I have the satisfaction to communicate to the Senate the results of the negotiations recently had in this city with the British minister, special and extraordinary.

If this treaty shall receive the approbation of the Senate, it will terminate a difference respecting boundary which has long subsisted between the two Governments.

The Government of the United States has by law declared the African slave trade piracy, and at its suggestion other nations have made similar enactments.

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.

The line of boundary, then, from the source of the St. Croix to the St. Lawrence, so far as Maine and Massachusetts are concerned, is fixed by their own consent and for considerations satisfactory to them.

Relating to the macadamizing of Pennsylvania avenue, Washington, D, C.

I felt it incumbent on me to urge upon Congress to raise the duties accordingly, imposing them in a spirit of a wise discrimination for the twofold object of affording ample revenue for the Government and incidental protection to the various branches of domestic industry.

I shall cheerfully acquiesce in the result.

This is a species of constraint to which the judgment of the Executive ought not, in my opinion, to be subjected.

I can not consent to do so at the sacrifice of the peace and harmony of the country and the clearest convictions of public duty.

Nothing can be more painful to any individual called upon to perform the Chief Executive duties under our limited Constitution than to be constrained to withhold his assent from an important measure adopted by the Legislature.