Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1846-12-17

lnllitIlCeS rom abroad. III lDe Sdflic ulSpaIcl
the Secretary of State affirms that slnce
eighteen hundred and thrty-seven the United
States have regarded Texas as an ndepend-
Cnt sovereignty, as muchAS Mexico and that
trade and commerce with citizens of Gov
crnment at war with Mexico cannot, on that
account, be regarded as an intercourse by
which assistance and succor are given to
Mexican rebels. The whole current Of Mr..
de Bocanegera's remarks runs in the same
current as If the independence Of Texas had
not been acknowledged. 1t has been ac-
knowiedged-t was acknowledged in 1887,
against the remonstrance and protest of Mex
leo; and most Of the acts Of any importance
OF which Mr.. de Bocanegra complains, flow
necessarily from that recognition. He speaks
Of Texas as being still an integral part of
the territory of the Mexican republic but he
cannot but understand that the United States
donot SO regard it. The real complaint Of
Mexico, therefore, is, in substance, neither
more nor less than complaint against the
recognition of Texan independence. Ii may
be thought rather late to repeat that complaint
and not quite just to confine it to the United
States, to the exemption of England, France
and Belgium, unless the United States, having
been the first to acknowledge the independ-
ence of Mexico herself are 10 be blamed for
setting an example for the recognition Of that
of Texas" And he added, that " the Consti-
tuition, Public Treaties and the laws oblige the
President to regard TeXs, a. an independent
State, and its territory as no part of the ter
ritorv of Mexico" Texas had been an nde-
pendent State, with an organized Government,
Geving the power Of Mexico to overthrow or
leconquer her, for more than ten years before
Mexico commenced the present war against
the United States. Texas had given such ev-
idence to the world Of her ability TO maintain
her separate existence as an independent na-
ton, that she had been formally recognised
as such, not only by the United States, but
by several of the principal powers Of Europe.
These powers had entered into treaties ofam-
ity, commerce and navigation with her. They
had received and accredited her ministers and
other diplomatic agents at their respective
courts, and they had commissioned ministers
and diplomatic agents on their part to the Co
vernment OF Texas. If Mexico, ,notwithstan-
ding all this, and her utter inability to subdue
or reconquer Texas, still stubbornly refused to
recognize her as an independent nation, she
was none the less 50 on that account. Mex
leo herself had been recognized as an inde-
pendent nation by the United States and by
other Powers, many years before Spain, of
which, before the Revolution, she had been
colony, would agree to recognize her as such,
and vet Mexico was at that time, in the esti-
nation of the civilized world, and in fact,
none the less an independent power because
Spain still claimed her as colony. lfSpain
had continued until the present period to assert
that Mexico was one of her colonies, in rebel
lion against her, this would not have made
her SO, or changed the fact of her independ-
ent existence. Texas, at the period Of her
annexation to the United States, bore the same
relation to Mexico that Mexico had borne to
Spain for many years before Spain acknow-
lodged her independence, with this important
diiference-that, before the annexation of
Texas to the United States was consummaled
Mexico herself, by formal act of her Gov
ernment, had acknowledged the independence
of Texas as a nation. 1t is e,that in the
act of recognition she prescribed condition,
which she had no power or authority TO I'M
pose, that Texas should not annex herself to
any other Power; but this could not detract
in any degree from the recognition which
Mexico then made of rsctual independence
Upon this plain statement of facts, it IS ab-
surd for Mexico TO allege as a pretext for COM
mencing hostilities against the United States,
that Texas is still part of her territory.
But there are those who, conceding ali this
TO be true, assume the ground that the true
western boundary of Texas is the .Neuces, in
stead Of the Rio Grande; and that, therefore,
in marching our army to the east bank of the
latter river, we passed the Texan line, and in
vaded the Territory of Mexico. A simple
statement of facts, known to exist, will con-
cusively relute such an assumption. Tesas,
as ceded to the United States by France, in
1903, has been always claimed as extending
west to. the Rio Grande or Rio Bravo. This
fact is established by the authority of our most
eminent statesmen at a period when the ques-
ton was as well, if not better understood than
il is at present. During Mr.. Jefferson's ad-
nlinistration, Messrs. Monroe and Pinckney
who had been sent on a special mission to
Madrid, charged, among other things, with
the adjustment of boundary between the two
countries in note addressed to the Spanish
Minister of Foreign affairs, under date of the
28th Of January, 1905, assert that the bound
aries of Louisiana, as ceded to the United
States by France, i" are the River Perdido, or
the east and the River Bravo on the west ,
and they add, that, " the facts and principles
which justify this conclusion are 50 satisfac.
tory To orr CInrernlnont nc 70 nnn.,incn II tha