Register is a curious repository of so mighty a document as a solemn
treaty between nations, I can only say that I learned to a tolerable
degree of certainty, by inquiry at the State Department, that the
President himself never saw it anywhere else. By the way, I believe I
should not err if I were to declare that during the first ten years of
the existence of that document it was never by anybody called a
treaty--that it was never so called till the President, in his extremity,
attempted by so calling it to wring something from it in justification of
himself in connection with the Mexican War. It has none of the
distinguishing features of a treaty. It does not call itself a treaty.
Santa Anna does not therein assume to bind Mexico; he assumes only to act
as the President--Commander-in-Chief of the Mexican army and navy;
stipulates that the then present hostilities should cease, and that he
would not himself take up arms, nor influence the Mexican people to take
up arms, against Texas during the existence of the war of independence.
He did not recognize the independence of Texas; he did not assume to put
an end to the war, but clearly indicated his expectation of its
continuance; he did not say one word about boundary, and, most probably,
never thought of it. It is stipulated therein that the Mexican forces
should evacuate the territory of Texas, passing to the other side of the
Rio Grande; and in another article it is stipulated that, to prevent
collisions between the armies, the Texas army should not approach nearer
than within five leagues--of what is not said, but clearly, from the
object stated, it is of the Rio Grande. Now, if this is a treaty
recognizing the Rio Grande as the boundary of Texas, it contains the
singular feature of stipulating that Texas shall not go within five
leagues of her own boundary.

Next comes the evidence of Texas before annexation, and the United States
afterwards, exercising jurisdiction beyond the Nueces and between the two