35TH CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. (Ex. Doc. No. 2. MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE TWO HOUSES OF CONGRESS AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE SECOND SESSION OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH CONGRESS. DECEMBER 6, 1858.-Read, and committed to a Committee of the Whole on the state of DECEMBER 11, 1858-Resolved, That there be printed, for the use of the members of the VOLUME III. WASHINGTON: JAMES B. STEEDMAN, PRINTER. 1858. REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY. NAVY DEPARTMENT, December 6, 1858. SIR: Since the last annual report this Department has been required to employ a naval force for the purpose of arresting unlawful expeditions against Nicaragua, resisting the exercise of the right of search by British cruisers in the neighborhood of Cuba, and enforcing a demand of redress for an insult to our flag and for injuries to our citizens by the government of Paraguay. In the first instance, that of arresting and preventing unlawful expeditions set on foot in the United States against Nicaragua contrary to the act of Congress of April 30, 1818, orders for this purpose were issued to the steam frigates Wabash and Susquehanna, the sloops-of-war Jamestown and Saratoga, and the steamer Fulton. These orders and the successful action of Flag-Officer Paulding, and those under his command, in breaking up the expedition against Nicaragua, set on foot by General Walker, were fully communicated to Congress at its last session by the special message of the President of January 17, 1858. The force sent into the neighborhood of Cuba to resist the exercise of the right of search by British cruisers consisted of the steam frigates Wabash and Colorado, the sloops-of-war Macedonian, Constellation, Jamestown, Saratoga, and Plymouth, the steamers Water Witch, Arctic, Fulton, and Despatch, and the brig Dolphin; comprising the Mediterranean squadron under Flag-Officer Lavallette, the Home Squadron under Flag-Officer McIntosh, and such other vessels as were sent out specially for the purpose. They were all deemed effective for the object for which they were sent, because, in the execution of their mission, no one of them would have hesitated to resist a ship of the largest class. They were instructed to protect all vessels of the United States against the exercise of the right of search on the 1.gh seas, in time of peace, by the armed vessels of any other power. These instructions have been often repeated and are now regarded as standing instructions to the navy of the United States, wherever employed. They put the deck of an American vessel on the same footing with American soil, the invasion of which under foreign authority is to be as strenuously resisted in the one case as in the other. They regard such invasion as in the highest degree offensive to the United States, incompatible with their sovereignty and with the freedom of the seas, and to be met and resisted by the whole power of the untry. It was your policy promptly and decisively to embrace the pportunity to bring this question of right, upon which we had gone |