such territories, an agreement shall be made as to the sum total which shall be deducted by each of the contracting states, from the gross amount of the customs' duties received annually, and becoming common property.

3. In cases where the levying of private taxes is united with that of the customs' duties, only that portion of the salary and necessary expenses of the customs' officers, which is proportionate to their services in the customs, compared with their other duties, shall be reckoned in arranging their allowances.

4. General rules shall be agreed upon in order to effect the utmost possible similarity in the rates of pay of the officers employed in levying duties and examining merchandize, and of those belonging to the boards of direction.

XXXI. The contracting states reciprocally concede to each other the right of nominating, at the principal customs' stations on the boundaries of the states of the union, comptrollers, who shall take cognizance of the operations there, and at the auxiliary stations, relative to the despatch of merchandize and the observance of the boundaries, and shall co-operate in the maintenance of the legal reguIations, and in the removal of any defects; but they shall refrain from issuing any directions of their own.

It is reserved for further negociation on this subject, whether any and what share in the current business shall be taken by the above comptrollers.

XXXII. Each of the contracting states shall have the right to delegate officers to the customs' boards of direction in other states of the union, for the purpose of acquiring

a perfect knowledge of all the business connected with the administration of the customs, and with the community of interests established in the present treaty.

The relative duties of those officers shall be further defined in a special instruction, of which an unreserved disclosure on the part of the state where the delegates act, relative to matters connected with the general management of the customs, and the facilitating of every means of acquiring information on the subject, shall be the basis; whilst on the part of the delegates, attention shall be paid with equal sincerity to the reconciling, in accordance with the mutual objects and relations of the confederated states, of any doubts and differences of opinion which may arise.

The Ministerial departments of all the states of the union shall reciprocally communicate, when requested, every desired information upon the general affairs of the customs; and with respect to the temporary or permanent appointment of a superior officer, or should the deputing of a plenipotentiary, otherwise accredited to the Government, be desirable for that purpose, every opportunity shall be readily afforded according to the above expressed principle to such delegate, in order to enable him to become perfectly acquainted with the general management of the customs.

XXXIII. A congress, at which each of the governments of the union shall appoint a plenipotentiary, shall be held annually about the beginning of June, for the purpose of general discussion.

A president, who shall not, however, enjoy any personal advantage, shall be chosen by the

plenipotentiaries at the conference, from among themselves, in order formally to direct their proceed. ings.

The first congress shall be held at Munich, and the subsequent places of meeting shall be agreed upon at the close of each annual congress, according to the nature of the objects expected to be discussed at the ensuing conferences. XXXIV. The attention of the plenipotentiaries at the conference shall be directed to

a. The consideration of all dif. ficulties and defects which may be observable in one or other of the contracting states, in the execution of the primary treaty, of the special stipulations of the customs' laws and regulations, and of the tariff, which may not have been removed during the year, in consequence of a correspondence upon the subject between the ministerial departments;

b. The definitive apportionment among the states of the union of the general receipts, according to the documents prepared by the principal officers of the customs, and submitted to them after examination by the central office, which may be necessary for the purpose of examining the accounts in a manner suitable to the common interest;

c. The consideration of all requests and proposals for improving the customs' administration, which may be submitted by any of the governments of the union;

d. The negotiation of such alterations of the customs' laws, of the tariff, of the customs' regulation, and of the organization of the administration thereof, as may be proposed by any one of the contracting states;

And, generally, to the suitable

developement and accomplishment of a common system of trade and customs.

XXXV. If any extraordinary circumstance should occur in the course of the year, at any other period than that of the meeting of the Congress of Plenipotentiaries, which calls for immediate measures and arrangements on the part of the states of the union, the contracting parties shall concert thereupon in the usual diplomatic man. ner, or convoke an extraordinary meeting of their plenipotentiaries.

