Synopsis of the Platform of the Constitutional Government of Mexico... 139 141 143 144 147 155 156 Synopsis of the Plan of Tacubaya, on which the Government is based... 157 163 APPENDIX. GENERAL REVIEW OF THE REPUBLIC. GEOGRAPHICAL SITUATION AND EXTENT. THE territory of the Mexican Republic extends from the 15th to the 320 parallel of north latitude, and from the 86th to the 117th degree of longitude, west of Greenwich. Its boundaries are the Pacific Ocean on the West; the United States on the North; the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, which washes part of the coast of Yucatan, on the East; and the English territory of the Balize and the Central American Republic of Guatemala on the South. The dividing line between the United States and Mexico, according to the treaty of December 30th, 1853, known as the Mesilla or Gadsden Treaty, is as follows: "Beginning in the Gulf of Mexico three leagues from land, opposite the mouth of the Rio Grande, as provided in the 5th article of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thence, as defined in the said article, up the middle of that river, to the point where the parallel of 31° 47' north latitude crosses the same: thence due west one hundred miles: thence south to the parallel of 31° 20' north latitude: thence along the said parallel of 31° 20' to the 111th meridian of longitude west of Greenwich: thence in a straight line to a point on the Colorado River twenty English miles below the junction of the Gila and Colorado Rivers; thence up the middle of said River Colorado until it intersects the present line between the United States and Mexico," and thence to the Pacific by the line separating the two Californias, which, as laid down in the treaty of Guadalupe, is as follows: "A straight line drawn from the middle of the Rio Gila, where it unites with the Colorado, to a point on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, distant one marine league duesouth of the southernmost point of the port of San Diego, according to the plan of said port," attached to the treaty. The extreme length of the Republic, north-west and south-east, measured on a straight line from the southern extremity of the State of Chiapas to the northern limit of Lower California, within one league of the Bay of San Diego, is upwards of 2,000 miles: and its extreme breadth at 26 degrees of north latitude, over 1,100 miles. Its coasts extend over 1,600 miles in the Gulf of Mexico and Carribean Sea; and upwards of 4,200 miles on the Pacific Ocean and in the Gulf of California. Its northern frontier is 1,792 miles in length, and its southern 532 miles. Before the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and the Mesilla or Gadsden Treaty, Mexico comprised an area of 1,690,317 square miles; but by the first-mentioned treaty, her territory was reduced 897,650 miles, and in pursuance of the second 26,185 miles; leaving its present total area 766,482 square miles. TERRITORIAL DIVISIONS AND POPULATION. The Republic of Mexico is divided, under the Constitution of 1857, into twenty-three States, one District, and one Territory. The total population is stated by the latest Mexican authorities to be 8,283,088. The Territorial divisions and distribution of population are as follows: Commencing on the Gulf, Tamaulipas has only 3 ri, Nuevo Leon y Coahuila 3, Chihuahua 1, Sonora 11%, and Lower California only to the square mile Sinaloa has but 4, and Durango 31. |