State of the Union | Page 7

the Treasury.
No direct aid has been given by the General Government to the
improvement of agriculture except by the expenditure of small sums for
the collection and publication of agricultural statistics and for some
chemical analyses, which have been thus far paid for out of the patent
fund. This aid is, in my opinion, wholly inadequate. To give to this
leading branch of American industry the encouragement which it merits,
I respectfully recommend the establishment of an agricultural bureau,
to be connected with the Department of the Interior. To elevate the
social condition of the agriculturist, to increase his prosperity, and to
extend his means of usefulness to his country, by multiplying his
sources of information, should be the study of every statesman and a
primary object with every legislator.
No civil government having been provided by Congress for California,
the people of that Territory, impelled by the necessities of their political
condition, recently met in convention for the purpose of forming a
constitution and State government, which the latest advices give me
reason to suppose has been accomplished; and it is believed they will
shortly apply for the admission of California into the Union as a
sovereign State. Should such be the case, and should their constitution
be conformable to the requisitions of the Constitution of the United
States, I recommend their application to the favorable consideration of

Congress. The people of New Mexico will also, it is believed, at no
very distant period present themselves for admission into the Union.
Preparatory to the admission of California and New Mexico the people
of each will have instituted for themselves a republican form of
government, "laying its foundation in such principles and organizing its
powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their
safety and happiness." By awaiting their action all causes of uneasiness
may be avoided and confidence and kind feeling preserved. With a
view of maintaining the harmony and tranquillity so dear to all, we
should abstain from the introduction of those exciting topics of a
sectional character which have hitherto produced painful apprehensions
in the public mind; and I repeat the solemn warning of the first and
most illustrious of my predecessors against furnishing "any ground for
characterizing parties by geographical discriminations."
A collector has been appointed at San Francisco under the act of
Congress extending the revenue laws over California, and measures
have been taken to organize the custom-houses at that and the other
ports mentioned in that act at the earliest period practicable. The
collector proceeded overland, and advices have not yet been received of
his arrival at San Francisco. Meanwhile, it is understood that the
customs have continued to be collected there by officers acting under
the military authority, as they were during the Administration of my
predecessor. It will, I think, be expedient to confirm the collections thus
made, and direct the avails (after such allowances as Congress may
think fit to authorize) to be expended within the Territory or to be paid
into the Treasury for the purpose of meeting appropriations for the
improvement of its rivers and harbors.
A party engaged on the coast survey was dispatched to Oregon in
January last. According to the latest advices, they had not left
California; and directions have been given to them, as soon as they
shall have fixed on the sites of the two light-houses and the buoys
authorized to be constructed and placed in Oregon, to proceed without
delay to make reconnaissance of the most important points on the coast
of California, and especially to examine and determine on sites for
light-houses on that coast, the speedy erection of which is urgently
demanded by our rapidly increasing commerce.
I have transferred the Indian agencies from upper Missouri and Council

Bluffs to Santa Fe and Salt Lake, and have caused to be appointed
subagents in the valleys of the Gila, the Sacramento, and the San
Joaquin rivers. Still further legal provisions will be necessary for the
effective and successful extension of our system of Indian intercourse
over the new territories.
I recommend the establishment of a branch mint in California, as it will,
in my opinion, afford important facilities to those engaged in mining,
as well as to the Government in the disposition of the mineral lands.
I also recommend that commissions be organized by Congress to
examine and decide upon the validity of the present subsisting land
titles in California and New Mexico, and that provision be made for the
establishment of offices of surveyor-general in New Mexico, California,
and Oregon and for the surveying and bringing into market the public
lands in those Territories. Those lands, remote in position and difficult
of access, ought to be disposed of on terms liberal to all, but especially
favorable to