I recommend that these lands be brought into market and sold at such price and under such regulations as Congress may prescribe, and that the right of preemption be secured to such persons as have, under the authority of the War Department, made improvements or acquired rights of possession thereon.  Should Congress deem it proper to authorize the sale of these lands, it will be necessary to attach them to suitable land districts, and that they be placed under the management and control of the General Land Office, as other public lands.

JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, July 11, 1846.

To the Senate of the United States.

I communicate herewith a report from the Secretary of War, together with copies of the reports of the board of engineers heretofore employed in an examination of the coast of Texas with a view to its defense and improvement, called for by the resolution of the 29th June, 1846.

JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, July 15, 1846.

To the Senate of the United States: 

I transmit herewith, for the consideration of the Senate, a treaty concluded on the 15th day of May last with the Comanche and other tribes or bands of Indians of Texas and the Southwestern prairies.  I also inclose a communication from the Secretary of War and a report from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, with accompanying documents, which contain full explanations of the considerations which led to the negotiation of the treaty and the general objects sought to be accomplished by it.

JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, July 21, 1846.

To the Senate of the United States: 

I herewith transmit, in compliance with the request of the Senate in their resolution of the 17th of June, 1846, a report of the Secretary of State, together with a copy of all “the dispatches and instructions” “relative to the Oregon treaty” “forwarded to our minister, Mr. McLane,” “not heretofore communicated to the Senate,” including a statement of the propositions for the adjustment of the Oregon question previously made and rejected by the respective Governments.  This statement was furnished to Mr. McLane before his departure from the country, and is dated on the 12th July, 1845, the day on which the note was addressed by the Secretary of State to Mr. Pakenham offering to settle the controversy by the forty-ninth parallel of latitude, which was rejected by that minister on the 29th July following.

The Senate will perceive that extracts from but two of Mr. McLane’s “dispatches and communications to this Government” are transmitted, and these only because they were necessary to explain the answers given to them by the Secretary of State.

These dispatches are both numerous and voluminous, and, from their confidential character, their publication, it is believed, would be highly prejudicial to the public interests.