Editing Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (section)

==Conduct of war==
{{Main|Mexican–American War}}
[[File:Map of Mexico including Yucatan and Upper California 1847.jpg|thumb|right|300 px|''Map o''. S. Augustus Mitchell, Philadelphia, 1847. [[Alta California]] shown including Nevada, Utah, and Arizona.]]

U.S. forces quickly moved beyond Texas to conquer Alta California, and New Mexico. Fighting there ended on 13 January 1847 with the signing of the "Capitulation Agreement" at "[[Campo de Cahuenga]]" and the end of the [[Taos Revolt]].<ref>Original Capitulation Agreement document (one of 25) on view at Campo de Cahuenga historical site</ref> By the middle of September 1847, U.S. forces had successfully invaded central Mexico and occupied Mexico City.

===Peace negotiations===
Some Eastern Democrats called for [[All of Mexico Movement|complete annexation of Mexico]] and recalled that a group of Mexico's leading citizens had invited General Winfield Scott to become dictator of Mexico after his capture of Mexico City (he declined).<ref>[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/ncps:@field(DOCID+@lit(ABR0102-0010-269)):: "Mexican Argument for Annexation."] ''The Living Age'', Volume 10, Issue 123. 19 September 1846.</ref> However, the movement did not draw widespread support. President Polk's [[State of the Union address]] in December 1847 upheld Mexican independence and argued at length that occupation and any further military operations in Mexico were aimed at securing a treaty ceding California and New Mexico up to approximately the [[32nd parallel north]] and possibly [[Baja California]] and transit rights across the [[Isthmus of Tehuantepec]].<ref name="Polk Third Annual Message" />

Despite several military defeats, the Mexican government was reluctant to agree to the loss of California and New Mexico. Even with its capital under enemy occupation, the Mexican government was inclined to consider factors such as the unwillingness of the U.S. administration to annex Mexico outright and what appeared to be deep divisions in domestic U.S. opinion regarding the war and its aims, which caused it to imagine that it was actually in a far better negotiating position than the military situation might have suggested.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}} A further consideration was the growing opposition to slavery that had caused Mexico to end formal slavery in 1829 and its awareness of the well-known and growing sectional divide in the U.S. over the issue of slavery. It, therefore, made sense for Mexico to negotiate to play Northern U.S. interests against Southern U.S. interests.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}}

The Mexican negotiators also had intercepted a secret letter from Secretary of State Buchanan to Trist reiterating that annexing [[Baja California]] and acquiring American transit rights in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec were expendable American demands. With that knowledge, the Mexicans steadfastly refused to budge on either issue. (Chamberlin, Eugene [1963])

The Mexicans proposed peace terms that offered only the sale of [[Alta California]] north of the [[37th parallel north]]&nbsp;— north of [[Santa Cruz, California]] and [[Madera, California]] and the southern boundaries of today's Utah and Colorado. Anglo-American settlers already dominated this territory, but perhaps more importantly from the Mexican point of view, it represented the bulk of pre-war Mexican territory north of the [[Missouri Compromise]] line of [[parallel 36°30′ north]]&nbsp;— lands that, if annexed by the United States, would have been presumed by Northerners to be forever free of slavery. The Mexicans also offered to recognize the freedom of Texas from Mexican rule and its right to join the Union but held to its demand of the [[Nueces River]] as a boundary.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}

While the Mexican government could not reasonably have expected the Polk Administration to accept such terms, it would have had reason to hope that a rejection of peace terms so favorable to Northern interests might have the potential to provoke sectional conflict in the United States or perhaps even a civil war that would fatally undermine the U.S. military position in Mexico. Instead, these terms, combined with other Mexican demands (in particular, for various indemnities), only provoked widespread indignation throughout the United States without causing the sectional conflict the Mexicans hoped for.

[[Jefferson Davis]] advised Polk that if Mexico appointed commissioners to come to the United States, the government that appointed them would probably be overthrown before they completed their mission, and they would likely be shot as traitors on their return; so that the only hope of peace was to have a U.S. representative in Mexico.{{sfn|Rives|1913|p=622}} Nicholas Trist, chief clerk of the State Department under President Polk, finally negotiated a treaty with the Mexican delegation after ignoring his recall by President Polk in frustration with the failure to secure a treaty.<ref name="archives">[https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/guadalupe-hidalgo Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.] ''National Archives''. Retrieved 6 November 2007.</ref> Notwithstanding that the treaty had been negotiated against his instructions, given its achievement of the major American aim, President Polk passed it on to the Senate.<ref name="archives" />

