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of the Almighty has already fallen on their souls, and as it will call down on them, sooner or later, the punishment which is prescribed for them by his church. We recognise humbly, in the ingratitude of these misguided children, the anger of the Almighty, who permits their misfortunes as an atonement for the sins of ourselves and those of our people. But still we cannot, without betraying the sacred duties imposed on us, refrain from protesting formally against their acts, as we did do verbally on the 16th day of November, of painful memory, in presence of the whole diplomatic corps, who on that occasion honourably encircled us, and brought comfort and consolation to our soul, in recognising that a violent and unprecedented sacrilege had been committed. That protest we did intend, as we now do, openly and publicly to repeat, inasmuch as we yielded only to violence, and because we were, and are desirous, it should be made known that all proceedings emanating from such acts of violence were and are devoid of all efficacy and legality. This protesting is a necessary consequence of the malicious labours of these wicked men, and we publish it from the suggestion of our conscience, stimulated as it has been by the circumstances in which we were placed, and the impediments offered to the exercise of our sacred duties. Nevertheless, we confide upon the Most High that the continuance of these evils may be abridged, and we humbly supplicate the God of heaven to avert His wrath, in the language of the royal prophet-Memento Domine David, is et omnis mansuetudinis ejus.' "In order that the city of Rome and our states be not deprived of a legal executive, we have nominated a governing commission, composed of the following persons:

"The Cardinal Castricane, President; Monsignor Roberto Roberti Principe di Roviano, Principe Barberini, Marquis Bevilacque di Bologna, Lieut. Gene

ral Zucchi.

"In confiding to the said governing commission the temporary direction of public affairs, we recommend to our subjects and children, without exception, the conservation of tranquillity and good order. Finally, we desire and command that daily and earnest prayers shall be offered for the safety of our person, and that the peace of the world may be preserved, especially that of our state of Rome, where and with, when children, our heart shall be wherever we in person may dwell within the fold of Christ. And in the fulfilment of our duty as supreme pontiff, we thus humbly and devoutly invoke the great Mother of Mercy, and the holy apostles, Peter and Paul, for their intercession that the city and state of Rome may be saved from the wrath of the Omnipotent God." "PIUS PAPA IX."

"Gaeta, die Nov. 28."

PROTEST OF POPE PIUS AGAINST THE CREATION OF A JUNTA.

The following is the protest of the Pope, made at Gaeta, against the creation of a Junta at Rome:

"Raised by divine dispensation, in a manner almost miraculous, in spite of our unworthiness, to the sovereign Pontificate, one of our first cares was to endeavour to establish a union between the subjects of the temporal state of the church, to make peace between families, to do them good in all ways, and as far as depended upon us, to render the state peaceable and flourishing, But the benefits which we did all in our power to heap upon our subjects, the wide-founded institutions which we have granted to their desires, far, as we must in all candour declare, from inspiring that acknowledgment and gratitude which we have every right to expect, have occasioned to our hearts only reiterated pain and bitterness, caused by those ungrateful men whom our paternal eye wished to see daily diminishing in number. All the world can now

tell how our benefits have been answered, what abuse has been made of our concessions; how, by denaturalizing them, and perverting the meaning of our words, they have sought to mislead the multitude, so that these very benefits and institutions have been turned by certain men into arms, with which they have committed the most violent outrages upon our sovereign authority, and against the temporal rights of our Holy See. Our hearts refuse to repeat in detail the events which have taken place since Nov. 15, the day on which a minister who had our confidence was barbarously murdered by the hand of an assassin, applauded with a still greater barbarity by a troop of infuriated enemies to God, to man, and to every just and political institution. "The first crime opened the way to a series of crimes committed the following day with sacrilegious audacity. They have already incurred the execration of every upright mind in our state, in Italy and in Europe; they have incurred execration in all parts of the earth. This is the reason why we can spare our hearts the intense pain of recapitulating them here. We were constrained to withdraw from the place in which they were committed, from that place where violence prevented us from applying any remedy, reduced to weep over and deplore with good men those sad events, and the still more lamentable want of power in justice to act against the perpetrators of those abominable crimes. Providence has conducted us to the town of Gaeta, where, finding ourselves at full liberty, we have, against the authority of the aforesaid attempts and acts of violence, solemnly renewed the protests which we issued at Rome at the first moment, in the presence of the representatives accredited to us of the courts of Europe, and of other and distant nations. By the same act, without in any manner departing from the institutions we had created, we took care to give temporarily to our States a legitimate governmental representation, in order that in the capital and throughout the state, provision should be made for the regular and ordinary course of public affairs, as well as for the protection of the persons and property of our subjects. By us, moreover, has been prorogued the session of the High Council and Council of deputies, who had recently been called to resume their interrupted sittings.

