[-34-] These were the events of the two years; the next season, when Lucius Marcius and Gaius Sabinus held the consulship, the acts of the triumvirs from the time they had formed a close combination received ratification at the hands of the senate, and certain further taxes were imposed by them, because the expenditures proved far greater than had been allowed for in the time of the former Caesar.

Lay further states that his friend the Tautai informed him that they are prepared to receive the new Ambassador peacefully at Pekin, when he goes to exchange ratifications.

Charles Pinckney, who, unaided, submitted the first concrete draft of the Constitution, was only twenty-nine, and Alexander Hamilton, who was destined to take a leading part in securing its ratification by his powerful oratory and his very able commentaries in the Federalist papers, was only thirty.

To obtain justice as well as to restore friendship I thought a special mission advisable, and accordingly appointed James Monroe minister extraordinary and plenipotentiary to repair to Madrid, and in conjunction with our minister resident there to endeavor to procure a ratification of the former convention and to come to an understanding with Spain as to the boundaries of Louisiana.

What would have been the indignant response of Grayson, Griffin, Madison, and the Lees, in the Congress of '87, to such a resolution, and of Carrington, Chairman of the Committee, who reported the ratification of the ordinance in the Congress of '89, and of Page and Parker, who with every other member of the Virginia delegation supported it?

They returned in the course of an hour, bringing with them the articles already signed by Coulon-Villiers, and awaiting only Colonel Washington's ratification.

There would have been opposition from those inimical to the United States entering any international organization, but it would have been insufficient to prevent ratification of the Treaty.

To the House of Representatives of the United States: I transmit to the House of Representatives a report of the Secretary of State, in compliance with the resolution of said House requesting information respecting the ratification of the thirteenth article of the amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives: I have directed my secretary to lay before you a copy of an exemplified copy of a law to ratify on the part of the State of New Jersey certain amendments to the Constitution of the United States, together with a copy of a letter, which accompanied said ratification, from Hon.

Petitions, sir, are to be offered when a new bill is brought into the house, that all useful information may be obtained; but when it has passed through the examination of the committees, has been approved by the collective wisdom of the senate, and requires only a formal ratification to give it the force of a law, it is neither usual nor decent to offer petitions, or declare any dislike of what the senate has admitted.

It is further alleged that this Government had recently tolerated or protected an expedition from the United States against the Province of Texas, These two imputed acts are stated as the reasons which have induced His Catholic Majesty to withhold his ratification from the treaty, to obtain explanations respecting which it is repeated that an envoy would be forthwith dispatched to the United States.

Among those who opposed ratification we find the names of Henry, Mason, Grayson, and Monroe, names which sufficiently attest that the opposition was one, not of mere faction or obstruction, but of principle and patriotic feeling.

Notwithstanding this proviso, they considered the ratification as full.

The Roman senate refuses to send Mithridates a formal ratification of the treaty.

Her claim was warmly espoused by M. de Soissons, who at once declared the document to be valid and unanswerable; while it was admitted by all by whom it was examined to be strictly legal in form, and to authorize her in demanding its ratification.

It had been stated in an official newspaper, published in Holland, that Russia accompanied the ratification with an important reserve.

Then we will go to New York or to Pennsylvania and urge upon the Legislatures the ratification of that amendment.

As the stipulations in this treaty also involve matters within the competence of both Houses only, it will be laid before Congress as soon as the Senate shall have advised its ratification.

[-3-] The rest, indignant at this, voted to change their garb, but through the intervention of the same men did not obtain ratification of this measure either.

The new convention has, he informs us, been recently submitted by the President of that Republic to its Congress under circumstances which promise a speedy ratification, a result which I can not allow myself to doubt.

I have further to state that the Governments of France and Great Britain continue to manifest the sentiments heretofore communicated respecting the nonratification of the treaty by Spain, and to interpose their good offices to promote its ratification.

The Duke of Burgundy had made haste to publish his ratification of the treaty of reconciliation; the dauphin had let his wait.

There were but few in the last senate, and I hope there are none in this, who did not see the meanness of suffering incontestable claims to be disputed by commissaries, the injustice of the demand which was made upon the South-sea company, and the contemptuous insolence of amusing us with the shadow of a stipulation, which was to vanish into nothing, unless we purchased a ratification of it, by paying what we did not owe.

] WASHINGTON, April 10, 1854 To the Senate of the United States: I communicate to the Senate herewith a communication from the Secretary of the Interior, accompanied by the articles of a convention recently entered into for an exchange of country for the future residence of the Winnebago Indians, and recommend their ratification with the amendment suggested by the Secretary of the Interior.

I told him that I was disturbed by this fact because I was afraid the Senate and possibly the people, if they understood this, would refuse ratification, and that anything which was an obstacle to ratification was unfortunate because we ought to have peace as soon as possible.