Message to Congress Requesting Legislation for the Adjustment of Lands Claims by Mexican Citizens in Arizona and New Mexico

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

In my annual message I called attention to the urgent need of legislation for the adjustment of the claims under Mexican grants to lands in Arizona and New Mexico.

I now submit a correspondence which has passed between the Department of State and the Mexican Government concerning the rights of certain Mexican citizens to have their claims to lands ceded to the United States by the treaty adjusted and confirmed. I also submit a letter from the Secretary of the Interior, with accompanying papers, showing the number and extent of these claims and their present condition.

The United States owes a duty to Mexico to confirm to her citizens those valid grants that were saved by the treaty, and the long delay which has attended the discharge of this duty has given just cause of complaint.

The entire community where these large claims exist, and, indeed, all of our people, are interested in an early and final settlement of them. No greater incubus can rest upon the energies of a people in the development of a new country than that resulting from unsettled land titles.

The necessity for legislation is so evident and so urgent that I venture to express the hope that relief will be given at the present session of Congress.

BENJ. HARRISON