you inquire carefully and minutely into the circumstances of all those persons who, having been taken near Santa Fé, and having claimed the interposition of this government, are still held as prisoners in Mexico; and you will demand of the Mexican government the release of such of them as appear to have been innocent traders, travellers, invalids, men of letters, or for any other reason justly esteemed non-combatants, being citizens of the United States. To this end it may be proper to direct the consul to proceed to the places where any of them may be confined, and to take their statements under oath, as also the statements of other persons to whom they may respectively refer. If the Mexican government deny facts upon which any of the parties claim their release, and desire time for further investigation of their respective cases, or any of them, proper and suitable time must be allowed; but if any of the persons described in the next preceding paragraph, and for whose release you will have made a demand, shall still be detained, for the purpose of further inquiry or otherwise, you will then explicitly demand of the Mexican government that they be treated henceforward with all the lenity which, in the most favorable cases, belongs to the rights of prisoners of war; that they be not confined in loathsome dungeons, with malefactors and persons diseased; that they be not chained or subjected to ignominy, or to any particular rigor in their detention; that they be not obliged to labor on the public works, or put to any other hardship. You will state to the Mexican government that the government of the United States entertains a conviction that these persons ought to be set at liberty without delay; that it will feel great dissatisfaction if it shall still learn that Mr. Kendall, whose case has already been made the subject of an express demand, and others of equal claims to liberation, be not set at liberty at the time when you receive this despatch; but that, if the government of Mexico insists upon detaining any of them for further inquiry, it is due to the government of the United States, to its desire to preserve peace and harmony 'with Mexico, and to justice and humanity, that, while detained, these persons should enjoy to the fullest extent the rights of prisoners of war; and that it expects that a demand so just and reasonable, a demand respectfully made by one friendly state to another, will meet with immediate compliance. Having made

this demand, you will wait for an answer; and if within ten days you shall not receive assurances that all the persons above mentioned, who may still be detained, will be thenceforward treated in the same manner which has now been insisted upon, you will hold no further official intercourse with the government of Mexico until you shall receive further directions from your own government. You will thereupon communicate with this department, detaining for that purpose the messenger who carries this. In your communication you will state, as fully and as accurately as possible, the circumstances of each man's case, as they may appear by all the evidence which at that time may be possessed by the legation. In making your demand for the better treatment of the prisoners, you will take especial care not to abandon or weaken the claim for their release, nothing more being intended in that respect than that proper time should be allowed to the government of Mexico to make such further inquiries as may be necessary.

Your predecessor has already been directed, that, if any of the persons suffer for the want of the common necessaries of life, he should provide for such wants until otherwise supplied; a direction which you will also observe.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

WADDY THOMPSON, ESQ., &c., &c., &c.

DANIEL WEBSTER.

INDEPENDENCE OF TEXAS.

Message from the President of the United States, transmitting Copies of Papers upon the Subject of the Relations between the United States and the Mexican Republic, July 14, 1842.

TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES:

In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 12th instant, requesting copies of papers upon the subject of the relations between the United States and the Mexican Republic, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, and the documents by which it was accompanied.

Washington, July 14, 1842.

JOHN TYLER.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

SIR, The Secretary of State, to whom was referred the resolution of the House of Representatives of yesterday, requesting the President to cause to be communicated to that House, so far as might be compatible with the public interest, copies of all the correspondence between the governments of the United States and of Mexico since the appointment of the present Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States to Mexico, of the instructions given to that minister at and since his departure upon his mission, and of his despatches to this government, and particularly of any complaint of the government of Mexico alleging the toleration by the government of the United States of hostile interference by their citizens in the war between Mexico and Texas, and of any answer on the part of this government to such complaint, has the honor to lay before the President the accompanying papers. All which is respectfully submitted.

Department of State, Washington, July 13, 1842.

DANIEL WEbster.

M. Velazquez de Leon to Mr. Webster.

[TRANSLATION.]

New York, June 24, 1842.

