Treaties of Velasco

What are known now as the Treaties of Velasco were not called that when they were drafted, but were rather a "Public Agreement" and a Secret Treaty.[1] There were two documents, one private, the other public, signed in Velasco, Texas (now Surfside Beach, Texas) on 14 May 1836, between General Antonio López de Santa Anna, President of Mexico and the Republic of Texas, in the aftermath of the Battle of San Jacinto on 21 April 1836. The signatories were Interim President David G. Burnet for Texas and Santa Anna for Mexico. The agreements were intended, on the part of Texas, to provide a conclusion of hostilities between the two armies and to offer the first steps toward the official recognition of Texas's independence from Mexico.

The circumstances of the agreements were that Santa Anna had been captured by Texans following the Battle of San Jacinto. While many Texans wanted Santa Anna hanged ("a just vengeance"), Sam Houston saved his life and extracted a promise from Santa Anna that Mexican troops would be removed from Texas. Santa Anna persuaded Burnet that if he were allowed to return to Mexico City, he would argue for the independence of Texas. Santa Anna signed both a public agreement and the secret treaty, but neither was ratified as a treaty by the Mexican government because he had signed the documents under duress while he was a prisoner. Santa Anna himself said "I did promise to try to get a hearing for the Texas Commissioners, but this in itself did not bind the government to receive them." The Mexican Congress considered Santa Anna's actions scandalous and nullified both. Mexican conservatives removed Santa Anna as president and installed Anastasio Bustamante, and there was agreement with congress that Santa Anna had "offered nothing in the name of the nation."[2]

Biographer of Santa Anna, Will Fowler, considered the "general of tricks was at his most ingenious" with the negotiations with the Texas, since he did not commit himself to do anything other than permit Texas commissioners to present their case to the Mexican government. His negotiations were with the premise that he was a captive, "no longer in a position to act freely, and anything he said or signed would not be validated by Congress," since as a captive, he was no longer president. A draft of the agreement, which Santa Anna refused to sign until it was amended, stated that he recognized as "Head of the Mexican Nation" Texas's independence, text which was dropped. Santa Anna did send a message to General Vicente Filisola to retreat below the Rio Grande, but his message made clear that Filisola was in charge. Fowler argues that Filisola should have known that Santa Anna was in no position to be issuing orders since he had been captured. Both Filisola and Santa Anna were blamed for the defeat, but signing the documents at Velasco did not commit Santa Anna or Mexico to Texas independence.[3]

Mexico still claimed Texas, but it was too weak to attempt to reconquer it, so its independence was an accomplished fact.[4] The documents were not even called "treaties" until so characterized by US President James K. Polk in his justifications for war some ten years later, as Representative Abraham Lincoln pointed out in 1848.[5] Lincoln's efforts earned the then-freshman Whig Congressman the derisive sobriquet "Spotty" Lincoln, because of his Spot Resolutions demanding to know that the "spot" where American troops were killed was on American soil, which Polk argued justified the war with Mexico.

The "Public agreement"

"Public Agreement"[6]

Untitled preamble

Articles of an agreement entered into between his Excellency David G. Burnet President of the Republic of Texas of the one part & His Excellency General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana President General in Chief of the other part--

Article 1

General Antonio López de Santa Anna agrees that he will not take up arms, nor will he exercise his influence to cause them to be taken up against the people of Texas, during the present war of Independence.

Article 2

All hostilities between the Mexican and Texan troops will cease immediately both on land and water.

Article 3

The Mexican troops will evacuate the Territory of Texas, passing to the other side of the Rio Grande del Norte.

Article 4

The Mexican Army in its retreat shall not take the property of any person without his consent and just indemnification, using only such articles as may be necessary for its subsistence, in cases when the owner may not be present, and remitting to the commander of the army of Texas or to the commissioner to be appointed for the adjustment of such matters, an account of the value of the property consumed--the place where taken, and the name of the owner, if it can be ascertained.

Article 5

That all private property including cattle, horses, negro slaves or indentured persons of whatever denomination, that may have been captured by any portion of the Mexican army or may have taken refuge in the said army since the commencement of the late invasion, shall be restored to the Commander of the Texian army, or to such other persons as may be appointed by the Government of Texas to receive them.