"But these determinations of our authority, instead of causing the pertur bators and the authors of the acts of sacrilegious violence of which we have spoken to return to the path of duty, have urged them to make still greater attempts. Arrogating to themselves the rights of sovereignty, which belong only to us, they have, by means of two councils, instituted in the capital an illegitimate governmental representation, under the title of Provisional supreme Junta of the State, which they have published by an act dated the 12th of the present month. The duties of our sovereignty, in which we cannot fail, the solemn oaths by which we have, in the presence of God, promised to preserve the patrimony of the Holy See, and to transmit it in all its integrity to our successors, oblige us to raise our voice solemnly, and protest before God and in the face of the whole universe, against this grand and sacrilegious attempt. Therefore we declare to be null and of no force or effect in law, the acts which have followed the violence committed upon us, protesting, above all, that this Junta of State, established at Rome, is a usurpation of our sovereign power, and that the said Junta has not and cannot have any authority. Be it known, then, to all our subjects, whatever may be their rank or condition, that at Rome, and throughout the whole extent of the pontifical states, there is not, and cannot be, any legitimate power which does not emanate expressly from us; that we have, by the sovereign motu proprio, of the 27th of November, instituted a temporary commission of Government, and that to it belongs exclusively the government of the nation during our absence, and until we ourselves shall have otherwise ordained." "PIUS PAPA IX."

PROTOCOL TO THE MEXICAN TREATY.

The house of representatives, on the 5th of February, 1849, by a resolution, called upon the president for the correspondence in relation to the 9th, 10th and 12th articles of the treaty with Mexico, and for explanations in relation to the following document:

PROTOCOL

Of the conference, previous to the ratification and change of the treaty of peace, between Ambrose H. Sevier and Nathan Clifford, commissioned as ministers plenipotentiary on the part of the United States of America, and Don Luis de la Rosa, minister of foreign and internal affairs of the Mexican republic.

In the city of Queretaro, on the 26th of the month of May, 1848, at a conference between their excellencies, Nathan Clifford and Ambrose H. Sevier, commissioners of the United States of America, with full powers from their government to make to the Mexican republic suitable explanations, in regard to the amendments which the senate and government of the said United States have made in the treaty of peace, friendship, limits and definite settlement, between the two republics, signed in the city of Guadaloupe Hidalgo, on the 2d day of February of the present year, and his excellency, Don Luis de la Rosa, minister of foreign affairs of the republic of Mexico, it was agreed, after adequate conversation, respecting the changes alluded to, to record in the present protocol, the following explanations which their aforesaid excellencies, the commissioners, gave, in the name of their government, and in fulfilment of the commission conferred upon them, near the Mexican republic. 1. The American government, by suppressing the 9th article of the treaty of Guadaloupe, and substituting the 3d article of the treaty of Louisiana, did not intend to diminish in any way what was agreed upon by the aforesaid article 9th, in favour of the inhabitants of the territories ceded by Mexico. Its understanding is, that all of that agreement is contained in the 3d article of the treaty of Louisiana. In consequence, all the privileges and guarantees, civil, political and religious, which would have been possessed by the inha bitants of the ceded territories, if the 9th article of the treaty had been retained, will be enjoyed by them without any difference, under the article which has been substituted.

2. The American government, by suppressing the 10th article of the treaty of Guadaloupe, did not in any way intend to annul the grants of lands made by Mexico in the ceded territories. These grants, notwithstanding the suppression of the article of the treaty, preserve the legal value which they may possess, and the grantees may cause their legitimate titles to be acknowledged before the American tribunals.

Conformably to the law of the United States, legitimate titles to every description of property, personal and real, existing in the ceded territories, are those which were legitimate titles under the Mexican law in California and New Mexico up to the 13th May, 1846, and in Texas, up to the 2d March, 1836.

3. The government of the United States, by suppressing the concluding paragraph of article 12 of the treaty, did not intend to deprive the Mexican republic of the free and unrestrained faculty of ceding, conveying or transferring, at any time, (as it may judge best,) the sum of twelve millions of dollars, which the said government of the United States is to deliver in the places designated by the amended article.

And these explanations having been accepted by the minister of foreign affairs of the Mexican republic, he declared in the name of his government that, with the understanding conveyed by them, the said government would proceed to ratify the treaty of Guadaloupe as modified by the senate and

government of the United States. In testimony of which, their excellencies, the aforesaid commissioners and the minister have signed and sealed, in quintuplicate, the present protocol.

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[Signed]
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[Signed]

NATHAN CLIFFORD.
AMBROSE H. SEVIER.
LUIS DE LA ROSA.

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES IN RELATION TO THE MEXICAN PROTOCOL.

To the House of Representatives of the United States :—

In reply to the resolutions of the house of representatives of the fifth instant, I communicate herewith a report from the secretary of state, accompanied with all the documents and correspondence relating to the treaty of peace concluded between the United States and Mexico, at Guadaloupe Hidalgo, on the 2d of February, 1848, and to the amendments of the senate thereto, as requested by the house in the said resolutions.

