International relations

Since the last adjournment of Congress the Executive has relaxed no effort to render indestructible the relations of amity which so happily exist between the United States and other countries.

It is by such acts of good will by one to another of the family of nations that fraternal feelings are nourished and the blessings of permanent peace secured.

I have much pleasure in saying that the Government of Brazil has adjusted the claim upon that Government in the case of the schooner John S. Bryan.

Our own interests are involved in the matter, since, however neutral may be our course of policy, we can not hope to escape the effects of a spirit of jealousy on the part of both of the powers.

While, therefore, the Executive would deplore any collision with Mexico or any disturbance of the friendly relations which exist between the two countries, it can not permit that Government to control its policy.

The United States would be at all times indisposed to aggrandize itself at the expense of any other nation.

The country, I feel assured, would be represented at Paris in the person of Mr. Wise by one wholly unsurpassed in exalted patriotism and well fitted to be the representative of his country abroad.

A copy of the instructions from the Department of State to the minister of the United States at Mexico relative to the convention and of the dispatches of that minister to the Department is also communicated.

This correspondence will show the general grounds on which the Spanish minister expresses dissatisfaction with the decision of the Supreme Court in that case and the answers which have been made to his complaints by the Department of State.

It is far better by other means to supersede any supposed necessity or any motive for such examination or visit.

Events appear likely to break down and soften this spirit of nonintercourse and to bring China ere long into the relations which usually subsist between civilized states.

She has agreed in the treaty with England that correspondence between the agents of the two Governments shall be on equal terms--a concession which it is hardly probable will hereafter be withheld from other nations.

In advance of the acquirement of individual rights to these lands sound policy dictates that every effort should be resorted to by the two Governments to settle their respective claims.

Peace with all the world is the true foundation of our policy, which can only be rendered permanent by the practice of equal and impartial justice to all.

In forming the first commercial treaty between the two Governments an anxious desire has been felt to introduce such provisions as should promote the interests of both countries.

The surrender to justice of persons who, having committed high crimes, seek an asylum in the territories of a neighboring nation would seem to be an act due to the cause of general justice.

It has been thought highly important, therefore, to provide for the whole case by a proper treaty stipulation.

The destruction of the steamboat Caroline at Schlosser four or five years ago occasioned no small degree of excitement at the time, and became the subject of correspondence between the two Governments.