The undersigned, in addressing the Hon. Daniel Webster, Secretary of State, has the honor to inform him that, although he holds in his power the appointment and credentials for presenting himself and acting as Chargé d'Affaires of Mexico in the United States, he has not thought proper to present himself for that purpose, until he had received the answer to the observations which he had addressed to his own government on that subject; but as he has received recently, and during this delay, the two annexed documents for his Excellency the President and the Hon. Daniel Webster, he hastens to send them on, in order that, upon their arriving as soon as possible at their destination, the honorable Secretary of State may give such answer as the government of the United States may judge proper; which answer the undersigned will transmit to the Mexican government, according to his instructions to that effect.

The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to renew to

the Hon. Daniel Webster, Secretary of State, the assurances of

his high consideration.

JOAQUIN VELAZQUEZ DE LEON.

HON. DANIEL WEBSTER, Secretary of State.

Mr. Webster to M. Velazquez de Leon.

Department of State, Washington, June 29, 1842. SIR, Your letter of the 24th of this month, transmitting one addressed to this department by the Secretary of State and Foreign Relations of the Mexican Republic, was duly received.

The President has long desired to see here a representative of that government, the residence of such a functionary being esteemed likely to foster and promote the peace and interests of the two countries. We are happy to hear that an appointment has at length been made; and all just respect will be paid to your credentials, when it shall be your pleasure to present them. Until such presentment be made, however, no regular diplomatic intercourse can be had between this department and yourself. Whatever answer may be judged proper to the letter of M. de Bocanegra to this department will be transmitted through the minister of the United States at Mexico.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

SEÑOR DON JOAQUIN VELAZQUEZ DE LEON.

Daniel Webster.

M. de Bocanegra to Mr. Webster.
[TRANSLATION.]

National Palace, Mexico, May 12, 1842. The undersigned, Secretary of State and Foreign Relations, enjoys the satisfaction of addressing the honorable Secretary of State of the United States of America, in the name and by the express order of his Excellency the President of the Mexican Republic. The relations of amity and good harmony which have happily subsisted between this and your great nation might have been disturbed in a lamentable manner, since the year 1835, when the revolution of Texas broke out, if the Mexican government had not given so many evidences of its forbearance, and had not made so many and so great sacrifices for the sake of peace, in order that the world might not, with pain and

amazement, see the two nations which appear to be destined to establish the policy and the interests of the American continent divided and ravaged by the evils of war.

But from that truly unfortunate period, the Mexican republic has received nothing but severe injuries and inflictions from the citizens of the United States. The Mexican government speaks only of the citizens of the United States, as it still flatters itself with the belief that it is not the government of that country which has promoted the insurrection in Texas, which has favored the usurpation of its territory, and has supplied the rebels with ammunition, arms, vessels, money, and recruits; but that these aggressions have proceeded from private individuals, who have not respected the solemn engagements which bind together the two nations, nor the treaties concluded between them, nor the conduct, ostensibly frank, of the Cabinet of Washington.

It is, however, notorious, that the insurgent colonists of that integral part of the territory of the Mexican republic would have been unable to maintain their prolonged rebellion without the aid and the efficient sympathies of citizens of the United States, who have publicly raised forces in their cities and towns; have fitted out vessels in their ports, and laden them with munitions of war; and have marched to commit hostilities against a friendly nation, under the eyes and with the knowledge of the authorities to whom are intrusted the fulfilment of the law.

The Mexican government entertains so high an opinion of the force of the government of the United States, and of its power to restrain those its subjects from violating the religious faith of treaties, solemnly concluded between it and other nations, and from committing hostilities against such nations in time of peace, that it cannot easily comprehend how those persons have been able to evade the punishment decreed against them by the laws of the United States themselves, and to obtain that quiet impunity which incessantly encourages them to continue their attacks. It is well worthy of remark, that no sooner does the Mexican government, in the exercise of its rights, which it cannot and does not desire to renounce, prepare means to recover a possession usurped from it, than the whole population of the United States, especially in the Southern