Chapter CLIII

MR. POLK'S FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS.

The leading topic in the message was, naturally, the incorporation of Texas, then accomplished, and the consequent dissatisfaction of Mexico--a dissatisfaction manifested every way short of actual hostilities, and reason to believe they were intended. On our side, strong detachments of the army and navy had been despatched to Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, to be ready for whatever might happen. The Mexican minister, General Almonte, had left the United States: an American minister sent to Mexico had been refused to be received, and had returned home. All this was the natural result of the _status belli_ between the United States and Mexico which the incorporation of Texas had established; and, that there were not actual hostilities was only owing to the weakness of one of the parties. These things were thus stated by the President:

"Since that time Mexico has, until recently, occupied an
attitude of hostility towards the United States--has been
marshalling and organizing armies, issuing proclamations, and
avowing the intention to make war on the United States, either
by an open declaration, or by invading Texas. Both the Congress
and convention of the people of Texas invited this government
to send an army into that territory, to protect and defend them
against the menaced attack. The moment the terms of annexation,
offered by the United States, were accepted by Texas, the latter
became so far a part of our own country, as to make it our duty
to afford such protection and defence. I therefore deemed it
proper, as a precautionary measure, to order a strong squadron
to the coast of Mexico, and to concentrate an efficient military
force on the western frontier of Texas. Our army was ordered
to take position in the country between the Nueces and the Del
Norte, and to repel any invasion of the Texian territory which
might be attempted by the Mexican forces. Our squadron in the
Gulf was ordered to co-operate with the army. But though our
army and navy were placed in a position to defend our own,
and the rights of Texas, they were ordered to commit no act
of hostility against Mexico, unless she declared war, or was
herself the aggressor by striking the first blow. The result
has been, that Mexico has made no aggressive movement, and our
military and naval commanders have executed their orders with
such discretion, that the peace of the two republics has not
been disturbed."

Thus the armed forces of the two countries were brought into presence, and the legal state of war existing between them was brought to the point of actual war. Of this the President complained, assuming that Texas and the United States had a _right_ to unite, which was true as to the right; but asserting that Mexico had no right to oppose it, which was a wrong assumption. For, in taking Texas into the Union, she was taken with her circumstances, one of which was a state of war with Mexico. Denying her right to take offence at what had been done, the message went on to enumerate causes of complaint against her, and for many years back, and to make out cause of war against her on account of injuries done by her to our citizens. In this sense the message said:

"But though Mexico cannot complain of the United States on
account of the annexation of Texas, it is to be regretted that
serious causes of misunderstanding between the two countries
continue to exist, growing out of unredressed injuries inflicted
by the Mexican authorities and people on the persons and
property of citizens of the United States, through a long
series of years. Mexico has admitted these injuries, but has
neglected and refused to repair them. Such was the character of
the wrongs, and such the insults repeatedly offered to American
citizens and the American flag by Mexico, in palpable violation
of the laws of nations and the treaty between the two countries
of the 5th April, 1831, that they have been repeatedly brought
to the notice of Congress by my predecessors. As early as the
8th February, 1837, the President of the United States declared,
in a message to Congress, that 'the length of time since some of
the injuries have been committed, the repeated and unavailing
application for redress, the wanton character of some of the
outrages upon the persons and property of our citizens, upon the
officers and flag of the United States, independent of recent
insults to this government and people by the late extraordinary
Mexican minister, would justify, in the eyes of all nations,
immediate war.' He did not, however, recommend an immediate
resort to this extreme measure, which he declared 'should not be
used by just and generous nations, confiding in their strength,
for injuries committed, if it can be honorably avoided;' but, in
a spirit of forbearance, proposed that another demand be made
on Mexico for that redress which had been so long and unjustly
withheld. In these views, committees of the two Houses of
Congress, in reports made in their respective bodies, concurred.
Since these proceedings more than eight years have elapsed,
during which, in addition to the wrongs then complained of,
others of an aggravated character have been committed on the
persons and property of our citizens. A special agent was sent
to Mexico in the summer of 1838, with full authority to make
another and final demand for redress. The demand was made; the
Mexican government promised to repair the wrongs of which we
complained; and after much delay, a treaty of indemnity with
that view was concluded between the two powers on the 11th of
April, 1839, and was duly ratified by both governments."

