It is proper to inform you that the Government of Peru has in good faith
paid the first two installments of the indemnity of $30,000 each, and
the greater portion of the interest due thereon, in execution of the
convention between that Government and the United States the
ratifications of which were exchanged at Lima on the 31st of October,
1846. The Attorney-General of the United States early in August last
completed the adjudication of the claims under this convention, and made
his report thereon in pursuance of the act of the 8th of August, 1846.
The sums to which the claimants are respectively entitled will be paid
on demand at the Treasury.
I invite the early attention of Congress to the present condition of our
citizens in China. Under our treaty with that power American citizens
are withdrawn from the jurisdiction, whether civil or criminal, of the
Chinese Government and placed under that of our public functionaries in
that country. By these alone can our citizens be tried and punished for
the commission of any crime; by these alone can questions be decided
between them involving the rights of persons and property, and by these
alone can contracts be enforced into which they may have entered with
the citizens or subjects of foreign powers.
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