American Republican and Baltimore daily clipper. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1844-1846, 1846-12-09

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NhE secretary TT stat" ni the Dutrd states in note
address d ~ our munster in Mexico, manu,ins that
ny tc .In ma Treaty o. 1873 the territory as larwest
Us IN" RIO GrlHdc was confirmed To Suan. I'm thar
note he states that 'hy The treaty Of lac tNrutv-.a
cond Of February, 1919, rclwurn the Unied States
ana Spain, The Sabine adopted us The line OF
boundary hCtw, en- The Two Powers Tn 10 that ne.
u0I, no considerable colonization had been eff; ,ad
~ Texas; but the urrOfy between the Sabine and
the no Grdnie beng confirmed 10 Spai4 by the trea
~; apR.ledtOns wCT9 made 10 that Power for prants
Iad, aud such grants, or permiss0Gs of settlement
were IN fact made by the Spanish authorities In "a
Vor oil clzehs Of the United Safes proposing to ei
crate ID Texas IN numerous families, before The de.
claTatIpn Of independence by Mexico"
| Inc Trras which was cedC TO spain by the Flor.
! lhd treaty of 1919, embraced all The country now
CLAIMED by the State ofIeX Is between the Nuecer
| ana tIe hlo Grande The republic 0tTeXas always
claimed Tins river as her western boundary, and in
! her treaty made with Santa Anna in May, 1886, he
IecoShH as such. By The cons ttnuOn which
ekhs adopted IN March, 1896, senatorial and repre-
sentative di trio wero organized extending west Of
the Nueces. The COngrt IS UfTtxaS, on the 18Th OF
pecembeI, 1885, passed can act define The bOu...
hanes OF The republic Of Texas" in which they de
clared the Rio Grand from its mouth TO ts source ia
he their boundary, and by the said act they extended
their "clyIl and political jursdction' over the coan
Try up to that boundary. During period of more
lhan nine years, which interviewed be weGn the adop-
uOh OF her C0Hsii uilOH and her Of
the states OF our Uninn Texas asserted aud eKercis-
dmahy acts % sovereignty and jurisdiction over the
territory and inhabitants west of the NHeccs She
organic aud defined the limits of counties extend
ing to the Rio Grande She established courts of
justice and extended her jude al system over the
territory. she established custom house, and col
eCied duties, and also post Offices and most roads in
H. She established land office, and issued numersEE
grants Ter land, within its limits A Senator aI&
Representative residing in il were elected To The
congress OF the republic and served such before
The act OF annexation took place. In both the Con-
treSs ana Convention OF Texas which gave their
sent to the terms ofanReEaon To- the United States,
proposed by our Congress, were representatives re
siding west Of the Nuces who took part in the act of
anne Xation itself This the Texas which, ny the
act of our Congress Of the 29th OF December 1915,
was admitted as one OF the States of Union
Ihat the Congress of the United States under
stood the Slate Of Texas which they admitted int
tue UHion to extend beyond the Nueccs is apparent
from the fact thar on the thirty-nfst of December,
loi5, only two days after The act of admission they
passed a law "tD establish collection district in
the state of Texas, by which they created port of
delivery az Corpus Christi, situated west Of the
Nuecrs, and being the sane point at which the
Texas custom house, under the laws Of that tCtBa-
lie, had been located, and directed that a surveyor
to collect the revenue should be appointed for that
port by The President, by and with the advice AVID
consent OF the Senate, surveyor was accordingly
nominated and confined by the Sen lie, and haE
been ever since IN the pertOrma &c of his dulles
All these acts OF the republic of Texas, and of 0gr
Congress preceded the orders for the advance Of
army To the east bank of the Rio Grande Subse-
quCnty, Congress passed an act establishing GER
tain post rOutes' exit nding west OF the NueCeS The
country west Of the riveI now constitutes part o.
one Of the Congress iOHal districts Of Texas, and il
represented IN the House OF Represent lives, The
SenlOfs from tn It State were chosen by legiGIa
ture in VIII lCh The country west Of that river was
represented. In view of all these acts it is difficult
L conceive upon what ground it can be malntaIaed
that. i'll occupying the country west OF the NueceS
with oar army, with view solely to Its security
and defence, ,Ivaded the territory OF Mexico.
But it would have been still more difficult TO jus
tiy the Executive whose duty it is 10 see that the
laws he huy executed, II in the face Of all these
proceedings, both OC The Congress Of Texas and 81
the United States he had assumed the responsibility
OF yielding up the territory west Of the Nueces to
Mexico, orn refusing Ia protect and defend thus ter
lOry a"d lis inhabitants, inc uGing Corpus Christi,
as well as the remainder ofTeIas against the threat
en9d Mexican invasion.
But Mckee herself has never placed the wal which
she has wased upon the ground thar our army occu-
pied the inCTmcdate territory srtween the NueCes
and the RIU Grandc. Her refu!ed pretensioR tha2
Texas was not in fact an independent state, bat &
rebelllous province, was Obsunately persevered in:
aud her avuWed purpose in commencing a war With
the United States to rccenQuer Texas, and "a
restore Mexican authority over the whole territTy-
not to the NuecCs only, but The Sabine. In vte%
of The proclaimed menaces Of Mexico TO this effect,
dceacd II my duy as measure OF precaution aud
detnce, to order our army to occupy position oE
our frontier rs military post from which our uooPS
could best resist and rcpe any attempted INVASION
which Mexico might make
Our army had occupied position at Corpus
Christi, west Of the Nucces, as early as Au-
gust, ls45, without complaint from any quar-
ter. Had the NuGccs been regarded as the true
western boundary of Texas, that boundary had
been passed by our army many months before
it advanced to the eastern bank Of the Rie
Grande. la my annual message of Decembe1
last, informed congress, that upon the iuvi-
tatlon of both the congress and convention Of
Texas, had deemed it proper to order a strong
squadron to the coast of Mexico, and TO COR
centrato an efficient military force on the ives
tern frontier of Texas, to protect and defend
Al -
of Mexico. In that message | informed con-
gress, that the moment the terms Of annexation
offered by the United States were accepted by
Texas, the latter became so far a part of our
own county as to make it our duty to afford
such protection and defence; and that for that
purpose our squadron had been ordered to the
Gulf, and our army to stake position be-
tween the Nueces and the Del Norte," or Rio
Grande, and 'to repel any invasion Of the Tex
an territory which might be attempted by the
Mexican forces "
II was deemed proper to issue this order, be-
cause, soon after the President Of Texas, in
April, 1915, had issued his proclamation con"
vening the congress Of that republic, for the
purpose of submitting TO that body the terms
of annexation proposed by the United States.
the government of Mexico made serious threats
of invading the Texan territory. These threats
became more imposing as became more appa-
rent, in the progress Of the question, that the
people of Texas would decide in favor of ac-
cepting the terms of annexaton and, finally,
they had assumed such formidable character,
as induced both the congress and convention Of
| Texas to request that military force should
be sent by the United States into her territory,
for the purpose of protecting and defending her
against the threatened invasion. 1t would have
been violation of good faith towards the pea
pie of Texas to have refused to afford the aid
which they desired against threatened 'n't-
sion, TO which they had been exposed by sheif
free determination to annex themselves 10 oni
Union, in compliance with the overture msds
to them by the joint resolution Of our con-
, gress.