The Constitution, public treaties, and the laws oblige the President to
regard Texas as an independent state, and its territory as no part of
the territory of Mexico.
Texas had been an independent state, with an organized government,
defying the power of Mexico to overthrow or reconquer her, for more than
ten years before Mexico commenced the present war against the United
States. Texas had given such evidence to the world of her ability to
maintain her separate existence as an independent nation that she had
been formally recognized as such not only by the United States, but by
several of the principal powers of Europe. These powers had entered into
treaties of amity, commerce, and navigation with her. They had received
and accredited her ministers and other diplomatic agents at their
respective courts, and they had commissioned ministers and diplomatic
agents on their part to the Government of Texas. If Mexico,
notwithstanding all this and her utter inability to subdue or reconquer
Texas, still stubbornly refused to recognize her as an independent
nation, she was none the less so on that account. Mexico herself had
been recognized as an independent nation by the United States and by
other powers many years before Spain, of which before her revolution she
had been a colony, would agree to recognize her as such; and yet Mexico
was at that time in the estimation of the civilized world, and in fact,
none the less an independent power because Spain still claimed her as a
colony. If Spain had continued until the present period to assert that
Mexico was one of her colonies in rebellion against her, this would not
have made her so or changed the fact of her independent existence. Texas
at the period of her annexation to the United States bore the same
relation to Mexico that Mexico had borne to Spain for many years before
Spain acknowledged her independence, with this important difference,
that before the annexation of Texas to the United States was consummated
Mexico herself, by a formal act of her Government, had acknowledged the
independence of Texas as a nation. It is true that in the act of
recognition she prescribed a condition which she had no power or
authority to impose--that Texas should not annex herself to any other
power--but this could not detract in any degree from the recognition
which Mexico then made of her actual independence. Upon this plain
statement of facts, it is absurd for Mexico to allege as a pretext for
commencing hostilities against the United States that Texas is still a
part of her territory.
But there are those who, conceding all this to be true, assume the
ground that the true western boundary of Texas is the Nueces instead of
the Rio Grande, and that therefore in marching our Army to the east bank
of the latter river we passed the Texan line and invaded the territory
of Mexico. A simple statement of facts known to exist will conclusively
refute such an assumption. Texas, as ceded to the United States by
France in 1803, has been always claimed as extending west to the Rio
Grande or Rio Bravo. This fact is established by the authority of our
most eminent statesmen at a period when the question was as well, if not
better, understood than it is at present. During Mr. Jefferson's
Administration Messrs. Monroe and Pinckney, who had been sent on a
special mission to Madrid, charged among other things with the
adjustment of boundary between the two countries, in a note addressed to
the Spanish minister of foreign affairs under date of the 28th of
January, 1805, assert that the boundaries of Louisiana, as ceded to the
United States by France, "are the river Perdido on the east and the
river Bravo on the west," and they add that "the facts and principles
which justify this conclusion are so satisfactory to our Government as
to convince it that the United States have not a better right to the
island of New Orleans under the cession referred to than they have to
the whole district of territory which is above described." Down to the
conclusion of the Florida treaty, in February, 1819, by which this
territory was ceded to Spain, the United States asserted and maintained
their territorial rights to this extent. In the month of June, 1818,
during Mr. Monroe's Administration, information having been received
that a number of foreign adventurers had landed at Galveston with the
avowed purpose of forming a settlement in that vicinity, a special
messenger was dispatched by the Government of the United States with
instructions from the Secretary of State to warn them to desist, should
they be found there, "or any other place north of the Rio Bravo, and
within the territory claimed by the United States." He was instructed,
should they be found in the country north of that river, to make known
to them "the surprise with which the President has seen possession thus
taken, without authority from the United States, of a place within their
territorial limits, and upon which no lawful settlement can be made
without their sanction." He was instructed to call upon them to "avow
under what national authority they profess to act," and to give them due
warning "that the place is within the United States, who will suffer no
permanent settlement to be made there under any authority other than
their own." As late as the 8th of July, 1842, the Secretary of State of
the United States, in a note addressed to our minister in Mexico,
maintains that by the Florida treaty of 1819 the territory as far west
as the Rio Grande was confirmed to Spain. In that note he states that--
By the treaty of the 22d of February, 1819, between the United States
and Spain, the Sabine was adopted as the line of boundary between the
two powers. Up to that period no considerable colonization had been
effected in Texas; but the territory between the Sabine and the Rio
Grande being confirmed to Spain by the treaty, applications were made
to that power for grants of land, and such grants or permissions of
settlement were in fact made by the Spanish authorities in favor of
citizens of the United States proposing to emigrate to _Texas_ in
numerous families before the declaration of independence by Mexico.
The Texas which was ceded to Spain by the Florida treaty of 1819
embraced all the country now claimed by the State of Texas between the
Nueces and the Rio Grande. The Republic of Texas always claimed this
river as her western boundary, and in her treaty made with Santa Anna in
May, 1836, he recognized it as such. By the constitution which Texas
adopted in March, 1836, senatorial and representative districts were
organized extending west of the Nueces. The Congress of Texas on the
19th of December, 1836, passed "An act to define the boundaries of the
Republic of Texas," in which they declared the Rio Grande from its mouth
to its source to be their boundary, and by the said act they extended
their "civil and political jurisdiction" over the country up to that
boundary. During a period of more than nine years which intervened
between the adoption of her constitution and her annexation as one of
the States of our Union Texas asserted and exercised many acts of
sovereignty and jurisdiction over the territory and inhabitants west of
the Nueces. She organized and defined the limits of counties extending
to the Rio Grande; she established courts of justice and extended her
judicial system over the territory; she established a custom-house and
collected duties, and also post-offices and post-roads, in it; she
established a land office and issued numerous grants for land within its
limits; a senator and a representative residing in it were elected to
the Congress of the Republic and served as such before the act of
annexation took place. In both the Congress and convention of Texas
which gave their assent to the terms of annexation to the United States
proposed by our Congress were representatives residing west of the
Nueces, who took part in the act of annexation itself. This was the
Texas which by the act of our Congress of the 29th of December, 1845,
was admitted as one of the States of our Union. That the Congress of the
United States understood the State of Texas which they admitted into the
Union to extend beyond the Nueces is apparent from the fact that on the
31st of December, 1845, only two days after the act of admission, they
passed a law "to establish a collection district in the State of Texas,"
by which they created a port of delivery at Corpus Christi, situated
west of the Nueces, and being the same point at which the Texas
custom-house under the laws of that Republic had been located, and
directed that a surveyor to collect the revenue should be appointed for
that port by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate. A surveyor was accordingly nominated, and confirmed by the
Senate, and has been ever since in the performance of his duties. All
these acts of the Republic of Texas and of our Congress preceded the
orders for the advance of our Army to the east bank of the Rio Grande.
Subsequently Congress passed an act "establishing certain post routes"
extending west of the Nueces. The country west of that river now
constitutes a part of one of the Congressional districts of Texas and is
represented in the House of Representatives. The Senators from that
State were chosen by a legislature in which the country west of that
river was represented. In view of all these facts it is difficult to
conceive upon what ground it can be maintained that in occupying the
country west of the Nueces with our Army, with a view solely to its
security and defense, we invaded the territory of Mexico. But it would
have been still more difficult to justify the Executive, whose duty it
is to see that the laws be faithfully executed, if in the face of all
these proceedings, both of the Congress of Texas and of the United
States, he had assumed the responsibility of yielding up the territory
west of the Nueces to Mexico or of refusing to protect and defend this
territory and its inhabitants, including Corpus Christi as well as the
remainder of Texas, against the threatened Mexican invasion.
