Señor Escudero

The Western History Association
Seor Escudero Goes to Washington: Diplomacy, Indians, and the Santa Fe Trade Author(s): David J. Weber Source: The Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. 43, No. 4 (WINTER 2012), pp. 417-435 Published by: Western Historical Quarterly, Utah State University on behalf of The Western
History Association
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Arrival of the Caravan at Santa Fe, illustration in Josiah Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies (New York, 1844). Courtesy of DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University.
Seor Escudero Goes to Washington: Diplomacy, Indians, and the Santa Fe Trade
David J. Weber
n April of 1825, Sr. Licenciado don Manuel Simn de Escudero set out from Chihuahua City on a business trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico. An attorney and member of the legislature of the state of Chihuahua, Escudero intended to travel no farther than Santa Fe to purchase imported goods from the United States. Happenstance, however, led him to Washington, DC, on an unorthodox international diplomatic venture for the governor of New Mexico. He traveled some 800 miles over the recently opened traders trail to the nearest American state, Missouri, where he presented his credentials to the American superintendent of Indian Affairs. From there he continued to Washington, hoping to meet the American president. The story of this frontier diplomat reveals much about the chaotic nature of early U.S.Mexico relations, but that story, scattered in newspapers and archival sources in two countries, has never been fully told. The Santa Fe Trail was only four years old when Manuel Simn de Escudero made his journey from a newly independent Mexico. Commerce along the trail during its first years had been an Anglo-American monopoly, with Americans bringing manufactured goods into New Mexico and returning to Missouri with silver and mules. Previously, Chihuahua had monopolized trade with New Mexico, but by 1824 American merchants had broken the Chihuahua monopoly and New Mexicans bought more goods from Missouri than they did from the south. Escudero, who went to Santa Fe the next year to participate in this trade directly, became one of the first Mexican merchants to travel the trail in the other direction. In recent years, that distinction has brought him to the attention of scholars interested in exploring the long-neglected Mexican side of the Santa Fe trade.1 Earlier historians had found his
David J. Weber was the Robert and Nancy Dedman Chair in History at Southern Methodist University and the director of the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies. He was grateful to Mercedes de Vega Armijo of the Acervo Histrico Diplomtico, Secretara de Relaciones Exteriores in Mexico City, for facilitating his research in that archive. 1 David A. Sandoval, Montezumas Merchants: Mexican Traders on the Santa Fe Trail, in Western Historical Quarterly 43 (Winter 2012): 417435. Copyright 2012, Western History Association.
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venture into diplomacy more worthy of mention than his national identity, but, limited by their sources, they told only part of his story.2 Escudero went to Washington at a time when relations between the United States and newly independent Mexico were in their infancy. Then, as now, the integrity of the U.S.-Mexico border was high on the list of problems that the two nations needed to address. Then, however, border problems centered on marking a road between Missouri and Santa Fe and defending it against Indians who threatened the security of the traders who used it. Since IndiansPawnees, Comanches, Kiowasand others could cross the international border at will, Mexican and American border residents alike felt a need to cooperate in order to bring these Indians under control, even to the point of themselves crossing the border into one anothers territory. For officials in the frontier provinces of New Mexico and Missouri, finding a solution to the problem of Indian raiders was a high priority. For officials in Washington and Mexico City, on the other hand, border problems took a backseat to more pressing issues. Although people who lived in the border region understood the nature of their problems and had solutions for them, key decisions were usually made in distant centers of power. Local initiatives to stop Indians from raiding across the international border, as Escuderos mission revealed, required national approval and were doomed to fail.
Adventure on the Santa Fe Trail, ed. Leo Oliva (Topeka, 1988), 39 and Martn Gonzlez de la Vara, Mexicanos y norteamericanos en el desarrollo del comercio de Santa Fe (18211860), in Encuentro en la frontera: Mexicanos y norteamericanos en un espacio comn, ed. Manuel Ceballos Ramrez (Mexico City, 2001), 144. For a brief account of Escuderos mission that unfortunately confuses him with his relative, Jos Agustn de Escudero, see Susan Calafate Boyle, Los Capitalistas: Hispano Merchants and the Santa Fe Trade (Albuquerque, 1997), 589. For a first look at these Mexican traders and their historical context, see Max L. Moorhead, New Mexicos Royal Road: Trade and Travel on the Chihuahua Trail (Norman, 1958), 66.
2 Manuel Simn de Escuderos diplomatic venture gained minor notice in Mexico and the United States in 1825 but was quickly forgotten. Two decades later, Josiah Gregg found no reason to mention Escudero in his classic book on the Santa Fe trade. Josiah Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies, ed. Max L. Moorhead (Norman, 1954). The first to recount the story appears to have been a relative of Escuderos, Jos Agustn de Escudero, who in a book published in 1849, drew from don Simns papers. Pedro Bautista Pino, Antonio Barreiro, and Jos Agustn de Escudero, Noticias historicas y estadsticas de la antigua provincia del Nuevo-Mexico. . . . (Mexico City, 1849), 747. For this article, however, I used the more readily available English-language version: H. Bailey Carroll and J. Villasana Haggard, ed. and trans., Three New Mexico Chronicles: The Exposicin of Don Pedro Bautista Pino 1812. . . . (Albuquerque, 1942), 1145. After that, Escuderos mission seems to have gone unnoticed by historians until Hubert Howe Bancroft gave it a passing mention in 1889. Bancrofts principal source was Jos Agustns account. Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Arizona and New Mexico, 15301888 (Albuquerque, 1962), 334. Mexican historians have written less about the trail than their American counterparts, but Escuderos mission was not mentioned by works that specifically treat the Santa Fe Trail. For such an example, see Carlos Bosch Garca, Historia de las relaciones entre Mxico y los Estados Unidos, 18191848 (Mexico City, 1961). For a recent work that does mention Escuderos misin, but mistakenly places it in 1826 instead of 1825, see Angela Moyano Pahissa, El comercio de Santa Fe y la Guerra del 47 (Mexico City, 1976), 37.
