Coinciding in the opinion
of my predecessor that Holland is not, under the regulations of her
present system, entitled to have her vessels and their cargoes received
into the United States on the footing of American vessels and cargoes as
regards duties of tonnage and impost, a respect for his reference of it
to the Legislature has alone prevented me from acting on the subject. I
should still have waited without comment for the action of Congress, but
recently a claim has been made by Belgian subjects to admission into our
ports for their ships and cargoes on the same footing as American, with
the allegation we could not dispute that our vessels received in their
ports the identical treatment shewn to them in the ports of Holland,
upon whose vessels no discrimination is made in the ports of the United
States. Giving the same privileges the Belgians expected the same
benefits---benefits that were, in fact, enjoyed when Belgium and Holland
were united under one Government. Satisfied with the justice of their
pretension to be placed on the same footing with Holland, I could not,
nevertheless, without disregard to the principle of our laws, admit
their claim to be treated as Americans, and at the same time a respect
for Congress, to whom the subject had long since been referred, has
prevented me from producing a just equality by taking from the vessels
of Holland privileges conditionally granted by acts of Congress,
although the condition upon which the grant was made has, in my
judgment, failed since 1822.
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