WASHINGTON, _May 4, 1822_.
_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
19th of April, requesting the President "to cause to be communicated to
the House, if not injurious to the public interest, any letter which
may have been received from Jonathan Russell, one of the ministers
who concluded the treaty of Ghent, in conformity with the indications
contained in his letter of the 25th of December, 1814," I have to state
that having referred the resolution to the Secretary of State, and
it appearing, by a report from him, that no such document had been
deposited among the archives of the Department, I examined and found
among my private papers a letter of that description marked "private"
by himself. I transmit a copy of the report of the Secretary of State,
by which it appears that Mr. Russell, on being apprised that the document
referred to by the resolution had not been deposited in the Department
of State, delivered there "a paper purporting to be the duplicate of a
letter written by him from Paris on the 11th of February, 1815, to the
then Secretary of State, to be communicated to the House as the letter
called for by the resolution."
On the perusal of the document called for I find that it communicates
a difference of opinion between Mr. Russell and a majority of his
colleagues in certain transactions which occurred in the negotiations at
Ghent, touching interests which have been since satisfactorily adjusted
by treaty between the United States and Great Britain. The view which
Mr. Russell presents of his own conduct and that of his colleagues in
those transactions will, it is presumed, call from the two surviving
members of that mission who differed from him a reply containing
their view of those transactions and of the conduct of the parties
in them, and who, should his letter be communicated to the House of
Representatives, will also claim that their reply should be communicated
in like manner by the Executive--a claim which, on the principle of
equal justice, could not be resisted. The Secretary of State, one of the
ministers referred to, has already expressed a desire that Mr. Russell's
letter should be communicated, and that I would transmit at the same
time a communication from him respecting it.
On full consideration of the subject I have thought it would be improper
for the Executive to communicate the letter called for unless the House,
on a knowledge of these circumstances, should desire it, in which case
the document called for shall be communicated, accompanied by a report
from the Secretary of State, as above suggested. I have directed a copy
to be delivered to Mr. Russell, to be disposed of as he may think
proper, and have caused the original to be deposited in the Department
of State, with instruction to deliver a copy to any person who may be
interested.