pamphlet from the pen of Señor Otero, a member of the present Congress, and one of the most able public men of the country. This pamphlet first appeared in the Spanish, and subsequently in English. Upon its first appearance I commenced making translations of certain passages, in the design of sending them to you; but I desisted upon seeing the English version announced. This version, although tolerably well done, proved on examination to be inaccurate in the more important passages: and I then engaged in the task of correcting them in one of the printed copies, before transmitting it. The "American Star" having commenced, its publication in its columns, and the probability being that the train for Vera Cruz which is to leave in the morning, and by which this is to go, would not set out until day after to-morrow, I have lent the corrected copy to the publisher of the "Star," in order that he may print from it, and with a view to sending you a fair printed copy, free from the manuscript alterations, which would render its perusal troublesome. The lateness of the hour (I have been so closely engaged all day as not to have recollected it in time) does not permit me now to recover it; and I send, together with a copy of the Spanish original, one of the defective version, which will suffice for a cursory perusal. Comments upon it will be found in the Nos. of the "Razonador" sent by this conveyance. * * * * My separation from my family has already extended to double the time that was anticipated when I so precipitately left home, and I have the strongest desire to return. Under the circumstances and prospects of the moment, it is my duty to remain; but it will very soon be determined whether we are to make a treaty with the present administration; and it will be made very promptly, if made at all. Should the question be referred to that which is to come in under the election now taking place, (as I fear that it will be, though with some hopes of a contrary result,) I cannot possibly continue hanging on here for an indefinite period. The new Congress (the elections for which thus far are very encouraging) is to meet in January; the road will soon be safe, and the season is very propitious for my successor to come, should it be deemed advisable to keep any one here. I trust, therefore, to receive, so soon as a reply to this request can be sent, permission to withdraw at once, should the state of affairs at the time it reaches me be such as to afford no prospect of the subject being acted upon until the new administration comes in. I have never evinced any disregard of the public interests, and this may be safely left to my discretion. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, P. S.-Your despatches sent through the War Departent by Col. Wilson, (who died at Vera Cruz,) being those of the 13th du plicate) and 19th of July, came to hand to-day, sent by Colonel Childs from Jalapa. TACUBAYA, September 7, 1847. The undersigned, commissioner of the United States of America, has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the note under date of yesterday, from their excellencies the commissioners on the part of Mexico, accompanying the counter projét which they had been instructed to present. The authority with which he is clothed being limited, so far as regards the boundary to be established between the two republics, to the conclusion of a treaty upon the basis of the ultimatum presented by him on the 2d instant, the undersigned finds himself, as was stated by him at their conference on yesterday, under the painful necessity of recognising the absolute irreconcileableness which exists between the views of the two governments in this regard, and of considering these final instructions to their excellencies as putting an end to the negotiation which he has had the honor to conduct with them, and which has left on his mind a deep and lasting impression of the sincerity with which his earnest wish was reciprocated, that the restoration of peace might be the result. Debarred as he is from discussing with them the question of boundary beyond the point now reached, he must limit himself to some remarks in reply to the observations to which his attention is invited, and which he is requested to consider fully, before coming to a definitive determination with respect to their propositions. Acknowledging their title to his utmost attention, not only on account of the gravity of the subject, but also because of the candor and frankness displayed throughout their intercourse on the part of those by whom these observations are submitted, the undersigned, after considering them in the same spirit, finds himself compelled to say that, plausible as they may at a first glance seem, they indicate to his mind an altogether erroneous view of the positions in which the two countries stand towards each other, and of the general question now pending between them. It is perfectly true, as stated by their excellencies, that " the war now existing commenced with reference to the territory of the State of Texas;" and it is likewise true, that the title by which this territory is claimed by the United States (or, to speak more properly, now constitutes an integral portion of the United States) consists in the act of Texas," (concurrently with that of the American Congress,) "whereby she became incorporated into the Union" as one of its sovereign members. But this is very far from warranting the conclusion which appears to their excellencies to flow from it; and on which are rested the reasonableness and justice of the propositions which they have been instructed to make on the part of the Mexican government. This conclusion is, that Mexico, by consenting, as she now of fers to do, upon being properly indemnified, to acede to the claim of the United States to Texas, removes the cause of the war; and that, consequently, all title whereby it may be further prosecuted being now wanting, it should at once cease. Pursuing the same line of reasoning, it is further urged, with reference to the remainder of the territory comprehended within the boundary described in the projét presented by the undersigned, that no right thereto having heretofore been alleged by the United States, consequently the only title by which it could be acquired must rest either upon conquest or upon purchase; with respect to the former of which titles, the confidence is expressed that it would be regarded with reprobation by the United States; whilst, in regard to the latter, it is remarked, that it would be repugnant to every idea of justice to wage war against a nation for no other reason than her refusal to sell territory which a neighbor desired to purchase. To perceive clearly the utter fallacy of this whole view of the subject, it is necessary only to advert to a few leading facts belonging to the series of events out of which has grown the state of things now existing between the two countries. Composed chiefly of emigrants from the United States, who had been invited thither by Mexico, under the guarantees for the security of life, liberty, and property, afforded by the constitution of 1824 -a constitution modelled upon that of their native land-the people of Texas, after the lapse of a few years, found themselves presented with the alternative of taking up arms in defence of their dearest rights, or submitting to the military usurpation and despotism by which the organic law of their adopted country had been subverted and replaced. As could not but be foreseen by all persons not entirely unacquainted with the national character formed under the influences of English principles of government, and of the developments which these have received on our side of the Atlantic; the former of these alternatives