dary between that State and the
Territory of New Mexico was, immediately on its passage, transmitted by
express to the governor of Texas, to be laid by him before the general
assembly for its agreement thereto. Its receipt was duly acknowledged,
but no official information has yet been received of the action of the
general assembly thereon. It may, however, be very soon expected, as,
by the terms of the propositions submitted they were to have been acted
upon on or before the first day of the present month.

It was hardly to have been expected that the series of measures passed
at your last session with the view of healing the sectional differences
which had sprung from the slavery and territorial questions should at
once have realized their beneficent purpose. All mutual concession in
the nature of a compromise must necessarily be unwelcome to men of
extreme opinions. And though without such concessions our Constitution
could not have been formed, and can not be permanently sustained, yet we
have seen them made the subject of bitter controversy in both sections
of the Republic, It required many months of discussion and deliberation
to secure the concurrence of a majority of Congress in their favor. It
would be strange if they had been received with immediate approbation by
people and States prejudiced and heated by the exciting controversies of
their representatives. I believe those measures to have been required
by the circumstances and condition of the country. I believe they
were necessary to allay asperities and animosities that were rapidly
alienating one section of the country from another and destroying
those fraternal sentiments which are the strongest supports of the
Constitution. They were adopted in the spirit of conciliation and for
the purpose of conciliation. I believe that a great majority of our
fellow-citizens sympathize in that spirit and that purpose, and in
the main approve and are prepared in all respects to sustain these
enactments. I can not doubt that the American people, bound together by
kindred blood and common traditions, still cherish a paramount regard
for the Union of their fathers, and that they are ready to rebuke any
attempt to violate its integrity, to disturb the compromises on which
it is based, or to resist the laws which have been enacted under its
authority.

The series of measures to which I have alluded are regarded by me as
a settlement in principle and substance--a final set