Santangelo ,

Orazio

de

Attellis.

Protest

against

the convention

of

April 11, 1839,

Washington,
1842.
Mexico

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AUTHOR CARD,
PROTEST s' — --.
AGAINST THE CONVENTlJ]*^l|^lL 1 1> 1 €

BETWEEN TH

UNITED STATES OF AMEK
REPUBLIC OF MEXICO,
AND
AGAINST BOTH SAID GOVERNMENTS:
AND OTHER DOCUMENTS
'¦••V
RELATING TO THE CLAIMS OF
ORAZIO DE ATTELLIS SANTANGELO,
\ ON THE
'GOVERNMENT OF MEXICO.
LE UNIVERSITY
OCT 30 1922  ~~~
LIBRARY" AVASHINGTON :
TETER FORCE, PRINTER.
1842.

NOTICE.

After having published a. first pamphlet, of sixty-
seven pages, dated Washington, July 12th, 1841,
under the title of " Charges preferred against Don
Joaquin Velasquez de Leon, and Don Pedro Fer
nandas del Castillo, Members of the Board of Com
missioners under the Convention of April 1 1th, 1839,
on the part of the Republic of Mexico, addressed to
the President of the United States, by Orazio de
Attellis Santangelo, a citizen of the United States,
with twenty-three Documents;"
After having presented the public with a second
pamphlet, of one hundred and sixty-three pages,
under the date of Washington, October 22d, 1841,
entitled : " Statement of Facts, relating to the claim
of Orazio de Attellis Santangelo, a citizen of the
United States, on the Government of the Republic
of Mexico, preceded by some Explanatory Remarks,
and followed by a specified list of the accompanying
Documents ;"
I now submit to my fellow-citizens, in this third
pamphlet :
1st. A Petition addressed by me to the President
of the United States, dated November 25th, 184 J,
until now unanswered ;
2dly. A Public Instrument of Protest, entered by
me before the Notary Public of the City of Wash
ington, Nicholas .Callan, Jr., against said Convention,
of the 11th of April, 1839, and against both the Go
vernments of Mexico, and of the United States of
America ;

3dly. My letter to the Hon. Daniel Webster, ac
companying said protest ;
4thly. A Memorial to said Board of Commission
ers, by my counsel, containing a Resume of the
abovementioned statement of facts, with four lists of
damages claimed, marked A, B, C, D ;
5thly. A Memorial presented to said Board by my
counsel, claiming its particular attention on the case ;
6th. A letter of my counsel David Hoffman, Esq.,
accompany ingsaid memorial and other documents,
to the Secretary of State, requesting their transmis
sion to the Board ;
7th. An official certificate of the Consul-General
of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, in New-York,
dated the 5th January, 1842, showing the motives of
my emigration in 1821 from my native land.!
A fourth and last publication will inform my fel
low-citizens, and my ultra-Atlantic friends, of the
decision of the Board in my case, or of the opinions
and arguments of its Members that may be submitted
by them to His Excellency the Baron Roenne,, arbiter,
delegated by His Majesty the King of Prussia, pur
suant to the aforesaid Convention ; and the final and
conclusive decision of the latter ; with such , other
documents and observations as the case may require.
Thus I shall have accomplished my double object,
of having my personal honor placed beyond all
attacks, and of informing my fellow-citizens of a va
riety of transactions, which, though apparently 'reja:
ting to individual interests, involve questions and facts
of the highest importance to the people of the United
States at large.
To them all, greeting :
Orazio de Attellis Santangelo.
Washington, January, 1842.
[The Pamphlets above referred to can be procured, gratis, at the residence
of the Author.] '.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
Sir : In a respectful exposition, with twenty-three accompanying
documents, addressed to you, dated 12th July last, I preferred four
teen charges, others reserved, against the Mexican members of the
Board of Commissioners, sitting in this city, under the Convention
of the 11th April, 1839.
I accused them and their Government of a breach of said Conven
tion, of a violation of a public treaty ; in other words, of an offence
to our national honor.
The exposition was forwarded to the Hon. Secretary of State, to
be laid before you.
After the lapse of forty-four days, during which I several times
entreated the Hon. Secretary to inform me of your determinations
on the subject, he honored me Avith a note, dated. August 24th,
wherein an answer in his own name was contained quite foreign to
the case.
I then felt obliged to address a memorial to yourself, which, in
the morning of the 27th of August, was handed to your son, in
your presence (and in which the answer of the Hon. Secretary was
literally copied), imploring your orders for the transmission of said
representation and accompanying documents, to the competent au
thority, if yours was not, &c.
It has been impossible for me to ascertain whether the Hon. Se
cretary received, or not, your instructions to answer said humble
memorial. It is, however, certain that neither an answer to, nor a
receipt of it, has hitherto come to hand.
As a citizen of the United States, and a claimant on Mexico, my
affairs are now so situated with said Board, that, before submitting
my claim to its action, I feel obliged to enter a suitable protest against
whomsoever it may concern.
In this disagreeable necessity, I must again implore your orders,
sir, for the transmission of both the above mentioned Exposition of

the 12th of July last, with the accompanying documents, and the
Memorial of the 27th of August, to Congress, at the opening of its
next session, before which I shall have to lay my grievances.
Praying for an answer,
I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient servant,
O. DE A. SANTANGELO.
Washington, November 25, 1841.

PROTEST.

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 1 „ ..
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, CITY OF WASHINGTON, \lomt •'
Bv this public instrument of protest, Be it known, That, on
this third day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and forty-two, before me, Nicholas Callan, Jr., a no
tary public, in and for said city, duly commissioned and qualified,
personally came and appeared Orazio de Attellis Santangelo, Esq.,
a citizen of the United States, late of New-Orleans, at present in this
city, and to me well known ; who, being duly sworn, has declared
ana doth declare, affirm, and say, in presence of the undersigned
witnesses, that he is one of the claimants on the Government of
Mexico, under the Convention concluded on the 1 1th of April, 1839,
between the United States of America and the Republic of Mexico ;
and that he now formally and solemnly protests against said Conven
tion, and both the Government of Mexico and that of the United
States, on the following grounds:
The appearer, whilst making a short stay in the city of Mexico,
whither he had repaired to install his son Francis de Attellis Sant
angelo as an officer in an English mining company in that coun
try, was suddenly, in the night of the 1st July, 1 826, ordered out of
the city within twenty-four hours, to go under escort to Vera Cruz,
and there to embark for foreign parts.
The reason, not alleged but generally presumed, of such a measure,
was his having published a work on the " Congress of Panama,"
which at that time was to be held, as proposed by the Columbian Dic
tator Bolivar, wherein the appearer had shown the part which the
United States had a right to represent in that Congress, as a mem
ber of the great American family ; praised the generous conduct of
the American Presidents James Monroe and John Quincy Adams
towards Mexico ; and advocated the opinions of the Minister Pleni
potentiary of the United States, Mr. J. R. Poinsett, in the treaty of
amity, navigation arid commerce he was then negotiating with the
Mexican Government, about the injustice and impropriety of grant
ing in that treaty, as the Mexican negotiators pretended to do, to the
new American States, formerly Spanish Colonies, certain commer
cial privileges, in detriment of the interests and rights of the United

8
States, as appears from page 128 to 162 of a printed copy of said
book in Spanish, which he, the appearer, has deposited in my re
cords, marked A, together with this instrument of protest, ad per-
petuam rei memoriam.
The banishment in question was arbitrarily ordered by President
Victoria, and communicated to the appearer in the night of the 1st
of July, 1826, as above stated, through a lettre de cachet, signed by
the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sebastian Camacho, who
was at the same time one of the Mexican negotiators of said treaty,
and a revengeful man. This order, a copy of which was refused
to the appearer, was in open violation of the constitution and laws
of the country, then in vigor, and carried into effect in spite of a
sentence rendered by the jury of the press, dated July 6th, 1826,
unanimously absolving the book ; of the decision of the legislative
council of the supreme Government, of the same month ..declaring
the unconstitutionality of the order, and the constitutional respon
sibility of the minister who had signed.it; and of the general opi
nion, nay, open resentment of the whole Mexican nation, which was
carried so far as to put public tranquillity ; in evident jeopardy,
throughout the country. ;
This bariishnient caused to the appearer the loss of his above
named son, his Only son, an officer of the English mining company
of Tlalpujahua, with emoluments amounting to three thousand dol
lars per annum; who, on his embarking in Vera Cruz, caught the
yellow fever, and died in the Gulf of Mexico :, and many other heavy
losses and damages, besides the slanders and outrages to his honor,
vomited by the '' Gaceta del Gobierno," of the 1st and 4th of said
month of July, in justification of that unwarrantable measure, and
the violation of his personal liberty, the Avanton and ruthless expo
sure of his life to the epidemic at that season ravaging Vera Cruz,
&c; the whole damages valued at $77,757.
The right of claiming from the Mexican Congress a redress for
said damages being evident and unquestionably legal, and the im
possibility for the appearer to obtain it through a powej of attorney,
which he had sent from the United States to Mexico for that pur
pose/determined him tb insist for the permission of repairing there
again. This permission was granted in 1829 by the successor of
Victoria, President Guerrero, who declared his banishment to have
been illegal and barbarous, and was confirmed successively by Pre
sident Pedraza and President Santa Anna.
The appearer being now,. since the .28th of iMay, 1829, a citizen
of the United States, and sheltered against all new abuses of power
on the part of the Government of Mexico, by the Article xiv of the
treaty of amity; navigation and commerce, concluded between the
United States and Mexico, on the 5th of April, 1831, broke up an
extensive and renowned boarding school, which he had established
in New- York, and with his family landed in Vera- Cruz, in April,
1833, then under the administration of Santa Anna, just elected Pre-

sident, and proceeded to the city of Mexico, in virtue of an official
order of the Executive. His plan was to lay his claim immediately
before Congress; and, during the discussion, which could last there
a considerable length of time, to establish a national house of edu
cation, under the title of " Lyceum Azteque," for which he had
brought from New- York a large stock of books in all branches of
knowledge, and in several languages, a rich chymical apparatus, a
choice collection of astronomical instruments, models for drawing of
all descriptions, even architectural, a large assortment of music, a
valuable piano, &c. But the country having been soon after in
volved in a general bloody civil war, which kept the National Con
gress in continual anarchy, the appearer was advised to defer the
presentation of his claim to a more propitious moment ; and the im
possibility of obtaining a proper locality, which had been promised
him by the Government itself, then headed pro tempore by the Vice
President Farias, for the establishment of said national lyceum, in
duced him to establish provisionally, at his own expense, a private
and select house of education, in his own dwelling, under the direc
tion of his wife ; and commenced, a little later, editing a semi- weekly
literary periodical, under the title of "El Correo Atlantico," to
which almost all the members of the cabinet became subscribers.
Whilst honorably going on in these pursuits, and daily acquiring
public esteem and wealth, the appearer received on the morning of
the 25th of June, 1835, a passport,*dated the preceding day, 24th,
signed by the then acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jose Maria
Ortiz Monasterio, and containing the order " to quit the city within
three days, and go to embark at Vera Cruz for foreign parts"
No reasons at all were assigned for this second banishment, nor
could any be imagined, except his having, in said periodical of the
13th and 17th of that month, asked from two editors of the country,
some proofs of the atrocious charges preferred by them against the
colonists of Texas and the Government of the United States, accus
ing the latter of promoting the revolt of the former, in order to pos
sess itself with that portion of the Mexican territory. The demand,
however, of the appearer, suggested merely by the honest desire of
preventing a rupture between the United States and Mexico, implied
not the least offence to the Mexican Government, people or politics,
as clearly appears from the whole collection of said periodical, con
sisting of sixty-four pages, which the appearer has likewise left
with me, marked B, to be filed in my notarial records, together with
this public instrument of protest, ad perpetuam rei memoriam.
This Second and most wanton, unprovoked and lawless banish
ment,, besides the enormous injuries it actually caused to the person
and property of the appearer, to the amount of $157,664 25, placed
him in the impossibility of substantiating his former claim above-
mentioned against that Government, which thus assumed the re
sponsibility for the damages caused by both banishments, amongst
which was to be reckoned the following :
2

10
The dictator Santa Anna, not satisfied with banishing the appearer,
wanted to destroy his papers, and with them the correspondence he
had entertained with the appearer for several years past. He took
such measures, however, as to cause the contemplated destruction
to be ascribed to a mere accident. Accordingly, of eight trunks,
which the appearer, on his leaving the city of Mexico in a stage
for Vera Cruz, had left behind to be sent to him on mules, six were
broken open on the road between Puebla and Vera Cruz, some pa
pers were abstracted, others, almost all precious manuscripts, the
fruit of thirty years of literary labors, purposely wet, under the
color of their having fallen into a torrent, and thus reduced to a
mass of putrefaction ; and the executor of the deed helped himself
to the money and other valuable things contained in those trunks,
thus causing additional damages, amounting, after a fair estimate, to
$33,518 85.
But this second banishment of 1835 was not only pronounced in
defiance of the constitution and laws of the country, which at that
period were the same as in 1826 ; but was a flagrant violation of the
treaty above quoted, the article xiv of which " warranty to Ame
rican citizens in Mexico, of all occupations, special protection and
security for their persons and property, leaving to them free and
open the tribunals of the country in all their personal recourses,
both in prosecuting or defending their rights of persons or of pro
perty, as the citizens of the country." The appearer entered then
a formal protest, before the Consul of the United States in Mexico,
William S. Parrott, against that Government for said violation of the
treaty, and for both the damages resulting to him from the actual
banishment, and those due to him on account of his first illegal and
unjust banishment ; which he was now forcibly prevented from soli
citing; after which the appearer retired to New-Orleans.
His protest was immediately sent by said consul, Mr. Parrott, to
the Department of State, in Washington, and it was also published
in the " Bee" of New-Orleans of the 13th of August, 1835, together
with four other official documents of the most decisive character ;
the whole of which seemed to have attracted at that time no particu
lar attention from our Government. Negotiations, however, were \
going on, which left no room to doubt of its determination to call
seriously that of Mexico to account for the numberless outrages
committed there, since a great number of years, against the Ame
rican nation, government and citizens ; and consequently the claim
ants were confidently expecting a speedy redress. He, the appearer,
had, moreover, the most positive assurance to obtain it from the fact
of the acting Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs, Monasterio, hav
ing made, in his note of the 15th of November, of said year 1826
to the American Charge, Mr. Powhattan Ellis, (in order to avoid the
interference of the American Government in certain cases), the fol-
lowing declaration :
" The article xiv of the treaty of amity, commerce and naviga-

11
tion subsisting between this Republic and the United States of Ame
rica, provides that both Governments warrant their special protection
to the persons and property of the citizens of each other, leaving
open and free to them the tribunals of justice for their judicial re
courses on the same terms with the natives or citizens, in defence of
their rights," &c.
And from this very article, which had been trampled upon by
the arbitrary banishment of the appearer, that minister deduced this
consequence :
" From its tenor it is evident that the protection is limited to a
resort to those tribunals, whose access is thus rendered easy, and that
the laws of the country are made to bear upon them with due im
partiality ,  inasmuch as there could not exist two dif
ferent legislations foT natives and foreigners."
This incautious acknowledgment of the strength and vigor of
that treaty, made by the Mexican Government in support of its own
interests, was the most striking evidence of its guilty violation of
the quoted article in the case of the appearer, who rightly expected
then from his own Government some of those efficient measures,
both in his behalf, and in punishment of the affront caused to the
whole American nation, which the law of nations authorizes, and
the laws of honor command to all nations or Governments to take,
in order to maintain among them, and all men, that public faith which
is the only safeguard of social security, peace and happiness.
Certain of the correctness of these reasonings, the appearer first
invoked, through a confidential letter, dated New-Orleans, March
24th, 1837, the protection of the then Minister of War at Washington,
Mr. Poinsett, who had witnessed in 1 826, in Mexico, the cruel re
ward given by that Government to his patriotism ; which letter was
forwarded by Mr. Poinsett to the Department of State, and is now
before the Board abovementioned; and then, through an official pe
tition of the 9th of the following April, the appearer claimed direct
ly the attention of the Secretary of State, Mr. Forsyth, on his case,
transmitting to him, at the same time, two printed copies of said
petition, with the addition of some important notes, documents, a post-
scriptum, &c, the whole of Avhich Avas also sent to the Board, and is
now before it. The appearer has also left with me, the undersigned
notary public, a printed copy of said petition, of thirty-six pages,
marked C, to he filed with this public instrument of protest in my
records ad perpetuam rei memoriam.
No action, of the American Government was actually adverted
to; and, on the contrary, it soon received silently another outrage of
the most provoking nature, in the decree issued on the 20th of May
of said year 1837, by the Mexican Congress itself, Avhich, whilst it
authorized the- Mexican Executive to compromise the American
claims, and submit them to the decision of a foreign arbiter, took
upon itself the chastisement of the United States, threatening her
with closing the Mexican ports to her commerce, and prohibiting

