WASHINGTON, _January 2, 1849_.
_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 18th
of December, 1848, requesting information "under what law or provision
of the Constitution, or by what other authority," the Secretary of the
Treasury, with the "sanction and approval" of the President, established
"a tariff of duties in the ports of the Mexican Republic during the war
with Mexico," and "by what legal, constitutional, or other authority"
the "revenue thus derived" was appropriated to "the support of the Army
in Mexico," I refer the House to my annual message of the 7th of
December, 1847, to my message to the Senate of the 10th of February,
1848, responding to a call of that body, a copy of which is herewith
communicated, and to my message to the House of Representatives of the
24th of July, 1848, responding to a call of that House. The resolution
assumes that the Secretary of the Treasury "established a tariff of
duties in the ports of the Mexican Republic." The contributions
collected in this mode were not established by the Secretary of the
Treasury, but by a military order issued by the President through the
War and Navy Departments. For his information the President directed the
Secretary of the Treasury to prepare and report to him a scale of
duties. That report was made, and the President's military order of the
31st of March, 1847, was based upon it. The documents communicated to
Congress with my annual message of December, 1847, show the true
character of that order.
The authority under which military contributions were exacted and
collected from the enemy and applied to the support of our Army during
the war with Mexico was stated in the several messages referred to. In
the first of these messages I informed Congress that--
On the 31st of March last I caused an order to be issued to our military
and naval commanders to levy and collect a military contribution upon
all vessels and merchandise which might enter any of the ports of Mexico
in our military occupation, and to apply such contributions toward
defraying the expenses of the war. By virtue of the right of conquest
and the laws of war, the conqueror, consulting his own safety or
convenience, may either exclude foreign commerce altogether from all
such ports or permit it upon such terms and conditions as he may
prescribe. Before the principal ports of Mexico were blockaded by our
Navy the revenue derived from import duties under the laws of Mexico was
paid into the Mexican treasury. After these ports had fallen into our
military possession the blockade was raised and commerce with them
permitted upon prescribed terms and conditions. They were opened to the
trade of all nations upon the payment of duties more moderate in their
amount than those which had been previously levied by Mexico, and the
revenue, which was formerly paid into the Mexican treasury, was directed
to be collected by our military and naval officers and applied to the
use of our Army and Navy. Care was taken that the officers, soldiers,
and sailors of our Army and Navy should be exempted from the operations
of the order, and, as the merchandise imported upon which the order
operated must be consumed by Mexican citizens, the contributions exacted
were in effect the seizure of the public revenues of Mexico and the
application of them to our own use. In directing this measure the object
was to compel the enemy to contribute as far as practicable toward the
expenses of the war.