ransmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents
by which it was accompanied.

JAMES BUCHANAN.

WASHINGTON, _January 2, 1861_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to
ratification, a treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation, and for the
surrender of fugitive criminals, between the United States and the
Republic of Venezuela, signed at Caracas on the 27th of August last.

A similar treaty was concluded on the 10th July, 1856, was submitted
to the Senate, and was by a resolution of that body approved, with an
amendment, on the 10th March, 1857. Before this amendment could be laid
before the Government of Venezuela for acceptance a new minister of the
United States was accredited to that Government. Meantime the attention
of this Government had been drawn to the disadvantage which would result
to our citizens residing in Venezuela if the second article of the
treaty of 1856 were permitted to go into effect, the "pecuniary
equivalent" for exemption from military duty being an arbitrary and
generally an excessive sum. In view of this fact it was deemed
preferable to instruct our new minister to negotiate a new treaty which
should omit the objectionable second article and also the few words of
the twenty-eighth article which had been stricken out by the Senate.

With these changes, and with the addition of the last clause to the
twenty-seventh article, the treaty is the same as that already approved
by the Senate.

JAMES BUCHANAN.

WASHINGTON CITY, _January 8, 1861_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

At the opening of your present session I called your attention to the
dangers which threatened the existence of the Union. I expressed my
opinion freely concerning the original causes of those dangers, and
recommended such measures as I believed would have the effect of
tranquilizing the country and saving it from the peril in which it had
been needlessly and most unfortunately involved. Those opinions and
recommendations I do not propose now to repeat. My own convictions upon
the whole subject remain unchanged.

The fact that a great calamity was impending over the nation was even at
that time acknowledged by every intelligent citizen. It had already made
itself felt throughout the length and breadth of the land. The necessary
consequences of the alarm thus produced were most deplorable. The
imports fell off with a r