12
the importation and the use of her manufactures, " should she refuse
to give Mexico satisfaction, or should the open aggression continue
which had already commenced," (alluding perhaps to the pretended
connivance of the United States with the revolted Texians) 
These threats, which in a like circumstance would have prompted
the Republic of San Marino to declare war to Russia, intimidated the
President of the United States of America, or caused him perhaps
to apprehend from all warlike measures against Mexico, some at
tacks from his political antagonists, which might have proved unfa
vorable to his re-election  &c. The fact is, that a Conven
tion was framed in the following year, 1838, between the two Go
vernments, in which the extravagant resolution was agreed upon, to
submit the private claims of the American citizens to the decision of
the King of Prussia. But Mexico, not satisfied with this first
triumph, and taking advantage of the political pusillanimity of the
American President, first refused to ratify said Convention under
the pretext that the King of Prussia '' had refused to provide an
arbiter," which the fact has evinced to be untrue, and then exacted
from our Government new concessions ; and it was necessary for
President Van Buren, that zealous guardian of our national honor,
to remodel the Convention on a footing " more convenient to Mexi
co" as stated in the second whereas of the preliminary statement of
the motives on which the Convention was finally grounded.
In the meantime a meeting was held in New-Orleans on the 26th
of January 1839, by a good number of citizens having claims on
Mexico, who, informed of the prejudicial, unconstitutional, nay
shameful negotiation, in which their private individual rights were
disposed of without their consent or knowledge, being thus assimi
lated to African slaves, and their persons regarded as things,
signed a solemn protest against all foreign arbitration or intervention
whatever in their individual concerns with Mexico, and sent it to
Washington. No notice was taken of it.
An address was also delivered, on the 2d of February following,
by the appearer, to a like meeting of claimants, showing the impro
priety and unconstitutionality of said foreign arbitration; which
address, published at the request and expense of the meeting, was
immediately forwarded, but also Avithout effect, to the Executive and
Congress of the United States, to the Governors of the several States
and to other interested persons ; a printed copy of which address is
now by the appearer left with me, the undersigned notary public, to
be filed, marked with the letter D, with this instrument of protest in
my records, ad futuram rei memoriam.
It is useless for the appearer to relate here that not the slightest
notice of said protest and address was taken by any American au
thority. Yet no convention at that period had been signed with
Mexico, and none was concluded until the 11th of April of that
year 1839, and this was not even ratified until the 8th of April
1840. No matter. Protests, addresses, constitution, laws, nation-

13
al honor — every thing was disregarded by the American Govern
ment. That Convention, leaving quite unredressed, nay, pardoned and
forgotten all those crying, revolting and numberless outrages inflict
ed by Mexico, during the last twenty-five years, on the American
flag, navy officers, consuls, ministers, merchants, government, honor,
dignity and name, merely embraced such private claims, which had
been presented to the State Department, or diplomatic agents of the
United States in Mexico, until its signature; and amongst these pri
vate claims, that of the appearer was also most eccentrically com
prised, notwithstanding its being the result of the flagrant violation
of the treaty with that country. President Van Buren thought in
his wisdom that a certain, evident and most barefaced violation of a
public treaty, the impunity of which could not fail to prove fatal
to the commerce; the citizens, the honor, and all the dearest inte
rests of his country, was to be regarded as a common doubtful mat
ter of private interest, and of course a proper subject for new diplo
matic negotiations.
Said Convention created a Board of two Mexican and two Ame
rican Commissioners, to meet in Washington within three months
from its ratification, and cease from its functions within eighteen
months' from its first meeting. It Avas to decide upon all American
claims, as before stated; or, in case of non-agreement between the
Commissioners of the two parties, to refer them to a foreign arbiter.
The appearer, fatigued with running in vain since sixteen years
after the double shadow of Mexican justice and American protec
tion, acquiesced now to said lawless Convention ; and feeling the
necessity of personally attending to the substantiation of his claims
before that Board, he was obliged to break up, to his great preju
dice, his establishment in New-Orleans, and repaired, in the sum
mer of 1840, with his family, to Washington; Avhich forced re
moval has caused him new and most distressing damages to the
amount of upwards of $13,658.
But his humble forbearance soon found in Washington insur
mountable limits before a new abyss of abuses, violations, preju
dices, and dangers.
The Mexican Commissioners made their appearance in Wash
ington forty-four days after the term prescribed by the Convention,
and lawlessly absolved themselves from this first violation of that
sacred instrument. They came, not as members of a judicial
board, as contemplated by the Convention, to judge impartially of
American claims on their Government; but as diplomatic agents
of their Government/with order of conforming themselves with its
instructions— those, of course, of a debtor unwilling to pay his
debts ; and this second violation was not adverted to by our Govern
ment. They declared formally that the claimants were not parties
before the Board, and that the two Governments were the only liti
gant parties ; and the American Government was not astonished at

14
seeing itself subjected to the judicature of two Mexican clerks, and
an European arbiter ; which third unexampled violation passed
unnoticed. They refused the true interested parties the right of
appearing in person, or through agents, before them, to defend their
own actions ; and this most unheard iniquity, the fourth and most
incredible violation of those principles of justice which had been
proclaimed by the Convention as the chief guidance of the Board,
was sanctioned by the silence of the American Government. They
refused to take their oath in the form and sense as prescribed by
the Convention ; and this fifth violation, in so vital a point, passed
unobserved. They refused all direct communication with the
claimants, exacting that their papers should be transmitted to
them through our Department of State ; and in virtue of this sixth
violation of the Convention, said Department gladly consented,
without its being compelled to it by any clause of the Convention,
to become a passive tool of the caprices of those two foreigners.
They ordered that all papers relating to claims should be transmit
ted to them, through the State Department, both in English and
Spanish ; and this was a seventh gratuitous violation of the Con
vention (unnoticed by our Government), which had given to each
of the two American and Mexican Commissioners a Secretary
versed in both those languages, expressly to enable them to under
stand all papers. An act, passed by the American Congress on
the 1 2th of June 1840, had authorized the American Commission
ers to make, in conjunction with their Mexican colleagues, the ne
cessary rules for conducting the business of the Board ; and the
Mexicans refused to make any, to remain at liberty to exercise the
most unbridled despotism; and this eighth violation of all princi
ples of law and justice, denounced to our Government, was found
rightful, and our National Congress, the Congress of the United
States of America, found itself to be a useless lawgiyer at the feet of
two arrogant foreign emissaries. The article 4th of the Convention
had imposed on the Mexican Government the duty of furnishing the
claimants with the documents existing in its possession ; and the
Mexican Commissioners rejected the demands of several claimants
for said documents ; thus, by this ninth superlative disregard of the
Convention, declaring themselves the sovereign arbiters of the per
sons and property of the injured claimants, and the lawgivers of
the United States, &c, &c, &c.
Things growing daily worse and worse, the American members
of the Board felt, at last, that it was their duty to make, as they
did, under date of the 26th of May of the year 1841, an official
report to President John Tyler, stating that *' their Mexican col
leagues had taken their oath before each other, and their secretary
before them (without its terms being made known); that a serious
difference of opinions arose about the rules to be observed in con
ducting business, and no rules were made furnishing directions to
claimants as to the manner of preparing their cases, and of bringing

15
them before the Board ; that the Mexicans held that the two Go
vernments were the litigant parties before the Board, and denied
the claimants all access to it, either in person or by agents, and
even the right to present or transmit directly to it any paper, docu
ment, or written proofs ; that they, the Americans, considered these
views of their Mexican colleagues to be erroneous and prejudicial,
if not destructive, to the interests of the complainants, and appre
hended that the object of the two Governments in instituting said
Board would not be effected ; that the claimants Parrott and Bald
win had asked documents from the Mexican Government, pursuant
to the article 4th of the Convention, which petition, admitted by the
Americans, and rejected by the Mexicans, Avas lost; that, in con
sequence of the pertinacious opinion of the Mexicans, that the
United States, and not the claimants, were the party prosecuting
the claims, and the firm conviction of the Americans of the claim
ants being the real poo-tics in interest, they could not, consistently
with their sense of duty, give their sanction to any arrangements
or rules which did not permit the claimants to have access to the
Board, and directly to manage their cases — and all their proposi
tions were rejected by an equal division of votes ; that the agents
of Arnold's claim having asked the permission to appear and pre
sent it to the Board, the American Commissioners voted for, and
the Mexican against, and the request was lost ; that the Mexicans
proposed that all papers the claimants should desire to present,
would be received, coming through the State Department — and the
Americans voted/or this resolution, because it did not deny a more
direct mode of access ; not doubting, at the same time, that the
claimants were entitled to appear before the Board, and communi
cate directly with it ; that, on motion of the Mexicans, it was re
solved, that all papers to be presented to the Board through the
State Department, should be sent in both the Spanish and English
languages ; that all the efforts of the Americans to procure for the
claimants the exercise Of their just rights had been unavailing, and
to insist upon their being assented to by their colleagues, would
have rendered the Convention entirely abortive ; that not until the
26th of December 1840 was the first case brought before the
Board, and they, the Americans, ascribed this great delay in en
tering upon business to the conflicting views between them and the
Mexicans, as to the powers and duties of the Board, and particular
ly to the position assumed by the Mexicans that the claimants were
not parties, and had no right to appear in person or by agents, or
to send any communication whatever to the Board." ....
This official report of the 26th of May 1841 to the President
of the United States, John Tyler, signed by the American Commis
sioners, W. L. Marcy and John Rowan, remained idle with the
honorable Secretary of State, Daniel Webster, until the 9th of July,
when the President received it to transmit it, as he did on the fol
lowing day (10th), to the Senate, which, on the preceding 2d day

16
of said month, had called on the Executive for information about
the progress and the actual condition of the Board.
How could the honorable Secretary silently approve the fact of
the Mexican Government having sent to Washington, in open defi
ance of the Convention, two agents under its instructions, in
stead of two commissioners under the Convention ? And how could
he have sanctioned, as he tacitly did, the pretensions of those agents
that the claimants were not parties before the Board, and the true
litigants were the two Governments, whilst he, the honorable Sec
retary himself, has constantly affirmed that the Executive of the
United States had nothing to do with the Board, except in transmit
ting to it the papers of the claimants? The question has been
proposed : " Is the Executive of the United States a party before
the Board, or not?" If so, why did it not give to its own Commis
sioners the same instructions and powers as the Mexicans had re
ceived from their Government? Why were not the American
Commissioners declared and ordered to be and to act, not as
judges, but as having the same character oi attorneys, advocates,
or counsel to the claimants, with which their Mexican colleagues,
or rather antagonists, had been clothed ? If not, why did not our
Executive feel offended at those Mexican pretensions, which, be
sides their being utterly subversive of the Convention, left the
claimants without the least defence or representation whatever in
prosecuting their rights of person and property before the' Board ?
What description of tribunal was this, one half of which was com
posed of judges, and the other half of avowed attorneys to the de
fendant, and no admission at all of the plaintiff permitted before it?
Had ever the world a single example of such an absurdity?
Ignorant of these transactions, the appearer himself had already
been a victim of the anarchical proceedings of that strange tribunal.
Since the 16th of January of the past year, 1841, he had sent to
the honorable Secretary of State, John Forsyth, a petition for seven
documents to be furnished by the Mexican Government, pursuant to
the article 4th of the Convention; and that functionary referred this
petition to the consideration of the Board, to which he did not fail to
apply the denomination of tribunal. This tribunal, in its sitting of
the 3d of February following, made that petition the subject of a
discussion, that is, it questioned whether a provision of the Conven
tion, the most vital of all its provisions, was to be complied Avith by
the judge, or not; thus to give perhaps to the infringement of that
public international instrument a more striking character, namely,
that of a cool violation after a full deliberation ! In fact, the demand
for the first document was unanimously admitted ; this document
consisting merely of a Mexican law. The demand for the second
third, fourth, fifth, and sixth documents, was wholly rejected by the'
Mexicans, wholly admitted by the American Commissioner Mr.
Rowan, and partly admitted and partly rejected by Mr. Marcy. As
to the seventh document, it was properly deemed unnecessary, this

17
document existing already in the possession of the Mexicans, con
sisting of the original order of banishment of the appearer from
Mexico, in 1835.
The rejection of the demand for documents made by the appearer,
had taken place on the 3d of February, 1841, as stated above. This
dernand was identically of the same nature as that made by the
claimants Baldwin and Parrott, and mentioned by the American
Commissioners in their report of the 26th of May, as rejected by
the Mexicans. And why did they omit to mention also the case of
the appearer ? Was this omission accidental ? Or was it suggested
by the circumstance of his not being a merchant, an American by
birth, a victim worthy of their sympathy?
But that first wanton violation of the Convention in the case of the
appearer, was soon followed by other despotic acts on the part of the
Mexican Commissioners, which prompted him now to look with
some attention into their doings and views; and the result of his
observations was the conviction that they were acting blindly in
conformity with special instructions from their Government. The
fact has been successively ascertained that those instructions were
given them by the Mexican Department of State, headed now by
that very Sebastian Camacho who had signed the banishment of
the appearer in 1826, and whose chief clerk was that very Jose
Maria Ortiz Monasterio, who, in quality of acting Minister of
Foreign Affairs, had signed in 1835 the order of his second banish
ment in 1835. At the present day the Mexican Members of the
Board are acting under orders coming from that very General Santa
Anna, the notorious ; capital personal enemy of the appearer, now
seated again on the throne of the Mexican Republic. The Conven
tion of the 11th of April, 1839, having thus ruthlessly thrown the
appearer into the claws of a Camacho, a Monasterio, a Santa Anna,
to have his claims against their brutality adjusted by their own
emissaries in Washington, has virtually condemned him, his family,
his posterity, by way of redress, to misery and shame. The lawless
and extravagant provisions of that Convention could not produce
abetter consequences  And this Convention is the work of
the Government of the United States under the administration of
President Martin Van Buren  And the appearer was
subjected to it in reward of his having defended the interests and the
honor of the United States and their Government, in Mexico, with
out offending any body  !
In said Convention, the appearer, whose reliance in the patriotic
uprightness of President Tyler had been excited by some renowned
newspapers, addressed to him an official exposition, with twenty-
three accompanying documents, humbly stating his grievances,
and preferring fourteen wjsll specified and proved charges, others
reserved, against the Mexican Commissioners and their Govern
ment, for breach of the Convention. He put, moreover, in evidence
in said exposition, the unquestionable fact of the Convention itself
3

18
being anti-national, anti-constitutional, absurd in all its provi
sions, and consequently a perfect and absolute nullity. The
whole was published in a pamphlet of sixty-seven pages, under the
title of " Charges preferred against Don Joaquin Velazquez de
Leon, and Don Pedro Fernandez del Castillo, members of
the Board of Commissioners, &c," a copy of which pamphlet,
marked G, has also been left by the appearer to be filed, together
Avith this public instrument of protest, in my records, ad perpetuam
rei memoriam.
But all was most unexpectedly disregarded by the Executive.
Yet the quarrel was not now between the appearer and the Board,
but between two agents of a foreign power, violators of a publie
treaty, and the whole nation of the United States, under whose
authority that treaty had been stipulated; nor is there in the case
any difference between the words treaty and convention." In a
similar case, every civilized nation would take into her own hands
the revenge of an affront made much less to one of her citizens than
to herself en masse. A profound respect for public faith is the first
Avant, the first duty, the first interest of every people desirous to be
called a nation, and treated as such; and all domestic concerns of a
nation are and must be subordinate to the necessity of having her
name respected abroad. The appearer declares that he does not
know of any other doctrine forming the chief foundation of all inter
national codes. He cannot, therefore, refrain from expressing his
astonishment at the violations in question having been regarded with
indifference by the President of the American Nation, the professed
champion of her Constitution, certainly not ignorant of all treaties
made under the authority of the United States being declared by
said Constitution to be laws of the land.
The exposition of the appearer was forwarded to the honorable Se
cretary of State, Daniel Webster, to be laid before the President, not
later than the 12th of July, that is, not later than two days after the
President had transmitted to the Senate the abovementioned report
of the American Commissioners, Messrs. Marcy and Rowan. The
exposition furnished ample information concerning that very <lpro-
gress and actual condition of the Board," about which the Senate
had requested information from the Executive. Why then did the
Executive refrain from submitting it to that legislative body?
One whole month had elapsed since the exposition of the appealer
had been forwarded to the honorable Secretary of State, to. be laid
before the President, without any known result. The appeared then
wrote a second note, dated the 12th of August, and a third one,
dated the 19th, to the honorable Secretary, praying to be made ac
quainted with the resolutions of the President on the subject. The
appearer received at last, on the 26th, from the honorable Secretary,
a note in his own name, dated the 24th, quite foreign to the case, and
conceived thus :
" The Executive of the United States has no right to interfere for

19
the redress of the citizens who may suppose themselves to be ag
grieved by the decisions of the Commissioners under the Convention
with the Mexican Republic : That body is in effect a judicial body,
and it belongs to its members alone to determine on the rights of
claimants under the Convention."
It could be remarked here, en passant, that the declaration made
by the honorable Secretary of the United States, ' ' having no right lo
interfere for the redress of the grievances of the citizens aggrieved
by the Board" was a solemn accusation of falsehood to the Mexican
Commissioners, who pretended that not the claimants, but their
Government was the party before them; and was, consequently,
at the same time, a solemn confession of the Executive having
wrongly refused to call those Commissioners, and their disloyal
Government to order. Thus the claimants, expelled from the Board
as no parlies, and repelled by their own Government as having no
right to solicit its interference in their behalf, were suffered to re
main defenceless between two fires, exposed to inevitable destruc
tion! But the tenor of the above answer of the honorable Secretary, clearly
evinced the fact of his not having even glanced at the exposition of
the appearer; and from the fact of his having returned that answer
in his own name, it was not less evident that the exposition had never
been submitted to the President, to whom it had been addressed.
The appearer had not pretended to have his grievances redressed
by the Executive, nor his rights, as a claimant, determined upon by
it, as the honorable Secretary imagined. He only exposed his griev
ances to draw from them consequences of a very different nature.
He first proved the nullity of the Convention itself, and then the open
and flagrant violation of that nullity on the part of the Mexican Go
vernment through its emissaries here, called Commissioners. The
appearer had asked "¦nothing for himself," but only efficient mea
sures to stop those Commissioners from going on in the work of le
galizing irrevocably the spoliations and personal injuries suffered by
the American claimants, and from overloading with scorn the Ame
rican nation. The Board was no doubt a judicial body, as stated
by the honorable Secretary. But were such members of it, as had
declared to be no judges, and the Board to be no judicial body, and
the claimants to be no parties, and these no parties to be entitled to
no defence, nor to any direct correspondence with them — were such
members, in one word, as had been formally and publicly accused
of the infraction of that very Convention, under which they were to
act, to be their own judges 1 A statesman, a logician, a faithful
public officer, as Mr. Webster doubtless is, was evidently not sui
compos when that answer flowed from his pen.
So many absurdities, inconceivable contrarieties, denials of justice,
and lawless transactions, of which the appearer was the unfortunate
and helpless target, caused him now to suspect that no correct idea
was generally entertained of his claims on Mexico. The peculiar

