James Monroe: “The circumstances which have occasioned the delay in laying the present treaty before the Senate for their advice and…”

“The circumstances which have occasioned the delay in laying the present treaty before the Senate for their advice and consent to its ratification are, that having been received in the spring of the year 1817, during the recess of the Senate, in the interval between the time when the Department of State was vacated by its late Secretary and the entrance of his successor upon the duties of the office, and when a change also occurred of the chief clerk of the Department, it was not recollected by the officers of the Department that it remained without the constitutional sanction of the Senate until shortly before the commencement of the present session.”