DECEMBER, 1846.]

The President's Message.

[29TH CONG.

recommended that another demand for redress for redress, and " many of them aggravated cases should be made before authorizing war or reprisals. The Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, in their report, say: "After such a demand, should prompt justice be refused by the Mexican Government, we may appeal to all nations not only for the equity and moderation with which we shall have acted towards a sister republic, but for the necessity which will then compel us to seek redress for our wrongs, either by actual war or by reprisals. The subject will then be presented before Congress, at the commencement of the next session, in a clear and distinct form; and the committee cannot doubt but that such measures will be immediately adopted as may be necessary to vindicate the honor of the country, and insure ample reparation to our injured citizens."

The Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives made a similar recommendation. In their report, they say that they "fully concur with the President that ample cause exists for taking redress into our own hands, and believe that we should be justified in the opinion of other nations for taking such a step. But they are willing to try the experiment of another demand, made in the most solemn form, upon the justice of the Mexican Government, before any further proceedings are adopted."

of personal wrongs, have been now for years before the Mexican Government, and some of the causes of national complaint, and those of the most offensive character, admitted of immediate, simple, and satisfactory replies, it is only within a few days past that any specific communication in answer to our last demand, made five months ago, has been received from the Mexican Minister;" and that "for not one of our public complaints has satisfaction been given or offered; that but one of the cases of personal wrong has been favorably considered, and that but four cases of both descriptions, out of all those formally presented, and earnestly pressed, have as yet been decided upon by the Mexican Government." President Van Buren, believing that it would be vain to make any further attempt to obtain redress by the ordinary means within the power of the Executive, communicated this opinion to Congress, in the message referred to, in which he said: " On a careful and deliberate examination of the contents, [of the correspondence with the Mexican Government,] and considering the spirit manifested by the Mexican Government, it has become my painful duty to return the subject as it now stands to Congress, to whom it belongs, to decide upon the time, the mode, and the measure of redress." Had the United States at that time adopted compulsory measures, and taken redress into their own hands, all our difficulties with Mexico would probably have been long since adjusted, and the existing war have been averted. Magnanimity and moderation on our part only had the effect to complicate these difficulties, and render an amicable settlement of them the more embarrassing. That such measures of redress, under similar provocations, committed by any of the powerful nations of Europe, would have been Shortly after these proceedings, a special mes- promptly resorted to by the United States, cannot senger was despatched to Mexico, to make a final be doubted. The national honor, and the preserdemand for redress; and on the twentieth July, vation of the national character throughout the 1857, the demand was made. The reply of the world, as well as our own self-respect and the proMexican Government bears date on the twenty-tection due to our own citizens, would have renninth of the same month, and contains assurances dered such a resort indispensable. The history of the "anxious wish" of the Mexican Government of no civilized nation in modern times has pre"not to delay the moment of that final and equita-sented within so brief a period so many wanton ble adjustment which is to terminate the existing attacks upon the honor of its flag, and upon the difficulties between the two Governments;" that property and persons of its citizens, as had at "nothing should be left undone which may contrib-that time been borne by the United States from ute to the most speedy and equitable determination of the subjects which have so seriously engaged the attention of the American Government; that the "Mexican Government would adopt, as the only guides for its conduct, the plainest principles of public right, the sacred obligations imposed by international law, and the religious faith of treaties;" and that "whatever reason and justice may dictate respecting each case will be done." The assurance was further given, that the decision of the Mexican Government upon each cause of complaint, for which redress had been demanded, should be communicated to the Government of the United States by the Mexican Minister of Washington.

No difference of opinion upon the subject is believed to have existed in Congress at that time; the executive and legislative departments concurred; and yet such has been our forbearance and desire to preserve peace with Mexico, that the wrongs of which we then complained, and which gave rise to these solemn proceedings, not only remain unredressed to this day, but additional causes of complaint, of an aggravated character, have ever since been accumulating.

These solemn assurances, in answer to our demand for redress, were disregarded. By making them, however, Mexico obtained further delay. President Van Buren, in his annual message to Congress of the fifth of December, 1837, states, that "although the larger number" of our demands

the Mexican authorities and people. But Mexico was a sister republic, on the North American continent, occupying a territory contiguous to our own, and was in a feeble and distracted condition, and these considerations, it is presumed, induced Congress to forbear still longer.

