If no foreign government should acquire it in either of
these modes, an independent revolutionary government would probably be
established by the inhabitants and such foreigners as may remain in or
remove to the country as soon as it shall be known that the United
States have abandoned it. Such a government would be too feeble long to
maintain its separate independent existence, and would finally become
annexed to or be a dependent colony of some more powerful state.
Should any foreign government attempt to possess it as a colony, or
otherwise to incorporate it with itself, the principle avowed by
President Monroe in 1824, and reaffirmed in my first annual message,
that no foreign power shall with our consent be permitted to plant or
establish any new colony or dominion on any part of the North American
continent must be maintained. In maintaining this principle and in
resisting its invasion by any foreign power we might be involved in
other wars more expensive and more difficult than that in which we are
now engaged.
The Provinces of New Mexico and the Californias are contiguous to the
territories of the United States, and if brought under the government of
our laws their resources--mineral, agricultural, manufacturing, and
commercial--would soon be developed.
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