James Monroe: “To remove all doubt on the subject, I submit to the consideration of Congress the propriety of passing a declaratory act…”

It belongs to Congress alone to terminate this distressing incident on just principles, with a view to the highest interests of our Union.

The exposure being common to the whole District, the regulation should apply to the whole, to make which Congress alone possesses the adequate power.

That the regulation should be made by Congress is the more necessary from the consideration that this being the seat of the Government, its protection against such diseases must form one of its principal objects.

I transmit to the Senate a convention, signed by the plenipotentiaries of the United States and of the Republic of Colombia at Bogota on the 10th of December, 1824, together with the documents appertaining to the negotiation of the same…