APRIL 5, 1827. I do hereby certify that the above is a true copy of the original translation from the Spanish letter from Don Mateo Ahumada to Major M. A. Heard, in answer to his note of the 30th of March, 1827. PLACEBO M. BILLS. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, April 15, 1828. SIR: I have received and submitted to the President your letter of the 1st instant, stating that certain persons of the name Harden, having perpetrated a murder within the State of Tennessee, had fled from justice, and taken refuge in the Province of Texas, one of the United Mexican States, and requesting the interposition of this Government with that of Mexico to procure the surrender of the fugitives. Your letter is accompanied by a transcript of judicial proceedings which have been instituted against the accused, and by a correspondence which has taken place between an agent sent for the purpose of obtaining the custody of the fugitives, and a magistrate in the Province of Texas, who appears to have declined causing them to be delivered up. We have no right, by the law of nations, to demand the surrender of these persons, and such a demand would, probably, not be complied with. Nations sometimes reciprocally bind themselves by treaty to deliver up fugitives from justice; but we have no treaty by which the Government of the republic of Mexico is now bound to surrender persous of that description. The mutual surrender of fugitives from justice, in cases of murder and forgery, has formed a subject of negotiation between the United States and Mexico, and has been provided for in a treaty which. has been recently concluded at Mexico, but the treaty has not yet been ratified by the Governments. Under these circumstances, the desired application would be, probably, fruitless. The Executive has no power, upon an application from Mexi to surender any persons escaping from that country and taking refuge in ours; but, if it be desired, I will direct Mr. Poinsett to request the surrender of the accused, and take the chances of the application. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. J. K. POLK, House of Representatives. HENRY CLAY. WASHINGTON CITY, April 21, 1828.: SIR: I have received your note of the 15th, in answer to mine of the 1st instant, in which you express the opinion that, in the absence of any treaty stipulation between the United States and the Government of Mexico, we have no right by the laws of nations to demand the surrender of offenders against our laws, who have fled from justice and taken refuge within the Mexican dominions. You express a willingness, however, "if it be desired," to "direct Mr. Poinsett to request the surrender of the accused, and take the chances of the application." The crime of the I have the honor to be, respectfully, your obedient servant, The Hon. HENRY CLAY, Secretary of State, Washington City. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, April 28, 1828. The Secretary of State presents his respects to Mr. Polk, and has the honor to inform him that, agreeably to the request contained in his recent correspondence with this Department, the proper instruction has been transmitted to Mr. Poinsett, to request of the Mexican Government the surrender of the Hardens, charged with murder in the State of Tennessee, and who have fled within the limits of the Government of Mexico. No. 28. Mr. Clay to Mr. Poinsett. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, May 26, 1828. SIR: Herewith are transmitted to you two duplicate documents lately received at this office, with a letter of W. Massicot, of Baltimore, master of the brig Aspasia, dated the 19th instant, a copy of which is also transmitted, containing the evidence of a claim which he has upon the Mexican Government, on account of certain irregular and unjust proceedings of the public authorities at Sisal, in depriving him of the sum of $1,528 in hard money, and requesting the interposition of this Government towards obtaining for him the redress or indemnity to which he thinks himself entitled. These documents are transmitted that you may make such use of them as justice to the party interested shall, in your judgment, render proper and necessary. Your despatches to No. 120, inclusively, have been received. JOEL R. POINSETT, Envoy Extraordinary H. CLAY. and Minister Plenipotentiary to Mexico. No. 29. Mr. Van Buren to Mr. Poinsett. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, July 9, 1829. SIR: I have the pleasure to inform you that your despatches from No. 140 (the last which appears to have been acknowledged) to No. 170, inclusively, with their several enclosures, have been safely received; though I owe you an apology for not having sooner done this. The objects, of daily occurrence, claiming immediate attention, have been so numerous and pressing, ever since my connexion with this Department, that I have necessarily been obliged to neglect others, equally interesting and impor tant, which have not appeared of so urgent a nature; otherwise I should certainly have made myself better acquainted, than my opportunities have yet enabled me to become, with the existing state of the relations between the United States and Mexico, and written more at large to you than I shall do upon the present occasion. The suggestion which is repeated in your No. 170, as to the expediency of the re-establishment of a diplomatic agency at Guatemala, on the part of this Government, is favorably received by the President, and is under consideration. The public prints of this country contain the translation of a decree of the actual President of the United Mexican States, dated the 22d of May last, prohibiting the importation of a long list of articles, under the penalty of confiscation. That Government has certainly the right to allow or prohibit the introduction into Mexico from foreign states of whatsoever it may think proper to admit or exclude; but, in the present case, the measure which it has adopted, and which is calculated almost exclusively and injuriously to affect the United States, cannot be regarded by this Govern ment as a friendly or liberal one on the part of that; and you will not fail, therefore, upon the first suitable occasion, in case there be no misappre hension as to the existence of such a decree, to make known to the Government of Mexico the light in which it is viewed by this. When there is every motive, and certainly a correspondent disposition on the part of the United States, powerfully recommending the most friendly and unrestrained commercial intercourse between the two countries, it is impossi ble to reconcile the policy of such a step on the part of either