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State of the Union Address
James Polk
December 8, 1846
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
In resuming your labors in the service of the people it is a subject of
congratulation that there has been no period in our past history when all
the elements of national prosperity have been so fully developed. Since
your last session no afflicting dispensation has visited our country.
General good health has prevailed, abundance has crowned the toil of the
husbandman, and labor in all its branches is receiving an ample reward,
while education, science, and the arts are rapidly enlarging the means of
social happiness. The progress of our country in her career of greatness,
not only in the vast extension of our territorial limits and the rapid
increase of our population, but in resources and wealth and in the happy
condition of our people, is without an example in the history of nations.
As the wisdom, strength, and beneficence of our free institutions are
unfolded, every day adds fresh motives to contentment and fresh incentives
to patriotism.
Our devout and sincere acknowledgments are due to the gracious Giver of All
Good for the numberless blessings which our beloved country enjoys.
It is a source of high satisfaction to know that the relations of the
United States with all other nations, with a single exception, are of the
most amicable character. Sincerely attached to the policy of peace early
adopted and steadily pursued by this Government, I have anxiously desired
to cultivate and cherish friendship and commerce with every foreign power.
The spirit and habits of the American people are favorable to the
maintenance of such international harmony. In adhering to this wise policy,
a preliminary and paramount duty obviously consists in the protection of
our national interests from encroachment or sacrifice and our national
honor from reproach. These must be maintained at any hazard. They admit of
no compromise or neglect, and must be scrupulously and constantly guarded.
In their vigilant vindication collision and conflict with foreign powers
may sometimes become unavoidable. Such has been our scrupulous adherence to
the dictates of justice in all our foreign intercourse that, though
steadily and rapidly advancing in prosperity and power, we have given no
just cause of complaint to any nation and have enjoyed the blessings of
peace for more than thirty years. From a policy so sacred to humanity and
so salutary in its effects upon our political system we should never be
induced voluntarily to depart.
The existing war with Mexico was neither desired nor provoked by the United
States. On the contrary, all honorable means were resorted to to avert it.
After years of endurance of aggravated and unredressed wrongs on our part,
Mexico, in violation of solemn treaty stipulations and of every principle
of justice recognized by civilized nations, commenced hostilities, and thus
by her own act forced the war upon us. Long before the advance of our Army
to the left bank of the Rio Grande we had ample cause of war against
Mexico, and had the United States resorted to this extremity we might have
appealed to the whole civilized world for the justice of our cause. I deem
it to be my duty to present to you on the present occasion a condensed
review of the injuries we had sustained, of the causes which led to the
war, and of its progress since its commencement. This is rendered the more
necessary because of the misapprehensions which have to some extent
prevailed as to its origin and true character. The war has been represented
as unjust and unnecessary and as one of aggression on our part upon a weak
and injured enemy. Such erroneous views, though entertained by but few,
have been widely and extensively circulated, not only at home, but have
been spread throughout Mexico and the whole world. A more effectual means
could not have been devised to encourage the enemy and protract the war
than to advocate and adhere to their cause, and thus give them "aid and
comfort." It is a source of national pride and exultation that the great
body of our people have thrown no such obstacles in the way of the
Government in prosecuting the war successfully, but have shown themselves
to be eminently patriotic and ready to vindicate their country's honor and
interests at any sacrifice. The alacrity and promptness with which our
volunteer forces rushed to the field on their country's call prove not only
their patriotism, but their deep conviction that our cause is just.
The wrongs which we have suffered from Mexico almost ever since she became
an independent power and the patient endurance with which we have borne
them are without a parallel in the history of modern civilized nations.
There is reason to believe that if these wrongs had been resented and
resisted in the first instance the present war might have been avoided. One
outrage, however, permitted to pass with impunity almost necessarily
encouraged the perpetration of another, until at last Mexico seemed to
attribute to weakness and indecision on our part a forbearance which was
the offspring of magnanimity and of a sincere desire to preserve friendly
relations with a sister republic.
