carefully prepared by the
Commissioner of the General Land Office from the most authentic
information in his possession, and which is herewith transmitted,
contains 1,193,061 square miles, or 763,559,040 acres; while the area of
the remaining twenty-nine States and the territory not yet organized
into States east of the Rocky Mountains contains 2,059,513 square miles,
or 1,318,126,058 acres. These estimates show that the territories
recently acquired, and over which our exclusive jurisdiction and
dominion have been extended, constitute a country more than half as
large as all that which was held by the United States before their
acquisition. If Oregon be excluded from the estimate, there will still
remain within the limits of Texas, New Mexico, and California 851,598
square miles, or 545,012,720 acres, being an addition equal to more than
one-third of all the territory owned by the United States before their
acquisition, and, including Oregon, nearly as great an extent of
territory as the whole of Europe, Russia only excepted. The Mississippi,
so lately the frontier of our country, is now only its center. With the
addition of the late acquisitions, the United States are now estimated
to be nearly as large as the whole of Europe. It is estimated by the
Superintendent of the Coast Survey in the accompanying report that the
extent of the seacoast of Texas on the Gulf of Mexico is upward of 400
miles; of the coast of Upper California on the Pacific, of 970 miles,
and of Oregon, including the Straits of Fuca, of 650 miles, making the
whole extent of seacoast on the Pacific 1,620 miles and the whole extent
on both the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico 2,020 miles. The length of
the coast on the Atlantic from the northern limits of the United States
around the capes of Florida to the Sabine, on the eastern boundary of
Texas, is estimated to be 3,100 miles; so that the addition of seacoast,
including Oregon, is very nearly two-thirds as great as all we possessed
before, and, excluding Oregon, is an addition of 1,370 miles, being
nearly equal to one-half of the extent of coast which we possessed
before these acquisitions. We have now three great maritime fronts--on
the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific--making in the whole
an extent of seacoast exceeding 5,000 miles. This is the extent of the
seacoast of the United States, not including bays, sounds, and small
irregularities of the main shore and of the sea islands. If t