USA > Texas > The history of the republic of Texas, from the discovery of the country to the present time; and the cause of her separation from the republic of Mexico > Part 29
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" It is further agreed, that in twelve months after one of the high contracting parties shall have received from the other such
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416
THE " UNRATIFIED " TREATY
notification, this treaty, and all the stipulations it contains, shall cease to be obligatory upon either party.
"ART. 11. The present treaty shall be ratified, and the ratifi- cations shall be exchanged at London as soon as possible, within the space of nine months from this date.
" In witness whereof, the respective plenipotentiaries have signed the same, and affixed thereto the seals of their arms.
"Done at London, the thirteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and forty.
(Signed) " PALMERSTON, [L.S. ] " J. HAMILTON, [L.S. ]"
(Signed)
I here subjoin the cogent remarks of the Morn- ing Herald of October 4, 1841, on the subject of the foregoing treaty.
" Lord Palmerston's successful Diplomacy !- When the late Foreign Secretary signed the treaty recognizing the independence of Texas, which has not yet been ratified, although Lord Palmer- ston illegally appointed a consul-general to Texas, he contempo- raneously signed a convention with the Texan envoy, stipulating terms on which peace should be concluded, by the intervention of Great Britain between Texas and the mother-state, Mexico, and the independence of the former by the latter. Nearly twelve months have since elapsed, and not only have peace and the re- cognition not been concluded between Mexico and Texas, but war is on the point of breaking out afresh, and British mediation is wholly repudiated even by imbecile Mexico. The Texan powers, to ratify the treaty of recognition and commerce, have been in London six months, and the ex-minister never ratified a document of which he boasted in the House of Commons; yet Lord Palmerston has the vanity to talk of his successful diplomacy !"
Lord Palmerston, seemingly apprehensive that his treaty with Texas would not stand the scrutiny
417
BETWEEN TEXAS AND GREAT BRITAIN,
of his successors, before leaving the Foreign-office, amongst the last of his official acts, appointed the magnanimous Captain Elliot, of opium celebrity, to the office of Her Majesty's Consul-general in Texas. His lordship has thus done all in his power to clinch the recognition of Texas; but as his lordship was throughout over-reached by General Hamilton, and Jed to acknowledge Texas upon grounds false and delusive, contrary to every British interest and in- ternational right, my Lord Aberdeen ought not to be fettered in his review of the whole bearings of that most disgraceful treaty. Those who have read Mr. Richard Hartnel's pamphlet, entitled Texas and California, will find that, in the opinion of Le Constitutionel of Paris, of 10th March last, Lord Palmerston's freaty with General Hamilton left a loophole for the Texans to offer certain spe- cial privileges to France *, and that the Texan Land Company of Exeter Street, Strand, scrupled not to represent the British Government as lending a
* " On prétend que le Général Hamilton offre une franchise complète au commerce français. Les Texiens ont, à la vérité, conclu avec l'Angleterre un traité par lequel ils s'engagent à la traiter sur le pied de la nation la plus favorisée. Ils se sont réservé, cependant, le droit d'accorder des privilèges spéciaux à quiconque leur offrirait des avantages équivalens, et l'Angleterre ne serait pas fondée à réclamer le bénéfice de ces stipulations exceptionnelles. Le Texas deviendrait, pour ainsi dire, une colonie française, mais une colonie independante, s'appartenant à ellemême et ne nous coûtant rien."
FE
418
BRITISH CONSUL-GENERAL
sanction to emigration to Texas *. Many other proofs might be adduced of the artful and tortuous policy pursued by the Texans, but those I have quoted most interest the honour of Her Majesty's government, and are quite sufficient to justify Lord Aberdeen to reconsider every ground and allegation made by General Hamilton, whereby he committed Lord Palmerston to the acknowledgment of Texas.
If, after a careful review of the whole circum- stances, Lord Aberdeen should find that the ac- knowledgment of Texas cannot be revoked, the appointment of a diplomatic agent there will follow as a matter of course; but that agent assuredly should not be Captain Elliot, or any other indivi- dual unacquainted with the Spanish language, and true bearings of the question between Mexico and Texas. The recognition of Texas is a great evil ; but supposing it an evil unavoidable, it is much to be desired that the representative of Her Majesty, at the seat of the Texan government, should be a man of sense, of principle, and experience, -- not a pro-slavery and anti-aborigines man,-but one likely to have weight with that government, and to
# " Such are the prospects offered by General Hamilton and Mr. Burnley to the authors of this paper, and communicated by them confidentially to their friends ; on the one hand, a nucleus for the formation of an Anglo-Texan Land Company, under the faint sanction of the British and Texan Governments !!! "-See Texas and California, page 19.
