In order to designate the boundary line with due precision upon
authoritative maps, and to establish upon the ground landmarks which
shall show the limits of both Republics as described in the present
article, the two Governments shall each appoint a commissioner and a
surveyor, who, before the expiration of one year from the date of the
exchange of ratifications of this treaty, shall meet at the port of San
Diego and proceed to run and mark the said boundary in its whole course
to the mouth of the Rio Bravo del Norte.
It will be necessary that provision should be made by law for the
appointment of a commissioner and surveyor on the part of the United
States to act in conjunction with a commissioner and surveyor appointed
by Mexico in executing the stipulations of this article.
It will be proper also to provide by law for the appointment of a "board
of commissioners" to adjudicate and decide upon all claims of our
citizens against the Mexican Government, which by the treaty have been
assumed by the United States.
New Mexico and Upper California have been ceded by Mexico to the United
States, and now constitute a part of our country. Embracing nearly ten
degrees of latitude, lying adjacent to the Oregon Territory, and
extending from the Pacific Ocean to the Rio Grande, a mean distance of
nearly 1,000 miles, it would be difficult to estimate the value of these
possessions to the United States. They constitute of themselves a
country large enough for a great empire, and their acquisition is second
only in importance to that of Louisiana in 1803. Rich in mineral and
agricultural resources, with a climate of great salubrity, they embrace
the most important ports on the whole Pacific coast of the continent of
North America. The possession of the ports of San Diego and Monterey and
the Bay of San Francisco will enable the United States to command the
already valuable and rapidly increasing commerce of the Pacific. The
number of our whale ships alone now employed in that sea exceeds 700,
requiring more than 20,000 seamen to navigate them, while the capital
invested in this particular branch of commerce is estimated at not less
than $40,000,000. The excellent harbors of Upper California will under
our flag afford security and repose to our commercial marine, and
American mechanics will soon furnish ready means of shipbuilding and
repair, which are now so much wanted in that distant sea.
By the acquisition of these possessions we are brought into immediate
proximity with the west coast of America, from Cape Horn to the Russian
possessions north of Oregon, with the islands of the Pacific Ocean, and
by a direct voyage in steamers we will be in less than thirty days of
Canton and other ports of China.
In this vast region, whose rich resources are soon to be developed by
American energy and enterprise, great must be the augmentation of our
commerce, and with it new and profitable demands for mechanic labor in
all its branches and new and valuable markets for our manufactures and
agricultural products.
While the war has been conducted with great humanity and forbearance and
with complete success on our part, the peace has been concluded on terms
the most liberal and magnanimous to Mexico. In her hands the territories
now ceded had remained, and, it is believed, would have continued to
remain, almost unoccupied, and of little value to her or to any other
nation, whilst as a part of our Union they will be productive of vast
benefits to the United States, to the commercial world, and the general
interests of mankind.
The immediate establishment of Territorial governments and the extension
of our laws over these valuable possessions are deemed to be not only
important, but indispensable to preserve order and the due
administration of justice within their limits, to afford protection to
the inhabitants, and to facilitate the development of the vast resources
and wealth which their acquisition has added to our country.
The war with Mexico having terminated, the power of the Executive to
establish or to continue temporary civil governments over these
territories, which existed under the laws of nations whilst they were
regarded as conquered provinces in our military occupation, has ceased.
By their cession to the United States Mexico has no longer any power
over them, and until Congress shall act the inhabitants will be without
any organized government. Should they be left in this condition,
confusion and anarchy will be likely to prevail.
Foreign commerce to a considerable amount is now carried on in the ports
of Upper California, which will require to be regulated by our laws. As
soon as our system shall be extended over this commerce, a revenue of
considerable amount will be at once collected, and it is not doubted
that it will be annually increased. For these and other obvious reasons
I deem it to be my duty earnestly to recommend the action of Congress on
the subject at the present session.