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed by Nicholas Trist (on behalf of the United States) and Luis G. Cuevas, Bernardo Couto, and Miguel Atristain as [[plenipotentiary]] representatives of Mexico on 2 February 1848 at the main altar of the old [[Basilica of Guadalupe]] at Villa '''Hidalgo''' (within the present city limits) as U.S. troops under the command of Gen. [[Winfield Scott]] were occupying [[Mexico City]].<ref name=LOC-TGH>{{cite web |title=The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo |url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/ghtreaty/ |website=Hispanic Reading Room |publisher=Library of Congress |access-date=13 October 2019 |quote=The Library holds the copy of the Treaty found in Nicholas Trist's papers, and as such, it does not represent the final version of the document which is kept at the U.S. National Archives.}}</ref>

===Debate in the American Congress===
[[File:Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.jpg|thumb|200px|right|First page of the original treaty<ref name=LOC-TGH />]]
The version of the treaty ratified by the [[United States Senate]] eliminated Article X,<ref name="loc">[https://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/ghtreaty "The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo."] ''Library of Congress, Hispanic Reading Room''. Retrieved 6 November 2007.</ref> which stated that the U.S. government would honor and guarantee all [[land grant]]s awarded in lands ceded to the United States by those respective governments to citizens of Spain and Mexico. Article VIII guaranteed that Mexicans who remained more than one year in the ceded lands would automatically become full-fledged United States citizens (or they could declare their intention of remaining Mexican citizens); however, the Senate modified Article IX, changing the first paragraph and excluding the last two. Among the changes was that Mexican citizens would "be admitted at the proper time (to be judged of by the Congress of the United States)" instead of "admitted as soon as possible", as negotiated between Trist and the Mexican delegation.

An amendment by [[Jefferson Davis]] giving the United States most of [[Tamaulipas]] and [[Nuevo León]], all of [[Coahuila]], and a large part of [[Chihuahua (state)|Chihuahua]] was supported by both senators from Texas ([[Sam Houston]] and [[Thomas Jefferson Rusk]]), [[Daniel S. Dickinson]] of New York, [[Stephen A. Douglas]] of Illinois, [[Edward A. Hannegan]] of Indiana, and one each from Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, and Tennessee. Most of the leaders of the Democratic party, [[Thomas Hart Benton (senator)|Thomas Hart Benton]], [[John C. Calhoun]], [[Herschel V. Johnson]], [[Lewis Cass]], [[James Murray Mason]] of Virginia and [[Ambrose Hundley Sevier]] were opposed, and the amendment was defeated 44–11.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The United States and Mexico, 1821–1848|publisher=C. Scribner's Sons|url=https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesand05rivegoog|author=George Lockhart Rives|pages=[https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesand05rivegoog/page/n672 634]–636|year = 1913}}</ref>

An amendment by Whig Sen. [[George Edmund Badger]] of North Carolina to exclude New Mexico and California lost 35–15, with three Southern Whigs voting with the Democrats. [[Daniel Webster]] was bitter that four New England senators made deciding votes for acquiring the new territories.

A motion to insert into the treaty the [[Wilmot Proviso]] (banning slavery from the acquired territories) failed 15–38 on sectional lines.

The treaty was leaked to [[John Nugent (U.S. government agent)|John Nugent]] before the U.S. Senate could approve it. Nugent published his article in the ''[[New York Herald]]'' and, afterward, was questioned by senators. He was detained in a Senate committee room for one month, though he continued to file articles for his newspaper and ate and slept at the home of the sergeant at arms. Nugent did not reveal his source, and senators eventually gave up their efforts.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/The_Senate_Arrests_A_Reporter.htm |title=The Senate Arrests a Reporter |publisher=U.S. Senate}}</ref>

The treaty was subsequently [[ratification|ratified]] by the U.S. Senate by a vote of 38 to 14 on 10 March 1848 and by Mexico through a [[legislative]] vote of 51 to 34 and a Senate vote of 33 to 4, on 19 May 1848. News that New Mexico's legislative assembly had just passed an act for the organization of a U.S. territorial government helped ease Mexican concern about abandoning the people of New Mexico.{{sfn|Rives|1913|p=649}} The treaty was formally proclaimed on 4 July 1848.<ref>{{cite web
| author=Online Highways LLC editorial group
| title = Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
| publisher=U-S-History.com
| url = http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h142.html
| access-date = 2012-03-25}}</ref>

