Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1850-08-16


Finmorc's Message Texas & New Mexico.
To the Senate Gad House Of Representatives.:
| herewith transmit to the two Houses ofCengress
letter from his Excellency the Governor OF Texas,
dated the 14th day of June last addressed to the
late President of the United States, which, not hay
ing been answered by him. came to my hands on his
death and also transmit copy of the answer,
which have felt it my duty to cause to be made to
that communication Congress will perceive that
the Governor of Texas officially states that by the
authority of the Legislature of that State, he de-
spatched special Commissioner with full power
and instructions to extend the civil jurisdiction of
the State the unorganzed counties OF FL Paso,
Worth Prcsidio and Santa Fe, situated its North
western limits. He proceeds to say that the Com
missioner had reported to him in an official form,
that the military officers employed in the service OF
the United States stationed at Santa Fe nterposed
adversely, with the inhabitants, to the fumtnt of
his object in favor of the establishment of separate
State government east of the Rio Grande and with
in the rghtful limits of the State of Texas These
four counties which Texas proposes to establish and
organize being within her own jurisdiction, extend
which has heretofore been regarded as an essential
and integral part of the Department of New Mexico
and actually governed and possessed by her people
until conquered and severed from the Republic of
Mexico by the American arms.
The Legislature of Texas has been called together
by the Governor for the purpose is understood of
maintaining her claim to the territory east of the
Rio Grande, and of establishing it her own jul
risdiction and her laws by force. These pro-
ceedings of Texas may well arrest the attention of
all branches of the government of the United States
and rejoice that they occur while Congress is yet
in session 1t is, fear far from being impossible,
in consequence of these proceedings of Texas, that
crisis may be brought which shall summon the
two houses of Congress-, and still more emphatcally
the Executive government to an immediate readiness
for the performance of their respective duties
By the constitution of the United States the Pres
ident is constituted Commander-nChief of the Army
and Navy, and of the militia of the several States,
when called into tho actual service of the United
States The constitution declares also that he shall
take that the laws shall be faithfully executed
and that he SHALL from time to time, give to Congress
information of the state of the Union Congress has
power by the constitution to provide, by calling forth
the militia to execute the laws of the Union, and
suitable and appropriate acts of Congress have been
passed well for providing for the calling forth of
the militia for placing other suitable and efficient
means in the hands of the President to enable him
to discharge the constitutional functions of his Office
The second section of the act of the 2Sth of Feb
ruary 1875, declares that whenever the laws of the
United States shall be opposed, their execution
obstructed in any State, by combinations too power
full to be suppressed by the ordinary Of judi
ca proceedings, or the power vested in the marshas
the President may call forth the militia, far
may be necessary to suppress such combinations
And to cause the laws to be duly executed By the
Act of March 3d. 1871 it is provided that in all ca
of obstruction to the laws either Of the United
States, any individual State or Territory where
it is lawful for the President to call forth the militia
~. for the purpose of causing the laws to be duly
executed, it shall be lawfully for him to employ for
the purposes such part Of the land or naval force
OF the United States as shall be judged necessary
These several enactments now in full force, so
that if the laws Of the United States are opposed or
obstructed in any State Territory by combinations
too powerful be suppressed by the judicial or civil
authorities, 1t becomes in which it is the duty
Of the President either to call out the militia or to
employ the military and naval force of the United
States, or to do BOTH if in his Judgment, the exigen-
cy of the occasion shall require for the purpose
of SURPRISING such combination The constitution
al duty Of the President is plain and peremptory-
the authority vested in him by law for its perform
ance clear and ample.
Texas is State authorized to maintain her own
laws far as they not repugnant to the consi-
tuition, laws and treaties of the United States; to
suppress instructions against her authority and to
punish those who may commit treason against the
State, according to the forms provided by her own
constitution and her own laws but this power is To-
cal, and confined entirely within the limits of Texas
herself. She possibly confer no authority which
can be lawfully exercised beyond her own bounda-
ries. All this is plain, and hardly needs argument
Or calculation.
If the Texan militia, therefore, should march into
any of the other States, into any territory OF
the United States, there to execute enforce any
law of Texas, they become, at that moment trespass
ers. and they no longer under the protection OF
any lawful authority. and to be regarded merely
as intruders and if within such State or territory
they obstruct any law Of the United States, ethel
by power Of arms Or mere power Of numbers, cOnst
tuting such obstruction is too powerful to BE-
suppressed by the civil authority the President O.
| the United States has option left to him, but i
bound to obey the solemn injunction of the consitu
ton and exercise the high powers vested in him by
that instrument and by the acts of Congress; or,
any civil posse, armed or unarmed. enter into an,
territory Of the United States under the protection
the laws thereof with intent to seize individuals t
be carried elsewhere for trial for alleged offences
and this posse be too powerful to be resisted by tn
local and civil authority, such seizure attempt t.
seize is to be prevented resisted by the authori
of the United States
: The grave and important question arises
whether there be in the territory of New Mexico
existing law of the United States opposition to whic
or the obstruction of which would constitute cas-
calling for the nterposton of the authority veste
in the President. The Constitution Of the Unite
States declares that the constitution and the laws
the United States, which shall be made in pursuanc
thereof, and all the treaties made, or which shall
made under the authority of the United States, sha
be the supreme law of the land. If therefore, Ne
Mexico be territory of the United States, and if
treaty stipulation be in force therein, such treat
y stipulation is the supreme law of the land and is
IS be maintained and upheld accordingly.
IS In the letter to the Governor of Texas my reason
n are given for believing that New Mexico is now
territory of the United States, with the same exter
and the same boundaries which belonged to it viii
20 in the actual possession of the Republic of Mexic
of and before the late
In the early part of that war, both California ar
-, New Mexico were conquered by the arms of the Tn
ted States, and in the military possession of tt
United States at the date of the treaty of peace
that treaty the title by conquest was confirmed ar