those treaties and laws guarantee.

It is exceedingly desirable that no occasion should arise for
the exercise of the powers thus vested in the President by the
Constitution and the laws. With whatever mildness those powers might
be executed, or however clear the case of necessity, yet consequences
might, nevertheless, follow of which no human sagacity can foresee
either the evils or the end.

Having thus laid before Congress the communication of his excellency
the governor of Texas and the answer thereto, and having made such
observations as I have thought the occasion called for respecting
constitutional obligations which may arise in the further progress of
things and may devolve on me to be performed, I hope I shall not be
regarded as stepping aside from the line of my duty, notwithstanding
that I am aware that the subject is now before both Houses, if I
express my deep and earnest conviction of the importance of an immediate
decision or arrangement or settlement of the question of boundary
between Texas and the Territory of New Mexico. All considerations of
justice, general expediency, and domestic tranquillity call for this.
It seems to be in its character and by position the first, or one of
the first, of the questions growing out of the acquisition of California
and New Mexico, and now requiring decision.

No government can be established for New Mexico, either State or
Territorial, until it shall be first ascertained what New Mexico
is, and what are her limits and boundaries. These can not be fixed
or known till the line of division between her and Texas shall be
ascertained and established; and numerous and weighty reasons
conspire, in my judgment, to show that this divisional line should be