with a spirit of kindness towards the other. On the 8th of November, 1826, you were instructed by this Department to demand redress from the Mexican Government for the very serious injury and damage sustained by the owners of the American brig Delight, in the forcible seizure of that vessel at Sisal, by the officers of the customs at that port; and it appears that the necessary documents to establish their claim were at the same time transmitted to you. The parties inter ested are anxious to be informed of the result of the application which you were requested to make to the Mexican Government upon this subject. Herewith you will receive the copy of a letter to this Department, from Mr. Charles Callaghan, under date the 7th of this month, complaining of another irregularity on the part of the officers of the same Government, which took place recently at La Vera Cruz, in the detention by them of the American brig Ann, Eldridge master, at that port, and the consequent interruption of a projected voyage of that vessel to New Orleans, to the very serious injury and disappointment of those concerned. The circumstances of this case will be more fully made known to you by the protest of Captain Eldridge, which will be sent to you as soon as it is received at this office. You will take the necessary steps for procuring, in behalf of the owners, the reparation to which they may be found entitled in this case. By the first suitable opportunity you will be furnished with a further supply of despatch-paper. If your present stock, however, should in the mean time be exhausted, you will procure and use, in your correspondence with this Department, the best that you can get, and, as near as may be, of the proper dimensions. I send by this, agreeably to Mr. Mason's request, a copy of the last Biennial Register. I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant, JOEL R. POINSETT, Esq., Envoy Extraordinary M. VAN BUREN. and Minister Plenipotentiary to Mexico. No. 32. Mr. Van Buren to Mr. Poinsett. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, September 18, 1829. SIR Intelligence has just been received here that the Spanish expedition from Havana has reached the coast of Mexico, and that the military force composing it had effected a landing in the neighborhood of Tampico of which town they took immediate possession, without experiencing any serious resistance on the part of the inhabitants of the place, or of the few Mexican troops stationed there for its protection; but the intelligence of these events was accompanied by information, from the same authentic source, that, before the Mexican troops had abandoned the town, in consequence of its being about to pass so soon into the hands of its invaders, they obliged the merchants of the place to deliver up their money to them, for the purpose of its being sent into the interior, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the agents of the several foreign Governments residing there, including that of the United States, in behalf of the merchants of their respective nations; and that, on the morning of the 4th of August, they arrested, in his house, Francisco Mazzos, a naturalized citizen of the United States, of the highest respectability-married, and having a family in Philadelphia, and long a resident of that city-whom they carried with them from Tampico in a manner degrading to humanity; and that there is good reason to believe that this individual has since fallen a victim to the ferocious measures which led to his arrest and abduction. To make you fully acquainted with this odious transaction in all its parts, I send you, herewith, an extract from the letter to this Department containing the information. It is the wish of the President that you should lose no time in earnestly remonstrating against both these proceedings: the first, as an arbitrary measure of precaution, (if such it was intended to be,) which appears to have been altogether unnecessary in itself, and incompatible with the rites of hospitality, as well as the state of the existing relations between these United States and those of the Mexican republic, so far as it may have affected the citizens of the former; and that you let it be understood by the Government of the latter, that this Government will hold it responsible for any damage or loss in reference to property of citizens of the United States involved in the transaction; and against the last, as a wanton outrage, for which no atonement that could be offered would be an adequate reparation, but which, nevertheless, requires suitable explanations on the part of the Mexican Government to this, and the severest animadversions upon the persons who were engaged in it that the institutions and laws of Mexico will sanction. As these charges, however, are entirely ex parte, though proceeding from a quarter which leaves no doubt of their authenticity, you will of course invite a due investigation of them, in order to the security and redress which, in the event of their being ascertained to be well founded, you will in that case demand of the Government of Mexico. I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant, JOEL R. POINSETT, Esq., M. VAN BUREN. Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of United States to Mexico. No. 33. Mr. Van Buren to Mr. Poinsett. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, October 16, 1829. SIR: Your despatches from No. 175 to No. 180, both inclusive, have been received by the hands of Commodore Porter, and submitted to the President. He has also availed himself of your reference to that gentleman for a more minute account of the state of public affairs in Mexico, as they presented themselves to his observation. It has been a source of sincere regret to the President to find, in the information thus received, a confirmation of what was before apprehended, that the minds of large and active portions of the inhabitants of Mexico, as well as some of the local authorities and subordinate functionaries of the Federal Government, are influenced by personal prejudices against you, of the strongest, and, as there is every reason to fear, most incurable character. The only ground upon which this state of feeling appears to be justified, is the allegation on the part of those who entertain it that you have availed yourself of your situation to interraeddle in the domestic affairs of that republic. The suspicions entertained upon this subject-the existence of which he sincerely deprecates-the President feels himself justified, by all the information of which he is possessed, in considering as without just cause. The fact that no complaint has at any time been |