that subject may be within the sphere of its legitimate powers. It can not be that the only test is, whether the information relates to a legitimate subject of deliberation. The executive department and the citizens of this country have their rights and duties, as well as the house of representatives; and the maxim that the rights of one person or body are to be so exercised as not to impair those of others, is applicable, in its fullest extent, to this question. Impertinence or malignity may seek to make the executive departments the means of incalculable and irremediable injury to innocent parties by throwing into them libels most foul and atrocious. Shall there be no discretionary authority permitted to refuse to become the instruments of such malevolence?

And although information comes through a proper channel to an executive officer, it may often be of a character to forbid its being made public. The officer charged with a confidential inquiry, and who reports its results, under the pledge of confidence which his appointment implies, ought not to be exposed individually to the resentment of those whose conduct may be impugned by the information he collects. The knowledge that such is to be the consequence, will inevitably prevent the performance of duties. of that character, and thus the government will be deprived of an important means of investigating the conduct of its agents.

It is certainly no new doctrine, in the halls of judicature or of legislation, that certain communications and papers are privileged, and that the general authority to compel testimony must give way in certain cases to the paramount rights of individuals or of the government. Thus, no man can be compelled to accuse himself, to answer any question that tends to render him infamous, or to produce his own private papers, on any occasion. The communications of a client to his counsel, and the admissions made at the confessional in the course of religious discipline, are privileged communications. In the courts of that country from which we derive our great principles of individual liberty and the rules of evidence, it is well settled, and the doctrine has been fully recognised in this country, that a minister of the crown or the head of the department can not be compelled to produce any papers, or disclose any transactions, relating to the executive functions of the government, which he declares are confidential, or such as the public interest requires should not be divulged; and the persons who have been the channels of communication to officers of the state are in like manner protected from the disclosure of their names. Other instances of privileged communications might be enumerated if it were deemed necessary. These principles are as applicable to evidence sought by a legislature as to that required by a court.

The practice of government since its foundation has sanctioned the principle that there must necessarily be a discretionary authority in reference to the nature of the information called for by either house of Congress.

The authority was claimed and exercised by General Washington, in 1796. In 1825, President Monroe declined compliance with a resolution of the house of representatives calling for the correspondence between the executive departments of this government and the officers of the United States navy and others, at or near the ports of South America, on the Pacific ocean. In a communication made by the secretary of war, in 1832, to the committee of the house on the public lands, by direction of President Jackson, he denies the obligation of the executive to furnish the information called for, and maintains the authority of the president to exercise a sound discretion in complying with calls of that description by the

house of representatives or its committees. Without multiplying other instances, it is not deemed improper to refer to the refusal of the president, at the last session of the present Congress, to comply with a resolution of the house of representatives calling for the names of the members of Congress who had applied for offices. As no further notice was taken in any form of this refusal, it would seem to be a fair inference that the house itself admitted that there were cases in which the president had a discretionary authority in respect to the transmission of information in the pos session of any of the executive departments.

Apprehensive that the silence under the claim supposed to be set up in the resolutions of the house of representatives under consideration might be construed as an acquiescence in its soundness, I have deemed it due to the great importance of the subject to state my views, that a compliance in part with the resolution may not be deemed a surrender of a necessary authority of the executive.

Many of the reasons which existed at the date of the report of the secretary of war, of June 1, 1842, for then declining to transmit the report of Lieutenant-Colonel Hitchcock concerning the frauds which he was charged to investigate, have ceased to operate. It has been found wholly imprac ticable to pursue the investigation, in consequence of the death and removal out of the country of those who would be called on to testify, and in consequence of the want of adequate authority or means to render it ef fectual. It could not be conducted without expense. Congress, at its last session, prohibited the payment of any account or charge whatever, growing out of, or in any way connected with, any commission or inquiry, except military and naval courts-martial and courts of inquiry, unless special appropriations should be made for the payment of such accounts and charges. Of the policy of that provision of law it does not become me to speak, except to say that the institution of inquiries into the conduct of public agents, however urgent the necessity for such inquiry may be, is thereby virtually denied to the executive, and that if evils of magnitude shall arise in consequence of the law, I take to myself no portion of the responsibility.

