equently exercised without question or complaint, and leading to
no practical evil, as no arrangement made under such circumstances
can be obligatory upon the United States without being submitted to
the approbation of the Senate, is an encroachment upon its rightful
authority. It appears to have been considered that the annual
appropriation of a gross sum for the expenses of foreign intercourse is
intended, among other objects, to provide for the cost of such agencies,
and that the authority granted is the same as that frequently given to
the Secretary of State to form treaties with the representatives or
agents of foreign governments, upon the granting of which the Senate
never have been consulted.

Desiring in this and in all other instances to act with the most
cautious respect to the claims of other branches of the Government,
I bring this subject to the notice of the Senate that if it shall be
deemed proper to raise any question it may be discussed and decided
before and not after the power shall have been exercised.

M. VAN BUREN.

WASHINGTON CITY, _June 11, 1838_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I submit herewith, for consideration and action, a communication from
the Secretary of War and the treaty with the Otoe, Missouria, and Omaha
Indians therein referred to.

M. VAN BUREN.

WASHINGTON, _June 20, 1838_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

I transmit, in compliance with a resolution of the House of
Representatives of the 11th instant, reports from the Secretaries
of State, Treasury, and War, with the documents referred to by them
respectively. It will be seen that the outrage committed on the
steamboat _Sir Robert Peel_, under the British flag, within the waters
of the United States, and on the steamboat _Telegraph_, under the
American flag, at Brockville, in Upper Canada, have not been followed
by any demand by either Government on the other for redress. These acts
have been so far treated on each side as criminal offenses committed
within the jurisdiction of tribunals competent to inquire into the facts
and to punish the persons concerned in them. Investigations have been
made, some of the individuals inculpated have been arrested, and
prosecutions are in progress, the result of which can not be doubted.
The excited state of public feeling on the borders of Canada on both
sides of the line has occasioned the most painful anxiety to this
Government. Every eff