and courteous manner in which you received my personal observations, assuring you, sir, I felt greatly honored thereby. To the Hon. C. A. WICKLIffe, Postmaster General, Washington. J. BUCHANAN. P. S. As it is important I should communicate the result of my communications to Her Majesty's Postmaster General, by the packet of the first of March, for that purpose I would respectfully entreat to be honored with your views by the 26th, if agreeable. POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, March 10, 1842. SIR: I much regret that other pressing engagements should have prevented my returning an answer to your communication of the 19th ultimo by the time therein desired, but indulge the hope that the delay may have occasioned you no serious inconvenience. Anxious to facilitate the post intercourse with Great Britain, so far as it may be done with a due regard to existing laws and to the interests committed to my charge, I propose that the Post Office Department of the United States collect and account for the postage of letters sent from the United States by the British steam packets in the following manner, viz: 1. The points in the United States at which such postages shall be collected are to be designated by the Postmaster General of the United States, who will receive and respectfully consider the suggestions of Her Britannic Majesty's agent as to such designation. 2. The postmasters at the offices designated to be furnished with the rates of postage to the different ports of Europe, &c. ; to which rates the postmasters will add 20 per cent. for their commission or agency, and also such rate per cent. as may be agreed upon as the par of exchange between New York and London, both of which charges are to be defrayed by the sender of the letter. 3. The amount of steam packet postage thus collected, including the rate of exchange, to be paid over to the agent of the royal mail steam packets at New York, as soon after the close of each quarter as the returns can be obtained from our postmasters, and the accounts made up. You propose that the mail packets be allowed "to convey those mails they may receive on board for post offices in the United States, and alone. to deliver such mails at the post office to which such would be addressed; for instance, mails taken on board at the Havana, for Charleston and New York, should not be required to be delivered at Savannah, nor those letters put on board at Savannah to be landed at Charleston, as required by vessels coming to entry." This proposition is deemed to involve an infringement of the 17th section of the act of Congress, approved 3d March, 1825, and cannot, therefore, be assented to. By that section, it is provided "that no ship or vessel, arriving at any port within the United States where a post office is established, shall be permitted to report, make entry, or break bulk, until the master or commander shall have delivered to the postmaster all letters directed to any person or persons within the United States, or the territories thereof, which, under his care, or within his power, shall be brought in such ship or vessel, except such as are directed to the owner or consignee of the ship or vessel." In this connexion it is proper to state, for your information, that our laws make no provision for the payment, to masters or commanders of foreign vessels, of two cents for each letter or packet delivered into the post office by them; on the contrary, the 18th section of the act of Congress referred to prohibits such allowance or payment. Not deeming it expedient to embarrass our mail system, which is already sufficiently complex, by the introduction of new and adventitious arrangements, I must, for the present, decline undertaking to collect the British postages on letters sent to England to be forwarded to the United States. Aware, however, that much convenience would result to persons abroad by the adoption of a plan of communicating with this country something like that which you propose, I shall at no very distant day give the subject further consideration. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, JAMES BUCHANAN, Esq., C. A. WICKLIFFE. Her Britannic Majesty's Consul, &c., New York. P. S. The foregoing communication was prepared on the date it bears, but unavoidably detained until the Postmaster General had time to revise it. Upon the subject of the trade and mail arrangements between the United States and Texas. MARCH 31, 1842. So much as relates to trade referred to the Committee on Commerce; so much as relates to mail arrangements referred to the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads. To the House of Representatives of the United States: I transmit to the House of Representatives two extracts from a note of the chargé d'affaires of the republic of Texas accredited to this Government to the Department of State, one suggesting, in behalf of his Government, such modifications of the existing laws of the United States as will impart greater facility to the trade between the two countries, particularly to that which passes across their frontier; and the other, expressing a desire for some regulation, on the part of this Government, by means of which the communication by post between the United States and Texas may be improved. As the wishes of the Texian Government in relation to those subjects can only be gratified by means of laws to be passed by Congress, they are accordingly referred to the consideration of the two Houses. WASHINGTON, March 30, 1842. JOHN TYLER. Mr. Reily to Mr. Webster.-[EXTRACTS.] LEGATION OF TEXAS, Washington, March, 28, 1842. The undersigned, chargé d'affaires of Texas, has the honor to call the attention of Mr. Webster to the condition of the existing relations between the two countries. In a conversation on the 25th instant, the undersigned was informed by Mr. Webster that the points submitted to him by Mr. Bee, the predecessor of the undersigned, in September last, for consideration, as the basis of a treaty between Texas and the United States, had not received attention, owing to the press of public business; neither would it be in the power of the Department to enter upon the subject at present, or to fix any definate period for the purpose. Under this state of things, it becomes the duty of the undersigned to request, as an act of justice, of the Government of the United States, to concede to Texas the right of depositing her cotton and other products, whether arriving by sea, rivers, or land, in such ports or places of the United States as may suit the convenience of Texas, for exportation, free from charge or unnecessary formalities at the custom-houses; and that on all foreign goods imported into the United States, entitled to drawback, and thence exported or sent by rivers or by land into Texas, the drawback shall be equally allowed as on those sent by sea from the United States into Texas. The undersigned is encouraged to hope, from the truly liberal and friendly spirit so generally manifested towards Texas by Mr. Webster and the Government of the United States, that the relief solicited, so just, and so essential to the prosperity of a large portion of Texas, will be promptly accorded, both in consideration of its justice and of the benefit certain to result to the United States by the increased commercial intercourse which this measure, if adopted, will ensure, by the outlay of the proceeds derived from sales of the products of Texas landed in entrepôt for exportation in her ports, as well as by the agumented demand for goods to supply portions of Texas at and near rivers tributary to the Mississippi, or flowing through the two countries, which, if the drawback is not allowed, will be brought into the seaports of Texas from foreign countries, in foreign bottoms, and transported with difficulty into the interior, to points so much more easily reached by river navigation from the United States. The undersigned would also represent to Mr. Webster the importance of some reciprocal mail arrangement, by which the letters, papers, &c., for one country, from the other, arriving, postage unpaid, at the line or posts of either, shall be forwarded, and the postage due from one country to the other, on such letters, papers, &c., collected and paid. A plan for the attainment of this object was submitted, in May, 1839, to this legation, by the Postmaster General of the United States, of a similar kind to the arrangement at present existing between Canada and the United States, and which, if no more simple one could be devised, would probably yet be acceptable to Texas. The undersigned would therefore inquire if a more simple plan can be substituted; and if not, whether the United States Government is still inclined to adopt the one already proposed. Yours, &c. JAMES REILY. Hon. DANIEL WEBSTER. ON THE COMMERCIAL RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES WITH FOREIGN NATIONS; COMPARATIVE TARIFFS; TABULAR STATEMENTS OF THE DOMESTIC EXPORTS OF THE UNITED STATES ; DUTIES ON IMPORTATION OF THE STAPLE OR PRINCIPAL PRODUCTIONS OF THE UNITED STATES INTO FOREIGN COUNTRIES, &c. PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE, IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE WASHINGTON: PRINTED BY GALES AND SEATON. 1842. |