exiles in the cause of American liberty, fought by the side of their Mexican friends to expel from the continent the last remnants of colonial oppression. But, from the moment that, consistently with their rule of conduct and the established principles of public law, they could consider Mexico and Spain as two distinct nations, which fate had forever separated, the United States pronounced the freedom of America; and their Congress, with a unanimity of which the history of legislation affords no example, invited Mexico and her sister republics to take their rank among the independent nations of the earth. The influence which this important event had upon the conduct of the European Powers is too well known to require elucidation. The example of the United States was followed almost immediately; and Mexico, a little more than one year after she had proclaimed her independence, was represented at Washington by a minister invested with all the prerogatives of the ambassador of a free state, and diplomatic and commercial relations were soon after established between her and the most influential Powers of the old world. The time has been when Mexico was not disposed to deny in how great a degree those proud and auspicious results were justly attributable to the prudent yet bold and friendly policy of this Government towards the new states of America. The people of this country had a right to expect, in return for their magnanimous and disinterested conduct, the manifestation, at least, of such a sentiment on the part of the people of Mexico, which neighboring states should cherish, as it is their interest to cultivate and improve them.

Every step which has since that period been taken by the United States in their advance to meet Mexico upon terms of mutual good will, has been marked by a character of benevolence and disinterestedness whose object could not be mistaken. A minister of the highest rank, and invested with the most unlimited powers, was despatched to the metropolis of the Mexican confederacy, provided with instructions whose every word breathes a spirit of philanthropy and disinterested concern for the welfare of Mexico, which ought to have disarmed every feeling of jealousy and enmity, if, indeed, after what had passed, it could have been imagined that any such were entertained by the Government or people of that country.

The United States, enlightened by their own experience, and actuated by a sincere solicitude for the destinies of a new state, whose interests were in so great a degree identified with their own, were anxious that Mexico should follow their footsteps in the career of industry and commerce which has brought them to their present high state. Their minister was, accordingly, instructed forthwith to open a negotiation for the conclusion of treaties and conventions, intended to cement the bonds of peace and friendship which were to unite the two republics, and to establish the basis of their future relations upon the most liberal principles of public law, and their commercial intercourse upon those of the most perfect equality and reciprocity. The ports of the United States were to be opened to the free access of the vessels and productions of Mexico, and concessions, prompted by a desire to foster and encourage her young marine, were to be liberally made. Every means was tendered which would secure to Mexico, as far as her geographical position would permit, an equal share in the advantages to be derived by an intelligent and industrious people from an extensive maritime commerce. Not content with holding

out to her a helping hand upon the ocean, the United States had instructed their minister to enter into an arrangement with the Mexican Government to open a mutually advantageous inland commerce between the conterminous States of the two confederacies-a measure whose results, had not the benign views of this country been blighted by the pernicious influence of narrow and ungenerous suspicions, would, besides bringing to light the immense sources of wealth now hidden in the boundless wilderness of the North American continent, and enriching the citizens who inhabit the border settlements of the two nations, have been to repress the cruelties and depredations upon the frontier settlers of the savage aborigines, whose powerful hordes cannot now be reached by the comparatively weak arm of Mexico, who ravage the establishments forming in her new territories, prevent the increase of her population, and check the spirit of enterprise, which, if protected and fostered, would soon convert those immense deserts into smiling and populous agricultural settlements. It is most obvious that this measure, had it been promptly and efficiently prosecuted, would have been of greater advantage to the citizens of Mexico, shut out as they are from almost all communication with the seaboard, than to those of the United States, who need no such expedients to find a market for the produce of their agriculture or industry.

Whilst this Government was thus endeavoring at home to promote the true interests of the two countries, and to show by acts of the most unequivocal character its desire to lay the foundation of a close and lasting union between them, the same friendly spirit was displaying itself abroad in their diplomatic intercourse with the most powerful and influential among the European nations.

Early in 1825, the minister of the United States at the Court of the Emperor of Russia, .then standing at the head of a European alliance which seemed to hold the scale that weighed the destinies of empires and states in the old world, and exercised a powerful influence over those of America, was instructed to use every effort to induce that monarch to take into his serious consideration the then relative condition of Spain and her ancient colonies, and to prevail upon the former to terminate a contest as unavailing for her as it had proved wasteful of blood and treasure to both parties. Similar instructions were, at the same time, given to the diplomatic representatives of the United States at Paris and London; and thus a simultaneous effort was made, at the Courts of the three greatest potentates of the world, to bring the united weight of their influence to bear upon the councils of the King of Spain, and to infuse into them a spirit more favorable to the cause of exhausted America. This friendly interference on the part of the United States was received in a spirit corresponding with that by which the measure had been dictated; and this Government has every reason to believe that the three sovereigns to whom it was addressed were well inclined to the great object in view, and in which this Government was the first to act.

