neighboring states, the killing, enslaving, or cruelly treating of prisoners should be indulged, the United States would feel it to be their duty, as well as their right, to remonstrate and to interfere against such a departure from the principles of humanity and civilization. These principles are common principles, essential alike to the welfare of all nations, and in the preservation of which all nations have, therefore, rights and interests. But their duty to interfere becomes imperative in cases affecting their own citizens.

It is therefore that the government of the United States protests against the hardships and cruelties to which the Santa Fé prisoners have been subjected. It protests against this treatment in the name of humanity and the law of nations; in the name of all Christian states; in the name of civilization and the spirit of the age; in the name of all republics; in the name of Liberty herself, enfeebled and dishonored by all cruelty and all excess; in the name of, and for the honor of, this whole hemisphere. It protests emphatically and earnestly against practices belonging only to barbarous people in barbarous times.

By the well-established rules of national law, prisoners of war are not to be treated harshly, unless personally guilty toward him who has them in his power; for he should remember that they are men, and unfortunate.

When an enemy is conquered, and submits, a great soul forgets all resentment, and is entirely filled with compassion for him. This is the humane language of the law of nations; and this is the sentiment of high honor among men. The law of war forbids the wounding, killing, impressment into the troops of the country, or the enslaving or otherwise maltreating of prisoners of war, unless they have been guilty of some grave crime; and from the obligation of this law no civilized state can discharge itself.

Every nation, on being received, at her own request, into the circle of civilized governments, must understand that she not only attains rights of sovereignty and the dignity of national character, but that she binds herself also to the strict and faithful observance of all those principles, laws, and usages which have obtained currency among civilized states, and which have for their object the mitigation of the miseries of war.

No community can be allowed to enjoy the benefit of na

tional character, in modern times, without submitting to all the duties which that character imposes. A Christian people, who exercise sovereign power, who make treaties, maintain diplomatic relations with other states, and who should yet refuse to conduct their military operations according to the usages universally observed by such states, would present a character singularly inconsistent and anomalous.

This government will not hastily suppose that the Mexican republic will assume such a character.

There is yet another very important element arising out of the facts of this case.

It is asserted and believed, that the surrender of some of the persons connected with the expedition was made upon specific terms, which were immediately violated by the local Mexican authorities. If there is one rule of the law of war more clear and peremptory than another, it is that compacts between enemies, such as truces and capitulations, shall be faithfully adhered to; and their non-observance is denounced as being manifestly at variance with the true interest and duty, not only of the immediate parties, but of all mankind. Consequently, if the surrender of the expedition, or any part of it, was conditional, the benefit of those conditions must be insisted upon in favor of Mr. Kendall.

According to the statement of Messrs. Falconer and Van Ness, Mr. Kendall proceeded two hundred miles in advance of the main body, and was taken with his companions while they were displaying a flag of truce; and the persons who took them gave assurances that they should not be held as prisoners of war. Here, then, was a special immunity promised, but afterward notoriously withheld, as we are bound to believe in the present state of our information upon the subject. If, therefore, this government were not entitled to demand Mr. Kendall's release on the grounds of his having been a non-combatant and a neutral, it might require the government of Mexico to take care that the stipulation of its authorized agents to that effect be scrupu.ously fulfilled, and that, on this account, those to whom the promise was made should be immediately released, according to that promise.

In conclusion, I am directed by the President of the United States now to instruct you, that, on the receipt of this despatch,

