pt settlement of
the long-vexed question concerning the claims of foreign states for
military service from their subjects naturalized in the United States.

In connection with this subject the attention of Congress is
respectfully called to a singular and embarrassing conflict of laws.
The executive department of this Government has hitherto uniformly held,
as it now holds, that naturalization in conformity with the Constitution
and laws of the United States absolves the recipient from his native
allegiance. The courts of Great Britain hold that allegiance to the
British Crown is indefeasible, and is not absolved by our laws of
naturalization. British judges cite courts and law authorities of the
United States in support of that theory against the position held by the
executive authority of the United States. This conflict perplexes the
public mind concerning the rights of naturalized citizens and impairs
the national authority abroad. I called attention to this subject in my
last annual message, and now again respectfully appeal to Congress to
declare the national will unmistakably upon this important question.

The abuse of our laws by the clandestine prosecution of the African
slave trade from American ports or by American citizens has altogether
ceased, and under existing circumstances no apprehensions of its renewal
in this part of the world are entertained. Under these circumstances
it becomes a question whether we shall not propose to Her Majesty's
Government a suspension or discontinuance of the stipulations for
maintaining a naval force for the suppression of that trade.

ANDREW JOHNSON.

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

WASHINGTON, _December 3, 1867_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit, for consideration with a view to ratification, a treaty
between the United States and His Majesty the King of Denmark,
stipulating for the cession of the islands of St. Thomas and St. John,
in the West Indies.

ANDREW JOHNSON.

WASHINGTON, _December 3, 1867_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit, for consideration with a view to ratification, a treaty of
friendship, commerce, and navigation between the United States and the
Republic of Nicaragua, signed at the city of Managua on the 21st day of
June last. This instrument has been framed pursuant to the amendments
of the Senate of the United States to the previous treaty between the
parties of the 16th of March, 1859.

ANDREW JOHNSON.