benefits to the enterprise of both nations, affords to each the just
recompense of wise measures, and adds new motives for that mutual
friendship which the two countries have hitherto cherished toward
each other.

It affords me peculiar satisfaction to state that the Government of
Spain has at length yielded to the justice of the claims which have been
so long urged in behalf of our citizens, and has expressed a willingness
to provide an indemnification as soon as the proper amount can be agreed
upon. Upon this latter point it is probable an understanding had taken
place between the minister of the United States and the Spanish
Government before the decease of the late King of Spain; and, unless
that event may have delayed its completion, there is reason to hope that
it may be in my power to announce to you early in your present session
the conclusion of a convention upon terms not less favorable than those
entered into for similar objects with other nations. That act of justice
would well accord with the character of Spain, and is due to the United
States from their ancient friend. It could not fail to strengthen the
sentiments of amity and good will between the two nations which it is so
much the wish of the United States to cherish and so truly the interest
of both to maintain.

By the first section of an act of Congress passed on the 13th of July,
1832, the tonnage duty on Spanish ships arriving from the ports of Spain
was limited to the duty payable on American vessels in the ports of
Spain previous to the 20th of October, 1817, being 5 cents per ton. That
act was intended to give effect on our side to an arrangement made with
the Spanish Government by which discriminating duties of tonnage were to
be abolished in the ports of the United States and Spain on the vessels
of the two nations. Pursuant to that arrangement, which was carried into