the
Treasury.

MILLARD FILLMORE.

[Footnote 9: Relating to the seizure of the British ship _Albion_.]

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, _February 19, 1851_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I have received the resolution of the Senate of the 18th instant,
requesting me to lay before that body, if not incompatible with the
public interest, any information I may possess in regard to an alleged
recent case of a forcible resistance to the execution of the laws of the
United States in the city of Boston, and to communicate to the Senate,
under the above conditions, what means I have adopted to meet the
occurrence, and whether in my opinion any additional legislation is
necessary to meet the exigency of the case and to more vigorously
execute existing laws.

The public newspapers contain an affidavit of Patrick Riley, a
deputy marshal for the district of Massachusetts, setting forth the
circumstances of the case, a copy of which affidavit is herewith
communicated. Private and unofficial communications concur in
establishing the main facts of this account, but no satisfactory
official information has as yet been received; and in some important
respects the accuracy of the account has been denied by persons whom it
implicates. Nothing could be more unexpected than that such a gross
violation of law, such a high-handed contempt of the authority of the
United States, should be perpetrated by a band of lawless confederates
at noonday in the city of Boston, and in the very temple of justice. I
regard this flagitious proceeding as being a surprise not unattended by
some degree of negligence; nor do I doubt that if any such act of
violence had been apprehended thousands of the good citizens of Boston
would have presented themselves voluntarily and promptly to prevent it.
But the danger does not seem to have been timely made known or duly
appreciated by those who were concerned in the execution of the process.
In a community distinguished for its love of order and respect for the
laws, among a people whose sentiment is liberty and law, and not liberty
without law nor above the law, such an outrage could only be the result
of sudden violence, unhappily too much unprepared for to be successfully
resisted. It would be melancholy indeed if we were obliged to regard
this outbreak against the constitutional and legal authority of the
Government as proceeding from the general feeling of the people in a
spot which is proverbially call