you inquire carefully and minutely into the circumstances of all those persons who, having been taken near Santa Fé, and having claimed the interposition of this government, are still held as prisoners in Mexico; and you will demand of the Mexican government the release of such of them as appear to have been innocent traders, travellers, invalids, men of letters, or for any other reason justly esteemed non-combatants, being citizens of the United States. To this end it may be proper to direct the consul to proceed to the places where any of them may be confined, and to take their statements under oath, as also the statements of other persons to whom they may respectively refer. If the Mexican government deny facts upon which any of the parties claim their release, and desire time for further investigation of their respective cases, or any of them, proper and suitable time must be allowed; but if any of the persons described in the next preceding paragraph, and for whose release you will have made a demand, shall still be detained, for the purpose of further inquiry or otherwise, you will then explicitly demand of the Mexican government that they be treated henceforward with all the lenity which, in the most favorable cases, belongs to the rights of prisoners of war; that they be not confined in loathsome dungeons, with malefactors and persons diseased; that they be not chained or subjected to ignominy, or to any particular rigor in their detention; that they be not obliged to labor on the public works, or put to any other hardship. You will state to the Mexican government that the government of the United States entertains a conviction that these persons ought to be set at liberty without delay; that it will feel great dissatisfaction if it shall still learn that Mr. Kendall, whose case has already been made the subject of an express demand, and others of equal claims to liberation, be not set at liberty at the time when you receive this despatch; but that, if the government of Mexico insists upon detaining any of them for further inquiry, it is due to the government of the United States, to its desire to preserve peace and harmony with Mexico, and to justice and humanity, that, while detained, these persons should enjoy to the fullest extent the rights of prisoners of war; and that it expects that a demand so just and reasonable, a demand respectfully made by one friendly state to another, will meet with immediate compliance. Having made

this demand, you will wait for an answer; and if within ten days you shall not receive assurances that all the persons above mentioned, who may still be detained, will be thenceforward treated in the same manner which has now been insisted upon, you will hold no further official intercourse with the government of Mexico until you shall receive further directions from your own government. You will thereupon communicate with this department, detaining for that purpose the messenger who carries this. In your communication you will state, as fully and as accurately as possible, the circumstances of each man's case, as they may appear by all the evidence which at that time may be possessed by the legation. In making your demand for the better treatment of the prisoners, you will take especial care not to abandon or weaken the claim for their release, nothing more being intended in that respect than that proper time should be allowed to the government of Mexico to make such further inquiries as may be necessary.

of

Your predecessor has already been directed, that, if any the persons suffer for the want of the common necessaries of life, he should provide for such wants until otherwise supplied; a direction which you will also observe.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

WADDY THOMPSON, ESQ., &c., &c., &c.

DANIEL WEBSTER.

INDEPENDENCE OF TEXAS.

Message from the President of the United States, transmitting Copies of Papers upon the Subject of the Relations between the United States and the Mexican Republic, July 14, 1842.

TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES:

In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 12th instant, requesting copies of papers upon the subject of the relations between the United States and the Mexican Republic, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, and the documents by which it was accompanied.

Washington, July 14, 1842.

JOHN TYLER.

TO THE PRESident of the UNITED STATES:

SIR, The Secretary of State, to whom was referred the resolution of the House of Representatives of yesterday, requesting the President to cause to be communicated to that House, so far as might be compatible with the public interest, copies of all the correspondence between the governments of the United States and of Mexico since the appointment of the present Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States to Mexico, of the instructions given to that minister at and since his departure upon his mission, and of his despatches to this government, and particularly of any complaint of the government of Mexico alleging the toleration by the gov ernment of the United States of hostile interference by their citizens in the war between Mexico and Texas, and of any answer on the part of this government to such complaint, has the honor to lay before the President the accompanying papers. All which is respectfully submitted.

Department of State, Washington, July 13, 1842.

DANIEL WEbster.

M. Velazquez de Leon to Mr. Webster.

[TRANSLATION.]

New York, June 24, 1842.

The undersigned, in addressing the Hon. Daniel Webster, Secretary of State, has the honor to inform him that, although he holds in his power the appointment and credentials for presenting himself and acting as Chargé d'Affaires of Mexico in the United States, he has not thought proper to present himself for that purpose, until he had received the answer to the observations which he had addressed to his own government on that subject; but as he has received recently, and during this delay, the two annexed documents for his Excellency the President and the Hon. Daniel Webster, he hastens to send them on, in order that, upon their arriving as soon as possible at their destination, the honorable Secretary of State may give such answer as the government of the United States may judge proper; which answer the undersigned will transmit to the Mexican government, according to his instructions to that effect.

The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to renew to