Washington sentinel., 1853-12-20

ing to that map, and that the error, if any, ex,
lists in the map"
If it was not notorious that the Louisville
Journal is under the influence of the bitterest
partisan feelings, we would stand amazed at
the ignorance it displays in the sentences we
have just quoted from it. What the President
states in his message is strictly true; and al
though the boundary question has been elabo-
rately discussed in Congress, and by the pub,
lie press, we believe that not a corporal's guard
can be found to sustain the commissioner in
fixing the initial point of the boundary line on
the Rio Grande, at the place he agreed to fix it.
Indeed, he had no right under the treaty to fix
upon that or any point, inasmuch as the treaty
gave the United States two representatives on
the joint commission to run and mark the
boundary, and the commissioner undertook to
act alone in the absence Of his colleague.
When his colleague arrived on the ground, and
ascertained by reference to Disturnell's map Of
the edition Of lS47, that gross error, emf
nently injurious to the United States, had been
committed, he entered his protest. and re.
fused to run and mark. the line from the ini-
tial point on the Rio Grande, which the CON-
missioner, in conjunction with the Mexican
commissioner, had determined on.
The matter was soon brought to the attention
of Congress and it was referred to the CON-
mittee on foreign affairs of the Senate, Of which
Mr.. Mason, of Virginia, was chairman. 1t was
thoroughly examined by that committee, and
Mr.. Mason presented an able report against the
initial point on the Rio Grande, which the COM
missioner had undertook to determine on, and
he offered an amendment in the form of pro-
viso to the appropriation for continuing the
survey, which required it to be discontinued un-
less the initial point on the Rio Grande was
not placed further north, in the opinion of the
President than Disturnell's map required it to
be. This amendment passed the Senate and
House of Representatives, and became law
Then the late administration, which had pre-
viously sustained the commissioner, took the
matter into more serious consideration and
finally recalled the commission, and attempted
to wash its hands Of all responsibility for the
blunder of the commissioner.
These facts being public and notorious, we
hardly expected to see a paper which made pre-
tension to an ordinary amount of information,
assert that the President had cast an unjust
and untrue" imputation on the former COM
missioner, or that "every man who has given
this matter the slightest investigation, knows
that the commissioner did, fix the initial
point correctly according to the map" Dis
turnell's map places the southern boundary Of
New Mexico-the dividing line according to
the treaty eight miles north of the town of Ell
Paso, at the point where the Rio Grande breaks
through the mountains. The inhabitants Of
Chihuahua and New Mexico had always agreed
that the boundary between them crossed the
Rio Grande at that point, and they we're sus-
tanned in that belief by q decree of the Mexican
Congress, issued in 1924.
But Mr.. Bartlett, the former commissioner,
in the absence Of Andrew B. Gray, esq, his
colleague on the joint commission, being out
witted and bamboozled by the Mexican COM
missioner, agreed to fix the point where the
southern boundary Of New Mexico crosses the
Rio Grande, about thirty-four miles north Of
FL Paso, instead of eight miles north of that
town, as Disturnell's map of the edition Of l847
defined it. By this step, Mr.. Bartlett agreed
to retrocede portion Of American territory,
about the size of the State of Massachusetts
territory not only valuable because of its agri-
cultural products, but inestimable on account
of its geographical position. But for the pro-,
fessional skill and patriotic firmness of Mr..
Gray, the surveyor, the retrocession would have
been completed, and one Of the great routes to
the Pacific would have been effectually blocked
against us. The Louisville Journal had better
gain information, or moderate its partisan bit
terness before it makes another attempt to
criticise the Presidents message.