t, copies of which are herewith transmitted, and an earnest wish
is expressed that a final settlement of this long-pending claim should
be made. The tone of the letter of instructions from Mr. Manuel Bertran
de Lis is somewhat more peremptory than could be wished, but this
circumstance will not, probably, prevent Congress from giving his
suggestions the attention to which they may be entitled.

The claim of the Spanish Government on behalf of its subjects interested
in the _Amistad_ was the subject of discussion during the Administration
of President Tyler between the Spanish minister and Mr. Webster, then
Secretary of State. In an elaborate letter of the latter, addressed to
the Chevalier d'Argais on the 1st of September, 1841, the opinion is
confidently maintained that the claim is unfounded. The Administration
of President Polk took a different view of the matter. The justice of
the claim was recognized in a letter from the Department of State to the
Spanish minister of the 19th of March, 1847, and in his annual message
of the same year the President recommended its payment.

Under these circumstances the attention of Congress is again invited to
the subject. Respect to the Spanish Government demands that its urgent
representation should be candidly and impartially weighed. If Congress
should be of opinion that the claim is just, every consideration points
to the propriety of its prompt recognition and payment, and if the two
Houses should come to the opposite conclusion it is equally desirable
that the result should be announced without unnecessary delay.

MILLARD FILLMORE.

WASHINGTON, _January 18, 1853_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

I have the honor herewith to transmit a report from the Secretary of
the Interior, from which it appears that the efforts of that Department
to induce the Indians remaining in Florida to migrate to the country
assigned to their tribe west of the Mississippi have been entirely
unsuccessful. The only alternative that now remains is either to compel
them by force to comply with the treaty made with the tribe in May,
1832, by which they agreed to migrate within three years from that
date, or allow the arrangement made with them in 1842, referred to in
the Secretary's report, by which they were permitted to remain in the
temporary occupancy of a portion of the peninsula until the Government
should see fit to remove them, to continue.

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