commerce, and navigation between the United States and that Republic, signed in the city of Guatemala on the 3d day of March, in the year of our Lord 1849.

In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be hereunto [L. S.] affixed.

Given under my hand at the city of Washington the 26th day of May, in the year of our Lord 1851, and in the seventy-fifth year of the Independence of the United States.

By the President:

MILLARD FILLMORE.

W. S. DERRICK,
Acting Secretary of State.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, November 20, 1851.

SIR: The President of the United States having thought proper to name John Bozman Kerr their chargé d'affaires to the national representation of Central America, I have the honor of announcing the same to your excellency, and of praying you to give credence to whatever he shail say to you on my part. He knows the concern which our Republic takes in the interest and prosperity of the national representation of Central America; our strong desire to cultivate its friendship and to deserve it by all the good offices which may be in our power. He knows also my zeal to promote these by whatever may depend upon my ministry.

I have no doubt that Mr. Kerr will so conduct himself as to merit your confidence, and I avail myself with pleasure of this opportunity to offer to you the assurance of my most distinguished consideration.

His Excellency the MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

DANL. WEBSTER.

Of the national representation of Central America.

WASHINGTON, February 17, 1854.

MY DEAR SIR: The most equitable mode of compensation to our foreign ministers has many times been made a subject of rigid scrutiny in view of the palpable injustice so often experienced by them under the various contingencies of their public service, and in 1825 it was specially brought to the notice of Congress and the country through the elaborate statements of Mr. Monroe. The precedents indicate $9,000 as the amount to which I am entitled under the peculiar circumstances of my recent mission, embracing, in fact, all the States of Central America in virtue of commissions, subsequent in date to that accrediting me to the Republic of Nicaragua alone.

You are aware that early in the Thirty-first Congress, under suggestions from the State Department, an effort was made to substitute a minister plenipotentiary for the two chargés des affaires, resident at remote points from each other, in Leon de Nicaragua and Guatemala. My transfer from New Granada (after nomination and confirmation) to this delicate and responsible post in Central America was accompanied with a direct intimation of an intended renewal of this effort in the coming Congress. In the meanwhile I was tendered a commission, under date of March 12, 1851, as the chargé d'affaires to the Republic of Nicaragua. In May following two commissions were made out, requesting me to go, officially, to the Republics of San Salvador and Guatemala. For just such services, in our earlier history, diplomatic agents have had allowances sometimes in the form of half outfits and at others of a full outfit. An outfit for these journeys, with letters of credence to the two Governments, would barely reimburse me. The city of Guatemala is about fifteen days' journey from Leon de Nicaragua, the capital, where I had established my family, and the seat of government of the Republic to which I was accredited. A per diem, with all expenses going and returning. exclusive of stay in the respective capitals, is the compensation of a bearer of dispatches or a special messenger. What would be proper enough in this case could not be otherwise than grossly unjust to a resident minister at one court sent on special missions to others. The latter, in his official character, is thrown constantly in the public eye, and he has to encounter expenses commensurate with the position. The calculations of ingenious parsimony would be of little avail were they allowable.

Besides, in these journeys of nearly 2.000 miles, in an unsettled country, there was enough of privation and danger at every turn. I was many times in the saddle from dawn to midnight, lost by the mistakes of my guide in mountain paths. Some months previously the roads could not have been passed at all. except with a military escort. On the borders of Guatemala the roads had been infested by lucios, bodies of armed men, partly political, and always predatory, and I passed through districts where the villages, the lurking places of these men, had been recently laid in ashes. the inhabitants having been driven elsewhere. During my stay in the city of Guatemala I parted with the British chargé and consul. Gen. W. Frederick Chatfield, whose route to the port of Izabal was over a portion of country held by these lucios in force, watching all the passes and ready to welcome every comer, native or foreign. This traveling in Central America was no holiday pastime. and these journeys had become absolutely imperative. The Governments of San Salvador and Guatemala were restive under the slight imparted on the part of the United States in neglecting, for several years, to provide for the due exchange of ratifications of treaties with them. In carrying out the instructions of our Government under these letters of credence to San Salvador and Guatemala 1 was called to the performance of just such duties as have repeatedly found their only equivalent in payment by outfit.