was the choice of the Texans. They resisted it, and their resistance proved successful. Thus arose the republic of Texas. After establishing a government, the security afforded by which to all that civilized man holds dear, presented the most striking contrast to the consequences of the subversion of the Mexican constitution, as exhibited throughout the rest of the country for whose happiness it had been established; after obtaining from the principal powers of the earth a recognition as one of the great family of nations; and after maintaining this position through a period, and under circumstances, rendering manifest to the world that it was not to be shaken by Mexico, the new republic sought and obtained admission among the United States of America as a member of their Union. By this event she became entitled to be protected by the United States from invasion; their appropriate organ for the discharge of this obligation being the Executive of the general government, as the functionary charged with the control and direction of their defensive force. But, of what consisted the territory of this new member of the Union, which, from the moment of her admission as such, it had thus become the duty of the President of the United States to employ the forces placed by the constitution under his direction in protecting from invasion? In other words, where were her boundaries? To protect a State from invasion, means to prevent the occupation of any portion of her territory by the armed force of any other State or nation. This obligation, therefore, manifestly implies the existence of limits to her territory; limits, the crossing of which by a foreign force constitutes an invasion. It necessarily results, from the very nature of things, that this duty of protection can have no existence, except concurrently with the existence of such limits. When considered with reference to this obligation, a territory without determinate limits is a contradiction in terms; it is of the very essence of the obligation that the portion of the earth's surface to which it attaches shall be definitive and determinate; it being otherwise impossible to say when it is invaded, and when it is not invaded. Where, then, were the limits of this new member of the Union? As defined and asserted by herself, the territory of Texas extended to the Rio Bravo. Her right to insist upon this boundary was equally good, and identically the same, in all respects, as the right of Mexico to insist upon any other line of separation; and this right, agreeably to a principle of international law, too well established to admit of dispute or doubt, existed independently of the question as to what might or might not have been the true limits of Texas whilst constituting a part of the Mexican republic. With reference to that period, their excellencies the commissioners assert, as a matter of absolute certainty, that the country comprehended between the Nueces and the Bravo had never formed part of the State of Texas." But, supposing this to be true, it would not in any way affect the right of the Texan people, at the close of the war into which they had been forced, as above stated, to insist upon such boundary as they might deem essential to their future security against the spirit manifested towards them by the government whose usurped power they had so successfully defended themselves against; whilst, not content with subverting the authority of the constitution, it had sought to stifle and to extinguish forever, within the bounds of Texas especially, not only every spark of liberty, but every one of those great elements of civilization which that constitution was designed to foster and to develope. In a word, the republic of Texas and the republic of Mexico had been for many years at war; and, as the condition to the cessation of this war, either party had the same right, identically, to demand and insist upon the establishment of such boundary as in her judgment was the just and proper one. If Mexico, on her part, could assert as a fundamental axiom the one now put forward by her commissioners, that "no nation can rightfully be required, nor should any nation ever consent, to relinquish her natural frontier," and from this axiom deduce her right to insist upon possessing the territory between the Nueces and the Bravo, on the ground of the insufficiency of the latter river alone for her security, either in a military or in a commercial point of view, and that the river and the territory together were indispensable to her for this purpose-if this right appertained to Mexico, Texas, on the other hand, had an equal right to appeal to the same principle, and to point to the manifest self-contradiction involved in the deduction drawn from it; which, on the ground that the whole of a broad and angry torrent was insufficient for her security, gave to Mexico a wide extent of territory as an additional bulwark, whilst it required that Texas should content herself with half the width of a comparatively narrow and sluggish stream. Such, then, was the position of Texas with regard to her boundary towards Mexico, at the time when she became admitted into the Union. According to the well settled doctrine of international law upon this subject, the line of demarcation between the two republics had become obliterated by the war; and the consent of both had become necessary to the re-establishment of that line, or the establishment of any other, as their common boundary. This being the state of things, Texas, asserting her right and her determination to insist upon the lower part of the Rio Bravo as a part of that boundary, obtained admission into the North American sisterhood. With respect to this point, however, the American Congress, through a scrupulous regard for any right which Mexico might have, or might suppose herself to have, to any portion of the territory embraced within the asserted limits of Texas, reserved to the United States the right to determine those limits by means of friendly negotiation with Mexico; this being, as has already been observed, the only way in which an international boundary, in the proper sense of the term, can be ascertained. For, although one of two conterminous nations may select for itself, and may maintain by force, the line which is to separate her territory from that of the other, yet a boundary between them can never be said to exist except in virtue of the consent and recognition of both. Without such agreement between them, neither of two nations whose territories touch each other can be said to have a boundary. Such was the state of the case between Texas and Mexico at the time of the admission of the former into the American Union; and such it necessarily continued to be after that event; with this single difference, that the question between Mexico and Texas had now become one, between Mexico and the United States. No agreement or understanding had yet taken place between them. The Mexican government, on the contrary, still claiming to consider Texas as a febellious province, over which it intended to re-establish its authority, it was in the nature of things impossible that the boundaries of this new member of the American Union should have become determined. From this state of things resulted the obligation, equally imperative upon the United States and upon Mexico, to effect as speedily. as possible that settlement of boundary which, by events now past recall, and manifestly to the whole world constituting a "fact fulfilled," had become a matter of absolute necessity between these two parties, as that by virtue, of which alone either of the two could exercise authority over any portion of the country lying between the Rio Bravo and the Sabine, without the certainty of col |