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419
TO TEXAS.
exert his influence in disposing it to adopt a policy compatible with the rights, peace, and safety of its neighbours. If the course of Texan lawless aggres- sion is to be stopped, and peace with Mexico nego- ciated, Her Britannic Majesty must not be repre- sented in Texas by any visionary enthusiast, be- lieving that the world is to benefit by the extinction of Mexicans and Indians, and the substitution of Anglo-Saxon Americans ; or that the Mexicans are to be made happy and prosperous by carrying the frontier of their Anglo-American spoilers into their close vicinity. Such monstrous ideas have indeed been avowed; but Richard Hartnel, in his pamphlet above quoted, has well exposed their glaring ab- surdity, and they are not likely to have much weight with so refined and experienced a diplomatist as Lord Aberdeen.
It is not for me to make suggestions to his lord- ship; but from the terms in which I heard Mr. Crawford invariably spoken of in Texas, and from his intimate acquaintance with the language, and all the relations and interests of the Mexicans, I can- not help admitting that there is much truth in what Mr. Richard Hartnel says of him. In the passage quoted in the next page he obviously alludes to my present work, but he is incorrect in saying I resided in Texas as many months as Mr. Kennedy did days, or that I pretend to any literary eminence. The reader, therefore, will only consider the following
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420
MR. HARTNEL'S COMMENTS.
quotation as of importance from the just testimony it bears to Mr. Crawford.
" I approve highly of the object of Mr. Kennedy's book on Texas, in the sense explained by himself in the first and ninth paragraphs of his letter in the Times of yesterday. How far his written work bears the impress of such a spirit, I will know better when I have read his book again in connexion with that soon to be published, of a literary gentleman much more recently arrived from Texas than Mr. Kennedy, and who, I learn, has spent as many months there as Mr. Kennedy spent days. When the latter comes out, without knowing its contents, I challenge a compa- rison of my veracity with that of Mr. Kennedy or Mr. Nicholas Carter ; and it so happens that an authority, to which the world will attach much more credit than either, can be appealed to. I refer to J. T. Crawford, Esquire, Her Majesty's Consul to Tampico, who, I am told, arrived by last packet.
"It is understood that that gentleman visited Texas as a com- missioner on the part of the British Government. From the high opinion entertained of his character and talents by the British merchants of Tampico, it is evident that Her Majesty's Government could not confide to better hands the care of British interests in Texas, and, amongst others, the right of the Mexican bond-holders to certain lands there, 'the deceptive character' in the Mexican transfer to which, Mr. Kennedy claims some credit for exposing in his book, as well as the superiority of the 'en- lightened commercial and financial principles of Texas, as con- trasted with the fiscal barbarism of Mexico,'-of which more anon.
" Mr. Kennedy cannot object to Mr. Crawford upon the ground of being a kinsman of mine. I cannot boast of him in that near relation ; but his upright and honourable character is not unknown to me. Like Mr. Kennedy, 'I love to enable my readers to appreciate the trustworthiness of my views and opi- nions, by adducing the testimony of others.' In this spirit I
421
EXTRACTS FROM THE LONDON PRESS.
referred Mr. Kennedy to my cousin William, of Monterey, (of whose respectability, his old partner, Hugh M'Culloch, Esquire, No. 9, Crescent, Minories, London, can inform him), to Captain Hall, of Messrs. Hall and Boyd, Breezer's Hill; and to Mr. R. Walkinshaw, of Durango; and in the same spirit I now refer to Mr. Crawford."
I have already dwelt at some length on the commercial prospects of Texas, and the absurdity of attempting to alter the existing state of things in Mexico, or the United States, by entering into treaties with the lawless and impoverished Texans. Yet I am willing to admit that many radical errors exist in the present fiscal policy of Mexico, as the following correspondence, which appeared in the Morning Chronicle of the 12th of October, 1811, will amply demonstrate :----
"The intelligence we announced on the 5th instant, of the proceedings in Mexico, proved correct. The subjoined letter from a Spanish merchant in Tepic, conveys some useful informa- tion regarding the views of the Mexicans on their own political reforms, as well as on their views with regard to Texas. We cannot for a moment believe that the government of the United States would sanction any piratical inroads upon the Texan ter- ritories ; and look with regret upon the resolution said to be entertained by the Mexican government to attempt the reduction of Texas .*
* Yet the fact is, the rebellion of Texas was wholly achieved by piratical adventurers from the United States, whose go- vernment not only permitted, but connived at their inroads ; and we see no more reason to regret that Mexico should effect their expulsion, than that Great Britain should have effected the expul- sion of similar pirates from Nary Island.