But Mexico herself has never placed the war which she has waged upon the
ground that our Army occupied the intermediate territory between the
Nueces and the Rio Grande. Her refuted pretension that Texas was not in
fact an independent state, but a rebellious province, was obstinately
persevered in, and her avowed purpose in commencing a war with the
United States was to reconquer Texas and to restore Mexican authority
over the whole territory--not to the Nueces only, but to the Sabine. In
view of the proclaimed menaces of Mexico to this effect, I deemed it my
duty, as a measure of precaution and defense, to order our Army to
occupy a position on our frontier as a military post, from which our
troops could best resist and repel any attempted invasion which Mexico
might make. Our Army had occupied a position at Corpus Christi, west of
the Nueces, as early as August, 1845, without complaint from any
quarter. Had the Nueces been regarded as the true western boundary of
Texas, that boundary had been passed by our Army many months before it
advanced to the eastern bank of the Rio Grande. In my annual message of
December last I informed Congress that upon the invitation of both the
Congress and convention of Texas I had deemed it proper to order a
strong squadron to the coasts of Mexico and to concentrate an efficient
military force on the western frontier of Texas to protect and defend
the inhabitants against the menaced invasion of Mexico. In that message
I informed Congress that the moment the terms of annexation offered by
the United States were accepted by Texas the latter became so far a part
of our own country as to make it our duty to afford such protection and
defense, and that for that purpose our squadron had been ordered to the
Gulf and our Army to take a "position between the Nueces and the Del
Norte" or Rio Grande and to "repel any invasion of the Texan territory
which might be attempted by the Mexican forces."
It was deemed proper to issue this order, because soon after the
President of Texas, in April, 1845, had issued his proclamation
convening the Congress of that Republic for the purpose of submitting to
that body the terms of annexation proposed by the United States the
Government of Mexico made serious threats of invading the Texan
territory. These threats became more imposing as it became more apparent
in the progress of the question that the people of Texas would decide in
favor of accepting the terms of annexation, and finally they had assumed
such a formidable character as induced both the Congress and convention
of Texas to request that a military force should be sent by the United
States into her territory for the purpose of protecting and defending
her against the threatened invasion. It would have been a violation of
good faith toward the people of Texas to have refused to afford the aid
which they desired against a threatened invasion to which they had been
exposed by their free determination to annex themselves to our Union in
compliance with the overture made to them by the joint resolution of our
Congress. Accordingly, a portion of the Army was ordered to advance into
Texas. Corpus Christi was the position selected by General Taylor. He
encamped at that place in August, 1845, and the Army remained in that
position until the 11th of March, 1846, when it moved westward, and on
the 28th of that month reached the east bank of the Rio Grande opposite
to Matamoras. This movement was made in pursuance of orders from the War
Department, issued on the 13th of January, 1846. Before these orders
were issued the dispatch of our minister in Mexico transmitting the
decision of the council of government of Mexico advising that he should
not be received, and also the dispatch of our consul residing in the
City of Mexico, the former bearing date on the 17th and the latter on
the 18th of December, 1845, copies of both of which accompanied my
message to Congress of the 11th of May last, were received at the
Department of State. These communications rendered it highly probable,
if not absolutely certain, that our minister would not be received by
the Government of General Herrera. It was also well known that but
little hope could be entertained of a different result from General
Paredes in case the revolutionary movement which he was prosecuting
should prove successful, as was highly probable. The partisans of
Paredes, as our minister in the dispatch referred to states, breathed
the fiercest hostility against the United States, denounced the proposed
negotiation as treason, and openly called upon the troops and the people
to put down the Government of Herrera by force. The reconquest of Texas
and war with the United States were openly threatened. These were the
circumstances existing when it was deemed proper to order the Army under
the command of General Taylor to advance to the western frontier of
Texas and occupy a position on or near the Rio Grande.
The apprehensions of a contemplated Mexican invasion have been since
fully justified by the event. The determination of Mexico to rush into
hostilities with the United States was afterwards manifested from the
whole tenor of the note of the Mexican minister of foreign affairs to
our minister bearing date on the 12th of March, 1846. Paredes had then
revolutionized the Government, and his minister, after referring to the
resolution for the annexation of Texas which had been adopted by our
Congress in March, 1845, proceeds to declare that--
A fact such as this, or, to speak with greater exactness, so notable an
act of usurpation, created an imperious necessity that Mexico, for her
own honor, should repel it with proper firmness and dignity. The supreme
Government had beforehand declared that it would look upon such an act
as a _casus belli_, and as a consequence of this declaration negotiation
was by its very nature at an end, and war was the only recourse of the
Mexican Government.
It appears also that on the 4th of April following General Paredes,
through his minister of war, issued orders to the Mexican general in
command on the Texan frontier to "attack" our Army "by every means which
war permits." To this General Paredes had been pledged to the army and
people of Mexico during the military revolution which had brought him
into power. On the 18th of April, 1846, General Paredes addressed a
letter to the commander on that frontier in which he stated to him: "At
the present date I suppose you, at the head of that valiant army, either
fighting already or preparing for the operations of a campaign;" and,
"Supposing you already on the theater of operations and with all the
forces assembled, it is indispensable that hostilities be commenced,
yourself taking the initiative against the enemy."
The movement of our Army to the Rio Grande was made by the commanding
general under positive orders to abstain from all aggressive acts toward
Mexico or Mexican citizens, and to regard the relations between the two
countries as peaceful unless Mexico should declare war or commit acts of
hostility indicative of a state of war, and these orders he faithfully
executed. Whilst occupying his position on the east bank of the Rio
Grande, within the limits of Texas, then recently admitted as one of the
States of our Union, the commanding general of the Mexican forces, who,
in pursuance of the orders of his Government, had collected a large army
on the opposite shore of the Rio Grande, crossed the river, invaded our
territory, and commenced hostilities by attacking our forces. Thus,
after all the injuries which we had received and borne from Mexico, and
after she had insultingly rejected a minister sent to her on a mission
of peace, and whom she had solemnly agreed to receive, she consummated
her long course of outrage against our country by commencing an
offensive war and shedding the blood of our citizens on our own soil.
The United States never attempted to acquire Texas by conquest. On the
contrary, at an early period after the people of Texas had achieved
their independence they sought to be annexed to the United States. At a
general election in September, 1836, they decided with great unanimity
in favor of "annexation," and in November following the Congress of the
Republic authorized the appointment of a minister to bear their request
to this Government. This Government, however, having remained neutral
between Texas and Mexico during the war between them, and considering it
due to the honor of our country and our fair fame among the nations of
the earth that we should not at this early period consent to annexation,
nor until it should be manifest to the whole world that the reconquest
of Texas by Mexico was impossible, refused to accede to the overtures
made by Texas. On the 12th of April, 1844, after more than seven years
had elapsed since Texas had established her independence, a treaty was
concluded for the annexation of that Republic to the United States,
which was rejected by the Senate. Finally, on the 1st of March, 1845,
Congress passed a joint resolution for annexing her to the United States
upon certain preliminary conditions to which her assent was required.
