The United States had, and continue to have, an indubitable right to
demand a full indemnity, for any wrongs inflicted on our citizens by the
Government of Mexico, in violation of treaties or of the acknowledged
law of nations. The negotiations for satisfying those just demands, had
been interrupted by the annexation of Texas. When an attempt was
subsequently made to renew them, it was therefore just and proper, that
both subjects should be discussed at the same time: and it is now
absolutely necessary, that those just claims should be fully provided
for, in any treaty of peace that may be concluded, and that the payment
should be secured against any possible contingency. I take it for
granted that no claims have been, or shall be sustained by our
Government, but such as are founded on treaties or the acknowledged law
of nations.
Whenever a nation becomes involved in war, the manifestoes, and every
other public act issued for the purpose of justifying its conduct,
always embrace every ground of complaint which can possibly be alleged.
But admitting, that the refusal to satisfy the claims for indemnity of
our citizens might have been a just cause of war, it is most certain,
that those claims were not the cause of that in which we are now
involved.
It may be proper, in the first place, to observe, that the refusal of
doing justice, in cases of this kind, or the long delays in providing
for them, have not generally produced actual war. Almost always long
protracted negotiations have been alone resorted to. This has been
strikingly the case with the United States. The claims of Great Britain
for British debts, secured by the treaty of 1783, were not settled and
paid till the year 1803; and it was only subsequent to that year, that
the claims of the United States, for depredations committed in 1793,
were satisfied. The very plain question of slaves, carried away by the
British forces in 1815, in open violation of the treaty of 1814, was not
settled and the indemnity paid till the year 1826. The claims against
France for depredations, committed in the years 1806 to 1813, were not
settled and paid for till the year 1834. In all those cases, peace was
preserved by patience and forbearance.
With respect to the Mexican indemnities, the subject had been laid more
than once before Congress, not without suggestions that strong measures
should be resorted to. But Congress, in whom alone is vested the power
of declaring war, uniformly declined doing it.
A convention was entered into on the 11th of April, 1839, between the
United States and Mexico, by virtue of which a joint commission was
appointed for the examination and settlement of those claims. The powers
of the Commissioners terminated, according to the convention, in
February, 1842. The total amount of the American claims, presented to
the commission, amounted to 6,291,605 dollars. Of these, 2,026,140
dollars were allowed by the commission; a further sum of 928,628 dollars
was allowed by the commissioners of the United States, rejected by the
Mexican commissioners, and left undecided by the umpire, and claims
amounting to 3,336,837 dollars had not been examined.
A new convention, dated January 30, 1843, granted to the Mexicans a
further delay for the payment of the claims which had been admitted, by
virtue of which the interest due to the claimants was made payable on
the 30th April, 1843, and the principal of the awards, and the interest
accruing thereon, was stipulated to be paid in five years, in twenty
equal instalments every three months. The claimants received the
interest due on the 30th April, 1843, and the three first instalments.
The agent of the United States having, under peculiar circumstances,
given a receipt for the instalments due in April and July, 1844, before
they had been actually paid by Mexico, the payment has been assumed by
the United States and discharged to the claimants.
A third convention was concluded at Mexico on the 20th November, 1843,
by the Plenipotentiaries of the two Governments, by which provision was
made for ascertaining and paying the claims, on which no final decision
had been made. In January, 1844, this convention was ratified by the
Senate of the United States, with two amendments, which were referred
to the Government of Mexico, but respecting which no answer has ever
been made. On the 12th of April, 1844, a treaty was concluded by the
President with Texas, for the annexation of that republic to the United
States. This treaty, though not ratified by the Senate, placed the two
countries in a new position, and arrested for a while all negotiations.
It was only on the 1st of March, 1845, that Congress passed a joint
resolution for the annexation.
It appears most clearly, that the United States are justly entitled to a
full indemnity for the injuries done to their citizens; that, before the
annexation of Texas, there was every prospect of securing that
indemnity; and that those injuries, even if they had been a just cause
for war, were in no shape whatever the cause of that in which we are now
involved.
Are the United States justly entitled to indemnity for any other cause?
This question cannot be otherwise solved, than by an inquiry into the
facts, and ascertaining by whom, and how, the war was provoked.