The duties devolving upon me during that period-over two years and a halfas sole agent of our Government were arduous and highly responsible, involving the interests and rights of our countrymen for spoliations and outrages committed against them in that country, requiring my unremitted labors and correspondence with that Government and the assistance of a person in the office as a translator and clerk to enable me to discharge its duties, the extent and nature of which the archives in the Department of State will, I am persuaded, satisfy the committee, as also of the merits of my pretensions. I beg leave, sir, to remark that, in addition to my unremitted efforts in behalf of my countrymen residing in that Republic, I lost no opportunity to make a favorable impression on the minds of the Mexican authorities and people in favor of our country and its institutions and of the great importance to both countries to have the differences unhappily existing between them amicably adjusted, and the most friendly relations cultivated between them. These efforts, sir, I flatter myself, were not without their influence in bringing about the conventional treaty for the friendly adjustment of our differences with Mexico by commissioners. Without trespassing further in this communication upon your time, I most respectfully beg leave to refer the Committee on Foreign Affairs to the files of the Department of State, hoping that on a full examination of the merits of my claim the Committee on Foreign Affairs will feel fully authorized to report favorably on the same, and make me the usual allowance and pay of a diplomatic agent under such circumstances. I ought to add, in justice to myself, that my stay at Mexico has been attended with heavy expense, my perquisites as consul being of scarcely more than a nominal amount. From this consideration I should have returned much sooner to the United States had it not been for the absence of any regular diplomatic agent of our Government near that power whose interposition could be invoked for the protection of our resident countrymen in their persons and property, and who earnestly solicited my continuance until the diplomatic relations of the two Governments could be resumed. As an evidence of their sense of the value of these services and of their personal regard, I beg leave to accompany this communication with a copy of a letter from a portion of them addressed to me on the eve of my leaving that capital for the United States. A copy of the same, it is believed, will be found in the Department of State. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. BENJAMIN TAPPAN, W. D. JONES. United States Senate. June 3, 1840. [Senate Report No. -.] Mr. Buchanan made the following report: The Committee on Foreign Relations, to whom was referred the bill from the House of Representatives entitled "An act for the relief of Alexander H. Everett," report: That this bill allows to Mr. Everett the sum of $958.32 for office rent at Madrid from the 1st October, 1825, till 31st July, 1829, while he was the minister of the United States at Spain. The office was rented for the use of the legation at the rate of $250 per annum, and the rent was charged in Mr. Everett's accounts against the Government, but it was disallowed by the Department of State. Mr. Everett alleges that he rented the office under the belief that the Government would pay the rent, founded on a knowledge of the fact that similar allowances had been made to our ministers in London and Paris, and the committee entertain no doubt of the truth of this allegation. The committee, notwithstanding, do not feel themselves authorized to recommend the passage of the bill. It is true that since 1817 the ministers of the United States at London, and since 1822 our ministers at Paris, have been allowed office rent, though it may be well doubted whether this allowance is sanc tioned by the act of May 1, 1810. That act is clear and explicit in its terms. It expressly provides "that the President of the United States shall not allow to any minister plenipotentiary a greater sum than at the rate of $9,000 per annum as a compensation for all his personal services and expenses," and Mr. Everett was bound to know its provisions. The committee believe that it is a necessary expense of the minister to provide himself an office where the business of his legation may be transacted, and that under no fair rule of construction can office rent be considered a contingent expense of the mission. These contingent expenses are intended to embrace only the postage on dispatches, letters, etc., and other incidental and uncertain expenditures. The allowance for office rent in London and Paris has doubtless been made on account of the great expense of living in these cities and the large amount of business to be transacted there. It has never been extended to any of the other ministers of the United States, and the question now is whether Congress shall for the first time establish such a precedent. All our ministers and chargés have undoubtedly paid office rent in the different countries to which they have been accredited, some under the general denomination of house rent and others for offices separate from their houses. Indeed, similar claims have already been advanced by other ministers to Madrid. If this allowance should be made to Mr. Everett it would be difficult to conceive upon what principle the money expended for the same purpose by all others in a similar situation could be withheld by the United States. His mistake, arising from a very questionable practice under the law