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EXTRACTS FROM
" The letter, of which we subjoin a translation, is as fol- lows : -
"' Tepic, 19th July, 1841.
". DEAR FRIEND,-I enclose the documents which you ask in your esteemed favor of the 15th of April.
"' Trade along these coasts is very much depressed on account of the abundance of goods, and the scandalous contra- bands which are perpetrated. In a political sense we are in a bad position, but the aurora of a better day brightens upon us, because the idea has become general that our system of finance requires a total reform, carried to the extent of extinguishing all motive for, and profit in clandestine introduction of goods, and that the constitution itself requires to be revised, with the view of reconciling the centralist and federal party, of satisfying the alterations required by the dissentients of Yucatan and Tobusco, and of establishing a popular, united, and strong government.
"' The only thing wanting to carry into effect this reform is, that some one of our military chiefs of reputation should proclaim himself the leader of the movement, which, from the prepared state of the popular mind, would spread over the whole republic with the rapidity of the 'three guarantees' of Iturbide. Sup- posing the reforms once verified by the unanunous voice of the Mexicans, the new government would be able to execute the fixed and determined will of the nation to reduce the rebellious colonists of Texas, and to expel beyond the Sabine the pirates who have there intruded from the United States. They do not fail to make upon us a silent war (guerra zorda') along the whole frontier ; they endeavour to insurrectionize the states of New Mexico, Chihuahua, and California ; they foment disorders every where ; they interrupt our commerce, and occasion great expenses to the public treasury, to the great prejudice of remit- tances for the English dividends.
"'As much as we ourselves are English merchants, and English holders of Mexican bonds interested in the pacification of Texas, because in time of peace our seven millions of souls should consume more than 60,000,000 dollars of goods yearly, upon which value, supposing an ad ralorem duty of 30 per cent.
423
THE LONDON PRESS.
only, the treasury ought to receive eighteen millions of dol- lars yearly, which amount suffices to pay all branches of the public service, and besides the English dividends in full. But without the reduction of Texas nothing of this will be possible ; for even though at the instance of England, we should recognize Texas, our peace with her would never be more than nominal ; new adventurers would pour in from the United States, and their robberies, rapines, and contrabands, would continue all along our frontier, leaving us no other alternative but either to repel them, or allow ourselves to be exterminated by slow degrees. With a population of the class that occupies Texas, the observance of pacts and treaties is impossible, as you know to your cost, by what happened to yourselves in Canada. There is not a Mexi- can who does not know this, nor one who would refuse to con- tribute to effect the reduction of Texas. You recommend us peace-but what a peace ? With the pirates who have intro- duced themselves into our territory, calling themselves Texans ! Would you yourselves do as much were the question Canada ? Be just, ye friends of Great Britain.
"' Excuse this political sermon,' &c.
"By the accounts, via the United States, which we published on the 5th instant, it appears that the writer of the above letter was so far correct in his views, that twenty-four days afterwards, namely, on the 12th of August, the popular movement com- menced in Guadalaxara, and that General Paredes declared in its favour, at the head of the garrison.
" The character of all such movements depends mainly upon the character of the leader, and the objects aspired to. As to the first, we are informed that General Paredes y Arillaga is himself of good family, and married into that of Cortez, one of the most respect- able in the capital of Xalisco ; that he is a man of education and honour ; a veteran well known to the army, and throughout the republic generally. It is said that the movement is preconcerted with some of the most wealthy merchants and landowners of the republic ; that the principal chiefs of the army are no strangers to it, and that while the convention is deliberating upon the
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EXTRACTS FROM
reforms required, General Santa Anna will be called to administer affairs with dictatorial powers.
" The obstinacy with which the Mexican Chambers have adhered to their obnoxious 15 per cent. consumo duty is said to have precipitated this movement. In fact, nothing can be more opposed to every principle of sound political economy, than the financial system hitherto pursued in Mexico ; nor can anything tend more to demoralise the whole population of the coast, to in- jure the Mexican revenue, retard its agriculture, and cramp their mercantile relations with this and other commercial nations.
