D.

From the Speech of the Hon. R. Johnson, U. S. Senate, Jan. 10, 11, 1848. "Sir, I am not to be driven into a different course by being told that it would leave us a pecuniary loss. With me, Mr. President, loss of money is nothing to loss of character. With me the boundless wealth of the world would be as nothing, compared with what I should esteem the incalculable loss attending the destruction of our national character. But, sir, it is not true that a peace accomplished on the terms to which I have referred would leave us without indemnity. Sir, we have indemnity in the history of this war. It is to be found in the many glorious battle-fields which it has presented to an astonished world. It is to be found in the delight which electrified every American heart at the result of every conflict. It is to be found in the security which it furnishes against the disturbers of our peace hereafter. A few hundreds of millions, (even if it should go to hundreds,) that may be expended, will be forgotten even while spoken of, while the glory and renown which it has heaped upon the American character will be remembered as long as time itself shall endure. I am not, therefore, to be told that peace on such terms would leave us losers, in the true, high, and moral sense of the term."

E.

PLAN OF IGUALA.

"ART. 1. The Mexican nation is independent of the Spanish nation, and of every other, even on its own continent.

"ART. 2. Its religion shall be the Catholic, which all its inhabitants profess.

"ART. 3. They shall be united, without any distinction between Americans and Europeans.

"ART. 4. The government shall be a constitutional monarchy. “ART. 5. A junta shall be named, consisting of individuals who enjoy the highest reputation in the different parties which have shown themselves.

“ART. 6. This junta shall be under the presidency of his excellency the Count del Venadito, the present viceroy of Mexico.

“ART. 7. It shall govern in the name of the nation, according to the laws now in force, and its principal business shall be to convoke, according to such rules as it shall deem expedient, a Congress for the formation of a constitution more suitable to the country.

"ART. 8. His majesty Ferdinand VII. shall be invited to the throne of the empire, and in case of his refusal, the Infantes Don Carlos and Don Francisco de Paula.

"ART. 9. Should his majesty Ferdinand VII. and his august brothers decline the invitation, the nation is at liberty to invite to the imperial throne any member of reigning families whom it may select.

"ART. 10. The formation of the constitution by the Congress, and the oath of the emperor to observe it, must precede his entry into the country.

"ART. 11. The distinction of castes is abolished, which was made by the Spanish law, excluding them from the rights of citizenship. All the inhabitants of the country are citizens and equal, and the door of advancement is open to virtue and merit.

"ART. 12. An army shall be formed for the support of religion, independence, and union, guarantying these three principles, and therefore shall be called the army of the three guaranties.

"ART. 13. It shall solemnly swear to defend the fundamental bases of this plan.

"ART. 14. It shall strictly observe the military ordinances now in force.

"ART. 15. There shall be no other promotions than those that are due to seniority, or which shall be necessary to the good of the service.

“ART. 16. This army shall be considered as of the line.

"ART. 17. The old partisans of independence, who shall immediately adhere to this plan, shall be considered as individuals of this army.

"ART. 18. The patriots and peasants who shall adhere to it hereafter, shall be considered as provincial militia men.

"ART. 19. The secular and regular priests shall be continued in the state in which they now are.

“ART. 20. All the public functionaries, civil, ecclesiastical, political, and military,- - who adhere to the cause of independence, shall be continued in their offices, without any distinction between Americans and Europeans.

"ART. 21. Those functionaries, of whatever degree and condition,

who dissent from the cause of independence, shall be divested of their offices, and shall quit the territory of the empire, taking with them their families and their effects.

"ART. 22. The military commandants shall regulate according to the general instructions in conformity with this Plan, which shall be transmitted to them.

"ART. 23. No accused person shall be condemned capitally by the military commandants. Those accused of treason against the nation, which is the next greatest crime after that of treason to the divine Ruler, shall be conveyed to the fortress of Barrabas, where they shall remain until the Congress shall resolve on the punishment which ought to be inflicted on them.

"ART. 24. It being indispensable to the country that this Plan should be carried into effect, inasmuch as the welfare of that country is its object, every individual of the army shall maintain it to the shedding, if it be necessary, of the last drop of his blood.

"TOWN OF IGUALA,

24th February, 1821."

F.

MEXICAN AGGRESSIONS.