20
circumstance of their arising, not from commercial transactions, but
from political motives, had perhaps contributed not a little to dis
credit them in the eyes of the many, who attach no importance but
to money matters. His personal honor was then exposed ; and feel
ing no longer at liberty to be silent, he presented to the public a
pamphlet of one hundred and sixty-three pages, containing a com
plete ''Statement of Facts," relating to his claims, with a list
of one hundred and fifty-seven documents ready for presentation.
Its publication took place on the 22d of October ultimo. Printed
copies of it were immediately forwarded to the President, the Se
cretary of State, and all the members of the cabinet ; to all foreign
diplomatic agents in this city ; to a great number of other authori
ties, lawyers, editors, &c. ; and lately, also, to the Committees of
Foreign Affairs, in both Houses of Congress. The appearer thus
felt satisfied that the fact of his claims on Mexico being not imagi
nary nor exaggerated, but unexceptionable, above all caviling, and
such that all detractors were forced to blush, had become an axiom.
He has now left with me, the undersigned notary public, a copy of
said pamphlet, marked F, to be filed, with this public instrument of
protest, in my records, ad futuram rei memoriam.
The appearer, persuaded that his exposition had not been submit
ted to the President, and that on the contrary, it had been most law
lessly, and not very civilly disregarded by the honorable Secretary
of State; and the time fast approaching for the opening of the ordi
nary session of Congress, on which occasion the President sends a
message to it reporting the actual situation of the interior and ex
terior affairs of the Union, addressed a third petition to President
Tyler, dated the 25th of November last, again soliciting his official
action on the case as one of national interest, concluding thus:
" As a citizen of the United States, and a claimant on Mexico,
my affairs are now so situated with the Board that, before submitting
my claims to its action, I feel obliged to enter a suitable protest
against whomsoever it may concern. In this disagreeable neces
sity, I must again implore your orders, Sir, for the transmission of
both the abovementioned exposition of July last, with the accompa
nying documents, and the memorial of the 27th of August, to Con
gress at the opening of its next session, before which I shall have
to lay my grievances," &c.
A disdainful silence was the provision made by the paler patrice
to that humble prayer. Congress assembled on the 7th of Decem
ber, and the Presidential message made not the slightest allusion to
Mexico, the Board, or the claimants. On the contrary, the State De
partment, a few days later, informed the claimants on Mexico that
the Board was to terminate its functions, according to the Conven
tion, on the 26th of February next, without any possibility of a de
lay. Thus the legality both of the Convention and of the Board,
was virtually acknowledged by the Executive ; and thus Iniquity]
smiling at her Mexican votaries, and sneering at her American vie-

21
tims, made her preparations to inform the world that the United
States of America have no Government.
The appearer, convinced now that the Mexican Commissioners,
who have hitherto acted, and are still acting under the instructions
of those very supreme Mexican authorities from whose injustice his
claims originated, cannot be presumed impartial in their judgment,
and much less after the appearer having publicly preferred against
them a number of charges, which naturally must have excited their
revengeful resentment : placed, on the other hand, in the impossi
bility of availing, for the proper and complete substantiation of his
claims, of important documents, which, granted to him by said Con
vention, were arbitrarily refused by said Mexican Commissioners,
in open contempt both of the Convention and of all principles of
justice; and finally, deprived by them of all right of supporting his
action before the Board, either in person or through attorneys, and
by his own Government, of all hopes of having through its official
interference or authority, the same sacred and inviolable right of
self-defence secured to him — for these unexceptionable reasons,
he, the appearer, could legally and rightly decline having his claims
adjusted by said Board, Avithout forfeiting any of his rights against
Mexico ; for the article xn of the Convention exonerates the Mexi
can Government from further accountability only for those claims
which are '< either rejected by the Board or the arbiter, or allowed by
either and provided for ," &c. ; and by no means for those which are
not submitted at all to their action. Nor by the article 1st of said
Convention, is any obligation imposed upon the claimants to submit
their cases to said Board under any penalty whatever, affecting
their rights of persons and property against Mexico ; it merely pro
vides that all such claims shall be referred to the Board, as had been
presented to the Department of State, or to the diplomatic agent of
the United States at Mexico, until the signature of the Convention ;
which limitation of time has nothing in common with any obliga
tory measure against those claimants, who are not disposed to have
their claims adjusted by that mixed Board.
Nevertheless, the appearer, to avoid, if possible, the danger of
having his claims unsettled for half a century longer, or when he
shall have descended to the tomb and left his family plunged in
distress and disgrace, has now determined to trust his fate blindly
in the hands of the American Commissioners and the worthy repre
sentative of his Majesty the King of Prussia; which he does, ex
pressly and solemnly protesting—-
1. Against the Convention of the 11th of April, 1839, as utterly
null and void, for the reasons by him exposed to the President of
the United States. .
2. Against the Mexican Government for having violated, through
its Commissioners in Washington, avowedly acting under its in
structions, all such clauses and provisions of said Convention as
could directly or indirectly favor the cause of the claimants,

22
3. Against the Government of the, United States of America—
1st, Because it left unpunished, nay, unnoticed, the violation of the
article 14th of the treaty of the 5th April, 1831, ratified on the 5th
of April, 1832, between the United States of America and the then
Mexican United States; which violation was committed by the
latter power in the banishment inflicted on the appearer on the 24th
of June, 1835. 2d. Because it had no right of making the claims
of the appearer against that flagrant violation of said public treaty
a matter of private, doubtful character in further conventions or
negotiations. 3d. Because, at all events, it had no right to com
promise any individual rights of American claimants, as it did,
without their express consent, or pro bono publico, without indem
nifying them from the national treasury for all injuries in their
persons or property suffered at the hands of Mexican authorities —
thus trampling on both the Constitution of the United States and
the law of nations. 4th. Because, immolating national honor to
private views, it signed and ratified the shameful Convention of the
11th of April, 1839, which was evidently and unquestionably anti-
national, anti-cpnstitutional, and absurd in all and every one of
its provisions, as fully demonstrated and proved by the appearer in
his exposition to the President of the United States. 5th. Because
it afterwards suffered the letter and the sense of said Convention to
be barefacedly violated and conculcated in full impunity, by the
Mexican Government through its Commissioners, since their first
appearance in this city, as stated and proved unanswerably in this
instrument of protest, arid in several publications made, as well by
the appearer as other interested persons, on this revolting subject.
6th. Because the result of such proceedings on the part of the
American Government has been the cruel abandonment of the ap
pearer arid of all the American claimants, en masse, to their own
fete, without being permitted to defend their own rights of person
and property, neither in person, nor by agents, and neither before
the Board, nor before their own Government. 7th. Because it has
constantly preserved the most profound, pitiless, and unwarrantable
silence to all the respectful entreaties, supplications, memorials, re
monstrances, and protests presented to it by the appearer, and many
other claimants, leaving them all to the mercy of Mexican foes,
clothed with the specious title of judges. 8th. Because it was its
duty to procure for its injured citizens, by all the means, and in vir
tue of all the obligations imposed on, and the latitude granted to it
by the laws of the country, all international laws, and special pacta
convtnta, the indemnifications due to them by the Mexican Go
vernment, instead of causing them new, heavy, and ruinous losses of
money and time, to expose themselves in Washington to a coup de
grace, by way of redress, from their own offenders, under its im
passible eyes, and within 'the very walls of one of its departments.
9th. Because, in what personally concerns the appearer, the op
pressive, ruthless, disdainful behavior of the Executive in the pre-

23
sent instance, in which he asks no favor, but justice, tends lo
authorize the world, to the disgrace of our free, loyal, and enlight
ened nation, to believe or imagine that our naturalization laws are
but wicked allurements to obtain foreign population, riches, talents,
and industry, only to repay afterwards the bona fide naturalized
citizens, not merely with denying them de facto the exercise of
those political rights which they acquire here de jure, but even
with leaving their civil rights a free booty to barbarous and covet
ous assaulters of other countries, and their persons charged with
scorn and contempt in their new homes, where they were promised
hospitality and protection, and thus reducing them to the
condition of mere beasts of burden.
ORAZIO DE ATTELLIS SANTANGELO.
Witnesses — P. H. Brown,
E. F. Barnard.
And the said appearer having signed and acknowledged the
above and foregoing statement as being his declaration and protest,
and also made oath on the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God that
the statements therein contained are just and true, according to the
best of his belief and knowledge, and required of me an official act
to show the same to have been so executed, acknowledged, and
sworn to, I, Nicholas Callan, junior, in compliance with such re
quest, and that he may at all times have and enjoy all the advanta
ges and benefits to be derived in any manner whatsoever from hav
ing so done, do hereby certify and attest the same, under my hand
and official seal, as notary public, as aforesaid, at the city of Wash
ington, the day and year first above written.
[seal.J N. Callan, jr., Notary Public.
The United States of America,
District of Columbia, City of Washington, ss.
I, Nicholas Callan, jr., a notary public in and for said city, duly
appointed and qualified, do hereby certify, attest, and make known,
that the above and foregoing is a true and accurate copy of an origi
nal document this day executed before me, and which is filed in my
record under No. 18.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto signed my name, and
affixed my official seal, as a notary public aforesaid, at the
**" s'l city of Washington, this 3d day of January, 1842.
N. Callan, jr., Notary Public,

24
To the Hon. DANIEL WEBSTER.
Sir : I pray permission to have filed among the archives of the
Department of State the accompanying copy of a Protest entered
on the 3d instant before Nicholas Callan, jr., notary public of this
city, and filed at No. 18 in his records ; which, as I believe my
eventual interests imperiously demand, as a claimant upon the Go
vernment of the Republic of Mexico for indemnity against a series
of aggressions, and which, as an adopted citizen of the United
States, I had confidently hoped the most effectual means would
have been provided to secure to me', in common with others. May
I ask of you, sir, to address me a short note, stating the receipt and
filing of said document in your Department?
I am, sir, with high consideration,
Your most obedient servant,
O. DE A. SANTANGELO.
Washington, January 12, 1842.

MEMOKNf^

To ^he Honorable the Board of Commissioners, sitting in the City of
Washington, under the Convention of the 11th of April, 1839,
between the United States of Ameriea and the Republic of Mexi
co: This memorial of Orazio de Attellis Santangelo, a citizen of the
United States, and a claimant on the Government of Mexico, duly
represented by the undersigned, is respectfully submitted to the hon
orable Board, together with one hundred and fifty-seven correlative
documents, numerically and chronologically disposed, and under the
protest entered by him on the third day of this month of January,
before the notary public of this city, Nicholas Callan, Jr., against
said Convention, and both the Governments of Mexico and the
United States, and showeth :
That he, the claimant, Orazio de Attellis Santangelo, proscribed
in Europe for his political principles, landed on the 20th of May,
1824, with his only son Francis, seventeen years old, in New- York;
and on the following day, 2,1st, he declared before the marine court of
that city his intention to become a citizen of the United States ; on
which occasion he was required to renounce under oath all sub
jection and allegiance to foreign powers, and especially to the sov
ereign of his native land (doc. 1); thus losing from that moment
all claim to foreign protection, and placing his civil rights under
that of his adopted country.
In 1825 his son, having been offered an advantageous situation in
Mexico, and being unwilling to separate from his father, the latter
was obliged- to accompany him there, firmly determined to come
back to the United States as soon as his son should have been pro
perly installed in his employment ; and this was the only and true
motive of his first voyage to that Republic.
They arrived, in fact, both father and son in August, 1835, at the
city of Mexico, whence the son proceeded to Tlalpujahua, at thirty-
seven leagues beyond that capital, to be enrolled there as an officer
in an English mining company, directed by Chevalier Rivafinoli,
with emoluments amounting to three thousand dollars per annum ;
and the father remained in the city of Mexico for a short time.
Whilst there, Mr. S. was solicited and induced, by Senators Za
vala, Aipuche, and other Members of Congress, to put on paper
4 .

26
some thoughts he had verbally expressed in behalf of America for
merly Spanish, relating to the " Congress of Panama" then in con
templation ; and observing that the writings of a transient foreigner,
however important and useful, would inspire but little confidence,
they suggested the propriety of Mr. S. being invested with the title
of Mexican citizen. To this Mr. S. opposed his having already
solicited the citizenship of the United States, and sworn subjection
to her laws; and on their replying that, as no sworn renunciations
were required by the Mexican laws of naturalization then in vigor,
he could easily obtain from the Government of the United States
the permission to accept the honorary citizenship of a sister Re
public, as practised in many countries of Europe,' Mr. S. answer
ed: "If so, I would have no objection." The fact is, that as the
Mexican citizenship was not granted, it became useless for Mr. S.
to solicit that permission ; that had it been granted, with or without
said permission, his banishment would not have been ordered even
in the hypothesis of his having merited it, because naturalized citi
zens cannot be banished ; that he was treated in reality as a foreign
er, and not as a Mexican citizen ; and that such vain and evasive
allegations, even interpreted in the light less favorable to Mr. S.,
could not by any means lessen either the criminality of the measure,
of which he was the unfortunate object, or the importance of the inju
ries he had to sustain from it, whatever his country or citizenship
might have been at that period. His right to a redress for said in
juries arises now, not merely from his civil character in 1 826, but
from the impossibility in which he was placed afterwards in 1835,.
by a second most lawless banishment, when a perfected citizen of
the United States, of exercising a right previously acquired; a right
belonging to all creditors against their debtors, to ail offended per
sons against their offenders, whatever their respective country or
citizenship may be. The laws of honesty, we presume, will not
permit now the Mexican Government to refuse its due to an injured
foreigner, on . grounds quite foreign to the merits of the question.
Cavilling is not argument. An upright debtor will not defraud his
creditor on account of his being an Algerine rather than a Chinese,
or a mere cosmopolite.
Yielding to the aforesaid solicitations, Mr. S. commenced writing
in French a book under the title of '• The first four Discussions of
the Congress of Panama, such as they ought to be," (doc. 156). — ¦
The first of these Discussions, translated into Spanish by said L. de
Zavala, the then President of the Mexican Senate, was published
on the 5th of May, 1826, and received with general applause, (doc.
10 and 12), particularly by Colonel Tornel, the private Secretary
of President Victoria, and General Santa Anna, who in his letter of
the 12th of June, 1826, from Xalapa, acknowledged the receipt of
fifty copies of it, to sell them to his friends, and warmly recommend
ing the continuation of the work, (doc. 13).
On the 9th of the same month of May, 1826, President Victoria

27
had been divested by Congress of certain dictatorial powers, called
' Facultades extraordinarias," in virtue of which he had been au
thorized, since.the 23d of December, 1824, (doc. 11), to expel for
eigners ad libitum; so that the Executive power was restrained now
again within its constitutional orbit.
_ On the 29th. of June, 1826, the publication of the second Discus
sion was announced by the "Eagle," and it was received with the
same enthusiasm by the public as the first.
But, on the night of the 1st of July, at half past 11 o'clock, Mr.
S. was visited by the Governor of the District Molinos del Campo,
who read him an order of the President Guadalupe Victoria, signed
by his ^Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sebastian Camacho, to quit the
city within twenty-four hours, and go under escort, to embark at
Vera Cruz for foreign parts as sospechoso (a suspected person).
The Governor refused him a. copy of said order: and this order is
one of the documents which Mr. S. has solicited from the Mexican
Government through the honorable Board, according to the article
iv of the Covention with Mexico ; which demand has been rejected
by the Board, in defiance of said Convention, by two Mexican nays
against two American yeas, as appears from the proceedings of the
Board in their sitting of the 3d of February, 1841.
The complete and true history of this illegal and unjust banish
ment, and of its ruinous effects, is evinced by a chain of irrefragable
proofs (doc. 1 to 91), on which the particular attention of the hon
orable Board is respectfully requested.
As to its illegality suffice it here to say :
1st. That the Executive of Mexico had actually no extra powers
in regard to foreigners.
2d. That said arbitrary measure was subversive of the articles
18, 19, and 30 of the "Acta Constitutiva" (constitutive act) of the
Mexican Federation, of the 21st of January, 1824, concerning the
personal rights of all men in Mexico.
3d. That it was in contempt and open violation of the article
1st of the law of Congress of the 18th of August, 1824, offering
security to foreigners in their persons and property.
4th. That it was in defiance of the articles 50, §iii, and 112,
§n and in of the Mexican Constitution proclaimed on the 4th of
October, 1824, concerning the persons and property of all the inha
bitants of that Republic, without any distinction between citizens
and foreigners.
5th. That it was a violation of the Liberty of the Press, conse
crated by the articles 3d and 31st of said "Acta Constitutiva," and
by the articles 50 and 171 of said Constitution.
6th. That it was an usurpation of the exclusive attributions of the
jury of the press, determined by the law of the 12th of November,
1820, and the articles 3, 15 and 19 of the law of the 13th of De
cember, 1821, confirmed afterwards by the law of the 14th of Octo
ber, 1828.