Amongst the documents transmitted will be found a copy of the instructions given to the commissioners of the United States, who took to Mexico the treaty as amended by the senate, and ratified by the president of the United States. In my message to the house of representatives of the twenty-ninth of July, 1848, I gave as my reason for declining to furnish these instructions, in compliance with a resolution of the house, that "in my opinion it would be inconsistent with the public interests to give publicity to them at the present time." Although it may still be doubted whether giving them publicity in our own country, and as a necessary consequence, in Mexico, may not have a prejudicial influence on our public interests, yet, as they have been again called for by the house, and called for in connexion with other documents, to the correct understanding of which they are indispensable, I have deemed it my duty to transmit them.

I still entertain the opinion, expressed in the message referred to, "that, as a general rule, applicable to all our important negotiations with foreign powers, it could not fail to be prejudicial to the public interests to publish the instructions to our ministers, until some time had elapsed after the conclusion of such negotiations."

In these instructions of the 18th of March, 1848, it will be perceived "that the task was assigned to the commissioners of the United States of consummating the treaty of peace, which was signed at Guadaloupe Hidalgo, on the 2d day of February last, between the United States and the Mexican republic; and which, on the tenth of March last, was ratified by the senate, with amendments."

They were informed "that this brief statement will indicate to you clearly the line of your duty. You are not sent to Mexico for the purpose of negotiating any new treaty, or of changing in any particular the ratified treaty which you will bear with you. None of the amendments adopted by the senate can be rejected or modified, except by the authority of that body. Your whole duty will, then, consist in using every honourable effort to obtain from the Mexican government a ratification of the treaty in the form in which /it has been ratified by the senate, and this with the least practicable delay." "For this purpose, it may, and most probably will, become necessary that you should explain to the Mexican minister for foreign affairs, or to the autho rized agents of the Mexican government, the reasons which have influenced the senate in adopting these several amendments to the treaty. This duty

you will perform, as much as possible, by personal conferences. Diplomatic notes are to be avoided, unless in case of necessity. These might lead to endless discussions and indefinite delay. Besides, they could not have any practical result, as your mission is confined to procuring a ratification from the Mexican government of the treaty as it came from the senate, and does not extend to the slightest modification in any of its provisions."

The commissioners were sent to Mexico to procure the ratification of the treaty as amended by the senate. Their instructions confined them to this point. It was proper that the amendments to the treaty adopted by the United States should be explained to the Mexican government, and explanations were made by the secretary of state, in his letter of the 18th of March, 1848, to the Mexican minister of foreign affairs under my direction. This despatch was communicated to congress with my message of the 6th of July last, communicating the treaty of peace, and published by their order. This despatch was transmitted by our commissioners from the city of Mexico to the Mexican government, then at Queretaro, on the 17th of April, 1848, and its receipt acknowledged on the 19th of the same month. During the whole time that the treaty, as amended, was before the congress of Mexico, these explanations of the secretary of state, and these alone, were before them.

The president of Mexico, on these explanations, on the 8th day of May, 1848, submitted the amended treaty to the Mexican congress and on the 25th of May that congress approved the treaty as amended without modification or alteration. The final action of the Mexican congress has taken place before the commissioners of the United States had been officially received by the Mexican authorities, or held any conference with them, or had any other communication on the subject of the treaty, except to transmit the letter of the secretary of state.

In their despatch transmitted to congress, with my message of the 6th of July last, communicating the treaty of peace dated "City of Queretaro, May 25th, 1848, nine o'clock, P. M.," the commissioners say:-"We have the satisfaction to inform you that we reached this city this afternoon, at about five o'clock, and that the treaty, as amended by the senate of the United States, passed the Mexican senate about the hour of our arrival, by a vote of 33 to 5. It having previously passed the house of deputies, nothing now remains but to exchange the ratifications of the treaty."

On the next day, (the 26th of May) the commissioners were, for the first time, presented to the president of the republic, and their credentials placed in his hands. On this occasion, the commissioners delivered an address to the president of Mexico, and he replied. In their despatch of the 30th of May, the commissioners say:-"We enclose a copy of our address to the president, and also a copy of his reply. Several conferences afterwards took place between Messrs. Rosa, Cuevas, Couto, and ourselves, which it is thought not necessary to recapitulate, as we enclose a copy of the protocol, which contains the substance of the conversations. We have now the satisfaction to announce that the exchange of ratifications was effected to-day." This despatch was communicated with my message of the 6th of July last, and published by order of congress.

The treaty, as amended by the senate of the United States, with the accompanying papers, and the evidence that in that form it had been ratified by Mexico, was received at Washington on the 4th day of July, 1848, and immediately proclaimed as the supreme law of the land. On the 6th of July, I communicated to congress the ratified treaty, with such accompanying documents as were deemed material to a full understanding of the subject, to the end that congress might adopt the legislation necessary and proper to carry the treaty into effect. Neitner the address of the commissioners, nor the reply of the president of Mexico, on the occasion of their presentation, nor

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