David J. Weber
Escuderos peculiar attempt at international diplomacy began with a successful exercise of local diplomacy in El Paso del Norte (todays Ciudad Jurez), the northernmost town in Chihuahua.3 In December 1824, an election dispute over filling openings on the El Paso town council, or ayuntamiento, had left town leaders badly divided. Each side in the election controversy had complained about the other to the state officials. Aware of Escuderos impending journey to Santa Fe, the governor of Chihuahua, Jos de Urquidi, asked him to stop en route in El Paso and see if he could end the quarrel. Urquidi had every reason to entrust such a mission to Escudero. A mature lawyer in his early forties and a member of the Chihuahua elite, Escudero had experience in public office, including service as a militia captain and mayor (alcalde) in his hometown of Parral before his election in July 1824 as a representative (diputados) to an eleven-person legislature (congreso constituyente local) for the new state of Chihuahua.4 Along with his experience, if Urquidi is to be believed, Escudero also possessed remarkable personal qualities to carry out a successful mediation: An abundance of prudence, enlightenment, patriotism, and as much civility as is needed.5 Escudero received Urquidis flattering assignment on 10 April 1825, the same day that the governor issued a passport to him to go to the province of New Mexico, or where it suits you. The passport included permission for him to take his servants, including two coachmen.6 This open-ended passport did not mention the United States and, at the outset of his journey, Escudero apparently had no plan to go that far. He took a two-month leave of absence from the state legislaturehardly enough time to make a round-trip journey to the United States. In Santa Fe he could purchase goods imported from the United States directly from the American merchants who brought them into the country, and that seems to have been his intention. Escudero may also have had verbal instructions from Urquidi to learn more about American activities in New Mexico. Nine days after granting Escuderos passport, Urquidi offered to send the Mexican secretary of state a report on the advantages of trade with the United States, which he saw as a mixed blessing. American goods came into New Mexico at a third of the price, he estimated, than goods from Mexico.
3 El Paso del Norte had been under the jurisdiction of New Mexico in the Spanish era, but Mexico incorporated it into Chihuahua in 1824. W. H. Timmons, El Paso: A Borderlands History (El Paso, 1990), 73.
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For a brief biography of Escudero, which identifies the year of his birth as 1783, see Francisco R. Almada, ed., Diccionario de historia, geografa y biografa chihuahuenses (Chihuahua, MX, 1968), 193. For the election and the kaleidoscopic political changes of the era, see Francisco R. Almada, Resumen de historia del estado de Chihuahua (Mexico City, 1955), 1757 and David J. Weber, The Mexican Frontier, 18211846: The American Southwest Under Mexico (Albuquerque, 1982), 225.
5 Jos de Urquidi to don Manuel Simn de Escudero, 10 April 1825, original copied in Washington, DC, expediente 516, Acervo Histrico Diplomtico, Secretara de Relaciones Exteriores, Mexico City (hereafter AHD).
Pasaporte, Urquidi to Escudero, 10 April 1825, original copied in Washington, DC, on 3 January 1826, expediente 5-9-8159, AHD.
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Urquidi feared, however, that the westering Americans would push several Indian bands toward northern Mexico, and they, in turn, would force Apaches deeper into northern Mexico, where they would wreak havoc. The American government had a consequential reason for encouraging its citizens to communicate with New Mexico, he said ominously. Trying to halt this trade, however, would backfire. It would cause outrage in New Mexico and lead to a rift with the United States, with which Mexico needed to maintain harmonious relations. His solution was to fortify the region between the two countries and win Indians over to Mexicos side.7 It seems likely that Urquidi wanted Escudero to serve as his ears and eyes in New Mexico. On 3 May, Escudero reached El Paso, where he wasted no time. That day, invoking his commission from the governor, he asked the towns ayuntamiento to convoke a public meeting of the towns citizens at sunrise the next day.8 As the secretary of the town council described it later, the group formed a committee, or junta, at Escuderos request. Escudero presented the secretary with a copy of his orders from the governor and made a speech with refined elegance, prudence, and wisdom, which are his characteristics. Escudero explained the baneful effects of a people divided and the good and happiness that comes from peace and union. The orator did this with colors so vivid and expressive that they were enough to make all forget their private resentments and flood their faces with tears. Powerful oratory indeed!9 Putting aside their disagreements over the election, the town leaders repaired to the parish church to give thanks for the peaceful outcome and then returned to the casas consistoriales (town hall) with their souls inflamed and full of enthusiasm for peace. They ended the day by gratefully escorting Escudero back to his lodging. Mission accomplished, Escudero asked the secretary of the ayuntamiento to make a copy of the record of his successful mediation to take with him. Escudero then continued north to Santa Fe, where his skill at conflict resolution may have brought him to the attention of the governor of that province.10 Escudero arrived in New Mexico at a moment when its governor, Bartolom Baca, required the services of an emissary to represent him in the United States. Bacas unusual need for a diplomatic envoy apparently had its beginnings with his predecessor, Colonel Jos Antonio Vizcarra, who had opened communication with officials in the United States two years before. At issue were Pawnees who, Vizcarra believed, raided New Mexico from their bases on U.S. soil, high on the Platte and Republican Rivers. Vizcarra asked his counterpart in Missouri, Governor Alexander McNair, to
7 8
Urquidi to the Secretario de Estado y del Despacho de Relaciones, 13 May 1825, AHD.
