Actuated undoubtedly by considerations of this kind, Congress provided
such a fund, coeval with the organization of the Government, and
subsequently enacted the law of 1810 as the permanent law of the land.
While this law exists in full force I feel bound by a high sense of
public policy and duty to observe its provisions and the uniform
practice of my predecessors under it.
With great respect for the House of Representatives and an anxious
desire to conform to their wishes, I am constrained to come to this
conclusion.
If Congress disapprove the policy of the law, they may repeal its
provisions.
In reply to that portion of the resolution of the House which calls for
"copies of whatever communications were made from the Secretary of State
during the last session of the Twenty-seventh Congress, particularly
February, 1843, to Mr. Cushing and Mr. Adams, members of the Committee
of this House on Foreign Affairs, of the wish of the President of the
United States to institute a special mission to Great Britain," I have
to state that no such communications or copies of them are found in the
Department of State.
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