at London and Paris, could afford no just ground of discrimination. The committee would much rather limit than extend this practice, and therefore they recommend the indefinite postponement of the bill. [See pp. 644, 649.] TWENTY-NINTH CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION. March 3, 1846. [Senate Report No. 186.] Mr. Sevier made the following report: The Committee on Foreign Relations, to whom was referred the memorial of the heir and legal representative of the late William A. Slacum, deceased, report: That it appears by the documents filed in this case that the late William A. Slacum was commissioned by President Van Buren, through his late Secretary of State, Mr. Forsyth, by his letter dated 11th November, 1835, "to obtain some specific and authentic information in regard to the inhabitants of the country in the neighborhood of the Oregon or Columbia River, and generally all such information in that region-political, physical, statistical, and geographical-as might prove useful or interesting to this Government." That in pursuance of this commission Mr. Slacum did, in the year 1836, proceed to the Oregon Territory, and there fulfilled his instructions, and in the year 1837 reported the results of his labors in his narrative, addressed to Secretary Forsyth, filed among the papers, marked B. The claim for repayment of expenses incurred and paid for the use and benefit of the Government is founded upon the following facts: That not being able to procure a vessel to convey him from the west coast of Mexico, where he commenced to perform his mission, up the coast to the Columbia River, on the 1st June, 1836, Mr. Slacum provided himself with mules, provisions, and servants to perform the land journey to Oregon; but owing to the difficulties and dangers of the route at that season of the year (especially the scarcity of water), he was obliged to abandon it and proceed by sea via the Sandwich Islands. The expenses attending these preparations, loss on resale of mules, etc., and pay of servants, amounting to the sum of $135, make the first item of his claim. The committee think this item is reasonable and ought to be allowed. The second and third items are for freight and insurance paid by Mr. Slacum on $3,000 in specie, of his own proper funds, conveyed with him to pay his expenses, and all of which was devoted to the use of the United States, and for interest on $3,231 of his own funds, paid by him in expenses incurred solely for the use of the Government as admitted in the settlement of his accounts at the Treasury Department. The interest claimed is on this amount from the time he so applied it till it was repaid to him at the settlement of his accounts upon his return to this city. These items together amount to the sum of $380, which the committee think ought to be allowed. The item claimed for expenses of servant from Mexico to this city the committee think ought not to be allowed, because they believe Mr. Slacum could have dispensed with his services. The item claiming the amount distributed in presents to Indians and others for facilities in aid of his duties the committee think is reasonable and ought to be allowed. It amounts to $198. The claim for expenses is comprised in the above items. The memorialist also prays "such compensation for his services as the Congress may deem them to merit." Although no remuneration for services was promised to Mr. Slacum by the President, yet the committee think it reasonable and just that some compensation should be allowed on this account. Mr. Slacum appears to have performed his mission with dispatch and fidelity. It was a duty attended with much privation, exposure, and peril; it was performed during the most inclement season, and your committee believe it was fruitful of much valuable information to this Government and of great benefit to our citizens inhabiting that territory. They have reason to believe that the Secretary of State (Mr. Forsyth), under whose auspices this mission was performed, was well satisfied with its results, and regretted that he had not the power to make Mr. Slacum a suitable compensation for his labors. Nothing has ever been paid to Mr. Slacum or his representative on account of compensation. In fixing a measure of remuneration your committee refer to the practice in the Department of State, and find that a bearer of dispatches to Europe is allowed $6 per diem, and all expenses paid from this city until his return. They think that the nature of Mr. Slacum's services entitled him, at the least, to this amount, but his per diem is claimed to commence only from his departure from California, and not from this city, as is customary. But Mr. Slacum's memorial states that he was during his mission to Oregon a purser in the Navy of the United States. He was bound, in consideration of his official pay, to render his services to his country, but inasmuch as his mission to Oregon was not in the tenor of his duties as purser, your committee think his pay as such was not a fair and reasonable compensation for those services. There are many precedents in the legislation of Congress for allowing extra compensation to officers of the Army and Navy for extra services performed even in the sphere of their official duties. Your committee would instance, among others, the case of the officers of the late exploring expedition. But the amount of official pay received by Mr. Slacum during the time he was engaged in his mission to Oregon your committee think ought to be deducted from the sum allowed for compensation. With this report your committee submit a