28
7th. That it threw the responsibility on the Minister, who had
signed the order of banishment, pursuant to the articles 118 and
1 19 of said Constitution; in which case the Minister was liable to be
judged according to the articles 38 §iii, and 39 of said Constitution.
8th. That it was a lawless disregard of the observations made to
the Executive by the Council of Government, instituted and acting
in the case (doc. 38) in conformity with the articles 113 and 116 §i
and n, of the same Constitution.
9th. That there existed actually none of those reasons, for which
the law of nations authorizes a Government to expel foreigners,
either established in the .country, or transient therein.
10th. That the Mexican Executive having caused the two '' Dis
cussions," published by Mr. S. to be denounced to the jury of the
press! the same absolved them unanimously (doc. 22).
1 1th. That the Editors .of the "Gaceta del Gobierno" (the Govern
ment's Gazette), who, in support of that abuse of power, had pub
lished in their paper of the 1st and 4th of July, 1826, (doc. 17 and
18), many outrageous and defamatory calumnies against the per
sonal honor of Mr. S., were subjected by the jury of the press to
trial, by eight votes against one (doc. 28).
12th. That the Committee of Infractions of the Council of the
•Supreme Government, declared on the 20th of July 1826, the opin
ions entertained by it and said Council, about the Government having
•exceeded its attributions in the expulsion of O. de A. Santangelo
(doc. 38).
1 3th. That ¦' said Council afterwards made suitable observations
ion the violation of the Constitution, which it had remarked in the
arbitrary conduct, which had been observed in the banishment of
Santangelo." These were literally the words of Senator Canedo,
one of the members of said Council, and of said Committee of In
fractions, in his learned pamphlet, dated 31st of July, 1826, under
the title of "Examen of the faculties of the Government about the
banishment of foreigners" .(doc. 42 and 43), adding that " he regretted
to announce that result of the proceedings [against the Government]
was paralyzed by the departure of the responsible. Minister for Great
Britain, &>c." This decree of the Council, issued in the last days of
«aid month of July 1826, is the second document solicited by Mr.
•S. in Washington, and refused by the two Mexican Commissioners
.of the beard, in open and direct defiance of the Convention. It
must, therefore, be considered as present before the Board, and con
ceived as stated by the claimant.
14th. That the Mexican Executive itself acknowledged some
time after the illegality of that banishment, when the Minister of
" Hacienda" .(Treasury) Mr. L. de Zavala, wrote to Mr. S. under
date of the 20th of April 1829, in the name and by order of Pre
sident Guerrero : " His Excellency has directed me to answer you
that, as he does not acknowledge the legality of that barbarous mea
sure, you can return [to Mexico] whenever you please" (doc. 72).

29
As to the injustice of said banishment, it was acknowledged by
the whole Mexican nation (doc. 34, 42, 43, &c) ; and, on the other
hand, it cannot be doubted :
1st. Because a great number of pamphlets, and articles in the
public prints of the capital, and of the country at large, were pub
lished in the course of a few days against the Government, a dozen
of which pamphlets will be readily presented by Mr. S. to the hon
orable Board, if required ; so that a tumult was on the point of burst
ing, threatening public tranquillity (doc. 36).
2dly. Because no accusation of any kind was preferred against
Mr. S., he being merely qualified in the order of banishment read
to him by Governor Molinos, as " sospechoso" (a suspected person),
which vague qualification, besides its being neither an accusation,
a proof, nor a judicial act grounded on any known cause, proved
entirely chimerical from the very tenor of the work published by
him on the " Congress of Pariama," every line of which was gen
erally pronounced to be but a lucid demonstration of his patriotic
¦eagerness for the welfare of all America in general, and of Mexico
in particular, especially by Gen. Santa Anna (doc. 13), Col. Tornel,
the Eagle of the 4th of April, and the 6th, 9th, 10th, and 12th of
May, 1826, to be exhibited if wished, the Iris of the 8th of April,
and 6th of May (doc. 10), the Mercurio of the 2d of June (doc.
12), and ail the abovementioned pamphlets.
3dly. Because, on the contrary, from the very tenor of said '' Se
cond Discussion," the English translation of which is presented
(doc. 16), it clearly appears that the banishment of Mr. S. was but
a personal ministerial revenge ; for he had advocated in said Discus
sion some rights of the United States, disregarded by Mexico to her
own prejudice, and the principles evinced by the American Minister
Plenipotentiary, Mr. Poinsett, in the treaty of amity, navigation and
commerce he was then negotiating with Mexico, against the pre
tensions of the Mexican negotiators, prejudicial to both countries
(doc. 140 and 156) ; and, as one of those negotiators was the Mexi
can Minister of Foreign Affairs, Camacho, the same who signed
afterwards the order of the banishment of Mr. S., the proof of his
personal vengeance cannot be more evident and complete.
4thly. And because, had the political or social conduct of Mr. S.
deserved the least censure in that country, where foreigners are so
generally hated or despised, he would not have been constantly
honored, from the day of his banishment in 1826 to that of his re
turn in 1833, with so many testimonials of esteem and respect from
a great many of the most distinguished Mexican characters, as
clearly appears from his original correspondence with them, filed
among his documents, and especially from General and President
Santa Anna (docs. 13, 76, 86, 89, 91, 94, and 96), Senator Alpuche
(doc. 42), Senator or Governor Zavala (docs. 53, 56, 59, 72, 84, 92,
and 97), President Guerrero (doc. 61), Minister Esteva (docs. 71
and 75), Caiias (doc. 81), General Basadre (documents 82 and 87),

30
General Mexia (document 88), Minister Pedraza (documents 68,
69, 93), &c.
The illegality and injustice of the banishment being fully de
monstrated, it follows that all outrages, violences, injuries, and losses,
concomitant or consequent to it, were to be duly and competently
redressed. Mr. S. would never have undertaken with his son a voyage from
New- York to Mexico, lost a precious time, and incurred heavy ex
penses, had he been informed that his best wishes and intentions
towards Mexico were to be rewarded with a treatment as unmeri
ted by him as unexpected from the Government of a civilized na
tion. The expenses of his voyage, therefore, the object of Avhich
was frustrated by a ruthless abuse of potoer ; those of his stay in
Mexico, rendered useless by the same despotism; and those of his
forced retirement from the Mexican doriiinions, were to be reim
bursed by the lawless and unjust oppressor. The defamation re
sulting both from the outrageous attacks of the Government's Ga
zette, and from his ignominious expulsion ; the attempt upon his
personal liberty by being placed as a malefactor under an escort ;
the wanton and ferocious exposure of his life to the ravaging epi
demic of Vera Cruz; the expenses made for the publication of an
inoffensive and useful work, together with the loss of the profit he
had a right to expect from it (docs. 60 and 61) ; the forced renunci
ation of a salary of three thousand dollars per annum, which his
sOn was actually receiving as an officer of the English Mining
Company of Tlalpujahua, and which constituted the only subsist
ence of both father and son (doc. 21) ; the death of this same un
happy and innocent youth' in the middle of the sea, Avithout any
help of physic or physician, in consequence of the black vomit he
contracted in Vera Cruz (doc. 49) on his embarking there with his
father tyrannically banished — a banishment qualified by President
Guerrero himself as illegal and barbarous ; a youth who was the
sole comfort and support of him Avho had given him life ; a youth
notoriously and universally acknowledged to be a wonder in tal
ents, virtues, acquirements, and principles (docs. 50, 52, 53, &c.) ; —
all these damages, as detailed in the accompanying list, marked A,
were of the highest importance to the sufferer, who, either con
sidered as an American, an Italian, or a citizen of the world, had
an indisputable and, imprescriptible right to claim a full redress at
all times and under all circumstances, from the Mexican Executive
or Legislative authority, according to the law of nations, the laws
of the country, and universal justice and equity.
The question, therefore, whether Mr. S. had, or not, in Mexico a
right to the protection of the United States in 1826, when he was
merely the bearer of the certificate of the oath he had taken since
1824 in New- York on his declaring his intention to become a cit
izen of the United States, is entirely superfluous and idle in the
¦case, as unanswerably demonstrated by him. On the other hand,

31
his right to that protection could be easily proved. The section 12
ol the law, which requires the foreigner, who wishes to become a
citizen, to reside five years within the United States, concerns that
perfect citizenship which confers on the foreigner the political
rights of a citizen. But the American civil rights are acquired by
all foreigners, not solely in virtue of their declaration of the inten
tion of becoming citizens, but from two other more sacred and re
spectable sources :— 1st. From their establishing their perpetual
domicil in the country (see Vattel, book I. chapter xix, sec. 213) ;
2dly. From their sworn renunciation to ail foreign allegiance, and
especially to that of their natural sovereigns, and consequently to
ail foreign protection. By making, therefore, a proper distinction
between political and civil rights, and between perpetual domicil
and naturalization, properly so called, all question about this topic
would be easily solved in favor of Mr. S.
Nevertheless, let Mr. S. be considered as having had no right,
in 1 826, to the protection of the United States in Mexico, he was
certainly, at the time of his return to Mexico in 1833, a creditor of
that Government, Congress, or nation. He had, as a mere man, a
right to ask a redress due to past wrongs caused to him by a for
mer banishment, without the least reference to the place of his birth
or naturalization. If, then, a second banishment, as illegal and un
just as the first, forcibly disabled him to exercise that right, whilst
he was a perfected citizen of the United States, and consequently
under the safeguard not merely of the laws of the country, and the
law of nations, but more especially of a public and solemn treaty
between the United States and the Republic of Mexico, as that of
the 5th of April 1831 (article 14), it clearly follows that the Go
vernment which pronounced that second banishment, assumed on
itself the responsibility for the damages caused by both banish-*
ments — damages and interests.
The undersigned will proceed now to submit to the honorable
Board the facts relating to the second banishment of Mr. S., and
their consequences.
With the vieAV of obtaining a redress from Mexico for the wrongs
endured there in 1826, Mr. S. never ceased after his first banishr
ment to solicit a passport from that Government for that country.
To this end he had sent a power of attorney (docs. 53, 54, 56, 57,
and 58), and kept a regular correspondence with many Mexican
leaders; and in order to meet with less difficulties and objections to
his wishes, he declared his intention to go again to Mexico for the
purpose of establishing there a house of education under the title of
" Lyceum Azteque."
Said correspondence, proved by the numerous documents above
quoted, evinces not merely the high esteem constantly entertained
by the Mexicans for the patriotism and talents of Mr. S., but also
his noble moderation and forbearance in never complaining of the
cruel treatment he had received in their country, although in the

32
United States he could have safely denounced to the world his per
secutors as they merited. He, on the contrary, pushed his genero
sity towards Mexico so far, as to engage himself in a noisy and ex
pensive war against the Spanish editors of " El Redactor," in New-
York, in contradiction of the defence they had undertaken of the
right of Ferdinand VII of Spain to the reconquest of his former
American colonies, and of their outrageous invectives against the
Mexican Government (docs. 81, 82, 83).
On the 28th of May 1829, Mr. S. became legally a citizen of
the United States (doc. 73).
On the 5th of April 1831, a treaty of amity, navigation, and
commerce was concluded between the United States and Mexico,
the article 14th of which secured special protection to the persons
and property of the citizens of the United States of all occupations,
transient or dwelling therein, leaving open and free to them the
tribunals of justice, either in prosecuting or defending their rights
oi persons or property, with the same rights and privileges as en
joyed by the citizens of the country, &c. Under this treaty, not
merely of commerce, but also of '' amity," and the quoted article
relating not exclusively to merchants, but to American citizens " of
all occupations" Mr. S. now had to fear no further abuse of power
in Mexico.
It will, perhaps, be observed that this treaty of the 5th of April
1831 was followed by a decree of the Mexican Congress of the
22d of February 1832, which empowered the Supreme Govern
ment '' to expel from the territory of the Republic all foreigners
not naturalized, whose permanence in it said Government might
qualify as prejudicial to public order, even when the foreigner had
introduced and established himself in it conformably with the rules
established by the laws (doe. 90). But it is neither said whether
this general measure comprised also American citizens ; nor is the
affirmative to be presumed, under the pretext that the preceding
treaty of the 5th of April 1831 Avas not yet ratified at the period in-
which said absurd decree was issued. Be it, however, as it may,.
the ratification of said treaty having successively taken place on
the 5th of April 1832 — that is, nearly two months after the ema
nation of said decree of the 22d February of the same year, it
becomes evident that said decree was fully abrogated de jure and
de facto by the treaty, with regard to American citizens.
The legality of the return of Mr. S. to Mexico is, moreover,
fully proved —
1st. By the letter of the then Minister of Hacienda (Treasury),
Lorenzo de Zavala, of the 20th of April 1829, saying to him : '' His
Excellency [the President Guerrero] has directed me to tell you
that, as he does not acknowledge the legality of that barbarous
measure, you can return whenever you please" (doc. 72).
2dly. By the letter of the 3d of October of the same year, 1 829,
from the then Postmaster General, J. Esteva, saying to him: " His

33
Excellency [the President] with much kindness has answered me,
that there is no objection to your coming to the port — and on your
making known your arrival, the order or document will be given
for your advancing into the interior" (doc. 70).
3dly. By the letter of the 21st October, same year, 1829, from
General Santa Anna, who told Mr. Santangelo — " As to your
self, there can be no objection to your return here ; and consequent
ly, should you wish to effect it, you may come to this point [Vera
Cruz], Avhence the convenient orders shall be given, as soon as you
shall inform me of your arrival, for your going to the capital, or
to any other place you may think proper" (doc. 76).
4thly. By the passport delivered to him by the State Department
in Washington, as a citizen of the United States, and countersigned
by the Mexican consuls, Mr. Treat in New- York, and Mr. Pizar-
ro Martinez in New-Orleans; which passport was afterwards left
with the Charge" of the United States in Mexico, Colonel Butler,
in exchange for the letters of protection (cartas de seguridad) pro
cured by the latter for Mr. S. from the Mexican Government (doc.
149). 5thly. By the letter of the 25th of October 1832, from Seiior
Manuel Gomez Pedraza, just elected President of Mexico, where
in he said that " he did not think there now existed the motives
which in 1826 had determined the Mexican Government to cause
Mr. Santangelo to leave the Republic of Mexico, for if the ' Four
Discussions of the Congress of Panama' could, in those circum
stances, be prejudicial to the interests of the country, Europe has
changed at present her politics towards America" (doc. 93). And
it is to be noted that this Senor Pedraza had been one of the Min
isters who in 1826 had banished Mr. Santangelo.
6thly. By the letter addressed to him in Vera Cruz by General
Santa Anna, just elected President of the Republic, from his farm
of Manga de Clavo, under date of the 25th of March 1833, Avhere-
in he said : '' Your agreeable letter, which has been handed to me
to-day by your recommended Don Angel Binaghi [a professor of
chymistry and botany], has filled me with joy, for having informed
me of your happy arrival at Vera Cruz" (doe. 94).
7thly. By another letter of the 13th of April 1833, from Presi
dent Santa Anna, wherein he told Mr. Santangelo : " I have writ
ten to the Government in Mexico [the Vice-President Farias, acting
President] by the last mail, that he may permit you to advance into
the interior of the Republic, as your appearance at her doors could
not be deemed an infraction of her laws, for, as Avell by Seiior Pe
draza as by myself, you were notified that you could do so" (docu
ment 96).
8thly. By the official order of the acting President, communi
cated by the Secretary of State and Relations to the Governor of
Vera Cruz, and by him to the political Chief of the place, and by the
latter to Mr. S., under date of April 26th 1833, whereby said Sec-
5

34
retary told to said Governor : " Informed now that he [Santangelo]
has Obtained sufficient guaranties for his introduction and perma
nence in the Mexican territory, his Excellency the Vice-President
orders me to tell your Excellency that you can permit his intro
duction?' (doc. 98).
¦ .'9thly; By the reception that Mr. S. met with in the city of Mex
ico from said acting President, who offered him the convent of Ca-
milos for the establishment of the contemplated Lyceum (docs. 104,
105, 106).
1 Othly. By the permission given to Mr. S. by the Governor of
the Federal District, under date of September 7th 1833, in the fol
lowing terms : '' I grant license to Don Orazio Attellis Santangelo,
to open and maintain in this capital a school of foreign languages,
and a course of political economy" (doc. 10-7).
llthly.' By the permission given by said Governor, dated Octo
ber 2d 1833, to Mrs. Marietta Santangelo to " establish immediate
ly a school proper for her sex" (doc. ,108).
12thly. By the fact of several Ministers having subscribed to
twelve copies of the periodical "El Correo Atlantico," published
at that time by Mr. S.
13thly. By the tenor of the very order of banishment in 1835,
in which it is stated, though falsely, that " through the interposition
of his Excellency the General President Don Antonio Lopez de
Santa Anna, Mr. Santangelo had been suffered to return to the Re
public,"- &c. (doc. 133).
The necessity of repairing again to Mexico to present his first
claim abovementioned, had now obliged Mr. S. to break up, with
an enormous loss, his flourishing boarding-school in New- York ;
and having no reason to fear new persecutions and injuries in Mex
ico, he confidently brought with him there an expensive supply of
books in all branches of knowledge, and in several languages, for
the establishriient of his lyceum, together with a rich physical ap
paratus, models of all descriptions for drawing, astronomical instru
ments, choice music, a very valuable, piano, &c, and took in his
company, at his own expense, a professor of chymistry and botany.
Dr. AngelBinaghi, of whom President Santa Anna speaks in his
letter just quoted (doc. 94). Mr. S. justly expected, from all these
expenses, and the projected institution equally beneficial to himself
and to Mexico, not only an honest living until the final settlement
of his claim there, but even a large profit.
Said institution, was, on the other hand, warmly desired and
urged upon by all the distinguished Mexicans who had visited his
boarding-school in New- York; and its prospectus (doc. 103) had
been highly approved in Mexico by the Vice-President Farias and
other chiefs. Governor Zavala had recommended it energetically
to the President, and to Senator Rejon, under date of the 26th of
June 1833. The Minister of War, Tornel, had done the same
with the. Secretary of State, Minister of Relations, Garcia, under

