will be taken to procure this information at
the earliest practicable period. It is estimated, as appears from the
accompanying report of the Secretary of the Treasury, that much the
larger portion of the land within the territories ceded remains vacant
and unappropriated, and will be subject to be disposed of by the United
States. Indeed, a very inconsiderable portion of the land embraced in
the cession, it is believed, has been disposed of or granted either by
Spain or Mexico.

What amount of money the United States may be able to realize from the
sales of these vacant lands must be uncertain, but it is confidently
believed that with prudent management, after making liberal grants to
emigrants and settlers, it will exceed the cost of the war and all the
expenses to which we have been subjected in acquiring it.

The resolutions also call for "the evidence, or any part thereof, that
the 'extensive and valuable territories ceded by Mexico to the United
States constitute indemnity for the past.'"

The immense value of the ceded country does not consist alone in the
amount of money for which the public lands may be sold. If not a dollar
could be realized from the sale of these lands, the cession of the
jurisdiction over the country and the fact that it has become a part of
our Union and call not be made subject to any European power constitute
ample "indemnity for the past" in the immense value and advantages which
its acquisition must give to the commercial, navigating, manufacturing,
and agricultural interests of our country.

The value of the public lands embraced within the limits of the ceded
territory, great as that value may be, is far less important to the
people of the United States than the sovereignty over the country. Most
of our States contain no public lands owned by the United States, and
yet the sovereignty and jurisdiction over them is of incalculable
importance to the nation. In the State of New York the United States is
the owner of no public lands, and yet two-thirds of our whole revenue is
collected at the great port of that State, and within her limits is
found about one-seventh of our entire population. Although none of the
future cities on our coast of California may ever rival the city of New
York in wealth, population, and business, yet that important cities will
grow up on the magnificent harbors of that coast, with a rapidly
increasing commerce and population, and yielding a large revenue, wo