Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Nicholas Trist negotiated the peace talks; Trist, the chief clerk of the U.S. State Department, accompanied General Winfield Scott as a diplomat and President James K. Polk's representative. After two previous unsuccessful attempts to negotiate a treaty with General José Joaquín de Herrera, Trist and General Scott determined that the only way to deal with Mexico was as a conquered enemy. Trist negotiated with a special commission representing the collapsed government led by José Bernardo Couto, Miguel de Atristain, and Luis Gonzaga Cuevas of Mexico. ==Terms==

Although Mexico ceded Alta California and Santa Fe de Nuevo México, the text of the treaty and now had an area of . In the United States, the of area between the Adams-Onís and Guadalupe Hidalgo boundaries outside the claimed by the Republic of Texas is known as the Mexican Cession. That is to say, the Mexican Cession is construed not to include any territory east of the Rio Grande, while the territorial claims of the Republic of Texas included no territory west of the Rio Grande. The Mexican Cession included essentially the entirety of the former Mexican territory of Alta California, but only the western portion of Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico, and includes all of present-day California, Nevada and Utah, most of Arizona, the western portions of New Mexico and Colorado, and the southwestern corner of Wyoming. Articles VIII and IX ensured the safety of existing property rights of Mexican citizens living in the transferred territories. Despite assurances to the contrary, land grants by the Mexican government to its citizens were often not honored by the United States because of unilateral modifications to and interpretations of the Treaty and U.S. legal decisions. Land disputes between the descendants of Mexican land owners and Anglo Americans continued into the 21st century. The United States also agreed to assume $3.25 million (equivalent to $ million today) in debts that Mexico owed to United States citizens. The residents had one year to choose whether they wanted American or Mexican citizenship; over 90% chose American citizenship. The others moved to what remained of Mexico (where they received land) or, in some cases in New Mexico, were allowed to remain in place as Mexican citizens. Article XII engaged the United States to pay, "In consideration of the extension acquired", 15 million dollars (equivalent to $ million today), in annual installments of 3 million dollars. Article XI of the treaty was important to Mexico. It provided that the United States would prevent and punish raids by Indians into Mexico, prohibited Americans from acquiring property, including livestock, taken by the Indians in those raids, and stated that the United States would return captives of the Indians to Mexico. Mexicans believed that the United States had encouraged and assisted the Comanche and Apache raids that had devastated northern Mexico in the years before the war. This article promised relief to them. Article XI, however, proved unenforceable. Destructive Indian raids continued despite a heavy U.S. presence near the Mexican border. Mexico filed 366 claims with the U.S. government for damages done by Comanche and Apache raids between 1848 and 1853. In 1853, in the Treaty of Mesilla concluding the Gadsden Purchase, Article XI was annulled. Results The land that the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo brought into the United States became, between 1850 and 1912, all or part of nine states: California (1850), Nevada (1864), Utah (1896), and Arizona (1912), as well as, depending upon interpretation, the entire state of Texas (1845), which then included part of Kansas (1861); Colorado (1876); Wyoming (1890); Oklahoma (1907); and New Mexico (1912). The area of domain acquired was given by the Federal Interagency Committee as 338,680,960 acres. The cost was $16,295,149 or approximately 5 cents an acre. ==Background to the war==

Mexico had claimed the area in question since winning its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence. The Spanish had conquered part of the area from the Indigenous peoples over the preceding three centuries. Still, powerful and independent Indigenous nations remained within that northern region of Mexico. Most of that land was too dry and too mountainous to support a large population. About 80,000 Mexicans inhabited California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas during the period 1845 to 1850, with far fewer in Nevada, southern and western Colorado, and Utah. On 1 March 1845, U.S. president John Tyler signed legislation to authorize the United States to annex the Republic of Texas, effective on 29 December 1845. The Mexican government, which had never recognized the Republic of Texas as an independent country, had warned that annexation would be viewed as an act of war. Both the United Kingdom and France recognized the Republic of Texas's independence and repeatedly tried to dissuade Mexico from declaring war against its northern neighbor. British efforts to mediate the quandary proved fruitless, in part because other political disputes (particularly the Oregon boundary dispute) arose between Great Britain (as the claimant of modern Canada) and the United States. On 10 November 1845, before the outbreak of hostilities, President James K. Polk sent his envoy, John Slidell, to Mexico. Slidell had instructions to offer Mexico around $5 million for the territory of Nuevo México and up to $40 million for Alta California. The Mexican government dismissed Slidell, refusing to even meet with him. Earlier in that year, Mexico had broken off diplomatic relations with the United States, based partly on its interpretation of the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, under which newly independent Mexico claimed it had inherited rights. In that agreement, the United States had "renounced forever" all claims to Spanish territory. Neither side took any further action to avoid a war. Meanwhile, Polk settled a major territorial dispute with Britain via the Oregon Treaty, which was signed on 15 June 1846. By avoiding any chance of conflict with Great Britain, the United States was given a free hand regarding Mexico. After the Thornton Affair of 25–26 April, when Mexican forces attacked an American unit in the disputed area, with the result that 11 Americans were killed, five wounded, and 49 captured, Congress passed a declaration of war, which Polk signed on 13 May 1846. The Mexican Congress responded with its own war declaration on 23 April 1846. ==Conduct of war==

