The great results which have been developed and brought to light by
this war will be of immeasurable importance in the future progress of
our country. They will tend powerfully to preserve us from foreign
collisions, and to enable us to pursue uninterruptedly our cherished
policy of "peace with all nations, entangling alliances with none."
Occupying, as we do, a more commanding position among nations than at
any former period, our duties and our responsibilities to ourselves
and to posterity are correspondingly increased. This will be the more
obvious when we consider the vast additions which have been recently
made to our territorial possessions and their great importance and
value.
Within less than four years the annexation of Texas to the Union has
been consummated; all conflicting title to the Oregon Territory south of
the forty-ninth degree of north latitude, being all that was insisted on
by any of my predecessors, has been adjusted, and New Mexico and Upper
California have been acquired by treaty. The area of these several
Territories, according to a report carefully prepared by the
Commissioner of the General Land Office from the most authentic
information in his possession, and which is herewith transmitted,
contains 1,193,061 square miles, or 763,559,040 acres; while the area of
the remaining twenty-nine States and the territory not yet organized
into States east of the Rocky Mountains contains 2,059,513 square miles,
or 1,318,126,058 acres.
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