MEXICAN CLAIMS.
321
their government had several important ones. American vessels, captured by Mexican war ships for being engaged in contraband trade, had been forcibly rescued by United States cruisers; and even a Mexican national vessel, duly commissioned, had been taken and sent into a port of the United States.[1]
The treaty stipulated for by the convention of January 1843 was concluded in Mexico on the 20th of November; and under it a commission was to sit in Mexico — the Mexican government as a point of
- ↑ On the 1st of Sept. 1835, the Correo, a revenue cutter commanded by Lieut Thomas Thompson, was captured by an American armed vessel aided Ly a Texan steamboat, for interfering with smugglers, and sent for adjudication to New Orleans. The captors were accused of robbing the cutter's papers and her officers' property. The officers and men were kept in jail for some time in New Orleans, and there tried on the charge of piracy preferred by the captors; but the vessel, officers, and crew were released. No satisfaction or indemmity was given them, however, on the ground that the officers had not established their status. This decision was given in the face of their declarations that their papers had been taken from them, and of the Mexican consul's assurance that the Correo was a revenue vessel, and her officers and men servants of his government. Report of Thompson's Trial, 3-44. In Nov. 1835, an expedition was openly fitted out in New Orleans to commit hostilities against the Mexican government, and landed in the Tampico River. Niles' Reg., xlix. 339-40. Another cause of complaint, and a very serious one, was the invasion of Mexican territory by U. S. forces in 1836. Again, the Mexican squadron captured two American schooners engaged in conveying contraband goods to the Texans, then at war with Mexico, and taken into Matammoros. This act was in perfect accord with articles 18th and 20th of the treaty of 1831. The American corvette Natchez then arrived at the bar and demanded, on the 16th of April, 1837, their surrender, which being refused by the commander on the frontier, she retook one of the schooners, and made a prize of the Mexican war brig General Urrea. The latter was afterward ordered to be released at Pensacola. Id., lii. 163, 193, 204-5, 209, 249, 289. That act of the corvette was a deliberate infraction of the 3d clause in the 34th article of the treaty of 1831. The Mexican government with good reason was indignant at such proceedings, but exercising a wise moderation in its efforts to avert a conflict, ordered the release of the schooners, and of the bark Anne Eliza that had been detained at Vera Cruz. Id., lii. 209, 228. 362. U. S. Govt, Cong. 25, Ses. 2, H. Ex. Doc. 75, vol. ii.; Bustamante, Gabinete Mex., i. 10-12; Méx., Mem. Min. Relaciones, 1838, 11-14; Tornel, Tejas y Est. Unidos, 79-80. Later, on the 24th of June, an American squadron of one frigate and four sloops of war, under Commodore Dallas, called at Sacrificios, and the commodore demanded of Castro, the comandante general, an assurance, such as had been given him by Gen. Filisola at Matamoros, that there should be no more attempts against American merchantmen; otherwise he would adopt efficacious measures to deprive the Mexican squadron of tho means of annoying American commerce. Gen. Castro, without manifesting a hostile spirit, replied that neither he nor Gen. Filisola could give such assurances, as they were of the exclusive province of the supreme government. Niles' Reg., lii. 362-3. Dallas then wrote back on the 28th, saying that he would leave on the Mexican coast a sufficient naval force to protect American commercial interests from future Mexican aggressions. Bustamante, Gabinete Мех., i. 20-6.
