WASHINGTON, _July 24, 1848_.
_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
In answer to the resolutions of the House of Representatives of the 10th
instant, requesting information in relation to New Mexico and
California, I communicate herewith reports from the Secretary of State,
the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War, and the Secretary
of the Navy, with the documents which accompany the same. These reports
and documents contain information upon the several points of inquiry
embraced by the resolutions. "The proper limits and boundaries of New
Mexico and California" are delineated on the map referred to in the late
treaty with Mexico, an authentic copy of which is herewith transmitted;
and all the additional information upon that subject, and also the most
reliable information in respect to the population of these respective
Provinces, which is in the possession of the Executive will be found in
the accompanying report of the Secretary of State.
The resolutions request information in regard to the existence of civil
governments in New Mexico and California, their "form and character," by
"whom instituted," by "what authority," and how they are "maintained and
supported."
In my message of December 22, 1846, in answer to a resolution of the
House of Representatives calling for information "in relation to the
establishment or organization of civil government in any portion of the
territory of Mexico which has or might be taken possession of by the
Army or Navy of the United States," I communicated the orders which had
been given to the officers of our Army and Navy, and stated the general
authority upon which temporary military governments had been established
over the conquered portion of Mexico then in our military occupation.
The temporary governments authorized were instituted by virtue of the
rights of war. The power to declare war against a foreign country, and
to prosecute it according to the general laws of war, as sanctioned by
civilized nations, it will not be questioned, exists under our
Constitution. When Congress has declared that war exists with a foreign
nation, "the general laws of war apply to our situation," and it becomes
the duty of the President, as the constitutional "Commander in Chief of
the Army and Navy of the United States," to prosecute it.
In prosecuting a foreign war thus duly declared by Congress, we have the
right, by "conquest and military occupation," to acquire possession of
the territories of the enemy, and, during the war, to "exercise the
fullest rights of sovereignty over it." The sovereignty of the enemy is
in such case "suspended," and his laws can "no longer be rightfully
enforced" over the conquered territory "or be obligatory upon the
inhabitants who remain and submit to the conqueror. By the surrender the
inhabitants pass under a temporary allegiance" to the conqueror, and are
"bound by such laws, and such only, as" he may choose to recognize and
impose. "From the nature of the case, no other laws could be obligatory
upon them, for where there is no protection or allegiance or sovereignty
there can be no claim to obedience." These are well-established
principles of the laws of war, as recognized and practiced by civilized
nations, and they have been sanctioned by the highest judicial tribunal
of our own country.
The orders and instructions issued to the officers of our Army and Navy,
applicable to such portions of the Mexican territory as had been or
might be conquered by our arms, were in strict conformity to these
principles. They were, indeed, ameliorations of the rigors of war upon
which we might have insisted. They substituted for the harshness of
military rule something of the mildness of civil government, and were
not only the exercise of no excess of power, but were a relaxation in
favor of the peaceable inhabitants of the conquered territory who had
submitted to our authority, and were alike politic and humane.
It is from the same source of authority that we derive the unquestioned
right, after the war has been declared by Congress, to blockade the
ports and coasts of the enemy, to capture his towns, cities, and
provinces, and to levy contributions upon him for the support of our
Army. Of the same character with these is the right to subject to our
temporary military government the conquered territories of our enemy.
They are all belligerent rights, and their exercise is as essential to
the successful prosecution of a foreign war as the right to fight
battles.
New Mexico and Upper California were among the territories conquered and
occupied by our forces, and such temporary governments were established
over them. They were established by the officers of our Army and Navy in
command, in pursuance of the orders and instructions accompanying my
message to the House of Representatives of December 22, 1846. In their
form and detail, as at first established, they exceeded in some
respects, as was stated in that message, the authority which had been
given, and instructions for the correction of the error were issued in
dispatches from the War and Navy Departments of the 11th of January,
1847, copies of which are herewith transmitted. They have been
maintained and supported out of the military exactions and contributions
levied upon the enemy, and no part of the expense has been paid out of
the Treasury of the United States.
In the routine of duty some of the officers of the Army and Navy who
first established temporary governments in California and New Mexico
have been succeeded in command by other officers, upon whom light duties
devolved; and the agents employed or designated by them to conduct the
temporary governments have also, in some instances, been superseded by
others. Such appointments for temporary civil duty during our military
occupation were made by the officers in command in the conquered
territories, respectively.
