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though the President takes pains to inform us, by way of showing with what a dignified and lofty reserve the conference must have been approached on the part of the United States, that Mr. Trist "was not directed to make any new overtures of peace." Nevertheless, he presented the draught of a treaty, the first article of which began with declaring, “There shall be a firm and universal peace between the United States of America, and the United Mexican States," &c. The subsequent articles, of course, set forth the terms upon which the President proposed this lasting and universal peace should rest.

some of which are equally gross, because | been furnished by our Government, al"it contained no provision for the payment by Mexico of the just claims of our citizens.' Standing by itself, this might be taken merely as an assertion that this project of a treaty contained no provision for the pecuniary payment of these claims; and if so intended to be understood, the assertion could have had no purpose, but to mislead and confound the intelligence of the general reader, because, from the beginning of this war, the President has had no design or desire, nor the remotest expectation, that these claims should be paid by Mexico in money, or provided for by her in any other way than by the cession of territory to the United States. We must hold the President, therefore, as meaning to deny, by the expression we have quoted, that Mexico had made any offer whatever of indemnity for the claims of our citizens. And he has not left this matter in doubt; for by way of expressly negativing the idea that any cession of territory was offered as indemnity for these claims, he proceeds to declare, as showing what he calls "the unreasonable terms proposed by the Mexican Commissioners," that this project of a treaty, amongst other things, "offered to cede to the United States, for a pecuniary consideration, that part of Upper California lying north of latitude thirty-seven degrees.' He refers to this offer of cession, as among the objectionable and unreasonable things contained in the counterproject of the Mexican Commissioners-a cession to be made "for a pecuniary consideration;" and he accuses the Commissioners of having negotiated as if Mexico were the victorious and not the vanquished party." In short, he means to state, and means that we shall understand him as stating, that while Mexico had the impertinence to endeavor to get a bargain out of us, by offering to sell us land in California for ready money, she refused to give us any indemnity, or any satisfaction whatever, in land or anything else, for the just claims of our citizens. And this statement we are constrained to pronounce utterly at variance with the facts.

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It will be observed by the reader that our Commissioner opened the negotiation at the conferences referred to, by presenting to the Mexican Commissioners the draught of a treaty, with which he had

Now it is the particular mode adopted in this draught of a treaty, of reaching the matters of difference and dispute between the two countries, to which we wish to call the attention of the reader, by way of preparing him to understand fully, and without the possibility of mistake, the meaning and intention of the terms subsequently proposed in the Counter-Project of the Mexican Commissioners. He must remember that a main thing was, as the President so strenuously argues, to obtain indemnity for the claims of our citizens by a cession of territory. "Mexico," says the Message, "has no money to pay, and no other means of making the required indemnity. If we refuse this, we can obtain nothing else." This, indeed, was assuming a fact without any warrant of proof. But for the interruption caused by the annexation of Texas, and finally by the war, there cannot be a doubt that every dollar of these claims would have been paid in money. And the President forgets that in this very Message in which he urges the impossibility of squeezing anything out of Mexico, except land, he exults in the prospect of being able to do a good deal towards supporting our vast military operations in that country by the money which shall be collected out of regular Mexican custom house and internal duties, seized into the hands of our officers for that purpose! The internal revenue of Mexico and her Departments, is stated by the Secretary of the Treasury in his recent Report, to have been about thirteen millions of dollars per annum, and the receipts on imports he says have varied from six to twelve millions. And he gives it as his de

proper advance on our part. Her rejection of our minister, and which was one subject of complaint by our government, though not perhaps set down distinctly as one cause of war, is referrible mainly to this subject of Annexation.

The next object of the war, on our part, after it had once been commenced, was to obtain satisfaction, or indemnity, for the claims of our citizens on Mexico, on account of injuries and indignities to their persons and property. These claims were not the cause of the war; it was not undertaken for the redress of these injuries; but the war once begun, it was not to be expected that peace would be made, until these demands should be satisfactorily adjusted.