The solemnities which characterized the deliberations and conduct of the
Government and people of Texas on the deeply interesting questions
presented by these resolutions are known to the world. The Congress, the
Executive, and the people of Texas, in a convention elected for that
purpose, accepted with great unanimity the proposed terms of annexation,
and thus consummated on her part the great act of restoring to our
Federal Union a vast territory which had been ceded to Spain by the
Florida treaty more than a quarter of a century before.
After the joint resolution for the annexation of Texas to the United
States had been passed by our Congress the Mexican minister at
Washington addressed a note to the Secretary of State, bearing date on
the 6th of March, 1845, protesting against it as "an act of aggression
the most unjust which can be found recorded in the annals of modern
history, namely, that of despoiling a friendly nation like Mexico of a
considerable portion of her territory," and protesting against the
resolution of annexation as being an act "whereby the Province of Texas,
an integral portion of the Mexican territory, is agreed and admitted
into the American Union;" and he announced that as a consequence his
mission to the United States had terminated, and demanded his passports,
which were granted. It was upon the absurd pretext, made by Mexico
(herself indebted for her independence to a successful revolution), that
the Republic of Texas still continued to be, notwithstanding all that
had passed, a Province of Mexico that this step was taken by the Mexican
minister.
Every honorable effort has been used by me to avoid the war which
followed, but all have proved vain. All our attempts to preserve peace
have been met by insult and resistance on the part of Mexico. My efforts
to this end commenced in the note of the Secretary of State of the 10th
of March, 1845, in answer to that of the Mexican minister. Whilst
declining to reopen a discussion which had already been exhausted, and
proving again what was known to the whole world, that Texas had long
since achieved her independence, the Secretary of State expressed the
regret of this Government that Mexico should have taken offense at the
resolution of annexation passed by Congress, and gave assurance that our
"most strenuous efforts shall be devoted to the amicable adjustment of
every cause of complaint between the two Governments and to the
cultivation of the kindest and most friendly relations between the
sister Republics." That I have acted in the spirit of this assurance
will appear from the events which have since occurred. Notwithstanding
Mexico had abruptly terminated all diplomatic intercourse with the
United States, and ought, therefore, to have been the first to ask for
its resumption, yet, waiving all ceremony, I embraced the earliest
favorable opportunity "to ascertain from the Mexican Government whether
they would receive an envoy from the United States intrusted With full
power to adjust all the questions in dispute between the two
Governments." In September, 1845, I believed the propitious moment for
such an overture had arrived. Texas, by the enthusiastic and almost
unanimous will of her people, had pronounced in favor of annexation.
Mexico herself had agreed to acknowledge the independence of Texas,
subject to a condition, it is true, which she had no right to impose and
no power to enforce. The last lingering hope of Mexico, if she still
could have retained any, that Texas would ever again become one of her
Provinces, must have been abandoned.
The consul of the United States at the City of Mexico was therefore
instructed by the Secretary of State on the 15th of September, 1845, to
make the inquiry of the Mexican Government. The inquiry was made, and
on the 15th of October, 1845, the minister of foreign affairs of the
Mexican Government, in a note addressed to our consul, gave a favorable
response, requesting at the same time that our naval force might be
withdrawn from Vera Cruz while negotiations should be pending. Upon the
receipt of this note our naval force was promptly withdrawn from Vera
Cruz. A minister was immediately appointed, and departed to Mexico.
Everything bore a promising aspect for a speedy and peaceful adjustment
of all our difficulties. At the date of my annual message to Congress in
December last no doubt was entertained but that he would be received by
the Mexican Government, and the hope was cherished that all cause of
misunderstanding between the two countries would be speedily removed.
In the confident hope that such would be the result of his mission,
I informed Congress that I forbore at that time to "recommend such
ulterior measures of redress for the wrongs and injuries we had so long
borne as it would have been proper to make had no such negotiation been
instituted." To my surprise and regret the Mexican Government, though
solemnly pledged to do so, upon the arrival of our minister in Mexico
refused to receive and accredit him. When he reached Vera Cruz, on
the 30th of November, 1845, he found that the aspect of affairs had
undergone an unhappy change. The Government of General Herrera, who was
at that time President of the Republic, was tottering to its fall.
General Paredes, a military leader, had manifested his determination to
overthrow the Government of Herrera by a military revolution, and one of
the principal means which he employed to effect his purpose and render
the Government of Herrera odious to the army and people of Mexico was by
loudly condemning its determination to receive a minister of peace from
the United States, alleging that it was the intention of Herrera, by a
treaty with the United States, to dismember the territory of Mexico by
ceding away the department of Texas. The Government of Herrera is
believed to have been well disposed to a pacific adjustment of existing
difficulties, but probably alarmed for its own security, and in order
to ward off the danger of the revolution led by Paredes, violated its
solemn agreement and refused to receive or accredit our minister; and
this although informed that he had been invested with full power to
adjust all questions in dispute between the two Governments. Among the
frivolous pretexts for this refusal, the principal one was that our
minister had not gone upon a special mission confined to the question of
Texas alone, leaving all the outrages upon our flag and our citizens
unredressed. The Mexican Government well knew that both our national
honor and the protection due to our citizens imperatively required that
the two questions of boundary and indemnity should be treated of
together, as naturally and inseparably blended, and they ought to have
seen that this course was best calculated to enable the United States to
extend to them the most liberal justice. On the 30th of December, 1845,
General Herrera resigned the Presidency and yielded up the Government to
General Paredes without a struggle. Thus a revolution was accomplished
solely by the army commanded by Paredes, and the supreme power in Mexico
passed into the hands of a military usurper who was known to be bitterly
hostile to the United States.
Although the prospect of a pacific adjustment with the new Government
was unpromising from the known hostility of its head to the United
States, yet, determined that nothing should be left undone on our part
to restore friendly relations between the two countries, our minister
was instructed to present his credentials to the new Government and ask
to be accredited by it in the diplomatic character in which he had been
commissioned. These instructions he executed by his note of the 1st of
March, 1846, addressed to the Mexican minister of foreign affairs, but
his request was insultingly refused by that minister in his answer of
the 12th of the same month. No alternative remained for our minister but
to demand his passports and return to the United States.
Thus was the extraordinary spectacle presented to the civilized world of
a Government, in violation of its own express agreement, having twice
rejected a minister of peace invested with full powers to adjust all
the existing differences between the two countries in a manner just
and honorable to both. I am not aware that modern history presents a
parallel case in which in time of peace one nation has refused even to
hear propositions from another for terminating existing difficulties
between them. Scarcely a hope of adjusting our difficulties, even at a
remote day, or of preserving peace with Mexico, could be cherished while
Paredes remained at the head of the Government. He had acquired the
supreme power by a military revolution and upon the most solemn pledges
to wage war against the United States and to reconquer Texas, which he
claimed as a revolted province of Mexico. He had denounced as guilty
of treason all those Mexicans who considered Texas as no longer
constituting a part of the territory of Mexico and who were friendly to
the cause of peace. The duration of the war which he waged against the
United States was indefinite, because the end which he proposed of the
reconquest of Texas was hopeless. Besides, there was good reason to
believe from all his conduct that it was his intention to convert the
Republic of Mexico into a monarchy and to call a foreign European prince
to the throne. Preparatory to this end, he had during his short rule
destroyed the liberty of the press, tolerating that portion of it only
which openly advocated the establishment of a monarchy. The better to
secure the success of his ultimate designs, he had by an arbitrary
decree convoked a Congress, not to be elected by the free voice of the
people, but to be chosen in a manner to make them subservient to his
will and to give him absolute control over their deliberations.