Let me turn now from these two special missions to San Salvador and Guatemala, so distant and difficult of access from my established residence as chargé to Nicaragua, and in addition to outfit for services in these two Republics I have a further claim to $4,500 consequent upon my appointment as chargé d'affaires to the national representation of Central America. This was composed of men claiming the entire control over the foreign relations of Nicaragua, San Salvador, and Honduras, and its seat of power at the time of my reaching the country was at Leon. The Republic of Nicaragua was represented here by an envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, and yet it dared not receive me in the face of arrogant assumptions on the part of this body, very soon after showing itself in its true colors as factious and revolutionary. The President of the United States was obliged in this difficult conjuncture to naine me as chargé to the Government of the three States into which Nicaragua was then supposed, by the action of its public officers, to have been merged, and the letter of credence vests in me a right to claim an outfit of $4,500. It was so adjudged in 1812, when Mr. Adams was sent specially from his residence to St. Petersburg to join Messrs. Gallatin, Bayard, and others in a mission to treat with Great Britain. My case in reference to the letter of credence to "the national representation of Central America" is precisely that of Mr. Donelson, under the Administration of the late President Polk. This gentleman, resident at Berlin, had a letter of credence to the Germanic Confederation, a quasi revolutionary movement, and for his journey to Frankfort-on-the-Main he had $9,000. It was under precedents. Indeed, the only just and equitable mode of payment to a diplomatic agent in cases of special mission, as clearly shown by Mr. Monroe after much experience, is that by outfit. Every argument is in its favor, as from a variety of circumstances a foreign minister is exposed to many expenses" which he must necessarily overlook and never claim.

66

A few more cases similar to mine had as well be cited. In 1800 Mr. William Vans Murray, of Maryland, resident at The Hague, was sent specially to Paris in order to act jointly with Messrs. Ellsworth and Davis. Mr. Monroe, when stationary at London, was specially sent to Madrid in 1804. Each was allowed on returning a full outfit of $9,000 for his journey. In 1806 Mr. William Pinkney, of Maryland, was appointed to Russia, and required on his way to present a letter of credence at Naples. For this he was allowed $9,000 expenses in the form of outfit corre sponding with his grade." I ask payment in a similar form, and the equity is the stronger when the difficulties and privations incident to traveling in Central America are considered.

This claim in my behalf, under the memorial presented by you to the Senate, is a perfectly equitable one, with precedents early and recent. I was a stationary or resident minister at Leon, the capital of Nicaragua, and under commissions of May 26, 1851, I was sent specially to two other Republics. The journeys were made in 1852, subsequent to the receipt of my commission as chargé d'affaires to "the national representation of Central America," enlarging my powers so as to embrace Honduras and Salvador as well as Nicaragua. The policy of our Government has been carried out in substituting a minister plenipotentiary for all the States in lieu of a chargé (as during my residence) to one of them. My position during this period was extremely delicate, as it was necessary to act in view of the civil war then flagrant, and with conflicting claims for sovereignty between Nicaragua and "the national representation.' There is no avoiding the fact that, with an outfit and salary of a charge to the Republic of Nicaragua, I have been forced to assume official responsibility in every one of the five States of Central America.

I was required to act, jointly with others, in an attempted settlement of the conflicting claims between Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

You have kindly taken in charge this matter of so much personal interest to me, and I am in hopes that some favorable action may at once be had upon the memorial.

I am, very faithfully, yours,

Hon. J. A. PEARCE.

JOHN B. KERR.

March 30, 1854.

[Senate Report No. 187.]

Mr. Clayton made the following report:

The Committee on Foreign Relations, to whom was referred the memorial of Catharine Crosby, as one of the heirs of Thomas D. Anderson, late consul of the United States at Tripoli, have had the same under consideration, and respectfully report:

That concurring fully in the views and conclusions embraced in the report on this case, made by the Committee on Foreign Relations on the 29th of March, 1852, this committee adopt the same, and report a bill in accordance therewith.

[See Senate Report No. 157, Thirty-second Congress, first session, p. 645.]

April 27, 1854.

[Senate Report No. 245.]

Mr. Everett made the following report:

The Committee on Foreign Relations, to whom was referred the memorial of Henry Cronchey, lately employed as a clerk in the office of the United States legation in London, have had the same under consideration, and submit the following report:

Mr. Cronchey was for several years employed as a clerk in the office of the United States legation at London at a very low rate of compensation. Early in 1853 the President authorized his allowance to be raised for the whole period of Mr. Lawrence's mission; but, even after this increase, it amounted to but about $500 per annum. In consequence of the greatly augmented business of the legation the Secretary of State, at the last session of Congress, recommended an appropriation of $800 as the salary of a permanent clerk at London; and owing to the great satisfaction which Mr. Cronchey had given to several successive ministers, by the assiduous and punctual performance of his duty, it was privately and unofficially intimated to him that it was the wish of the Department that he should be employed on the permanent foundation. Mr. Cronchey represents that the confident expectation that he should be thus employed prevented his obtaining places under the British Government, for which he was well qualified and highly recommended.

The Department of State having, in the course of the last year, come to the resolution not to authorize the employment in the offices of our ministers and consuls abroad of any persons not citizens of the United States, Mr. Cronchey's connection with the legation at London necessarily ceased; and one object of his memorial is to solicit

from Congress indemnification for the loss which he has sustained in consequence of having given up prospects of employment elsewhere in the expectation of remaining in the office of the legation at London. The committee regret that Mr. Cronchey should have been disappointed in his expectations; but they can not find in this circumstance any foundation for a claim to be indemnified by the United States. All persons taking employment in the public service necessarily take it with the risks of discontinuance to which it is liable; and this risk must, of necessity, be more than usually great in cases of employment under a foreign government.