In relation to the propriety of directing prosecutions against the contractors to furnish Indians rations, who are charged with improper conduct, a correspondence has been had between the war department and the solicitor of the treasury, which is here with transmitted, in a conviction that such prosecution would be entirely ineffectual.

Under these circumstances, I have thought proper to direct that the report of Lieutenant-Colonel Hitchcock, concerning the frauds which he was charged to investigate, be transmitted to the house of representatives, and it accordingly accompanies this message. At the same time, I have to request the house to consider it so far confidential as not to direct its publication until the appropriate committee shall have examined it, and expressed their opinion whether a just regard to the character and rights of persons apparently implicated, but who have not had an opportunity to meet the imputations on them, does not require that portions, at least, of the report should not at present be printed.

This course is adopted by me from a desire to render justice to all, and at the same time avoid even the appearance of a desire to screen any; and also to prevent the exaggerated estimate of the importance of the information, which is likely to be made from the mere fact of its being withheld.

The resolution of the house also calls for "all facts in the possession of the executive, from any source, relating to the subject." There are two subjects specified in the resolution: one "relative to the affairs of the Cherokee Indians," and another "concerning the frauds which he (Lieutenant-Colonel Hitchcock) was charged to investigate."

All the papers in the war department or its bureaus, relating to the affairs of the Cherokee Indians, it is believed, have been from time to time communicated to Congress, and are contained in the printed documents, or are now transmitted, with the exception of those portions of LieutenantColonel Hitchcock's report hereinbefore mentioned, and excepting the correspondence with the Cherokee delegates in the negotiations which took place during the last summer, which are not supposed to be within the intent of the resolution of the house. For the same reason, a memorial from the old settlers, or western Cherokees, as they term themselves, recently presented, is not transmitted. If these or any other public documents should be desired by the house, a specification of them will enable me to cause them to be furnished, if it should be found proper.

All the papers in the war office or its bureaus, known or supposed to have any relation to the alleged frauds which Lieutenant-Colonel Hitchcock was charged to investigate, are here with transmitted.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

FEBRUARY 13, 1843.

To the House of Representatives of the United States :

I HEREWITH transmit to the house of representatives a report made to me on the 9th instant, by the secretary of the treasury, on the subject of the present and prospective condition of the finances.

You will perceive from it that even if the receipts from the various sources of revenue, for the current year, shall prove not to have been overrated, and the expenditures be restrained within the estimates, the treasury will be exhausted before the close of the year; and that this will be the case, although authority should be given to the proper department to reissue treasury-notes. But the state of facts existing at the present moment can not fail to awaken a doubt whether the amount of the revenue for the respective quarters of the year will come up to the estimates; nor is it entirely certain that the expenditures which will be authorized by Congress may not exceed the aggregate sum which has hitherto been assumed as the basis of the treasury calculations.

Of all the duties of the government, none is more sacred and imperative than that of making adequate and ample provision for fulfilling with punctuality its pecuniary engagements, and maintaining the public credit inviolate. Any failure in this respect, not produced by unforeseen causes, could only be regarded by our common constituents as a serious neglect of the public interests.

I feel it, therefore, to be an indispensable obligation, while so much of the session yet remains unexpired as to enable Congress to give to the subject the consideration which its great importance demands, most earnestly to call its attention to the propriety of making further provision for the public service of the year.

The proper objects of taxation are peculiarly within the discretion of the legislature, while it is the duty of the executive to keep Congress duly advised of the state of the treasury, and to admonish it of any danger which there may be found to apprehend of a failure in the means of meeting the expenditures authorized by law.

I ought not, therefore, to dissemble my fears that there will be a serious falling off in the estimated proceeds, both of the customs and the public lands. I regard the evil of disappointment in these respects as altogether too great to be risked, if by any possibility it may be entirely obviated.

