EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, February 4, 1886_.
_To the Senate_:
By its resolution in executive session of March 18, 1885, the Senate
advised and consented to the ratification of the convention concluded
November 12, 1884, between the United States of America and the United
States of Mexico, touching the boundary line between the two countries
where it follows the bed of the Rio Grande and the Rio Gila.
The ratifications could not, however, be exchanged between the two
contracting parties and the convention proclaimed until after it had
received the constitutional sanction of the Government of Mexico, whose
Congress but recently convened.
In a note to the Secretary of State of December 26, 1885, Mr. Matias
Romero, the minister of Mexico here, advises him of a decree issued by
the Mexican Senate in its session of December 11 last, approving, with
certain modifications, the convention in question:
"The modifications made in the said treaty by the Mexican Senate
are not essential," says Mr. Romero, "since they consist mainly in the
rectification of the mistake made when the Gila River was mentioned as a
part of the boundary line, the Colorado River being omitted, and in the
correction of an error in the Spanish translation."
That the Senate may have the matter fully before it, I herewith transmit
a copy of Mr. Romero's note of December 26, 1885, with its inclosure,
and return the convention in the original for such further consideration
and direction as the Senate in its constitutional prerogative may deem
necessary and proper.