ntal condition prescribed by
Congress, and rejected the same.

On the 24th instant the accompanying paper (marked B), with its
inclosure, containing the proceedings of a convention of delegates
subsequently elected and held in the State of Michigan, was presented
to me. By these papers, which are also herewith submitted for your
consideration, it appears that elections were held in all the counties
of the State, except two, on the 5th and 6th days of December instant,
for the purpose of electing a convention of delegates to give the
assent required by Congress; that the delegates then elected assembled
in convention on the 14th day of December instant, and that on the
following day the assent of the body to the fundamental condition
above stated was formally given.

This latter convention was not held or elected by virtue of any act of
the Territorial or State legislature; it originated from the people
themselves, and was chosen by them in pursuance of resolutions adopted
in primary assemblies held in the respective counties. The act of
Congress, however, does not prescribe by what authority the convention
shall be ordered, or the time when or the manner in which it shall be
chosen. Had these latter proceedings come to me during the recess of
Congress, I should therefore have felt it my duty, on being satisfied
that they emanated from a convention of delegates elected in point
of fact by the people of the State for the purpose required, to have
issued my proclamation thereon as provided by law; but as the authority
conferred on the President was evidently given to him under the
expectation that the assent of the convention might be laid before him
during the recess of Congress and to avoid the delay of a postponement
until the meeting of that body, and as the circumstances which now
attend the case are in other respects peculiar and such as could not
have been foreseen when the act of June 15, 1836, was passed, I deem
it most agreeable to the intent of that law, and proper for other
reasons, that the whole subject should be submitted to the decision of
Congress. The importance of your early action upon it is too obvious
to need remark.

ANDREW JACKSON.

WASHINGTON, _December 28, 1836_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of
the 23d instant, I herewith transmit a report[22] from the Secretary
of State, to whom the resoluti