e sake of preserving the harmony and possibly the existence of the
Union.

It was upon these considerations that at the close of your last session
I gave my sanction to the principle of the Missouri compromise line by
approving and signing the bill to establish "the Territorial government
of Oregon." From a sincere desire to preserve the harmony of the Union,
and in deference for the acts of my predecessors, I felt constrained
to yield my acquiescence to the extent to which they had gone in
compromising this delicate and dangerous question. But if Congress shall
now reverse the decision by which the Missouri compromise was effected,
and shall propose to extend the restriction over the whole territory,
south as well as north of the parallel of 36 deg. 30', it will cease to be
a compromise, and must be regarded as an original question.

If Congress, instead of observing the course of noninterference, leaving
the adoption of their own domestic institutions to the people who may
inhabit these territories, or if, instead of extending the Missouri
compromise line to the Pacific, shall prefer to submit the legal and
constitutional questions which may arise to the decision of the judicial
tribunals, as was proposed in a bill which passed the Senate at your
last session, an adjustment may be effected in this mode. If the whole
subject be referred to the judiciary, all parts of the Union should
cheerfully acquiesce in the final decision of the tribunal created by
the Constitution for the settlement of all questions which may arise
under the Constitution, treaties, and laws of the United States.

Congress is earnestly invoked, for the sake of the Union, its harmony,
and our continued prosperity as a nation, to adjust at its present
session this, the only dangerous question which lies in our path, if
not in some one of the modes suggested, in some other which may be
satisfactory.

In anticipation of the establishment of regular governments over the
acquired territories, a joint commission of officers of the Army and
Navy has been ordered to proceed to the coast of California and Oregon
for the purpose of making reconnoissances and a report as to the proper
sites for the erection of fortifications or other defensive works on
land and of suitable situations for naval stations. The information
which may be expected from a scientific and skillful examination of the
whole face of the coast will be eminently useful to Congress when th