SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF VERA CRUZ

Gen. Winfield Scott reached the mouth of the Rio Grande in January, 1847. On March 9th 12,000 troops were landed near Vera Cruz. By March 13th the city and its island fortress, called the Castle of San Juan de Ulloa, which the Mexicans considered invulnerable, were thoroughly invested. On March 22d Scott was ready to commence the bombardment, and demanded the surrender of the city, called "the key to the country." The demand being refused, the artillerymen commenced to throw iron into the city, firing during the brief bombardment 6700 rounds of shot and shell. On March 26th overtures were made by the besieged, and on the 29th the place was handed over. Five thousand Mexicans marched out and laid down their arms, munitions and flags. One thousand Mexicans were killed and an indefinite number were wounded. The American forces lost only 80 men in killed and wounded.

See the article "Vera Cruz, Mexico, Siege and Capture of," in the Encyclopedic Index.

So much have I considered it proper for me to say; and it becomes ine only to add that while I have regarded the annexation to be accomplished by treaty as the most suitable form in which it could be effected, should Congress deem it proper to resort to any other expedient compatible with the Constitution and likely to accomplish the object I stand prepared to yield my most prompt and active cooperation.

The great question is not as to the manner in which it shall be done, but whether it shall be accomplished or not.

The responsibility of deciding this question is now devolved upon you. JOHN TYLER.

To the Senate of the United States:

WASHINGTON, June 10, 1844.

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 7th instant, upon the subject of the supposed employment of Mr. Duff Green in Europe by the Executive of the United States, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, to whom the resolution was referred

To the Senate of the United States:

JOHN TYLER.

WASHINGTON, June 12, 1844.

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 4th instant, calling for a correspondence between the late minister of the United States in Mexico and the minister for foreign affairs of that Republic, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents by which it was accompanied.

To the Senate of the United States:

JOHN TYLER.

WASHINGTON, June, 1844.

The resolution of the Senate of the 3d instant, requesting the President to lay before that body, confidentially, "a copy of any instructions which may have been given by the Executive to the American minister in England on the subject of the title to and occupation of the Territory of Oregon since the 4th of March, 1841; also a copy of any correspondence which may have passed between this Government and that of Great Britain in relation to the subject since that time," has been received.

In reply I have to state that in the present state of the subject-matter to which the resolution refers it is deemed inexpedient to communicate the information requested by the Senate.

JOHN TYLER.

*On the subject of an order issued by the Mexican Government expelling all natives of the United States from Upper California and other departments of the Mexican Republic, and of the order prohibiting foreigners the privilege of the retail trade in Mexico.

WASHINGTON, June 15, 1844.

To the House of Representatives of the United States:

I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives, in answer to their resolution of the 4th instant, a report from the Secretary of State, with the correspondence* therein referred to.

The PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE:

JOHN TYLER.

WASHINGTON, June 17, 1844.

I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, in answer to a resolution of the 12th instant. Although the contingent fund for foreign intercourse has for all time been placed at the disposal of the President, to be expended for the purposes contemplated by the fund without any requisition upon him for a disclosure of the names of persons employed by him, the objects of their employment, or the amount paid to any particular person, and although any such disclosures might in many cases disappoint the objects contemplated by the appropriation of that fund, yet in this particular instance I feel no desire to withhold the fact that Mr. Duff Green was employed by the Executive to collect such informa tion, from private or other sources, as was deemed important to assis the Executive in undertaking a negotiation then contemplated, but after. wards abandoned, upon an important subject, and that there was paid to him through the hands of the Secretary of State $1,000, in full for all such service. It is proper to say that Mr. Green afterwards presented a claim for an additional allowance, which has been neither allowed nor recognized as correct.

To the Senate:

JOHN TYLER.

WASHINGTON, June 17, 1844.

I have learned that the Senate has laid on the table the nomination, heretofore made, of Reuben H. Walworth to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court, in the place of Smith Thompson, deceased. informed that a large amount of business has accumulated in the second district, and that the immediate appointment of a judge for that circuit is essential to the administration of justice. Under these circumstances I feel it my duty to withdraw the name of Mr. Walworth, whose appointment the Senate by their action seems not now prepared to confirm, in the hope that another name may be more acceptable.

The circumstances under which the Senate heretofore declined to advise and consent to the nomination of John C. Spencer have so far changed as to justify me in my again submitting his name to their consideration.

I therefore nominate John C. Spencer, of New York, to be appointed an associate justice of the Supreme Court, in the place of Smith Thompson. deceased.

JOHN TYLER.

* With Great Britain relative to the duties exacted by that Government on rough rice exported from the United States, contrary to the treaty of 1815.

VETO MESSAGES.*

To the House of Representatives:

WASHINGTON, December 18, 1843.

I received within a few hours of the adjournment of the last Congress a resolution "directing payment of the certificates or awards issued by the commissioners under the treaty with the Cherokee Indians." Its provisions involved principles of great importance, in reference to which it required more time to obtain the necessary information than was allowed.

The balance of the fund provided by Congress for satisfying claims under the seventeenth article of the Cherokee treaty, referred to in the resolution, is wholly insufficient to meet the claims still pending. To direct the payment, therefore, of the whole amount of those claims which happened to be first adjudicated would prevent a ratable distribution of the fund among those equally entitled to its benefits. Such a violation of the individual rights of the claimants would impose upon the Government the obligation of making further appropriations to indemnify them, and thus Congress would be obliged to enlarge a provision, liberal and equitable, which it had made for the satisfaction of all the demands of the Cherokees. I was unwilling to sanction a measure which would thus indirectly overturn the adjustment of our differences with the Cherokees, accomplished with so much difficulty, and to which time is reconciling those Indians.

If no such indemnity should be provided, then a palpable and very gross wrong would be inflicted upon the claimants who had not been so fortunate as to have their claims taken up in preference to others. Besides, the fund having been appropriated by law to a specific purpose, in fulfillment of the treaty, it belongs to the Cherokees, and the authority of this Government to direct its application to particular claims is more than questionable.

The direction in the joint resolution, therefore, to pay the awards of the commissioners to the amount of $100,000 seemed to me quite objectionable, and could not be approved.

The further direction that the certificates required to be issued by the treaty, and in conformity with the practice of the board heretofore, shall be proper and sufficient vouchers, upon which payments shall be made at the Treasury, is a departure from the system established soon after the adoption of the Constitution and maintained ever since. That system requires that payments under the authority of any Department shall be made upon its requisition, countersigned by the proper Auditor and Comptroller. The greatest irregularity would ensue from the mode of payment prescribed by the resolution.

*The first is a pocket veto.