DOCUMENTS

ACCOMPANYING THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE FIRST SESSION OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 24, 1843.

SIR: The Secretary of State respectfully invites your attention to the following views of the important subject of our relations with the Germanic Association or Customs Union, and of certain other matters which concern the commerce and navigation of the United States.

On the 24th of May, 1841, a communication was made to you by Mr. Webster, then Secretary of State, on the subject of the German Customs Union. This communication was laid before Congress, and printed under their orders. Since that time considerable additions have been made to the industry, population, and resources of that association.

The Zoll Verein or Customs Union at present consists of the following States:

The accession to the Union of the kingdom of Hanover, with nearly 2,000,000 of inhabitants, is in contemplation. This event would doubtless decide the smaller States of the north to join the Union; and in that case the whole of Germany, with the exception of the Austrian dominions, would be united, and would contain a population as is shown in the following table:

The interests of commerce will probably prove themselves as powerful in this as in other cases. No slight cause could have effected so difficult a work as the union of all Germany for one great and general object. In the prosecution of this scheme, Germany, notwithstanding the number and diversity of its States, acquires political unity, establishes an identity of national feeling, and secures for itself that rank amongst nations to which its extent, its resources, and its character entitle it.

There is a continually increasing demand in all the States of the Zoll Verein for most of the important articles of the produce of the United States. For example, in 1834 the Union imported 148,322 zoll centuers (each centuer equal to 108 pounds) of our tobacco, whilst in 1842 the importation of the same article amounted to 248,749 zoll centuers. The demand for our cotton and rice within the same period has increased in a similar ratio.

In return for these large exports, we receive a comparatively small amount of German manufactures, and the articles which we do receive are, for the most part, such as are not produced in the United States, e. g., looking-glass plates, silks, toys, &c. The difference is paid us in cash.

Emigration from Germany to the United States presents a subject of great importance to us. We receive from the States associated in the German Union most valuable emigrants, consisting chiefly of farmers of excellent characters and industrious habits, who bring to their adopted country sufficient gold and silver to enable them to purchase and settle lands. The following official statement, made to the Chamber of Deputies of the kingdom of Bavaria, which does not contain one-seventh part of the inhabitants of the Union, will show the state of emigration in that country. From 1835 to 1839 the total emigration from Bavaria alone was-Males

Females

Viz: To America

To France

To Prussia

12,806

11,701

24.507

18,937

335

13

To Greece
To Algiers

To places unknown, who got off without passports, and mostly went to the United States

119 62

5,047

24,507

The amount of money which these emigrants bore with them, as far as it is known to the Bavarian Government, is nearly seven millions of guilders-equal to about $2,800,000; but, in consequence of the heavy tax which is levied, not only in Bavaria but throughout a great part of Germany, upon money and other personal property taken out of the country by emigrants, it is probable that few of the persons enumerated made a declaration to the Government of more than one-half of their property. We may reasonably suppose, therefore, that those persons must have taken with them nearly twelve millions of guilders-equal to about $4,800,000. The number and value of the people who come to us from all Germany may thus be well appreciated, not only in their personal character, but in the addition they make to our actual wealth.

In order to remove the impediment to emigration presented in the heavy tax imposed on the property of the emigrants, I have, by your direction, instructed the minister of the United States at Berlin, Mr. Wheaton, who has been furnished with full powers for that purpose, to conclude special conventions for the abolition of the droit d'aubaine and droit de detraction between the United States and the following German States, who have severally expressed their readiness to enter into such arrangement, viz: His Majesty the King of Bavaria.

His Majesty the King of Saxony.

His Majesty the King of Wurtemburg.
His Royal Highness the Elector of Hesse.

His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Hesse.
His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Baden.

Powers were also, at the same time, given to Mr. Wheaton to negotiate treaties of commerce and navigation with the grand duchies of Mecklenburg Schwerin and Oldenburg, two States not yet included in the Customs Union.

In view of these and other advantages which the contemplation of th s subject held out, the minister of the United States at Berlin had been instructed to use every exertion in his power to place our relations with the German Customs Union on the best and most friendly footing; and the result is, that the basis of a conventional commercial arrangement has just been agreed upon (and submitted for the consideration and action of this Government) between His Majesty the King of Prussia, in behalf of Prussia, and all the States associated in the Customs Union, and the minister at Berlin, on the part of the United States; which, if sanctioned by Congress, would effect the long-cherished object of procuring the reduction of the present duty on our tobacco, secure the continued admission of our cotton free of all duties, and prevent the imposition of any higher duty on rice than that which is at present imposed-that article, as is already known, having already, at our request, been reduced to its present low rate by the Customs Union.

For these vast advantages, the conditional arrangement proposes that the

United States should give to the Customs Union proper equivalents, by reducing the heavy duties of the present tariff upon silks, looking-glass plates, wines, toys, linens, and such other articles as are not of the growth or manufacture of the United States.

