I have thus, Mr. President, presented some statistical details in respect to the condition of the Papal States, not with the expectation of influencing the vote of any Senator on this floor, but for the purpose of assigning the grounds on which I place my own. I am in favor of establishing diplomatic intercourse with Rome, first, with a view to friendly relations, the object for which most missions are created; and second, with a view to commerce. I repeat, I do not regard the mission as political, unless that term be understood in its broadest sense; and in this view all missions are political. I consider it our sacred duty to keep aloof from the internal agitations of European states, and from the movements of their sovereigns and people. We must sympathize with everything that is favorable to freedom; but we can do no more. Our rule of action is non-intervention in the political concerns of the eastern hemisphere, and by a rigid adherence to it we may with the more confidence insist on an application of the same principle by European states to the political concerns of the independent communities on this continent. I look, then, first to friendly relations with central Italy.

But I look chiefly to commerce. Depressed as the industry of Rome is, I think something may be done to extend our commercial relations and intercourse with her, and perhaps also with Tuscany, lying on her borders. Great Britain. has an immense trade with the Mediterranean. She sends every year fifteen millions of dollars in value of her own products into Italy alone, and probably several millions more of foreign products, which she imports for reëxportation. A portion of this lucrative trade legitimately should be ours; and I think we may obtain it, if we send a discreet and intelligent man to Italy.

I voted for a minister plenipotentiary, as proposed by the Senator from Missouri,1 supposing it would be followed, if his amendment had prevailed, by a proposition to abolish the

1 Mr. Benton.

post of chargé d'affaires at Naples. The post of chargé d'affaires at Turin I would not have touched. Sardinia is distant, and has distinct commercial interests. But we might have sent a minister with full powers to central and southern Italy, to reside a part of the time at Rome, and part of the time at Naples,—an arrangement not unprecedented in diplomatic intercourse with states bordering on each other. I thought, in opening diplomatic intercourse with Rome, it should be done in the mode most acceptable. A minister is accredited to the sovereign of the country to which he is sent,

a chargé d'affaires to the secretary of foreign affairs, or the chief executive department. A minister would be on a footing with the diplomatic representatives of the states of Europe, at the Papal Court, -a chargé will be inferior in grade and in influence. Rome and Naples are but one hundred and sixty miles apart. Four years ago, a railroad was in a course of construction from Naples to the Roman frontier. It was nearly finished to Capua. Gregory XVI., the predecessor of the present Pope, refused to charter railroad companies. He did not encourage foreign intercourse, social or commercial. Pius IX. is of a totally different temper. He is desirous of promoting in every way facilities for communication, foreign and domestic. He has chartered a company to construct a railway to Civita Vecchia; and another, as I understand, to meet the Neapolitan railroad at Terracina. In two years Rome and Naples will probably be but five hours apart. The arrangement suggested would, therefore, have been convenient as well as proper. But, as the proposition failed, I shall vote for a minister resident.

Before I conclude, I wish to say a few words on the religious question. I have already said, I do not regard this, in any sense, as a religious mission; nor can I conceive that it can be properly so considered. Gentlemen have gone so far as to suppose that it will be repugnant to the Protestant feeling of the country. I cannot believe there is any just ground for such an apprehension. We send a diplomatic represent

ative to the Emperor of China, who claims to be the sole vicegerent of the Supreme Being on earth. We have a minister at Constantinople, and three consuls, salaried officers, exercising diplomatic functions, in Africa,—two in the Barbary States, and one in the empire of Morocco; and the people of all these countries are either Turks, Moors, Arabs, Berbers, or Jews,-all utterly denying the authenticity of the Christian faith. And yet, when we propose to send a diplomatic representative to a temporal sovereign in Europe, it is objected that the Protestant feeling of the country may be wounded, because he is also the head of a most respectable and important branch of the Christian church. Sir, I cannot comprehend this feeling, and I am therefore disposed to doubt its existence. At all events I shall vote for the appropriation, and trust to my Protestant friends for a just appreciation of my motives.

CALIFORNIA CLAIMS.

MARCH 29, 1848.

Mr. Dıx addressed the Senate as follows:

MR. PRESIDENT: The transactions out of which the claims provided for by the bill under consideration arose, were explained yesterday in the brief but very pertinent and lucid remarks of the honorable Senator from Michigan,1 as chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, before which the testimony substantiating the case was taken. I hold in my hand the printed document containing this testimony, and before I sit down I will read some portions of it to the Senate, though I may perhaps but present what is familiar to all.

I do not know that any explanation further than that which has already been given by the honorable Senator from Michigan is necessary to vindicate the propriety of passing the bill. The pecuniary obligations, for the discharge of which it provides, were contracted in good faith, for the purpose of subduing the country and of expelling from it the military forces of Mexico. In the execution of these objects, the young and accomplished officer at the head of our troops, Colonel Frémont, exhibited a combination of energy, promptitude, sagacity, and prudence, which indicates the highest capacity for civil and military command; and, in connection with what he has done for the cause of science, it has given him a reputation at home and abroad of which men much older and more experienced than himself might well be proud. That the country will do justice

1 Mr. Cass.

to his valuable and distinguished services I entertain not the slightest doubt.

The objects accomplished by Colonel Frémont, as subsequent developments have shown, were far more important than those I have referred to. There is no doubt that his rapid and decisive movements kept California out of the hands of British subjects, and perhaps out of the hands of the British government; and it is in this point of view that I desire to present the subject to the Senate. If these transactions stood alone, if they constituted an isolated case, I might not deem it necessary to call attention to them. But as a part of a system to all appearances deliberately tered upon and steadily pursued, it seems to me that they may justly claim a more extensive consideration than would otherwise be due to them.

While discussing the bill to raise an additional military force in January last, I stated some facts in illustration of the encroachments of Great Britain on the southern portion of the North American continent. I alluded particularly to her movements on the Mosquito coast, where she is establishing herself under the pretence of giving protection to an insignificant tribe of Indians, but in reality to gain possession of a territory not only intrinsically valuable on account of its natural products, but doubly so to her on account of its advantages of position. This occupation does not rest upon the ground of an original establishment on territory unreclaimed from its primeval solitude, or even on territory not reduced to actual possession by its first discoverer. It is a portion of the old Spanish dominion in North America, constituting, after the dissolution of the empire of Spain in the western hemisphere, a part of the confederation of Central America, and now an integral part of the states of Honduras and Nicaragua: and if the power of Spain had continued unbroken, this unjustifiable encroachment would not have been heard of. I stated on a former occasion that the territory occupied in the name of the