Under all these circumstances it was believed that any revolution in
Mexico founded upon opposition to the ambitious projects of Paredes
would tend to promote the cause of peace as well as prevent any
attempted European interference in the affairs of the North American
continent, both objects of deep interest to the United States. Any such
foreign interference, if attempted, must have been resisted by the
United States. My views upon that subject were fully communicated to
Congress in my last annual message. In any event, it was certain that no
change whatever in the Government of Mexico which would deprive Paredes
of power could be for the worse so far as the United States were
concerned, while it was highly probable that any change must be for the
better. This was the state of affairs existing when Congress, on the
13th of May last, recognized the existence of the war which had been
commenced by the Government of Paredes; and it became an object of much
importance, with a view to a speedy settlement of our difficulties and
the restoration of an honorable peace, that Paredes should not retain
power in Mexico.
Before that time there were symptoms of a revolution in Mexico, favored,
as it was understood to be, by the more liberal party, and especially by
those who were opposed to foreign interference and to the monarchical
form of government. Santa Anna was then in exile in Havana, having been
expelled from power and banished from his country by a revolution which
occurred in December, 1844; but it was known that he had still a
considerable party in his favor in Mexico. It was also equally well
known that no vigilance which could be exerted by our squadron would in
all probability have prevented him from effecting a landing somewhere
on the extensive Gulf coast of Mexico if he desired to return to his
country. He had openly professed an entire change of policy, had
expressed his regret that he had subverted the federal constitution of
1824, and avowed that he was now in favor of its restoration. He had
publicly declared his hostility, in strongest terms, to the
establishment of a monarchy and to European interference in the affairs
of his country. Information to this effect had been received, from
sources believed to be reliable, at the date of the recognition of the
existence of the war by Congress, and was afterwards fully confirmed by
the receipt of the dispatch of our consul in the City of Mexico, with
the accompanying documents, which are herewith transmitted. Besides, it
was reasonable to suppose that he must see the ruinous consequences to
Mexico of a war with the United States, and that it would be his
interest to favor peace.
It was under these circumstances and upon these considerations that it
was deemed expedient not to obstruct his return to Mexico should he
attempt to do so. Our object was the restoration of peace, and, with
that view, no reason was perceived why we should take part with Paredes
and aid him by means of our blockade in preventing the return of his
rival to Mexico. On the contrary, it was believed that the intestine
divisions which ordinary sagacity could not but anticipate as the fruit
of Santa Anna's return to Mexico, and his contest with Paredes, might
strongly tend to produce a disposition with both parties to restore and
preserve peace with the United States. Paredes was a soldier by
profession and a monarchist in principle. He had but recently before
been successful in a military revolution, by which he had obtained
power. He was the sworn enemy of the United States, with which he had
involved his country in the existing war. Santa Anna had been expelled
from power by the army, was known to be in open hostility to Paredes,
and publicly pledged against foreign intervention and the restoration of
monarchy in Mexico. In view of these facts and circumstances it was that
when orders were issued to the commander of our naval forces in the
Gulf, on the 13th day of May last, the same day on which the existence
of the war was recognized by Congress, to place the coasts of Mexico
under blockade, he was directed not to obstruct the passage of Santa
Anna to Mexico should he attempt to return.
A revolution took place in Mexico in the early part of August following,
by which the power of Paredes was overthrown, and he has since been
banished from the country, and is now in exile. Shortly afterwards Santa
Anna returned. It remains to be seen whether his return may not yet
prove to be favorable to a pacific adjustment of the existing
difficulties, it being manifestly his interest not to persevere in the
prosecution of a war commenced by Paredes to accomplish a purpose so
absurd as the reconquest of Texas to the Sabine. Had Paredes remained in
power, it is morally certain that any pacific adjustment would have been
hopeless.
Upon the commencement of hostilities by Mexico against the United States
the indignant spirit of the nation was at once aroused. Congress
promptly responded to the expectations of the country, and by the act of
the 13th of May last recognized the fact that war existed, by the act of
Mexico, between the United States and that Republic, and granted the
means necessary for its vigorous prosecution. Being involved in a war
thus commenced by Mexico, and for the justice of which on our part we
may confidently appeal to the whole world, I resolved to prosecute it
with the utmost vigor. Accordingly the ports of Mexico on the Gulf and
on the Pacific have been placed under blockade and her territory invaded
at several important points. The reports from the Departments of War and
of the Navy will inform you more in detail of the measures adopted in
the emergency in which our country was placed and of the gratifying
results which have been accomplished.
The various columns of the Army have performed their duty under great
disadvantages with the most distinguished skill and courage. The
victories of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma and of Monterey, won
against greatly superior numbers and against most decided advantages in
other respects on the part of the enemy, were brilliant in their
execution, and entitle our brave officers and soldiers to the grateful
thanks of their country. The nation deplores the loss of the brave
officers and men who have gallantly fallen while vindicating and
defending their country's rights and honor.
It is a subject of pride and satisfaction that our volunteer citizen
soldiers, who so promptly responded to their country's call, with an
experience of the discipline of a camp of only a few weeks, have borne
their part in the hard-fought battle of Monterey with a constancy and
courage equal to that of veteran troops and worthy of the highest
admiration. The privations of long marches through the enemy's country
and through a wilderness have been borne without a murmur. By rapid
movements the Province of New Mexico, with Santa Fe, its capital, has
been captured without bloodshed. The Navy has cooperated with the Army
and rendered important services; if not so brilliant, it is because the
enemy had no force to meet them on their own element and because of the
defenses which nature has interposed in the difficulties of the
navigation on the Mexican coast. Our squadron in the Pacific, with the
cooperation of a gallant officer of the Army and a small force hastily
collected in that distant country, has acquired bloodless possession of
the Californias, and the American flag has been raised at every
important point in that Province.
I congratulate you on the success which has thus attended our military
and naval operations. In less than seven months after Mexico commenced
hostilities, at a time selected by herself, we have taken possession of
many of her principal ports, driven back and pursued her invading army,
and acquired military possession of the Mexican Provinces of New Mexico,
New Leon, Coahuila, Tamaulipas, and the Californias, a territory larger
in extent than that embraced in the original thirteen States of the
Union, inhabited by a considerable population, and much of it more than
1,000 miles from the points at which we had to collect our forces and
commence our movements. By the blockade the import and export trade of
the enemy has been cut off. Well may the American people be proud of the
energy and gallantry of our regular and volunteer officers and soldiers.
The events of these few months afford a gratifying proof that our
country can under any emergency confidently rely for the maintenance of
her honor and the defense of her rights on an effective force, ready at
all times voluntarily to relinquish the comforts of home for the perils
and privations of the camp. And though such a force may be for the time
expensive, it is in the end economical, as the ability to command it
removes the necessity of employing a large standing army in time of
peace, and proves that our people love their institutions and are ever
ready to defend and protect them.
