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benefit of our post office laws to the people of California, the post master general has appointed two agents, who have proceeded, the one to California, and the other to Oregon, with authority to make the necessary arangements for carrying their provisions into effect.

The monthly line of mail steamers from Panama to Astoria has been required to stop and deliver and take mails at San Diego, Monterey, and San Francisco." These mail steamers, connected by the isthmus of Panama with the line of mail steamers on the Atlantic between New York and Chagres, will establish a regular mail communication with California.

It is our solemn duty to provide with the least practicable delay, for New Mexico and California, regularly organized territorial governments. The causes of the failure to do this at the last session of Congress are well known, and deeply to be regretted. With the opening prospects of increased prosperity and national greatness which the acquisition of these rich and extensive territorial possessions affords, how irrational it would be to forego or to reject these advantages, by the agitation of a domestic question which is coeval with the existence of our government itself, and to endanger by internal strifes, geographical divisions, and heated contests for political power, or for any other cause, the harmony of the glorious union of our confederated States; that union which binds us together as one people, and which for sixty years has been our shield and protection against every danger. In the eyes of the world and of posterity, how trivial and insignificant will be all our internal divisions and struggles compared with the preservation of this union of the states in all its vigour and with all its countless blessings! No patriot would foment and excite geographical and sectional divisions. No lover of his country would deliberately calculate the value of the union.

Future generations would look in amazement upon such a course. Other nations at the present day would look upon it with astonishment; and such of them as desire to maintain and perpetuate thrones and monarchical or aristocratical principles, will view it with exultation and delight, because in it they will see the elements of faction, which they hope must ultimately overturn our system. Ours is the great example of a prosperous and free selfgoverned republic, commanding the admiration and the imitation of all the lovers of freedom throughout the world. How solemn, therefore, is the duty, how impressive the call upon us and upon all parts of our country to cultivate a patriotic spirit of harmony, of good fellowship, of compromise and mutual concession, in the administration of the incomparable system of government formed by our fathers in the midst of almost insuperable difficulties, and transmitted to us with the injunction that we should enjoy its blessings and hand it down unimpaired to those who may come after us!

In view of the high and responsible duties which we owe to ourselves and to mankind, I trust you may be able, at the present session, to approach the adjustment of the only domestic question which seriously threatens, or probably ever can threaten, to disturb the harmony and successful operation of our system.

The immensely valuable possessions of New Mexico and California are already inhabited by a considerable population. Attracted by their great fertility, their mineral wealth, their commercial advantages and the salubrity of the climate, emigrants from the older states, in great numbers, are already preparing to seek new homes in these inviting regions.

Shall the dissimilarity of the domestic institutions in the different states prevent us from providing for them suitable governments? These institutions existed at the adoption of the constitution, but the obstacles which they interposed were overcome by that spirit of compromise which is now invoked. In a conflict of opinions or of interests, real or imaginary, between different sections of our country, neither can justly demand all which it might desire to

obtain. Each, in the true spirit of our institutions, should concede something to the other.

Our gallant forces in the Mexican war, by whose patriotism and unparalleled deeds of arms, we obtained these possessions as an indemnity for our just demands against Mexico, were composed of citizens who belong to no one state or section of the union. They were men from slaveholding and non-slaveholding states, from the north and the south, from the east and the west. They were all companions in arms and fellow citizens of the same common country, engaged in the same common cause. When prosecuting that war, they were brethren and friends, and shared alike with each other common toils, dangers and sufferings. Now, when their work is ended, when peace is restored, and they return again to their homes, put off the habiliments of war, take their places in society, and resume their pursuits in civil ife, surely a spirit of harmony and concession, and of equal regard for the rights of all, and of all sections of the union, ought to prevail in providing governments for the acquired territories-the fruits of their common service. The whole people of the United States and of every state, contributed to defray the expenses of that war, and it would not be just for any one section to exclude another from all participation in the acquired territory. This would not be in consonance with that just system of government which the framers of the constitution adopted.

The question is believed to be rather abstract than practical, whether slavery ever can or would exist in any portion of the acquired territory, even if it were left to the option of the slaveholding states themselves. From the nature of the climate and productions, in much the larger portion of it, it is certain it could never exist; and in the remainder, the probabilities are it would not. But however this may be, the question, involving, as it does, a principle of equality of rights of the separate and several states, as equal co-partners in the confederacy, should not be disregarded.

