ght of Texas may have been to it, that right had never been reduced
into her possession, and it was contested by Mexico.

By the cession of the whole of New Mexico, on both sides of the Rio
Grande, to the United States, the question of disputed boundary, so far
as Mexico is concerned, has been settled, leaving the question as to the
true limits of Texas in New Mexico to be adjusted between that State and
the United States.

Under the circumstances existing during the pendency of the war, and
while the whole of New Mexico, as claimed by our enemy, was in our
military occupation, I was not unmindful of the rights of Texas to that
portion of it which she claimed to be within her limits. In answer to a
letter from the governor of Texas dated on the 4th of January, 1847, the
Secretary of State, by my direction, informed him in a letter of the
12th of February, 1847, that in the President's annual message of
December, 1846--

You have already perceived that New Mexico is at present in the
temporary occupation of the troops of the United States, and the
government over it is military in its character. It is merely such a
government as must exist under the laws of nations and of war to
preserve order and protect the rights of the inhabitants, and will cease
on the conclusion of a treaty of peace with Mexico. Nothing, therefore,
can be more certain than that this temporary government, resulting from
necessity, can never injuriously affect the right which the President
believes to be justly asserted by Texas to the whole territory on this
side of the Rio Grande whenever the Mexican claim to it shall have been
extinguished by treaty. But this is a subject which more properly
belongs to the legislative than the executive branch of the Government.

The result of the whole is that Texas had asserted a right to that part
of New Mexico east of the Rio Grande, which is believed, under the acts
of Congress for the annexation and admission of Texas into the Union as
a State, and under the constitution and laws of Texas, to be well
founded; but this right had never been reduced to her actual possession
and occupancy. The General Government, possessing exclusively the
war-making power, had the right to take military possession of this
disputed territory, and until the title to it was perfected by a treaty
of peace it was their duty to hold it and to establish a temporary
military government over it for the prese