject, communicated to the House of Representatives on the 10th
of January, 1825, and 18th of January, 1827. Coinciding in the opinion
of my predecessor that Holland