Mr. Cronchey furthur sets forth that he performed all the clerical duties of the office of secretary of legation at London from the 11th of December, 1852, the date of the resignation of Mr. Davis, to the 31st of January, 1853, when Mr. Trescot, the successor of Mr. Davis, arrived; and from the 1st of May, 1853, when Mr. Trescot resigned, to the close of Mr. Ingersoll's mission, on the 24th of August-in all one hundred and sixty-eight days. The committee are satisfied that this statement is correct, and that a great amount of extra labor devolved upon Mr. Cronchey at this time, which could only have been performed by him at extra hours, and which could not have been dispatched at all but for his familiarity with the business of the office. Mr. Ingersoll certifies to the satisfactory manner in which the laborious duties thus devolving upon Mr. Cronchey were performed by him, and that at a season of the year when the labors of the office, owing to the number of passports to be issued or countersigned, are the heaviest. Under these circumstances the committee are unanimously of opinion that it would be just to allow Mr. Cronchey the sum of $1,000 in addition to his pay as clerk in compensation for the extra services performed by him in the office of the legation, and they report a bill accordingly.

[See p. 673.]

May 15, 1854.

[Senate Report No. 266.]

Mr. Clayton made the following report:

The Committee on Foreign Relations, to whom was referred the memorial of Charles D. Arfwedson, consul of the United States at Stockholm, have had the same under consideration, and now report: It appears from a letter of the Secretary of State, dated January 27, 1852, that upon the recall of Mr. Ellsworth, late chargé d'affaires of the United States to Sweden, he was directed by the Department of State to place the legation in the hands of the United States consul at Stockholm. In compliance with that direction Mr. Ellsworth transferred the legation to Mr. Arfwedson on the 24th of July, 1849. From that time until April 22, 1850, when Mr. Schroeder entered upon the functions of the office, Mr. Arfwedson, "in conformity with repeated instructions from the Department, corresponded with the Swedish Government and his own upon diplomatic subjects of a delicate nature, and in a manner entirely satisfactory to his Government," and that his services during that period were of great value to the interests of his own Government.

The memorialist acted as chargé d'affaires for a period of eight

months and twenty-nine days, for which his compensation, at the usual rate of $4,500 per annum, would amount to the sum of $3,362.50. In the general civil and diplomatic appropriation act of August 31, 1852, provision was made for the payment of half that sum to the memorialist, leaving $1,681.25 still due, for which he now appeals to Congress.

When this application was before this committee during the last Congress it was believed that the consul fees, together with the amount then allowed, would be equivalent to the full compensation of a chargé, and hence the whole was not then allowed. But it now appears from a certificate of the memorialist, filed with the present application, that the whole amount of consular fees received by him from the 1st of April, 1849, to the 1st of April, 1850, was but $89.75a sum believed to be barely adequate to cover the expenses of the consular office itself.

Under these circumstances the committee see no reason why a discrimination should be made against this particular claimant, while it has been usual to allow full compensation for such services in other similar cases. They therefore report a bill for the amount of the balance above stated, and recommend its passage.

[See p. 681.]

May 29, 1854.

[Senate Report No. 292.)

Mr. Mason made the following report:

The Committee on Foreign Affairs, to whom was referred the memorial of Mr. John Randolph Clay, minister of the United States to Peru, setting forth the expediency of making provisions by law for the relief of distressed citizens of the United States, other than seamen, in foreign countries, have had the same under consideration, and submit the following report:

The subject of the memorial is one of daily increasing importance. Since the acquisition of our Territories and States on the Pacific Ocean and the discovery of gold in Australia, the commercial intercourse of the United States with these regions has greatly increased, and the number of citizens who are led by the spirit of lawful adventure to undertake distant voyages has proportionately multiplied. A very large part of the whale fishery is carried on in seas remote from home; the voyages are long, and the risk of shipwreck and other disasters great. These causes have led to a great increase of late years in the number of American citizens who find themselves in a destitute condition on the Pacific coasts of South America. Provision is made by law for the relief of seamen. Our consuls are allowed to provide them, when they are in want, with the necessaries of life, and to send them home in American vessels. But it must often happen that citizens not seamen are in a state of destitution in foreign countries, calling aloud for relief. A large number of emigrants, carrying with them no means of support in case of sickness or loss of the vessel in which they are embarked, are constantly on their way to the new fields of industry above indicated, and when cast on shore have no resource from actual starvation but the private charity of the agents of the Government abroad and the compassion of strangers, who, from want of national sympathy-often want of community of language and religion-are neither able nor willing to extend prompt relief.