the appointment of a Chargé in what proportion ought the expenditure to be reduced? There was none that could intelligently answer the question; and, in the absence of light, an arbitrary rule was adopted. They chose to assume that as the salary of a chargé amounted to just half the salary of a full minister, the presents he was to carry must be reduced in the same proportion; and as the estimate had been 75,000 dollars, it was cut down as a matter of course to 37,500. But although we might have been disposed to reduce the amount of these presents, the Turk was not; he had always been accustomed to receive presents when he signed a treaty. Those presents were regularly calculated upon, before the treaty was made, and they constituted with him as much a part of the profit expected to be realized by the treaty, as commercial or other national advantages did with ourselves. The Turk did not choose to cut down the amount of presents he was to receive, and when our half minister presented himself, he found that various difficulties were started the real difficulty being, that one item of the advantages expected by the Turk, had been withdrawn. So great were these difficulties that Commodore Porter considered it doubtful whether he would be received at all in his official capacity, and after his reception had been effected, it was not without the most strenuous efforts, that he finally obtained the assent of the Turkish govern

--

ment to the treaty. It was given at length, but on the express condition, that presents should be made. They told him, as they had told every body else, that presents were an indispensable pre-requisite. Commodore Porter, with that attention to the duties of his station which that of ficer had always displayed, but which in this case merited no particular commendation, because no other course was left to him, told the Turkish Government, that he had but 25,000 dollars to distribute in presents, and they must accommodate themselves to it among their claims accordingly. On this communication they sent him a list of presents, exceeding the sum at his disposal by about 6,000 dollars. He had not the money; but considering the consummation of this treaty to be an object so important to his country-remembering that it had been the earnest wish of many successive administrations to obtain it, and believing it fraught with so many advantages to the commerce and enterprise of his fellow citizens, and perceiving withal that consummation now, as it were, within his reach, justly concluded, that it ought not to be put at hazard for; the petty sum of 6,000 dollars; he therefore borrowed that amount on his own responsibility, and thus was enabled to complete the presents required of him, in consequence of which the treaty was completed. He found it necessary, however, not indeed positively, to promise that the amount of the presents should be increased for that he

was not warranted to do, but to use his utmost exertion to that end. In compliance with this promise, he afterwards wrote home to his government, fully stating the considerations which had actuated him, and suggesting the amount and the form of the additional presents, which he judged it would be expedient to make in furtherance of the great objects of the treaty. That letter had been submitted by the department of state to the committee on foreign affairs, who thought with Commodore Porter, not only that the six thousand dollars which he had advanced ought to be refunded, but that 20,000 dollars in addition should be appropriated to so important an object in national policy. This accounted for 26,000 dollars out of the 37,500 that was asked for. Of the remaining sum, 2,500 dollars was for the salary of the dragoman, and the balance of 9,000 dollars was to be appropriated to the ordinary contingencies of the mission. A letter had been received from the mission within a few days past, informing the department, that Commodore Porter was not only entirely destitute of all public funds, but even of money for his personal subsistence. All had been exhausted in meeting the exigencies of the public ser

vice.

Mr Archer expressed his entire conviction of the reasonableness and propriety of the appropriation for which he had moved, and its evident tendency to promote the interests of the country.

Our trade with Turkey during the last year had been equal in amount to our whole trade with Russia, although at that time our vessels had never reached as far as Constantinople. He prayed gentlemen to consider, that during the last year, two thousand vessels had entered the port of Constantinople. Was not the amount now asked for, a moderate price indeed for participation in so signal an advantage as was presented by such a commerce? But when gentlemen looked beyond the Dardanelles, and anticipated what the commerce must be with that vast and rich region which surrounded the Black Sea, they would perceive that our trade with Constantinople formed but a small portion of the advantages which would probably accrue to the American merchant. In the single port of Odessa alone, 870 vessels had entered and cleared within the last year; yet this was but one of the many commercial ports which presented themselves on those extensive coasts.