Instead of taking redress into our own hands, a new negotiation was entered upon, with fair promises on the part of Mexico, but with the real purpose, as the event has proved, of indefinitely postponing the reparation which we demanded, and which was so justly due. This negotiation, after more than a year's delay, resulted in the convention of the eleventh of April, 1839, "for the adjustment of claims of citizens of the United States of America upon the Government of the Mexican republic." The joint board of commissioners created by this convention to examine and decide upon these claims, was not organized until the month of August, 1840, and under the terms of the convention they were to terminate their duties

within eighteen months from that time. Four of the eighteen months were consumed in preliminary discussions on frivolous and dilatory points raised by the Mexican commissioners; and it was not until the month of December, 1840, that they commenced the examination of the claims of our citizens upon Mexico. Fourteen months only remain ed to examine and decide upon these numerous and complicated cases. In the month of February, 1842, the term of the commission expired, leaving many claims undisposed of for want of time. The claims which were allowed by the board, and by the umpire authorized by the convention to decide in case of disagreement between the Mexican and American commissioners, amounted to two million twenty-six thousand one hundred and thirty-nine dollars and sixty-eight cents. There were pending before the umpire when the commission expired, additional claims, which had been examined and awarded by the American commissioners, and had not been allowed by the Mexican commissioners, amounting to nine hundred and twenty-eight thousand six hundred and twenty-seven dollars and eighty-eight cents, upon which he did not decide, alleging that his authority had ceased with the termination of the joint commission. Besides these claims, there were others of American citizens amounting to three million three hundred and thirty-six thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven dollars and five cents, which had been submitted to the board, and upon which they had not time to decide before their final adjournment.

[DECEMBER, 1846.

by failing and refusing to make the payment. The two instalments due in April and July, 1844, under the peculiar circumstances connected with them, have been assumed by the United States and discharged to the claimants, but they are still due by Mexico. But this is not all of which we have just cause of complaint. To provide a remedy for the claimants whose cases were not decided by the joint commission under the convention of April the eleventh, 1839, it was expressly stipulated by the sixth article of the convention of the thirtieth of January, 1843, that "a new convention shall be entered into for the settlement of all claims of the Government and citizens of the United States against the republic of Mexico which were not finally decided by the late commission, which met in the city of Washington, and of all claims of the Government and citizens of Mexico against the United States."

In conformity with this stipulation, a third convention was concluded and signed at the city of Mexico on the twentieth of November, 1843, by the plenipotentiaries of the two Governments, by which provision was made for ascertaining and paying these claims. In January, 1844, this convention was ratified by the Senate of the United States, with two amendments, which were manifestly reasonable in their character. Upon a reference of the amendments proposed to the Government of Mexico, the same evasions, difficulties, and delays were interposed which have so long marked the policy of that Government towards the United States. It has not even yet decided whether it would or would not accede to them, although the subject has been repeatedly pressed upon its consideration.

Mexico has thus violated a second time the faith of treaties, by failing or refusing to carry into effect the sixth article of the convention of January, 1843.

