James Buchanan: “Surely the present is the most unpropitious moment which could have been selected for the passage of this bill.”

In compliance with the resolutions of the Senate of the 17th and 18th February, 1858, requesting information upon the subject of the Aves Island, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents which accompanied it.

The safety of the immense amount of public property in this city and that of the archives of the Government, in which all the States, and especially the new States in which the public lands are situated, have a deep interest.

The dispatch of Mr. Dallas being in the original, its return to the Department of State is requested.

Before accepting this proposition I have thought it right to take the advice of the Senate.