Mr. Wheaton's late despatch will fully explain the whole course of his proceedings in reference to this interesting subject, and I doubt not will be satisfactory to Congress, should that body choose to call for them. In the mean time, I lay before you the correspondence between Mr. Wheaton and the Baron Bulow, (A,) which gives the outline of the proposed arrangement. The reduction on tobacco proprosed on the part of the German Customs Union brings to our view, in a strong light, the unfortunate state of the trade with England, France, and Austria, in that great staple of our country. In England we have to complain of an enormous duty of three shillings a pound, or about 800 per cent. on its value at the place of exportation; at the same time it is permitted to sell the article freely in that country. In France, however, although every minister of the United States, from the year 1786 to the present time, has earnestly pressed the subject upon that Government, no change has been effected. The Government of France still continues the monopoly or regie, which stops up all the avenues to that trade, whilst the United States admit all the products of French industry.

In Austria the same plan of monopoly or regie destroys the prospect of any productive trade in tobacco; and our minister at that Court holds out no inducement to hope for any change for the better.

It may be proper to remark that the proposed treaty will not affect the provisions of existing treaties with other foreign Powers. The stipulation is found in many of them, that, if the United States should grant more favorable terms to any other nation, those terms should be considered as extending to the nations parties to these treaties.

But this stipulation is always understood as conditional; that is, that the advantages of the new treaty shall be given only on the same terms on which they are given to the party of that treaty.

If they be given without equivalent, they must also be given to those nations without equivalent; if they be given in consideration of equivalents, no nation can claim them, under the general stipulation above mentioned, without offering a like equivalent.

The duties imposed on the importation of a particular commodity may therefore with propriety be reduced, as to articles the produce or manufacture of one country, which may, in consideration of such reduction, reduce its duties on our staple productions, without giving to any other nation, with which we may have such a treaty stipulation, a right to require the same reductions as to its productions or manufactures, unless such nations will come under the same conditions. The treaty of 1832 with France is a precedent in point.

Denmark has, by sufferance, continued to impose, up to this day, a most singular tax upon all goods which pass in or out of the sound, on board of every ship that enters or leaves the Baltic by this highway of nature.

Denmark cannot demand this toll upon any principle of natural or public law, nor upon any other ground than ancient usage, which finds no justification in the existing state of things. She renders no service for this exaction, and has not even the claim of power to enforce it.

A great and general dissatisfaction is felt, by all nations interested in the Baltic trade, at this unnecessary and humiliating exaction. I respect

fully suggest that the time has arrived when the United States may properly take some decisive step to relieve our Baltic trade from this oppres sion.

For more full information upon this subject, I refer to the report of Mr. Webster, hereinbefore alluded to. No essential change has taken place since the date of that report, and our vessels continue to lower their topsails at the castle of Cronberg, and to pay tribute to Denmark.

The condition of our navigation and shipping interest demands, at this time, particular attention from the Government. The great and constantly increasing amount of foreign shipping in our ports shows the necessity of prompt legislation for the protection and enlargement of our commercial marine. There is reason to apprehend that, if the best-advised measures be not promptly taken, American commerce will soon be engrossed by the ships and seamen of Europe. There can be no doubt that the cause of this great evil is to be found in the stipulations of our commercial treaties, which place the shipping of foreign countries on an equality with that of the United States, in the indirect as well as the direct trade. This necessarily operates to the advantage of those nations who can build and navigate their vessels at the least cost.

It is well known that most of the nations with which we have concluded such treaties, and especially those of the north of Europe, have a decided advantage over us in both these particulars. Nearly all the materials of ship-building are much more costly in the United States than in Europe. The wages we pay to our seamen are nearly double, and the general scale of living on shipboard is much better, and consequently much more expensive. The consequence of all this is, that our shipowners, before they can find employment for their vessels, are obliged to wait in their own ports until Swedish, Danish, and Hanseatic shipping has taken off as much freight as it can carry; and yet we persuade ourselves that our treaties with all these Powers have placed our commerce upon a footing of perfect reciprocity!

The treaties at present existing with Denmark, Sweden, the Hanseatic Republic, Prussia, Austria, and Russia, have already extended beyond their original limitation, and are subject to be discontinued at one year's notice.

The remaining treaties in which the reciprocity principle is adopted on the broadest scale, may be made the subject of consideration as the term of their duration approaches. The remedy is consequently in our own hands, and we have only to retrace our steps, and make known the determination of this Government to regulate its foreign trade, in future, upon such principles of reciprocity as shall not extend beyond the direct importation trade in the produce and manufactures of the contracting parties.

By the accompanying table, (B,) showing a comparative account of the domestic and foreign tonnage employed in the foreign trade of the United States for the last fifteen years, it will be seen that the average proportion of American shipping to foreign shipping was as follows: