The accounts of some of these officers, as
stated in the report of the Secretary of War accompanying that message,
will require legislation before they can be finally settled.
In the late war with Mexico it is confidently believed that the levy of
contributions and the seizure of the sources of public revenue upon
which the enemy relied to enable him to continue the war essentially
contributed to hasten peace. By those means the Government and people of
Mexico were made to feel the pressure of the war and to realize that if
it were protracted its burdens and inconveniences must be borne by
themselves. Notwithstanding the great success of our arms, it may well
be doubted whether an honorable peace would yet have been obtained but
for the very contributions which were exacted.
JAMES K. POLK.
WASHINGTON, _January 4, 1849_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit to the Senate, for their consideration and advice with regard
to its ratification, a convention between the United States of America
and the Government of Her Britannic Majesty, for the improvement of the
communication by post between their respective territories, concluded
and signed at London on the 15th December last, together with an
explanatory dispatch from our minister at that Court.
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