Now we assert, in the face of the bald and bold statement to the contrary in the President's Message, that the Mexican Commissioners, in their counter-project, did offer an ample indemnity for these claims. It is not true, as the President affirms, that this plan "contained no provision for the payment by Mexico of the just claims of our citizens." There was no offer of payment in money, nor was any such payment in money expected, or desired, by the Administration. But there was indemnity, and just that kind of indemnity after which the government has been looking from the beginning, namely, indemnity in terri

Now what we mean to say is, that in their Counter-Project of a treaty, the Mexican Commissioners expressly yielded the whole matter of difference or dispute in regard to the general subject of the Annexation of Texas to the United States. Annexation was no longer a subject of complaint, and was no longer to stand in the way of peace and amity between the two countries. And thus we say, one of the original subjects of dispute, and no doubt the main cause leading to a collision of arms, was removed. If there had been no Annexation there would have been no war; there would have been no interruption of diplomatic and friendly relations; there would have been no rejection of our minister, and no marching of troops to the Rio Grande. "The existing war," said the Mexican commissioners in their letter to Mr. Trist, accompanying their counter-tory. project, "has been undertaken solely on account of the territory of the State of Texas, respecting which the North American republic presents as its title the Act of the said State by which it was annexed to the North American confederation, after having proclaimed its independence of Mexico." And they add, after stating that Mexico consents "to the pretensions of the government of Washington to the territory of Texas," that the cause of the war has disappeared, and the war itself ought to cease, since there is no warrant for its continuance." And undoubt-persons about him, and is to be excused on edly they were right to this extent, that so far as this question of Annexation was a cause for the war, that cause did disappear from the moment Mexico had declared herself ready to yield the point, and the United States were no longer at liberty to prosecute the war on account of that question, or for any reason merely incident to it. This object of the war, then, if an object of the war at all, no longer remained after the conferences between the commissioners of the two countries, in September; and when the war was renewed, it was renewed for no object relating to the annexation of Texas to the United States.

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The whole statement in which the Message indulges on this point, is the most extraordinary, perhaps, that was ever uttered by a high public functionary, in the face of an intelligent country. We know of nothing to compare with it, except, indeed, some other statements of the like character in the same document, and in the President's previous Messages on the same general subject. It would be charitable to believe, if we could, that the President falls into these shocking errors of fact, from the agency and imposition of some unprincipled

the ground of utter inattention, or else of absolute want of capacity. If this habit of gross perversion, or of careless statement, is to be indulged in, and tolerated, and if he is really to be held accountable for what appears under his hand, it will soon come to be understood, that a Message of the President of the United States to Congress, is no more to be relied on for its relation of facts, than the most worthless newspaper sheet in the land.

The Message informs Congress and the country, that "the terms of a treaty proposed by the Mexican Commissioners, were wholly inadmissible," among other reasons,

some of which are equally gross, because "it contained no provision for the payment by Mexico of the just claims of our citizens." Standing by itself, this might be taken merely as an assertion that this project of a treaty contained no provision for the pecuniary payment of these claims; and if so intended to be understood, the assertion could have had no purpose, but to mislead and confound the intelligence of the general reader, because, from the beginning of this war, the President has had no design or desire, nor the remotest expectation, that these claims should be paid by Mexico in money, or provided for by her in any other way than by the cession of territory to the United States. We must hold the President, therefore, as meaning to deny, by the expression we have quoted, that Mexico had made any offer whatever of indemnity for the claims of our citizens. And he has not left this matter in doubt; for by way of expressly negativing the idea that any cession of territory was offered as indemnity for these claims, he proceeds to declare, as showing what he calls "the unreasonable terms proposed by the Mexican Commissioners," that this project of a treaty, amongst other things, "offered to cede to the United States, for a pecuniary consideration, that part of Upper California lying north of latitude thirty-seven degrees. He refers to this offer of cession, as among the objectionable and unreasonable things contained in the counterproject of the Mexican Commissioners-a cession to be made "for a pecuniary consideration;" and he accuses the Commissioners of having "negotiated as if Mexico were the victorious and not the vanquished party." In short, he means to state, and means that we shall understand him as stating, that while Mexico had the impertinence to endeavor to get a bargain out of us, by offering to sell us land in California for ready money, she refused to give us any indemnity, or any satisfaction whatever, in land or anything else, for the just claims of our citizens. And this statement we are constrained to pronounce utterly at variance with the facts.

It will be observed by the reader that our Commissioner opened the negotiation at the conferences referred to, by presenting to the Mexican Commissioners the draught of a treaty, with which he had

| been furnished by our Government, although the President takes pains to inform us, by way of showing with what a dignified and lofty reserve the conference must have been approached on the part of the United States, that Mr. Trist " was not directed to make any new overtures of peace." Nevertheless, he presented the draught of a treaty, the first article of which began with declaring, "There shall be a firm and universal peace between the United States of America, and the United Mexican States," &c. The subsequent articles, of course, set forth the terms upon which the President proposed this lasting and universal peace should rest.