shown including Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. U.S. forces quickly moved beyond Texas to conquer Alta California and New Mexico. Fighting there ended on 13 January 1847 with the signing of the "Capitulation Agreement" at "Campo de Cahuenga" and the end of the Taos Revolt. By the middle of September 1847, U.S. forces had successfully invaded central Mexico and occupied Mexico City. Peace negotiations Some Eastern Democrats called for complete annexation of Mexico and recalled that a group of Mexico's leading citizens had invited General Winfield Scott to become dictator of Mexico after his capture of Mexico City (he declined). However, the movement did not draw widespread support. President Polk's State of the Union address in December 1847 upheld Mexican independence and argued at length that occupation and any further military operations in Mexico were aimed at securing a treaty ceding California and New Mexico up to approximately the 32nd parallel north and possibly Baja California and transit rights across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Notwithstanding that the treaty had been negotiated against his instructions, given its achievement of the major American aim, President Polk passed it on to the Senate. Debate in the American Congress s awarded in lands ceded to the United States by those respective governments to citizens of Spain and Mexico. Article VIII guaranteed that Mexicans who remained more than one year in the ceded lands would automatically become full-fledged United States citizens (or they could declare their intention of remaining Mexican citizens); however, the Senate modified Article IX, changing the first paragraph and excluding the last two. Among the changes was that Mexican citizens would "be admitted at the proper time (to be judged of by the Congress of the United States)" instead of "admitted as soon as possible", as negotiated between Trist and the Mexican delegation. An amendment by Jefferson Davis giving the United States most of Tamaulipas and Nuevo León, all of Coahuila, and a large part of Chihuahua was supported by both senators from Texas (Sam Houston and Thomas Jefferson Rusk), Daniel S. Dickinson of New York, Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, Edward A. Hannegan of Indiana, and one each from Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, and Tennessee. Most of the leaders of the Democratic party, Thomas Hart Benton, John C. Calhoun, Herschel V. Johnson, Lewis Cass, James Murray Mason of Virginia and Ambrose Hundley Sevier were opposed, and the amendment was defeated 44–11. An amendment by Whig Sen. George Edmund Badger of North Carolina to exclude New Mexico and California lost 35–15, with three Southern Whigs voting with the Democrats. Daniel Webster was bitter that four New England senators made deciding votes for acquiring the new territories. A motion to insert into the treaty the Wilmot Proviso (banning slavery from the acquired territories) failed 15–38 on sectional lines. The treaty was leaked to John Nugent before the U.S. Senate could approve it. Nugent published his article in the New York Herald and, afterward, was questioned by senators. He was detained in a Senate committee room for one month, though he continued to file articles for his newspaper and ate and slept at the home of the sergeant at arms. Nugent did not reveal his source, and senators eventually gave up their efforts. The treaty was subsequently ratified by the U.S. Senate by a vote of 38 to 14 on 10 March 1848 and by Mexico through a legislative vote of 51 to 34 and a Senate vote of 33 to 4, on 19 May 1848. News that New Mexico's legislative assembly had just passed an act for the organization of a U.S. territorial government helped ease Mexican concern about abandoning the people of New Mexico. The treaty was formally proclaimed on 4 July 1848. The majority of congress supported the government's peace policy viewing in the Treaty of Guadalupe nothing but the unfortunate result of a poorly fought war, and viewed under this perspective as a national necessity. A foreign relations commission returned affirmative answers to two questions that congress had directed it to report upon: May the government with the consent of Congress cede a portion of territory? Is it suitable to make peace upon the terms which have been proposed? The first question was resolved based upon the principle that congress was the deposit of the national sovereignty. The second question was resolved upon the consideration that Mexico had never been in full possession of the territories that were about to be ceded, and that most of that land was either not populated, or populated by hostile Indigenous tribes. After the commission reported its findings, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was approved by congress. President Peña y Peña prepared decrees to prevent disorder in the capital once the occupiers left and to establish a national guard. On 26 May 1848 the government received the commissioners Nathan Clifford and Ambrose Hundley Sevier who were in Mexico to negotiate the treaty after congress had approved it with some slight modifications. The first article stated that the original Article IX of the treaty, although replaced by Article III of the Treaty of Louisiana, would still confer the rights delineated in Article IX. The second article confirmed the legitimacy of land grants pursuant to Mexican law. The protocol further noted that the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs had accepted said explanations on behalf of the Mexican Government, Treaty of Mesilla The Treaty of Mesilla, which concluded the Gadsden purchase of 1854, had significant implications for the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Article II of the treaty annulled article XI of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and article IV further annulled articles VI and VII of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Article V, however, reaffirmed the property guarantees of Guadalupe Hidalgo, specifically those contained within articles VIII and IX. ==Effects==

