The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 2: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session Page: 475
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May, 1844.
APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
41$
28th Cong 1st Sess.
Annexation of Texas—Mr. Benton.
Senate.
what it cedes to the United States—and what it is
we are called upon to re-annex to the American
Union. There may be someting in this worth
knowing by those who wish to know what they
do before they act.
In a poor letter which X lately published on the
subject of Texas, and in answer to a letter from the
members of the Texian Congress, a copy of which
was published without my knowledge, while the
original has not yet come to hfend: in this poor let-
ter, I took occasion to discriminate between the old
province of Texas, and the new Republic of Texas,
and to show that the latter includes what never was
any part of Texas, but a part of the present depart-
ment and former province of New Mexico, and
parts of other departments of the Mexican Repub-
lic. To discriminate between these two Texases,
and to show to my fellow-citizens that I took the
trouble to look at the Texas question before I de-
cided it, and subjected my mind to the process of
considering what I was about before I spoke, I wrote
as follows:
'•With respect to Texas, her destiny is fixed. Of course, I,
icho consider what I am about, always speak cf Texas as con•
shtiitedatthetimeofthe treaty oj 1819, and not as constituted
by the Republic of Texas, comprehending the capital, and forty
tow lis and villages of New Mexico1 now and always as fully
•under the dominion of the Republic oj Mexico, as Qvebec and
all the towns and villages of Canada are under the dominion of
Great Britain! It is of this Trxas—the old Spanish Texas—of
•which I always speak; and of her, I say, her destiny is fixed*
Whatever may be the fate oj the present movement, her desti-
nation is return to her natural position—that of a part of the
*American Union.''''
I adhere to this discrimination between the two
Texases, and now propose to see which of the two
we are asked by the President of the United States
to incorporate into the American Union. I wish to
see which we take; and for that purpose look,
first, at the article of the treaty which provides for
the incorporation. That article, being the first one
of the treaty, is in these words:
"The republic of Texas, acting in conformity with the
wishes of the people and every ^department of its govern-
ment,- cedes to the United States all its territories, to be held
by them in full property and sovereignty, and to be annex-
ed to the said United States as one of their Territories, sub-
ject to the same constitutional provisions with their other
Territories. This cession includes all public lots and
squares, vacant lands, mines, minerals, salt lakes and
springs, public edifices, fortifications, barracks ports and
haibors, navy and navy yards, docks, magazines, arms, ar-
maments, and accoutrements,, archives and public docu-
ments, public funds, debts, taxes and dues unpaid at the
time of the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty/'
This aeticle shows, Mr. President, what it is that
is ceded to us bv this treaty, and what it is that we
are called upon to incorporate into the American
Union. It is the Republic of Texas! and that with-
out stint or limit!—the whole Republic, with all its
territories, all its domain, all its contents of every
kind. ALL this is proposed to be incorporated into
the United States, and to constitute one of its Terri-
tories; and, by the second article of the treaty, this
incorporated territory and its inhabitants are to be
admitted into the Union as States, as soon as it can
be done under the provisions of our constitution.
The Republic of Texas is ceded to us by name:
its boundaries are not specified, nor was it necessary
to specify them. A state is a corporate body—a
unit—one single, sole, embodied thing—with a
name to distinguish it: and by that name it acts
and passes, without further description or definition.
There was no necessity for an exhibition ot metes
and boundaries. The Republic of Texas acts by
its name, and passes itself to us in the whole ex-
tent of all the limits and boundaries which it asserts
to be its own. This was all clear enough; and we
might have talcen Texas, as we did Louisiana and
the two Floridas, by name, and without further
question; but, in a case of such moment,and which
mi"ht develop with an extreme delicacy and import-
ance and to avoid the possibility of mistake in a
step 'so momentous, the Senate deemed it right to
address itself directly to the President, and to re-
quest from him a map of the ceded republic, and
especially of its western and southwestern bound-
ary. With this request the President complied; and
on the 26th of April, transmitted to the Senate a
special message, with a map ot the ceded lepubhc,
and a memoir upon its boundaries and features.
This is the message:
To the Senate of the United States-
"Jn compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the
o il instant, requesting the President to communu ate to that
body any communication, papers, 01 maps, in possesion ol
this" gov einment. specifying the southern, southwestern,
ami western boundaries of lexas I transmit a map ot lex*,
ami the countries adjacent, compiled m the bureau <" j0P0'
graphical Engineers, undor the direction of Colonel J. J.
Abert, by lieutenant W. E. Emory, of that corps, and also a
memoir upon the subject, bv the same officer.
"JOHN TYLER.