Notice of Escuderos request for a junta oral, 3 May 1825, libro 191, foja 01060, caja 32, Archivo Histrico Municipal de Ciudad Jurez (translated by Karina Romero).
9 4 May 1825, original copied from the archive of El Paso at Escuderos request and presented to him along with a letter of thanks from the ayuntamiento on 5 May 1825. Both documents copied from their originals in Washington, DC, on 3 January 1826, expediente 5-16-8613, AHD. 10
Ibid.
David J. Weber
inform the Pawnees that he demanded reparations and that further attacks would be met by war. Vizcarra also wanted McNair to know that a war on the Pawnees would inevitably spill across the international border, and he hoped that it would not strain relations between Mexico and the United States.11 McNair alerted the superintendent of Indian Affairs at St. Louis, William Clark, of Vizcarras concern and Clark, in turn, alerted his nephew, Benjamin OFallon, an Indian agent at Fort Atkinson. Built atop Council Bluff, on the Missouri River in present-day Nebraska in 18191820, to protect trading parties moving up and down the river, Fort Atkinson was then the most westerly fort in the United States.12 From this post, OFallon already knew of the troubles in New Mexico. He had received several messages from the governors or commandants of those [New Mexico] villages or settlements most exposed to the Panis [Pawnees]. Moreover, he reported to Clark, he had taken action. He had spoken to the Pawnees, and, on 1 August 1823, he had written to the Governor of Santa Fe offering to broker a peace treaty between Pawnees and New Mexicans. Negotiations for such a treaty, OFallon explained to Vizcarra, could best be reached at Fort Atkinson, which the Pawnees usually visited once or twice per annum. He invited the governor to come to the fort, or send a respectable deputation clothed with the necessary authority, any time in May or June of the next year. Along with his letter, OFallon sent a U.S. flag to serve as a passport that would allow Vizcarra or his representatives to pass through the lands of such tribes as are all subject to my control. OFallon offered his invitation under the guise of his feelings of humanity for New Mexicans, whose blood had been spilled by the Panis, and other nations of Indians, who reside within our Territory. It also seems likely that OFallons humanitarian impulses had been intensified by the opening of the Santa Fe trade in 1821. OFallon told Vizcarra that Americans had previously received bad treatment from New Mexico officials or else his government might have moved earlier to control Indian raiders.13
11 Vizcarra sent two letters containing this message to McNair on 2 September and 8 September 1823. For full translations of these documents, see James W. Covington, Correspondence between Mexican Officials at Santa Fe and Officials in Missouri: 18231825, Missouri Historical Society Bulletin 16 (October 1959): 234.
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OFallon referred to Fort Atkinsons site as Council Bluffs, but the site was generally known as Council Bluff, which is the designation used in the text so as to avoid confusion with Council Bluffs, Iowa.
13 William Clark wrote to OFallon on 24 April 1824, and OFallon replied on 7 May 1824, sending Clark a translated copy of the letter that he sent to the governor of Santa Fe on 1 August 1823. For full translations of both documents, see Covington, Correspondence, 215. For the original documents, see Benjamin OFallon Letterbook, 18231829, Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University (hereafter OFallon Letterbook). Clark wrote back to Vizcarra on 10 May, sending him a copy of OFallons letter of 7 May. Vizcarra expressed thanks and explained that he was no longer governor but retained military command in the province. Vizcarra to Clark, 1 November 1824, quoted in Covington, Correspondence, 289.
12
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Although he did not tell this to the New Mexico governor, OFallon reported to Clark that since winning their independence from Spain, the New Mexicans had treated enterprising Americans with hospitality and friendship. It would serve the interest of this country, as well as the motives of humanity, to end Indian raiding, which had also taken the lives of Americans on the confines of New Mexico.14 By the time OFallons letter reached New Mexico, Baca had succeeded Vizcarra as jefe poltico (political leader), and it fell to him to respond to the invitation. Writing in February 1824, Baca, a former militia captain and a one-time resident of El Paso, thanked OFallon and told him that he had consulted with his government and had received permission to send two commissioners to Fort Atkinson.15 The commissioners would leave New Mexico in May, prepared to negotiate with the Indian nations. To assure that his letter got through to OFallon, Baca sent it with messengers who carried the U.S. flag that OFallon had sent the previous summer.16 Although Baca did not reveal it to OFallon, he also considered sending troops to accompany the commissioners to Council Bluff in May, but, in the end, he could not spare them. He needed them to defend New Mexico against Indian raiders.17 Meanwhile, on the American frontier, a translation of Bacas letter aroused interest, and, although OFallon did not believe it, rumor expanded Bacas two commissioners into a full-fledged expedition of 1,500 men led by the governor himself.18 The source of this baseless but widely circulated story, a gentleman from Franklin, Missouri, reported that Baca intended to make an impression on the Indians in order to promote trade between Missouri and Santa Fe and would arrive at Council Bluff on or before 10 June.19 In May, while in St. Louis, OFallon learned that Bacas letter had arrived at Fort Atkinson. Expecting the New Mexico commissioners to arrive soon, he ordered one of his men at the fort to assemble Indians to meet with them. The Pawnees were the most important, but it would be desirable to have assembled all the Indians in
14 15
Benjamin OFallon to Clark, 9 July 1824, OFallon Letterbook.
For more on Bartolem Baca, see Lansing Bartlett Bloom, New Mexico under Mexican Administration, 18211846, Old Santa Fe 1 (October 1913): 166.
16 17
Bartolem Baca to OFallon, 24 February 1824, OFallon Letterbook.
