ppointment of a commissioner and surveyor on the part of the United
States to act in conjunction with a commissioner and surveyor appointed
by Mexico in executing the stipulations of this article.

It will be proper also to provide by law for the appointment of a "board
of commissioners" to adjudicate and decide upon all claims of our
citizens against the Mexican Government, which by the treaty have been
assumed by the United States.

New Mexico and Upper California have been ceded by Mexico to the United
States, and now constitute a part of our country. Embracing nearly ten
degrees of latitude, lying adjacent to the Oregon Territory, and
extending from the Pacific Ocean to the Rio Grande, a mean distance of
nearly 1,000 miles, it would be difficult to estimate the value of these
possessions to the United States. They constitute of themselves a
country large enough for a great empire, and their acquisition is second
only in importance to that of Louisiana in 1803. Rich in mineral and
agricultural resources, with a climate of great salubrity, they embrace
the most important ports on the whole Pacific coast of the continent of
North America. The possession of the ports of San Diego and Monterey and
the Bay of San Francisco will enable the United States to command the
already valuable and rapidly increasing commerce of the Pacific. The
number of our whale ships alone now employed in that sea exceeds 700,
requiring more than 20,000 seamen to navigate them, while the capital
invested in this particular branch of commerce is estimated at not less
than $40,000,000. The excellent harbors of Upper California will under
our flag afford security and repose to our commercial marine, and
American mechanics will soon furnish ready means of shipbuilding and
repair, which are now so much wanted in that distant sea.

By the acquisition of these possessions we are brought into immediate
proximity with the west coast of America, from Cape Horn to the Russian
possessions north of Oregon, with the islands of the Pacific Ocean, and
by a direct voyage in steamers we will be in less than thirty days of
Canton and other ports of China.

In this vast region, whose rich resources are soon to be developed by
American energy and enterprise, great must be the augmentation of our
commerce, and with it new and profitable demands for mechanic labor in
all its branches and new and valuable markets for our manufactures and
agricultural products.

Wh