WASHINGTON, _August 8, 1846_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I invite your attention to the propriety of making an appropriation to
provide for any expenditure which it may be necessary to make in advance
for the purpose of settling all our difficulties with the Mexican
Republic. It is my sincere desire to terminate, as it was originally to
avoid, the existing war with Mexico by a peace just and honorable to
both parties. It is probable that the chief obstacle to be surmounted in
accomplishing this desirable object will be the adjustment of a boundary
between the two Republics which shall prove satisfactory and convenient
to both, and such as neither will hereafter be inclined to disturb. In
the adjustment of this boundary we ought to pay a fair equivalent for
any concessions which may be made by Mexico.
Under these circumstances, and considering the other complicated
questions to be settled by negotiation with the Mexican Republic, I deem
it important that a sum of money should be placed under the control of
the Executive to be advanced, if need be, to the Government of that
Republic immediately after their ratification of a treaty. It might be
inconvenient for the Mexican Government to wait for the whole sum the
payment of which may be stipulated by this treaty until it could be
ratified by our Senate and an appropriation to carry it into effect made
by Congress. Indeed, the necessity for this delay might defeat the
object altogether. The disbursement of this money would of course be
accounted for, not as secret-service money, but like other expenditures.
Two precedents for such a proceeding exist in our past history, during
the Administration of Mr. Jefferson, to which I would call your
attention: On the 26th February, 1803, an act was passed appropriating
$2,000,000 "for the purpose of defraying any extraordinary expenses
which may be incurred in the intercourse between the United States and
foreign nations," "to be applied under the direction of the President of
the United States, who shall cause an account of the expenditure thereof
to be laid before Congress as soon as may be;" and on the 13th of
February, 1806, an appropriation was made of the same amount and in the
same terms. In neither case was the money actually drawn from the
Treasury, and I should hope that the result in this respect might be
similar on the present occasion, although the appropriation may prove
to be indispensable in accomplishing the object. I would therefore
recommend the passage of a law appropriating $2,000,000 to be placed at
the disposal of the Executive for the purpose which I have indicated.
In order to prevent all misapprehension, it is my duty to state that,
anxious as I am to terminate the existing war with the least possible
delay, it will continue to be prosecuted with the utmost vigor until
a treaty of peace shall be signed by the parties and ratified by the
Mexican Republic.