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I seize on the present occasion to assure your excellency of the distinguished consideration with which I have the honour to be, &c.

WM. H. CRAWFORD. His Excellency the Duke of Bassano.

Translation of a Letter from the Duke of Bassano to Mr. Crawford. Dresden, August 1, 1813.

SIR, I have had great pleasure in hearing of your safe arrival in France, and I have received the letter which you did me the honour to address to me on the 27th of July, on your nomination in the quality of minister plenipotentiary of the United States to his imperial majesty the emperour of the French and king of Italy. The choice which your government has made of a person so distinguished in his own country, and so worthy of this honourable mission, cannot but be agreeable to his imperial majesty; and though he is at this time absent from Dresden, I can give you this assurance in his name. I will have the honour to communicate to you his intentions respecting the presentation of your letters of credence and your reception. Without waiting even for this, I will receive all the communications which you may think proper to make to me as the minister plenipotentiary of your government, and the delay of a formality will produce no delay in the exercise of the mission confided to you, or in the correspondence which it will procure for me the benefit of holding with you.

Accept, sir, the assurance of my high consideration. DUKE OF BASSANO.

His Excellency Wm. H. Crawford, &c. &c.,

Extract of a Letter from Mr. Crawford to Mr. Monroe. Paris, September 8, 1813.

"I HAVE just received an answer to the note which I addressed to the duke of Bassano, requesting Mrs. Barlow's passports. On the subject of recognition he says that he is very solicitous I should present my letter of credence to the emperor in Paris. He does not repeat his invitation to communicate with him. The operations

of the war will probably detain the emperor in the north (until) the winter. It is believed that the duke of Bassano will not return before him. If this opinion should be realized, the winter will be far advanced before I shall be able to draw the attention of the French government to the subjects of discussion between the two nations."

MESSAGE

FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. JAN. 19, 1814.

I TRANSMIT to the House of Representatives a report of the Secretary of State, complying with their resolution of the 12th instant.

JAMES MADISON.

THE Secretary of State, to whom was referred a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 12th instant, requesting the President to lay before the House any correspondence with or communication in writing from the late minister of France, on or about the 14th June, 1809, or by his successor since, prescribing the conditions on which their sovereign would consent to treat of amity, and commerce with the United States, &c. has the honour to make to the President the following report:

That of the transactions which took place in the department of state, before the Secretary of State came into office, which was in the year 1811, he has no means of acquiring a knowledge other than from the archives of the department, or from the persons entrusted with their safe keeping.

That he has caused the files of the department to be carefully examined for a communication described by the resolution of the House of Representatives, and that none such has been found of the date therein referred to or of any other date from the former minister of France,

or from his successor, or any trace or evidence of such a communication; that he has also inquired of the chief clerk of the department who has been in that office since the year 1807 concerning the same, and whose statement is annexed.

That no such communication was ever addressed to the Secretary of State by the present minister of France. All which is respectfully submitted.

JAMES MONROE.

Department of State, Jan. 18, 1814.

MR. GRAHAM'S STATEMENT.

I KNOW not how I can more clearly state every thing that I know relative to a letter which was recently published in some of the publick prints, from general Turreau to Robert Smith, Esq. and which I suppose to be the communication alluded to in the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 12th instant, than by observing that when that letter as published was shown to me by a gentleman of this office, I told him I could not say whether it was genuine; that some parts did not appear new to me, but that other parts of it did. We immediately looked at general Turreau's file, and no such letter was there. I then observed that if it was genuine, it must be the letter from general Turreau which had been withdrawn.

The fact of one of his letters which I had translated for Mr. Smith, having been withdrawn, I distinctly remember, though I cannot speak with certainty either of its date or of its contents, more than four years having elapsed since I saw it; but I remember it was considered exceptionable, and that Mr. Smith directed me not to put it on the files, but to lay it aside. I can add too that it was the only letter from general Turreau which to my knowledge was ever withdrawn.

This letter was withdrawn by a gentleman attached to the French legation, who called at the department of state to get it, and it was delivered to him either by Mr. Smith himself or by me under his directions. When this was done, I cannot now recollect, nor have I any means of ascertaining, except by reference to a subsequent event which happened in the month of November, 1809. I

allude to the dismissal of Mr. Jackson. For I remember in a conversation I had with Mr. Smith respecting that occurrence at the time it took place, he observed that he supposed general Turreau would now be glad he had withdrawn his letter.

In what way the translation of this letter has got into the publick prints, I know not, nor do I know where or by whom it was taken from this office.

JOHN GRAHAM,

Chief Clerk of the Department of State..

Department of State, 18th Jan. 1814.

MESSAGE.

FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES TO CONGRESS. MARCH 31, 1814.

TAKING into view the mutual interest which the United States, and the foreign nations in amity with them, have in a liberal commercial intercourse, and the extensive changes favourable thereto, which have recently taken place; taking into view also the important advantages which may otherwise result from adapting the state of our commercial laws to the circumstances now existing :

I recommend to the consideration of Congress the expediency of authorizing, after a certain day, exportations, specie excepted, from the United States, in vessels of the United States, and in vessels owned and navigated by the subjects of powers at peace with them; and a repeal of so much of our laws as prohibits the importation of articles not the property of enemies, but produced or manufactured only within their dominions.

I recommend also, as a more effectual safeguard and encouragement to our growing manufactures, that the additional duties on imports, which are to expire at the end of one year after a peace with Great Britain, be prolonged to the end of two years after that event; and that, in favour of our moneyed institutions, the exportation of specie be prohibited throughout the same period. JAMES MADISON.

REPORT.

THE Committee of foreign relations to whom was referred the message of the President, of the 31st of March, submits to the House the following Report:

TAKING into consideration the great importance of the measures recommended, the committee think it a duty which they owe to the House and to the nation, to state the grounds on which their report is founded; uniting with the Executive in the policy of those measures, they wish to explain the reasons which have produced that

union.

Of the past it is unnecessary to take a review: the attention of the committee is drawn with more solicitude to the future.

Previous to the late changes in Europe the bearing of our restrictive measures was, for the most part, confined to our enemies; the obstructions to our commercial intercourse with the friendly powers of the world being in a manner insuperable.

At present a prospect exists of an extended commercial intercourse with them, highly important to both parties, and which, it may be presumed, they will find an equal interest and disposition to promote. Denmark, all Germany and Holland, heretofore under the double restraint of internal regulations and external blockades and depredations from a commerce with the United States, appear by late events to be liberated therefrom.

Like changes equally favourable to the commerce of this country appear to be taking place in Italy and the more eastern parts of the Mediterranean. With respect to Spain and Portugal, in the commerce with whom the United States have great interest, it may be expected that commerce may be carried on without the aid heretofore afforded to the enemy. Should peace take place between France and her enemies, including Great Britain, the commerce of the United States with France will fall under the same remarks.

The considerations of an internal nature which urge a repeal of these acts, at this time, are not less forcible than

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