30th CONGRESS, 1st Session. [SENATE.] EXECUTIVE, United States - Best Cing, 1st Sies. (1847-48 rate. - 36ût THE TREATY BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO, THE PROCEedings of THE SENATE THEREON, AND MESSAGE OF THE IN EXECUTIVE SESSION, SENATE OF THE U. S. WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 1848. Resolved, That the mjunction of secrecy be removed from the treaty between the United States and Mexico, the documents accompanying the same, and the proceedings of the Senate and debates thereon, and the documents sent to the Senate and ordered to be printed relating to the negotiation of said treaty, and also from the messages of the President of the 7th and 9th March, and documents communicated therewith. Ordered, That the treaty with Mexico, the messages, documents, proceedings, and other matter relating thereto, from which the injunction of secrecy has been removed, be printed for the use of the Senate. FRIDAY, JUNE 2, 1848. Resolved, That the injunction of secrecy be removed from so much of the correspondence between the executive departments and Mr. Trist and other officers of the government in Mexico and the accompanying papers, transmitted to the Senate, as have been printed in confidence, and that the same be printed for the use of the Senate. Attest: ASBURY DICKINS, Secretary. IN EXECUTIVE SESSION, SENATE OF THE U. STATES. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1848. The following message was received from the President of the United States, by Mr. Walker, his secretary: To the Senate of the United States: I lay before the Senate, for their consideration and advice as to its ratification, a treaty of peace, friendship, limits, and settlement, signed at the city of Guadalupe Hidalgo, on the second day of February, 1848, by N. P. Trist on the part of the United States, and by plenipotentiaries appointed for that purpose on the part of the Mexican government. I deem it to be my duty to state that the recall of Mr. Trist as commissioner of the United States, of which Congress was informed in my annual message, was dictated by a belief that his continued presence with the army could be productive of no good, but might do much harm by encouraging the delusive hopes and false impressions of the Mexicans; and that his recall would satisfy Mexico that the United States had no terms of peace more favorable to offer. Directions were given that any propositions for peace, which Mexico might make, should be received and transmitted by the commanding general of our forces, to the United States. It was not expected that Mr. Trist would remain in Mexico, or continue in the exercise of the functions of the office of commissioner, after he received his letter of recall. He has, however, done so, and the plenipotentiaries of the government of Mexico, with a knowledge of the fact, have concluded with him this treaty." I have examined it with a full sense of the extraneous circumstances attending its conclusion and signature, which might be objected to; but, conforming, as it does substantially on the main questions of boundary and indemnity, to the terms which our commissioner, when he left the United States in April last, was authorized to offer, and animated, as I am, by the spirit which has governed all my official conduct towards Mexico, I have felt it to be my duty to submit it to the Senate for their consideration, with a view to its ratification. To the tenth article of the treaty there are serious objections, and no instructions given to Mr. Trist contemplated or authorized its insertion. The public lands within the limits of Texas belong to that State, and this government has no power to dispose of them, or to change the conditions of grants already made. All valid titles to land within the other territories ceded to the United States will remain unaffected by the change of sovereignty; and I therefore submit that this article should not be ratified as a part of the treaty. There may be reason to apprehend that the ratification of the "additional and secret article" might unreasonably delay and embarrass the final action on the treaty by Mexico. I therefore submit whether that article should not be rejected by the Senate. If the treaty shall be ratified as proposed to be amended, the cessions of territory made by it to the United States, as indemnity, the provision for the satisfaction of the claims of our injured citizens, and the permanent establishment of the boundary of one of the States of the Union, are objects gained of great national importance; while the magnanimous forbearance exhibited towards Mexico, it is hoped may insure a lasting peace and good neighborhood between the two countries. I communicate herewith a copy of the instructions given to Mr. Slidell in November, 1845, as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Mexico; a copy of the instructions given to Mr. Trist in April last, and such of the correspondence of the latter with the Department of State, not heretofore communicated to Congress, as will enable the Senate to understand the action which has been had with a view to the adjustment of our difficulties with Mexico. WASHINGTON, February 22, 1848. The message was read. JAMES K. POLK. The treaty of peace, friendship, limits, and settlement between the United States of America and the Mexican republic, concluded at Guadalupe Hidalgo, on the 2d day of February, in the year 1848, was read the first time. On motion by Mr. Sevier, Ordered, That the treaty, message, and accompanying documents be referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations, and printed in confidence for the use of the Senate. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1848. Mr. Sevier, from the Committee on Foreign Relations, to whom was referrred, the 23d instant, the treaty of peace, friendship, limits, and settlement between the United States of America and the Mexican republic, concluded at Guadalupe Hidalgo, on the 2d day of February, in the year 1848, reported it without amendment. Mr. Webster submitted the following resolution for consideration: Resolved, That the further consideration of the message of the President of the United States of the 22d of February, 1848, be postponed; and that it be recommended to the President of the United States immediately to nominate commissioners plenipotentiary, not fewer than three, to proceed to Mexico, for the purpose of negotiating with the republic of Mexico a treaty of peace, boundaries, and indemnities due to American citizens. 4 Mr. Houston submitted the following resolution for consideration: Whereas, the President of the United States did, on the 23d instant, submit to the Senate an instrument purporting to be a treaty between the government of the United States and the republic of Mexico, signed at Guadalupe Hidalgo, on the second day of the present month, by Nicholas P. Trist, falsely assuming to act under the authority of the President of the United States and Lu's G. Cuevas, Bernardo Conto, and Mig. Atristain, pretending to act by the authority of Mexico: And whereas, the said Nicholas P. Trist was, at the time of signing said instrument, acting contumaciously and in direct violation of the orders of his government recalling him, which orders he had communicated to the Mexican authorities: And whereas, the said instrument having been signed by a person falsely representing himself as a minister of this government while acting in violation of his instructions, the laws of the land, and the constitution of this Union, and to the great scandal of our national character, renders the said instrument utterly void and ineffectual; it would therefore be dangerous, if not ruinous, for the Senate, by their decision, to sanction such a flagrant disregard of the institutions of the country, as it would be holding out inducements to similar acts by vicious men, who may be actuated by the most corrupt and treasonable intentions against the liberties of the country: And whereas, the very peculiar circumstances under which the said instrument was concluded, do not leave it free from wellgrounded suspicion of the interference of agents of other powers, not parties to the instrument, and whose interests are adverse to those of the United States; and, further, it is manifest from the correspondence before the Senate, that information affecting the character of the country as well as the instrument itself, is not be, fore this body, and as the individual who sent the same has promised much matter with the duplicate, which is to arrive soon: And whereas, it has been declared to be the object of the present war to obtain "indemnity for the past and security for the future," and as it is most probable that the domain proposed to be ceded by Mr. Trist's agreement is all granted by Mexico, or will be covered by fraudulent grants, if the agreement should become a treaty, leaving to the United States mere civil and political jurisdiction of the same, while it would be incumbered by conditions relative to the Indians which would be worth more, in a pecuniary point of view, than all the vacant land acquired, and which would leave the government of the United States no indemnity in honor for the lives of its gallant sons who have fallen, no indemnity for the millions expended, nor for the blur which must dim the lustre of our national escutcheon: And whereas, the conduct of the authorities of Mexico have been such as to justify this government to treat her as a conquered people, and to claim a full indemnity for all the injuries which we, as a nation, have sustained from her since she has claimed to be a republic; |