The sum of two million twenty-six thousand one hundred and thirty-nine dollars and sixty-eight cents, which had been awarded to the claimants, was a liquidated and ascertained debt due by Mexico, about which there could be no dispute, and which she was bound to pay according to the terms of the convention. Soon after the final awards for this amount had been made, the Mexi- Such is the history of the wrongs which we can Government asked for a postponement of the have suffered and patiently endured from Mexico time of making payment, alleging that it would be through a long series of years. So far from affordinconvenient to make the payment at the time ing reasonable satisfaction for the injuries and instipulated. In the spirit of forbearing kindness sults we have borne, a great aggravation of them towards a sister republic, which Mexico has so consists in the fact, that while the United States, long abused, the United States promptly complied anxious to preserve a good understanding with with her request. A second convention was ac- Mexico, have been constantly, but vainly, emcordingly concluded between the two Governments ployed in seeking redress for past wrongs, new on the thirtieth of January, 1843, which upon its outrages were constantly occurring, which have face declares that, "this new arrangement is en- continued to increase our causes of complaint, and tered into for the accommodation of Mexico." to swell the amount of our demands. While the By the terms of this convention, all the interest citizens of the United States were conducting a due on the awards which had been made in favor lawful commerce with Mexico under the guarantee of the claimants under the convention of the of a treaty of "amity, commerce, and navigation," eleventh of April, 1839, was to be paid to them on many of them have suffered all the injuries which the thirtieth of April, 1843, and "the principal of would have resulted from open war. This treaty, the said awards, and the interest accruing thereon," instead of affording protection to our citizens, has was stipulated to "be paid in five years, in equal been the means of inviting them into the ports of instalments every three months." Notwithstand- Mexico, that they might be, as they have been in ing this new convention was entered into at the re- numerous instances, plundered of their property, quest of Mexico, and for the purpose of relieving and deprived of their personal liberty if they dared her from embarrassment, the claimants have only insist on their rights. Had the unlawful seizures received the interest due on the thirtieth of April, of American property, and the violation of the per1843, and three of the twenty instalments. Al-sonal liberty of our citizens, to say nothing of the though the payment of the sum thus liquidated, and confessedly due by Mexico to our citizens as indemnity for acknowledged acts of outrage and wrong, was secured by treaty, the obligations of which are ever held sacred by all just nations, yet Mexico has violated this solemn engagement

insults to our flag which have occurred in the ports of Mexico, taken place on the high seas, they would themselves long since have constituted a state of actual war between the two countries. In so long suffering Mexico to violate her most solemn treaty obligations, plunder our citizens of

DECEMBER, 1846.]

The President's Message,

[29TH CONG.

laws enacted by representatives elected by themselves, and that their lives, liberty, and property, would be protected by constitutional guarantees similar to those which existed in the republic they had left. Under a Government thus organized they continued until the year 1835, when a military revolution broke out in the city of Mexico, which entirely subverted the Federal and State constitutions, and placed a military dictator at the head of the Government.

their property, and imprison their persons without | that in their new home they would be governed by affording them any redress, we have failed to perform one of the first and highest duties which every Government owes to its citizens; and the consequence has been, that many of them have been reduced from state of affluence to bankruptcy. The proud name of American citizen, which ought to protect all who bear it from insult and injury throughout the world, has afforded no such protection to our citizens in Mexico. 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.

By a sweeping decree of a Congress subservient to the will of the dictator, the several State constitutions were abolished, and the States themselves converted into mere departments of the central Government. The people of Texas were unwilling Such are the grave causes of complaint on the to submit to this usurpation. Resistance to such part of the United States against Mexico-causes tyranny became a high duty. Texas was fully which existed long before the annexation of Texas absolved from all allegiance to the central Governto the American Union; and yet, animated by the ment of Mexico from the moment that Government love of peace, and a magnanimous moderation, we had abolished her State constitution, and in its did not adopt those measures of redress which, un-place substituted an arbitrary and despotic central der such circumstances, are the justified resort of injured nations.

The annexation of Texas to the United States constituted no just cause of offence to Mexico. The pretext that it did so, is wholly inconsistent, and irreconcilable with well-authenticated facts connected with the revolution by which Texas became independent of Mexico. That this may be the more manifest, it may be proper to advert to the causes and to the history of the principal events of that revolution.

Texas constituted a portion of the ancient province of Louisiana, ceded to the United States by France in the year 1803. In the year 1819, the United States, by the Florida treaty, ceded to Spain all that part of Louisiana within the present limits of Texas; and Mexico, by the revolution which separated her from Spain, and rendered her an independent nation, succeeded to the rights of the mother country over this territory. In the year 1824, Mexico established a federal constitution, under which the Mexican republic was composed of a number of sovereign States, confederated together in a federal Union similar to our own. Each of these States had its own Executive, Legislature, and Judiciary; and, for all except federal purposes, was as independent of the General Government, and that of the other States, as is Pennsylvania or Virginia under our constitution. Texas and Coahuila united, and formed one of these Mexican States. The State constitution which they adopted, and which was approved by the Mexican confederacy, asserted that they were "free and independent of the other Mexican United States, and of every other power and dominion whatsoever; " and proclaimed the great principle of human liberty, that "the sovereignty of the State resides originally and essentially in the general mass of the individuals who compose it." To the government under this constitution, as well as to that under the federal constitution, the people of Texas owed allegiance.