XXXVI. The expenses of the plenipotentiaries, and of their assistants, shall be defrayed by the Government by which they are deputed; but the chancery expenses, local and personal, shall be defrayed by the Government of the territory in which the conference is held.

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XXXVII. If, at the time of the execution of the present treaty, uniformity in the rate of import duties should not have been brought into operation in the countries of the contracting governments, they shall be bound to adopt every re gulation which may be necessary, in order that the customs' revenues of the union, collectively, may not be injured by the importation and collection of articles of merchan. dise, upon which no duties have been paid, or smaller duties are payable than those contained in the tariff of the union.

XXXVIII. In case other German states should notify their wish to be admitted into the Customs' Union established by the present treaty, the high contracting purties shall declare, that they are ready to comply with that wish, so far as it may be compatible with a due regard to the peculiar interests of the members of the union, by

concluding treaties for that purpose.

XXXIX. They shall also exert themselves to facilitate and extend as much as possible, by means of treaties with other states, the commerce of their subjects.

XL. Whatever is necessary to the execution, in detail, of the stipulations contained in the present treaty, and in those that may be supplementary to it, more especially to the preparation of the principal agreements, regulations, and instructions established in common, shall be performed by special commissioners.

XLI. The present treaty, which is to be brought into operation on the 1st of January, 1834, shall continue in force until the 1st of January, 1842; and if, during that term, and, at the latest, two years before the expiration of it, the contrary should not be declared, the period of its continuance shall be prolonged to twelve years, and afterwards from twelve years to twelve years.

The latter arrangement shall, however, be observed, only in case all the states of the Germanic Confederation should not, in the meantime, agree upon adopting, in common, such measures as may fully accomplish the object of the present Customs' Union, and be in accordance with the intention expressed in the XIXth article of the act of the Germanic Confederation.

Should any general regulations be adopted, relative to a free intercourse in the necessaries of life in all the states of the Germanic Confederation, the stipulations on the subject in the tariff of the Union, prepared in conformity with the present treaty, shall be modified accordingly.

The present treaty shall be forthwith submitted for the ratification of the high contracting courts, and the declarations of ratification shall be exchanged at Berlin within six weeks at the latest.-Done at Berlin, the 22d March, 1833. Here follow the signatures. No. 2.

ADDITIONAL ARTICLES. Additional Articles to the Customs' Union Treaty of the 22d March, 1833, between Prussia, the Electorate of Hesse, and the Grand Duchy of Hesse, on the one part, and Bavaria and Wurtemburg on the other part.-Signed at Berlin, 31 October 1833.

Art. 1. His Majesty the King of Bavaria, and his Majesty the King of Wurtemburg, shall in conformity with the agreement contained in the 4th Article of the Customs' Union Treaty of 22d of March, 1833, cause to be published in their states the annexed customs' regulation and tariff, which shall together, form their customs' law. The said customs' tariff shall in like manner be published, at the same time as the above treaty, in the kingdom of Prussia, the Electorate of Hesse, and the Grand Duchy of Hesse, but without interfering with the customs' laws and regulations existing in those states. The laws and customs' regulations alluded to in this article, and also the tariff, shall be regarded as integral parts of the treaty of 22d March 1833.

11. The contracting parties shall, as soon as possible, make arrangements, in order that the punishment of offences of every description against the customs' laws, which equally affect the interests of all the states of the Union, may be regulated according to uniform principles,

The undersigned plenipotentiaries have executed and sealed, with a reservation as to ratification, the preceding articles, which shall have the same force and validity as if they were contained in the treaty of 22d March, 1833.

Done at Berlin, the 31st October 1833.

Here follow the signatures.

Mem. The ratifications of this treaty, and of the Additional Articles, were exchanged at Berlin, on the 28th of November, 1833.

