Accept, sir, &c.
Councillor A. P. de Carvalho Borges, &c., &c., &c.
By the President of the United States of
America.
a proclamation.
Whereas, by an act of the Congress of the United States of the
twenty-fourth of May, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight,
entitled “An act in addition to an act entitled ‘An act concerning
discriminating duties of tonnage and impost, and to equalize the
duties on Prussian vessels and and their cargoes,’” it is provided,
that upon satisfactory evidence being given to the President of the
United States, by the government of any foreign nation, that no
discriminating duties of tonnage or impost are imposed or levied in
the ports of the said nation upon vessels wholly belonging
to-citizens of the United States, or upon the produce, manufactures,
or merchandise imported in the same from the United States, or from
any foreign country, the President is thereby authorized to issue
his proclamation, declaring that the foreign discriminating duties
of tonnage and impost within the United States are, and shall be,
suspended and discontinued, so far as respects the vessels of the
said foreign nation, and the produce, manufactures, or merchandise
imported into the United States in the same from the said foreign
nation, or from any other foreign country, the said suspension to
take effect from the time of such notification being given to the
President of the United States, and to continue so long as the
reciprocal exemption of vessels belonging to citizens of the United
States, and their cargoes, as aforesaid, shall be continued and no
longer:
And whereas satisfactory evidence has lately been received by me,
from his Majesty the Emperor of Brazil, through an official
communication of Mr. Felippe José Pereira Leal, his chargé
d’affaires, in the United States, under date of the 25th of October,
1847, that no other or higher duties of tonnage and impost are
imposed or levied in the
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ports of Brazil upon vessels wholly belonging to citizens of the
United States, and upon the produce, manufactures, or merchandise
imported in the same from the United States, and from any foreign
country whatever, than are levied on Brazilian ships and their
cargoes in the same ports under like circumstances:
Now, therefore, I, James K. Polk, President of the United States of
America, do hereby declare and proclaim, that, so much of the
several acts imposing discriminating duties of tonnage and impost
within the United States are, and shall be, suspended and
discontinued so far as respects the vessels of Brazil, and the
produce, manufactures, and merchandise imported into the United
States in the same, from Brazil and from any other foreign country
whatever, the said suspension to take effect from the day above
mentioned, and to continue thenceforward so long as the reciprocal
exemption of the vessels of the United States, and the produce,
manufactures, and merchandise imported into Brazil in the same as
aforesaid, shall be continued on the part of the government of
Brazil.
Given under my hand, at the city of
Washington, this fourth day of
November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
and forty-seven, and the seventy-second of the Independence
of the United States.
JAMES K. POLK.
By the President.
James
Buchanan,
Secretary of
State.