Article 6

The troops of both armies will refrain from coming into contact with each other, and to this end the Commander of the army of Texas will be careful not to approach within a shorter distance of the Mexican army than five leagues.

Article 7

The Mexican army shall not make any other delay on its march, than that which is necessary to take up their hospitals, baggage [---] and to cross the rivers--any delay not necessary to these purposes to be considered an infraction of this agreement.

Article 8

By express to be immediately dispatched, this agreement shall be sent to General Filisola and to General T. J. Rusk, commander of the Texian Army, in order that they may be apprised of its stipulations, and to this and they will exchange engagements to comply with the same.

Article 9

That all Texan prisoners now in possession of the Mexican Army or its authorities be forthwith released and furnished with free passports to return to their homes, in consideration of which a corresponding number of Mexican prisoners, rank, and file, now in possession of the Government of Texas shall be immediately released. The remainder of the Mexican prisoners that continue in possession of the Government of Texas to be treated with due humanity -- any extraordinary comforts that may be furnished them to be at the charge of the Government of Mexico.

Article 10

General Antonio López de Santa Anna will be sent to Veracruz as soon as it shall be deemed proper.

The Secret Treaty

Secret Treaty[7]

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, General in Chief of the Army of Operations and President of the Republic of Mexico, before the Government established in Texas, solemnly pledges himself to fulfill the stipulations contained in the following Articles, so far as concerns himself.

Article 1

He will not take up arms nor cause them to be taken up against the People of Texas during the present War of Independence.

Article 2

He will give his Orders that in the shortest time the Mexican Troops may leave the Territory of Texas [sic].

Article 3

He will so prepare matters in the Cabinet of Mexico that the Mission that may be sent thither by the Government of Texas, may be well received, and that by means of negociations all differences may be settled and the Independence that has been declared by the Convention may be acknowledged.

Article 4

A treaty of Commerce, Amity and limits will be established between Mexico and Texas. The territory of the latter not to extend beyond the Rio Bravo del Norte.

Nonratification by Mexico

Although Mexican General Vicente Filisola began troop withdrawals on May 26, 1836 the government of President José Justo Corro in Mexico City resolved, on May 20, to disassociate itself from all undertakings entered into by Santa Anna while he was held captive. Mexico's position was that Santa Anna had no legal standing with the Mexican government to agree to those terms or negotiate a treaty.

Santa Anna's position was that he had signed the documents under coercion as a prisoner, not as a surrendering general in accordance with the laws of war. In fact, he had no authority under the Mexican Constitution to make a treaty. The agreements were never ratified by the Mexican government.[8]

Santa Anna's Return to Veracruz

Santa Anna was not given passage to Veracruz until 1837. He was kept as a prisoner of war ("clapped in irons for six months", he later claimed) in Velasco and, later, in the Orozimbo plantation, before being taken to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Andrew Jackson (ostensibly to negotiate a lasting peace between Mexico and Texas, with the US acting as mediator). Sailing on the frigate USS Pioneer, the "guest" of the U.S. Navy, he did not arrive in Veracruz until February 23, 1837.

Outcome

Because the provisions of the public agreements were not met, the terms of the secret agreement were not released until much later. Although a fait accompli since mid-1836, neither the independence of Texas nor its later annexation by the U.S. was formally recognized by Mexico until the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican–American War. That war resulted from the annexation and recognized the Rio Grande (Río Bravo del Norte) as the Mexico–United States border.

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References
  1. Treaties of Velasco
  2. Christiansen, Carol and Thomas. The U.S.-Mexican War. Companion to the PBS Series The U.S.-Mexican War, 1846-1848. San Francisco: Bay Books 1998, pp. 26-28.
  3. Fowler, Will. Santa Anna of Mexico. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press 2007, pp. 176-77.
  4. de la Teja, Jesús. "Texas Secession" in Encyclopedia of Mexico. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997, 1495-96.
  5. A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875
  6. Treaties of Velasco
  7. Treaties of Velasco
  8. de la Teja, Jesús. "Texas Secession" in Encyclopedia of Mexico. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997, 1495-96.
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