Emigrants from foreign countries, including the United States, were invited by the colonization laws of the State and of the federal Government to settle in Texas. Advantageous terms were offered to induce them to leave their own country and become Mexican citizens. This invitation was accepted by many of our citizens, in the full faith

Government.

Such were the principal causes of the Texan revolution. The people of Texas at once determined upon resistance, and flew to arms. In the midst of these important and exciting events, however, they did not omit to place their liberties upon a secure and permanent foundation. They elected members to a convention, who, in the month of March 1836, issued a formal declaration that their "political connection with the Mexican nation has forever ended, and that the people of Texas do now constitute a FREE, SOVEREIGN, and INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC, and are fully invested with all the rights and attributes which properly belong to independent nations." They also adopted for their government a liberal republican constitution. About the same time, Santa Anna, then the dictator of Mexico, invaded Texas with a numerous army, for the purpose of subduing her people, and enforcing obedience to his arbitrary and despotic government. On the twenty-first of April, 1836, he was met by the Texan citizen soldiers, and on that day was achieved by them the memorable victory of San Jacinto, by which they conquered their independence. Considering the numbers engaged on the respective sides, history does not record a more brilliant achievement. himself was among the captives.

Santa Anna

In the month of May, 1836, Santa Anna acknowledged, by a treaty with the Texan authorities, in the most solemn form, "the full, entire, and perfect independence of the republic of Texas." It is true, he was then a prisoner of war, but it is equally true that he had failed to reconquer Texas, and had met with signal defeat; that his authority had not been revoked, and that by virtue of this treaty he obtained his personal release. By it hostilities were suspended, and the army which had invaded Texas under his command returned, in pursuance of this arrangement, unmolested, to Mexico.

From the day that the battle of San Jacinto was fought, until the present hour, Mexico has never possessed the power to reconquer Texas. In the language of the Secretary of State of the United States, in a despatch to our Minister in Mexico, under date of the eighth of July, 1842, "Mexico may have chosen to consider, and may still choose to consider Texas as having been at all times

2D SESS.]

The President's Message.

[DECEMBER, 1846.

or reconquer Texas, still stubbornly refused to recognize her as an independent nation, she was none the less so on that account. Mexico herself had been recognized as an independent nation by the United States, and by other powers, many years before Spain, of which, before her revolution, she had been a colony, would agree to recognize her as such; and yet Mexico was at that time, in the estimation of the civilized world, and in fact, none the less an independent power because Spain still claimed her as a colony. If Spain had continued until the present period to assert that Mexico was one of her colonies, in rebellion against her, this would not have made her so, or changed the fact of her independent existence. Texas, at the period of her annexation to the United States, bore the same relation to Mexico that Mexico had borne to Spain for many years before Spain acknowledged her independence, with this important difference-that, before the annexation of Texas to the United States was consummated, Mexico herself, by a formal act of her Government, had acknowledged the independence of Texas as a nation. It is true, that in the act of recognition she prescribed a condition, which she had no power or authority to impose, that Texas should not annex herself to any other power; but this could not detract in any degree from the recognition which Mexico then made of her actual independence. Upon this plain statement of facts, it is absurd for Mexico to allege, as a pretext for commencing hostilities against the United States, that Texas is still a part of her territory.