In organizing governments over these territories, fraught with such vast
advantages to every portion of our Union, I invoke that spirit of
concession, conciliation, and compromise in your deliberations in which
the Constitution was framed, in which it should be administered, and
which is so indispensable to preserve and perpetuate the harmony and
union of the States. We should never forget that this Union of
confederated States was established and cemented by kindred blood and by
the common toils, sufferings, dangers, and triumphs of all its parts,
and has been the ever-augmenting source of our national greatness and of
all our blessings.
There has, perhaps, been no period since the warning so impressively
given to his countrymen by Washington to guard against geographical
divisions and sectional parties which appeals with greater force than
the present to the patriotic, sober-minded, and reflecting of all
parties and of all sections of our country. Who can calculate the value
of our glorious Union? It is a model and example of free government to
all the world, and is the star of hope and haven of rest to the
oppressed of every clime. By its preservation we have been rapidly
advanced as a nation to a height of strength, power, and happiness
without a parallel in the history of the world. As we extend its
blessings over new regions, shall we be so unwise as to endanger its
existence by geographical divisions and dissensions?
With a view to encourage the early settlement of these distant
possessions, I recommend that liberal grants of the public lands be
secured to all our citizens who have settled or may in a limited period
settle within their limits.
In execution of the provisions of the treaty, orders have been issued to
our military and naval forces to evacuate without delay the Mexican
Provinces, cities, towns, and fortified places in our military
occupation, and which are not embraced in the territories ceded to the
United States. The Army is already on its way to the United States. That
portion of it, as well regulars as volunteers, who engaged to serve
during the war with Mexico will be discharged as soon as they can be
transported or marched to convenient points in the vicinity of their
homes. A part of the Regular Army will be employed in New Mexico and
Upper California to afford protection to the inhabitants and to guard
our interests in these territories.
The old Army, as it existed before the commencement of the war with
Mexico, especially if authority be given to fill up the rank and file of
the several corps to the maximum number authorized during the war, it is
believed, will be a sufficient force to be retained in service during a
period of peace. A few additional officers in the line and staff of the
Army have been authorized, and these, it is believed, will be necessary
in the peace establishment, and should be retained in the service.
The number of the general officers may be reduced, as vacancies occur by
the casualties of the service, to what it was before the war.
While the people of other countries who live under forms of government
less free than our own have been for ages oppressed by taxation to
support large standing armies in periods of peace, our experience has
shown that such establishments are unnecessary in a republic. Our
standing army is to be found in the bosom of society. It is composed of
free citizens, who are ever ready to take up arms in the service of
their country when an emergency requires it. Our experience in the war
just closed fully confirms the opinion that such an army may be raised
upon a few weeks' notice, and that our citizen soldiers are equal to any
troops in the world. No reason, therefore, is perceived why we should
enlarge our land forces and thereby subject the Treasury to an annual
increased charge. Sound policy requires that we should avoid the
creation of a large standing army in a period of peace. No public
exigency requires it. Such armies are not only expensive and
unnecessary, but may become dangerous to liberty.
Besides making the necessary legislative provisions for the execution of
the treaty and the establishment of Territorial governments in the ceded
country, we have, upon the restoration of peace, other important duties
to perform. Among these I regard none as more important than the
adoption of proper measures for the speedy extinguishment of the
national debt. It is against sound policy and the genius of our
institutions that a public debt should be permitted to exist a day
longer than the means of the Treasury will enable the Government to pay
it off. We should adhere to the wise policy laid down by President
Washington, of "avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by
shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of
peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars have occasioned, not
ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen which we ourselves
ought to bear."
At the commencement of the present Administration the public debt
amounted to $17,788,799.62. In consequence of the war with Mexico, it
has been necessarily increased, and now amounts to $65,778,450.41,
including the stock and Treasury notes which may yet be issued under the
act of January 28, 1847, and the $16,000,000 loan recently negotiated
under the act of March 31, 1848.
