The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 87, July 1983 - April, 1984 Page: 33
468 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.), ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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American El Paso, 1848-1854
Bartlett, whose leadership throughout had been ineffective, then re-
tired to Providence, Rhode Island, to write what has become one of
the great classics on the American Southwest, his Personal Narrative,
for which historians of the area will be forever grateful.59
The repudiation of the Bartlett-Garcia Conde line left in limbo a
tract of territory situated between the Disturnell treaty line at 31o45'
north latitude and the compromise line at 32022'-an area some 6,ooo
square miles in extent that included the fertile Mesilla valley. The
region became the object of a bitter dispute between New Mexico and
Chihuahua in 1853, with both sides threatening the use of military
force. Soon after the repudiation of the compromise line, Governor
William Carr Lane of New Mexico issued a proclamation in March,
1853, claiming authority over the disputed tract. As a result, Governor
Angel Trias of Chihuahua, who had fought the American invaders
of his state during the Mexican War, ordered soldiers into the Mesilla
valley. Governor Lane then threatened to send troops into the dis-
puted area, but was effectively restrained when Colonel Edwin V.
Sumner, commander at Fort Fillmore, refused to cooperate.6o
James Magoffin, in a letter of April 24, 1853, to Bartlett, summarized
the situation in the area as follows:
Governor Carr Lane of New Mexico paid us a visit a few weeks since and
issued a proclamation to the authorities of El Paso del Norte that he in-
tended to take possession of Mesilla, which created great excitement
throughout the territory and in fact as far as the City of Mexico. General
Trillas [sic] arrived here today with 750 soldiers in order to defend the soil,
but the Governor had returned home, not being supported by the citizens
and getting no military aid, and so this matter rests. General Trillas will no
doubt make his headquarters at El Paso del Norte for some time.61
Since it was clear that relations between the United States and Mexico
were nearing the breaking point, the Franklin Pierce administration,
in an attempt to resolve differences through negotiation, replaced
Governor Lane with David W. Meriwether and instructed him to
"abstain from taking forcible possession of the tract...." 62
In May, 1853, President Pierce appointed as minister to Mexico
James Gadsden, a South Carolina railroad executive and champion of
59Utley, The International Boundary, 13-15; Goetzmann, Army Exploration in the
American West, 127-138.
GOUtley, The International Boundary, 16; Rippy, The United States and Mexico, 115.
61Magoffin to Bartlett, Apr. 24, 1853, Bartlett Papers.
62Quoted in Rippy, The United States and Mexico, 19g.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 87, July 1983 - April, 1984, periodical, 1983/1984; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117150/m1/53/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.