intent to seize individuals, to be carried elsewhere for trial for
alleged offenses, and this posse be too powerful to be resisted by the
local civil authorities, such seizure or attempt to seize is to be
prevented or resisted by the authority of the United States.

The grave and important question now arises whether there be in
the Territory of New Mexico any existing law of the United States
opposition to which or the obstruction of which would constitute a
case calling for the interposition of the authority vested in the
President.

The Constitution of the United States declares that--

This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be
made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be
made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme
law of the land.


If, therefore, New Mexico be a Territory of the United States, and if
any treaty stipulation be in force therein, such treaty stipulation
is the supreme law of the land, and is to be maintained and upheld
accordingly.

In the letter to the governor of Texas my reasons are given for
believing that New Mexico is now a Territory of the United States,
with the same extent and the same boundaries which belonged to it
while in the actual possession of the Republic of Mexico, and before
the late war. In the early part of that war both California and New
Mexico were conquered by the arms of the United States, and were