since 1835, and as still continuing, a rebellious | standing all this, and her utter inability to subdue province; but the world has been obliged to take a very different view of the matter. From the time of the battle of San Jacinto, in April, 1836, to the present moment, Texas has exhibited the same external signs of national independence as Mexico herself, and with quite as much stability of Government. Practically free and independent, acknowledged as a political sovereignty by the principal powers of the world, no hostile foot finding rest within her territory for six or seven years, and Mexico herself refraining for all that period from any further attempt to re-establish her own authority over that territory, it cannot but be surprising to find Mr. de Bocanegra [the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico] complaining that for that whole period citizens of the United States, or its Government, have been favoring the rebels of Texas, and supplying them with vessels, ammunition, and money, as if the war for the reduction of the province of Texas had been constantly prosecuted by Mexico, and her success prevented by these influences from abroad." In the same despatch, the Secretary of State affirms, that "since 1837, the United States have regarded Texas as an independent sovereignty, as much as Mexico; and that trade and commerce with citizens of a Government at war with Mexico cannot, on that account, be regarded as an intercourse by which assistance and succor are given to Mexican rebels. The whole current of Mr. de Bocanegra's remarks runs in the same direction, as if the independence of Texas had not been acknowledged. It has been acknowledged-it was acknowledged in 1837, against the remonstrance and protest of Mexico; But there are those who, conceding all this to be and most of the acts of any importance, of which true, assume the ground that the true western Mr. de Bocanegra complains, flow necessarily boundary of Texas is the Nueces, instead of the from that recognition. He speaks of Texas as Rio Grande; and that, therefore, in marching our still being an integral part of the territory of the army to the east bank of the latter river, we passed Mexican Republic; but he cannot but understand the Texan line, and invaded the territory of Mexithat the United States do not so regard it. The co. A simple statement of facts, known to exist, real complaint of Mexico, therefore, is, in sub- will conclusively refute such an assumption. Texstance, neither more nor less than a complaint as, as ceded to the United States by France in against the recognition of Texan independence. 1803, has been always claimed as extending west It may be thought rather late to repeat that com- to the Rio Grande, or Rio Bravo. This fact is plaint, and not quite just to confine it to the United established by the authority of our most eminent States, to the exemption of England, France, and statesmen at a period when the question was as Belgium, unless the United States, having been the well, if not better understood, than it is at present. first to acknowledge the independence of Mexico During Mr. Jefferson's administration, Messrs. herself, are to be blamed for setting an example Monroe and Pinckney, who had been sent on a for the recognition of that of Texas." And he special mission to Madrid, charged, among other added, that "the constitution, public treaties, and things, with the adjustment of boundary between the laws, obliged the President to regard Texas the two countries, in a note addressed to the Spanas an independent State, and its territory as no ish Minister of Foreign Affairs, under date of the part of the territory of Mexico." Texas had been twenty-eighth of January, 1805, assert that the an independent State, with an organized Govern-boundaries of Louisiana, as ceded to the United ment, defying the power of Mexico to overthrow States by France, "are the river Perdido on the or reconquer her, for more than ten years before east, and the river Bravo on the west; and they Mexico commenced the present war against the add, that "the facts and principles which justify United States. Texas had given such evidence to this conclusion are so satisfactory to our Governthe world of her ability to maintain her separate ment, as to convince it that the United States have existence as an independent nation, that she had not a better right to the island of New Orleans, been formally recognized as such, not only by the under the cession referred to, than they have to United States, but by several of the principal the whole district of territory which is above powers of Europe. These powers had entered described." into treaties of amity, commerce, and navigation with her. They had received and accredited her ministers, and other diplomatic agents at their respective courts; and they had commissioned ministers and diplomatic agents on their part to the Government of Texas. If Mexico, notwith

Down to the conclusion of the Florida treaty, in February, 1819, by which this territory was ceded to Spain, the United States asserted and maintained their territorial rights to this extent. In the month of June, 1818, during Mr. Monroe's administration, information having been received

DECEMBER, 1846.]