This treaty of indemnity, the message went on to show, had never yet been complied with, and its non-fulfilment, added to the other causes of complaint, the President considered as just cause for declaring war against her--saying:

"In the mean time, our citizens, who suffered great losses, and
some of whom have been reduced from affluence to bankruptcy,
are without remedy, unless their rights be enforced by their
government. Such a continued and unprovoked series of wrongs
could never have been tolerated by the United States, had they
been committed by one of the principal nations of Europe. Mexico
was, however, a neighboring sister republic, which, following
our example, had achieved her independence, and for whose
success and prosperity, all our sympathies were early enlisted.
The United States were the first to recognize her independence,
and to receive her into the family of nations, and have ever
been desirous of cultivating with her a good understanding. We
have, therefore, borne the repeated wrongs she has committed,
with great patience, in the hope that a returning sense of
justice would ultimately guide her councils, and that we might,
if possible, honorably avoid any hostile collision with her."

Torn by domestic dissension, in a state of revolution at home, and ready to be crushed by the power of the United States, the Mexican government had temporized, and after dismissing one United States minister, had consented to receive another, who was then on his way to the City of Mexico. Of this mission, and the consequences of its failure, the President thus expressed himself:

"The minister appointed has set out on his mission, and is
probably by this time near the Mexican capital. He has been
instructed to bring the negotiation with which he is charged
to a conclusion at the earliest practicable period; which, it
is expected, will be in time to enable me to communicate the
result to Congress during the present session. Until that result
is known, I forbear to recommend to Congress such ulterior
measures of redress for the wrongs and injuries we have so
long borne, as it would have been proper to make had no such
negotiation been instituted."

From this communication it was clear that a recommendation of a declaration of war was only deferred for the issue of this mission, which failing to be favorable, would immediately call forth the deferred recommendation. The Oregon question was next in importance to that of Texas and Mexico, and like it seemed to be tending to a warlike solution. The negotiations between the two governments, which had commenced under Mr. Tyler's administration, and continued for some months under his own, had come to a dead stand. The government of the United States had revoked its proposition to make the parallel of 49 degrees the dividing line between the two countries, and asserted the unquestionable title of the United States to the whole, up to the Russian boundary in 54 degrees 40 minutes; and the message recommended Congress to authorize the notice which was to terminate the joint occupancy, to extend our laws to the territory, to encourage its population and settlement; and cast upon Great Britain the responsibility of any belligerent solution of the difficulty which might arise. Thus, the issue of peace or war with Great Britain was thrown into the hands of Congress.

The finances, and the public debt, required a notice, which was briefly and satisfactorily given. The receipts into the Treasury for the past year had been $29,770,000: the payments from it $29,968,000; and the balance in the Treasury at the end of the year five millions--leaving a balance of $7,658,000 on hand. The nature of these balances, always equal to about one-fourth of the revenue even where the receipts and expenditures are even, or the latter even in some excess, has been explained in the first volume of this View, as resulting from the nature of great government transactions and payments, large part of which necessarily go into the beginning of the succeeding year, when they would be met by the accruing revenue, even if there was nothing in the Treasury; so that, in fact, the government may be carried on upon an income about one-fourth less than the expenditure. This is a paradox--a seeming absurdity, but true, which every annual statement of the Treasury will prove; and which the legislative, as well as the executive government, should understand. The sentiments in relation to the public debt (of which there would have been none had it not been for the distribution of the land revenue, and the surplus fund, among the States, and the absurd plunges in the descent of the duties on imports in the last two years of the compromise act of 1833), were just and wise, such as had been always held by the democratic school, and which cannot be too often repeated. They were these:

"The amount of the public debt remaining unpaid on the first of
October last, was seventeen millions, seventy-five thousand,
four hundred and forty-five dollars and fifty-two cents.
Further payments of the public debt would have been made, in
anticipation of the period of its reimbursement under the
authority conferred upon the Secretary of the Treasury, by the
acts of July twenty-first, 1841, and of April fifteenth, and of
March third, 1843, had not the unsettled state of our relations
with Mexico menaced hostile collision with that power. In view
of such a contingency, it was deemed prudent to retain in the
Treasury an amount unusually large for ordinary purposes. A few
years ago, our whole national debt growing out of the revolution
and the war of 1812 with Great Britain, was extinguished, and we
presented to the world the rare and noble spectacle of a great
and growing people who had fully discharged every obligation.
Since that time the existing debt has been contracted; and
small as it is, in comparison with the similar burdens of
most other nations, it should be extinguished at the earliest
practicable period. Should the state of the country permit,
and especially if our foreign relations interpose no obstacle,
it is contemplated to apply all the moneys in the Treasury as
they accrue beyond what is required for the appropriations by
Congress, to its liquidation. I cherish the hope of soon being
able to congratulate the country on its recovering once more
the lofty position which it so recently occupied. Our country,
which exhibits to the world the benefits of self-government,
in developing all the sources of national prosperity, owes
to mankind the permanent example of a nation free from the
blighting influence of a public debt."

The revision of the tariff was recommended, with a view to revenue as the object, with protection to home industry as the incident.