On 13 June 1824, Baca asked New Mexicos Diputacin Provincial to devote a special session on 19 June to discuss the matter of sending troops to the Fuerte del Misuri. Microfilm, frame 208, reel 42, Journal of the Diputacin Provincial, Mexican Archives of New Mexico, State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe (hereafter Diputacin). If the meeting at Council Bluff did take place, it is not recorded in the minutes, and the minutes of the next meeting of the Diputacin Provincial, on 18 June, do not mention it. An English translation of Bacas letter appeared in St. Louis (MO) Enquirer, 24 May 1824; (Franklin) Missouri Intelligencer, 5 June 1824; (Little Rock) Arkansas Gazette, 15 June 1824; and perhaps other papers as well.
19 Missouri Intelligencer, 22 May 1824 and Niles Weekly Register (Baltimore, MD), 19 June 1824, which datelines the story as St. Charles, Missouri, 13 May. It probably appeared first in the (St. Louis) Missouri Gazette (called to my attention by Bloom, Mexican Administration, 16970). 18
David J. Weber
the vicinity of the Bluffs who have been depredating on the Spaniards or considered at all hostile to them.20 As soon as OFallon completed his business in St. Louis, he hurried back to Council Bluffs to meet the New Mexico delegation. Fearing that the New Mexicans might arrive before him, he abandoned a slow steamboat fifty miles below Fort Atkinson and traveled overland the rest of the way. He arrived on 1 July and told William Clark, to my astonishment and great disappointment I find that the Spaniards have not been heard of since the departure of the express in April last. He remained confident that they would arrive in a few days but at the same time worried that if they did not, they will be too late to see the Indians before the latter end of August or 1st of September next as they will be absent on hunting excursions until then. He hoped, though, that the New Mexico commissioners would have learned this from an intelligent french American who accompanied the New Mexico messenger back to Santa Fe the previous year, and who was well-acquainted with the movements of the Indians in this quarter.21 Finally, in mid-August, a group of twenty-six New Mexicans arrived at the whitewashed fort atop Council Bluff. They had left New Mexico around 7 July.22 At Fort Atkinson, the Spaniards, as OFallon persisted in calling these Mexicans who had ceased to be Spaniards in 1821, waited for three weeks for the Pawnees to show up, then listened uncomprehendingly while OFallon made an elegant speech in English to the Indians. He explained that one Don Gonzales, who was now before them, brought a letter from his Chief on the Subject of making peace with you. The New Mexico governor, OFallon said, had restrained himself from making war on the Pawnees because he knew that the Panis were living in my countryand he was afraid to bring War into my Country. He had heard that the Panis were my friends and he was afraid to raise his arm against my friends. He continued: Panisthe Spaniards have heard a great deal about me, and have great confidence in meWhat I wish them to dothey will doand what I tell you to do you must doNow I shall tell the Spaniards to remain still, and view the Panis hereafter as friends and treat them as such. I now tell you Panis not to disturb the Spaniards but view them as friends and treat them as such. You Panis and Spaniards must be at peaceand from this day if the Spaniards disturb the Panis unless I tell them to do so, the Spaniards will disturb mehereafter, if the Panis disturb the Spaniards unless I tell them to do sothe Panis disturb me.
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20 OFallon to John Dougherty, 19 May 1824, OFallon Letterbook. Dougherty had been at the fort when the messenger arrived from Santa Fe and talked with him. 21 22
OFallon to Clark, 9 July 1824 (italics in original). OFallon to Henry Atkinson, 13 August 1824, OFallon Letterbook.
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I have no more to say to you about the Spaniards. You are at peace, and I will proclaim it to the Spaniardsas you must do (on your return) to the rest of your people.23 A treaty with the Pawnees would soon follow, at the end of September, but no formal treaty seems to have come from this mid-August meeting. OFallon, however, believed he had established peace and described the event when he descended the Missouri in September and visited with a newspaper editor at the Missouri Intelligencer in the little river town of Franklin. The Spaniards, OFallon reported, were highly delighted at the attention paid by our government to the request of their governor. The Pawnees, whom OFallon described as having 2,000 well-armed warriors, had been the terror of the Spaniards, making off with horses, mules, and other property. Now OFallon had established peace between the belligerants [sic], and this plundering warfare is no longer to be carried on.24 OFallons diplomacy notwithstanding, the Santa Fe Trail remained a dangerous place. Governor Baca hoped to travel to Fort Atkinson in the spring of 1825 to talk personally with OFallon, but that proved impossible. Baca suffered daily and serious illnesses and, more important, he lacked supplies to give customary gifts to Indians. Indeed, New Mexico was so impoverished, he said, that it did not have the means to equip twenty soldiers for service.25 So much for the rumor of New Mexico sending 1,500 soldiers to Fort Atkinson or defending itself from hostile Indians. Unable to meet with OFallon himself but eager to find a way to work with his counterparts in the United States, Baca turned to the legislator from Chihuahua who had recently arrived in Santa Fe. Flattering Escudero, Baca observed that he had already demonstrated his outstanding merit and love for the country by bringing peace to the quarreling inhabitants of El Paso. Now the government of New Mexico sought to enlist Escuderos proven skills and generous spirit on an assignment to bring peace to its territory. The barbarous nations besieged all the expanse of this territory, Baca told Escudero, leaving it in such a state of decline that if the government of the United States does not offer its help, in short order the territory will be totally destroyed. He granted Escudero the power to negotiate any agreement that would stop the Indians, even if it meant the absolute destruction of the Indians. Moreover, Baca gave Escudero full powers to treat with the president or government of the United States.26 Escudero accepted the governors commission on the day it was offered, 9 June. The task, he humbly explained, was without the least doubt beyond my weak strength and limited abilities, but he selflessly accepted for the good of the country.27
OFallon to the Grand Panis, Panis Loups, and Panis Republics, 7 September 1824, OFallon Letterbook.
