C. Treaty with the Ottawas and Chippewas, dated July 31, 1855. FRANKLIN PIERCE. WASHINGTON, _January 11, 1856_. _To the Senate of the United States_: I transmit to the Senate a report from the Secretary of State, with the accompanying document,[51] in answer to their resolution of yesterday. FRANKLIN PIERCE. [Footnote 51: Letter of Lord John Russell declaring that the British Government intends to adhere to the treaty of Washington of April 19, 1850, and not to assume any sovereignty in Central America.] WASHINGTON CITY, _January 21, 1856_. _To the Senate of the United States_: I communicate to the Senate herewith a letter from the Secretary of the Interior, accompanying six several treaties negotiated by Governor Meriwether, of New Mexico, with the Indians in that Territory, for its constitutional action thereon. FRANKLIN PIERCE. WASHINGTON, _January 23, 1856_. _To the Senate of the United States_: I communicate herewith to the Senate, for its constitutional action thereon, a treaty between the United States and the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes of Indians, made and concluded in this city on the 22d day of June, 1855. FRANKLIN PIERCE. WASHINGTON, _January 24, 1856_. _To the Senate and House of Representatives_: Circumstances have occurred to disturb the course of governmental organization in the Territory of Kansas and produce there a condition of things which renders it incumbent on me to call your attention to the subject and urgently to recommend the adoption by you of such measures of legislation as the grave exigencies of the case appear to require. A brief exposition of the circumstances referred to and of their causes will be necessary to the full understanding of the recommendations which it is proposed to submit. The act to organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas was a manifestation of the legislative opinion of Congress on two great points of constitutional construction: One, that the designation of the boundaries of a new Territory and provision for its political organization and administration as a Territory are measures which of right fall within the powers of the General Government; and the other, that the inhabitants of any such Territory, considered as an inchoate State, are entitled, in the exercise of self-government, to determine for themselves what shall be their own domestic institutions, subject only to the Constitution and the laws duly enacted by Congress under it and to the power of the existing States to decide, according to the provisions and principles of the Constitution, at what time the Territory shall be received as a State into the Union. Such are the great political rights which are solemnly declared and affirmed by that act.