While the war was in a course of vigorous and successful prosecution,
being still anxious to arrest its evils, and considering that after the
brilliant victories of our arms on the 8th and 9th of May last the
national honor could not be compromitted by it, another overture was
made to Mexico, by my direction, on the 27th of July last to terminate
hostilities by a peace just and honorable to both countries. On the 31st
of August following the Mexican Government declined to accept this
friendly overture, but referred it to the decision of a Mexican Congress
to be assembled in the early part of the present month. I communicate to
you herewith a copy of the letter of the Secretary of State proposing to
reopen negotiations, of the answer of the Mexican Government, and of the
reply thereto of the Secretary of State.
The war will continue to be prosecuted with vigor as the best means of
securing peace. It is hoped that the decision of the Mexican Congress,
to which our last overture has been referred, may result in a speedy and
honorable peace. With our experience, however, of the unreasonable
course of the Mexican authorities, it is the part of wisdom not to relax
in the energy of our military operations until the result is made known.
In this view it is deemed important to hold military possession of all
the Provinces which have been taken until a definitive treaty of peace
shall have been concluded and ratified by the two countries.
The war has not been waged with a view to conquest, but, having been
commenced by Mexico, it has been carried into the enemy's country and
will be vigorously prosecuted there with a view to obtain an honorable
peace, and thereby secure ample indemnity for the expenses of the war,
as well as to our much-injured citizens, who hold large pecuniary
demands against Mexico.
By the laws of nations a conquered country is subject to be governed by
the conqueror during his military possession and until there is either a
treaty of peace or he shall voluntarily withdraw from it. The old civil
government being necessarily superseded, it is the right and duty of the
conqueror to secure his conquest and to provide for the maintenance of
civil order and the rights of the inhabitants. This right has been
exercised and this duty performed by our military and naval commanders
by the establishment of temporary governments in some of the conquered
Provinces of Mexico, assimilating them as far as practicable to the free
institutions of our own country. In the Provinces of New Mexico and of
the Californias little, if any, further resistance is apprehended from
the inhabitants to the temporary governments which have thus, from the
necessity of the case and according to the laws of war, been
established. It may be proper to provide for the security of these
important conquests by making an adequate appropriation for the purpose
of erecting fortifications and defraying the expenses necessarily
incident to the maintenance of our possession and authority over them.
Near the close of your last session, for reasons communicated to
Congress, I deemed it important as a measure for securing a speedy peace
with Mexico, that a sum of money should be appropriated and placed in
the power of the Executive, similar to that which had been made upon two
former occasions during the Administration of President Jefferson.
On the 26th of February, 1803, an appropriation of $2,000,000 was made
and placed at the disposal of the President. Its object is well known.
It was at that time in contemplation to acquire Louisiana from France,
and it was intended to be applied as a part of the consideration which
might be paid for that territory. On the 13th of February, 1806, the
same sum was in like manner appropriated, with a view to the purchase of
the Floridas from Spain. These appropriations were made to facilitate
negotiations and as a means to enable the President to accomplish the
important objects in view. Though it did not become necessary for the
President to use these appropriations, yet a state of things might have
arisen in which it would have been highly important for him to do so,
and the wisdom of making them can not be doubted. It is believed that
the measure recommended at your last session met with the approbation of
decided majorities in both Houses of Congress. Indeed, in different
forms, a bill making an appropriation of $2,000,000 passed each House,
and it is much to be regretted that it did not become a law. The reasons
which induced me to recommend the measure at that time still exist, and
I again submit the subject for your consideration and suggest the
importance of early action upon it. Should the appropriation be made and
be not needed, it will remain in the Treasury; should it be deemed
proper to apply it in whole or in part, it will be accounted for as
other public expenditures.
Immediately after Congress had recognized the existence of the war with
Mexico my attention was directed to the danger that privateers might be
fitted out in the ports of Cuba and Porto Rico to prey upon the commerce
of the United States, and I invited the special attention of the Spanish
Government to the fourteenth article of our treaty with that power of
the 27th of October, 1795, under which the citizens and subjects of
either nation who shall take commissions or letters of marque to act as
privateers against the other "shall be punished as pirates."
It affords me pleasure to inform you that I have received assurances
from the Spanish Government that this article of the treaty shall be
faithfully observed on its part. Orders for this purpose were
immediately transmitted from that Government to the authorities of Cuba
and Porto Rico to exert their utmost vigilance in preventing any
attempts to fit out privateers in those islands against the United
States. From the good faith of Spain I am fully satisfied that this
treaty will be executed in its spirit as well as its letter, whilst the
United States will on their part faithfully perform all the obligations
which it imposes on them.
Information has been recently received at the Department of State that
the Mexican Government has sent to Havana blank commissions to
privateers and blank certificates of naturalization signed by General
Salas, the present head of the Mexican Government. There is also reason
to apprehend that similar documents have been transmitted to other parts
of the world. Copies of these papers, in translation, are herewith
transmitted.
As the preliminaries required by the practice of civilized nations for
commissioning privateers and regulating their conduct appear not to have
been observed, and as these commissions are in blank, to be filled up
with the names of citizens and subjects of all nations who may be
willing to purchase them, the whole proceeding can only be construed as
an invitation to all the freebooters upon earth who are willing to pay
for the privilege to cruise against American commerce. It will be for
our courts of justice to decide whether under such circumstances these
Mexican letters of marque and reprisal shall protect those who accept
them, and commit robberies upon the high seas under their authority,
from the pains and penalties of piracy.
If the certificates of naturalization thus granted be intended by Mexico
to shield Spanish subjects from the guilt and punishment of pirates
under our treaty with Spain, they will certainly prove unavailing. Such
a subterfuge would be but a weak device to defeat the provisions of a
solemn treaty.
I recommend that Congress should immediately provide by law for the
trial and punishment as pirates of Spanish subjects who, escaping the
vigilance of their Government, shall be found guilty of privateering
against the United States. I do not apprehend serious danger from these
privateers. Our Navy will be constantly on the alert to protect our
commerce. Besides, in case prizes should be made of American vessels,
the utmost vigilance will be exerted by our blockading squadron to
prevent the captors from taking them into Mexican ports, and it is not
apprehended that any nation will violate its neutrality by suffering
such prizes to be condemned and sold within its jurisdiction.
I recommend that Congress should immediately provide by law for granting
letters of marque and reprisal against vessels under the Mexican flag.
It is true that there are but few, if any, commercial vessels of Mexico
upon the high seas, and it is therefore not probable that many American
privateers would be fitted out in case a law should pass authorizing
this mode of warfare. It is, notwithstanding, certain that such
privateers may render good service to the commercial interests of the
country by recapturing our merchant ships should any be taken by armed
vessels under the Mexican flag, as well as by capturing these vessels
themselves. Every means within our power should be rendered available
for the protection of our commerce.
The annual report of the Secretary of the Treasury will exhibit a
detailed statement of the condition of the finances. The imports for the
fiscal year ending on the 30th of June last were of the value of
$121,691,797, of which the amount exported was $11,346,623, leaving the
amount retained in the country for domestic consumption $110,345,174.
