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.