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The Texas Boundary During the Texas Revolution.

First edition of this extremely rare 1836 printed circular, important for the history of Texas.

The decree sets forth an amendment to the Treaty of 1828 between the United States and Mexico requiring that the Boundary commissioners re-survey the headwaters of the Arkansas and Red Rivers to fix the boundary between the two countries.   

Due to delays on both sides, the survey was not completed in the stipulated time. According to the Handbook of Texas, between 1819 and 1836 the Neches River was occasionally advanced as the eastern boundary of Texas. Specifically, the present decree cites the third article of the 1828 Treaty, which describes the survey's charge:

To fix this line with more precision and to place the land marks which shall designate exactly the limits of both nations each of the Contracting parties shall appoint a Commissioner and Surveyor, who shall meet before the termination of one year from the date of the ratification of this Treaty at Natchitoches on the Red River and proceed to run and mark the said line from the mouth of the Sabine to the Red River and from the Red River to the River Arkansas.

The present amendment, negotiated by Anthony Butler as Chargé d'affaires of the United States in Mexico, adds an article to the original Treaty, calling once again for the survey. Though the survey was completed, the Battle of San Jacinto (April 21, 1836) effectively invalidated the boundaries agreed upon.

Streeter (1256), notes:

The Mexico City edition (entry No. 1257A [i.e., the present item]) gives the date as April 20. As the Texans had been victorious at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, the treaty was meaningless as far as Texas boundaries were concerned.

The circular was issued on June 18, 1836, by Mexico's then-acting Secretary of Foreign Affairs, José Maria Ortiz Monasterio. The lag between the Texan victory in April and the printing of the Treaty in June is probably best explained by the bureaucratic inertia of official Mexican government printing.

Rarity:

WorldCat locates only four copies: (OCLC: 16070233) Indiana University (Lilly Library), New Mexico State, Baylor (Texas Streeter Collection items), and (OCLC: 28084931) Yale.

Streeter (Texas as a Province and Republic) 1257A, cites only UT and Streeter's personal copy. Streeter notes: "A copy of this, catalogued with the heading, "The Revised Southwestern Boundary Treaty of 1836, Arizona and Texas," brought $400 (entry No. 13) at the Bauer Americana Sale at Parke-Bernet December 2, 1958."

Full English Transcription and Translation

FIRST SECRETARY OF STATE. DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

His Excellency, the interim President of the Mexican Republic, has been pleased to direct to me the following decree:

The interim President of the Mexican Republic, to all who see the present document, know: That to facilitate compliance with Article 3 of the Boundary Treaty between these States and the United States of North America, it has been stipulated and concluded in this Capital, by means of plenipotentiaries from the two Nations, authorized for this purpose, the following:

A Treaty having been concluded and signed in the City of Mexico on the 12th day of January 1828 between the United States of America and the Mexican United States for the purpose of establishing the true dividing line and boundary between the two nations, Article 3 of which Treaty is as follows:

"To fix this line with more precision and to place the landmarks which shall designate exactly the limits of both nations, each of the Contracting parties shall appoint a Commissioner and Surveyor, who shall meet before the termination of one year from the date of the ratification of this Treaty at Natchitoches on the Red River and proceed to run and mark the said line from the mouth of the Sabine to the Red River and from the Red River to the River Arkansas, and to ascertain the Latitude of the source of said River Arkansas in conformity to what is agreed upon and stipulated, and the line of Latitude 42 to the South Sea. They shall make out plans and keep journals of their proceedings; and the result agreed upon by them shall be considered as part of this Treaty and shall have the same force as if it were inserted therein. The two Governments will amicably agree respecting the necessary articles to be furnished to those persons, and also as to their respective escorts, should such be deemed necessary." And the ratifications of said Treaty having been exchanged in the city of Washington on the fifth day of April in the year of 1832, but from various causes the contracting parties have been unable to perform the stipulations contained in the above-mentioned Article 3.4 and, the period within which the said stipulations could have been executed has elapsed; and both Republics being desirous that the said Treaty should be carried into effect with all due solemnity; the President of the United States of America has for that purpose fully empowered on his part Anthony Butler, a citizen thereof, and Chargé d'Affaires of said States in Mexico, and the acting President of the United States of Mexico having in like manner fully empowered on his part their Excellencies José María Gutiérrez de Estrada, Secretary of State for Home and Foreign Affairs, and José Mariano Blasco, Secretary of the Treasury; and the said Plenipotentiaries after having mutually exchanged their full powers, found to be ample and in form, they have agreed and do hereby agree to the following 2nd additional article, to the said Treaty.

Within the space of one year to be estimated from the date of the exchange of the Ratifications of this said additional article there shall be appointed by the Government of the United States of America, and of the Mexican United States, each a Commissioner and Surveyor for the purpose of fixing with more precision the dividing line, and for establishing the Landmarks of boundary and limits between the two Nations, with the exactness stipulated by the 3.4 article of the Treaty of Limits concluded and signed in Mexico on the 12th day of January 1828 and the Ratifications of which were exchanged in Washington City on the 5th day of April 1832. And the present additional article shall have the same force and effect as if it had been inserted word for word in the above-mentioned Treaty of the 12th of January 1828, and shall be approved and ratified in the manner prescribed by the Constitutions of the respective States.

In faith of which, the said Plenipotentiaries have hereunto set their hands and affixed their respective Seals. Done in the City of Mexico on the third day of April in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-five, in the fifty-ninth year of the independence of the United States of America, and of the fifteenth of that of the United Mexican States.

(L.S.) A. Butler.

(L.S.)  J.M. Gutierrez de Estrada.

(L.S.) José Mariano Blasco.

And by virtue of having been approved by the general Congress the said 2nd additional article by decree of the 4th of the current, utilizing the power granted to me by the Federal Constitution, I accept, ratify, and confirm it, and I promise on behalf of the Mexican United States to comply with and observe it, and to ensure its compliance and observation. Given at the Federal Palace of Mexico, signed by my hand, authorized with the great National seal, and endorsed by the Secretary of State and the office of Interior and Foreign Relations on the 7th day of April in the year of our Lord 1835, the fifteenth year of the Independence of these States.

Miguel Barragán. José Maria Gutierrez de Estrada.

Therefore, and having been equally approved, confirmed, and ratified the mentioned second additional article by His Excellency the President of the United States of America in the City of Washington on the second day of February of this year, and the ratifications exchanged on the twentieth of April last, following an official declaration explaining that the term of one year stipulated in the referred second additional article should be understood for the meeting in Natchitoches of the commissioners from both Governments who are to demarcate the dividing line, I order it to be printed, published, circulated, and to be duly complied with. Given at the National Palace of Mexico on the 18th of June 1836.

José Justo Corro. To Mr. José Maria Ortiz Monasterio.

And I communicate this to you for your intelligence and corresponding purposes. God and freedom. Mexico 18th of June 1836.

José Maria Ortiz Monasterio."