The value of the exports for the same period was $113,488,516, of which
$102,141,893 consisted of domestic productions and $11,346,623 of
foreign articles.
The receipts into the Treasury for the same year were $29,499,247.06, of
which there was derived from customs $26,712,667.87, from the sales of
public lands $2,694,452.48, and from incidental and miscellaneous
sources $92,126.71. The expenditures for the same period were
$28,031,114.20, and the balance in the Treasury on the 1st day of July
last was $9,126,439.08.
The amount of the public debt, including Treasury notes, on the 1st of
the present month was $24,256,494.60, of which the sum of $17,788,799.62
was outstanding on the 4th of March, 1845, leaving the amount incurred
since that time $6,467,694.98.
In order to prosecute the war with Mexico with vigor and energy, as the
best means of bringing it to a speedy and honorable termination, a
further loan will be necessary to meet the expenditures for the present
and the next fiscal year. If the war should be continued until the 30th
of June, 1848, being the end of the next fiscal year, it is estimated
that an additional loan of $23,000,000 will be required. This estimate
is made upon the assumption that it will be necessary to retain
constantly in the Treasury $4,000,000 to guard against contingencies.
If such surplus were not required to be retained, then a loan of
$19,000,000 would be sufficient. If, however, Congress should at the
present session impose a revenue duty on the principal articles now
embraced in the free list, it is estimated that an additional annual
revenue of about two millions and a half, amounting, it is estimated,
on the 30th of June, 1848, to $4,000,000, would be derived from that
source, and the loan required would be reduced by that amount. It is
estimated also that should Congress graduate and reduce the price of
such of the public lands as have been long in the market the additional
revenue derived from that source would be annually, for several years
to come, between half a million and a million dollars; and the loan
required may be reduced by that amount also. Should these measures be
adopted, the loan required would not probably exceed $18,000,000 or
$19,000,000, leaving in the Treasury a constant surplus of $4,000,000.
The loan proposed, it is estimated, will be sufficient to cover the
necessary expenditures both for the war and for all other purposes up
to the 30th of June, 1848, and an amount of this loan not exceeding
one-half may be required during the present fiscal year, and the greater
part of the remainder during the first half of the fiscal year
succeeding.
In order that timely notice may be given and proper measures taken to
effect the loan, or such portion of it as may be required, it is
important that the authority of Congress to make it be given at an early
period of your present session. It is suggested that the loan should be
contracted for a period of twenty years, with authority to purchase the
stock and pay it off at an earlier period at its market value out of any
surplus which may at any time be in the Treasury applicable to that
purpose. After the establishment of peace with Mexico, it is supposed
that a considerable surplus will exist, and that the debt may be
extinguished in a much shorter period than that for which it may be
contracted. The period of twenty years, as that for which the proposed
loan may be contracted, in preference to a shorter period, is suggested,
because all experience, both at home and abroad, has shown that loans
are effected upon much better terms upon long time than when they are
reimbursable at short dates.
Necessary as this measure is to sustain the honor and the interests of
the country engaged in a foreign war, it is not doubted but that
Congress will promptly authorize it.
The balance in the Treasury on the 1st July last exceeded $9,000,000,
notwithstanding considerable expenditures had been made for the war
during the months of May and June preceding. But for the war the whole
public debt could and would have been extinguished within a short
period; and it was a part of my settled policy to do so, and thus
relieve the people from its burden and place the Government in a
position which would enable it to reduce the public expenditures to that
economical standard which is most consistent with the general welfare
and the pure and wholesome progress of our institutions.
Among our just causes of complaint against Mexico arising out of her
refusal to treat for peace, as well before as since the war so unjustly
commenced on her part, are the extraordinary expenditures in which we
have been involved. Justice to our own people will make it proper that
Mexico should be held responsible for these expenditures.
Economy in the public expenditures is at all times a high duty which all
public functionaries of the Government owe to the people. This duty
becomes the more imperative in a period of war, when large and
extraordinary expenditures become unavoidable. During the existence of
the war with Mexico all our resources should be husbanded, and no
appropriations made except such as are absolutely necessary for its
vigorous prosecution and the due administration of the Government.
Objects of appropriation which in peace may be deemed useful or proper,
but which are not indispensable for the public service, may when the
country is engaged in a foreign war be well postponed to a future
period. By the observance of this policy at your present session large
amounts may be saved to the Treasury and be applied to objects of
pressing and urgent necessity, and thus the creation of a corresponding
amount of public debt may be avoided.
It is not meant to recommend that the ordinary and necessary
appropriations for the support of Government should be withheld; but it
is well known that at every session of Congress appropriations are
proposed for numerous objects which may or may not be made without
materially affecting the public interests, and these it is recommended
should not be granted.
The act passed at your last session "reducing the duties on imports" not
having gone into operation until the 1st of the present month, there has
not been time for its practical effect upon the revenue and the business
of the country to be developed. It is not doubted, however, that the
just policy which it adopts will add largely to our foreign trade and
promote the general prosperity. Although it can not be certainly
foreseen what amount of revenue it will yield, it is estimated that it
will exceed that produced by the act of 1842, which it superseded. The
leading principles established by it are to levy the taxes with a view
to raise revenue and to impose them upon the articles imported according
to their actual value.
The act of 1842, by the excessive rates of duty which it imposed on many
articles, either totally excluded them from importation or greatly
reduced the amount imported, and thus diminished instead of producing
revenue. By it the taxes were imposed not for the legitimate purpose of
raising revenue, but to afford advantages to favored classes at the
expense of a large majority of their fellow-citizens. Those employed in
agriculture, mechanical pursuits, commerce, and navigation were
compelled to contribute from their substance to swell the profits and
overgrown wealth of the comparatively few who had invested their capital
in manufactures. The taxes were not levied in proportion to the value of
the articles upon which they were imposed, but, widely departing from
this just rule, the lighter taxes were in many cases levied upon
articles of luxury and high price and the heavier taxes on those of
necessity and low price, consumed by the great mass of the people. It
was a system the inevitable effect of which was to relieve favored
classes and the wealthy few from contributing their just proportion for
the support of Government, and to lay the burden on the labor of the
many engaged in other pursuits than manufactures.
A system so unequal and unjust has been superseded by the existing
law, which imposes duties not for the benefit or injury of classes or
pursuits, but distributes and, as far as practicable, equalizes the
public burdens among all classes and occupations. The favored classes
who under the unequal and unjust system which has been repealed have
heretofore realized large profits, and many of them amassed large
fortunes at the expense of the many who have been made tributary to
them, will have no reason to complain if they shall be required to
bear their just proportion of the taxes necessary for the support of
Government. So far from it, it will be perceived by an examination of
the existing law that discriminations in the rates of duty imposed
within the revenue principle have been retained in their favor. The
incidental aid against foreign competition which they still enjoy gives
them an advantage which no other pursuits possess, but of this none
others will complain, because the duties levied are necessary for
revenue. These revenue duties, including freights and charges, which
the importer must pay before he can come in competition with the home
manufacturer in our markets, amount on nearly all our leading branches
of manufacture to more than one-third of the value of the imported
article, and in some cases to almost one-half its value. With such
advantages it is not doubted that our domestic manufacturers will
continue to prosper, realizing in well-conducted establishments even
greater profits than can be derived from any other regular business.
