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The stipulations contained in the present article shall not impair the territorial rights of either republic within its established limits.

ARTICLE VIII.

Mexicans now established in territories previously belonging to Mexico, and which remain for the future within the limits of the United States, as defined by the present treaty, shall be free to continue where they now reside, or to remove at any time to the Mexican republic, retaining the property which they possess in the said territories, or disposing thereof, and removing the proceeds wherever they please, without their being subjected, on this account, to any contribution, tax, or charge whatever.

Those who shall prefer to remain in the said territories, may either retain the title and rights of Mexican citizens, or acquire those of citizens of the United States. But they shall be under the obligation to make their election within one year from the date of the exchange of ratifications of this treaty; and those who shall remain in the said territories after the expiration of that year, without having declared their intention to retain the character of Mexicans, shall be considered to have elected to become citizens of the United States.

In the said territories, property of every kind, now belonging to Mexicans not established there, shall be inviolably respected. The present owners, the heirs of these, and all Mexicans who may hereafter acquire said property by contract, shall enjoy with respect to it guaranties equally ample as if the same belonged to citizens of the United States.

ARTICLE IX.1

Mexicans who, in the territories aforesaid, shall not preserve the character of citizens of the Mexican republic, conformably with what is stipulated in the preceding article, shall be incorporated into the Union of the United States, and be admitted at the proper time (to be judged of by the Congress of the United States) to the enjoyment of all the rights of citizens of the United States, according to the principles of the constitu

1 See protocol, May 26, 1848: Treaties and Conventions (ed. 1889), 692, 693- ED.

tion; and in the mean time shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty and property, and secured in the free exercise of their religion without restriction.

[Article X., relating to Mexican land grants in the ceded territory, was stricken out by the Senate (see protocol, May 26, 1848). Article XI., binding the United States to prevent Indian incursions into Mexican territory, and to restore Mexican prisoners taken by Indians, was abrogated by Article II. of the treaty of Dec. 30, 1853.]

ARTICLE XII.

In consideration of the extension acquired by the boundaries of the United States, as defined in the fifth article of the present treaty, the government of the United States engages to pay to that of the Mexican republic the sum of fifteen millions of dollars..

ARTICLE XIII.

The United States engage, moreover, to assume and pay to the claimants all the amounts now due them, and those hereafter to become due, by reason of the claims already liquidated and decided against the Mexican republic, under the conventions between the two republics severally concluded on . . . [April 11, 1839, and January 30, 1843] ..

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ARTICLE XIV.

The United States do furthermore discharge the Mexican republic from all claims of citizens of the United States, not heretofore decided against the Mexican government, which may have arisen previously to the date of the signature of this treaty; which discharge shall be final and perpetual, whether the said claims be rejected or be allowed by the board of commissioners provided for in the following article, and whatever shall be the total amount of those allowed.

ARTICLE XV.

The United States, exonerating Mexico from all demands on account of the claims of their citizens mentioned in the preceding article, and considering them entirely and forever cancelled, what

ever their amount may be, undertake to make satisfaction for the same, to an amount not exceeding three and one quarter millions of dollars.

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[Article xvii continues for eight years the treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation of April 5, 1831, between the United States of America and the United Mexican States, "except the additional article, and except so far as the stipulations of the said treaty may be incompatible with any stipulation contained in the present treaty;" subject, however, to termination thereafter on one year's notice by either party.1]

ARTICLE XXI.

If unhappily any disagreement should hereafter arise between the governments of the two republics, whether with respect to the interpretation of any stipulation in this treaty, or with respect to any other particular concerning the political or commercial relations of the two nations, the said governments, in the name of those nations, do promise to each other that they will endeavor, in the most sincere and earnest manner, to settle the differences so arising, and to preserve the state of peace and friendship in which the two countries are now placing themselves; using, for this end, mutual representations and pacific negotiations. And if, by these means, they should not be enabled to come to an agreement, a resort shall not, on this account, be had to reprisals, aggression, or hostility of any kind, by the one republic against the other, until the Government of that which deems itself aggrieved shall have maturely considered, in the spirit of peace and good neighborship, whether it would not be better that such difference should be settled by the arbitration of commissioners appointed on each side, or by that of a friendly nation. And should such course be proposed by either party, it shall be acceded to by the other, unless deemed by it altogether incompatible with the nature of the difference, or the circumstances of the case.

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1 Cf. Article V. of the treaty of Dec. 30, 1853.- ED.