bill, drawn in conformity to its conclusions. July 8, 1846. [Senate Report No. 422.] Mr. Archer made the following report: The Committee on Foreign Relations, to whom has been referred the memorial of Joshua Dodge, asking compensation for services rendered as tobacco agent for the Government in Germany and Italy, in addition to the allowances which have been paid him, have had the same under consideration and report: That from information derived from the Department of State it appears that the said Dodge, in virtue of appointments from the Executive, under the authority of resolutions of the two Houses of Congress, was employed to visit Germany and Italy for the purpose of negotiating for the advancement of the commerce in tobacco of the United States in places in which the Government had no minister accredited. These appointments were three in number, the first commencing the 6th June, 1837, and terminating the 1st December, 1839; the second, the 21st September, 1840, and terminating September 21st, 1841; the third, the 9th May, 1843, terminating May 9, 1844. The compensation allowed, by arrangement with the memorialist, was for the first mission at the rate of $2,500 per annum for salary and $500 for traveling expenses; and he was permitted to retain and discharge by deputy the consulate at Bremen, of which he was the incumbent. This consulate previously, a short time, to the expiration of the mission-that is to say, on the 5th of August, 1839-he appears to have resigned, and the sum at which he estimates its net proceeds is put down at $500 per annum. The allowance stipulated for the second mission was $3,000 for salary and $500 for contingencies. For the last mission the allowance was $4,000 for salary and all expenses. It appears that these several appointments of Mr. Dodge were induced on the part of the Executive by earnest recommendations of committees of conventions of tobacco planters assembled in this city, and of representatives of the tobacco interest in Congress. From these testimonials and the evidence of his various reports to the Department it is apparent that Mr. Dodge discharged faithfully and diligently his. duty by collecting valuable and multifarious information on the subject of the legislation of many of the German States on the subject of tobacco and the state of the traffic in that important article. A digest or compilation of a portion of this information was printed by order of Congress and circulated very extensively, and ought to be deemed of much value. ? At the same time with the appointment of Mr. Dodge to his first mission a commission of identical character seems to have been given to Mr. Nathaniel Niles to visit Austria, and on the appointment of a minister to that court, a second one to visit Sardinia for the same purpose. Mr. Niles did not return to the United States in the interval of his missions, as Mr. Dodge was obliged to do, by recall in the first instance and the expiration of the period limited by the Executive for the continuance of his service in the succeeding missions. Mr. Niles, like Mr. Dodge, had a specific compensation assigned him at the outset of his service. On the return of Mr. Niles to the United States, having been successful in the negotiation of a treaty with Sardinia, he obtained an act of Congress (21st July, 1840) by which he was allowed to settle his accounts with the Government as though he had been regularly commissioned as a chargé d'affaires to Sardinia," deducting the payments which had been made to him in his character of "special agent to Austria and Sardinia." Mr. Dodge having visited a larger number of States (as he alleges, 38), having been exposed in consequence to much larger expenses, although he made no treaty, now asks to be allowed to settle his account in the same form in which Mr. Niles has been permitted to settle his; that is to say, with the allowance of the compensation of a chargé d'affaires, in place of that of special agent, during the several periods of time during which he was in the actual employment of the Government, and the allowance of outfit and infit, with deductions of all the advances or allowances to him in the latter character. The committee think the application under the circumstances not unreasonable, as far as relates to an additional compensation for the contingent and other expenses of the petitioner in prosecution of his service as the special agent of the Government, the allowance made by the Executive for that object being manifestly inadequate. The allowance of outfit and infit, such as would be paid to a chargé d'affaires, the committee do not regard in the same favorable light. They report, in pursuance of these views, for the relief of the petitioner. TWENTY-NINTH CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION. January 19, 1847. [Senate Report No. 81.] Mr. Cass made the following report: The Committee on Foreign Relations, to whom was referred the memorial of William M. Blackford, respectfully report: That the memorialist was appointed chargé d'affaires to New Grenada in February, 1842; that in June, 1844, he was, upon his own request, granted leave of absence by the Department of State; and that in December following, as soon as he received this permission, he left Bogota for the United States, after a residence there of about two years and a half, He was allowed his salary as chargé till the 18th of June, 1845. He now applies to Congress to be allowed the extra quarter's salary usually granted to returning foreign ministers and chargés. This allowance has become the settled practice of the Government, |