Indeed, so far from requiring the protection of even incidental revenue
duties, our manufacturers in several leading branches are extending
their business, giving evidence of great ingenuity and skill and of
their ability to compete, with increased prospect of success, for the
open market of the world. Domestic manufactures to the value of several
millions of dollars, which can not find a market at home, are annually
exported to foreign countries. With such rates of duty as those
established by the existing law the system will probably be permanent,
and capitalists who are made or shall hereafter make their investments
in manufactures will know upon what to rely. The country will be
satisfied with these rates, because the advantages which the
manufacturers still enjoy result necessarily from the collection of
revenue for the support of Government. High protective duties, from
their unjust operation upon the masses of the people, can not fail to
give rise to extensive dissatisfaction and complaint and to constant
efforts to change or repeal them, rendering all investments in
manufactures uncertain and precarious. Lower and more permanent rates of
duty, at the same time that they will yield to the manufacturer fair and
remunerating profits, will secure him against the danger of frequent
changes in the system, which can not fail to ruinously affect his
interests.
Simultaneously with the relaxation of the restrictive policy by the
United States, Great Britain, from whose example we derived the system,
has relaxed hers. She has modified her corn laws and reduced many other
duties to moderate revenue rates. After ages of experience the statesmen
of that country have been constrained by a stern necessity and by a
public opinion having its deep foundation in the sufferings and wants of
impoverished millions to abandon a system the effect of which was to
build up immense fortunes in the hands of the few and to reduce the
laboring millions to pauperism and misery. Nearly in the same ratio that
labor was depressed capital was increased and concentrated by the
British protective policy.
The evils of the system in Great Britain were at length rendered
intolerable, and it has been abandoned, but not without a severe
struggle on the part of the protected and favored classes to retain the
unjust advantages which they have so long enjoyed. It was to be expected
that a similar struggle would be made by the same classes in the United
States whenever an attempt was made to modify or abolish the same unjust
system here. The protective policy had been in operation in the United
States for a much shorter period, and its pernicious effects were not,
therefore, so clearly perceived and felt. Enough, however, was known of
these effects to induce its repeal.
It would be strange if in the face of the example of _Great Britain_,
our principal foreign customer, and of the evils of a system rendered
manifest in that country by long and painful experience, and in the face
of the immense advantages which under a more liberal commercial policy
we are already deriving, and must continue to derive, by supplying her
starving population with food, the United States should restore a policy
which she has been compelled to abandon, and thus diminish her ability
to purchase from us the food and other articles which she so much needs
and we so much desire to sell. By the simultaneous abandonment of the
protective policy by Great Britain and the United States new and
important markets have already been opened for our agricultural and
other products, commerce and navigation have received a new impulse,
labor and trade have been released from the artificial trammels which
have so long fettered them, and to a great extent reciprocity in the
exchange of commodities has been introduced at the same time by both
countries, and greatly for the benefit of both. Great Britain has been
forced by the pressure of circumstances at home to abandon a policy
which has been upheld for ages, and to open her markets for our immense
surplus of breadstuffs, and it is confidently believed that other powers
of Europe will ultimately see the wisdom, if they be not compelled by
the pauperism and sufferings of their crowded population, to pursue a
similar policy.
Our farmers are more deeply interested in maintaining the just and
liberal policy of the existing law than any other class of our citizens.
They constitute a large majority of our population, and it is well known
that when they prosper all other pursuits prosper also. They have
heretofore not only received none of the bounties or favors of
Government, but by the unequal operations of the protective policy have
been made by the burdens of taxation which it imposed to contribute to
the bounties which have enriched others.
When a foreign as well as a home market is opened to them, they must
receive, as they are now receiving, increased prices for their products.
They will find a readier sale, and at better prices, for their wheat,
flour, rice, Indian corn, beef, pork, lard, butter, cheese, and other
articles which they produce. The home market alone is inadequate to
enable them to dispose of the immense surplus of food and other articles
which they are capable of producing, even at the most reduced prices,
for the manifest reason that they can not be consumed in the country.
The United States can from their immense surplus supply not only the
home demand, but the deficiencies of food required by the whole world.
That the reduced production of some of the chief articles of food in
Great Britain and other parts of Europe may have contributed to increase
the demand for our breadstuffs and provisions is not doubted, but that
the great and efficient cause of this increased demand and of increased
prices consists in the removal of artificial restrictions heretofore
imposed is deemed to be equally certain. That our exports of food,
already increased and increasing beyond former example under the more
liberal policy which has been adopted, will be still vastly enlarged
unless they be checked or prevented by a restoration of the protective
policy can not be doubted. That our commercial and navigating interests
will be enlarged in a corresponding ratio with the increase of our trade
is equally certain, while our manufacturing interests will still be the
favored interests of the country and receive the incidental protection
afforded them by revenue duties; and more than this they can not justly
demand.
In my annual message of December last a tariff of revenue duties based
upon the principles of the existing law was recommended, and I have seen
no reason to change the opinions then expressed. In view of the probable
beneficial effects of that law, I recommend that the policy established
by it be maintained. It has but just commenced to operate, and to
abandon or modify it without giving it a fair trial would be inexpedient
and unwise. Should defects in any of its details be ascertained by
actual experience to exist, these may be hereafter corrected; but until
such defects shall become manifest the act should be fairly tested.
It is submitted for your consideration whether it may not be proper, as
a war measure, to impose revenue duties on some of the articles now
embraced in the free list. Should it be deemed proper to impose such
duties with a view to raise revenue to meet the expenses of the war with
Mexico or to avoid to that extent the creation of a public debt, they
may be repealed when the emergency which gave rise to them shall cease
to exist, and constitute no part of the permanent policy of the country.
The act of the 6th of August last, "to provide for the better
organization of the Treasury and for the collection, safe-keeping,
transfer, and disbursement of the public revenue," has been carried into
execution as rapidly as the delay necessarily arising out of the
appointment of new officers, taking and approving their bonds, and
preparing and securing proper places for the safe-keeping of the public
money would permit. It is not proposed to depart in any respect from the
principles or policy on which this great measure is founded. There are,
however, defects in the details of the measure, developed by its
practical operation, which are fully set forth in the report of the
Secretary of the Treasury, to which the attention of Congress is
invited. These defects would impair to some extent the successful
operation of the law at all times, but are especially embarrassing when
the country is engaged in a war, when the expenditures are greatly
increased, when loans are to be effected and the disbursements are to be
made at points many hundred miles distant, in some cases, from any
depository, and a large portion of them in a foreign country. The
modifications suggested in the report of the Secretary of the Treasury
are recommended to your favorable consideration.
In connection with this subject I invite your attention to the
importance of establishing a branch of the Mint of the United States at
New York. Two-thirds of the revenue derived from customs being collected
at that point, the demand for specie to pay the duties will be large,
and a branch mint where foreign coin and bullion could be immediately
converted into American coin would greatly facilitate the transaction of
the public business, enlarge the circulation of gold and silver, and be
at the same time a safe depository of the public money.