While I am far from objecting, under present circumstances, to the recommendation of the secretary, that authority be granted him to reissue treasury-notes as they shall be redeemed, and to other suggestions which he has made on this subject, yet it appears to me to be worthy of grave consideration, whether more permanent and certain supplies ought not to be provided. The issue of one note in redemption of another is not the payment of a debt, which must be made in the end by some form of public taxation.

I can not forbear to add, that in a country so full of resources, of such abundant means, if they be but judiciously called out, the revenues of the government, its credit, and its ability to fulfil all its obligations, ought not to be made dependent on temporary expedients, or on calculations of an uncertain character. The public faith in this, as in all things else, ought to be placed beyond question and beyond contingency.

The necessity of further and full provision for supplying the wants of the treasury will be the more urgent, if Congress, at this present session, should adopt no plan for facilitating the financial operations of the government, and improving the currency of the country. By the aid of a wise and efficient measure of that kind, not only would the internal business and prosperity of the country be revived and invigorated, but impor tant additions to the amount of revenue arising from importations might also be confidently expected. Not only does the present condition of things, in relation to the currency and commercial exchanges, produce severe and distressing embarrassments in the business and pursuits of individuals, but its obvious tendency is to create, also, a necessity for the imposi tion of new burdens of taxation, in order to secure the government and the country against discredit from the failure of means to fulfil the public engagement.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

FEBRUARY 18, 1843.

To the House of Representatives of the United States :

A RESOLUTION has been communicated to me, which was adopted by the house of representatives on the 2d instant, in the following terms:

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Resolved, That the president of the United States be requested to inform this house by what authority, and under whose instructions, Captain Thomas Ap Catesby Jones, commander of the squadron of the United States in the Pacific ocean, did, on or about the 19th of October last, in

vade, in warlike array, the territories of the Mexican republic, take possession of the town of Monterey, and declare himself commander of the naval and military expedition for the occupation of the Californias.

"Resolved, That the president of the United States be requested to communicate to this house copies of all the instructions given by him, or under his authority, to the said Captain Jones, from the time of his appointment to the command of the said squadron; also copies of all communications received from him relating to his expedition for the occupation of the Californias; and also to inform this house whether orders have been despatched to the said Captain Jones, recalling him from his command."

The proceedings of Captain Jones, in taking possession of the town of Monterey, in the possession of Mexico, was entirely of his own authority, and not in consequence of any orders or instructions, of any kind, given to him by the government of the United States. For that proceeding he has been recalled, and the letter recalling him will be found among the papers herewith communicated.

The resolution of the house of representatives asks for "copies of all the instructions given to Captain Jones, from the time of his appointment to the command of the said squadron; also, copies of all communications received from him, relating to his expedition for the occupation of the Californias," without confining the request to such instructions and correspondence as relate to the transactions at Monterey, and without the usual reservation of such portions of the instructions or correspondence as, in the president's judgment, could not be made public without prejudice or danger to the public interests.

It may well be supposed that cases may arise, even in time of peace, in which it would be highly injurious to the country to make public, at a particular moment, the instructions under which a commander may be acting on a distant and foreign service. In such a case, should it arise, and in all similar cases, the discretion of the executive can not be controlled by the request of either house of Congress for the communication of papers. The duties which the constitution and the laws devolve on the president must be performed by him under his official responsibility; and he is not at liberty to disregard high interests or thwart important public objects by untimely publications, made against his own judgment, by whomsoever such publications may be requested. In the present case, not seeing that injury is likely to arise from so doing, I have directed copies of all the papers asked for to be communicated. And I avail myself of the opportunity of transmitting also copies of sundry letters, as noted below.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

FEBRUARY 27, 1843.

To the House of Representatives of the United States :

In compliance with the resolution of the house of representatives of the 22d instant, requesting me to communicate to the house "whatever correspondence or communication may have been received from the British government, respecting the president's construction of the late British treaty concluded at Washington, as it concerns an alleged right to visit