We think it may not prove uninteresting to the reader to know the nature of the claims of our citizens upon Mexico. We give a list of a portion of them, compiled by the Hon. Edmund Burke, in 1846, remarking merely, by way of introduction, that they are all taken from documents now on file in the department of state in Washington. Most of those occurring prior to Dec. 2, 1837, will be found in a letter of the Hon. John Forsyth, secretary of state, to the president, and published with the annual message of that year, in House Doc. 3, 2d Sess. 25th Congress.

Abstract of a Statement marked A, accompanying Mr. Forsyth's Report upon Mexican Relations, dated Dec. 2, 1837, and addressed to the President.

"CLAIMS ON MEXICO.

"No. 1. A. P. Cheuteau and J. DeMun. These persons, who were chiefs of a hunting expedition, were, with their companions,

arrested by authorities of Mexico in 1817, carried to Sante Fe, where they were imprisoned and otherwise maltreated. The value of the property lost by them was represented to be $30,380 74.

“No. 2. Brig Cossack. This vessel and her cargo were seized by the authorities of Mazatlan, in Mexico, in January, 1818, and condemned by a decree (of what authority is not stated) dated 21st July, 1819. Upon a reconsideration or appeal of the case, it was decreed, on the 27th of July, 1821, that the master and crew should be liberated, and that the money deposited in the national treasury on account of her sale and that of her cargo, should be paid over to the master. This decree was never executed.

"No. 3. Cargo of the Ship Louisa, of Providence. -The cargo of this ship, consisting of arms, cordage, and flour, with other provisions, was seized at the port of Acapulco, in 1821, by orders of Don Augustin de Iturbide, and appropriated to the use of the Mexican government. Feb. 1, that government decreed payment of damages to the owners, in the sum of $48,363. Only $14,418 has been paid.

"Nos. 4, 5, 6.—These claims are for the unlawful seizure and detention of specie belonging to American citizens, amounting in all to over $25,000. It was taken by officers of the Mexican government, under orders of the emperor Iturbide, while on its way to Vera Cruz, in the year 1822.

"No. 7. John K. West and others. The claim in this case is for a bill of exchange drawn by Don Jos. M. de Herrera, as agent of the Mexican government, and for supplies sent by his direction.

"No. 8. Brig Liberty, Myric, Master. — This vessel was seized by the Mexican government schooner Iguala, off Alvarado, on the 4th of May, 1824. The captain and crew were ill treated, and sent up to town. The claim in the case is for vessel and freight; the Atlantic Insurance Company, in New York, having insured the former at $3500, and the latter at $4000. The vessel sailed from Havana in March, 1824, and arrived at Pensacola on the 14th of April, where she paid about $12,000 duties on her cargo. She sailed thence with a regular clearance for Alvarado. After her seizure there, a judicial tribunal directed the brig to be restored, but no freight was

paid. The vessel, however, had been so long detained, and so badly taken care of, that but sixty-four dollars were realized after paying expenses of sale. To the claim preferred by Mr. Poinsett for indemnification, the Mexican secretary of state replied, that officers who make captures are liable to be sued in Mexican courts of justice, in case they proceed illegally.

"No. 9. Brig Cato. This vessel was boarded at Alvarado, on the 25th of August, 1824, by some twenty men, who rifled her of $2701 in specie, and of numerous other articles. After threatening the life of the captain, and wounding two of the crew, they set the vessel adrift by cutting her chain cable, which, with the anchor, were lost. The claim in this case is for $5544.

"No. 10. Schooner Leda. - In this case $988 are claimed for the detention of this vessel some two and a half months at Tobasco, in 1824, and for the unlawful exaction of tonnage duties in August of that year.

"No. 11. Borie & Laguerenne and others. This claim on the Mexican government is for a return of an overcharge of duties levied and collected contrary to prior usage, if not to law, on the importation of several parcels of American cotton, imported into Alvarado in November and December, 1824, and January, 1825, by merchants of Philadelphia and New York. The amount claimed is $32,721, with interest from February, 1825.

"No. 12. Schooner Felix, and Cargo. — This vessel sailed from New Orleans, in August, 1825, and on the 7th of September, anchored in the Soto la Marina roads or harbor, where she was taken possession of on the same day by the Mexican vessel Tampic. She was condemned on the ground that she had articles on board of Spanish origin. Her insurance was $30,000.

This

"No. 13. Brig Delight, of Philadelphia. A double Claim. vessel, in March, 1825, touched at San Blas, where the officers of the custom-house compelled the conveyance of her cargo over a mile to the custom-house stores, and its reshipment. The damage to the owners was estimated at $3716 48. The same vessel entered the port of Sisal in September of the same year, where she was seized