2 Signed: "N. P. Trist, Luis G. Cuevas, Bernardo Couto, Migl. Atristain."

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Compromise of 1850

August 8, 1846, in the debate in the House on the bill appropriating $2,000,000 to purchase territory from Mexico, Wilmot of Pennsylvania moved as an amendment the proviso "that, as an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory from the Republic of Mexico by the United States, by virtue of any treaty which may be negotiated between them, and to the use by the Executive of the moneys herein appropriated, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly convicted." The amendment was not accepted, and later attempts to engraft the proviso upon bills to organize the Territory of Oregon failed. In 1848 a bill to organize the Territories of Oregon, New Mexico, and California, with a provision "that all questions concerning slavery in those Territories should be referred to the United States Supreme Court for decision," passed the Senate, but failed in the House. The act of Aug. 14, 1848, organizing the Territory of Oregon, applied to the new Territory the provisions of the articles of compact in the Ordinance of 1787. A bill to establish territorial governments in New Mexico and California, with the Wilmot proviso, passed the House in 1849, but was not acted on in the Senate. Later in the session, the Senate attempted to provide for the organization of the two Territories by means of a "rider" on the general appropriation bill, but the attempt was defeated in the House.

In May, 1848, the Democratic National Convention had rejected, 36 to 216, a resolution offered by Yancey of Alabama, "That the doctrine of noninterference with the rights of property of any portion of the people of this confederacy, be it in the States or Territories thereof, by any other than the parties interested in them, is the true republican doctrine, recognized by this body." The doctrine of "squatter sovereignty" embodied in this resolution now began to be urged in opposition to the doctrine of the Wilmot proviso, and the issue was joined on the question of prohibiting slavery in the new Territories, or allowing the people of each Territory to establish or exclude slavery as they might see fit.

In June, 1849, the people of California adopted a State constitution prohibiting slavery. In his annual message of Dec. 4, President Taylor recommended the admission of California, but suggested the advisability of awaiting popular action in New Mexico before legislating for the organization of that region. January 29, 1850, Clay submitted in the Senate a series of resolutions, intended to afford a basis for adjusting the differences regarding the status and treatment of slavery in the Territories. On the 13th of February the constitution of California was transmitted to Congress. April 18, by a vote of 30 to 22, Clay's resolutions were referred to a select committee of thirteen, of which Clay was chairman. May 8 the committee submitted its report, together with two bills, one to admit California as a State, to establish territorial governments for Utah and New Mexico, and making proposals to

Texas for the establishment of her western and northern boundaries, and the other to suppress the slave trade in the District of Columbia.

The first of these bills, known as the "omnibus bill," was taken up in the Senate May 9. June 17, by a vote of 38 to 12, an amendment applying to Utah the doctrine of "squatter sovereignty" was agreed to; July 31 the sections relating to California, New Mexico, and Texas were stricken out, and Aug. I the remainder of the bill passed the Senate as "an act to establish a territorial government for Utah." The House passed the bill Sept. 7, by a vote of 97 to 85, and on the 9th the act was approved. A bill to adjust the Texan boundary passed the Senate Aug. 10, by a vote of 30 to 20; on the 15th the Senate passed the New Mexico bill, the vote being 27 to 10. The House added the New Mexico bill to the Texas bill as an amendment, and Sept. 6 passed the bill in this form by a vote of 108 to 97. The Senate concurred in the House amendment, and on the 9th the act was approved. The bill to admit California passed the Senate Aug. 13, 34 to 18, and the House Sept. 7, 150 to 56; Sept. 9 the act was approved. The fugitive slave bill passed the Senate Aug. 26, without a division, the vote on the third reading being 27 to 12; the House passed the bill Sept. 12, without debate, by a vote of 109 to 76, and on the 18th the act was approved. The act was repealed June 28, 1864. The act to suppress the slave trade in the District of Columbia, the last of the compromise measures, passed the Senate Sept. 16, by a vote of 33 to 19, and the House on the following day, by a vote of 124 to 59; on the 20th the act was approved.

REFERENCES. The text is indicated at the end of each of the extracts following. For the proceedings of Congress, see the House and Senate Journals, 31st Cong., 1st Sess.; for the discussions, see the Cong. Globe, and appendix, or Benton's Abridgment, XVI. A large number of memorials and resolutions are collected in the House and Senate Misc. Doc. of this session; see also Senate Rep. 12. See also Webster's Works (ed. 1857), V., 324-366, 373-405, 412-438; Calhoun's Works (ed. 1854), IV., 535-578; Seward's Works (ed. 1853), I., 31-131; Pierce's Summer, III., chaps 34, 35.

No. 102. Clay's Resolutions

January 29, 1850

It being desirable, for the peace, concord, and harmony of the Union of these States, to settle and adjust amicably all existing questions of controversy between them arising out of the institution of slavery upon a fair, equitable and just basis: therefore,

1. Resolved, That California, with suitable boundaries, ought, upon her application to be admitted as one of the States of this

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