In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of July 13, 1848, I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of War and accompanying documents, containing all the proceedings of the two courts of inquiry in the case of Major-General Pillow, the one commenced and terminated in Mexico, the other commenced in Mexico and terminated in the United States.

JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, July 24, 1848.

To the House of Representatives of the United States: 

In answer to the resolutions of the House of Representatives of the 10th instant, requesting information in relation to New Mexico and California, I communicate herewith reports from the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War, and the Secretary of the Navy, with the documents which accompany the same.  These reports and documents contain information upon the several points of inquiry embraced by the resolutions.  “The proper limits and boundaries of New Mexico and California” are delineated on the map referred to in the late treaty with Mexico, an authentic copy of which is herewith transmitted; and all the additional information upon that subject, and also the most reliable information in respect to the population of these respective Provinces, which is in the possession of the Executive will be found in the accompanying report of the Secretary of State.

The resolutions request information in regard to the existence of civil governments in New Mexico and California, their “form and character,” by “whom instituted,” by “what authority,” and how they are “maintained and supported.”

In my message of December 22, 1846, in answer to a resolution of the House of Representatives calling for information “in relation to the establishment or organization of civil government in any portion of the territory of Mexico which has or might be taken possession of by the Army or Navy of the United States,” I communicated the orders which had been given to the officers of our Army and Navy, and stated the general authority upon which temporary military governments had been established over the conquered portion of Mexico then in our military occupation.

The temporary governments authorized were instituted by virtue of the rights of war.  The power to declare war against a foreign country, and to prosecute it according to the general laws of war, as sanctioned by civilized nations, it will not be questioned, exists under our Constitution.  When Congress has declared that war exists with a foreign nation, “the general laws of war apply to our situation,” and it becomes the duty of the President, as the constitutional “Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States,” to prosecute it.