Scarcely had Mexico achieved her independence, which the United States were
the first among the nations to acknowledge, when she commenced the system
of insult and spoliation which she has ever since pursued. Our citizens
engaged in lawful commerce were imprisoned, their vessels seized, and our
flag insulted in her ports. If money was wanted, the lawless seizure and
confiscation of our merchant vessels and their cargoes was a ready
resource, and if to accomplish their purposes it became necessary to
imprison the owners, captains, and crews, it was done. Rulers superseded
rulers in Mexico in rapid succession, but still there was no change in this
system of depredation. The Government of the United States made repeated
reclamations on behalf of its citizens, but these were answered by the
perpetration of new outrages. Promises of redress made by Mexico in the
most solemn forms were postponed or evaded. The files and records of the
Department of State contain conclusive proofs of numerous lawless acts
perpetrated upon the property and persons of our citizens by Mexico, and of
wanton insults to our national flag. The interposition of our Government to
obtain redress was again and again invoked under circumstances which no
nation ought to disregard. It was hoped that these outrages would cease and
that Mexico would be restrained by the laws which regulate the conduct of
civilized nations in their intercourse with each other after the treaty of
amity, commerce, and navigation of the 5th of April, 1831, was concluded
between the two Republics; but this hope soon proved to be vain. The course
of seizure and confiscation of the property of our citizens, the violation
of their persons, and the insults to our flag pursued by Mexico previous to
that time were scarcely suspended for even a brief period, although the
treaty so clearly defines the rights and duties of the respective parties
that it is impossible to misunderstand or mistake them. In less than seven
years after the conclusion of that treaty our grievances had become so
intolerable that in the opinion of President Jackson they should no longer
be endured. In his message to Congress in February, 1837, he presented them
to the consideration of that body, and declared that--
The length of time since some of the injuries have been committed, the
repeated and unavailing applications for redress, the wanton character of
some of the outrages upon the property and persons of our citizens, upon
the officers and flag of the United States, independent of recent insults
to this Government and people by the late extraordinary Mexican minister,
would justify in the eyes of all nations immediate war.
In a spirit of kindness and forbearance, however, he recommended reprisals
as a milder mode of redress. He declared that war should not be used as a
remedy "by just and generous nations, confiding in their strength for
injuries committed, if it can be honorably avoided," and added:
It has occurred to me that, considering the present embarrassed condition
of that country, we should act with both wisdom and moderation by giving to
Mexico one more opportunity to atone for the past before we take redress
into our Own hands. To avoid all misconception on the part of Mexico, as
well as to protect our own national character from reproach, this
opportunity should be given with the avowed design and full preparation to
take immediate satisfaction if it should not be obtained on a repetition of
the demand for it. To this end I recommend that an act be passed
authorizing reprisals, and the use of the naval force of the United States
by the Executive against Mexico to enforce them, in the event of a refusal
by the Mexican Government to come to an amicable adjustment of the matters
in controversy between us upon another demand thereof made from on board
out of our vessels of war on the coast of Mexico.
Committees of both Houses of Congress, to which this message of the
President was referred, fully sustained his views of the character of the
wrongs which we had suffered from Mexico, and recommended that another
demand for redress should be made before authorizing war or reprisals. The
Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, in their report, say:
After such a demand, should prompt justice be refused by the Mexican
Government, we may appeal to all nations, not only for the equity and
moderation with which we shall have acted toward a sister republic, but for
the necessity which will then compel us to seek redress for our wrongs,
either by actual war or by reprisals. The subject will then be presented
before Congress, at the commencement of the next session, in a clear and
distinct form, and the committee can not doubt but that such measures will
be immediately adopted as may be necessary to vindicate the honor of the
country and insure ample reparation to our injured fellow-citizens.
The Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives made a
similar recommendation. In their report they say that--
They fully concur with the President that ample cause exists for taking
redress into our own hands, and believe that we should be justified in the
opinion of other nations for taking such a step. But they are willing to
try the experiment of another demand, made in the most solemn form, upon
the justice of the Mexican Government before any further proceedings are
adopted.
No difference of opinion upon the subject is believed to have existed in
Congress at that time; the executive and legislative departments concurred;
and yet such has been our forbearance and desire to preserve peace with
Mexico that the wrongs of which we then complained, and which gave rise to
these solemn proceedings, not only remain unredressed to this day, but
additional causes of complaint of an aggravated character have ever since
been accumulating. Shortly after these proceedings a special messenger was
dispatched to Mexico to make a final demand for redress, and on the 20th of
July, 1837, the demand was made. The reply of the Mexican Government bears
date on the 29th of the same month, and contains assurances of the "anxious
wish" of the Mexican Government "not to delay the moment of that final and
equitable adjustment which is to terminate the existing difficulties
between the two Governments;" that "nothing should be left undone which may
contribute to the most speedy and equitable determination of the subjects
which have so seriously engaged the attention of the American Government;"
that the "Mexican Government would adopt as the only guides for its conduct
the plainest principles of public right, the sacred obligations imposed by
international law, and the religious faith of treaties," and that "whatever
reason and justice may dictate respecting each case will be done." The
assurance was further given that the decision of the Mexican Government
upon each cause of complaint for which redress had been demanded should be
communicated to the Government of the United States by the Mexican minister
at Washington.