'•Washington, April26,1844.'*
This is the message: and I will now read from
the memoir which accompanied it, and afterwards
show the map. The memoir says:
"The great northern outline of the map is furnished by
the explorations of Lieutenant Fremont, reaching from the
South Pass of the Rocky mountains, along the line of the
Platte, and thence down the Missouri, to St. Louis.
"The next well-determined line going south, is the route
of Lieutenant Colonel S H. Long, from the base of the Roeky
mountains, nearly south, to the headwaters of the Canadian
river, thence along the banks of that river to its confluence
with the Arkansas.
"The first-mentioned of these lines u as projected in 1842,
under the orders of the Secretary of War; the last was pro-
jected in 1618-10, under the orders of the honorable John C.
Calhoun, then Secretary of War. Both are checked by a
great variety of well-selected and well-made astronomical
observations. They form the base of all accurate geo-
graphy of the vast region west of the States, and south of
the Missouri."
"The astronomical position of the mouth of the Rio del
Norte is taken from Humboldt. The Rio del Norte itself,
and the territory of Mexico, are taken chiefly from Hum-
boldt's great work, La Nouvelle Eipagne. The country
immediately about Santa Fe is an exception. This is laid
down from actual surveys m the bureau of Topographical
Engineers. Humboldt wrote in 1803, and published in 1807;
yet in the statistics and topography of Mexico, it is consid-
ered unsafe to depart from him. I have, therefore, except
in cases of actual suivey, adhered to him for all the country
west of the Rio del Norte.
"Belore going into a particular account of Texas, it may
be as well to state that the boundary of New Mexico is laid
down by Humboldt; and although the boundary of Texas,
as declared by an act of her Congress, intersects it, I have not
felt at liberty to curtail its limits. But, starting from the
Gulf, the Mexicans ha\ e no actual possession or fixed habi-
tation, east of the Rio del Norte, until we reaeh the moun-
tainous barriers at the Fasso.
"The present boundaries of Texas are defined by an act
of the Texian Congress, approved December 19, 1836, to
be as follows: 'Beginning at the mouth of the Rw Giande,
tkence up the principal stream of said river to its source;
thence due north to Ike 42d degree of north latitude; thence
along the boundary line, as defined in I he treaty between the
United Sl2tes and Spain, to the beginning.'
"On the side of the United States, no natural boundary is
presented; but on the west and north, the Rio del Norte,
and the mountainous deserts which skirt it, make bold and
prominent territorial divisions.
"This grand and solitary river, without any important
tributaries to divide its honors south of the Puerco, with
its steril mountain barriers to the south and west, presents
he only strong natural boundary betw een the United States
and Mexico.
"In connexion with the mountainous desert, it forms the
first class of military obstacles. It extends 1,200 miles to
the north, in the region of perpetual snow, and to within
about 1U0 miles of the South, or Fremont's Pass, and
rolls down with swiftness a vast volume of turbid v. aters."
This memoir, Mr. President, is explicit in pre-
senting the Rio Grande del Norte in its whole ex-
tent as a boundary of the republic of Texas, and
that in conformity to the law of the Texian Con-
gress establishing its boundaries. The boundaries
on the map conform to thoSe in the memeir: each
takes for the western limit the Rio Grande from
head to mouth; and a law of the Texian Congress
is copied into the margin of the map, to show the
legal and the actual boundaries at the same time.
From all this it results that the treaty before us,
besides the incorporation of Texas proper, also in-
corporates into our Union the left bank of the Rio
Grande, in its whole extent from its head spring in
the Sierra Verde, (Green Mountain,) near the South
Pass in the Rocky mountains, to its mouth in the
Gulf of Mexico, four degrees south of New Or-
leans, in latitude 26. It is a "graiui and solitary
river," almost without affluents or tributaries. Its
source is in the region of eternal snow; its outlet in
the clime of eternal flowers. Its direct course is
1,200 miles; its actual run about 2,000. This im-
mense river, second on our continent to the Mis-
sissippi only, and but little inferior to it in length,
is proposed to be added in the whole extent of its
left bank to the American Union! and that by vir-
tue of a treaty for the re-annexation of Texas !
