use of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith reports from the Secretary of War and the Secretary
of the Treasury, with additional papers, relative to the claims of
certain Chickasaw Indians, which, with those heretofore communicated to
Congress, contain all the information called for by the resolution of
the House of Representatives of the 19th of December last.

JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, _May 6, 1846_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, with
accompanying papers, in answer to a resolution of the House of
Representatives of the 8th ultimo, requesting the President to
communicate to that body, "if not incompatible with the public interest,
copies of the correspondence of George William Gordon, late consul of
the United States at Rio de Janeiro, with the Department of State,
relating to the slave trade in vessels and by citizens of the United
States between the coast of Africa and Brazil."

JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, _May 6, 1846_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of War, in answer to the
resolution of the House of Representatives of the 4th instant, calling
for information "whether any soldier or soldiers of the Army of the
United States have been shot for desertion, or in the act of deserting,
and, if so, by whose order and under what authority."

JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, _May 11, 1846_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

The existing state of the relations between the United States and Mexico
renders it proper that I should bring the subject to the consideration
of Congress. In my message at the commencement of your present session
the state of these relations, the causes which led to the suspension of
diplomatic intercourse between the two countries in March, 1845, and the
long-continued and unredressed wrongs and injuries committed by the
Mexican Government on citizens of the United States in their persons and
property were briefly set forth.

As the facts and opinions which were then laid before you were carefully
considered, I can not better express my present convictions of the
condition of affairs up to that time than by referring you to that
communication.

The strong desire to establish peace with Mexico on liberal and
honorable terms, and the readiness of this Government to regulate and
adjust our boundary and other causes of difference with that power