red her fully invested with all the rights and attributes which properly belong to independent nations.

The same convention, on the 17th March, adopted a constitution, and provided for a Government ad interim, which took the place of the provisional Government. This constitution was confirmed by the voice of the people in their elections on the first Monday in this month, and the Government ad interim continues until the second Monday in December, when the President and Vice President elect will assume their constitutional duties, and thus perfect, to that extent, the intentions of the people.

The authority of sovereignty, even as to foreign nations, was very soon exercised by Texas after her provisional Government went into operation, and that too at the expense of some of our own citizens.

On the 2d of June last, the American schooner Watchman was captured in Coparo bay, with a cargo of bread, rice, and beans.

On the 19th of the same month, the schooners Comanche and Fanny Butler, similarly laden, were taken in the same neighborhood, and the cargoes of all condemned by the Rusé court for "consisting of articles for the comfort and subsistence of the Mexican army."

The value of the Watchman's invoice was about $4,000 00 That of the Comanche's 7,528 14 Of the Fanny Butler's 8,664 56

On the 21st of July, the President proclaimed the blockade of Matamoras, the Brazos, Santiago, and all the neighboring estuaries. This included American vessels, and the trade, which is very considerable from our ports to the Rio Grande, particularly from New Orleans, was thus interrupted, and indeed cut off, until the 13th of August, when, upon my representations, the decree was rescinded. These proceedings would give rise to three propositions: First. Whether Mexico, so far from maintaining her ability to protect her own territory, as required by the law of nations, has not failed in that duty, and extended the injury to the commerce of the United States. Secondly. Whether, if Texas is not an integrant of Mexico, but a separate Government, Mexico has not directly violated her treaty of 1831, by allowing the subjects of an adjoining State to blockade her ports. And, third. If Texas is not a distinct Government, but still part of Mexico, whether the latter has not permitted her own subjects to commit acts in relation to the United States which, strictly speaking, amount to a state of imperfect war.

Though early plans were laid to support the Government, in part, by imposts, they were never carried into effect. The whole community were engaged in one occupation, which was war, and therefore it would have been only crippling the cause of the country to have taxed the necessaries that were introduced.

Custom districts were established, and collectors appointed; but, by general consent, the Government acquiesced in the suspension of the law, and to this day every thing is practically free of duty. The consumption of bread-stuffs, provisions, and clothing, is very great, and they are nearly all drawn from the United States.

The products of Texas are principally cotton and corn; the former is the most cultivated, on account of its superior value. This year there will be less than 10,000 bales; but if the country had been quiet there would have been 50,000. Abundance of fine cattle is raised with very little difficulty, and the climate and soil are adapted to the usual grain of our own country.

It is said that the sugar cane would thrive well here, but I should doubt it, though I believe, from personal observation, that the soil would yield abundant crops of indigo, and with but little trouble.

[24th CONG. 2d SESS.

The tonnage of Texas is, as might be expected for a country so new, very small. Heretofore part of the trade was carried on in Mexican shipping, and then the amount was much greater. At present they have not more than a dozen commercial vessels, including two or three steamboats.

I should say that if this country were in a tranquil condition, with an industrious population peaceably engaged in the cultivation of their rich lands, the raising of cattle, which are so abundant, and the associated pursuits of a settled people, properly organized by the restraints and protection of good laws, it would become, in a few years, a market for as much English, French, and other foreign productions, as any State in our Union. The rationale of this would easily appear, by carrying the mind through the vast region comprised within the limits of this country, looking to the population that must necessarily be drawn to it under a proper system, the proximity of our Western and Northwestern territory, and to the interior of Mexico itself, which at no very distant day may be furnished through this medium. But, as things now are, I doubt whether any of those fruits of good order will ever be matured.

The present Government is as well administered as its resources and the appliances of the country will admit; but as it is just in its pupilage, with no strength but confidence in the cause, no help but that which sympathy gives, and is not yet harmoniously adjusted in the motions of its respective branches, it may still be considered a mere experiment upon independence, which the loss of friends or of a single battle may disperse to the winds.

