The weight of these mails, averaging from 12 to 15 tons semi-monthly, renders it, in view of the climate and character of the road, manifestly impossible to forward them overland without involving an expenditure which no wise administration of the Government would impose upon the Treasury.
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I deemed it a duty to transmit to Congress with my message of the 8th of January the correspondence which occurred in December last between the \commissioners\" of South Carolina and myself.
I submit, therefore, the expediency of the passage of a resolution authorizing the exchange of ratifications at such time as may be convenient, the limitations of the ninth article to the contrary notwithstanding.
Had I refused to adopt this precautionary measure, and evil consequences, which many good men at the time apprehended, had followed, I should never have forgiven myself.
Their letter to him urging this delay bears date January 15, and was the commencement of a correspondence.
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