annexed to or be a dependent colony of some more powerful state.

Should any foreign government attempt to possess it as a colony, or
otherwise to incorporate it with itself, the principle avowed by
President Monroe in 1824, and reaffirmed in my first annual message,
that no foreign power shall with our consent be permitted to plant or
establish any new colony or dominion on any part of the North American
continent must be maintained. In maintaining this principle and in
resisting its invasion by any foreign power we might be involved in
other wars more expensive and more difficult than that in which we are
now engaged.

The Provinces of New Mexico and the Californias are contiguous to the
territories of the United States, and if brought under the government of
our laws their resources--mineral, agricultural, manufacturing, and
commercial--would soon be developed.

Upper California is bounded on the north by our Oregon possessions, and
if held by the United States would soon be settled by a hardy,
enterprising, and intelligent portion of our population. The Bay of San
Francisco and other harbors along the Californian coast would afford
shelter for our Navy, for our numerous whale ships, and other merchant
vessels employed in the Pacific Ocean, and would in a short period
become the marts of an extensive and profitable commerce with China and
other countries of the East.

These advantages, in which the whole commercial world would participate,
would at once be secured to the United States by the cession of this
territory; while it is certain that as long as it remains a part of the
Mexican dominions they can be enjoyed neither by Mexico herself nor by