on itself. This was the
Texas which by the act of our Congress of the 29th of December, 1845,
was admitted as one of the States of our Union. That the Congress of the
United States understood the State of Texas which they admitted into the
Union to extend beyond the Nueces is apparent from the fact that on the
31st of December, 1845, only two days after the act of admission, they
passed a law "to establish a collection district in the State of Texas,"
by which they created a port of delivery at Corpus Christi, situated
west of the Nueces, and being the same point at which the Texas
custom-house under the laws of that Republic had been located, and
directed that a surveyor to collect the revenue should be appointed for
that port by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate. A surveyor was accordingly nominated, and confirmed by the
Senate, and has been ever since in the performance of his duties. All
these acts of the Republic of Texas and of our Congress preceded the
orders for the advance of our Army to the east bank of the Rio Grande.
Subsequently Congress passed an act "establishing certain post routes"
extending west of the Nueces. The country west of that river now
constitutes a part of one of the Congressional districts of Texas and is
represented in the House of Representatives. The Senators from that
State were chosen by a legislature in which the country west of that
river was represented. In view of all these facts it is difficult to
conceive upon what ground it can be maintained that in occupying the
country west of the Nueces with our Army, with a view solely to its
security and defense, we invaded the territory of Mexico. But it would
have been still more difficult to justify the Executive, whose duty it
is to see that the laws be faithfully executed, if in the face of all
these proceedings, both of the Congress of Texas and of the United
States, he had assumed the responsibility of yielding up the territory
west of the Nueces to Mexico or of refusing to protect and defend this
territory and its inhabitants, including Corpus Christi as well as the
remainder of Texas, against the threatened Mexican invasion.

But Mexico herself has never placed the war which she has waged upon the
ground that our Army occupied the intermediate territory between the
Nueces and the Rio Grande. Her refuted pretension that Texas was not in
fact an independent state, but a rebellious province, was obstinately