Ypsilanti sentinel. [volume] (Ypsilanti, Washtenaw Co., Mich.) 1843-1900, 1846-12-16

be found there, or "any other place nortn oi the
Rio Bravo, and within the territory claimed By
the United States. He was instructed, should
they be found in the country north of that river
to IKE known to them the surprise with which
the |esident has seen possession thus taken,
without authority from the United States, of Z
place within their territorial limits, and upon
which no lawful settlement can be made with
out their sanction" He was instructed to call
upon them to "avow under what national su-
thority they profess to act" and to give them
due warning, shat the place is in the United
States, which will suffer no permanent settle
ment to be made under any authority other than
their own" AS late as the eighth of July, "a
the Secretary of State of the United States in .
note addressed to our minister in Mexico, MAIN
tains that by the Florida treaty of lS19 the ter
ritory as far west as the Rio Grande was con-
frmed to Spaiu. In that note he asserts that
by the treaty of the 22d of February, 1919, be-
tween the UnitedStates and Spain, the Sabine
was adopted as the line of boundary between the
two powers. Up to that period no colonization
had been effected in Texas; but the territos be-
tween the Sabine and the Rio Grande being con-
firmed to Spain by the treaty, applications were
made to that Power for grants of land, and such
grants, or permissions of settlement, were in
fact made by the Spanish authorities in favor Of
citizens of the United States proposing to emf
CRATE to Texan in numerous families, before the
declaration of the independence of Mexico.
The Texas which was ceded to Spain by the
Florida treaty of 1919, embraced all the coun-
try now claimed by the State of Texas between
the Nueces and the Rio Grande. The repub-
lie of Texas always claimed this river as her
western boundary, and in her treaty made with
Santa Anna, in May 1886, he recognized it a.
such. By the constitution which Texas adopt
rso1o 80
districts were organized extending west of the
Neuces. The Congress of Texas, ON the 18th
of Dec, 1916, passed'An act to define the bous
daries of the Republic of Texas in which they
declared the Rio Grande from its mouth to it,
source, to be their boundary, and by the said act
they extended their civil and political Jurisdic-
tions over the country up to that boundary
During period of more than nine years which
interviewed between the adoption of her constitu
ton and her anRexation as one of the states Of
our Union, Texas asserted and exercised many
acts of sovereignty and jurisdiction over the ter
ritory and inhabitants west of this Neuees.-
She organized and defined the limits of cou.-
ties extending to the Rio Grande. She estab-
lished courts of justice and extended her judicial
system over the territory. She established .
custom house and collected Duties and also post
Offices and post roads, in it. She established
within its limits. A senator a representative
residing within it were elected to the congress
of the repubIc,and served as such before the act
of annexation took place. In both the congress
and convention of Texas which gave their a.-
sent to the terms of annexation to the u. s.
proposed by our Congress, were representatives
residing west of the Neuces, who took part IN
the act of annexation itself.
This was the Texes which, by sh act of our
Congress of the twenty ninth December, l84s
was admitted as one ofthc states our Union.-
That the Congress of is. understood the state
of Texas which they admitted into the Union to
the Union to extend beyond the Nueces is mp
parent from the fact, that on the thirty-frst Of
Dec, 1916, only twodays after the act of ad-
mission, they passed law TO establish col
lection district in the State of Taxas, by which
they created port of delivery at Corpus Chris
same point at which the Texas custom house.
under the laws of that republic; had been loca-
ted, and directed that surveyor to collect the
revenue should be appropriated for that port by
the President, by and with the advics of the
Senate. A surveyor was accordingly nomina-
ted and confirmed by the Senate, and has been
ever since in the performance of his dutiee.-
All these acts of the Republic of Texas, and Of
our Congress, preceded the orders for the ad-
vance of our army to the east bank of the RE
Grande. Subsequently, Congress passed IN
act establishing certaln'post routes" extending
west OF the Neuces. The country west of that
river now constitutes part of one of the Con-
gressional Districts of Texas, and is represeh-
ted in the House of Representatives. The Sen
ators from that state were chosen by the Legis-
lature in which the country west of that river
was represented. In view of all these facts it
10 "a
be maintained that, in occupying the country
west of the Neuces with our army, with visw
solely to its security and defence, we invaded
the territory of Mexico. But it would have
been still more difficult to justify the Executive
whose duty was to see that the laws be faithful
y executed, If in the face of all these procee-
dings, both of the Congress of Texas and of
the United States, he had assumed the respon-
sibility ofyielding up the territory west of the
Neuces to Mexico, refusing to protect and
defend this territory and its inhabitants, inclu-
ding Corpus Christi, as well as the remainder Of
Texas, against the threatened Mexican IN
vasion.
Bot Mexico herself has never placed the war
which she has waged upon the ground that our
army occupied the immediate territory between
the Neuces and the Rio Grande. Her refuted
pretention that Texas was not in fact an indie
pendent State,but a rebellious province was OBJ
stinately preserved in: and her avowed purpose
in commencing a war with the United States
was to reconquer Texas, and to restore Mexi-
caa authority over the whole territory-not to
the Neuces only, but to the Sabine. In view Of
the proclaimed menace of Mexico to this effect
| deemed it my duty, measure of precaii-
ton and defence, to order our army to occupy a s.
position on our frontier a military post from
which our troops could best resist and repeal
any attempted invasion with Mexico might
make.
Our army had occupied position at Corpus
Christi, west Of the Neuces as early as Au-
gust, lS45, without complaint from any quar-
ter. Hal the Ne c,s been regarded a. the
true western boundary Of Texas, that boundary
has been passed oy our army many months be-
sfore it advanced to theeastern bank of the Rio