Now it is the particular mode adopted in this draught of a treaty, of reaching the matters of difference and dispute between the two countries, to which we wish to call the attention of the reader, by way of preparing him to understand fully, and without the possibility of mistake, the meaning and intention of the terms subsequently proposed in the Counter-Project of the Mexican Commissioners. He must remember that a main thing was, as the President so strenuously argues, to obtain indemnity for the claims of our citizens by a cession of territory. "Mexico," says the Message," has no money to pay, and no other means of making the required indemnity. If we refuse this, we can obtain nothing else." This, indeed, was assuming a fact without any warrant of proof. But for the interruption caused by the annexation of Texas, and finally by the war, there cannot be a doubt that every dollar of these claims would have been paid in money. And the President forgets that in this very Message in which he urges the impossibility of squeezing anything out of Mexico, except land, he exults in the prospect of being able to do a good deal towards supporting our vast military operations in that country by the money which shall be collected out of regular Mexican custom house and internal duties, seized into the hands of our officers for that purpose! The internal revenue of Mexico and her Departments, is stated by the Secretary of the Treasury in his recent Report, to have been about thirteen millions of dollars per annum, and the receipts on imports he says have varied from six to twelve millions. And he gives it as his de

teen States of this Union! This is in the fourth article; and then follows the proposed stipulations on our part, "in consideration of this extension of the boundaries of the United States." The first of these is, to pay a sum of money, in blank, to Mexico; and the next, to assume and pay the claims, liquidated and unliquidated, of our citizens on Mexico. Here we have the President's draught and proposition for a treaty.

And how does the Counter-Project of the Mexican Commissioners differ from this? It proposes that the line of boundary shall be so drawn, that Mexico shall cede to the United States, besides Texas, five degrees of latitude, or more than one half of the territory of Upper California, comprising about 190,000 square miles, or an area larger than that of eleven of the Atlantic States of this Union, taken together, beginning with Maine and running through to Virginia. This is in the fourth article; and then come the articles in which it is stipulated, "in just compensation for the extension of old limits," first, that the United States shall pay to Mexico a sum of money, in blank; and next, this government shall take upon itself to pay and satisfy the claims, liquidated and unliquidated, of our citizens on Mexico. Such is the Counter-Project. And what, we ask, now becomes of the official statement of the Message, that this project proposes to cede territory" for a pecuniary consideration"--as if there was something offensive in that--but contains "no provision for the payment by Mexico of the just claims of our citizens?" If there is no such provision in the plan proposed by Mexico, then there is none in the plan proposed by the President himself.

There was not only indemnity offered in the case, but indemnity of the most ample kind.

We do not know that anybody would think of setting up the pretence, that the territory proposed to be ceded was not, at least, equal to the amount of these claims. There cannot be a doubt that it was worth a great deal more, and that equal justice would have required the payment of a considerable balance to Mexico, on account of the cession. It includes the harbor and bay of San Francisco, of itself worth a great deal more to the United States than the three, or four, or five

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millions of Mexican indebtedness. territory is about three times as large as the whole of New-England; and though, no doubt, a considerable portion of it, lying interior, between the coast chain and the Rocky Mountains, is of little value, yet we know that other parts of it have been found valuable enough to attract to it a considerable and increasing emigration from our own country. This is particularly the case with the country on the Sacramento, which is understood to be settled principally by emigrants from the United States. All these settlers would be brought within our own limits by this cession-thus putting an end at once to a serious difficulty which was brewing in that quarter before the war began, and which could hardly fail, sooner or later, to bring on another Annexation question to disturb the peace of the two countries. The Message sets forth in strong terms the advantages, commercial and other, which would accrue to the United States from the possession of Upper California. But all this has its best application to that northern portion, including the bay of San Francisco, which lies above the thirty-seventh parallel. It is this portion of the country that, “if held by the United States, would soon be settled by a hardy, enterprising, and intelligent portion of our population." It is the bay of San Francisco that "would afford shelter for our navy, for our numerous whale ships, and other merchant vessels employed in the Pacific Ocean, and would, in a short period, become the mart of an extensive and profitable commerce with China, and other countries of the East." One thing is certain the President and his partisans are estopped by the Message from setting up any want of value in the cession which Mexico proposed to make, to constitute a full indemnity, and a good deal more than that, for the claims of our citizens on the justice of that country.

