Daily Richmond times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1849-1850, 1850-01-02
THE BOUNDARY OF TEXAS.

of Texas have raised singular difficulty between
that State and the General Government. The
latest advices inform US, that provision has actually
been made by law for invading the portion of New
Mexico that lies East of the Rio Grande, and que-
ling the inhabitants into subsection to the Stale
authorities. The Legislature moreover declares
that Texas will withdraw her Senators and Re-
representatives. from Congress, and herself from the
Union, if New Mexico be admitted as State
These legislative acts are, of course, founded on
the assumption that "the Rio Grande, from its
mouth to it's source, is the true boundary; and
as the same assumption was the ostensible pretext
for the late war with Mexico, it should not excite
establishment if Texas insists upon adhering to it.
To show that President Polk made our presumed
obligation to maintain the claims of Texas the phi
mary justification for the war, it will be sufficient
to recall the following language from his second
annual message of December, 1876:
1.-THE Texas which was ceded to Spain by the Florida
treaty Of 1873 embraced all the country claimed by
the State of Texas between the Nueces and the Rio
Grande The republic of Texas always claimed this
river as her western boundary and in her treaty made
with Santa Anna in May 1886 he recognized such.
BY the constitution which Texas adopted in March,
1885, senatorial and representative districts organ
ized extending west OF the Nueces The Congress of
Texas on the nineteenth Of December 1885, passed an
act to define the boundaries of the Republic of Texas
in Which they declared THE no GEANPE FROM ITS
MOUTH TO ITS SOURCE to be their boundary and by the
said they extended their civil and political ursdic
ton over the country up to that boundary
"THiS aoas the Texas which, by the act OF our Con-
gress of the goth December 1915, was admitted as
OF the States OF our Union'
And hence Mr. Polk argued the rightfulness of
his taking armed possession of the territory East
IF tho lie live
tended as we'll to the territory about the source of
the river as to that about its mouth.
This was the outward showing of the policy of
the late administration at the commencement Of the
war. But in the progress of time, disclosures
were made which developed the fact that a very
different policy had really been acted upon. In
the spring of 1913, the original instructions of the
State Department to Mr.. Slidell the gentleman
whom the Mexican Government refused to receive
as the representative of the United States, were
surreptitiously published These instructions
necessarily embodied in full the views of the adj
ministraton in regard to all the questions in dis
pute with Mexico In another column, the reader
will find some extracts from Mr.. Buchanan's let
ter, which may be very pertinently reproduced in
connection with the position now taken by the
State of Texas.
twill be seen that although Mr.. Polk, in his
message of 1916, year later than the date of the
instructions, planted himself upon the claim of
Texas to tha whole river the boundary, yet, in
his then unpublished instructions to Mr. Sidell,
he had acknowledged the insufficiency of the
Texan title, and actually directed the Minister to
offer price Of some six millions of dollars for
cession by Mexico, of the country East of the
Rio Grande. The extracts, which we give to-day,
prove that Mr.. Slidell was instructed to offer
LIST. For the part of New Mexico lying East of
the Rio ,Grande, the whole amount of the claims
of American citizens against Mexico which Mr.
Buchanan showed to be at least $6,O0O,OOO;
IDLY. For the whole of New Mexico, the claims
and five Millions or about $l1 100000 in all;
3dly. For New Mexico and Upper California,
including Monterey the claims and twenty-five
millions, or about 1881 100000 in all and
4thly. For New Mexico, and barely enough of
Upper California to include San Francisco, the
claims and twenty millions, or about $26, 100000
We repeat all the forms of the contemplated
bargain, although the first only bears upon our
present topic; and we may remark, in passing,
that the third proposition suggests obvious COM
mentary upon Mr.. Folks doctrine of getting in.
demnity for the expenses of the war. Before the
war, he was ready TO offer ttirty-one millions for
New Mexico and Upper California; at its close, he
agreed TO pay, for the consideration, ttoentl
one millions, (ffteen millions called for by the
treaty. and the amount of the claims besides) So
that the indemnity he required for expenses that
did not fall short of one hundred and fifty millions,
to say nothing of bloodshed, was just len millions
But to return to the Texas boundary, we shall
concludeby copying the following quotation, made
by the New York Express from recent letter of
Gen. Thos. ]. Green, formerly of Texas, written
in California:
In the course OF his letter Gen. Green makes it his
boast that he, being member of the Texan Legisla-
ture in 1886, SOLITARY and alone, and against the ad
vice OF his friends, introduced the law fixing the boun-
dairy Of Texas upon the Rio Grande in accordance
with the treaty OF Santa Anna made after the battle
San Jacnto, and which was never ratified He saws il
was
"rhe authority OF this law, as President Polk stated
IN all his messages to Congress, that caused him order
Gen, Taylor to the Rio Grande in defence of said
boundary: That move brought on the war and the war
gave us California. Should this Renaissance escape
The censure of egosm will at least remind MS of The
old adage that tall oaks from little acorns grow"
Gen. Green's Renaissance is doubtless GOOD
history, and 1t may serve to give him some addi-
onal importance in the public eye but it is fatal
TO the claim which Texas is now asserting, and
extremely unfortunate for the fame of Mr.. Polk's
administration.
The N. Y Courier, referring to the Gulf of Fon.eca
says the opinion was expressed by Commodore Bel
cher, who made survey of the Coast under the drec
ton OF the British Government, that the iner-oceanic
Canal across the lstnus terminate at that pont
Col Hughes quotes Capt. Becher as affirming that .
railroad might probably be made to connect the Gnf
with Lake Leon but that canal to connect the two
was practicable. More accurate examinations