Mr McDuffie said, he had no objection to the amount proposed to be appropriated to meet the expenses of the presents, which he understood were stipulated to be given at the time the treaty was made. He presumed such presents were given as was usual in similar cases, but he wanted some explanation, as to the remainder of the sum for which the appropriation was required. In addition to the sum proposed for presents, and the $6000 to reimburse Commodore Porter,

there was yet $9000 to be accounted for - that was a large sum, and if intended for the contingent expenses of this mission, he was not disposed to grant it without some further explanation. The experience he had in those matters on the committee of ways and means, had satisfied him, that appropriations in the form of contingencies should never be made, except in cases of obvious and unavoidable necessity. If this appropriation was intended to cover the expense of this mission, there are already two contingent funds applicable to this purpose the one for contingent expenses of all the missions abroad,' and the other for the contingent expenses of foreign intercourse.' He was rather surprised at the extravagant account, that had been given of the great benefits that would accrue to this country from the trade of the Black Sea, and he believed that those advantages existed more in expectation than in reality. However disposed he was to maintain the existing commercial relations between this country and Turkey, he had never understood the value of that commerce to be so great as it was now represented; and he should like to be informed what were the articles in which this valuable commerce consisted, or was expected to consist? He could find no note of this commerce in our commercial documents, and could not, therefore, understand the grounds upon which such mighty advantages were anticipated.

He was willing to vote for the

sum required for the stipulated presents, and to reimburse what Commodore Porter had expended, but he wished to have a separate vote taken on the sum proposed for the contingencies.

Mr Cambreleng said, that it was extremely difficult to judge with accuracy of the value of a trade, which had just commenced and could scarcely be said to exist. He concurred with the gentleman from South Carolina in the belief, that the importance of the trade to the Black Sea, had been in some degree overrated, but still it was too valuable to justify the gentleman in refusing some 20 or 30,000 dollars to secure it. He had thought this trade important last year, and had, therefore, been in favor of sending out a full minister, well knowing the great contempt, which was entertained by the Turks for persons in subaltern situations. The Greeks had already 500 ships in that trade, and all past experience went to show that Americans were capable of competing with any nation on earth in seizing the advantages of a profitable trade. If Americans were permitted to go into the Black Sea, they would soon become there what they were in all other parts of the world, the carriers to all other nations. Five hundred ships had entered the port of Odessa the last season, and the very articles which we now draw from Russia, all came over land to Petersburg, and might be more readily obtained in the southern parts of the empire.

Mr E. Everett observed, that he had been in favor of this appropriation, when the subject was before the committee of foreign affairs; and he would therefore, say a word or two in support of the amendment. He should not enlarge upon the subject of the commerce of the Black Sea. The Russia trade was a branch of commerce in which some of his constituents were largely in terested. He presumed, that the Russian trade of the Black Sea was substantially the same as that of the Baltic and Archangel. We should carry there the same articles of colonial produce, and bring back, he presumed, the great staples of Russian commerce: iron, hemp, tallow, &c. There was, besides, a great carrying trade between the Black Sea and various ports of the Archipelago, Adriatic, and Mediterranean, in which our vessels had already engaged, and would, no doubt, much more extensively. If they did not, it would be the first open trade of which they failed to secure their share. Like the gentleman from New York, Mr Everett had been in favor of a full mission, differing in that respect from many of his friends in Congress. He had some personal acquaintance with the character of the Turks and their government; and he knew that in dealing with them, the external show went much further, than with civilized powers. He did not wish the Americans to get the name at Constantinople, which he had heard they sometimes received at Canton that of second-chop Englishmen.

He would not run a race of prodigality with any Foreign Power; but he would, in every proper way, impress the governments of all countries with whom we have dealings, with the assurance, that we knew and were disposed to respect their usages, as far as our own honor permitted. There were occasions, when, in semicivilized and barbarous countries, the property, the liberty, and even the lives of our citizens, depended on its being well known, that they were under the protection of a powerful government. There is no way more effectual, and he would add economical, of conveying to those countries a proper impression of the power of this, than by keeping up our diplomatic establishments, in a respectable style.

He

Mr Whittlesey, of Ohio, professed his willingness to redeem any pledge, that had been advanced by Commodore Porter in good faith, on behalf of his country. He should, therefore, vote for the sum intended to reimburse him what he had advanced. had been disposed also to vote for the 9,000 dollars for the contingent expenses of this mission, but from the explanation which had been just given to the House by the honorable member from South Carolina, (Mr Mc Duffie,) that these contingents were otherwise provided for, he could not see any necessity for including this amount in the appropriation now before them. With respect to the 20,000 dollars intended to cover the expense of presents to the officers at the Ottoman Porte, he could not un