24 25 26 27 23
Missouri Intelligencer, 25 September 1824. Baca to Antonio Narbona, 30 January 1826, expediente 5-9-8159, AHD. Baca to Escudero, 9 June 1825, expediente 5-9-8159, AHD. Ibid.
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The trading caravan to the United States probably left Santa Fe at the end of May, before Escudero had completed his business with Baca, but he overtook the slow-moving wagons. The party included fellow Mexicansamong them Rumualdo Garca from Sonora, Ramn Garca from Chihuahua, and their servantsand AngloAmericans such as Meredith Miles Marmaduke, a future governor of Missouri.28 Marmaduke had spent the previous eleven months in Santa Fe and, like other AngloAmerican merchants, had found the New Mexicans friendly and quite happy and contented in their miserable priest-ridden situation. New Mexicos lower class, he said, contained the most miserable, wretched poor creatures that I have ever seen.29 Well-to-do Mexicans like Escudero, however, would have had much in common with the Anglo-American traders. Traveling with Americans for two months, Escudero probably acquired some command of English and some knowledge of the country he was about to visit. When the caravan reached the United States, a St. Louis newspaper reported that it contained seventeen Americans and twenty-three Mexicans, the latter from El Paso, Chihuahua, and Sonora. Among the Mexicans, the newspaper reported, in a clear reference to Escudero, was a gentleman of wealth and distinction in his own country, a member of the Mexican Congress [the paper mistook the Chihuahua Congress for the national Congress], but whose name we cannot undertake to write from the pronunciation we have heard of it.30 The traders had started out from Santa Fe with over 600 mules and horses, it would appear, and one of the Mexicans had brought 8,000 sheep. One hundred miles from the New Mexico settlements, however, the Mexican sent his sheep back to Santa Fe. Americans traveling with the caravan had argued that the rigors of traveling through a dry country infested with treacherous and thievish Indians made it impractical to push on to Missouri with the livestock. The Mexican, the paper said, yielded to these representations so far as to send back his sheep, but not to admit the impracticability of his enterprise. His argument was that sheep were driven annually from Santa Fe to Mexico City, a distance of fifteen hundred miles, often crossing mountains, sometimes traversing arid deserts whole days without water, and passing numerous tribes of
Narbona to the Secretara de Relaciones Exteriores (responding to an inquiry about the trading caravan of 1825), 4 March 1826, original copied from AHD, box 2-22-617, Manning Transcripts, Texas State Archives and Library, Austin. Meredith Miles Marmaduke, Extracts from a Journal of a Tour from Boons Lick, in Missouri, to the Province of New Mexico in the Republic of Mexico, (St. Louis) Missouri Republican, 19 September 1824. Marmaduke said that he left Santa Fe for the United States on 31 May 1825. His presence on the same caravan with Escudero is confirmed by an entry in Kate L. Gregg, ed., The Road to Santa Fe: The Journal and Diaries of George Champlin Sibley. . . . (Albuquerque, 1952), 54. From the Internal Provinces, Washington (DC) Gazette, 16 September 1825, reprinted from an article that appeared in a St. Louis newspaper, 12 September 1825. The article reported that the forty-person caravan left Santa Fe on 27 May. Pablo Obregn sent a Spanish translation of this article to the Secretara de Relaciones Exteriores on 9 December 1825.
30 29 28
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Indians in a state of permanent hostility to all Mexicans.31 The unnamed Mexican was right. Since the Spanish colonial era, New Mexicans had sent sheep southward over the Chihuahua Trail through dangerous and dry country.32 Traveling another fifty miles or so after the sheep turned back toward Santa Fe, the forty-person caravan caught up with a group of thirty-five men from Tennessee. Increased numbers, however, did not mean increased safety. On 14 July, in the middle of todays Kansas, the combined caravans encountered a large group of Osages returning from a buffalo hunt. The Osages, according to a newspaper account, robbed the party of 120 to 150 horses and mules (accounts varied), and many of the party, especially the Mexicans, were beat with sticks, apparently to provoke hostilities to serve as a pretext for a general robbery and massacre.33 Outnumbered by the Osages, the men endured the beating and avoided further bloodshed. Ten days later, on 24 July, Escuderos party encountered a group of Americans sent out by the U.S. government to survey the new trail to Santa Fe. Thinking the surveyors were Indians, the traders began to flee. Meanwhile, some of the surveying party, supposing the traders were Indians, fled in the opposite direction. The mutual flight stopped only when a small group from the surveying party, who had been sent to pursue the supposed Indians, gained ground on the traders. The two groups, in the words of one of the surveyors, soon discovered their mistake and halted. Mutual explanations took place & the affair turned out to be a matter of amusement.34 When the surveyors learned that one of the traders, Escudero, was an agent of the Mexican Government, they were eager to talk with him. They supposed he represented the national government, rather than the governor of New Mexico, and understood that his business was relative to the intercourse between the two countries. If so, perhaps he had been authorized to negotiate an agreement that would enable the Americans to continue their survey in Mexican territory all the way to Santa Fe. Permission had not arrived from Mexico before the surveyors left the Missouri settlements, and Escudero quickly disabused them of the notion that his government had authorized him to make such arrangements.35 The Osage attack on the caravan led an anonymous member of the party to opine hyperbolically in the pages of the Missouri Intelligencer that [p]erhaps in no instance whatever has there ever been such a violent and unprovoked outrage committed by Indians under the control of the government, against its citizens. He demanded that the government take action to stop further raiding by Indians. All legislating on the subject of the trade would be useless . . . unless security and protection is given to it
31 32
Ibid. John O. Baxter, Las Carneradas: Sheep Trade in New Mexico, 17001860 (Albuquerque, Internal Provinces.
1987).
33 34
Entry for 24 July 1825, diary of Thomas Mather, Thomas Mather Papers, Everett D. Graff Collection, Newberry Library (reference courtesy of Marc Simmons).