In organizing governments over these territories, no duty imposed on congress by the constitution requires that they should legislate on the subject of slavery, while their power to do so is not only seriously questioned, but denied by many of the soundest expounders of that instrument. Whether congress shall legislate or not, the people of the acquired territories, when assembled in convention to form state constitutions, will possess the sole and exclusive power to determine for themselves whether slavery shall or shall not exist within their limits. If congress shall abstain from interfering with the question, the people of these territories will be left free to adjust it as they may think proper when they apply for admission as states into the union. No enactment of congress could restrain the people of any of the sovereign states of the union, old or new, north or south, slave-holding or non-slaveholding, from determining the character of their own domestic institutions as they may deem wise and proper. Any and all the states possess this right, and congress cannot deprive them of it. The people of Georgia might, if they chose, so alter their constitution as to abolish slavery within its limits; and the people of Vermont might so alter their constitution as to admit slavery within its limits. Both states would possess the right; though, as all know, it is not probable that either would exert it.

It is fortunate for the peace and harmony of the union that this question is in its nature temporary, and can only continue for the brief period which will intervene before California and New Mexico may be admitted as states into the union. From the tide of population now flowing into them, it is highly probable that this will soon occur.

Considering the several states and the citizens of the several states as equals, and entitled to equal rights under the constitution, if this were an original question, it might well be insisted on that the principle of non-interfe

rence is the true doctrine, and that congress could not, in the absence of any express grant of power, interfere with their relative rights. Upon a great emergency, however, and under menacing dangers to the union, the Missouri compromise line in respect to slavery was adopted. The same line was extended further west in the acquisition of Texas. After an acquiescence of nearly thirty years in the principle of compromise recognised and established by these acts, and to avoid the danger to the union which might follow if it were now disregarded, I have heretofore expressed the opinion that that line of compromise should be extended on the parallel of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes from the western boundary of Texas, where it now terminates, to the Pacific Ocean. This is the middle ground of compromise, upon which the different sections of the union may meet, as they have heretofore met. If this be done, it is confidently believed a large majority of the people of every section of the country, however widely their abstract opinions on the subject of slavery may differ, would cheerfully and patriotically acquiesce in it, and peace and harmony would again fill our borders.

The restriction north of the line was only yielded to in the case of Missouri and Texas upon a principle of compromise, made necessary for the sake of preserving the harmony, and possibly the existence of the union.

It was upon these considerations that at the close of your last session, I gave my sanction to the principles of the Missouri compromise line, by approving and siguing the bill to establish "the territorial government of Oregon." From a sincere desire to preserve the harmony of the union, and in deference for the acts of my predecessors, I felt constrained to yield my acquiescence to the extent to which they had gone in compromising this delicate and dangerous question. But if congress shall now reverse the decision by which the Missouri compromise was effected, and shall propose to extend the restriction over the whole territory, south as well as north of the parallel of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes, it will cease to be a compromise, and must be regarded as an original question.

If congress, instead of observing the course of non-interference, leaving the adoption of their own domestic institutions to the people who may inhabit these territories; or if, instead of extending the Missouri compromise line to the Pacific, shall prefer to submit the legal and constitutional questions which may arise to the decision of the judicial tribunals, as was proposed in a bill which passed the senate at your last session, an adjustment may be effected in this mode. If the whole subject be referred to the judiciary, all parts of the union should cheerfully acquiesce in the final decision of the tribunal created by the constitution for the settlement of all questions which may arise under the constitution, treaties, and laws of the United States.

Congress is earnestly invoked, for the sake of the union, its harmony, and our continued prosperity as a nation, to adjust at its present session, this, the only dangerous question which lies in our path-if not in some one of the modes suggested, in some other which may be satisfactory.

(The remainder in the next number.)

REPORTS OF SECRETARIES.

We give abstracts of the reports of the heads of the different departments.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.

This document commences with a brief account of the operations of our troops in Mexico after the taking of the capitol, and then adds:

Our military peace establishment is now nearly the same in numerical strength as it was at the commencement of the war with Mexico. Filled up to the utmost limit allowed by law, it would be nine thousand eight hundred and seventyeight officers and soldiers, exclusive of the enlisted men of the ordnance; but its actual numerical strength will generally fall considerably below this number. The great extension of our territorial limits required a new arrangement of our military divisions and departments. The eastern, or first division, is not changed. Texas and New Mexico have been added to the western, or second; and California and Oregon constitute the third-or the division of the Pacific.

In allusion to the neglect to send troops to Oregon to protect the settlements from the attacks of the Indians, the secretary says that the mounted rifle regiment was ordered on that service, but that this arrangement was frustrated by the act of congress passed at the close of the last session, which gave permission to the enlisted men of the regiment who had been in service in Mexico to "receive, on application, an honourable discharge from the service of the United States, and stand as if they had served out their respective terms." By the operation of this act, the regiment, as to the rank and file, was in effect disbanded. Prompt measures were taken to recruit it; and no doubt is entertained but that early in the spring it will be in a condition to leave for its destination.

