[Footnote 129: Transmitting list of persons employed by the Navy
Department without express authority of law from March 4, 1837,
to January 18, 1844, etc.]
WASHINGTON, _May 31, 1844_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 22d instant, requesting
information in regard to any promise by the President of military or
other aid to Texas in the event of an agreement on the part of that
Republic to annex herself to the United States, I transmit a report from
the Secretary of State and the documents by which it was accompanied.
In my message to the Senate of the 15th of this month I adverted to
the duty which, in my judgment, the signature of the treaty for the
annexation of Texas had imposed upon me, to repel any invasion of that
country by a foreign power while the treaty was under consideration by
the Senate, and I transmitted reports from the Secretaries of War and
of the Navy, with a copy of the orders which had been issued from those
Departments for the purpose of enabling me to execute that duty.
In those orders General Taylor was directed to communicate directly
with the President of Texas upon the subject, and Captain Conner was
instructed to communicate with the chargé d'affaires of the United
States accredited to that Government. No copy of any communication which
either of those officers may have made pursuant to those orders has yet
been received at the Departments from which they emanated.