These solemn assurances in answer to our demand for redress were
disregarded. By making them, however, Mexico obtained further delay.
President Van Buren, in his annual message to Congress of the 5th of
December, 1837, states that "although the larger number" of our demands for
redress, "and many of them aggravated cases of personal wrongs, have been
now for years before the Mexican Government, and some of the causes of
national complaint, and those of the most offensive character, admitted of
immediate, simple, and satisfactory replies, it is only within a few days
past that any specific communication in answer to our last demand, made
five months ago, has been received from the Mexican minister;" and that
"for not one of our public complaints has satisfaction been given or
offered, that but one of the cases of personal wrong has been favorably
considered, and that but four cases of both descriptions out of all those
formally presented and earnestly pressed have as yet been decided upon by
the Mexican Government." President Van Buren, believing that it would be
vain to make any further attempt to obtain redress by the ordinary means
within the power of the Executive, communicated this opinion to Congress in
the message referred to, in which he said:
On a careful and deliberate examination of their contents of the
correspondence with the Mexican Government, and considering the spirit
manifested by the Mexican Government, it has become my painful duty to
return the subject as it now stands to Congress, to whom it belongs to
decide upon the time, the mode, and the measure of redress.
Had the United States at that time adopted compulsory measures and taken
redress into their own hands, all our difficulties with Mexico would
probably have been long since adjusted and the existing war have been
averted. Magnanimity and moderation on our part only had the effect to
complicate these difficulties and render an amicable settlement of them the
more embarrassing. That such measures of redress under similar provocations
committed by any of the powerful nations of Europe would have been promptly
resorted to by the United States can not be doubted. The national honor and
the preservation of the national character throughout the world, as well as
our own self-respect and the protection due to our own citizens, would have
rendered such a resort indispensable. The history of no civilized nation in
modern times has presented within so brief a period so many wanton attacks
upon the honor of its flag and upon the property and persons of its
citizens as had at that time been borne by the United States from the
Mexican authorities and people. But Mexico was a sister republic on the
North American continent, occupying a territory contiguous to our own, and
was in a feeble and distracted condition, and these considerations, it is
presumed, induced Congress to forbear still longer.
Instead of taking redress into our own hands, a new negotiation was entered
upon with fair promises on the part of Mexico, but with the real purpose,
as the event has proved, of indefinitely postponing the reparation which we
demanded, and which was so justly due. This negotiation, after more than a
year's delay, resulted in the convention of the 11th of April, 1839, "for
the adjustment of claims of citizens of the United States of America upon
the Government of the Mexican Republic." The joint board of commissioners
created by this convention to examine and decide upon these claims was not
organized until the month of August, 1840, and under the terms of the
convention they were to terminate their duties within eighteen months from
that time. Four of the eighteen months were consumed in preliminary
discussions on frivolous and dilatory points raised by the Mexican
commissioners, and it was not until the month of December, 1840, that they
commenced the examination of the claims of our citizens upon Mexico.
Fourteen months only remained to examine and decide upon these numerous and
complicated cases. In the month of February, 1842, the term of the
commission expired, leaving many claims undisposed of for want of time. The
claims which were allowed by the board and by the umpire authorized by the
convention to decide in case of disagreement between the Mexican and
American commissioners amounted to $2,026,139.68. There were pending before
the umpire when the commission expired additional claims, which had been
examined and awarded by the American commissioners and had not been allowed
by the Mexican commissioners, amounting to $928,627.88, upon which he did
not decide, alleging that his authority had ceased with the termination of
the joint commission. Besides these claims, there were others of American
citizens amounting to $3,336,837.05, which had been submitted to the board,
and upon which they had not time to decide before their final adjournment.