The other regiments of the permanent military establishment were greatly reduced at the close of the war. They had been, to considerable extent, filled up by recruits enlisted to serve only during its continuance. Owing to the late period of their return to Mexico, and the unavoidable delay in recruiting or organizing, such as were destined for distant service could not be prepared to proceed by land to Oregon, California, or New Mexico, until the season was so far advanced as to render a march across the country impracticable. Orders, in anticipation of peace, were given to the general in chief command to send a regiment from the headquarters in Mexico to California; but the Mexican government refused to permit its passage to the Pacific coast.

The secretary then mentions in detail the troops sent up the Rio Grande to California and Oregon.

Troops to guard the Rio Grande frontier and keep in check the Indians in that quarter have been ordered to Texas, and have arrived at or are on their way to their respective stations.

The remainder of the army is distributed on the Indian and northern frontiers, and on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

The report notices the establishment of military posts at Grand Island and Fort Laramie, on the Oregon route.

The amount of contributions and avails of captured property received by officers of the army in Mexico, thus far reported, is $3,844,373 77, which will be somewhat increased by amounts collected in New Mexico and California. Of this amount, $67,492 33 have been retained for expenses of collections; $346,369 30 paid into the treasury of the United States; $3,267,540 84 turned over to disbursing officers; $49,712 28 credited by the Mexican government to the United States in payment of the first instalment under the treaty; and the remaining $113,259 02 charged against the collecting officers. Of the amount turned over to disbursing officers $769,650 were applied towards the payment of the first in

stalment under the treaty with Mexico, and the greater part of the balance has been disbursed for regular and ordinary purposes. Against the balances remaining, charged to collecting officers, they inay be entitled to further credits on the several accounts above stated to the amount of about $79,000.

No fund was placed by special appropriation at the disposal of the executive, or commanding generals, to meet expenses for secret services, or for extraordinary objects. Disbursements of this character are not only usual, but indispensable in the prosecution of a war, and particularly a foreign war. The collections in Mexico have been resorted to for these purposes. It is not reasonable to expect that regular vouchers of payment for secret services should be produced, and the accounts embracing such items must remain unadjusted, unless congress should deem it proper to provide some mode for settling them.

To prevent delay, and to subserve the convenience of the volunteers, paymasters have been sent into the several sections of the country where these troops were raised and organized. It is estimated that from eighty to one hundred thousand persons became entitled to three months' extra pay under the act of the 19th of July last; the greater part of this number had left the service before this provision of law was adopted. Scattered, as they are, through every section of the United States, much labour and time will be required to adjust these claims. The vast increase in the extent of our territory, and in the number of military posts, has induced the Paymaster General to ask that the additional paymasters appointed for the war, and whose services were continued by an act of congress passed at the last session until the 4th of March next, may be retained permanently in the public service.

The number of military posts will probably exceed the number of medical officers now authorized by law. Should that be the case, the employment of physicians in civil life will become necessary. The secretary therefore recommends the addition of two surgeons and twelve assistant surgeons to the medical staff of the army.

The appropriations for the army proper required for the next fiscal year amount to $4,432,286. The estimates for the transportation of the troops far exceed that of any other year previous to the war. The increase in this item is to meet the expense of sending troops to Oregon, New Mexico, and California.

In none of the branches of this department has the business been so much augmented as in the pension bureau. The number of invalid pensioners has increased, during the last year, six hundred and ninety-one; the whole number on the list is three thousand one hundred and twenty-six.

More than sixty thousand claims have been presented under the act of the 11th of February, 1847, for bounty land and treasury scrip. About forty thousand-of them have been acted on and allowed, twenty thousand are now pending, and it is estimated that there are forty thousand yet to be presented. Great efforts have been made to despatch these applications, and about two hundred and fifty are daily investigated and passed.

The report then concludes with a glowing picture of the Indian affairs.

There are sixteen manual-labour schools, and eighty-seven boarding and district schools now in successful operation among the various Indian tribes, and the number of Indian youths attending them, according to the reports received at the department, is three thousand six hundred and eighty-two-of which two thousand six hundred and fifty are males, and the remaining one thousand and thirty-two are females. The schools are generally in charge of missionary societies, and are well conducted. These facts afford the most gratifying evidence that nearly all our colonized tribes are rapidly advancing in civilization and moral improvement.

Within the newly acquired territories there is a numerous Indian population, over which our supervision and guardianship must necessarily be extended; but this cannot be effectually done without the action of congress on the subject.

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