The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, vol 2 | Page 9

go on this winter; but
I came away, and forgot to do it. What I want now is to send you the
money, to be used accordingly, if any one comes on to start the case, or
to be retained by you if no one does.
There is nothing of consequence new here. Congress is to organize
to-morrow. Last night we held a Whig caucus for the House, and
nominated Winthrop of Massachusetts for speaker, Sargent of
Pennsylvania for sergeant-at-arms, Homer of New Jersey door-keeper,
and McCormick of District of Columbia postmaster. The Whig
majority in the House is so small that, together with some little
dissatisfaction, [it] leaves it doubtful whether we will elect them all.
This paper is too thick to fold, which is the reason I send only a
half-sheet.
Yours as ever, A. LINCOLN.

TO WILLIAM H. HERNDON.
WASHINGTON, December 13, 1847
DEAR WILLIAM:--Your letter, advising me of the receipt of our fee in
the bank case, is just received, and I don't expect to hear another as
good a piece of news from Springfield while I am away. I am under no
obligations to the bank; and I therefore wish you to buy bank
certificates, and pay my debt there, so as to pay it with the least money
possible. I would as soon you should buy them of Mr. Ridgely, or any
other person at the bank, as of any one else, provided you can get them
as cheaply. I suppose, after the bank debt shall be paid, there will be
some money left, out of which I would like to have you pay Lavely and
Stout twenty dollars, and Priest and somebody (oil-makers) ten dollars,
for materials got for house-painting. If there shall still be any left, keep
it till you see or hear from me.
I shall begin sending documents so soon as I can get them. I wrote you
yesterday about a "Congressional Globe." As you are all so anxious for
me to distinguish myself, I have concluded to do so before long.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.

RESOLUTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES, DECEMBER 22, 1847
Whereas, The President of the United States, in his message of May 11,
1846, has declared that "the Mexican Government not only refused to
receive him [the envoy of the United States], or to listen to his
propositions, but, after a long-continued series of menaces, has at last
invaded our territory and shed the blood of our fellow-citizens on our
own soil";
And again, in his message of December 8, 1846, that "we had ample
cause of war against Mexico long before the breaking out of hostilities;
but even then we forbore to take redress into our own hands until
Mexico herself became the aggressor, by invading our soil in hostile
array, and shedding the blood of our citizens";
And yet again, in his message of December 7, 1847, that "the Mexican
Government refused even to hear the terms of adjustment which he [our
minister of peace] was authorized to propose, and finally, under wholly
unjustifiable pretexts, involved the two countries in war, by invading

the territory of the State of Texas, striking the first blow, and shedding
the blood of our citizens on our own soil";
And whereas, This House is desirous to obtain a full knowledge of all
the facts which go to establish whether the particular spot on which the
blood of our citizens was so shed was or was not at that time our own
soil: therefore,
Resolved, By the House of Representatives, that the President of the
United States be respectfully requested to inform this House:
First. Whether the spot on which the blood of our citizens was shed, as
in his message declared, was or was not within the territory of Spain, at
least after the treaty of 1819, until the Mexican revolution.
Second. Whether that spot is or is not within the territory which was
wrested from Spain by the revolutionary government of Mexico.
Third. Whether that spot is or is not within a settlement of people,
which settlement has existed ever since long before the Texas
revolution, and until its inhabitants fled before the approach of the
United States army.
Fourth. Whether that settlement is or is not isolated from any and all
other settlements by the Gulf and the Rio Grande on the south and west,
and by wide uninhabited regions on the north and east.
Fifth. Whether the people of that settlement, or a majority of them, or
any of them, have ever submitted themselves to the government or laws
of Texas or of the United States, by consent or by compulsion, either
by accepting office, or voting at elections, or paying tax, or serving on
juries, or having process served upon them, or