en to the reassembling of the congress,
one of the two ministers commissioned on the part of the United States
has returned to the bosom of his country, while the minister charged
with the ordinary mission to Mexico remains authorized to attend at the
conferences of the congress whenever they may be resumed.

A hope was for a short time entertained that a treaty of peace actually
signed between the Governments of Buenos Ayres and of Brazil would
supersede all further occasion for those collisions between belligerent
pretensions and neutral rights which are so commonly the result of
maritime war, and which have unfortunately disturbed the harmony of the
relations between the United States and the Brazilian Governments. At
their last session Congress were informed that some of the naval
officers of that Empire had advanced and practiced upon principles in
relation to blockades and to neutral navigation which we could not
sanction, and which our commanders found it necessary to resist. It
appears that they have not been sustained by the Government of Brazil
itself. Some of the vessels captured under the assumed authority of
these erroneous principles have been restored, and we trust that our
just expectations will be realized that adequate indemnity will be made
to all the citizens of the United States who have suffered by the
unwarranted captures which the Brazilian tribunals themselves have
pronounced unlawful.

In the diplomatic discussions at Rio de Janeiro of these wrongs
sustained by citizens of the United States and of others which seemed as
if emanating immediately from that Government itself the charge
d'affaires of the United States, under an impression that his
representations in behalf of the rights and interests of his countrymen
were totally disregarded and useless, deemed it his duty, without
waiting for instructions, to terminate his official functions, to demand
his passports, and return to the United States. This movement, dictated
by an honest zeal for the honor and interests of his country--motives
which operated exclusively on the mind of the officer who resorted to
it--has not been disapproved by me. The Brazilian Government, however,
complained of it as a measure for which no adequate intentional cause
had been given by them, and upon an explicit assurance through their
charge d'affaires residing here that a successor to the late
representative of the United States near that Government, the
appoint