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Far from our being discouraged by the failure of this expedient, and still animated by a desire for the restoration of peace in America, it has, down to the present period, been made a standing instruction to the ministers of the United States at the Court of his Catholic Majesty to avail themselves of every fit occasion to induce his Government to give permanent tranquillity to Spanish America by the recognition of its independence, and thereby to confer a signal blessing on the civilized world, and on no part of it more than Spain herself.

The same just and liberal views have, throughout, been manifested by the United States in their abortive attempts to negotiate with Mexico, and in the alacrity and promptitude with which they have acted upon the different treaties which have, from time to time, been negotiated with the executive branch of that Government-treaties which have never come to their maturity, in consequence of the political perverseness and inattention of the Mexican Government.

Had these frank and friendly views and proceedings been met by a corresponding disposition on the part of the people and Government of Mexico, the success of their revolutionary struggle would have been productive of the happiest results, and the relations between the two countries would have been free from that coldness, distrust, and reserve which have been witnessed, and from that irritation which must necessarily grow out of existing circumstances, unless obviated by a speedy and radical change. But far otherwise has been the case. The Government of Mexico received the first and open advances of the United States towards the establishment of a commercial intercourse mutually advantageous to both countries with a degree of indifference and suspicion as extraordinary as it was to be regretted. It had been expected that Mexico, whose political institutions had been modelled upon those of the United States, would gladly embrace the first opportunity of also co-operating with them in the establishment of the principles which form the basis of our commercial code, to the superior excellence of which the principal commercial nations of the world had given their unequivocal assent. It therefore furnished matter of surprise and regret to find the first attempts of our adventurous citizens burdened by the imposition of exorbitant duties upon their importations into the Mexican ports. This surprise was changed into mortification, when our proposals to enter into negotiation for the conclusion of a treaty of commerce were met, at the threshold, by manifestations of indifference, indicative of any thing but a reciprocation of the spirit in which they were made; and when our offers of the liberal principles of perfect reciprocity and mutual abolition of all discriminating duties were answered by propositions of countervailing restrictions, and of exclusive privileges to other American states, whose sole title to them was a community of language. To these propositions it was impossible for the United States to agree: they were at war with the principles which, from the first year of their existence as a nation, it had been their unceasing endeavor to make the fundamental rule of their international relations. Such conduct on the part of Mexico, from whatever cause originating, whether dictated by a mistaken policy, an unfriendly spirit towards the people of this Union, or an undue influence exercised over the councils of the Mexican confederation by foreign nations unfriendly to the commercial prosperity of the United States, was calculated deeply to wound the sensibility of our citizens, who felt that their liberal deportment towards their neighbors gave them a claim, if not to their gratitude, at least to an equal participation in the advantages to be derived from a mutual commerce. The delays which attended this negotiation were, also, a subject of regret and mortification. From the first conferences to the 10th of July, 1826, a period of twelve months was suffered to elapse before the Mexican plenipotentiaries could be brought to agree to the conclusion of any arrangement; and when, on that day, a treaty of commerce was signed, it was found stinted in its provisions by rules of a narrow policy, and so

fraught with illiberal conditions as to cause the rejection, by the Senate of the United States, of several of its articles. Still that body, unwilling longer to submit to a delay in the conclusion of the negotiation which had already been highly prejudicial to the commerce of both countries, on the 25th of February, less than two weeks after the treaty had been laid before them, gave their advice and consent to its ratification, under certain modifications; which, as appeared from subsequent events, they had reason to believe would have been agreed to by the Mexican Government. But this promptness and the rectitude of their intentions were rendered unavailing by a spirit of procrastination, which, with the best inclination to view it in a favorable light, cannot be ascribed to any motives consistent with a friendly disposition towards the United States. On reference to dates, it will be found that near two months were suffered by the Executive to elapse before the treaty was submitted to the Mexican Chamber of Deputies, convened in extraordinary session, on the 15th September, 1826, partly for the very purpose of deliberating upon the ratification of treaties with foreign Powers. We then find that, after lying before that body until April following, the committee of foreign affairs made an elaborate report upon it, objecting to some of its most liberal and just stipulations, and recommending its ratification, clogged with conditions apparently inserted for no other purpose than that of retarding, or rather entirely defeating, the final conclusion of the negotiation; since, by the terms of the treaty, the exchange of the ratifications was to take place within the space of ten months from its date, of which only four weeks remained, at the date of the report above referred to, for its final passage through both houses of the Mexican Congress, and for its transmission to Washington, where the exchange was to be effected.