(brown). Part of the area marked as Gadsden Purchase near modern-day Mesilla, New Mexico, was disputed after the Treaty. In addition to the sale of land, the treaty also provided recognition of the Rio Grande as the boundary between the state of Texas and Mexico. The land boundaries were established by a survey team of appointed Mexican and American representatives, Community property rights in California and other western states are based on the Visigothic Code which Spain adopted and then brought to the Americas, including the former territories of Mexico that were ceded to the U.S. Although each state had different motivations for adopting the Spanish approach, one common driver was that it was already in place in the region for many years. According to a 2011 assessment, changing to a common law system for marital property "would have been nothing short of a revolution". Land gained by the United States File:Gilman (United States (after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo)) 1848 UTA.jpg|thumb|300px|E. Gilman, [United States (after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo)], 1848 The United States received the territories of Alta California and Santa Fe de Nuevo México. Today they comprise some or all of the U.S. states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. While this land was vast in area, most of it was very sparsely populated, inhabited mostly by Indigenous Americans, rather than white Americans or Mexicans. Additional issues Additional issues stemming from the treaty included contention over slavery, border disputes with Mexico, mapping difficulties, cross-border incursions by both nations, community land grant claims, and water rights assignment between the two nations. Disputes about whether to make all this new territory into slave states or free states, including Bleeding Kansas, contributed heavily to the rise in North–South tensions that led to the American Civil War just over a decade later. Following the signing of the treaty, border disputes continued, with the United States sending envoy James Gadsden to negotiate the sale of additional territory to the US. In 1853, American filibuster William Walker led an unauthorized expedition into Baja California and Sonora, proclaiming the short-lived Republic of Lower California with the aim of being annexed by the United States. Although Walker's unrecognized state collapsed in January 1854, Mexican president Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna continued to see the US as a threat amid Mexico's persisting economic problems. Desiring to stave off American expansionist desires as well as alleviate domestic financial problems, Santa Anna sought to sell an area as small as possible to the US for as much money as possible, leading to the controversial $15 million Gadsden Purchase in 1854. The border commission also faced many difficulties in mapping out the boundary, with the surveying process lasting over 7 years. The work of the commission was hampered by a multitude of issues including: transportation difficulties, unforgiving terrain, extreme weather, inaccurate information and negotiations with Indigenous Americans who had not been considered in the prior treaty negotiations. The Channel Islands of California and Farallon Islands are not mentioned in the Treaty. The armed forces of both countries routinely crossed the border. Mexican and Confederate troops often clashed during the American Civil War, and the United States crossed the border during the war of second French intervention in Mexico. In March 1916, Pancho Villa led a raid on the U.S. border town of Columbus, New Mexico, which was followed by the Pershing expedition. The shifting of the Rio Grande since the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe caused a dispute over the boundary between the states of New Mexico and Texas, a case referred to as the Country Club Dispute that was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1927. Controversy over community land grant claims in New Mexico persists to this day. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo led to the establishment in 1889 of the International Boundary and Water Commission to maintain the border and, according to newer treaties, to allocate river waters between the two nations and to provide for flood control and water sanitation. Once viewed as a model of international cooperation, in recent decades, the IBWC has been heavily criticized as an institutional anachronism, bypassed by modern social, environmental, and political issues. Writing many years later, Nicholas Trist would describe the Treaty as "a thing for every right-minded American to be ashamed of". ==See also==

• • • Morrison, Michael A. Slavery and the American West: The Eclipse of Manifest Destiny (1999) • • Pinheiro, John C. " 'Religion without Restriction': Anti-Catholicism, All Mexico, and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo." Journal of the Early Republic 23.1 (2003): 69–96. online • • • Sears, Louis Martin. "Nicholas P. Trist, A Diplomat with Ideals." Mississippi Valley Historical Review11#1 (1924): 85–98. online • Varg, Paul A. United States Foreign Relations, 1820-1860 (Michigan State UP, 1979) pp. 168–194. • Velazquez-Flores, Rafael. "Mexico's Foreign Policy in the Nineteenth Century: The Origins of Principled Pragmatism, 1821–1853." in ''Principled Pragmatism in Mexico's Foreign Policy: Variables and Assumptions'' (Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2022). 33–47. • • ==External links==