I felt it to be my duty to arrest that progress, to rescue the immunity of the American flag from the danger which hung over it.

It is difficult to say that such vessels can claim any interference of the Government in their behalf, into whosesoever hands they may happen to fall.

No application or request has been made to this Government to become a party to this treaty.

In compliance with your resolution of the 12th of February, 1841, requesting me to communicate to the House of Representatives the documents and other information in the possession of the Executive regarding claims of citizens of the United States on the Government of Hayti, I now transmit a letter from the Secretary of State and the accompanying documents.

The importations into the United States from China are known to be large, having amounted in some years, as will be seen by the annexed tables, to $9,000,000.

An Empire supposed to contain 300,000,000 subjects, fertile in various rich products of the earth, not without the knowledge of letters and of many arts, and with large and expensive accommodations for internal intercourse and traffic, has for ages sought to exclude the visits of strangers and foreigners from its dominions, and has assumed for itself a superiority over all other nations.

Far remote from the dominions of European powers, its growth and prosperity as an independent state may yet be in a high degree useful to all whose trade is extended to those regions;

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.

The exports, too, from the United States to China constitute an interesting and growing part of the commerce of the country.

In reply to the resolution of the Senate of the 14th December, I transmit herewith the accompanying letter