l on all
proper occasions be urged, and it is hoped with effect.

I refrain from making any communication on the subject of our affairs
with Buenos Ayres, because the negotiation communicated to you in my
last annual message was at the date of our last advices still pending
and in a state that would render a publication of the details
inexpedient.

A treaty of amity and commerce has been formed with the Republic of
Chili, which, if approved by the Senate, will be laid before you. That
Government seems to be established, and at peace with its neighbors; and
its ports being the resorts of our ships which are employed in the
highly important trade of the fisheries, this commercial convention can
not but be of great advantage to our fellow-citizens engaged in that
perilous but profitable business.

Our commerce with the neighboring State of Peru, owing to the onerous
duties levied on our principal articles of export, has been on the
decline, and all endeavors to procure an alteration have hitherto proved
fruitless. With Bolivia we have yet no diplomatic intercourse, and the
continual contests carried on between it and Peru have made me defer
until a more favorable period the appointment of any agent for that
purpose.

An act of atrocious piracy having been committed on one of our trading
ships by the inhabitants of a settlement on the west coast of Sumatra, a
frigate was dispatched with orders to demand satisfaction for the injury
if those who committed it should be found to be members of a regular
government, capable of maintaining the usual relations with foreign
nations; but if, as it was supposed and as they proved to be, they were
a band of lawless pirates, to inflict such a chastisement as would deter
them and others from like aggressions. This last was done, and the
effect has been an increased respect for our flag in those distant seas
and additional security for our commerce.

In the view I have given of our connection with foreign powers allusions
have been made to their domestic disturbances or foreign wars, to their
revolutions or dissensions. It may be proper to observe that this is
done solely in cases where those events affect our political relations
with them, or to show their operation on our commerce. Further than this
it is neither our policy nor our right to interfere. Our best wishes on
all occasions, our good offices when required, will be afforded to
promote the domestic tranquillity and foreign