respect, his failing health was watched by the nation
with painful solicitude. His loss to the country, under all the
circumstances, has been justly regarded as irreparable.

In compliance with the act of Congress of March 2, 1853, the oath of
office was administered to him on the 24th of that month at Ariadne
estate, near Matanzas, in the island of Cuba; but his strength gradually
declined, and was hardly sufficient to enable him to return to his home
in Alabama, where, on the 18th day of April, in the most calm and
peaceful way, his long and eminently useful career was terminated.

Entertaining unlimited confidence in your intelligent and patriotic
devotion to the public interest, and being conscious of no motives on
my part which are not inseparable from the honor and advancement of my
country, I hope it may be my privilege to deserve and secure not only
your cordial cooperation in great public measures, but also those
relations of mutual confidence and regard which it is always so
desirable to cultivate between members of coordinate branches of the
Government.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

WASHINGTON, _December 12, 1853_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In answer to the resolutions of the Senate of the 17th of August, 1852,
and 23d of February last, requesting a copy of correspondence relative
to the claim on the Government of Portugal in the case of the brig
_General Armstrong_, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State,
to whose Department the resolutions were referred.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.

WASHINGTON, _December 12, 1853_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to
ratification, a treaty of friendship, commerce, and navigation between
the United States and Paraguay, concluded on the 4th of March last.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.

WASHINGTON, _December 12, 1853_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to
ratification, a treaty for the free navigation of the rivers Parana and
Uruguay between the United States and the Argentine Confederation,
concluded on the 10th of July last.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.

WASHINGTON, _December 12, 1853_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to
ratification, a treaty of friendship, commerce, and navigation between
the United States and the Argentine Con