In a former letter it was said that the residuum of public domain, after all deductions for military services and "head rights," would be one hundred millions of acres. That statement was made upon the views of the Secretary of the Treasury. Since then I have obtained an original estimate, addressed to the auditor by a scientific gentleman who has officiated as a surveyor, in which he reports that Texas possesses 249,900 square miles, or 160 millions of square acres, and allows 80 millions to be taken up and covered with claims; which amount, he says, "is too large, no doubt, by one half." This would leave 80 millions of acres unencumbered for the State; and, supposing only one fourth of it to be available, would yield, at fifty cents per acre, ten millions of dollars. I should presume this calculation as to quantity is incorrect, as the Mexican Government supposed Texas proper to contain, in 1835, only 104,500,000 acres, and the territory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande, claimed by this country since then, will hardly augment the quantity by 60 millions.

Texas, within the present limits, is nearly four times larger than the largest State in our Union, (Virginia,) and two hundred times larger than Rhode Island, the smallest.

The separation of Texas, as an independent State, from Mexico, it is said, will awaken the attention of some of the European Powers against the slave trade, which her citizens will carry on; but it is contended that this assertion must fail, when it is seen that the constitution prohibits that commerce.

Even if it did not, it is argued that it has been judicially settled, in the highest tribunal in the United States and in England, that whatever may be said against that traffic upon the score of moral consequences, it has nevertheless been protected by the laws of all commercial countries, has been claimed by each and allowed by each, and cannot, therefore, be considered as contrary to the law of nations. Those States whose municipal enactments make that kind of commerce unlawful can of course punish their own subjects who may be engaged in it, but they cannot interfere with the subjects of other Powers found in that trade, although those nations have also prohibited it, because the civil tribunals of one country will not enforce the penal laws of another.

The administration and people entertain no apprehension that any foreign nation will interfere in their contest with Mexico, as they rely upon the policy and example heretofore set by the United States and Great Britain in the struggle between Spain and her revolted colonies, in which both the former Governments protested against the right of the allied Powers to interpose by forcible means.

Our Government went further, and held that any attempt to extend the peculiar political system of Europe to this continent would be considered dangerous to the peace of its own States. The Texians hold that the only exception to the rule against the rights of interfering by neutral nations, is, when it is in aid of the oppressed, and where the general interests of humanity are infringed by the outrages or evils of despotism; and that Texas, having for years suffered under that condition, is entitled, like the Greeks, to the commiseration of all civilized nations. They say that the revolutionary state of Mexico, since her separation from Spain, has been so boisterous in action and so contradictory in policy, that in examining how far this province has the right to a separate national existence, it necessarily involves the inquiry of whether Mexico herself has not ceased to possess a distinct sovereignty; that the material attributes of a nation are ability to enforce the laws and protect her own institutions; that even in cases of a neutrality, where an abuse of the neutral territory proceeds from the weakness of the sovereign, and her inability to defend it, the party injured acquires authority and may extend his jurisdiction over it; that much more so may that distinct portion of a large State which is found adhering to a written constitution, while the rest are separated into revolting factions, be entitled to an exclusive control over her own limits and people, because the State has not only failed to protect that particular portion of the country, but has taken part in a revolution to overthrow the very principles she was pledged to support. Texas, instead of rising in arms against Mexico, is said to have remained adhering to the republican system, while Mexico deserted it.

Arguments are used, based upon the history of Mexico, to show that her citizens proper were never capable of appreciating liberty in its political American sense, and that her pretended institutions of liberal government and laws, from the time of her separation from Spain to the present day, have existed only in the forms of delusive promises that were always broken to the hope. The first important act of the first President, after the separation from Spain, was to bring the Government back to an order of things more oppressive than that of its ancient rulers; and Iturbide, instead of continuing as President of a republic, regenerated a monarchy, and proclaimed himself an Emperor. Either from an imagined love for freedom vaguely understood, a belief that a constitutional government could be adapted to the habits and notions of the people, or from restless ambition, it seems that General Santa Anna was the first to overthrow the imperial government, the first to aid in the establishment of a republic, and, finally, the first in its destruction.