35
Ibid.
David J. Weber
by the government.36 Another writer, purporting to represent the whole community of Boons Lick, urged that Missourians not wait for the government to act to gain redress but act in self-defense with their unerring rifles.37 A national newspaper, Niles Weekly Register, also carried a report of the episode, and journalists and politicians called for action against the Osage.38 Escudero was among those who lost his property. He and the other Mexicans in the party stopped at the first of the Missouri settlements to refresh themselves and the horses. From there, a St. Louis paper learned, the prominent Mexican with the difficult name will go on to Washington city [sic] from the laudable desire to become personally acquainted with the people and institutions of our country.39 Escudero reached St. Louis in late August, where the local press learned more about him and his mission, and even how to spell his name. One paper noted that Don Manuel Simon de Escudero was a deputy in the provincial congress of the State of Chihuahua and that he brought a letter from the governor of New Mexico that forcibly urges upon the United States the necessity of co-operating with him for the purpose of putting an end to the robberies and murders which the Indians commit between Missouri and Mexico, and which are so prejudicial to the commerce carried on between the two countries. Escudero himself, the paper pointed out, had been robbed by the Osage. The journalist who interviewed Escudero also got a look at the documents he carried, noting that they came from the Free, Sovereign, and independent State of Chihuahua, and are stamped with the words, God and Liberty. The main object of Escuderos visit, the correspondent learned, is to make himself acquainted with the people and institutions of the United States, for which purpose he proposes 40 to remain about twelve months. In St. Louis, Escudero contacted William Clark, who had held the position of superintendent of Indian Affairs since Thomas Jefferson had appointed him nearly two decades earlier, and who had responsibility for relations with Indians throughout the western borderlands of the United States. First, Escudero presented Clark with a request for indemnification from the U.S. government for the losses he sustained while traveling in U.S. territory.41 Second, Escudero sent Clark his passport from
One of the Company, reprinted from the Missouri Intelligencer, 5 August 1825. See also Willard H. Rollings, Compromises, chap. 8 in The Osage: An Ethnohistorical Study of Hegemony on the Prairie-Plains (Columbia, MO, 1992), 21356.
37 38 39 40 36
427
An anonymous letter signed Boons Lick, En masse, Missouri Intelligencer, 5 August 1825. For a short notice based on other press reports, see Niles Weekly Register, 24 September 1825. Internal Provinces.
Washington Gazette, 29 September 1825 (italics in original); Niles Weekly Register, 8 October 1825; Portsmouth (NH) Journal of Literature and Politics, 8 October 1825; and Times and Hartford (CT) Advertiser, 11 October 1825, all summarized and paraphrased that same article from a St. Louis paper, 3 September 1825. A St. Louis newspaper reported on 3 September 1825 that Escudero had submitted his claim, reprinted in the Washington Gazette, 29 September 1825.
41
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Governor Urquidi of Chihuahua and his commission from New Mexicos Governor Baca to seek cooperation in suppressing Indian attacks in the borderlands between Mexico and the United States.42 Clark replied by assuring Escudero that the U.S. government also wanted to end Indian depredations on the frontiers of both countries and secure commerce along the Santa Fe Trail. He thought it probable that an arrangement will be made between the governments [of Mexico and the United States] through their ambassadors, for either party to pursue the Indians on the territories of the others, when they commit robberies or other crimes. Clark expressed regret, however, that he lacked authority to deal with foreign countries. The business of treating with foreign nations belongs exclusively to the President of the United States, he told Escudero.43 If it occurred to Escudero that in his country treating with foreign nations might reside exclusively with the president of Mexico, from whom he had no authorization, it did not deter him. The beginning of the new year found him in Washington, DC, where he apparently hoped to fulfill his mission by meeting with President John Quincy Adams.44 One of the citys newspapers misidentified him as a member of the Mexican Congress, and another newspaper reported that he was allowed the privilege of entrance into the 45 Halls of both Houses of Congress, which is allowed to functionaries of Foreign Powers. Escuderos diplomatic mission did not please Mexicos minister plenipotentiary in Washington, Pablo Obregn. Three months earlier, Obregn had read of Escuderos arrival in St. Louis with authorization from the governor of New Mexico to take measures of security against the deaths and robberies that savage Indians commit. Obregn reported the arrival of Escudero to the Mexican secretary of state, who immediately ordered that Baca explain the reason for this expedition.46 In mid-January 1826, Obregn heard Escuderos story firsthand and read Bacas instructions.47 Annoyed that the governor of New Mexico Territory would send a
42 Clark transmitted an English translation of the Chihuahua passport to his superior, James Barbour, the Secretary of War, with a letter dated 4 October 1825. Covington, Correspondence, 30, 32. 43 44
Ibid.
For more on Escuderos arrival in Washington, see Daily National Journal (Washington, DC), 5 January 1826. Baltimore (MD) Gazette and Daily Advertiser, 6 January 1826 and Baltimore (MD) Patriot, 6 January 1826, both articles reprinted from the National Intelligencer (Washington, DC). This article was also picked up by the Richmond (VA) Enquirer on 12 January 1826 and perhaps other papers as well.
46 Pablo Obregn to the Secretario de Estado, 1 October 1825, expediente 5-9-8159, AHD. Scratched onto Obregns letter is the notation que a la mayor brevedad le informe circumstancialmente sobre . . . los motivos de tal expedicin. For a more accessible version of this document, see William R. Manning, Early Diplomatic Relations between the United States and Mexico (Baltimore, 1916), 2430. 45
Jos Agustn de Escudero observed that his relative met with Obregn to insure the success of his mission. Carroll and Haggard, ed. and trans., Three New Mexico Chronicles, 115.