Now, the real'Texas which we acquired by the
treaty of 1803, and flung away by the treaty
of 1819, never approached the Rio Grande except
near its mouth! while the whole upper part was set-
tled by the Spaniards, and great part of it in the year
lg94__just one hundred years before La Salle first
saw Texas!—all this upper part was then formed
into provinces, on both sides of the river, and has
remained under Spanish, or Mexican authority ever
since. These former provinces of the Mexican vice-
royalty, now departments of the Mexican republic,
lying on both sides of the Rio Grande from its head
to its mouth, we now propose to incorporate, so far
as they lie on the left bank of the river, into our
Union, by virtue of a treaty of rc-annexation with
Texas. Let us pause and look at our new and im-
portant proposed acquisitions in this quarter. First:
there is the department, formerly the province'of New
Mexico, lying on both sides of the river from its head
spring to near the Paso del Norte—that is to say,
half way down the river. This department is studded
with towns and villages—is populated—well cultiva-
ted—and covered with flocks and herds. On its left
bank, (for I only speak of the part which we propose
to re-annex,) is, first, the frontier village Taos, 3000
souls, and where the custom-house is kept at wliich
the Missouri caravans enter their goods. ' Then
comes Santa Fe, the capital, 4000 souls—then
Albuqurque, 6,000 souls—then some_ scores of
other towns and villages—all more or less popu-
lated and surrounded by flocks and fields. Then
come the departments of Chihuahua, Coahuila, and
Tamaulipas, without settlements on the left bank of
the river, but occupying the right bank, and com-
manding the left. All this—being parts of four
Mexican departments—now under Mexican gov-
ernors and governments—is permanently reannexed
to this Union, if this treaty is ratified, and is actu-
ally reannexed from the moment of the signature of
the treaty, according to the President's last message,
to remain so until the acquisition is rejected by re-
jecting the treaty! The one half of the department
of New Mexico, with its capital, becomes a territory
of the United States: an angle of Chihuahua, at the
Passo del Norte, famous for its wine,"also becomes
ours: a part of the department of Coahuila, not pop-
ulated on the left bank, which we take, but com-
manded from the right bank by Mexican authori-
ties: the same of Tamaulipas, the ancient Nuevo San
Tander, (New St. Andrew,) and,which covers both
sides of the river from its mouth for some hundred
miles up, and all the left bank of which is in the
power and possession of Mexico. These, in addi-
tion to the old Texas; these parts of four States—
these towns and villages—these people and terri-
tory—these flocks and herds—this slice of the Re-
public of Mexico, two thousand miles long, and some
hundred broad—all this our President has cut off from
its mother empire, and presents to us, and declares it
is ours till the Senate rejects it! He calls it Texas!
and the cutting off he calls re-annexation! Hum-
boldt calls it New Mexico, Chihuahua, Coahuila,
and Nuevo San Tander, (now Tamaulipas;) and
the civilized world may qualify this re-annexation
by the application of some odious and terrible epi-
thet. Demosthenes advised the people of Athens
not to take, but to re-take a certain city; and in that
re laid the virtue which saved the act from the char-
acter of spoliation and robbery. Will it be equally
potent with us? and will the re, prefixed to the an-
nexation, legitimate the seizure of two thousand
miles of a neighbor's dominion, with whom we have
treaties of peace, and friendship, and commerce?
Will it legitimate this seizure, ma^g by virtue of a
treaty with Texas, when no Texian force—witness
the disastrous expeditions to Mier and to Santa Fe—
have been seen near it without being killed or taken,
to the last man?
[Here Mr. B. produced the great work of Hum-
boldt on New Spain, (La JVbuvelle Espagne,) the
fine Paris edition, with the atlas; and by-quotations
from the work, and references to -the map, justified
all that he had said of the Spanish, now Mexican,
settlements on the left bank of the Rio Grande del
Norte. He also presented the work and map of
(the then) Lieutenant, afterwards General Pike, on
New Mexico and the Internal Provinces, when con-
ducted through these provinces in 1805-6; and which,
being m the English language, he sent to the secreta-
ry's table for the inspection of all the senators. The
work of Humboldt being in French, he offered to those
who knew that language.] _
Mr. B. resumed. He said: I draw a broad line
of distinction betwen the Province of Texas-and the
Republic of Texas. The Province laid between the
Sabine and the lower Rio- del Norte, and between
the Gulf of Mexico and the Red river. It was
wholly a southern Province—the land of verdure
and of-flowers—forever warm with balmy sunshine,
and fresh with perpetual spring. The Republic of
Texas stretches to the whole extent of the left bank
of the Rio del Norte—penetrates the region of eter-
nal snow—has a northern limit in the hyperborean
latitude of Marblehead and Cape Cod—and em-
braces the territory between the Red river and the
Arkansas, so wantonly and impiously thrown away
by the treaty of 1819. Of these two Tex&ses, I go
for the recovery of the old one, and all the dismem-
bered part of the valley of the Mississippi between
the Red river and the Arkansas, f go for this re-
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 2: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session, book, 1844; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2368/m1/485/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.