n the
practice of good faith and neutrality shall be restored between the
respective nations.

On the 6th of June last, in violation of our neutrality laws, a military
expedition and enterprise against the British North American colonies
was projected and attempted to be carried on within the territory and
jurisdiction of the United States. In obedience to the obligation
imposed upon the Executive by the Constitution to see that the laws are
faithfully executed, all citizens were warned by proclamation against
taking part in or aiding such unlawful proceedings, and the proper
civil, military, and naval officers were directed to take all necessary
measures for the enforcement of the laws. The expedition failed, but it
has not been without its painful consequences. Some of our citizens who,
it was alleged, were engaged in the expedition were captured, and have
been brought to trial as for a capital offense in the Province of
Canada. Judgment and sentence of death have been pronounced against
some, while others have been acquitted. Fully believing in the maxim of
government that severity of civil punishment for misguided persons who
have engaged in revolutionary attempts which have disastrously failed is
unsound and unwise, such representations have been made to the British
Government in behalf of the convicted persons as, being sustained by
an enlightened and humane judgment, will, it is hoped, induce in their
cases an exercise of clemency and a judicious amnesty to all who were
engaged in the movement. Counsel has been employed by the Government to
defend citizens of the United States on trial for capital offenses in
Canada, and a discontinuance of the prosecutions which were instituted
in the courts of the United States against those who took part in the
expedition has been directed.

I have regarded the expedition as not only political in its nature, but
as also in a great measure foreign from the United States in its causes,
character, and objects. The attempt was understood to be made in
sympathy with an insurgent party in Ireland, and by striking at a
British Province on this continent was designed to aid in obtaining
redress for political grievances which, it was assumed, the people of
Ireland had suffered at the hands of the British Government during a
period of several centuries. The persons engaged in it were chiefly
natives of that country, some of whom had, while others had not, become
citizens of the United