In compliance with these resolutions, I have carefully examined the records of the courts of inquiry in fifty-eight cases.

They have been very extensive and searching.

I found the greatest difficulty in deciding what should be considered as 'moral fitness' for the Navy.

On this question I have differed in several instances from the courts of inquiry.

I would ere this have recommended to Congress the passage of a joint resolution to restore him to his former rank.

The report from the Secretary of State is not in strictness embraced by the terms of the resolution, but I deem it advisable to communicate to the House the information therein contained.

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of June 12, 1858, I herewith communicate a report from the Secretary of the Interior, showing the amount of money paid for pensions in each of the States and Territories since the…

I transmit to Congress a copy of the treaty between the United States and the Kingdom of Siam, concluded on the 29th of May, 1856, and proclaimed on the 16th of August last, and call the attention of that body to the necessity of an act…

I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a treaty between the United States and China, signed at Tien-tsin by the plenipotentiaries of the parties on the 18th day of June last.

I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a treaty of amity and commerce between the United States and Japan, concluded at the city of Yeddo on the 29th of July last.

The resistance to rightful authority and the persevering attempts to establish a revolutionary government under the Topeka constitution which caused the people of Kansas to commit the grave error of refusing to vote for delegates to the…

The just equality of all the States has thus been vindicated and a fruitful source of dangerous dissension among them has been removed.

The principle has been recognized in some form or other by an almost unanimous vote of both Houses of Congress that a Territory has a right to come into the Union either as a free or a slave State, according to the will of a majority of…

With my deep convictions of duty I could have pursued no other course.

A wiser and better spirit seemed to prevail before the first Monday of January last, when an election was held under the constitution.

will be stopped and compelled to return by the same conveyance that took them to the country.

For these and other good reasons, I, James Buchanan, President of the United States, have thought it fit to issue this my proclamation.

an extraordinary occasion requires the Senate of the United States to convene for the transaction of business at the Capitol, in the city of Washington, on the 15th day of this month, at 12 o'clock at noon of that day