35

tSLl f * °fJthe Same month' addinS: "My earbestnes,
E?0^ d?^e t0 PIace two of mY chil^en in this es-
mblishment." The whole of which is expressed in a long supple
ment to the " Columna," No. 82, dated October 8th, 1833 (doc.
But neither could Mr. S. submit in Mexico his claim to any
public authority, on account of the country having been involved
again in a general civil war by General Santa Anna, since the first
days ol his accession to the Presidency, from the result of which
war he expected a perpetual dictatorship, or something more ; nor
could said lyceum be established, the Government havin^ proved
unable to dispose freely of the convent of Camilos promised by it
^o Mr. S. for that purpose (docs. 104, 105, 106).
Mr S. opened then, in his own house, on the 7th of September
ol said year 1833, a course of political economy and languages,
under the permission previously obtained from the Governor of the
District (doc. 107), as above stated.
His wife established likewise, under great expense, on the 2d of
October, a brilliant Academy for young ladies, also previously per
mitted by said Governor, General Martinez (doc. 108).
Mr. S. commenced, moreo\'er. editing in April 1835 a literary
semi-weekly periodical under the title of " El Correo Atlantico"
(doc. 157), to which the Government itself became a subscriber for
twelve copies, as we have already seen.
In the pursuit of these literary occupations, Mr. and Mrs. San
tangelo were now acquiring, through indefatigable exertions, public
esteem, and accumulating wealth. The Academy for young ladies
was pronounced to be the best of the kind in the whole Mexican
Union (docs. 110, 123, 127, 128, 129), it being nobly directed, and
Avas already producing a net profit of upwards of six thousand
dollars per annum ; but, unfortunately, amongst the boarders there
was a natural son of President Santa Anna, whom Mr. S. was
obliged to dismiss, his parent having refused to conform with the
rules of the institute about payments; which circumstance excited,
no doubt, in a high degree the vengeance of that personage, and
was probably one of the principal causes of the subsequent banish
ment of Mr. Santangelo. And the " Correo Atlantico," the sub
scription to which was very numerous and on high terms, conform
ably with the usages of the country (doc. 157), was generally
affirmed to be the largest and best conducted periodical in the coun
try (docs. Ill, 112, 113, 114, 153), producing already a net profit
of six thousand seven hundred and fifteen dollars per annum.
Scarcely had sixteen numbers of said periodical been published,
when in the morning of the 25th of June 1835, Mr. S. was sum
moned to appear before the Governor of the District, General Ra
mon Rayon (doc. 1 18), by whom he was presented with a passport,
dated the preceding day, 24th, signed by the then acting Minister
of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Monasterio, and containing the order of

36
'' leaving the city within three days, and embark at Vera Cruz for
foreign parts" (doc. 119), and verbally threatened with being dragged
by a military force in. case of non-compliance. This threat was ex
pressed likewise in the original order of banishment existing in the
possession of the honorable Board, a copy of which was granted to
Mr. S. in May last (doc. 155). In vain Mr. S. endeavored to know
the cause of such an unexpected and undeserved measure. In vain
did he observe to the Governor that in his quality of a citizen of the
United States, he was under the protection of the treaty of the 5th
of April 1831. And, on his remonstrating that he could not possi
bly be ready to start within three days, he was answered by the
Governor that he could likely obtain a delay, "should he abstain
from speaking of American citizenship, treaties, or other exceptions
indicating resistance or resentment."
Mr. S. on leaving the Government went directly to expose the
occurrence to the Consul of the United States, Mr. Parrott, who pro
tested not to be able to interfere in this business, there being no
American diplomatic representative in Mexico, he being merely a
commercial agent; adding, that Mr. S. had nothing better to do than
to obey, to leave the country, and go to expose his grievances at
Washington. The Consul repeated the same principles in his let
ter of the 6th of July (doc. 126).
The suggestions of both the American Consul and the Mexican
Governor, the impossibility of protection, the terror inspired by the
reigning military despotism, the persuasion in which Mr. S. was
since two years of the hostile and revengeful feelings of the then
omnipotent Santa Anna towards him, induced Mr. S. to submit
quietly to his fate, and draw from this forced submission at least the
benefit of a delay necessary for the settlement of his private busi
ness, before quitting the capital ; but every body will readily admit
that such a submission, far from being a spontaneous renunciation
of his right to claim justice, when possible, was perfectly of the same
nature as that of a traveller, who; assailed by robbers, willingly gives
his purse to save his life. Forced consent is a virtual dissent.
Mr. S. wrote, therefore, on the same day, 25th of June, a confiden
tial letter to President Santa Anna (doc. 120), and another in official
form to the acting Minister of Foreign Affairs (doc. 120), in which,
acknowledging the receipt of the passport delivered to him, he only
solicited a delay, reminding the latter of his quality of citizen of the
United States; copies of both those letters were sent by Mr. S. to
the American Consul Mr. Parrott, and by the latter to the Depart
ment of State in Washington, whence they came to the honorable
Board. The letter addressed to Santa Anna was handed to him by Mrs.
Santangelo herself; and the undersigned, for the honor of the Mexi
can name, thinks it proper not to relate here the conversation which
took place between that lady and Sr. Santa Anna in so delicate an
interview.

37
On the 27th of June Mr. S., not knowing the result of his solici
tation for a delay, and apprehending at every moment a violence, sold
in great haste his furniture, and other valuable objects, with a loss of
about sixty per cent. (doc. 123); and it was not before the evening of
the following day, 28th, that an adjutant of the Governor told him
that he had been permitted verbally to suspend for a few days his
departure, under the express condition that he should make no
noise, publication, or impropriety whatever which might displease
the Government.
On the 3d of July, three gentlemen, namely, Aaron Leggett and
Ysidoro Reed, Americans, and Charles Abadie, a Frenchman, esti
mated under oath, before the Consul Mr. Parrott the damages of that
banishment at not less than one hundred thousand dollars (doc. 123),
for the reasons of late explained by said Mr. Leggett in his affidavit
of the 15th of October last (doc. 123). This estimate was, however,
far inferior to the just value of the losses and injuries actually suf
fered by Mr. S., as declared by him in his letter to the Secretary of
State in Washington, dated 31st of December 1840, (doc. 147), and
in his protest entered and sioom to on the 11th of February 1841,
(doc. 151) before the notary public Mr. King, of Washington; which
true losses and injuries are detailed in the accompanying list of
damages, marked B.
According to that estimate, Mr. S. who had neither time nor tran
quillity of mind enough to examine its correctness, entered a for
mal, but hasty protest, on the same day, 3d of July 1835, before
the Consul Parrott (doc. 122); and the first motive of the protest,
the first item of the damages which he protested to have suffered
from the banishment of that year 1835, was the impossibility in
which he was placed by it of claiming the' redress, to which he was
entitled for the wrongs caused to him by the banishment of 1826, as
unjust, illegal, wanton and cruel as the present (doc. 122).
It is scarcely necessary to remark here, that the appraisement of
damages to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars, made under
oath, on the 3d July 1835, by the three abovenamed gentlemen, con
cerned merely the actual banishment of Mr. S„ and by no means
that of 1826. In that sum the appraisers could not have comprised
in 1 835 the losses and injuries suffered by Mr. S. nine years before,
and of which they had not the least knowledge. This fact clearly
results from the explanations given, as stated above, by Mr. Leggett
in. his recent affidavit (doc. 123). On the contrary, from the ad
joined list of damages and losses, marked B, caused by the banish
ment of 1835, said estimate of one hundred thousand dollars proves
to be much inferior to its true importance. Hence Mr. S. by adopt
ing the same estimate in his protest of the 3d July 1835 (doc. 122),
could not reasonably have comprised in it the sum of about thirty
thousand dollars, as due for the wrongs inflicted on him in 1826.
He only quoted this sum in said protest, as the motive of his second
visit to Mexico ; and as one of the damages caused to him by the

38
second banishment, of 1835, when, in his quality of American citi
zen, he had the less to expect it.
Much less could Mr. S. have comprehend in said indemnity of $30,
000 due him for the banishment of 1 826, that which could reasonably
compensate the loss of his son. The death of this dear companion
of misfortune is quoted in said protest as an addition to said indem
nity through the additional adverb also, and- by no means as a part
of it; for in this case he ought to make use of the conjunction and.
In fact, on his sending from New- York his power of attorney to Mr.
Zavala in Mexico, he wrote to him, under date of February 1827:
'¦ I have abstained from making my case a subject of discussion from
Government to Government, thus giving to the Mexican nation a
proof of moderation, in view of the sympathy she has shown to me on
the occasion of my cruel and lawless banishment, and I shall seek
for a redress in her own codes. To this end is directed the accom
panying power of attorney. I would only add that I have been
advised by our friends, and particularly by Mr. Tolon, to limit my
claim for all the outrages, injuries and losses to twenty-five or thirty
thousand dollars, leaving to the generosity of Congress to determine
the indemnity due for the inestimable loss of my son, that is, of my
whole fortune. But, should you think otherwise, I shall follow your
advice" (doc. 54). This indemnity forms, therefore, a separate item
of said list of damages, marked A, of $50,000, which is certainly
neither imaginary nor exaggerated under the multifarious consi
deration of the truly inestimable qualities of that unhappy youth, of
his death having been the result of a most revolting abus$ of power
on the part of a Supreme Government itself, and of his being the
only support of his respectable parent, who, a refugee in a foreign
country for honorable Piuses, is unabled by his old age to obtain
from his own personal exertions an honest livelihood.
The undersigned thinks, therefore, that all want of clearness
which might be observed in said protest of Mr. S. on this purpose,
should be deemed the unavoidable effect of the unsettled state of his
mind at the time, when laboring in Mexico under the violent oppres
sion of which he was the innocent victim ; and that his posterior
explanations on the subject (doc. 147 and 151), deserve the highest
attention of the honorable Board.
After having enumerated other damages in his protest, Mr. S.
closes it. with these words:
" And finally he solemnly protests against the Mexican Govern
ment for any other probable or possible damages, prejudices and
losses that may hereafter result from his cruel, unjust and unlaw
ful banishment, either to himself, his wife or servants, in their li
berty, health, life and honor, in case of highway robbery, murder,
sickness, death from pestilence, shipwreck, or any other accident
whatever" (doc. 122). This latter part of the protest proved unfor
tunately to be a prophecy, as we shall soon see.
A note of the same day, 3d of July, from Mr. Leggett, informed

39
Mr. S., that although all the Americans residing in Mexico had
freely expressed their opinion about the injustice oi his banishment
and its ruinous effects, .... and about the indemnity of $100,000
being not too large, still they did not dare to affix their names to the
aforesaid certificate of appraisement through fear of the reigning
terror (doc. 124);
Through a note, dated 6th July, Mr. S. requested the Consul, Mr.
Parrott, to inform him of what the Mexican Government had an
swered about the violation of the treaty, and the reasons of his ex
pulsion (doc. 126). But the answer of the Consul was but a repeti
tion of what he had already said verbally to him. namely : '' I am
nothing but a Consul ; have no right or instructions to communicate
with the Government ; and the more especially in matters emanating
from it ; nor would it receive my communications. The matter is
to be regretted, and the remedy can only be found when our Go
vernment has a diplomatic agent here" (doc. 126).
In this state of things Mr. S. was now urged by the Governor to
quit the district forthwith; and there being no other means of con
veyance in Mexico but mules, he was obliged to leave eight large
trunks with Messrs. Manning & Marshall, of that city,- to be sent
on mules by them to their correspondents of the firm of Manning,
Marshall & Co., in Vera Cruz, and to be forwarded by the latter to
Messrs. Hermann & Co., in New-Orleans, where Mr. S. proposed
to retire (doc. 130); and as on the read from Mexico to Vera. .Cruz,
scarcely a stage escaped the rapacity of robbers, and the beasts of
burden generally passed unmolested, he and his family, who went
by the stage, took with them a small quantity of baggage, and some
money in gold, and enclosed in said trunks all other valuable objects
they possessed.
To avoid the danger of the yellow fever, which at that season
was raging most dreadfully in Vera Cruz, Mr. S. stopped in Xala-
pa, until informed by Messrs. Manning, Marshall & Co., of Vera
Cruz, that a vessel was there ready to sail for New-Orleans, and
that they had secured a passage for him and his family (doc. 131
and 132). -
1 Notwithstanding these precautions, both his young wife and her
chambermaid, on their embarking in Vera Cruz for New-Orleans,
contracted there the fatal epidemic, whose symptoms appeared on
the high sea, although the attack was mild enough to permit the
sufferers to be placed, on their landing in New-Orleans, under the
care of the German physician, Dr. Halphen, who, cured them
through a long protracted treatment, and presented his bill, accord
ing to the custom of the country, in the beginning of the new year
1836 (doc. 133). >•
The "Bee" of New-Orleans, published on the 13th of August,
with some appropriate remarks and suggestions to our Govern
ment (doc. 134), the documents relating to the banishment of Mr.
S. (marked Nos. 122, 123, 124, 126), the latter containing both his

40
letter to the Consul Parrott, and the Consul's answer, under the
same date of the 6th July.
The eight trunks left behind by Mr. S. did not appear, however,
until the 18th of October, brought by the brig "Manilla," and con
signed to Messrs. Hermann & Co., of New-Orleans. A letter
from Messrs. Manning, Marshall & Co., of Vera Cruz, was then
handed to him, containing the information that " the arriero (mule
teer) had been embargoed in Puebla by the Mexican Government,
with his recua (drove of mules), and despatched to Chihuahua [near
Texas, then on the eve of being invaded by Santa Anna] ; that the
embargoed arriero delivered the trunks to a friend [not named] ;
that on the road two of the trunks fell in a torrent; that the wear
ing apparel contained in them had been washed and dried, but the
books were considerably damaged, &c, for which they had made a
deduction of thirty-six dollars off the freight  the arriero
in Chihuahua being the only responsible person in the matter" (doc.
135). They enclosed a bill for $74 85, which was paid by Mr. S.
to Messrs. Hermann & Co. (doc. 136).
This event was evidently a combination of Seiior Santa Anna,
desirous to possess himself with the letters he had written to Mr. S.
when the friendly services of the latter were thought to be useful to
him, and with other papers, of which Mr. S. could avail as defen
sive weapons against the oppressive intrigues of that immoral chief.
This supposition will become a certainty in the judgment of the
honorable Board, should it have the goodness to peruse attentively,
besides said letter of Messrs. Manning, Marshall & Co., the three
following pieces:
1st. The answer returned by Mr. S. to said gentlemen of Vera
Cruz, under date of October 23d, (doc. 137).
2d. The communication prepared by Mr. S. for the '"Bee" of
New-Orleans (doc. 138), and from publishing which the lawyer
Gustavus Schmidt dissuaded him.
3d. The subsequent affidavit of said lawyer Schmidt, dated Jan
uary 30 1841, before the Judge O. P. Jackson, of New-Orleans
(doc. 150).
The fact is that not two trunks, but six out of the eight aforesaid,
were broken open, stripped of ail the money and other valuable ob
jects they contained, to the amount of upwards of three thousand
dollars, and then unskilfully wet, to give a color of truth to the tale
of the torrent ; and that not merely were the books considerably
damaged, but an immense quantity of precious manuscripts, the
fruit of thirty years of literary lucubrations, reduced to a fetid
mass of putrefaction, besides the total abstraction oi a large segar
box containing the accounts kept by Mr. S. in Mexico, relating to
his institute of education and periodical in that country; which box
bore exteriorly the inscription ¦' My affairs in Mexico," and was
likely thought to contain political matters.
The honorable Board will have a material proof of these facts

41
from the disfigured state in which, almost all the original docu
ments in the case will be found. The detail of the objects stolen
or destroyed will be had in said article, prepared for the " Bee"
(doc. 138); and the amount of these new damages and losses is
specified in the adjoined list of damages, marked C.
In the state of abatement and poverty to which he was reduced
by so long a chain of cruel wrongs, Mr. S. only taking advice from
his philosophical firmness, and from his right to the protection of
his own Government, established in New-Orleans another institute
of education, and recommenced, on the 29th of February 1826, the
publication of his '' Correo Atlantico," which being written in a lan
guage which was not that- of the country, caused him new losses.
It was from that period, in which Mr. S. as the constant friend
of the Mexican nation, as unjustly, tyrannically and repeatedly of
fended by some of her ambitious chiefs, who had already exhausted
all the means within 'their reach to annihilate him, took the offen
sive, by way of defending himself against Santa Anna and his myr
midons. It was then, and not before that period, that his first com
plaints were heard against his Mexican oppressors, his denuncia
tions against the treachery of the centralist dictator, his arguments
in behalf of such of the sovereign States Of the Mexican federation,
as were not willing to be fastened to the- car of military despotism,
and especially of Texas, then laboring under a war of destruction,
and which ought to excite the particular attention of the ''Correo
Atlantico." ¦ It is only, to be wondered at, that the federal system,
having been at the present day re-established in Mexico, and the
very principles of Mr. S. in favor of Mexican liberty having been
proclaimed; persecutions are' still going on against him, by which
he is now compelled to have recourse to the protection of his own
Government. His hopes in this protection were poAverfully strengthened by the
energetic negotiations which were at the time pending betAveen the
two countries, and still more from the following circumstance:
The Mexican acting Minister of Foreign. Affairs, Monasterio, in
reply to a note of the Charge of the United States, Mr. Ellis, dated
September 26 1836, about several claims of American citizens on
Mexico, wishing to avoid the interference of the American Govern
ment in those claims, wrote to him, under date of the 15th of No
vember of said year, thus:
'" The 14th article of the treaty of amity, commerce and navigation
subsisting between, this Republic and the United States of America,
provides that both Governments guaranty their special protection
to the persons and property oi the citizens of each other, 'leaving
open and free to them the tribunals of justice for their judicial re
courses, on the same terms which are usual, and customary with
the natives or citizens of the country in Avhich they may be; for
which they may employ, in defence of their rights, such advocates,
solicitors, notaries, agents arid factors, as they may judge proper, m
6