On the conclusion and exchange of ratifications of a treaty of peace
with Mexico, which was proclaimed on the 4th instant, these temporary
governments necessarily ceased to exist. In the instructions to
establish a temporary government over New Mexico, no distinction was
made between that and the other Provinces of Mexico which might be
conquered and held in our military occupation.
The Province of New Mexico, according to its ancient boundaries, as
claimed by Mexico, lies on both sides of the Rio Grande. That part of it
on the east of that river was in dispute when the war between the United
States and Mexico commenced. Texas, by a successful revolution in April,
1836, achieved, and subsequently maintained, her independence. By an act
of the Congress of Texas passed in December, 1836, her western boundary
was declared to be the Rio Grande from its mouth to its source, and
thence due north to the forty-second degree of north latitude. Though
the Republic of Texas, by many acts of sovereignty which she asserted
and exercised, some of which were stated in my annual message of
December, 1846, had established her clear title to the country west of
the Nueces, and bordering upon that part of the Rio Grande which lies
below the Province of New Mexico, she had never conquered or reduced to
actual possession and brought under her Government and laws that part of
New Mexico lying east of the Rio Grande, which she claimed to be within
her limits. On the breaking out of the war we found Mexico in possession
of this disputed territory. As our Army approached Sante Fe (the capital
of New Mexico) it was found to be held by a governor under Mexican
authority, with an armed force collected to resist our advance. The
inhabitants were Mexicans, acknowledging allegiance to Mexico. The
boundary in dispute was the line between the two countries engaged in
actual war, and the settlement of it of necessity depended on a treaty
of peace. Finding the Mexican authorities and people in possession, our
forces conquered them, and extended military rule over them and the
territory which they actually occupied, in lieu of the sovereignty which
was displaced. It was not possible to disturb or change the practical
boundary line in the midst of the war, when no negotiation for its
adjustment could be opened, and when Texas was not present, by her
constituted authorities, to establish and maintain government over a
hostile Mexican population who acknowledged no allegiance to her. There
was, therefore, no alternative left but to establish and maintain
military rule during the war over the conquered people in the disputed
territory who had submitted to our arms, or to forbear the exercise of
our belligerent rights and leave them in a state of anarchy and without
control.
Whether the country in dispute rightfully belonged to Mexico or to
Texas, it was our right in the first case, and our duty as well as our
right in the latter, to conquer and hold it. Whilst this territory was
in our possession as conquerors, with a population hostile to the United
States, which more than once broke out in open insurrection, it was our
unquestionable duty to continue our military occupation of it until the
conclusion of the war, and to establish over it a military government,
necessary for our own security as well as for the protection of the
conquered people.
By the joint resolution of Congress of March 1, 1845, "for annexing
Texas to the United States," the "adjustment of all questions of
boundary which may arise with other governments" was reserved to this
Government. When the conquest of New Mexico was consummated by our arms,
the question of boundary remained still unadjusted. Until the exchange
of the ratifications of the late treaty, New Mexico never became an
undisputed portion of the United States, and it would therefore have
been premature to deliver over to Texas that portion of it on the east
side of the Rio Grande, to which she asserted a claim. However just the
right of Texas may have been to it, that right had never been reduced
into her possession, and it was contested by Mexico.
By the cession of the whole of New Mexico, on both sides of the Rio
Grande, to the United States, the question of disputed boundary, so far
as Mexico is concerned, has been settled, leaving the question as to the
true limits of Texas in New Mexico to be adjusted between that State and
the United States.
Under the circumstances existing during the pendency of the war, and
while the whole of New Mexico, as claimed by our enemy, was in our
military occupation, I was not unmindful of the rights of Texas to that
portion of it which she claimed to be within her limits. In answer to a
letter from the governor of Texas dated on the 4th of January, 1847, the
Secretary of State, by my direction, informed him in a letter of the
12th of February, 1847, that in the President's annual message of
December, 1846--
You have already perceived that New Mexico is at present in the
temporary occupation of the troops of the United States, and the
government over it is military in its character. It is merely such a
government as must exist under the laws of nations and of war to
preserve order and protect the rights of the inhabitants, and will cease
on the conclusion of a treaty of peace with Mexico. Nothing, therefore,
can be more certain than that this temporary government, resulting from
necessity, can never injuriously affect the right which the President
believes to be justly asserted by Texas to the whole territory on this
side of the Rio Grande whenever the Mexican claim to it shall have been
extinguished by treaty. But this is a subject which more properly
belongs to the legislative than the executive branch of the Government.