The importance of graduating and reducing the price of such of the
public lands as have been long offered in the market at the minimum rate
authorized by existing laws, and remain unsold, induces me again to
recommend the subject to your favorable consideration. Many millions of
acres of these lands have been offered in the market for more than
thirty years and larger quantities for more than ten or twenty years,
and, being of an inferior quality, they must remain unsalable for an
indefinite period unless the price at which they may be purchased shall
be reduced. To place a price upon them above their real value is not
only to prevent their sale, and thereby deprive the Treasury of any
income from that source, but is unjust to the States in which they lie,
because it retards their growth and increase of population, and because
they have no power to levy a tax upon them as upon other lands within
their limits, held by other proprietors than the United States, for the
support of their local governments.
The beneficial effects of the graduation principle have been realized by
some of the States owning the lands within their limits in which it has
been adopted. They have been demonstrated also by the United States
acting as the trustee of the Chickasaw tribe of Indians in the sale of
their lands lying within the States of Mississippi and Alabama. The
Chickasaw lands, which would not command in the market the minimum price
established by the laws of the United States for the sale of their
lands, were, in pursuance of the treaty of 1834 with that tribe,
subsequently offered for sale at graduated and reduced rates for limited
periods. The result was that large quantities of these lands were
purchased which would otherwise have remained unsold. The lands were
disposed of at their real value, and many persons of limited means were
enabled to purchase small tracts, upon which they have settled with
their families. That similar results would be produced by the adoption
of the graduation policy by the United States in all the States in which
they are the owners of large bodies of lands which have been long in the
market can not be doubted. It can not be a sound policy to withhold
large quantities of the public lands from the use and occupation of our
citizens by fixing upon them prices which experience has shown they will
not command. On the contrary, it is a wise policy to afford facilities
to our citizens to become the owners at low and moderate rates of
freeholds of their own instead of being the tenants and dependents of
others. If it be apprehended that these lands if reduced in price would
be secured in large quantities by speculators or capitalists, the sales
may be restricted in limited quantities to actual settlers or persons
purchasing for purposes of cultivation.
In my last annual message I submitted for the consideration of Congress
the present system of managing the mineral lands of the United States,
and recommended that they should be brought into market and sold upon
such terms and under such restrictions as Congress might prescribe. By
the act of the 11th of July last "the reserved lead mines and contiguous
lands in the States of Illinois and Arkansas and Territories of
Wisconsin and Iowa" were authorized to be sold. The act is confined in
its operation to "lead mines and contiguous lands." A large portion of
the public lands, containing copper and other ores, is represented to be
very valuable, and I recommend that provision be made authorizing the
sale of these lands upon such terms and conditions as from their
supposed value may in the judgment of Congress be deemed advisable,
having due regard to the interests of such of our citizens as may be
located upon them.
It will be important during your present session to establish a
Territorial government and to extend the jurisdiction and laws of the
United States over the Territory of Oregon. Our laws regulating trade
and intercourse with the Indian tribes east of the Rocky Mountains
should be extended to the Pacific Ocean; and for the purpose of
executing them and preserving friendly relations with the Indian tribes
within our limits, an additional number of Indian agencies will be
required, and should be authorized by law. The establishment of
custom-houses and of post-offices and post-roads and provision for the
transportation of the mail on such routes as the public convenience will
suggest require legislative authority. It will be proper also to
establish a surveyor-general's office in that Territory and to make the
necessary provision for surveying the public lands and bringing them
into market. As our citizens who now reside in that distant region have
been subjected to many hardships, privations, and sacrifices in their
emigration, and by their improvements have enhanced the value of the
public lands in the neighborhood of their settlements, it is recommended
that liberal grants be made to them of such portions of these lands as
they may occupy, and that similar grants or rights of preemption be made
to all who may emigrate thither within a limited period, prescribed by
law.
The report of the Secretary of War contains detailed information
relative to the several branches of the public service connected with
that Department. The operations of the Army have been of a satisfactory
and highly gratifying character. I recommend to your early and favorable
consideration the measures proposed by the Secretary of War for speedily
filling up the rank and file of the Regular Army, for its greater
efficiency in the field, and for raising an additional force to serve
during the war with Mexico.
Embarrassment is likely to arise for want of legal provision authorizing
compensation to be made to the agents employed in the several States and
Territories to pay the Revolutionary and other pensioners the amounts
allowed them by law. Your attention is invited to the recommendations
of the Secretary of War on this subject. These agents incur heavy
responsibilities and perform important duties, and no reason exists why
they should not be placed on the same footing as to compensation with
other disbursing officers.
Our relations with the various Indian tribes continue to be of a pacific
character. The unhappy dissensions which have existed among the
Cherokees for many years past have been healed. Since my last annual
message important treaties have been negotiated with some of the tribes,
by which the Indian title to large tracts of valuable land within the
limits of the States and Territories has been extinguished and
arrangements made for removing them to the country west of the
Mississippi. Between 3,000 and 4,000 of different tribes have been
removed to the country provided for them by treaty stipulations, and
arrangements have been made for others to follow.
In our intercourse with the several tribes particular attention has been
given to the important subject of education. The number of schools
established among them has been increased, and additional means provided
not only for teaching them the rudiments of education, but of
instructing them in agriculture and the mechanic arts.
I refer you to the report of the Secretary of the Navy for a
satisfactory view of the operations of the Department under his charge
during the past year. It is gratifying to perceive that while the war
with Mexico has rendered it necessary to employ an unusual number of our
armed vessels on her coasts, the protection due to our commerce in other
quarters of the world has not proved insufficient. No means will be
spared to give efficiency to the naval service in the prosecution of the
war; and I am happy to know that the officers and men anxiously desire
to devote themselves to the service of their country in any enterprise,
however difficult of execution.
I recommend to your favorable consideration the proposition to add to
each of our foreign squadrons an efficient sea steamer, and, as
especially demanding attention, the establishment at Pensacola of the
necessary means of repairing and refitting the vessels of the Navy
employed in the Gulf of Mexico.
There are other suggestions in the report which deserve and I doubt not
will receive your consideration.
The progress and condition of the mail service for the past year are
fully presented in the report of the Postmaster-General. The revenue for
the year ending on the 30th of June last amounted to $3,487,199, which
is $802,642.45 less than that of the preceding year. The payments for
that Department during the same time amounted to $4,084,297.22. Of this
sum $597,097.80 have been drawn from the Treasury. The disbursements for
the year were $236,434.77 less than those of the preceding year. While
the disbursements have been thus diminished, the mail facilities have
been enlarged by new mail routes of 5,739 miles, an increase of
transportation of 1,764,145 miles, and the establishment of 418 new
post-offices. Contractors, postmasters, and others engaged in this
branch of the service have performed their duties with energy and
faithfulness deserving commendation. For many interesting details
connected with the operations of this establishment you are referred to
the report of the Postmaster-General, and his suggestions for improving
its revenues are recommended to your favorable consideration. I repeat
the opinion expressed in my last annual message that the business of
this Department should be so regulated chat the revenues derived from it
should be made to equal the expenditures, and it is believed that this
may be done by proper modifications of the present laws, as suggested in
the report of the Postmaster-General, without changing the present rates
of postage.
With full reliance upon the wisdom and patriotism of your deliberations,
it, will be my duty, as it will be my anxious desire, to cooperate with
you in every constitutional effort to promote the welfare and maintain
the honor of our common country.