"We beg to prove our position by a few examples : -
100 dozen Pullicate handkerchiefs, cost in Glas- £ s. d.
gow, 5s. · .
. · . 25 0 0 Add 15 per cent., to cover expenses to Vera Cruz . 3 15 0
£28 15 0
Equal, at 4s. the dollar, to 140 dollars 15 cents.
"Duties levied on the same : ---
Doll. Ct.
Import duty of 1d. 50c. per dozen, on 100 dozens . 150 0
Duty of 1 per cent. on Mexican valuation
.
5 0
5 per cent. consumo, paid in Vera Cruz ·
25 0
15 per cent. consumo, paid in the interior 75
Dollars 255 0
"In this case the duty is nearly double the prime cost and charges to Vera Cruz,
100 yards cloth, of fifty inches wide in Leeds, at 10s. .€ s. d. per yard .
50 0 0 Add 15 per cent. for all expenses to Vera Cruz . 7 10 0
£57 10 0
Equal to dollars, say . . 285d. 50c.
٢/٩٠
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THE LONDON PRESS.
Doll. Ct.
Import duty of one dollar on each yard on of 162 square yards, to which 100 are reduced 162 0 ·
Duty of 1 per cent. on Mexican valuation .
·
5 40
5 per cent. consumo, paid in Vera Cruz ·
27 0
15 per cent, consumo, paid interior 80 0
Dollars 274 40
" In this case the duty is nearly as much as the whole prime cost and charges to Vera Cruz.
100 pieces chintz, 2 of 28 yards in Manchester, £ s. d.
at 13s. . 65 0 0
Add 15 per cent. for charges to Vera Cruz . · 9 15 0
£74 15 0
Equal to dollars, say · . 370d. 75c.
Doll. Ct.
Import duty of 3 dollars 75 cents on each piece, per tariff . . ·
375 0
Duty of 1 per cent. upon Mexican value .
12 50
" 5 per cent. consumo, paid in Vera Cruz .
62 50
15 per cent. consumo, paid in interior · 187 50
Dollars 637 50
" In this case the duty is nearly twice the whole amount of prime cost of charges to Vera Cruz! But the Mexican mode of calculating the duty is worthy of observation. As an illustration, let us take the 100 yards chintz :--
The amount of the importation duty is . 375 0
This they augment 2333 per cent. . 875 0
Making 1,250 0
to be the value on which they calculate the other per-centages.
426
EXTRACTS FROM THE LONDON PRESS.
"Thus 1 per cent. upon 1,250 dollars, is 3} per cent. in reality.
Thus 5 per cent. upon ditto, is 163 per cent. in reality.
Thus 15 per cent. upon ditto, is 50 per cent. in reality.
" Under such a system contraband is sure to flourish ; not even the power of the British government could extinguish it ; and hence we need not be surprised that the Mexican govern- ment never receives more than one-third of the duties that are nominally levied ; that the two-thirds are shared between the merchant and their own employés ; and that goods are often sell- ing at prices less than the duties to which they are subject by tariff. In Mazatlan, last spring, domestics [Mantas] were selling [duty paid] at 13 reals the 'vara,' on eighteen months' credit. This outrageous contraband prevails more on the Pacific than it does ou the Alantic coast, and hence cargoes go round Cape Horn to Acapulco, San Blas, Mazatlan, and Guaymas, which are destined to be there introduced under these frauds on the public revenue, and afterwards to supply the markets in the interior, and even on the Atlantic coast. Under the prevalence of a system so ruin- ous to the ports of Vera Cruz and Tampico, the bond-holders need not wonder at the small amount of the sixth parts of duties there received, applicable to the payment of their dividends.
" It is to be hoped that Santa Anna will for ever abolish these abuses."
The accounts of the 5th of October, alluded to in the foregoing article, are as follows :--
" Morning Chronicle, October 5, 1841.
" From Mexico very important news has been received by way of the United States. General Paredes, at the head of the garrison Guadalaxara, had declared in favour of immediately couvoking a national convention, with the view of arranging all differences between the federalist and centralist parties, to re-
427
TREATY WITH TEXAS-SLAVERY.
incorporate Yucatan into the union, and to concentrate the whole military force of the republic upon Texas.
"The Mexican government has sent public notice to their agents in Europe and America, that they will expel from Cali- fornia all parties intruding there without regular passports ; and that parties buying lands in Texas, and accepting titles fron the rebel government, cannot recognize any such titles."
