Congress--the first communicated at the commencement of
the present session, under date of the 7th of December, 1835, and the
second under that of the 15th of January, 1836. Could these documents
have been within the knowledge of His Britannic Majesty's Government,
the President does not doubt that it would have been fully satisfied
that the disposition of the United States, notwithstanding their
well-grounded and serious causes of complaint against France, to
restore friendly relations and cultivate a good understanding with the
Government of that country was undiminished, and that all had already
been done on their part that could in reason be expected of them to
secure that result. The first of these documents, although it gave such
a history of the origin and progress of the claims of the United States
and of the proceedings of France before and since the treaty of 1831
as to vindicate the statements and recommendations of the message of
the 1st of December, 1834, yet expressly disclaimed the offensive
interpretation put upon it by the Government of France, and while
it insisted on the acknowledged rights of the United States and the
obligations of the treaty and maintained the honor and independence
of the American Government, evinced an anxious desire to do all that
constitutional duty and strict justice would permit to remove every
cause of irritation and excitement. The special message of the 15th
January last being called for by the extraordinary and inadmissible
demands of the Government of France as defined in the last official
communications at Paris, and by the continued refusal of France to
execute a treaty from the faithful performance of which by the United
States it was tranquilly enjoying important advantages, it became the
duty of the President to recommend such measures as might be adapted
to the exigencies of the occasion. Unwilling to believe that a nation
distinguished for honor and intelligence could have determined
permanently to maintain a ground so indefensible, and anxious still to
leave open the door of reconciliation, the President contented himself
with proposing to Congress the mildest of the remedies given by the law
and practice of nations in connection with such propositions for defense
as were evidently required by the condition of the United States and
the attitude assumed by France. In all these proceedings, as well as
in every stage of these difficulties with France, it is confidentl