f the State of Texas, at the request of the Secretary
of the Treasury, have furnished a schedule of the public debt of that
State created prior to her admission into the Union, with a copy of the
laws under which each class was contracted.

I have, from the documents furnished by the State of Texas, determined
the classes of claims which in my judgment fall within the provisions of
the act of Congress of the 9th of September, 1850.

On being officially informed of the acceptance by Texas of the
propositions contained in the act referred to I caused the stock to be
prepared, and the five millions which are to be issued unconditionally,
bearing an interest of 5 per cent from the 1st day of January, 1851,
have been for some time ready to be delivered to the State of Texas. The
authorities of Texas up to the present time have not authorized anyone
to receive this stock, and it remains in the Treasury Department subject
to the order of Texas.

The releases required by law to be deposited in the Treasury not having
been filed there, the remaining five millions have not been issued.
This last amount of the stock will be withheld from Texas until the
conditions upon which it is to be delivered shall be complied with by
the creditors of that State, unless Congress shall otherwise direct by
a modification of the law.

In my last annual message, to which I respectfully refer, I stated
briefly the reasons which induced me to recommend a modification of
the present tariff by converting the _ad valorem_ into a specific duty
wherever the article imported was of such a character as to permit it,
and that such a discrimination should be made in favor of the industrial
pursuits of our own country as to encourage home production without
excluding foreign competition.

The numerous frauds which continue to be practiced upon the revenue by
false invoices and undervaluations constitute an unanswerable reason for
adopting specific instead of _ad valorem_ duties in all cases where the
nature of the commodity does not forbid it. A striking illustration of
these frauds will be exhibited in the report of the Secretary of the
Treasury, showing the custom-house valuation of articles imported under
a former law, subject to specific duties, when there was no inducement
to undervaluation, and the custom-house valuations of the same articles
under the present system of _ad valorem_ duties, so greatly reduced
as to leave no doubt of the existence o