If the commanders of our forces, while acting under the
orders of the President, in the heart of the enemy's country and
surrounded by a hostile population, possess none of these essential and
indispensable powers of war, but must halt the Army at every step of its
progress and wait for an act of Congress to be passed to authorize them
to do that which every other nation has the right to do by virtue of the
laws of nations, then, indeed, is the Government of the United States in
a condition of imbecility and weakness, which must in all future time
render it impossible to prosecute a foreign war in an enemy's country
successfully or to vindicate the national rights and the national honor
by war.
The contributions levied were collected in the enemy's country, and were
ordered to be "applied" in the enemy's country "toward defraying the
expenses of the war," and the appropriations made by Congress for that
purpose were thus relieved, and considerable balances remained undrawn
from the Treasury. The amount of contributions remaining unexpended at
the close of the war, as far as the accounts of collecting and
disbursing officers have been settled, have been paid into the Treasury
in pursuance of an order for that purpose, except the sum "applied
toward the payment of the first installment due under the treaty with
Mexico," as stated in my last annual message, for which an appropriation
had been made by Congress.
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