hese be
included, the length of the shore line of coast, as estimated by the
Superintendent of the Coast Survey in his report, would be 33,063 miles.

It would be difficult to calculate the value of these immense additions
to our territorial possessions. Texas, lying contiguous to the western
boundary of Louisiana, embracing within its limits a part of the
navigable tributary waters of the Mississippi and an extensive seacoast,
could not long have remained in the hands of a foreign power without
endangering the peace of our southwestern frontier. Her products in the
vicinity of the tributaries of the Mississippi must have sought a market
through these streams, running into and through our territory, and the
danger of irritation and collision of interests between Texas as a
foreign state and ourselves would have been imminent, while the
embarrassments in the commercial intercourse between them must have been
constant and unavoidable. Had Texas fallen into the hands or under the
influence and control of a strong maritime or military foreign power, as
she might have done, these dangers would have been still greater. They
have been avoided by her voluntary and peaceful annexation to the United
States. Texas, from her position, was a natural and almost indispensable
part of our territories. Fortunately, she has been restored to our
country, and now constitutes one of the States of our Confederacy, "upon
an equal footing with the original States." The salubrity of climate,
the fertility of soil, peculiarly adapted to the production of some of
our most valuable staple commodities, and her commercial advantages must
soon make her one of our most populous States.

New Mexico, though situated in the interior and without a seacoast, is
known to contain much fertile land, to abound in rich mines of the
precious metals, and to be capable of sustaining a large population.
From its position it is the intermediate and connecting territory
between our settlements and our possessions in Texas and those on the
Pacific Coast.

Upper California, irrespective of the vast mineral wealth recently
developed there, holds at this day, in point of value and importance,
to the rest of the Union the same relation that Louisiana did when that
fine territory was acquired from France forty-five years ago. Extending
nearly ten degrees of latitude along the Pacific, and embracing the only
safe and commodious harbors on that coast for many hundred miles