The sum of $2,026,139.68, which had been awarded to the claimants, was a
liquidated and ascertained debt due by Mexico, about which there could be
no dispute, and which she was bound to pay according to the terms of the
convention. Soon after the final awards for this amount had been made the
Mexican Government asked for a postponement of the time of making payment,
alleging that it would be inconvenient to make the payment at the time
stipulated. In the spirit of forbearing kindness toward a sister republic,
which Mexico has so long abused, the United States promptly complied with
her request. A second convention was accordingly concluded between the two
Governments on the 30th of January, 1843, which upon its face declares that
"this new arrangement is entered into for the accommodation of Mexico." By
the terms of this convention all the interest due on the awards which had
been made in favor of the claimants under the convention of the 11th of
April, 1839, was to be paid to them on the 30th of April, 1843, and "the
principal of the said awards and the interest accruing thereon" was
stipulated to "be paid in five years, in equal installments every three
months." Notwithstanding this new convention was entered into at the
request of Mexico and for the purpose of relieving her from embarrassment,
the claimants have only received the interest due on the 30th of April,
1843, and three of the twenty installments. Although the payment of the sum
thus liquidated and confessedly due by Mexico to our citizens as indemnity
for acknowledged acts of outrage and wrong was secured by treaty, the
obligations of which are ever held sacred by all just nations, yet Mexico
has violated this solemn engagement by failing and refusing to make the
payment. The two installments due in April and July, 1844, under the
peculiar circumstances connected with them, have been assumed by the United
States and discharged to the claimants, but they are still due by Mexico.
But this is not all of which we have just cause of complaint. To provide a
remedy for the claimants whose cases were not decided by the joint
commission under the convention of April 11, 1839, it was expressly
stipulated by the sixth article of the convention of the 30th of January,
1843, that--
A new convention shall be entered into for the settlement of all claims of
the Government and citizens of the United States against the Republic of
Mexico which were not finally decided by the late commission which met in
the city of Washington, and of all claims of the Government and citizens of
Mexico against the United States.
In conformity with this stipulation, a third convention was concluded and
signed at the city of Mexico on the 20th of November, 1843, by the
plenipotentiaries of the two Governments, by which provision was made for
ascertaining and paying these claims. In January, 1844, this convention was
ratified by the Senate of the United States with two amendments, which were
manifestly reasonable in their character. Upon a reference of the
amendments proposed to the Government of Mexico, the same evasions,
difficulties, and delays were interposed which have so long marked the
policy of that Government toward the United States. It has not even yet
decided whether it would or would not accede to them, although the subject
has been repeatedly pressed upon its consideration. Mexico has thus
violated a second time the faith of treaties by failing or refusing to
carry into effect the sixth article of the convention of January, 1843.
Such is the history of the wrongs which we have suffered and patiently
endured from Mexico through a long series of years. So far from affording
reasonable satisfaction for the injuries and insults we had borne, a great
aggravation of them consists in the fact that while the United States,
anxious to preserve a good understanding with Mexico, have been constantly
but vainly employed in seeking redress for past wrongs, new outrages were
constantly occurring, which have continued to increase our causes of
complaint and to swell the amount of our demands. While the citizens of the
United States were conducting a lawful commerce with Mexico under the
guaranty of a treaty of "amity, commerce, and navigation," many of them
have suffered all the injuries which would have resulted from open war.
This treaty, instead of affording protection to our citizens, has been the
means of inviting them into the ports of Mexico that they might be, as they
have been in numerous instances, plundered of their property and deprived
of their personal liberty if they dared insist on their rights. Had the
unlawful seizures of American property and the violation of the personal
liberty of our citizens, to say nothing of the insults to our flag, which
have occurred in the ports of Mexico taken place on the high seas, they
would themselves long since have constituted a state of actual war between
the two countries. In so long suffering Mexico to violate her most solemn
treaty obligations, plunder our citizens of their property, and imprison
their persons without affording them any redress we have failed to perform
one of the first and highest duties which every government owes to its
citizens, and the consequence has been that many of them have been reduced
from a state of affluence to bankruptcy. The proud name of American
citizen, which ought to protect all who bear it from insult and injury
throughout the world, has afforded no such protection to our citizens in
Mexico. We had ample cause of war against Mexico long before the breaking
out of hostilities; but even then we forbore to take redress into our own
hands until Mexico herself became the aggressor by invading our soil in
hostile array and shedding the blood of our citizens.
Such are the grave causes of complaint on the part of the United States
against Mexico--causes which existed long before the annexation of Texas to
the American Union; and yet, animated by the love of peace and a
magnanimous moderation, we did not adopt those measures of redress which
under such circumstances are the justified resort of injured nations.
The annexation of Texas to the United States constituted no just cause of
offense to Mexico. The pretext that it did so is wholly inconsistent and
irreconcilable with well-authenticated facts connected with the revolution
by which Texas became independent of Mexico. That this may be the more
manifest, it may be proper to advert to the causes and to the history of
the principal events of that revolution.