42
all their trials at law,1 &c. — and hence from the tenor of this para
graph, it is evident that this protection is limited to a resort to these
tribunals, whose access is thus rendered easy, and that the laws of
the country are made to bear upon them with all due impartiality.
By leaving the parties interested to carry on their own affairs, they
can discuss and arrange the points at issue, without the direct inter
position of their respective Governments, which might in some
cases affect their interests  according to the order of
proceedings established by law, without making them matter of
diplomatic discussion, so long as the parties interested are not denied
those legal resources which are open to Mexicans, but without the
one pretending to rights which the others do not enjoy; inasmuch
as there could not exist two different legislations for natives and
foreigners ; and these, all Avhich they may claim in virtue of the
treaty, is that the latter may be judged by the same laws and by the
same tribunals as the former," &c. (doc. 139).
This declaration, made by the Mexican Government itself in
1836, proves;
1st. That the decree issued on the 22d February 1832, by the
Mexican Congress, authorizing the Executive to expel foreigners
ad libitum (doc. 90), had not, as indeed it could not have, comprised
the American citizens, under the treaty, of which Mr. Monasterio
had spoken. i
2dly. That the arbitrary banishment of Mr. S. in 1835 was an
open violation of the very treaty which Mr. Monasterio invoked in
behalf of his Government, in relation to other claims.
The honorable Board will then see that the claim of Mr. S. is
already decided upon in his favor by the Mexican Government
itself; and that, even if it Avere not so in its eyes, it would be so in
the eyes of the whole world.
The question is now to be reduced to this :
Was Mr. S. or not, a citizen of the United States, when, on the
24th of June 1835, he was banished from Mexico?
The Government of Mexico could not allege ignorance of the
fact of Mr. Santangelo being at that period an American citizen, in
the full enjoyment of all the civil and political rights inherent to
American citizenship ; for this qualification, besides its being uni
versally notorious both in the United States and Mexico, clearly,
evidently and officially appeared :
1st. From his passport, in virtue of which he had received in
Mexico in 1833, through the American Charge Mr. Butler, his
•' cartas de seguridad" (letters of protection) from that Government
(doc. 149).
2dly. From his petition to the Mexican Government, dated Vera
Cruz, March 29th J 833, and published in the "Censor" of that
city of the followingday, 30th, soliciting the permission of advancing
into the interior of the Republic (doc. 95).
3d|y. From the prospectus of the "Lyceum Azteque," published

43
in Mexico, and presented to that Government on the 1st of June
1833 (doc. 103).
4thly. From the official permission given him by the Governor of
the District, under date of September 7th 1833, to open a course of
political economy and languages in his own house (doc. 107).
5thly. From his periodical " El Correo Atlantico," to which the
Government was a subscriber (doc. 157).
6thly. From the official note addressed by Mr. S. to the Minister
of Foreign Affairs (Relaciones), on the same day, 25th of June
1 835, in which he received the order of his banishment ; a copy of
which note was sent by the American Consul, Mr. Parrott, to the
Department of State in Washington, whence it was afterwards trans
mitted to the honorable Board (doc, 120).
7thly. From the dialogues held between Mr. S. and the Governor
of the District on the 25th of June 1835, and between Mrs. S. and
President Santa Anna on the following day, 26th ; which dialogues
have been already mentioned in this memorial.
And here it is important to observe that, as Mr. S. from July
1826, when banished from Mexico he had retired to the United States,
until April 1833, when he returned to Mexico, had lived seven
years without interruption in said United States, instead of five as
required by law for a foreigner to become a citizen, no objection can
be made to the legality oi his American citizenship at the time of
his second banishment in 1835, nor, at all events, could Mexico ever
interfere in any question concerning the legality or illegality of
acts of the exclusive competence of the United States. The fact
is that the Mexican Government expelled in 1835, without any
judicial form, a man who had proved to it his quality of an American
citizen acknowledged and proclaimed by the American Government
in the most lawful manner, and it violated, therefore, inexcusably the
article xiv of the treaty of the 5th of April 1831.
In expectation of the result of the negotiations pending between
the United States and Mexico about the settlement of American
claims, Mr. S. did not remain idle. He first wrote a confidential
letter, dated from New-Orleans, March 24th 1837, to Mr. Poinsett,
then Minister of War in Washington, reminding him his having
been banished from Mexico for the only crime of having advocated
there the rights and interests of the United States, whilst Mr. Poin
sett was negotiating a treaty with that Government, &c. : and then
he entreated the latter to inform him of the customary manner of pre
senting claims to the Government (doc. 140). This letter was for
warded by Mr. Poinsett to the Department of State, whence it came
to the honorable Board; and this tribunal will no doubt observe
that its tenor, being not in the least contradicted by Mr. Poinsett, is
to be considered as indubitable.
Soon after, under date of the 29th of the following month of
April, Mr. S. addressed an official note to the honorable Secretary
of State, Mr. Forsyth, giving him a synoptical idea of his claims on

44
Mexico, and requesting : his official attention to them (doc. 141).
This letter was immediately published by the author in New-Or
leans, with some notes and an important postscriptum (doc. 142),
two printed copies of which were also transmitted by him to said
Secretary of State, together with the No. 35 of the " Correo Atlan
tico," which he had recommenced editing in New-Orleans (doc. 143),
wherein those documents were republished, which had been publish
ed the year before in the " Bee" {doc. 134).
One of the aforesaid notesin the printed letter to Mr. Forsyth,
abovementioned, was, conceived thus:
" The United States Minister, Joel R. Poinsett, was present in
Mexico at the period of its publication [that of the' work of Mr. S.
on the Congress of Panama] and cannot have forgotten the contents
of thirty-four pages of it (from page 128 to 162), which I consecra
ted to the purpose,, and which were considered by the wise and
humane Mexican ministry as a just motive for immolating 'me to its
personal and national hatred against the United States and their
representative. Mr. Poinsett is now the Minister of War in Wash
ington; I could, then, produce here no better voucher for my state
ment than himself," &c. (doc. 142).
The banishment of Mr. S. in 1835 had been an open and flagrant
violation of the treaty of the 5th of April 1831, and consequently
¦of the law of nations, in what is most sacred among ail nations, the
faith of treaties. No matter if in such cases the object of the vio
lation be a single man, a class of men, or a whole nation; the offence
is the same. The Government that expels a foreigner from its
dominions, in defiance of obligations which it has imposed on itself
"through a solemn diplomatic stipulation, expels the yhale nation to
which that foreigner belongs, violates the laws of honor, betrays
its own nation, and places itself in a state of war' with the whole
civilized world. The Government of the United States looked upon
fliis insult to its nation as a private question!
On the 10th of September 1838 a Conventiori was framed, in
Washington, which was remodelled on the 11th of April 1839,
and this was ratified and published in this city on the 8th of April
1840. It created the 'honorable Board before which Mr. S.'has
now the' honor of laying his claims. 'This Bbafd, composed of
two delegates from Mexico, and two from the United States, all
under the title of Commissioners, was directed to adjust all such
clairiis as had been presented to the American Government up to
the date of the ratification of said Conventiori, pursuant to the prin
ciples of justice, the law of nations,' and the treaty of 1831. Its
labors were to commence in Washington within three months from
the day of the ratification, and cease within eighteen months fol
lowing. The claims of Mr. S. requiring his personal attendance,
he was compelled to break up his institute in New-Orleans, sell at
an enormous loss his furniture, and repair with his family to Wash
ington, where he arrived in September 1840, The losses and

45
sacrifices caused to him by this new involuntary and indispensable
removal (doc. 144) are submitted to the honorable Board in the ac
companying fourth list of damages, marked D.
The first step taken by Mr. S. in Washington Avas to address a
letter, dated December 15th 1840, to the then Minister of War,
Mr. Poinsett, stating among other things : " In the Mexican capital
I published a work on the ' Congress of Panama,' then in contem
plation, thirty-four pages of which were consecrated to advocate
the right of the United States to be represented in that Congress, as
a' member of the great American family, and to be treated in all
respects by Mexico on the same footing as all the new States of the
Americas formerly Spanish; supporting at the same time the jus
tice and common utility to both Americas, of the principles opposed
by you to certain extravagant pretensions of the Mexican Govern
ment in the treaty of amity, navigation and commerce which you
were then negotiating with it, in your capacity of Minister Pleni
potentiary of the United States. For this crime I was banished on
the 1st of July 1826."  " Nor did my allegation of
my civil rights being under the protection of the United States, in
virtue of the sworn declaration and renunciation I had made two
years before in' New- York, prove of any avail. I was answered
that in virtue of a prior agreement between the Mexican Govern
ment and the American legation the latter would not expedite any
certificate for passports to foreigners, bearers of the certificate of
the oath made by them in the United States, but only to those hold
ing the citizenship of said States," &c. . . . . i "If- this be
the case, it would be obviously observed that neither the Executive
of a country^, nor the legation of another, could lawfully destroy
such individual rights as are unequivocally acknowledged by the
law of nations, and practically respected by all civilized nations.
But, if this be not the case, deign, sir, to make me acquainted with
your views on the subject," &c. (Doc. 145.)
To which Mr. Poinsett replied on the 17th of December 1840 :
'' The long period which has elapsed, and my separation from my:
papers, oblige me to refer you to the Department of State for the
explanations of any1 transaction connected with my negotiations
while Minister of the United States at Mexico," &c. (Doc. 146.)
- The next step taken by Mr. S. in Washington was to address,
'on the 21st of December 1840, an official communication to the
Secretary of State, Mr. Forsyth, correcting some omissions or mis
taken' statements contained in his protest of.the 3d of July 1835, in'
regard to the damages therein rhentioned, as has been done in this
memorial, and giving important explanations about his right to the
protection of the United States for the recovery of the damages
caused him b-y'both the banishments of 1826 and 1835 (doc. 147).
This official piece, transmitted by Mr. Forsyth to the honorable
Board, will, meet, we trust, with due attention. :
The above quoted note to Mr. Forsyth was followed by a formal

46
protest entered by Mr. S. on the 1 1th of February 1841, before the
notary public Samuel D. King, of this city, and forwarded through
the State Department to the honorable Board, stating that it was his
intention to prove his right to the protection of the United States for
the redress of the prejudices caused to him by both his banishments,
and to correct the protest he had entered in Mexico, on the 3d of
July 1835, about the true amount of his claims, as far exceeding
the sum stated in it (doc. 151).
It is unnecessary to mention here the long and unsuccessful efforts
made by Mr. S. to obtain from the Mexican Government certain do
cuments, which he considered indispensable for the support of his
claims. The article iv of the Convention, under which both the
claimant and the Board are placed, gave him a right to solicit them,
by imposing upon the Mexican Government the obligation of fur
nishing them. But the Mexican Commissioners rejected the solici
tation, against the affirmative vote of their American colleagues.
The reasons of the rejection being unknown, the undersigned has to
have recourse to the principles of law, which leave at the charge of
the Mexican Government the consequences of the absence of said
documents, and impose on the judge the duty of considering them
as present, and conceived in the same terms as related by Mr, S.,
especially the two following:
1st. The original order of his first banishment of the 1st of July
1 826, signed by the Mexican Secretary of Relations, Sebastian Ca
macho. 2dly. The decision issued in the last days of said month of July
by the Council of the Supreme Mexican Government, declaring his
banishment to have been illegal and unconstitutional, and the Min
ister who had signed the order, to be responsible, according to
the Constitution of the country then in vigor.
Finally, the strongest and most conclusive evidence of the injus
tice and illegality of both banishments on which the claims of Mr.
S. are grounded, is now exhibited by the Mexican Government itself,
through its Commissioners, members of the honorable Board.
Mr. S. had never been able to know the reasons of his banish
ment in 1835, for they were not expressed in the passport given to
him, and containing merely the order to him to quit the capital
within three days, and to embark at Vera Cruz for foreign parts (doc.
1 19). The original order, signed by the acting Minister of Foreign '
Affairs, Jos6 Maria Ortiz Monasterio, was brought to Washington
by the Mexican members of the honorable Board, from whom Mr.
S. obtained a certified copy on the 10th of August 1840, (doc. 135).
The reasons of both banishments expressed in it are the following :
First. — Because '' the conduct and the opinions manifested by the
foreigner O. de A. Santangelo, in the writings he published in
this capital [Mexico] in the year 1826, obliged the Government to
expel him from the Republic."
Secondly.— Because "owing to the interposition of His Excellency

47
the General President Don Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, this in
dividual [Mr. S.] was suffered to return to it; but having occupied
himself again in editing a periodical, in which some productions
appear, which tend to ridicule the nation, and plunge it into anar
chy, the Supreme Government would become responsible of the
evils which might result from the permanence of this individual
amongst us" (doc. 155).
Writings in 1826, a periodical in 1 8351 Behold the whole generic
and specific proof presented by the Mexican Government of the cul
pability of Mr. S., and of the justice and legality oi both his banish
ments! Behold the whole accusation; there is no other; and only
upon it the judgment of the honorable Board must be grounded, or
that of the arbiter delegated ad hoc by His Majesty the King of
Prussia, as provided by the Convention.
Mr. S., on reading such an act of accusation, could rightly have
summoned the Mexican Government, or its Commissioners, to ex
hibit the proof of that conduct, and the passages of those writings
or periodical, on which it grounded the violences exercised against
him, because: ''Eo qui dicit incumbit onus probandi." But Mr.
S. acted otherwise. With the frankness of innocence and honor, he
exhibited by himself, motu proprio, and without the least delay, to
the honorable Board, on the 17th of May 1841, every thing writ
ten by him in Mexico in 1826, that is, the " Congress of Panama;"
and every thing written there in 1835, that is, the whole collection
of the only periodical he had edited in that city, the " Correo At
lantico," whose last number bears the same date as that of the order
of his banishment, namely, the 24th of June 1835, (doc. 156 and
157). Mr. Santangelo accompanied the presentation of this corpus
delicti with a petition requesting the Board to point out to him the
sins he had committed in those writings, thus rendering possible to
him a defence. The writings remained, however, many months in
the Secretary of the Board, and were either not perused, or nothing
wrong was found in them, or nothing was thought proper to be
communicated to Mr. S., against all principles of justice. The un
dersigned repeats now respectfully the solicitation made by Mr. S.,
formally protesting against all charges not notified to the accused.
On the contrary Mr. S. intends, and is right so to do, to avail of
those very writings of 1826, the " Congress of Panama," and of
that very periodical of 1835, the "Correo Atlantico," on which
both his banishments were grounded, not only to refute all accusa
tions, but to evince his innocence, and even his titles to Mexican
gratitude. In fact:
1st. His work on the " Congress of Panama" had in view all
America formerly Spanish, and by no means Mexico exclusively.
If Mexico was occasionally spoken of in it, this was done for the
only purpose of inducing her to put herself on her guard against
the European machinations of that period, and to make common
cause with all the American powers, by strengthening above all, for

48
her own sake, her friendship with the northerri United States ; and
nothing else.
2dly. His periodical, the "Correo Atlantico," was exclusively
devoted to literature, commerce and the arts, and incidentally to
foreign politics. Nothing ever appeared in it relating to the politics
of the country, to her institutions, government or chiefs'. To criti
cise the barbarous cock-fights " in honor of the Holy Ghost" .
is certainly not to ridicule the nation. To doubt the intrusion of
the devil under the garb of a toad into the body of a girl, is not to
ridicule the nation. To announce, free frOm all political observa
tions, the fact of a partial nocturnal movement of the mob of the
capital, in consequence- of which the Federal' Republic Of the pre
ceding day, awoke central, could not precipitate the nation into-
anarchy" &c.
But when it is reflected that neither in 1826 nor in 1835 Mr. S.
ever belonged to any pairty in Mexico; that he never made a part of
any public or secret society; that he never entered in any political
contest of anydescription against the laAvs, the persons, or the opinions
of any body in the country; that he never had partisans, influence
or means whatever to conspire, nor the slightest personal interests
in promoting conspiracies, &c, then, the imputation of his aiming
to precipitate the nation into anarchy, must appear to all • reason
able beings extremely ridiculous. In'short,: the true reasons of both
his banishments have already been stated and clearly proved in this
memorial, and every problem is triumphantly solved in favor of the
victim. The claims of Mr. S. are grounded, however, but accessorily 6n-
the wrongs caused to him ; they chiefly and exclusively arise from
the illegality and nullity of both his banishments. Let him, then,
be supposed to have committed at both periods of 1826 and 1835,
the most atrocious crimes against Mexico and her Government; had
it a right to impose upon him, of its own will and movement, the
least penalty? This is the main question to ' be discussed in the
case; and this question is already discussed in all its aspects, and in
this memorial conclusively solved. The many Mexiean laws above
quoted, and the treaty already mentioned, both scandalously trampled
upon by the Mexican Executive of 1826 arid 1835, in the aforesaid
banishments, must convince the honorable Board that no honest
Mexican, no Mexican sui compos, can be at the same time a true
friend to his country, and an enemy to Santangelo ; and that no
American, however cool and insensible he may be, can refrain from
acknowledging that there never was a claim more just, nor more
¦worthy of the general interest of his natiori, than that which Mr. S.
now submits- to the strict and impartial examination of the honorable
Board. The undersigned does not doubt that its Mexican members,
be the instructions they have brought to Washington whatever they
may, will only listen to the voice of reason, of justice, of honor, of
their conscience, of their tmcorrupted patriotism, and of their pa'tri-