The result of the whole is that Texas had asserted a right to that part
of New Mexico east of the Rio Grande, which is believed, under the acts
of Congress for the annexation and admission of Texas into the Union as
a State, and under the constitution and laws of Texas, to be well
founded; but this right had never been reduced to her actual possession
and occupancy. The General Government, possessing exclusively the
war-making power, had the right to take military possession of this
disputed territory, and until the title to it was perfected by a treaty
of peace it was their duty to hold it and to establish a temporary
military government over it for the preservation of the conquest itself,
the safety of our Army, and the security of the conquered inhabitants.
The resolutions further request information whether any persons have
been tried and condemned for "treason against the United States in that
part of New Mexico lying east of the Rio Grande since the same has been
in the occupancy of our Army," and, if so, before "what tribunal" and
"by what authority of law such tribunal was established." It appears
that after the territory in question was "in the occupancy of our Army"
some of the conquered Mexican inhabitants, who had at first submitted to
our authority, broke out in open insurrection, murdering our soldiers
and citizens and committing other atrocious crimes. Some of the
principal offenders who were apprehended were tried and condemned by a
tribunal invested with civil and criminal jurisdiction, which had been
established in the conquered country by the military officer in command.
That the offenders deserved the punishment inflicted upon them there is
no reason to doubt, and the error in the proceedings against them
consisted in designating and describing their crimes as "treason against
the United States." This error was pointed out, and its recurrence
thereby prevented, by the Secretary of War in a dispatch to the officer
in command in New Mexico dated on the 26th of June, 1847, a copy of
which, together with copies of all communications relating to the
subject which have been received at the War Department, is herewith
transmitted.
The resolutions call for information in relation to the quantity of the
public lands acquired within the ceded territory, and "how much of the
same is within the boundaries of Texas as defined by the act of the
Congress of the Republic of Texas of the 19th day of December, 1836." No
means of making an accurate estimate on the subject is in the possession
of the executive department. The information which is possessed will be
found in the accompanying report of the Secretary of the Treasury.
The country ceded to the United States lying west of the Rio Grande, and
to which Texas has no title, is estimated by the commissioner of the
General Land Office to contain 526,078 square miles, or 336,689,920
acres.
The period since the exchange of ratifications of the treaty has been
too short to enable the Government to have access to or to procure
abstracts or copies of the land titles issued by Spain or by the
Republic of Mexico. Steps will be taken to procure this information at
the earliest practicable period. It is estimated, as appears from the
accompanying report of the Secretary of the Treasury, that much the
larger portion of the land within the territories ceded remains vacant
and unappropriated, and will be subject to be disposed of by the United
States. Indeed, a very inconsiderable portion of the land embraced in
the cession, it is believed, has been disposed of or granted either by
Spain or Mexico.
What amount of money the United States may be able to realize from the
sales of these vacant lands must be uncertain, but it is confidently
believed that with prudent management, after making liberal grants to
emigrants and settlers, it will exceed the cost of the war and all the
expenses to which we have been subjected in acquiring it.
The resolutions also call for "the evidence, or any part thereof, that
the 'extensive and valuable territories ceded by Mexico to the United
States constitute indemnity for the past.'"
The immense value of the ceded country does not consist alone in the
amount of money for which the public lands may be sold. If not a dollar
could be realized from the sale of these lands, the cession of the
jurisdiction over the country and the fact that it has become a part of
our Union and call not be made subject to any European power constitute
ample "indemnity for the past" in the immense value and advantages which
its acquisition must give to the commercial, navigating, manufacturing,
and agricultural interests of our country.
The value of the public lands embraced within the limits of the ceded
territory, great as that value may be, is far less important to the
people of the United States than the sovereignty over the country. Most
of our States contain no public lands owned by the United States, and
yet the sovereignty and jurisdiction over them is of incalculable
importance to the nation. In the State of New York the United States is
the owner of no public lands, and yet two-thirds of our whole revenue is
collected at the great port of that State, and within her limits is
found about one-seventh of our entire population. Although none of the
future cities on our coast of California may ever rival the city of New
York in wealth, population, and business, yet that important cities will
grow up on the magnificent harbors of that coast, with a rapidly
increasing commerce and population, and yielding a large revenue, would
seem to be certain. By the possession of the safe and capacious harbors
on the Californian coast we shall have great advantages in securing the
rich commerce of the East, and shall thus obtain for our products new
and increased markets and greatly enlarge our coasting and foreign
trade, as well as augment our tonnage and revenue.
These great advantages, far more than the simple value of the public
lands in the ceded territory, "constitute our indemnity for the past."