s means of continuing or
waging the war. If the commanders of our forces, while acting under the
orders of the President, in the heart of the enemy's country and
surrounded by a hostile population, possess none of these essential and
indispensable powers of war, but must halt the Army at every step of its
progress and wait for an act of Congress to be passed to authorize them
to do that which every other nation has the right to do by virtue of the
laws of nations, then, indeed, is the Government of the United States in
a condition of imbecility and weakness, which must in all future time
render it impossible to prosecute a foreign war in an enemy's country
successfully or to vindicate the national rights and the national honor
by war.

The contributions levied were collected in the enemy's country, and were
ordered to be "applied" in the enemy's country "toward defraying the
expenses of the war," and the appropriations made by Congress for that
purpose were thus relieved, and considerable balances remained undrawn
from the Treasury. The amount of contributions remaining unexpended at
the close of the war, as far as the accounts of collecting and
disbursing officers have been settled, have been paid into the Treasury
in pursuance of an order for that purpose, except the sum "applied
toward the payment of the first installment due under the treaty with
Mexico," as stated in my last annual message, for which an appropriation
had been made by Congress. The accounts of some of these officers, as
stated in the report of the Secretary of War accompanying that message,
will require legislation before they can be finally settled.

In the late war with Mexico it is confidently believed that the levy of
contributions and the seizure of the sources of public revenue upon
which the enemy relied to enable him to continue the war essentially
contributed to hasten peace. By those means the Government and people of
Mexico were made to feel the pressure of the war and to realize that if
it were protracted its burdens and inconveniences must be borne by
themselves. Notwithstanding the great success of our arms, it may well
be doubted whether an honorable peace would yet have been obtained but
for the very contributions which were exacted.

JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, _January 4, 1849_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit to the Senate, for their consideration and advice with regard
to its ratification, a conventi