49
otic gratitude towards a man, who only deserves their most lively
sympathy under the manifold aspect of his lucid innocence, his ex
traordinary love for the good Mexican cause, the unheard of abuses
of power of which he is the victim, of the ferocious outrages and
injuries on his liberty, property and honor, and of the extremely
distressing position, to which he has been reduced by the necessity
of running, for more than fifteen years, after a shadow of an always
fallacious hope in the protection of his own Government, and in
the justice of Mexico herself.
Nor can his claim be considered by any means as not compre
hended in the Convention of the 1 1th of April 1839 :
1 stly. Because it was denounced on the 3d of July 1835, in a pub
lic instrument of protest before the Consul of the United States in
Mexico, in the absence of all American diplomatic agents near that
Government, and transmitted immediately by said Consul under
date of the 12th of the same month, to the Department of State in
Washington. 2dly. Because it Avas inscribed in the documents of the twenty-
fourth American Congress, second session, No. 162, to which it had
been sent by President Jackson through his message of the 7th of
February 1837.
3dly. Because it was denounced directly by the claimant himself
from New-Orleans to the Secretary of State Mr. Forsyth, through
an official communication of the 29th of April 1837.
4thly. Because it was inscribed again in the documents of the
second session of the twenty-fifth Congress, No. 3, transmitted by Pre
sident Van Buren, with his message of the 7th of December 1837.
, 5thly. Because it constantly Avas, from that period, like all other
American claims, a subject of all the diplomatic discussions relating
to them, before the signature of the Convention of the 11th of April
1839. 6thly. And because the article 1st of said Convention proyides :
'' It is agreed that all claims of citizens of the United States upon
the Mexican Government, statements of which, soliciting the inter
position of the Government of the United States, have been pre
sented to the Department of State, or to the diplomatic agent of the
United: States at Mexico, until the signature of this Convention,
shall be referred to four Commissioners, who shall form a Board,"
.&c. This clause of the Convention, signed by the Mexican Go
vernment without reserve, nor exceptions of any kind, embraces
evidently and indiscriminately all and each claim presented before
said Convention having been signed by the contracting parties.
Be, therefore, the nature of the claim whatever it may, its admissi
bility to the scrutiny and judgment of the Board, is not to be deter
mined but by the date at which the claim was brought forward,.
The letter of the article being clear and conclusive, is not suscepti
ble of any restrictive or extensive interpretation. The Mexican
Government, by the sole fact of having signed the Convention,
7

50!
aT.knowl'edged the vaKdity of the whole of it, and of course, implicit
ly renounced all reasons, even just and lawful, to impugn it in any
of its parts.
In conclusion : The illegallity and injustice oi the banishment of
Mr. S. in 1826; the constitutional responsibility oi the Minister who
signed the order; the right which Mr. S. acquired from that period
to a competent redress of all damages, injuries and losses caused to-
him by that arbitrary and cruel measure; the lawfulness of his
return to Mexico in 1833; the impossibility for him of immediate
ly presenting his claims there on account of the civil Avar raging
at that time in that country; his actual quality of citizen oi the
United States under the protection of the treaty of the 5th of April
1831; the illegality, injustice and wanton brutality of his second
banishment of the 24th of June 1835., in open violation of said
treaty; the impossibility in Avhich his second banishment placed him
of having at any future time the first one duly redressed, thus the
Mexican Government of 1835 having become responsible for the
damages caused by both banishments; the circumstance of. Mr. S.
having been obliged to conform to his second, banishment for want
ef protection in Mexko, there existing at the time no American
diplomatic agent, and the American Consul would: do nothing,
through fear, perhaps, of the reigning terror, but receive in his re
cords a protest of Mr. S. against his banishment ; the efforts which
from that moment Mr. S. never ceased to make, until the signature
of the Convention of the 11th of April 1839, to obtain the inter
ference 'of his own Government against Mexico-; for which his
claim is indisputedly comprised in said Convention, and rightly sub
mitted to the action of the Board; all these capital, points are evi
dence itself.
¦ The only question, therefore, which in this case could possibly
give rise to discussion, is about the amount of the damages claimed,
and justly due.
Mr. S. has very properly formed four distinct lists of damages.
The first, marked A, specifies those damages which were the
result of his first illegal and unjust) banishment of 1826, due in vir
tue of the laws of Mexico, themselves, and which he Avas forcibly
prevented from asking by his second not less illegal banishment of
1835, against the treaty, as declared in the abovementioned protest
The second, marked B, comprises all the damages, expenses,
losses and injuries caused to him by said- second banishment of the
24th of June 1835, ordered in defiance of said treaty;, whose amount
was brought, under oath, by three appraisers to $10.0,000, inferior to
their just import, and calculated only on data already known at the
time of the appraisement.
1 The third, marked C, exhibits other damages not calculated in
said sworn appraisement of $100,000, as having taken place after
the period abovementioned, but produced by the same cause, such
as the pillage of the trunks of Mr. S. on the road from Puebla to

51
Vera Cruz, the yellow fever caught by Mrs. Santangelo and her
chambermaid on their embarkation at Vera Cruz, &c, &c, &c.
The fourth, marked D, presents other damages, not foreseen, but
the consequence of the same illegal acts— that is, the forced aban
donment of his institute and business in New-Orleans, to repair
with his family to this city of Washington, whereto he was called
by said Convention to substantiate his claims before the honorable
Board established by it, as well as the heavy expenses which his
long stay in this city, and the preparation of his case to be submit
ted to the Board, have caused, and are still causing to him.
To come to a just and equitable valuation of all the mentioned
damages, the honorable Board will no doubt proceed from these
universally acknowledged principles — 1st. That " all detrimental
consequences of lawless acts are to be atoned for in behalf of the
sufferer, and that within the orbit of these detrimental consequences
is to be reckoned not less the damnum emergens, than the lucrum
cessans?' 2d. That '' all damages in matter of personal wrongs
are to be proportioned to the respectability of the wronged person."
All of which is respectfully submitted to the honorable Board
by their most obedient and humble servant,
DAVID HOFFMAN,
Mr. Santangelo' s Counsel.
Washington, January 13, 1842.

CLAIMS OF MR. 0. DE ATTELLIS SANTANGELO.

To the Honorable the Board of Commissioners sitting at the city of
Washington, under the Convention of the 11th of April 1839,
between the United States of America and Mexico.
The undersigned counsel of Mr. Orazio de Attellis Santangelo,
a naturalized citizen of the United States, respectfully submit the
claim of their constituent, with all vouchers, documents, arguments,
and suggestions, to your honorable Board, praying for them, and
each of them, that careful examination, which their unavoidable ex
tent may render somewhat onerous, and which it has been the stu
dious desire of the undersigned to see presented in the most concise
form, consistent with the high interests involved in their client's
case. No. 1. — This is an exact copy of the protesting part of a public
instrument of protest entered on the 3d instant by Mr. Santangelo
before the notary public N. Callan, jr., of this city, extracted from
the record, where it is filed under the No. 18, which said general
protest is likewise filed in the Department of State ;* and which
protesting part thereof, copied from page 32 to page 38 of the said
instrument so filed in the Department of State, is now brought be
fore the honorable Board, as sufficiently establishing the fact of said
general protest, and the grounds thereof.
No. 2. — This is a brief resume of the entire case, prepared with
no other view than to present to the Board, in limine, a mere out
line of a case necessarily of much greater volume, as to documents,
evidences, and arguments of fact and of Jaw.
No. 3. — This consists of a volume of documents, in both langua
ges, numbered in chronological order, from No. 1 to No. 157 in
clusive, most of which, doubtless, will be only for occasional and
brief consultation, the undersigned not being able to persuade them
selves that there can be any real occasion to doubt any of the nu
merous facts in the least material to the actual merits of the case,
the whole being, in their sincere and deliberate estimation, a moral
and legal chain of evidence wholly beyond the power of even the
* Department of State, Washington, January \$th, 1842. — To O. De A.
Santangelo, Esq., Washington : Sir : I have to acknowledge the receipt of
your letter of yesterday, and its accompaniment, and to inform you that they
have been placed on file. I am your obedient servant, Daniel Websteh.

53
most ingenious contrivance, and, therefore, presenting itself in a
form that must at once convince the mind that the whole of the facts
are fairly and honorably and justly stated.
fEf'Many of the original documents have been carefully copied,
in consequence of some injury received by them from water, occa
sioned in a manner which constitutes one of the gravamens com
plained of. The original documents, numbered 1 to 157 inclusive,
the greater part of which are soiled, as above stated, will be sent to
the honorable Board for comparison, should there be at any time
occasion so to do.
No. A.' — This consists of documents marked from A to P inclu
sive, and relate wholly to the person, life and high character of their
client ; which documents in se are entitled to great weight, espe
cially as connected with the documents contained in No. 3 ; as sus
taining and showing with great force, the consideration due to all
the statements, opinions, reasonings, assertions of facts, &c, of their
client, should either of these ever in the least need the additional
weight of moral evidence ; which the undersigned hope and believe
may not be deemed the case; as they trust that the legal proofs of
the whole case will be found omni exceptione major.
id= The originals of these documents, same as those in No. 3,
will be furnished to the honorable Board, should they be required.
No. 5. — This is an estimate of the damages personal and proprie
tary, experienced by Mr. Santangelo by reason of the two banish
ments complained of; consisting of, first, a summary of the whole,
and secondly, of statements A, B, C, D, each based upon the equita
ble and honorable principle that nothing should be asked for by an
individual but what is strictly indemnatory, and nothing withheld
by a nation that has made him thus the poorer, though with no
pecuniary gain to herself, and though committed by reckless and
powerful ministers, in opposition to the more subdued and rational
judgment of the nation at large.
The undersigned pray leave most respectfully to solicit for their
client, that, if in the decision of the case there should be any differ
ence of opinion, either first, as between the very respectable gentle
men from Mexico, or between those appointed by the Government
of the United States; or secondly, as between the entire representa
tion of Mexico on the one hand, and the entire representation of the
United States, upon the other, that the same may be briefly and dis
tinctly stated, so that the undersigned may be the better prepared to
present the really controverted matters (and nothing more) to the
consideration of the enlightened umpire of this mixed Commission.
And the undersigned counsel further pray for their venerable
client, the most earnest and kind consideration of his deeply inte
resting and truly remarkable case; and also praying permission to
invoke iri his behalf all the exalted principles of international co
mity—all that holy and ample justice which should signalize na
tions when called upon to resDond to individuals, who, in times of

54
great national agitation, are so apt to be made the victims of an ig
noble and selfish jealousy — of wholly mistaken views — of the bit
terness of successive factions, and of the, deep laid schemes of secret
foes, which no political or moral virtue, no universal philanthropy,
«o watchful prudence of any individual whatever, can hope effectu
ally to guard against.
And the undersigned further pray of the whole Board, for their
respected ciient, those generous sympathies, which, whilst they go
pari passu Avith the most elevated principles of universal jurispru
dence, are emphatically his due as an American citizen — fully so,
since 28th of May 1829, and retroactively so since 21st of May
1824; and they ask this in further confidence, because, as they truly
think, the entire claim for the fullest compensation of the injuries
inflicted by the two most causeless banishments, as proudly sus
tained by every principle of moral justice ; by the law of nations ;
by the laws of Mexico; by the express words and spirit of the ra
tified treaty between the two countries in April 1832; by the acts
and proceedings of the two countries in constituting the commis
sion; by the fullest admissions of the Mexican powers de facto,
and those de jure ; by the most ample acknowledgments of nearly
every one in the least instrumental in effecting the outrages then
and now complained of; by the most unqualified admissions of per
sons intimately connected with his few oppressors ; by. two solemn
tribunals, constituted to investigate and pass upon the matter — tri
bunals flowing from as competent a power as that by which the in
juries were inflicted ; and lastly, by the loud and generous accla
mation of the general public, the acquittal of that very, nation
which a few weak and jealous individuals gratuitously asserted
that our client had insulted and injured !
And the undersigned yet further pray of this honorable Board
ever to bear in mind, first, the solicitations to which Mr. Santangelo
was subjected by the very persons who afterwards, from sinister
motives, became his personal foes, to embark far more largely than
he ever did in the matters they subsequently complained of; and
secondly, that not one oi those writings can he regarded by any
unprejudiced mind as in the least factious or incendiary ; but, on
the contrary, have each and all been warmly approved, even by
nearly all his enemies, and by far more solemn and weighty judg
ments than the hasty, arbitrary, and cruel orders that occasioned
the accumulated miseries of which he so justly complains.
And here the undersigned beg leave to allude to a document not
filed in this cause, because it remains only in the English language.
The statements of his great sufferings to which we allude, and
which we lament the not having a Spanish translation, may possi
bly have been seen by all the Board ; and if so, they now pray
leave most respectfully to invoke therefor, from each and all the
Commissioners, their most lenient consideration ; for the under
signed pray that their client may experience from none of the en-

55
lightened members of the Commission- the least prejudice from the
occasional extravasation of zeal to be found in that production — a
zeal so very natural in the case of so great a sufferer, as their cli
ent undoubtedly has been, and therefore a zeal which, though often
severe, has still enabled him to present, his case in the strongest
light of moral, legal, and logical reasoning, which the undersigned
lament they have not had time to extract and translate, freed from
the portions which they are satisfied ought not and will not preju
dice him.
And lastly, the undersigned rely with absolute confidence that
the Board will judge of this entire case by those high principles of
moral justice which lay at the very basis of international law, and
which should never be lost sight of in controversies between a ne
cessarily powerless individual and a Government; and further re
questing of the said enlightened Board, that, if in the process of
their investigation any doubt should arise, either as to sufficiency
of proof of any material fact (which is far from being anticipated),
or of any principle of law (which is still less so), the Board would
do the undersigned the kindness topoint the same out in a brief
note addressed to them, in order that they may supply such defi
ciency when suggested. And the undersigned most respectfully
ask of the honorable Board, that should any difference of opin
ion arise between the representatives of the two countries, that
no statement, document, vouchers, or proofs whatever, written or
printed, be certified to the umpire, which has not been submitted
on the part of the Mexican Commissioners to the full and care
ful examination of their American colleagues; and, that should the
said representatives on the part of the Republic of Mexico insist
upon sending to the umpire any such statement, document, voucher
or proof, Avhether written or printed, as haA'e not been previously
submitted, that then the representatives on the part of the United
States may enter and certify to the same umpire their solemn pro
test against the same, and with a request that said umpire may
wholly refuse to receive the same.
And, in conclusion, they pray for their client, whose cause has
excited in them an unusual degree of interest and sympathy, a con
tinuous stream of generous feeling, and an untiring investigation
of his cause, now brought within as narrow a compass as its very
peculiar nature would well admit.
All of which are uoav most respectfully submitted by the Board's
very humble servants,
DAVID HOFFMAN,
Counsel for Mr. Santangelo.
Washington, January 13, 1842.

56
To the Hon. DANIEL WEBSTER, Secretary of State.
Washington, \%th January, 1842.
Sir : A3 counsel for Mr. O. de A. Santangelo in his claim upon
the Republic of Mexico, now pending before the Board of Mixed
Commissioners under the Convention of the 11th of April 1839, I
prajc permission to deposite in the Department of State the papers,
volumes, &c, which accompany this letter, consisting of two pack
ages, viz., in English —
A letter from David Hoffman to the Board.
A paper numbered 1, being an extract from Mr. Santangelo's
protest, now filed in your Department.
A memorial to the Board, numbered 2, and signed by David
Hoffman. A volume of documents, numbered 3, consisting of 157 docu
ments inclusive.
A volume of documents, numbered 4, consisting of papers de
signated from A to P inclusive.
A paper numbered 5, being an estimate of the damages sustained
by Mr. Santangelo.
Also, in Spanish, faithful copies of all the above. All of the ori
ginal Spanish documents having beep somewhat sullied by water,
they are ever subject to the call of the Board.
All of which papers, now sent to the Department of State, I pray
respectfully may be forthwith transmitted to the said Board.
With high consideration, I am, sir,
Your most obedient servant,
DAVID HOFFMAN.

A GAG TO MEXICAN SLANDER.

