The resolution calls for the "instructions and orders issued to Mr.
Slidell at any time prior or subsequent to his departure for Mexico as
minister plenipotentiary of the United States to that Republic." The
customary and usual reservation contained in calls of either House of
Congress upon the Executive for information relating to our intercourse
with foreign nations has been omitted in the resolution before me. The
call of the House is unconditional. It is that the information requested
be communicated, and thereby be made public, whether in the opinion of
the Executive (who is charged by the Constitution with the duty of
conducting negotiations with foreign powers) such information, when
disclosed, would be prejudicial to the public interest or not. It has
been a subject of serious deliberation with me whether I could,
consistently with my constitutional duty and my sense of the public
interests involved and to be affected by it, violate an important
principle, always heretofore held sacred by my predecessors, as I should
do by a compliance with the request of the House.
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