Here, then, we have the important fact that this object of the war, namely, the obtaining of indemnity for our unsatisfied claims on Mexico, was fully met and responded to by that government at the conferences in September, between the Commissioners of the two republics. These claims have figured largely in all the war manifestos of the President. All that he

agree to pay to the United Mexican States, at the city of Vera Cruz, the sum of dollars, in five equal instalments, each of dollars; the first instalment to be paid immediately after this treaty shall have been duly ratified by the government of the United Mexican States.

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ARTICLE VI. As a further consideration [of article No. 4] for the extension of the boundaries of the United States, as defined by the fourth article of this treaty, the United States agree assume and pay to the claimants all the instalments now due, or hereafter to become due, under the convention between the two republics concluded at the city of Mexico on the 30th day of January, 1843, "further to provide for the payment of awards in favor of claimants under the convention between the United States and the Mexican republic, of the 11th April, 1839;" and the United States also agree to assume and pay, to an amount not exceeding three millions of dollars, all claims of citizens of the United States, not heretofore decided against the government of the United Mexican States, which may have arisen previous to the 13th of May, 1846, and shall be found to be justly due by a board of commissioners, to be established by the government of the United States, whose awards shall be final and conclusive: provided, that in deciding upon the validity of these claims, the board shall be guided and governed by the principles and rules of decision prescribed by the first and fifth articles of the unratified convention, concluded at the city of Mexico, on the 20th day of November, A. D. 1843; and in no case shall an award be made in favor of any claim not embraced by these principles and rules. And the United States do hereby for ever discharge the United Mexican States from all liability for any of the said claims, whether the same shall be rejected or allowed by the said board of commissioners.

FROM THE COUNTER-PROJECT PROPOSED BY THIE MEXICAN COMMISSIONERS.

4th. The dividing line between the two republics shall commence in the Gulf of Mexico, three leagues from land, opposite the southern mouth of the bay of Corpus Christi, running in a straight line from within the said bay to the mouth of the river Nueces; thence through the middle of that river in all its course to its source; from the source of the river Nueces shall be traced a straight line until it meets the present frontier of New Mexico on the east-south-east side, then follow the present boundary of New Mexico on the east, north and west, until this last touches the 37th degree; which will serve as a limit for both republics, from the point in

which it touches the said frontier of west of

New Mexico to the Pacific ocean. The government of Mexico promises not to found any new towns or establish colonies in the tract of land

which remains between the river Nueces and the Bravo del Norte.

5th. In just compensation for the extension of old limits which the United States may acquire by the previous article, the government of said United States is bound to pay over to the republic of Mexico the sum ofwhich shall be placed in the city of Mexico, at the disposal of the said government of the Mexican republic, in the act of exchanging the ratification of this treaty.

6th. The government of the United States is further bound to take upon itself and satisfy fully to the claimants all the instalments [cantidades] which are due up to this time, and may come due in future, by reason of the claims now liquidated, and decided against the Mexican republic, agreeably to the conventions arranged between the two republics, the 11th of April, 1839, and 30th of January, 1843, in such manner that the Mexican republic shall have absolutely no further payment to make by reason of the said reclamations.

7th. The government of the United States is also bound to take upon itself and pay fully all the claims of its own citizens, not yet decided, against the Mexican republic, whatever may be the title or motive from which they may proceed or in which they are founded; so that from the date of the exchange of the ratifications of the present treaty, there shall remain settled definitely and for ever, the accounts of every kind that exist, or may be supposed to exist, between the government of Mexico and the citizens of the United States.

8th. In order that the government of the United States may be able to satisfy, in observance of the previous article, the claims not yet decided of its citizens against the Mexican republic, there shall be established by the government of the said United States a tribunal of commissioners, whose decisions shall be conclusive and definitive; provided that, on deciding upon the validity of any demand, it may be adjusted by the principles and rules which were established in the articles 1st and 5th of the convention (not ratified) which was held in Mexico on the 20th of November, 1843, and in no case to give sentence in favor of any claim which is not adjusted in the prescribed rules.

Here, then, the state of the case may be seen at a glance. The President proposed through Mr. Trist, in substance, that the line of boundary between the two countries be so drawn that Mexico should cede to the Unitefl States, besides Texas, parts of the several States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Chihuahua, the whole of New Mexico, and the two Californias, comprising, altogether, about 690,000 square miles of territory-rather more than twice the area within the present limits of the old thir

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