257
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1842
Francis B. Ogden, Consul of the Republic for Liverpool, Great Britain: Alfred Fox, Consul of the Republic for Falmouth, Great Britain: John Graham Stewart, Consul of the Republic for Glasgow, Great Britain: John Roxburg, Consul of the Republic for Greenock, Great Britain: John Atkinson, Consul of the Republic for Kingston-upon-Hull, Great Britain: Basil G. Ijames, Notary Public for Colorado County: I avail myself, also, of the present occasion to invite the atten- tion of the Honorable, the Senate, to the urgent propriety of providing by law, for the compensation of the consular agents of the government. As the law now stands, no provision what- ever is made whereby our consuls can be reimbursed for indis- pensable outlays for the service of the country whose interest they superintend and protect. Seals, flags, postage, upon docu- ments of a national character sent to the Department of State, and upon regular official correspondence, books of record, and office furniture, have hitherto been supplied from private liber- ality alone. This should no longer continue to be the case. The government which requires the time, labor and attention of its public functionaries of this grade should exercise towards them some show of reciprocity. And this cannot be done upon any other plan so equitable and available to all the parties interested as by the allowance of reasonable perquisites upon the per- formance of official acts, regulated upon a scale corresponding to the probable amount of business to be done. I would, therefore, respectfully recommend that a law be passed authorizing all our consular agents to charge and collect fees, in accordance with specific instructions from the Executive, through the Department of State, upon invoices of merchandize, passports and the other usual acts performed by the like agents of other countries. The consular attestation to invoices of merchandise would operate as a protection of the revenue against fraud, and at the same time to be a material convenience to the importer, by dis- pensing with the harrassing, and in some cases injurious ex- aminations which must otherwise be made into the contents of bales, boxes, and packages of goods at the Custom House. A reasonable charge, also, for passports to persons coming into the Republic, would not only furnish a means of compensation
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