===Debate in the Mexican Congress===
[[File:Retrato de Manuel de la Peña y Peña.jpg|thumb|President [[Manuel de la Peña y Peña]]]]
The Mexican Congress and President [[Manuel de la Peña y Peña]] met at [[Querétaro City]] in May, 1848 while Mexico City was occupied, and were now faced with the task of negotiating the treaty while dealing with separatism and anarchy spreading throughout the country. The [[Caste War]] was ongoing in Yucatán, and the insurgents in that conflict had occupied the major cities. Many states considered the federal government to be an enemy and refused to pay taxes. Meanwhile, most notably in the Federal District there was a Mexican element advocating annexation of the entire country to the United States.<ref name="Rivera Cambas 1873 352">{{cite book |last=Rivera Cambas|first=Manuel|date=1873|title=Los Gobernantes de Mexico: Tomo II|publisher=J.M. Aguilar Cruz|pages=352|language=es}}</ref>

The majority of congress supported the government's peace policy viewing in the Treaty of Guadalupe nothing but the unfortunate result of a poorly fought war, and viewed under this perspective as a national necessity. A foreign relations commission returned affirmative answers to two questions that congress had directed it to report upon: ''May the government with the consent of Congress cede a portion of territory? Is it suitable to make peace upon the terms which have been proposed?'' The first question was resolved based upon the principle that congress was the deposit of the national sovereignty. The second question was resolved upon the consideration that Mexico had never been in full possession of the territories that were about to be ceded, and that most of that land was either not populated, or populated by hostile indigenous tribes.<ref name="Rivera Cambas 1873 352"/> It was also taken into account that Mexico could not continue the war without facing certain defeat and risking the loss of the entire country.<ref name="Rivera Cambas 1873 353">{{cite book |last=Rivera Cambas|first=Manuel|date=1873|title=Los Gobernantes de Mexico: Tomo II|publisher=J.M. Aguilar Cruz|pages=353|language=es}}</ref>
After the commission reported its findings, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was approved by congress. President Peña y Peña prepared decrees to prevent disorder in the capital once the occupiers left and to establish a national guard. On 26 May 1848 the government received the commissioners [[Nathan Clifford]] and [[Ambrose Hundley Sevier]] who were in Mexico to negotiate the treaty after congress had approved it with some slight modifications.<ref name="Rivera Cambas 1873 353"/>

Meanwhile, the President had to deal with guerilla warfare throughout the country afflicting both the American occupiers and Mexican merchants. The aim of the guerillas was to disrupt the American supply chain from Veracruz to the capital. This was also leading to indiscriminate American reprisals.<ref name="Rivera Cambas 1873 353"/> As the peace treaty was concluded and the occupiers were on the point of leaving the country, congress named [[Jose Joaquin Herrera]] to the presidency of the republic, and Peña y Peña left his post as president in exchange for the presidency of the Supreme Court on 3 June 1848. The government left Querétaro and returned to the capital.<ref name="Rivera Cambas 1873 353"/>

===Protocol of Querétaro===
On 30 May 1848, when the two countries exchanged ratifications of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, they further negotiated a three-article protocol to explain the amendments.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Protocol of Querétaro (1848) |url=https://sk.sagepub.com/ency/edvol/multicultural-america/chpt/protocol-queretaro-1848 |access-date=2025-04-18 |website=Sage Reference}}</ref> The first article stated that the original Article IX of the treaty, although replaced by Article III of the [[Louisiana Purchase|Treaty of Louisiana]], would still confer the rights delineated in Article IX. The second article confirmed the legitimacy of land grants pursuant to Mexican law.<ref name="dayton">[http://academic.udayton.edu/race/02rights/guadalu.htm#Original%20ARTICLE%20X Treaty of Hidalgo, Protocol of Querétaro.] From: academic.udayton.edu. Retrieved 6 November 2007.</ref>

The protocol further noted that the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs had accepted said explanations on behalf of the Mexican Government,<ref name="dayton" /> and was signed in [[Querétaro]] by A. H. Sevier, [[Nathan Clifford]] and [[Luis de la Rosa Oteiza|Luis de la Rosa]].

The United States would later ignore the protocol on the grounds that the U.S. representatives had over-reached their authority in agreeing to it.<ref>David Hunter Miller, ''Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America'', vol. 5 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1937)</ref>

===Treaty of Mesilla===
The [[Treaty of Mesilla]], which concluded the Gadsden purchase of 1854, had significant implications for the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Article II of the treaty annulled article XI of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and article IV further annulled articles VI and VII of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Article V, however, reaffirmed the property guarantees of Guadalupe Hidalgo, specifically those contained within articles VIII and IX.<ref>Mills, B. p. 122.</ref>