; and a revenue
officer, to reside within that district, has been appointed, by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate. It became, therefore, of urgent
necessity to provide for the defence of that portion of our country.
Accordingly, on the 13th of January last, instructions were issued to
the general in command of these troops to occupy the left bank of the
del Norte....

The movement of the troops to the del Norte was made by the commanding
general, under positive instructions to abstain from all aggressive acts
towards Mexico or Mexican citizens, and to regard the relations between
that Republic and the United States as peaceful, unless she should
declare war, or commit acts of hostility indicative of a state of war.
He was specially directed to protect private property, and respect
personal rights."

In his annual message of December 8, 1846, the President states that
Texas, as ceded to the United States by France in 1803, has been always
claimed as extending west to the Rio Grande; that this fact is
established by declarations of our Government during Mr. Jefferson's and
Mr. Monroe's administrations; and that the Texas which was ceded to
Spain by the Florida treaty of 1819, embraced all the country now
claimed by the State of Texas between the Nueces and the Rio Grande.

He then repeats the Acts of Texas with reference to their boundaries;
stating that "during a period of more than nine years, which intervened
between the adoption of her constitution and her annexation as one of
the States of our Union, Texas asserted and exercised many acts of
sovereignty and jurisdiction over the territory and inhabitants west of
the Nueces; such as organizing and defining limits of counties extending
to the Rio Grande; establishing courts of justice, and extending her
judicial system over the territory; establishing also a custom-house,
post-offices, a land-office, &c."

The President designates by the name of _Texas_, the cession of
Louisiana by France to the United States; and he again calls the
territory ceded to Spain by the Florida treaty of 1819, _the Texas_. He
intimates that the claim of the United States to the territory between
the Sabine and the Rio Norte, was derived from the boundaries of Texas,
and that by claiming as far west as this river, the United States did
recognize that it was the boundary of _the Texas_. I really do not
understand what is meant by this assertion.

The United States claimed the