In addition to the amount of the debt, the treaty stipulates that
$12,000,000 shall be paid to Mexico, in four equal annual installments
of $3,000,000 each, the first of which will fall due on the 30th day of
May, 1849. The treaty also stipulates that the United States shall
"assume and pay" to our own citizens "the claims already liquidated and
decided against the Mexican Republic," and "all claims not heretofore
decided against the Mexican Government," "to an amount not exceeding
three and a quarter millions of dollars." The "liquidated" claims of
citizens of the United States against Mexico, as decided by the joint
board of commissioners under the convention between the United States
and Mexico of the 11th of April, 1839, amounted to $2,026,139.68. This
sum was payable in twenty equal annual installments. Three of them have
been paid to the claimants by the Mexican Government and two by the
United States, leaving to be paid of the principal of the liquidated
amount assumed by the United States the sum of $1,519,604.76, together
with the interest thereon. These several amounts of "liquidated" and
unliquidated claims assumed by the United States, it is believed, may be
paid as they fall due out of the accruing revenue, without the issue of
stock or the creation of any additional public debt.
I can not too strongly recommend to Congress the importance of
husbanding all our national resources, of limiting the public
expenditures to necessary objects, and of applying all the surplus at
any time in the Treasury to the redemption of the debt. I recommend that
authority be vested in the Executive by law to anticipate the period of
reimbursement of such portion of the debt as may not be now redeemable,
and to purchase it at par, or at the premium which it may command in the
market, in all cases in which that authority has not already been
granted. A premium has been obtained by the Government on much the
larger portion of the loans, and if when the Government becomes a
purchaser of its own stock it shall command a premium in the market,
it will be sound policy to pay it rather than to pay the semiannual
interest upon it. The interest upon the debt, if the outstanding
Treasury notes shall be funded, from the end of the last fiscal year
until it shall fall due and be redeemable will be very nearly equal to
the principal, which must itself be ultimately paid.
Without changing or modifying the present tariff of duties, so great has
been the increase of our commerce under its benign operation that the
revenue derived from that source and from the sales of the public lands
will, it is confidently believed, enable the Government to discharge
annually several millions of the debt and at the same time possess the
means of meeting necessary appropriations for all other proper objects.
Unless Congress shall authorize largely increased expenditures for
objects not of absolute necessity, the whole public debt existing before
the Mexican war and that created during its continuance may be paid off
without any increase of taxation on the people long before it falls due.
Upon the restoration of peace we should adopt the policy suited to a
state of peace. In doing this the earliest practicable payment of the
public debt should be a cardinal principle of action. Profiting by the
experience of the past, we should avoid the errors into which the
country was betrayed shortly after the close of the war with Great
Britain in 1815. In a few years after that period a broad and
latitudinous construction of the powers of the Federal Government
unfortunately received but too much countenance. Though the country was
burdened with a heavy public debt, large, and in some instances
unnecessary and extravagant, expenditures were authorized by Congress.
The consequence was that the payment of the debt was postponed for more
than twenty years, and even then it was only accomplished by the stern
will and unbending policy of President Jackson, who made its payment a
leading measure of his Administration. He resisted the attempts which
were made to divert the public money from that great object and apply it
in wasteful and extravagant expenditures for other objects, some of them
of more than doubtful constitutional authority and expediency.
If the Government of the United States shall observe a proper economy in
its expenditures, and be confined in its action to the conduct of our
foreign relations and to the few general objects of its care enumerated
in the Constitution, leaving all municipal and local legislation to the
States, our greatness as a nation, in moral and physical power and in
wealth and resources, can not be calculated.
By pursuing this policy oppressive measures, operating unequally and
unjustly upon sections and classes, will be avoided, and the people,
having no cause of complaint, will pursue their own interests under the
blessings of equal laws and the protection of a just and paternal
Government. By abstaining from the exercise of all powers not clearly
conferred, the current of our glorious Union, now numbering thirty
States, will be strengthened as we grow in age and increase in
population, and our future destiny will be without a parallel or example
in the history of nations.