ormed, I hope I shall not be
regarded as stepping aside from the line of my duty, notwithstanding
that I am aware that the subject is now before both Houses, if I
express my deep and earnest conviction of the importance of an immediate
decision or arrangement or settlement of the question of boundary
between Texas and the Territory of New Mexico. All considerations of
justice, general expediency, and domestic tranquillity call for this.
It seems to be in its character and by position the first, or one of
the first, of the questions growing out of the acquisition of California
and New Mexico, and now requiring decision.

No government can be established for New Mexico, either State or
Territorial, until it shall be first ascertained what New Mexico
is, and what are her limits and boundaries. These can not be fixed
or known till the line of division between her and Texas shall be
ascertained and established; and numerous and weighty reasons
conspire, in my judgment, to show that this divisional line should be
established by Congress with the assent of the government of Texas. In
the first place, this seems by far the most prompt mode of proceeding
by which the end can be accomplished. If judicial proceedings were
resorted to, such proceedings would necessarily be slow, and years
would pass by, in all probability, before the controversy could be
ended. So great a delay in this case is to be avoided if possible.
Such delay would be every way inconvenient, and might be the occasion
of disturbances and collisions. For the same reason I would, with the
utmost deference to the wisdom of Congress, express a doubt of the
expediency of the appointment of commissioners, and of an examination,
estimate, and an award of indemnity to be made by them. This would be
but a species of arbitration, which might last as long as a suit at
law.

So far as I am able to comprehend the case, the general facts are
now all known, and Congress is as capable of deciding on it justly
and properly now as it probably would be after the report of the
commissioners. If the claim of title on the part of Texas appears
to Congress to be well founded in whole or in part, it is in the
competency of Congress to offer her an indemnity for the surrender of
that claim. In a case like this, surrounded, as it is, by many cogent
considerations, all calling for amicable adjustment and immediate
settlement, the Government of the United States would be justified,
in