At the expiration of this term, the treaty still lay before the Chamber of Deputies, where it had remained for nearly six months; and these tedious and unaccountable delays having caused a complete abortion of this first attempt at negotiation with the Mexican republic, it became necessary to consider the whole subject as at an end, and to begin anew upon the principles laid down in the modification of the Senate of the United States, which, at about that time, were received at Mexico. These extraordinary proceedings would have constituted just grounds of complaint against the Mexican Government; but, after the friendly advances which had been made by the United States, and the unaccommodating spirit in which they were received, it became the dignity of our minister, and of the country he represented, silently to await the indication of a return, on the part of Mexico, to sounder views of courtesy and expediency, and for the advances which were then to be expected from her Government.

Unfavorable as were the impressions created by this unfriendly course, the Government of the United States was disposed to make some allowance for the embarrassed situation in which that of Mexico had, at times, been placed, in consequence of the unsettled state of affairs in that country, had subsequent events been of a nature calculated to efface these impressions; but, on reviewing these events, it is painful still to find them marked with the same temporizing spirit, accompanied with unmeaning_attempts at finding excuses for delays, which, from whatever cause they proceeded, were highly injurious to the interests of both countries, and, to our view, can find no ground of justification. It is true that some desire was manifested, on the part of the Executive of Mexico, that the negotia

tions should be renewed; but it was only after a period which, under various pretences, was extended to eight months, that, on the 8th January, 1828, the plenipotentiaries could be brought together to confer anew upon that important subject; when their further progress was arrested by a determination of the Mexican negotiators not to advance a step before the conclusion of a treaty to define the boundaries between the two countries. The minister of the United States, unwilling to throw in the way of the negotiations any difficulty which could be avoided, acceded to the proposition of the Mexican plenipotentiaries; and the question of limits having been disposed of by the conclusion of a treaty signed for that purpose, on the 12th of January, the negotiations were continued, and resulted in their finally agreeing, on the 14th of February following, to a treaty of commerce and navigation, the exchange of whose ratifications was to have been effected at Washington, within the term of six months from its date.

This treaty was immediately transmitted to Washington, where it was received on the 16th of April following, and forthwith submitted, by the President, to the consideration of the Senate, who, on the 1st of May, advised and consented to its ratification; thereby authorizing the Chief Magistrate to proclaim it as the supreme law of the land, as soon as it would have pleased the Government of Mexico to complete this national compact by the final exchange of the acts of ratification. The promptness with which the legislative and executive branches of the Government of the United States acted on this occasion, is painfully contrasted with the unaccountable tardiness of Mexico, which, for the second time, suffered the term to elapse within which their ratification should have arrived at Washington, for the purpose of being exchanged for that of the United States. It is yet, for aught we know, before the Mexican Congress; but the expiration of the term stipulated for its exchange has taken it out of the power of the Executive of this Government to effect it, without again submitting the treaty to the Senate; and the United States are absolved from all engagements contracted in their name by their plenipotentiary. The solemn compact has again been cancelled; and if, by the law of nations, blame is incurred by a state which refuses to sanction the obligation which its authorized agent has contracted in its name, that blame rests upon Mexico, by whose act this obligation has twice been disregarded.

With regard to the treaty of limits, which was intended to have defined and settled the boundary-line between the two republics, nd which also became the subject of negotiation at Mexico, the same contrast is exhibited by the promptitude and alacrity with which the Government of the United States performed its part in the process of completing that instrument, and the tardiness which characterized the proceedings of the Mexican Government, and in consequence of which this treaty also was suffered to fall to the ground.

Immediately upon the signature of that instrument, it was transmitted to Washington, and received at the Department of State on the 16th of April following. It was forthwith submitted to the Senate, who, by their resolution of the 28th of the same month, advised and consented to its ratification. Mr. Obregon was on the 30th informed of the fact, and of the readiness of the Secretary of State to proceed to its exchange; but, in a note dated the 1st of May, he stated, in reply, that he was without