The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1847-10-07
The True boundary Of Texas.

fixed by treaty the boundary of Texas, makes ii proper
that we present to readers al this time some OF the
proofs which show beyond question that the real bound
airy of Texas is the Del Norie
The following passage from Mr.. Walkers Texas let
ter of January 1884, gives condensed view of the entire
unanmty of opinion upon this subject which prevailed
among the whole generation of American statesmen
through whose agency the territory of Louisiana was
made part of our Union in 1903:
Texas, as Mr.. Jefferson declared was as clea4ly en-
braced in the purchase by of Louisiana as New Orleans
itself; and that it part of that region demonstrated
by the discovery by the great Lasae of the and
mouth OF the Mississippi and his occupancy France
west OF the Colorado Our right to Texas, part OF
louisiana asserted and demonstrated by Presidents
Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and John Quincy Adams No
one Of our Presidents has doubted title; and Mr.
Clay has maintained il clear and unquesonabe
Louisiana was acquired by treaty with France, in 1903
by Mr. Jefferson; and in the letter of Mr. Madison the
Secretary of State, dated March g. 1904 says express
ing his own views and those of Mr. Jefferson Louis
ana extended weswardly to the Rio Bravo, otherwise
called Rio del Norte. Orders accordingly obtained
from the Spanish authorities for the delivery of all the posts
on the side of the Mississippi" And his letter of
the 3lst January 1904 Mr. Madison declares that Mr. Las
sat- the French commissioner who delivered the possession
Louisiana TO announced the Del Norte its
boundary" Here, then, in the delivery OF the possession
of Louisiana by Spain France, and France us Tex
as is included In the letter of Mr. Madison of the 9Th
1874, declares the OF Mr. Jefferson
the rsiinqnishmn of any territory whatever eastward of
Rio Bravo In the letter of James Monroe of the 9Th
November, IS03 he encloses documents which, he says,
prove aconesaby that the boundary of Louisiana is
the Rio Bravo the west - and Mr.. Pnckney unites
with him in similar declaration In subsequent letter
a foreign government, but to Mr. Madsonof the Goth
April 1906 they assert title unquesonabe. In Mr..
Monroes letters Secretary of State dated January 49,
1876 and June 10, 1876 he says could question
title Texas; and he expresses his concurrence opin-
ion with Jefferson and Madison, that title to the Del
Nore was clear as to the island of New Orleans" In
his letter. Secretary of State, Don Onis, of
March, 1918, John Quincy Adams says: " The claim of
always did ertend oestoard to the Rio Bravo " se
Arrays claimed the territory whichIyou call Texas being
within the limits and forming part of Louisiana After
demonstrating title Texas in this letter. Mr.. Adams
says: "Well might Messrs. Pinokney and Monroe write
NJ Cevalos in 1906 that the claim of the United States
to boundary of the Rio Bravo clear their right
to the island of New Orleans" Again. in his letter
3s October 1918, Mr. Adams says title Texas is
established beyond the power of further controversy
In far the gerry highest authorities be regard
ed establishing any proposition these repeated deca
raons of Messrs. jefferson, Madison Monroe, Pinck-
ney, and Adams must be considered as fully proving
that the Rio Grande the welknown and well-set-
tied boundary of Texas ceded to us in 1903 by the
Louisiana treaty.
Later authorities, of great weight, equally distinct
and explicit upon the subject Mr. Senator Benton, in
letter published by him in the Globe Of 18th of May, 1884,
uses the following language
"Our title the whole ofTexas had been previously vim
dictated by Mr. Adams himself, who showed from La
Harpes Journal and other early writings French
under whom claimed had established themselves I'M
der La Sale, the Bay of ST Bernard the Oldest
men in the province, u,oards Of thirty gears before the
Spanards crossed the Rio del Norte"
The best numerous harbors on the continental
coast of the Gulf of Mexico lie between the Sabine and
the mouth of the Rio del Noe As a naval and commercial
power owning the great river which carries the
of an empire into the gulf had the greatest need for
these harbors. BY the acquisition of louisiana obtain
ed them by the boundary established on south
| west frontier in 1Sl9 gave them away
Before the establishment of this boundary all the coun
try the of the lower Mississippi quite the Rio del
Norte, was ours.'
Mr.. Clay, in his celebrated Raleigh letter. of April l7th
1914, says: The United States acquired title to Texas
extending, Ibcieve to the ode Norte by the treaty
of louisiana"
This opinion of long standing with Mr. Clay
for in his speech of April 1920, upon the treaty of s9
he declared with Mr. Madison, that title to the Rio
del Nore well founded ii was to the island OF
New Orleans"
Mr. Webster is fully on record TO the same effect On
the sth Of July, 1872 while Secretary of State of the
United States, Mr. Webster, in note addressed to our
minister in Mexico, maintains this same proposition TO
witt that, by the Florida treaty of 1872 the territory as
far sst the Rio Grande was confirmed by us to Spain
In that note Mr. Webster states that
BY the treaty the 22l of February 18i9 between the
United States and Spain, the Sabine adopted Us the
line of boundary between the powers. Up to that
PERIOD considerable colonization had been effected i'm
Texas but the territory between the Sabine and the Rio
Grandc being confirmed Spain by the treaty, appea-
tons made to that power for grants of land and such
grants, pemissons of settlement, niude by
the Spanish authorities in favor of citizens of the United
States proposing emgrate Texas in numerous fami-
lies before the declaration of independence by Mexico
To this array of authorities, add the following ex-
tracts from the speech of Mr. Walker delivered in the
Senate of the United States in May, 1874:
But il the boundary had been left an open ques-
on but the Del Norte had been specified, the rghuI
boundary of Texas, and therefore would constitute
valid objection to the treaty. In 1885, Texas defined her
boundary as follows:
beginning the mouth of the Sabine river and run
ming west along the Gull of Mexico, Leagues from
land to the mouth OF the Rio Grande thence the prnci
pie stream OF said river to its thence due north
the forty second degree of north along the
boundary line, defined in the treaty between the United
States and Span the beginnings and that the President
be, and is hereby, authorized and required to
ica in his opinion, the public interests require
it, ascertain and define the boundary line, as agreed
upon in the said treaty"
Such the boundary of Texas, as described in her
organic law, when my motion to recognise the lndepend-
ence of Texas adopted
In pursuing our ancient and rghul boundary, before
we surrendered Texas along the Del Nore brought
bv western of that great river, point within
four hundred miles of the Pacific ocean, and where the