32. [BORDERLANDS]. UNITED STATES. PRESIDENT
(Millard Fillmore). Message from the President of the
United States, to the Two Houses of Congress, at the
Commencement of the Second Session of the Thirty-First
Congress. December 2, 1850.... Washington: HRED1, 1850.
126 pp., 4 folding charts. 8vo, modern maroon cloth with
leather spine label.
First
edition. This report, complete in itself, is usually
found with the large bound collection of reports that
contain the Cross overland (see Plains & Rockies
IV:181:3). The present report is by Secretary of War,
C. M. Conrad, and provides details on the operations of the
Army during the latter part of 1849 and 1850. This section
of the report, often overlooked in the excitement of the
well-deserving Cross-Oregon report, contains substantial
material on Texas and the West that deserves more careful
examination, e.g.: List of Correspondence on the Subject
of Indian Hostilities in Texas, New Mexico, and California
(pp. 1-83, rich in detail, including dispatches by
"Rip" Ford, documentation). Also of documentary value are
the reports: Civil Expenses in New Mexico (pp.
91-108, short but important series of reports documenting
establishing civil government in New Mexico) and an
accounting of expenses in the Western Department, including
the Topographical Engineers and some details on the
establishment of civil government in California.
($80-200)