Important Texas Document - Compromise of 1850

"[Texas Boundary Dispute] Message from the President of the United States, Relative to the Claim of Texas to Jurisdiction Over Part of New Mexico", U.S. Government

This fascinating 13 page report concerns the western boundary dispute between Texas and the United States. In March of 1850, Texas had sent Robert Neighbors west of the Rio Grande in order to establish four new counties under Texas' authority, but United States troops stationed there resisted his attempts. Peter Bell, the governor of Texas at the time, sent a letter to the President to understand if this was in fact the United States' position on this newly acquired territory. President Fillmore's response to Bell's letter is the bulk of the text and calls for Congress to resolve the issue, though he makes it clear that "if the laws of the United States are opposed or obstructed, in any State or Territory, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the judicial or civil authorities, it becomes a case 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." On September 9th, Congress passed a bill proposed by James Pearce that paid Texas $10 million to adopt its present-day borders along with the United States assuming its debt. This agreement was one of the five components to the Compromise of 1850.

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Condition: A

Clean, bright, disbound text.