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 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 burden we ourselves ought to bear."

At the commencement of the present administration, the public debt amounted to seventeen millions, seven hundred and eighty-eight thousand, seven hundred and ninety-nine dollars, and sixty-two cents. In consequence of the war with Mexico, it has been necessarily increased, and now amounts to sixty-five millions, seven hundred and seventy-eight thousand, four hundred and fifty dollars, and forty-one cents, including the stock and treasury-notes which may yet be issued under the act of January, 28, 1847, and the sixteen-million loan recently negotiated, under the act of March 31, 1848.

In addition to the amount of the debt, the treaty stipulates that twelve millions of dollars shall be paid to Mexico, in four equal annual instalments of three millions 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 two millions and twentysix thousand, one hundred and thirty-nine dollars, and sixty-eight cents. This sum was payable in twenty equal annual instalments. 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 one million, five hundred and nineteen thousand, six hundred and four dollars, and seventy-six cents, 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 semi-annual 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 fall 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 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

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

JULY 12, 1848.

To the Senate of the United States :—

IN compliance with a resolution of the senate of the 21st of June, 1848, I herewith communicate to the senate a report of the secretary of war, with the accompanying documents, containing the proceedings of a court of inquiry, which convened at Saltillo, Mexico, January 12, 1848, and which

was instituted for the purpose of obtaining full information relative to an alleged mutiny in the camp of Buena Vista, Mexico, on or about the 15th August, 1847.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

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 here with 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 recognise 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 recognised and practised 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 despatches 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 like 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 Uni

ted 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 and 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 Santa Fé (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 authori ties, 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. While 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