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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 184-8
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I think, will continue to guide and prosper America. I feel grate- ful for the attention you have given me; I know I have trans- gressed your time; I would recommend you, if the country should be acquired, to take a trip of exploration there, and look out for the beautiful senoritas, or pretty girls, and, if you should choose to annex them, no doubt the result of this annexation will be a most powerful and delightful evidence of civilization. 1 Democmtic Telegraph and Texas Registe1·, March 2, 1848. The Tele- gra.ph is the only source that has been found in which the text of the speech is reported. The Nat-ional Intelligence,·, March 2, 1848, dates the speech on February 22, 1848. 'Something seems to have been omitted here, but this copy checks throughout with the newspaper report of the speech. 'There is confusion here. First, it is evident that Houston refers to the so-called Cuevas treaty of 1845, not 1846, but calls it the "Cubes" treaty. Whether the error of spelling was Houston's, or that of the news- paper, is not known. In fact, there never was a peace treaty made with Mexico, but on June, 4, 1845, Anson Jones did issue a proclamation during the recess of Congress, in which he stated that the Congress of Mexico had authorized its government to conclude a treaty of peace with Texas on the preliminary conditions prescribed by Texas. ( See Con- gressio1wl Papers, Ninth Congress, Texas State Library; Journals of the Senate, Ninth Congress.) At Washington (on the Brazos), March 29, 1845, Ashbel Smith, Secre- tary of State, Republic of Texas, drew up and signed a statement of conditions-four in number-upon which Texas would be glad to ne- gotiate a treaty of peace with Mexico. This document was submitted to the Mexican Government, and on May 19, 1845, Luis G. Cuevas, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Mexican Republic, made reply, stating that the preliminary conditions proposed by Texas had been accepted by Mexico as a basis upon which to begin negotiations for a definite treaty of peace. But he added a separate communication, saying that if Texas should be influenced, directly, or indirectly, by the law lately passed by the United States on annexation, and should consent thereto, then the answer consenting to the negotiation of a treaty of peace between Mexico and Texas, should be null and void. The conditions that Texas had prescribed as a basis for peace were fourfold: (1) That Mexico should acknowledge the independence of Texas; (2) that Texas should pledge not to annex herself, or become subject to any country whatsoever; (3) that limits and other conditions should be a matter of arrangement in the final treaty; (4) that Texas would be willing to submit disputed points concerning territory and other matters t{l arbitration of umpires. So, it was upon these preliminary conditions, and the answer of Luis G. Cuevas to them, that Jones had made his proclamation, stating that a preliminary treaty of peace had been made with Mexico. Jones made his proclamation on June 4, 1845. On June 6, 1845, all the documents of the correspondence with Mexico, concerning the peace treaty, were sub- mitted to the Senate of the Texas Congress, and by that body to the
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