that a number of foreign adventurers had landed | elected to the Congress of the republic, and served at Galveston, with the avowed purpose of forming as such before the act of annexation took place. In a settlement in that vicinity, a special messenger both the Congress and Convention of Texas, which was despatched by the Government of the United gave their assent to the terms of annexation to the States, with instructions from the Secretary of United States, proposed by our Congress, were repState, to warn them to desist, should they be found resentatives residing west of the Nueces, who took there, or any other place north of the Rio Bravo, part in the act of annexation itself. This was the and within the territory claimed by the United Texas which, by the act of our Congress of the States." He was instructed, should they be found twenty-ninth of December, 1845, was admitted as in the country north of that river, to make known one of the States of our Union. That the Congress to them "the surprise with which the President of the United States understood the State of Texas has seen possession thus taken, without authority which they admitted into the Union to extend befrom the United States, of a place within their yond the Nucces is apparent from the fact, that on territorial limits, and upon which no lawful set- the thirty-first of December, 1845, only two days tlement can be made without their sanction." after the act of admission, they passed a law "to He was instructed to call upon them to "avow establish a collection district in the State of Texas," under what national authority they profess to by which they created a port of delivery at Corpus act," and to give them due warning "that the Christi, situated west of the Nueces, and being place is within the United States, who will suffer the same point at which the Texas custom-house, no permanent settlement to be made there, under under the laws of that republic, had been located, any authority other than their own." As late and directed that a surveyor to collect the revenue as the eighth of July, 1842, the Secretary of State should be appointed for that port by the President, of the United States, in a note addressed to our by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. Minister in Mexico, maintains that, by the Florida A surveyor was accordingly nominated, and contreaty of 1819, the territory as far west as the Rio firmed by the Senate, and has been ever since in Grande was confirmed to Spain. In that note he the performance of his duties. All these acts of states that, "by the treaty of the twenty-second the republic of Texas, and of our Congress, preof February, 1819, between the United States and ceded the orders for the advance of our army to Spain, the Sabine was adopted as the line of the east bank of the Rio Grande. Subsequently, boundary between the two powers. Up to that Congress passed an act "establishing certain post period, no considerable colonization had been routes," extending west of the Nueces. The effected in Texas; but the territory between the country west of that river now constitutes a part Sabine and the Rio Grande being confirmed to of one of the congressional districts of Texas, Spain by the treaty, applications were made to and is represented in the House of Representathat power for grants of land, and such grants, tives. The Senators from that State were chosen or permissions of settlement, were in fact made by a Legislature in which the country west of that by the Spanish authorities in favor of citizens of river was represented. In view of all these facts, the United States proposing to emigrate to Texas it is difficult to conceive upon what ground it in numerous families, before the declaration of can be maintained that, in occupying the country independence by Mexico." west of the Nueces with our army, with a view solely to its security and defence, we invaded the territory of Mexico. But it would have been still more difficult to justify the Executive, whose duty it is to see that the laws be faithfully executed, if in the face of all these proceedings, both of the Congress of Texas and of the United States, he had assumed the responsibility of yielding up the territory west of the Nueces to Mexico, or of refusing to protect and defend this territory and its inhabitants, including Corpus Christi, as well as the remainder of Texas, against the threatened Mexican invasion.

The Texas which was ceded to Spain by the Florida treaty of 1819 embraced all the country now claimed by the State of Texas between the Nueces and the Rio Grande. The republic of Texas always claimed this river as her western boundary, and in her treaty made with Santa Anna, in May, 1836, he recognized it as such. By the constitution, which Texas adopted in March, 1836, senatorial and representative districts were organized extending west of the Nueces. The Congress of Texas, on the nineteenth of December, 1836, passed "an act to define the boundaries of the republic of Texas," in which they declared the Rio Grande from its mouth to its source to be their boundary, and by the said act they extended their "civil and political jurisdiction" over the country up to that boundary. During a period of more than nine years, which intervened between the adoption of her constitution and her annexation as one of the States of our Union, Texas asserted and exercised many acts of sovereignty and jurisdiction over the territory and inhabitants west of the Nueces. She organized and defined the limits of counties extending to the Rio Grande. She established courts of justice, and extended her judicial system over the territory. She established a custom-house, and collected duties, and also post-offices and post roads in it. She established a land office, and issued numerous grants for land, within its limits. A Senator and a Representative residing in it were

But Mexico herself has never placed the war which she has waged upon the ground that our army occupied the intermediate territory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande. Her refuted pretension that Texas was not in fact an independent State, but a rebellious province, was obstinately persevered in; and her avowed purpose in commencing a war with the United States was to reconquer Texas, and to restore Mexican authority over the whole territory-not to the Nueces only, but to the Sabine. In view of the proclaimed menaces of Mexico to this effect, I deemed it my duty, as a measure of precaution and defence, to order our army to occupy a position on our frontier as a military post, from which our troops could best resist and repel any attempted invasion which Mexico might make.

Our army had occupied a position at Corpus Christi west of the Nueces, as early as August