47
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merchant to negotiate with American officials, Obregn explained to Escudero that it would be inappropriate for him or Baca to treat with a foreign government. He was right. Under Mexicos 1824 constitution, only the central government had power to enter into agreements with other countries.48 The conversation ended well nonetheless. Escudero, Obregn reported to his government, was easily convinced that the authority he brought from the governor of New Mexico was insufficient to negotiate 49 with the President, and he has resolved to return to his country. Obregn also drew a larger lesson. The whole affair, he told his superiors in Mexico, suggested the need to instruct governors of frontier territories concerning the manner of dealing with foreign authorities. This would discourage governors from begging help, as Baca had done, and prevent sending inexpert people, although motivated by the best intentions, from undertaking costly journeys without achieving their objective. Obregn went on to explain to his government that he did not believe that it would have sent an agent without informing him, despite what he read in the newspapers, and that he did what he could to prevent any discredit that Escudero might cause.50 While Escudero received Obregns unpleasant news in Washington, Baca had received his governments request to justify sending Escudero to the United States. Baca repeated the story of OFallons overture and how illness prevented him from making the journey himself. He had asked Escudero to take his place and Escudero had agreed to do so at his own expense, thus costing the government nothing. Baca also claimed that he had received official permission to meet OFallon and enter into 51 an agreement with the savage Indians. Baca may indeed have received permission from Mexico City to sign a joint treaty with OFallon. Officials came and went in the ministries of the new government in Mexico City, and the memory of granting that permission may have disappeared. Escudero spent late 1825 and early 1826 in the United States before heading home. His wagons loaded with merchandise, Escudero arrived in Franklin on 5 June, where the newspaper reported:
48 49
429
Constitucin de 1824, ttulo 6, seccin tercera, no. 162, iv.
Obregn to the Secretario de Estado, 16 January 1826, expediente 5-9-8159, AHD and Manning, Diplomatic Relations, 178. Don Manuel communicated his plans to Seor Obregn and exhibited to him all the documents he had in his possession concerning the matter. Obregn replied on 5 January, in writing, and don Manuel then sent a report of his activities to the Mexican government through Obregn, who acknowledged receipt of it on 12 January. We have copies of these documents before us. Carroll and Haggard, ed. and trans., Three New Mexico Chronicles, 115.
50 51
Obregn to the Secretario de Estado, 16 January 1826, AHD.
The Mexican governments query to the governor of New Mexico, 9 December 1825, reached Bacas successor, Antonio Narbona, who asked Baca for an explanation. Baca replied to Narbona on 30 January 1826, and Narbona forwarded Bacas reply to the government on 4 February 1826, expediente 5-9-8159, AHD (italics in original).
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Six or seven new and substantial[ly] built waggons arrived in this place on Tuesday last, heavily laden with merchandise, on their way to New Mexico, owned exclusively, we believe, by Mr. Escudero, a native of that country, and who accompanies his valuable adventure. This gentleman has expended a very large sum in the purchase of goods, waggons and equipments. This may be considered as a new era in the commerce between Mexico and this country, and it is probable the example of Mr. E. will be followed by others of his rich countrymen, who will bring hither large portions of their surplus wealth, for the same purpose.52 The week before Escuderos arrival, a party of eighty to one hundred men had left Franklin, and Escudero may have caught up with them. The local paper touted their prospects, suggesting that some of them would return to the states with the foundations of many fortunes. The newspaper also caught the spirit of the Santa Fe trade that has come down to us today in popular literature: It has the air of romance to see splendid pleasure carriages, with elegant horses, journeying to the Republic of Mexico; yet it is sober reality. In fact the obstacles exist rather in the imagination than in real53 ity. Nature has made a fine road the whole distance. When Escudero returned from the United States is not clear. One of his countrymen who traveled with him, Ramn Garca, left Santa Fe for El Paso and Sonora in September 1826.54 By mid-October 1826, however, it appears that Escudero had yet to return home to Chihuahua.55 Meanwhile, he had become the object of suspicion in New Mexico. On 10 April 1826, while Escudero was still in Missouri, New Mexico governor Antonio Narbona had asked the parish priest at Taos, Padre Antonio Jos Martnez, to intercept any letters that Americans returning to their countryor their servants, or friends of the Americansmight be carrying to Escudero. Escudero went from enjoying the trust of Governor Baca to the distrust of Governor Narbona. What Narbona expected to find is not clear, but he told Martnez that his success would depend on his ability to carry out his mission quietly. He should keep his instructions secret and not reveal them to anyone, not even the local alcalde. However, if he needed the alcaldes assistance to
Missouri Intelligencer, 9 June 1826 (italics in original). On his outward journey, Escudero did have other Mexican companions.
53 54 52
Missouri Intelligencer, 2 June 1826.
Book of Guas, Santa Fe, 18261828, in David J. Weber, ed. and trans., The Extranjeros: Selected Documents from the Mexican Side of the Santa Fe Trail, 18251828 (Santa Fe, 1967), 31.
55 I infer this because Dr. Rowland Willard, then practicing in Chihuahua, knew Escuderos family and knew he was in the United States on 16 October 1826. For example, Willard dined with Jos Agustn de Escudero without mentioning that don Manuel had returned. Entries for 15 February and 17 October 1826, Rowland Willards diary, 18251827, Rowland Willard-Elizabeth S. Willard Papers, 18221921, Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. I am grateful to Joy Poole, deputy state librarian of New Mexico, for sharing her transcription of this difficult-to-read diary.