My zealous endeavours to obtain and perpetuate the opinions that have been written on this im- portant subject, have not been confined to the European press, as may be seen from the annexed extract from the Honduras Observer, June 16th, 1841.
"TREATY WITH TEXAS-SLAVERY.
" ARTICLES 5 and 7. The treaty of navigation and commerce lately published between Great Britain and the republic of Texas, is conceived in the usual spirit of reciprocity, which, with some later improvements, the wise policy. Huskisson legitimatized among kingdoms, to which Canning and the successive sires of commerce gave life, and which promises to bring forth many wealthy and peaceful descendants betwixt the connecting families of nations. It is by such ties that man will be bound by the brother ties of anity with man, and that sister countries will unite as natural friends, which, in the foolish antipathies of old, viewed each other as natural foes. But a great deficiency in the treaty with Texas, is the want of some stipulation regarding slavery. Whilst it was a province of the Mexican federation, slavery was abolished; it is now re-established by the adven- turers from the Union, who provide-
"That the congress shall not have the power to emancipate slaves; nor shall any slave-holder be allowed to manumit, with - out the consent of the legislature, unless he shall send the slave without the limits of the republic.
428
TREATY WITH TEXAS-SLAVERY.
" That no free person of African descent, either in whole or in part, shall be permitted to reside permanently in the republic, without the consent of the congress.
" That the admission of negroes, except from the United States, is for ever prohibited, and the importation of them de- clared to be piracy.
" The same practical sanction must now be extended to Brazil and other slave-holding states.
"The British treaty with Mexico, by Article 15, stipulates-
" ARTICLE 15. The government of Mexico engages to co- operate with his Britannic Majesty for the total abolition of the slave trade, and to prohibit all persons inhabiting within the ter- ritories of Mexico, in the most effectual manner, from taking any share in such trade.
" Is a slave escaping from or by a vessel to Jamaica or Ba- hamas, to be delivered up as a deserter ? Is the exception by the laws of their constitution against free persons of African de- scent to be extended to British-born subjects? There is not an expression in the whole treaty that gives the smallest discoun- tenance to the slave traffic, or on which England may build a future provision; and well does Britain know how little it can trust to the mere internal laws of slave-holders. Here is every encouragement to the breeding and rearing of slaves in the southern states of Virginia, Carolina, and Georgia, for sale, not only to the southern planters, but for export to Texas, a separate and independent republic. What difference does it make whether they come from Africa or the Union, except that they speak our native English, and are trained for slave work ? Is not the Union hereby carrying on the slave-trade from its own terri- tories into those of another republic-Texas ? Is there any piracy declared on their exportation from the latter to Cuba or elsewhere ?-- None.
" Here is a neighbouring country to which the discontented English planter can emigrate with facility, and enact all the scenes of the old tragedy anew ! England was in this treaty the in-
429
EXTRACTS FROM THE LONDON PRESS.
dependent party, whose recognition was anxiously sought, and she ought to have stipulated that no law affecting colour (whether with the consent of congress or without it) should militate against any of her subjects from Africa, the West Indies, Britain, or elsewhere. The question is not about colonies, but all may see the influence that will predominate in case the high contracting parties should ever enter on future negotiations relative to her Majesty's colonial possessions in the West Indies, agreeably to the 5th article of this treaty. Look to the spirit that pervades the whole American Union, and to the exclusion of Hayti from their commerce and diplomacy.
"England has in this treaty with Texas ceded her 'vantage ground, and given her tacit approbation of slavery to new slave constitutions, and to all the various shades of civil intolerance, disability, refusal of education, and denial of the natural rights of humanity."
The latest authentic information of importance that has been received from Mexico, I have ex- tracted from the Times of the 11th of October.
" Falmouth, October 9 .- On the 5th instant, we advised the arrival of the Penguin packet from Mexico, with dates from Vera Cruz to the 17th of August, and this morning we had a further arrival from the same quarter, by the Alert packet, which sailed from Tampico on the 19th of August, Vera Cruz on the 2nd of September, and Havannah on the 17th of September, with 310,000 dollars on freight. We have, consequently, sixteen days' later intelligence by this vessel, which, however, principally refers to the pronunciamento which we noticed as having broken out at Guada- laxara, in favour of a reduction of the consumo duty. It now appears that General Paredes, who is at the head of the said movement, having effected a reduction of the duty in question in the state of Jalisco, demands further, the deposition of the present
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