Evansville weekly journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 184?-18??, 1848-08-03

A DIFFIcuLr SNARL.-A Washington cor
respondent of the Herald thus towns up TO the |
perplexity in which the Federal Administra-
ton is involved by its concurrence in the i'm
prient falsehood that the Rio Grande was
throughout It's course the rightful Western
boundary of Texas:
"With regard to New Mexico, distinct ter
ritorial dispute remains to be settled. 1t is
this: Does the territory of Mexico east of the
Rio Grande, and including Santa Fe, and 20O,-
900 square miles of territory (more or less) be-
long to Texas or not? Texas claims tit was
admitted to belong to Texas In the resolutions
of Annexation; but Texas never conquered it
-neucr occupied an inch ofit-and neither the
authorities of the United States nor of Texas
exercised, or pretended to exercise, any actual
jurisdiction over it, till conquered and oecsf-
pied by the United States forces under Gen.
kearney He displaced the Mexican Govern
nor, and the Mexican flag from the Mexican
Government House at Santa Fe; he superseded
| BY a new code Of laws the Mexicanfederal and
municipal statutes. He did not find TerGn
in Ncuo MericO; nor did he appear to be aware
that Texas could have the shadow ola claim TO
the territory till he received the protest of her
Governor against the Provisional Government
/ WulCu III lio tIlC
of the United States, as the fundamental law
of New Mexico. Then it was that he was in
| formed that he had made mistake-that Arm
! ito was nota Mexican Governor--that the yell
low people of Santa Fee were Texans, and that
New Mexico was part of Texas.
4 "The fact is. every other claim of Texas to
New Mexico is utterly preposterous. A claim
set up to California would be just as good,
apart from the resolutions of Annexation
The terms of the Annexation are the only ground
which Texas can present as claim upon New
J Mexico; and this she can only present as
ground for demand that the territory shall be
ceded TO her, not that she possesses it. No
. sort of sophistry-nothing in the way OF in
genuity-can make the boundary of New Mex
!, leo the Rio Grande, as transferred from Mexico
} to the United States. Nothing but special
, act can make the river the eastern line of New
E Mexico.
"In justice to Texas that act ought to be pas.
sed, Notwithstanding the deception in the bus
t mess of Annexation. The United States can
not plead the plea of ignorance in violation of
a contract. The contract requires the renewal
: of the existing title. and deed in fee simple
. Of the territory. Texas may admit the trick,
and plead the letter and the spirit of the parch
ment. She may plead that if she had not con-
Y quered the territory, she would in due season
have despatched another Santa Fe expedition,
which would have given her a valid, tangible
claim, and which would thus have superseded
D the necessity of the expedition of Gen. Kear-
S ney. But it happened otherwise. The terri
: tory was conquered by the United States and
D not by Texas. 1t is to be paid for by the Uni
ted States, as part ofthe territories coded un-
der the late treaty, independently of the cess
: ion of Texas. New Mexico is therefore terri
S tory of the United States; and the question is
not does it belong to Texas? but shall it be
t given to Texas in virtue of the compact of An
nexation?
/, SIT will have to be done--the boundary in
r Dictated by the resolutions of annexation re-
e quires it; and under these resolutions, indeed,
/ the territory to the Rio Grande became part
of Texas, with the ratification of the late treaty
S with Mexico.
: admitting, then, that the territory to the
: Rio Grande belongs TO Texas, in would only be
S necessary TO extend the line one mile west
1 from the western bank of the river, to include
all the territory that is inhabitable Westward
/ from the narrow border of the Rio Grande 10
: the lofty mountains which overlook the Paci-
: fic, distance of 700 miles there will be no ne
cessity for any Government save the flag of the
United States. Within this longitudinal line,
o including the small remnant west of the Bravo,
/. of New Mexico and all that vast region to the
, Sierra Nevada, embracing 400 900 square miles
of California, there will be no necessity for
n laws to protect free labor or slave labor
d Why? Because it lisa desert, wild blank, howl
1 ing wilderness of confused mountains, of bald
1 rocks and plains of scorching sand; chaos of
volcanic ruins-a volcanic waste not yet cool
n ed down; a region, as described by Col. FREE
e mont, 'sof fracture, of violence and of fire.
r Let the People not forget that this outrage
, ously absurd claim of the Rio Grande as the
Western limit of Texas was the immediate
!, cause of the War, while our Governments OBJ
r stinate persistence therein was the sole obsta-
z Gle to Peace ten months ago. But for that,we
e should have had Peace with all we can desire
of California last Autumn, before the final car
mage at the gates of Mexico, and with saving
: of the Fifteen Millions we are now to pay
k Mexico, as well as the twenty or thirty Mil
!, lions the War has cost since then. And now
e all that is worth having of New Mexico is 10
e be handed over TO Texas and Slavery.-N. T..
Tribune,
I How 1T GoEs.-The New York Sun gives
the following pretty accurate picture of polit-
. ical affairs:
In spite ofall the absorbing events trsnspir-
4