I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a convention between the United States and Belgium for regulating the commerce and navigation between the two countries, signed in this city on the 17th of July…

There is one nomination which I regret that I have not the power to present to the Senate.

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

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

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

They have been very extensive and searching.

The Senate will learn from the thirty-five naval nominations herewith submitted the result of my investigations under the resolutions of Congress of March 10 and May 11, 1858.

I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying documents, in answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 7th of January last.

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

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.

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…

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 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.

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.

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

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 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…

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