Si certifica da me sottoscritto Console Generate del Regno delle
Due-Sicilie, qualmente il Signor Orazio de Attellis, Marchese di
Santangelo, si appartiene ad una delle piu distinte, ragguardevoli e
nobili famiglie del Regno ; ch' egli e ivi personalmente stimato ed
apprezzato pe' suoi talenti ; e che, immischiato negli affari politic!
del 1821, fu obbligato di espatriare dopo la caduta del sistema Con-
stituzionale quivi pubblicato; ma sin dal 1836, con Ordinanza
Reale e stato egli abilitato a rientrare nel Regno, ove a suo bell'
agio potra godere di tranquilla vita, fra numeroso stuolo di amici c
parenti, avvezzi per lunghi anni ad ammirare le belle qualita di cui
va dotato.
Dato in New- York, nella Cancelleria del Consolato Generale
del Regno delle Due-Sicilie, li 5 Gennajo 18quarantadue.
II Console Generale,
[seal.] CHEV. R. MARTUSCELLI.

[translation.]
The undersigned, Consul General of the Kingdom of the Two-
Sicilies, certifies that Signor Orazio de Attellis, Marquis of Santan
gelo, belongs to one of the most distinguished, illustrious, and noble
families of the Kingdom ; that he is there personally esteemed and
valued for his talents ; and that, concerned in the political affairs of
1821, he was obliged to depart from the country after the fall of the
Constitutional system there published; but, since 1836, by a Royal
Decree, he has been enabled to return into the Kingdom, where, at
his good convenience, he may enjoy a tranquil life, among a nume
rous circle of friends and relatives, accustomed through many years
to admire the good qualities of one thus endowed.
Given at New- York, in the Chancery of the Consul General of
the Kingdom, of the Two-Sicilies, January 5th, 1842.
The Consul General,
[seal.] CHEV. R. MARTUSCELLI.
8

P0STSCR1PTUM.

Returns from New-Orleans, Philadelphia and New- York are-
unanimously discouraging about the Treasury notes promised by
Mexico in the article vi of our Convention with her, in payment of
American claims. A French lawyer,, of New- York, writes the fol
lowing :
,,,,:, New-York,. January <Wth, 1842.
.Here is, -my dear sir, my frank opinion on the subject mentioned
in your favor of the 14th instant.
The American claimants on Mexico have been; grossly imposed
upon by their Convention with that Government, • Mexico has no
commercial, political or moral credit at all. The bonds which the
claimants may receive in pa/^menf of their awards are, and will
long be, good for nothing. This new kind of shinplaster will not
be received here at fifty per cent, discount, nor indeed can it have the
least weight in any American or foreign money-market at any price-
whatever. If Mexico shall be obliged to receive them but in pay
ment of the half of the duties of importations from the United States
into her ports, a good many years will, elapse before the realizatfon
of three, or four millions, of dollars in Mexican bonds might become
possible. Mexico, since , the acknowledgment of her independence
by Spain, receives all kinds of supplies directly from, Spain andi
Spain's West-Indian Islands, except a very few articles of Arnerican
domestic produce or manufactures. All those resounding millions
of dollars, which the >'eonductas" carry from time to time from the
interior of Mexico, to Vera Cruz or Tampice, are notdestined-, as
many; suppose, for the United States, but for Cuba, Spain, France,.
England,, Holland, &c; and if Mexicoistill shows some eagerness
in trading with the' United States-, this is only to 'keep open to her
self a free door to pillage and depredatibna on our commerce, under
the pretext of attempts to, violate the laws of their custofn-housesr
which are purposely changed every day to ground their seizures on
violations necessarily produced by the ignorance of our merchants
and captains about their always new laws, rules and regulations.
This manoeuvre will appear the more evident from their iiriposing
the penalty of confiscation on the most insignificant transgressions of
mere forms, which, far from indicating a design of smuggling, or any.

59
other malice whatever, would in any other country either pass un
noticed; or be only subjected to a small fine.
As to the bonds in question, I would advise, even my bitterest
enemies, never to hazard offering to Mexican custom-houses any of
them in payment of duties. Cbnventions, treaties, compacts and con
tracts of all descriptions with foreigners, and laws, decrees, rules and
regulations of their own country, are for Mexicans but children's
toys. I am only astonished at the general and profound ignorance
under which the people of the United States at large, not excluding
their wisest statesmen and editors, are lamentably laboring, about
the true state of things in Mexico. Every governor of a State or
department is there a Congress ; every military commander a Pre
sident; every alcalde, collector, captain of the port, &c, a Supreme
Court of Justice ; and every Mexican, of all classes, sizes and colors,
is the Nation herself. Go there with a cargo, and offer to pay the
half of the duties of importation in Mexican Treasury notes under
our Convention with that country, and you will immediately have
your cargo and vessel seized and sold at auction, and your captain
and crew fettered, imprisoned and starved to death. Do you believe,
sir, that the remonstrances or threats of our Government would ever
procure the least redress for past wrongs, of the slightest security
for the_ future? Never. On one hand, the perpetrators of all out
rages rely there on full impunity, if not on rich1 rewards; and, on
the other, the Mexican Government' relies, nay is more than certain,'
that no coercive measures will ever be taken by the United States
to revenge any wrong, arid much less to provide for. the future se
curity of American commerce, citizens or agents on the Mexican
territory. Those satraps are well informed of the main funda
mental principle of our politics, that "war is an unpopular thing
wherever the jingling of dollars suffocates the voice of national
honor," and that we, ourselves, are fully aware that " unpopularity
is not favorable to the truly high, important and sublime Republican
cause of election and re-election." Mexicans, as long as danger is
distant, laugh at every body, at every thing. Every Mexican, while
yet lying in his cradle, or placed within one inch of his tomb, chal
lenges both Americas, Europe and the universe, until a sharp sword
is applied to his breast. The bearer or bearers of despatches from
our Government to Mexico, asking releases, satisfactions, indemni
ties, &c, about the late occurrences of Santa Fe, will, if not accom
panied by a squadron ready for action, bring back but mellifluous
and satisfactory promises, which will -be soon forgotten both by
Mexico and the United States, and thus finis coronabit opus.
But the Mexican Treasury notes, it is said, " bear an interest of
eight per cent, until the date of their receipt at the Mexican custom
houses."  And Avhen, where, by whom, and how, sir,
shall this percentage be paid and received? No, sir; you will
never have one single cent on this account. Mexico will say: " Come
here, gentlemen, with a fleet or an army, and then I shall pay you."

60
 Shall you go there armed only with diplomatic notes
from Messrs. Tyler and Webster? Then, believe me, wait for
Mexican indemnities, capital or interest, from the bon plaisir of the
moon. I would only move this question: Ought not the Congress of the
United States order the bonds in question to be immediately paid by
our national Treasury? And why not? Are they good or bad?
If good, our Treasury can have no objection to negotiate them fairly,
even with some honest profit to itself, instead of making them fat
food for brokers, at the expense of the cheated and starving claim
ant. If bad, ought not our Government to be fully accountable
for all the consequences of its insane and shameful Convention with
Mexico ?
It seems, then, to me that this Convention, as evidently unconsti
tutional, absurd and openly violated, in a thousand ways, by the
Mexican Commissioners in your city, should be annulled, and an
ultimatum sent, sans f aeons, French fashion, through an American
"Baudin." Lastly, I would suggest that all awards made, or to be made, by
the Board or the Umpire under said Convention, should be propor
tioned less to the injuries suffered by the claimants at the hands of
Mexicans, in their persons and property, than to the immense loss
they shall have to sustain in converting those Mexican Treasury
notes, as provided for by the Convention, into available cash.
Think of that, my dear sir, and believe me, &c.
The above is a literal translation from the French.
O. DE A. SANTANGELO.

SUPPLEMENT.

The two following letters, extracted from the New- York Her
ald of the 15th instant, will bring to the last pitch of evidence the
manner in which the Convention of the 1 1th April 1839 was fra
med, and the positive, though somewhat poetical, intention of the
hero of San Jacinto to plant his flag on the Washingtonian Capitol.
I say positive intention, for " to exterminate the Texians, cross the
Sabine, proclaim the emancipation of our southern slaves, and come
at their head to give us a Mexican liberty even from the Sabine to
Maine," is an old, favorite, undisguised, nay, openly and repeatedly
avowed plan of that Attila's excrement : —
Mexico, November 1, 1841.
Dear Bennett : I addressed you a few lines on the 15th ulti
mo, intending to have written to you every week, but have failed
to do so, not so much for the want of matter, for there is an abun
dance in market, but because we have no direct conveyance to the
United States, the only one being that of the New- York packets,
which is by no means regular, as you are aware.
Mr. Pakenham, the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Pleni
potentiary of Great Britain, near this court, passed some handsome
encomiums on the New- York Herald, a few days since when I
had the honor of being his guest, that would have flattered you, all
of which I had noted in my memorandum book, intending to give
them to you in full, but unfortunately for us both, I have lost the
book in which my notes were made. This you may say was
owing to carelessness, but it was no such thing ; I went to high
mass last Sunday at the Cathedral, and while kneeling in fervent
devotion before the altar, I had my pocket picked of my note book,
a few cigars, and a New- York Herald — and am thus thrown upon
the resources of my memory, always fragile, for many interesting
anecdotes, historical facts, and diplomatic juggle, which would not
have failed to interest your numerous readers, had I been permitted
to have given them in full ; in fact, I may consider myself very
extremely fortunate if Santa Anna does not send me to the " Patio
de Naranjos" (criminal prison), for having noted too freely, the

62
opinions I had formed of his government. My only salvation is,
that I kept my notes in Greek stenography, and Colonel Yhary is
the only man in the country who could decypher them, and he is
politically opposed to the saint and his government.
I have been pretty regularly dined by the Diplomatic " Corps '
in this city for a week past. Of all I have gleaned some informa
tion, the which was duly noted at the time, but my notes are
gone. Mr. Pakenham said that your money-market articles were the
best published either in Europe or Ameriea : I noted that as a big
expression, but true to the letter. He said the Herald was assailed
everywhere, and especially by the Wall-street clique, not for want
of morality, and because its proprietor and editor was a foreigner,
and cross-eyed ; but that you, General Jackson, and Captain Tyler
had wrecked Major Jack Downing' s " Two Pollies," and stuck in
the mud Old " Nick" Avith his big Pennsylvania " wagons ;" that
the modern system of " financiering" in the United States was more.
fully exposed in the Herald than any other paper ; hence the per
secution, or war, waged against you ; and that you deserved great
credit for your energy and " go-ahead plan."
The French Minister, Count de Cypres, is possessed of a large
share of " tact" and gentlemanly deportment. He is both hospita
ble and communicative when among friends, or those who speak
fluently his language, and are introduced to him under favorable
auspices. This seems to have been my good (luck .; and I am great
ly indebted to the Count for many interesting anecdotes. He still
chuckles over the victory gained by the French over the Mexicans
in 1839; for although the Mexicans, persuade their people that
the French got the whipping, yet the respect paid to the French
legation since, and the studied protection offered to his "nacionales"
by the Mexican Government, are proofs that those who govern
know full well how the matter stands. He laughs yet at Santa's
having lost a leg hiding behind a gate-post ; and has at his fingers'
ends the suit commenced by St. A. against a Mexican colonel who
dared, expose the " Saint," by publishing the facts connected with
his victory at Vera Cruz in December, 1839 ; nor does the Count
forget that General Tornel, one of the Saint's actual Secretaries
acted as his attorney in the prosecution.
Mr. Ellis, the worthy representative of the United States, is quite
a diplomatist. You can never know of him what is going on ¦
and although I can but approve of this reserve, I must express my
chagrin at being wholly unable to bring him out. Nothing can
be known of him, nor have I been able to ascertain what is going
on or contemplated with regard to the pending difficulties between
the two countries. It is conceded on all sides that the present
Commission in Washington will expire before half the claims are
adjudicated. The Mexican Government, while Santa Anna is in
power, will never renew the Convention, or consent to its being

63
extended even a feAv months. I had a curious conversation with
him in relation to this and other matters, two days since, which I
think may be well worth publishing. ' You shall have it in my
next. Yours,, VRILLE.

. ,;; Mexico, November 10th, 1841! . ,
D.ear Bennett: My last letter AVas under date of the 1st iqst.,
leaving off with the Diplomatic Corps at Judge Ellis, the worthy
Representative of the United States; I was hurried at the time, and
kept no copy of my letter. My next diplomatic dinner Avas at the
Spanish Minister's. This " Diplomatic" is so much at home here,
that, he speaks very frankly with those who speak his language,
not so much so with those who speak it badly, and quite on the
reserve with the French. He believed me to be a native of, "Castile,"
and permitting him to remainunder this belief, I gleaned from him
much interesting information, which shall be given hereafter.
, The day before yesterday I was presented to General Santa
Anna; it not being customary with the President and heads of de
partment to give dinners to any one, however distinguished. The
favorable auspices under which I was presented to " Napoleon 2d,"
together with my good fortune in being able to converse in his own,
language, engaged,us at once in a conversation of great apparent
interest to, him,, touching the recent revolution, by which he had
been again seated in power. From the history of the man, it was
easy to discover, his '' c6U foible" and with a little " soft sawder," as
Sam Slick would say, I soon gained. his confidence, and the conver
sation, turned upon the all absorbing question with him ; namely,
the position of Texas with regard to Mexico. Carefully avoiding
the mention of "San Jacinto," (for this he cannot bear to hear,) I
Aieptured to. say, that Texas would, at no distant period, endeavor to
make laws for Mexico proper ; that, the character of her people
would warrant such a conclusion; and that I was under the impres-;
sion the true policy of Mexico, in its present districted and enfee
bled condition, ,wquldbe to recognise the independence. of that Re
public, and fix limits to her boundaries.. He answered with great
vehemence and apparent ;sincerity, never,: np never, would he con-,
sent to the recognition of the independence of the land, pirates, of
Texas (esos Anglo Americanos), while he, Santa Anna, was per-
mitted'to draw his, sword to. the contrary; he would not pnly exter
minate them,;but he,Avouid chastise the " Gobierno del Norte," (the
Government of the United States);; alleging, therefor, that Texas
was riot only, peopled by the United States of the North, but upheld
and protected by that Government. ; "What," said he, emphatically,
" is Texas,? -t What is the United States ? Texas was nothing at all,
and with regard to the United States,, it would not take him;, long to

64
march an army to Washington, and plant the Mexican Hag on its
Capitol." This, I find, is not a new idea with him, for he held a similar
language in 1836, with the French Minister, Baron Deffaudis, and
the British Minister, Mr. Pakenham ; which, I am informed, was
faithfully communicated at the time, by the American Consul at
Mexico to his Government.
Here I interposed and said, the friendly relations existing between
Mexico and the United States were such, owing to the probability
of a speedy termination of all old matters in controversy, under the
convention of 1839, that a pretext would be wanting to flog ''Uncle
Sam," and moreover, that it was not an easy matter now, for the
Yankees would fight to a man. To this he said, with a sneer—
the Government of the " North" boasts of its bravery, virtue, morali
ty, and liberal institutions ; but it was all " paja" (chaff). " Wit
ness," said he, "how Mexico had proved herself more than a match
for that great nation; for which she was manufacturing a President,
by the influence of hard cider, and ' pieles' (meaning coon-skins,
for he had forgotten the name). Mexico, by the greataess of her
sons, had gained a signal victory over the ' Grand Republica Anglo
Americana' in diplomacy, and so she would do in arms, whenever
an occasion presented itself." Here I ventured to ask him what the
victory was he alluded to. "Oh I" said he, "Mexico carried all
the controverted points in the celebrated treaty of amity, &c., of
1832, and this too after several years negotiation. We knew," he
added, " that the North Americans wanted our hard dollars, and
we sold them at the highest price, al precio mas subido ; and that,
after this came the Conventions of 1838-9, for the adjustment of
the pretended claims of citizens of the United States on Mexico,
for spoliations and robberies of their property, and mal-treatment
of their persons ; these" said he, " we managed to our liking, for
when we were hard pressed by 'the Government of the North,' in
1838, we negotiated upon principles we did not like. We did not,
therefore, submit the first Convention to Congress for ratification,
alleging therefor that the King of Prussia, whom we had selected
as umpire, would not act as such, because we were desirous to have
the Prussian Charge* here sent to Washington, and to obtain in a
second negotiation better conditions, which we were sure to obtain
on the eve of a Presidential election ; and we were not mistaken.
Our triumph was complete, for the matter was so managed as to
enable us to decide on every claim. Our Commissioners are in
structed, and the whole matter is well understood."
This " well understood" puzzled me, and I inquired how and
by whom it was understood. To which he gave a sarcastic smile,
and said, " In that consists the victory ! " I understood it, and was not
willing to press the inquiry further.
Here ends my third letter. But for want of time, I would wil
lingly finish with the President and all the diplomatic corps in one

65
letter, but it would be too long ; I therefore come to the determina
tion to divide them, and to run the risk of conveyance, which is by
no means secure. I keep notes, however, and when I shall have
finished with these great folks, I will analyze the Government, and
give some statistical information, which cannot fail to interest your
readers. This country abounds in resources, and but for this great
abundance it would be now annihilated. With this fact its rulers
are unacquainted, and they must consequently err.
P. S. — I hasten to inform you of the fate of the Texian Santa
Fe expedition : it has fallen into the hands of its enemies, by the
strong arm of Mexican valor, " treachery." It seems there was an
" Arnold" in the camp, and great insubordination. The poor fel
lows are now on their way to this city on foot — and barefoot.
When they arrive, we will see they be provided with all possible
comforts. Meantime it will be gratifying to their relatives and
friends to know that the diplomatic corps resident here will unite
to a man to prevent a barbarian butchery of the men, and Santa
Anna will be compelled maigre lui to respect the code of civilized
warfare. Mexico will pay dear for her treacherous victory, or I
have mistaken the character of the Texians.
It is reported that several peaceable American citizens, who re
sided at Santa Fe, have been shot ; and if true, " Uncle Sam" may
have work ahead.
VRILLE.