THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO, THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE SENATE THEREON, AND MESSAGE OF THE IN EXECUTIVE SESSION, SENATE OF THE U. S. WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 1848. Resolved, That the mjunction of secrecy be removed from the treaty between the United States and Mexico, the documents accompanying the same, and the proceedings of the Senate and debates thereon, and the documents sent to the Senate and ordered to be printed relating to the negotiation of said treaty, and also from the messages of the President of the 7th and 9th March, and documents communicated therewith. Ordered, That the treaty with Mexico, the messages, documents, proceedings, and other matter relating thereto, from which the injunction of secrecy has been removed, be printed for the use of the Senate. FRIDAY, JUNE 2, 1848. Resolved, That the injunction of secrecy be removed from so much of the correspondence between the executive departments and Mr. Trist and other officers of the government in Mexico and the accompanying papers, transmitted to the Senate, as have been printed in confidence, and that the same be printed for the use of the Senate. IN EXECUTIVE SESSION, SENATE OF THE U, STATES. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1848. The following message was received from the President of the United States, by Mr. Walker, his secretary: To the Senate of the United States: I lay before the Senate, for their consideration and advice as to its ratification, a treaty of peace, friendship, limits, and settlement, signed at the city of Guadalupe Hidalgo, on the second day of February, 1848, by N. P. Trist on the part of the United States, and by plenipotentiaries appointed for that purpose on the part of the Mexican government. I deem it to be my duty to state that the recall of Mr. Trist as commissioner of the United States, of which Congress was informed in my annual message, was dictated by a belief that his continued presence with the army could be productive of no good, but might do much harm by encouraging the delusive hopes and false impressions of the Mexicans; and that his recall would satisfy Mexico that the United States had no terms of peace more favorable to offer. Directions were given that any propositions for peace, which Mexico might make, should be received and transmitted by the commanding general of our forces, to the United States. It was not expected that Mr. Trist would remain in Mexico, or continue in the exercise of the functions of the office of commissioner, after he received his letter of recall. He has, however, done so, and the plenipotentiaries of the government of Mexico, with a knowledge of the fact, have concluded with him this treaty. I have examined it with a full sense of the extraneous circumstances attending its conclusion and signature, which might be objected to; but, conforming, as it does substantially on the main questions of boundary and indemnity, to the terms which our commissioner, when he left the United States in April last, was authorized to offer, and animated, as I am, by the spirit which has governed all my official conduct towards Mexico, I have felt it to be my duty to submit it to the Senate for their consideration, with a view to its ratification. To the tenth article of the treaty there are serious objections, and no instructions given to Mr. Trist contemplated or authorized its insertion. The public lands within the limits of Texas belong to that State, and this government has no power to dispose of them, or to change the conditions of grants already made. All valid titles to land within the other territories ceded to the United States will remain unaffected by the change of sovereignty; and I |