529
PAPERS OF l\fTRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LAliAR
que tion came up, as to what disposition should be made of Santan~. The President was in favor of 'rreating with him; and advocated this course upon the score of policy, and al~o upon the groun~ that the national faith had [to] some de,,ree, been pledged to the prisoner for his personal aiety, by Genl. Houston. Genl. Ru k coincided with the President in his views, and made a few remarks in . upport of them. The proposition to Treat was opposed by myself, and Col. Potter, Se-c- retary of the Javy. Genl. Rusk then rose a second time and vindi- cated the propriety and policy of treating with the prisoner. He ·poke at some length; and was replied to by Col. Collingsworth,.who was opposed to the measnre. Bailey Hardeman agreed with the Pre8i- dent. President Burnet then caUed upon I\Ir. Za,,,ala for an expres- sion of his opinions. l\fr. Zavala~ undecided, and expressed noth- ing definitely- Thus then st6od the qua.! tion. The President, Rusk and Hardeman were in fa vol' of treating with the prisoner; Potter, Collingsworth and myself were opposed to it. Zavala undetermined. ·The discu ion had been predicated upon some articles which the Pres- ident read from a loo e piece of paper. The President now drew up a Treaty in tanter, in form, and read it to the Cabinet. The mere word- ing of the instrumt-the terms and form in which it wa. drawn up, were satisfactory to all. The Document was given to ?llr. Zavala to be pre entecl by him to antana. The meeting now adjourned. The next day, I think it was, Ru8k, then Secretary of \Var, was appointed to the Command of the Army; and I imcceeded him in the W~r Depart- ment. I had been invited by Burnet into his Cabinet as Attorney Genl.; 'l'he vacancy created by my transfer was £lied by Peter Gray- son- no further formal Cabinet discus. ion took place upon the sub- ject of the Treaty whilst the President remained at the encampment; bnt the President informed me that antana had agreed to the terms of the Treaty, but was desirous that the provisions or stipulations should be divided and [e]mbraced in two separate document , the one for publication, and the other to be held in seCTet, that it might not operate prejudicially to him in l\1exico- I replied in ubstance, that if the prisoner has to be treated with, I would as soon that it should be done in this form as any other. The subject was not renewed until the overnment removed to Velasco. Here it was again taken up. Collinf!Sworth had in the mean time han(Ped his opinion, and wa::; no,y infavor of the Treaty. Zavala was the same··and so was the new member of the Cabinet. Col. Grayson- Potter, wa absent at the time, so that there remained in the Govt. no opposition to the Treaty except my own- Here it, as that I. wrote my letter 25 on the snbject- it embraced the argumt.s which I had [formulated and em]ployed a~ainst the measure whenever it had been discussed formally or un- officially- The Documt as I am told by Judge Burnet, was never read by him except in part. he read some portion- until after the signing of the Treaty-So soon as it was knO\vn that the Treaty had heen executed by the parties, a general discontent was [man]ifested by the people. In conformity to the Treaty Sanwna was placed on board of the Invincible. \Vhilst the vessel was anchored in the Bay, to sail for Vera Cruz-Green, Hunt & Henderson with volunteers arrived-
'"No. 362. Bi-Library.
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