port of the Secretary of State and
the documents therein mentioned.

ANDREW JACKSON.

WASHINGTON, _December 21, 1836_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

During the last session information was given to Congress by the
Executive that measures had been taken to ascertain "the political,
military, and civil condition of Texas." I now submit for your
consideration extracts from the report of the agent who had been
appointed to collect it relative to the condition of that country.

No steps have been taken by the Executive toward the acknowledgment of
the independence of Texas, and the whole subject would have been left
without further remark on the information now given to Congress were it
not that the two Houses at their last session, acting separately, passed
resolutions "that the independence of Texas ought to be acknowledged by
the United States whenever satisfactory information should be received
that it had in successful operation a civil government capable of
performing the duties and fulfilling the obligations of an independent
power." This mark of interest in the question of the independence of
Texas and indication of the views of Congress make it proper that I
should somewhat in detail present the considerations that have governed
the Executive in continuing to occupy the ground previously taken in
the contest between Mexico and Texas.

The acknowledgment of a new state as independent and entitled to a place
in the family of nations is at all times an act of great delicacy and
responsibility, but more especially so when such state has forcibly
separated itself from another of which it had formed an integral part
and which still claims dominion over it. A premature recognition under
these circumstances, if not looked upon as justifiable cause of war, is
always liable to be regarded as a proof of an unfriendly spirit to one
of the contending parties. All questions relative to the government of
foreign nations, whether of the Old or the New World, have been treated
by the United States as questions of fact only, and our predecessors
have cautiously abstained from deciding upon them until the clearest
evidence was in their possession to enable them not only to decide
correctly, but to shield their decisions from every unworthy imputation.
In all the contests that have arisen out of the revolutions of France,
out of the disputes relating to the crowns of Portugal and Spain,