Bustamenté was in favor of a consolidated form of gov ernment, and General Santa Anna for a complete republic; the latter declared for the constitution of Vera Cruz-in 1832 deposed Bustamenté, as well as the Vice President Farias-elected General Barrazan in his place-became himself President of the republic, and, in 1835, repealed the constitution by military orders, which re-established the very system, under new rules, that had caused the revolution of 1823.

The question is then asked by the Texians, is a nation which is incapable of protecting any form of government from overthrow, by a few military leaders, entitled to hold the peaceable citizens of a distant part of her country forever subject to all the evils of anarchy ?

Other arguments are advanced to show that, besides all this, the incongruity between their citizens, who have been practically accustomed to the protection of the laws as well as to liberty in its true meaning, and those untutored subjects of Mexico who, combining a variety of races in one blood, lose the indentity of all, and submit, in the ignorance of their rights and their power, to the authority of a few who are bold, is another reason why the people have a moral right to establish a separate State. Politically considered, they contend that, as allegiance and protection are reciprocal, and Mexico has failed to aid them against the inroads and murders of the Indians, has overturned the republican constitution, the establishment and promised continuance of which were the first inducements to emigration, has for years exhibited a determination to annihilate the colonial settlements, and has, by a law of 1830, excluded the admission of Americans of the North into Texas, Mexico has forfeited her claim to allegiance, which ceased when her protection failed, lost her right of sovereignty over Texas when she violated her compact, and became an enemy to her own citizens when she excluded their brethren from the country.

The only resource left to these citizens in the periods of partial calm when they were oppressed by the laws, or in those boisterous times when the ambition of opposing leaders kept the country in revolution, was to adhere quietly to the principles of a free government, which they had been invited to join, and to wait patiently in the hope of their re-establishment.

Long after the federal system was destroyed, the Texians continued to petition Mexico to restore it, and only took up arms when she was obliged to defend herself against those who made war upon republicanism, so that her present position proceeds not from her own revolutions, but from those of Mexico. In this state of things, the feelings and hopes of the citizens revert to the United States for sympathy, not only because of consanguinity, but because they are pioneers in the new country, carrying with them, in the common cause of humanity, the light of free government, borrowed from their ancient homes. If we view the condition of Texas by comparison with other Governments that are established, it will be found greatly deficient in many of the materials of a nation; but as the independence of States is considered equal in the eye of international law, whatever may be their relative power, and Texas has not only maintained herself within her own boundary, but manifested an ability to invade that of her enemy, it would result that she has thus far accomplished, though in a limited degree, the criterion of sovereignty, in being a "nation which governs itself, independent of foreign Powers."

casion which produced the convention at Philadelphia, in 1787, the characters who composed it, the constitution which resulted from their deliberations, its effects during a trial of so many years on the prosperity of the people living under it, and the interest it has inspired among the friends of free government, it is not an unreasonable inference that a careful and extended report of the proceedings and discussions of that body, which were with closed doors, by a member who was constant in his attendance, will be particularly gratifying to the people of the United States, and to all who take an interest in the progress of political science and the cause of true liberty."

This provision bears evidence of the value he set on his report of the debates in the convention; and he has charged legacies on them alone, to the amount of $12,000, for the benefit of literary institutions and for benevolent purposes, leaving the residuary nett proceeds for the use of

his widow.

In a paper written by him, and which it is proposed to annex as a preface to the debates, he traces the formation of confederacies and of the articles of confederation, its defects which caused and the steps which led to the convention, his reasons for taking the debates, and the manner in which he executed the task, and his opinion of the framers of the constitution. From this I extract his description of the manner in which they were taken, as it guaranties their fulness and accuracy:

"In pursuance of the task I had assumed, I chose a seat in front of the presiding member, with the other members on my right and left hands. In this favorable position for hearing all that passed, I noted down in terms legible, and in abbreviations and marks intelligible to myself, what was read from the chair or spoken by the members; and, losing not a moment unnecessarily between the adjournment and reassembling of the convention, I was enabled to write out my daily notes during the session, or within a few finishing days after its close, in the extent and form preserved in my own hand, on my files.

