WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1850
184
occasion to remove." This ·was in reference to the rules and mode of governing the people in California, and is here adopted as applicable to New Mexico. What is the sovereign power here referred to? Is it the action of coordinate departments of Government? That can not be, for the sol~ remedy which has been here applied has been the authority of the Executive to his subalterns; Congress has taken no action upon it; the Supreme Court has made no decision, but the President of the United States has exercised the sovereign right of deciding that Texas has no just claim to Santa Fe, and the country east of the Rio Grande. If we will recur to a communication made by Brevet-Colonel Monroe, addressed Brevet-Major Jeff Vanhorn, on the 28th of December, 1849, we will find opinions entertained by him then which differed somewhat as to the right of Texas, and evinced a disposition to concede to her the right of civil jurisdiction, ·until the boundary should be settled between Te:rns and New Mexico, or until instructions to the contrary rnight be received from superio1· auth01-ity. I will submit the extract: "As no civil jurisdiction has been assumed over this district by the State of Texas, therefore, in order that its inhabitants may have the protection of civil laws and magistrates, it is hereby directed that you sustain the civil jurisdiction of the Territory of New Mexico, her civil officers and magistrates, in the execu- tion of their duties for the protection of persons and property only, under what is called the 'Kearny code,' until such time as Texas shall officially assume civil jurisdiction, or the Congress of the United States finally settle the boundary between Texas and New Mexico, or instructions to the contrary may be received from superior authority." From this extract it must be manifest that the orders then given arose from a full conviction that Texas had rights, and that she had the right to exercise them within that Territory. I will not pretend to account for the change of opinion that came over Col. Monroe, nor will I assert that it was induced by secret or verbal orders. It is sufficient for me to show that, at one time, not only the Administration, but its subalterns and agents, acknowledged the rights of Texas. It would appear, though, that this was anterior to the exercise of sovereign power-a power of which T'exas has but too much cause to complain. Sovereign power does not reside in the White House at the other end of the avenue, nor in the adjacent Department buildings. No, sir; the sovereign power of this
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