December 4th, 1838. Fellow citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives,— I congratulate you on the favourable circumstances in the condition of our country, under which you re-assemble for the perform ance of your official duties. Though the anticipations of an abundant harvest everywhere have not been realized, yet, on the whole, the labours of the husbandman are rewarded with a bountiful return; industry prospers in its various channels of business and enterprise; general health prevails again through our vast diversity of climate; nothing threatens from abroad the continuance of external peace; nor has anything at home impaired the strength of those fraternal and domestic ties which constitute the only guarantee to the success and permanency of our happy union, and which, formed in the hour of peril, have hitherto been honourably sustained through every vicissitude in our national affairs. These blessings, which evince the care and the beneficence of Providence, call for our devout and fervent gratitude.

We have not less reason to be grateful for other bounties bestowed by the same munificent hand, and more exclusively our own.

The present year closes the first

half-century of our federal institutions; and our system-differing from all others in the acknow. ledged, practical and unlimited operation which it has for so long a period given to the sovereignty of the people-has now been fully tested by experience.

The constitution devised by our forefathers as the frame-work and bond of that system, then untried, has become a settled form of go vernment, not only preserving and protecting the great principles upon which it was founded, but wonderfully promoting individual happiness and private interests. Though subject to change and entire revocation, whenever deemed inadequate to all these purposes, yet such is the wisdom of its construction, and so stable has been the public sentiment, that it rea mains unaltered, except in matters of detail comparatively unimportant. It has proved amply suffici ent for the various emergencies! incident to our condition as a na tion. A formidable foreign war; agitating collisions between do mestic, and in some respects, rival Sovereignties; temptations to in terfere in the intestine commotions of neighbouring countries; the dangerous influences that arise in periods of excessive prosperity; and the anti-republican tenden

cies of associated wealth-these, with other trials not less formidable, have all been encountered, and thus far successfully resisted.

It was reserved for the American Union to test the advantages of a Government entirely dependent on the continual exercise of the popular will; and our experience has shown, that it is as beneficent in practice, as it is just in theory. Each successive change made in our local institutions, has contributed to extend the right of suffrage, has increased the direct influence of the mass of the community, given greater freedom to individual exertion, and restricted more and more the powers of Government; yet the intelligence, prudence, and patriotism of the people have kept pace with this augmented responsibility. In no country has education been so widely diffused. Domestic peace has no where so largely reigned. The close bonds of social intercourse have in no instance prevailed with such harmony over a space so vast. All forms of religion have united for the first time to diffuse charity and piety, because for the first time in the history of nations all have been totally untrammelled, and absolutely free. The deepest recesses of the wilderness have been penetrated; yet, instead of the rudeness in the social condition consequent upon such adventures elsewhere, numerous communities have sprung up already unrivalled in prosperity, general intelligence, internal tranquillity, and the wisdom of their political institutions. Internal improvements, the fruit of individual enterprise, fostered by the protection of the states, has added new links to the confederation and fresh reVOL. LXXX

wards to provident industry. Doubtful questions of domestic policy have been quietly settled by mutual forbearance; and agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, minister to each other. Taxation and public debt, the burdens of which bear so heavily upon all other countries, have pressed with comparative lightness upon us. Without one entangling alliance, our friendship is prized by every nation; and the rights of our citizens are everywhere respected, because they are known to be guarded by an united, sensitive, and watchful people.

To this practical operation of our institutions so evident and successful, we owe that increased attachment to them which is among the most cheering exhibitions of popular sentiment, and will prove their best security in time to come, against foreign or domestic assault.

This review of the result of our institutions for half a century, without exciting a spirit of vain exultation, should serve to impress upon us the great principles from which they have sprung-constant and direct supervision by the people over every public measure, strict forbearance on the part of the Government from exercising any doubtful or disputed powers, and a cautious abstinence from all interference with concerns which properly belong, and are best left, to state regulations and individual enterprise.

Full information of the state of our foreign affairs having been recently, on different occasions, submitted to Congress, I deem it necessary now to bring to your notice only such events as have subsequently occurred, or are of such

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