ority which had been
given, and instructions for the correction of the error were issued in
dispatches from the War and Navy Departments of the 11th of January,
1847, copies of which are herewith transmitted. They have been
maintained and supported out of the military exactions and contributions
levied upon the enemy, and no part of the expense has been paid out of
the Treasury of the United States.

In the routine of duty some of the officers of the Army and Navy who
first established temporary governments in California and New Mexico
have been succeeded in command by other officers, upon whom light duties
devolved; and the agents employed or designated by them to conduct the
temporary governments have also, in some instances, been superseded by
others. Such appointments for temporary civil duty during our military
occupation were made by the officers in command in the conquered
territories, respectively.

On the conclusion and exchange of ratifications of a treaty of peace
with Mexico, which was proclaimed on the 4th instant, these temporary
governments necessarily ceased to exist. In the instructions to
establish a temporary government over New Mexico, no distinction was
made between that and the other Provinces of Mexico which might be
conquered and held in our military occupation.

The Province of New Mexico, according to its ancient boundaries, as
claimed by Mexico, lies on both sides of the Rio Grande. That part of it
on the east of that river was in dispute when the war between the United
States and Mexico commenced. Texas, by a successful revolution in April,
1836, achieved, and subsequently maintained, her independence. By an act
of the Congress of Texas passed in December, 1836, her western boundary
was declared to be the Rio Grande from its mouth to its source, and
thence due north to the forty-second degree of north latitude. Though
the Republic of Texas, by many acts of sovereignty which she asserted
and exercised, some of which were stated in my annual message of
December, 1846, had established her clear title to the country west of
the Nueces, and bordering upon that part of the Rio Grande which lies
below the Province of New Mexico, she had never conquered or reduced to
actual possession and brought under her Government and laws that part of
New Mexico lying east of the Rio Grande, which she claimed to be within
her limits. On the breaking out of the war we found Mexico in possession
of this disputed