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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1842
To THE TEXAS SENATE 1
[ Secret]
Executive Department, ·washington, December 19, 1842.
To the Honorable, the Senate: I have the honor to transmit herewith the treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation between the Republic of Texas and the United States of America. concluded at the City of Washington, on the 30h. July last, by their respective plenipotentiaries for your consideration and constitutional advice in reference to its final ratification. The stipulations of this treaty, it is believed, are as favorable to Texas as, under existing circumstances, could be expected, and I respectfully recommend it to your favorable re- gard. By Article V, an important concession is made to the United States in the privilege granted of importing a large class of goods into the country for exportation free from any duty or charge whatever. This opens to those goods the trade of Northern Mexico. On the other hand, the raw cotton of Texas is permitted to be imported into the United States free of duty, for five years, and a corresponding class of goods to that above ·referred to, is permitted to be imported into the United States for exportation, free from any duty or charge, during the continuance of the treaty. The privilege of repacking goods destined for transPQrta- tion to a foreign country is also mutually conceded. These concessions made in favor of goods, the growth, produce and manufacture of the United States, it might be contended, from the language of the article, are free and gratuitous, and would therefore, according to the terms of our treaties with France, England, and Holland, become immediately common to all of those nations. Since the instructions under which Mr. Reily, our able Charge d'Affaires, negotiated this treaty, were given him, information has been received that France is anxious to obtain from this gov~ ernment the same privileges which are by this article extended to the United States, and that she would be willing to grant some important equivalent in consideration thereof. It is fairly to be inferred that England and Holland ·would do the same. In order therefore to prevent any cavil in relation to the construction of this article, and to secure to Texas the important advantages which might hereafter result from withholding without an ade- quate compensation, the privileges and immunities granted the
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