Texas constituted a portion of the ancient Province of Louisiana, ceded to
the United States by France in the year 1803. In the year 1819 the United
States, by the Florida treaty, ceded to Spain all that part of Louisiana
within the present limits of Texas, and Mexico, by the revolution which
separated her from Spain and rendered her an independent nation, succeeded
to the rights of the mother country over this territory. In the year 1824
Mexico established a federal constitution, under which the Mexican Republic
was composed of a number of sovereign States confederated together in a
federal union similar to our own. Each of these States had its own
executive, legislature, and judiciary, and for all except federal purposes
was as independent of the General Government and that of the other States
as is Pennsylvania or Virginia under our Constitution. Texas and Coahuila
united and formed one of these Mexican States. The State constitution which
they adopted, and which was approved by the Mexican Confederacy, asserted
that they were "free and independent of the other Mexican United States and
of every other power and dominion whatsoever," and proclaimed the great
principle of human liberty that "the sovereignty of the state resides
originally and essentially in the general mass of the individuals who
compose it." To the Government under this constitution, as well as to that
under the federal constitution, the people of Texas owed allegiance.
Emigrants from foreign countries, including the United States, were invited
by the colonization laws of the State and of the Federal Government to
settle in Texas. Advantageous terms were offered to induce them to leave
their own country and become Mexican citizens. This invitation was accepted
by many of our citizens in the full faith that in their new home they would
be governed by laws enacted by representatives elected by themselves, and
that their lives, liberty, and property would be protected by
constitutional guaranties similar to those which existed in the Republic
they had left. Under a Government thus organized they continued until the
year 1835, when a military revolution broke out in the City of Mexico which
entirely subverted the federal and State constitutions and placed a
military dictator at the head of the Government. By a sweeping decree of a
Congress subservient to the will of the Dictator the several State
constitutions were abolished and the States themselves converted into mere
departments of the central Government. The people of Texas were unwilling
to submit to this usurpation. Resistance to such tyranny became a high
duty. Texas was fully absolved from all allegiance to the central
Government of Mexico from the moment that Government had abolished her
State constitution and in its place substituted an arbitrary and despotic
central government. Such were the principal causes of the Texan revolution.
The people of Texas at once determined upon resistance and flew to arms. In
the midst of these important and exciting events, however, they did not
omit to place their liberties upon a secure and permanent foundation. They
elected members to a convention, who in the month of March, 1836, issued a
formal declaration that their "political connection with the Mexican nation
has forever ended, and that the people of Texas do now constitute a free,
sovereign, and independent Republic, and are fully invested with all the
rights and attributes which properly belong to independent nations." They
also adopted for their government a liberal republican constitution. About
the same time Santa Anna, then the Dictator of Mexico, invaded Texas with a
numerous army for the purpose of subduing her people and enforcing
obedience to his arbitrary and despotic Government. On the 21st of April,
1836, he was met by the Texan citizen soldiers, and on that day was
achieved by them the memorable victory of San Jacinto, by which they
conquered their independence. Considering the numbers engaged on the
respective sides, history does not record a more brilliant achievement.
Santa Anna himself was among the captives.
In the month of May, 1836, Santa Anna acknowledged by a treaty with the
Texan authorities in the most solemn form "the full, entire, and perfect
independence of the Republic of Texas." It is true he was then a prisoner
of war, but it is equally true that he had failed to reconquer Texas, and
had met with signal defeat; that his authority had not been revoked, and
that by virtue of this treaty he obtained his personal release. By it
hostilities were suspended, and the army which had invaded Texas under his
command returned in pursuance of this arrangement unmolested to Mexico.
From the day that the battle of San Jacinto was fought until the present
hour Mexico has never possessed the power to reconquer Texas. In the
language of the Secretary of State of the United States in a dispatch to
our minister in Mexico under date of the 8th of July, 1842--
Mexico may have chosen to consider, and may still choose to consider, Texas
as having been at all times since 1835, and as still continuing, a
rebellious province; but the world has been obliged to take a very
different view of the matter. From the time of the battle of San Jacinto,
in April, 1836, to the present moment, Texas has exhibited the same
external signs of national independence as Mexico herself, and with quite
as much stability of government. Practically free and independent,
acknowledged as a political sovereignty by the principal powers of the
world, no hostile foot finding rest within her territory for six or seven
years, and Mexico herself refraining for all that period from any further
attempt to reestablish her own authority over that territory, it can not
but be surprising to find Mr. De Bocanegra the secretary of foreign affairs
of Mexico complaining that for that whole period citizens of the United
States or its Government have been favoring the rebels of Texas and
supplying them with vessels, ammunition, and money, as if the war for the
reduction of the Province of Texas had been constantly prosecuted by
Mexico, and her success prevented by these influences from abroad.