"In the labor and correctness of this I was not a little aided by practice, and by familiarity with the style and the train of observation and reasoning which characterized the principal speakers. It happened, also, that I was not absent a single day, nor more than the casual fraction of an hour in any day, so that I could not have lost a single speech, unless a very short one."

However prevailing the restraint which veiled, during the life of Mr. Madison, this record of the creation of our constitution, the grave, which has closed over all those who participated in its formation, has separated their acts from all that is personal to him or to them. His anxiety for their early publicity, after this was removed, may be inferred from his having them transcribed and revised by himself; and, it may be added, the known wishes of his illustrious friend, Thomas Jefferson, and other distinguished patriots, the important light they would shed for present as well as future usefulness, besides my desire to fulfil the pecuniary obligations imposed by his will, urged their appearance, without awaiting the preparation of his other works; and early measures were accordingly adopted by me to ascertain from publishers in various parts of the Union the terms on which their publication could be effected.

It was also intended to publish with these debates those taken by him in the Congress of the confederation in 1782-'8-'7, of which he was then a member, and selections made by himself, and prepared under his eye, from his letters narrating the proceedings of that body during the periods of his service in it, prefixing the debates in 1776 on the declaration of independence, by Thomas Jefferson, so as to imbody all the memorials in that shape known to exist. This exposé of the situation of the counry under the confederation, and the defects of the old

system of government, evinced in the proceedings under it, seem to convey such preceding information as should accompany the debates on the formation of the constitution by which it was superseded.

The proposals which have been received, so far from corresponding with the expectations of Mr. Madison when he charged the first of these works with those legacies, have evidenced that their publication could not be engaged in by me without advances of funds and involving of risks which I am not in a situation to make or incur.

Under these circumstances, I have been induced to submit for your consideration whether the publication of these debates be a matter of sufficient interest to the people of the United States to deserve to be brought to the notice of Congress. And should such be the estimation of the utility of these works by the representatives of the nation, as to induce them to relieve me individually from the obstacles which impede it, their general circulation will be insured, and the people be remunerated by its more economical distribution among them.

With high respect and consideration,

D. P. MADISON. To the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

TRANSFERS OF PUBLIC MONEYS.

Report from the Secretary of the Treasury, transmitting statements of Transfers of Public Moneys, in obedience to a resolution of the Senate of the 20th instant. TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

December 26, 1836.

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report, in further compliance with a resolution of the Senate, passed the 20th instant, directing "that the Secretary of the Treasury communicate to the Senate a detailed statement of all transfers of public moneys ordered since the 23d of June last, for the purpose of executing the act of that date for regulating the deposites of the public money; showing the dates and amounts of such transfers; from what place to what place; from what bank to what bank; and the times allowed for such transfers, respectively; also, a similar statement of all transfers other than such as were made in execution of the aforesaid act."

From the manner of making transfers which has long prevailed in this Department, the cause for making them does not appear on the face of the transfer draft, nor, in general, on any record.

The cause of any particular transfer is, therefore, usually known to no person except the Secretary who orders it; and hence, such transfers as have been issued "since the 23d of June last, for the purpose of executing the act of that date for regulating the deposites of the public money," and which are called for in the first part of the resolution, cannot be discriminated from any others called for in the last part of the resolution, and which may not have been made in execution of the aforesaid act, unless the Secretary is able to do it, and from memory rather than the records.

In order, therefore, to avoid any mistakes as to the whole amount of transfers directed, from all causes whatever, within the period mentioned, the Treasurer was, on the day the resolution reached me, required to prepare an exhibit of the whole since the 23d of June last, and to accompany it by the details desired in the resolution, as to the times of payment and the names of the banks to and from which they have been respectively ordered.

The whole amount of these transfers which have taken effect, or been paid, appears to be $25,129,385.

Those which have not taken effect, and are not payable, many of them till January, February, March, and April, of