David J. Weber
seize the letters, he was to enlist his aid, get the letters, and deliver them unopened to the governor.56 Mexican officials had not only become concerned about Escuderos connection with the Americans but with the Americans themselves, many of whom had made Martnezs remote hometown of Taos their New Mexico home away from home. The government in Mexico City had become rightly concerned that Americans were trapping beaver and exporting their pelts with little benefit to Mexicans as well as possibly avoiding the payment of customs duties.57 Escudero may have stayed in Santa Fe for some months after his return from the United States. The day of 9 January 1827 found him there when a fellow Santa Fe trader brought him before alcalde Juan Baca Chvez. Louis de Thier, a Belgian-born medical doctor who had settled in St. Louis, claimed that Escudero owed him money.58 Rather than dispute the debt, Escudero disputed the authority of the alcalde. Compelled to appear in Bacas court, Escudero argued in lawyerly fashion that at age twenty-two, Baca was not old enough to hold the office of alcalde and that he would not obey him. As Baca reported it, Escudero yelled at him and called him inept and other insulting names. Escudero apparently walked out of the courtroom. Scandalized, Baca took a statement from de Thier and George West, both of whom had apparently witnessed Escuderos outburst. Then Baca took two soldiers and went to Escuderos residence to compel him to obey his orders. Escudero again refused, this time calling Baca a fool and telling him, according to Baca, that he was more man than I and the two soldiers and that he had good pistols, making a gesture then to go and get them. Putting prudence ahead of valor, Baca retreated to Narbonas house to get two more soldiers, then returned to Escuderos residence to arrest him. More restrained this time, Escudero submitted to arrest but continued to maintain that Baca lacked authority to serve as alcalde. Baca took Escudero to the casas consistoriales of the city.
56 Narbona to Antonio Jos Martnez, 10 April 1826, Benjamin M. Read Collection, New Mexico State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe and David J. Weber, On the Edge of Empire: The Taos Hacienda of los Martnez (Santa Fe, 1996), 63. 57 For more on the Mexican governments attempts to impose limits on foreigners trapping beaver in New Mexico, see David J. Weber, The Taos Trappers: The Fur Trade in the Far Southwest, 15401846 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971), 667, 1036. Since the publication of Taos Trappers, a private collection has yielded a copy of the order from the Ministro de la Secretara de Estado, 6 June 1824, ordering Governor Baca to not allow foreigners to hunt beaver in the province. Doc. 73, Sender Collection, Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico.
431
De Thiers name is rendered in Spanish documents in several ways. One document, which identifies him as leaving Taos and bound for Missouri on 6 April 1827, identified him as Luis Dethiers. Weber, ed. and trans., Extranjeros, 37. His name appears again on a list of foreigners who arrived in New Mexico in November 1827, where he is identified as Louis De Eheirs, a medical doctor from St. Louis, born in Liege. Ibid., 43. On 20 December 1827, when he was back in Santa Fe asking for a gua, or trade permit, to travel to Chihuahua and Sonora, his name was rendered Luis de Fies. Ibid., 33. In his case against Escudero, the alcalde rendered his name Luis de Tien.
58
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At this point, the archival paper trail in this case runs out, but not before revealing that Escudero had a fiery temper.59 Escuderos eruption in court and his ploy of questioning the alcaldes credentials, rather than paying his debt to de Thier, probably reflected his anxiety about his financial circumstances. He had purchased a considerable amount of merchandise in the United States to ship to Mexico, and he bought some of that merchandise on credit. In Philadelphia, he borrowed $3,000 from the Quaker mercantile firm of Wistar, Siter, & Price to relieve him from the difficulties of pressing debts, as the firm later explained. Escudero had also persuaded the firm to serve as guarantors for at least one debt of $800 that the firm paid for him. All in all, Escuderos bill at the firm totaled $4,774.43. By the spring of 1827, Wistar, Siter, & Price had given up trying to collect from Escudero, and it tried to get the Mexican government to pay his bill from customs revenues at the port of Tampico. In March 1828, the firm also appealed directly to Joel Roberts Poinsett, who then served as Americas minister to Mexico, to help them recover the money. However imprudent we may have been, the three partners told Poinsett, [h]e has been guilty of an ingratitude which we could hardly have anticipated.60 For his part, Escudero blamed his troubles on the Osage Indians who stole his property in July of 1825. Along with others of his party, he pressed a claim against the U.S. government, since the robbery had occurred on U.S. soil. The government, as Secretary of State Henry Clay told Poinsett, caused ample redress to be made to him, although it seems unlikely that Escudero had received payment at the time that de Thier took him to court.61 Poinsett, influenced by Wistar, Siter, & Price, did not believe that the Osage had taken valuable property from Escudero but that he had deceived the U.S. government. His countrymen, Poinsett wrote in a private letter to Clay in April 1827, do not believe a word of his having been plundered by the Osage Indians; and he is in other respects a man so utterly worthless, that I doubt his story altogether. I have had occasion to enquire and know something of this mans character from the circumstance of his having obtained money and goods to a large amount from some of our most respectable merchants in Philadelphia, who have applied to me to endeavour to recover the amount. From all I can learn, this will prove a fruitless task,
Baca to Narbona, with accompanying documents describing the events of 9 January and 10 January 1824, frames 16172, reel 7, Diputacin.
60 Wistar, Siter, & Price to Joel Roberts Poinsett, 11 March 1828, box 1, folder 3, Poinsett Papers, United States Legation in Mexico Papers, 18211843, Howard Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University (hereafter Poinsett Papers) (authors emphasis). As is clear from Poinsetts letter to Clay (cited in footnote 61), the firm began appealing to him sometime before 13 April 1827. 61 Henry Clay to Poinsett, 5 January 1827, in Carlos Bosch Garca, ed., Documentos de la relacon de Mxico con los Estados Unidos (Noviembre de 1824diciembre de 1829), vol. 1, El mester politico de Poinsett (Mexico City, 1983), 21920. 59
David J. Weber
and I much fear they have been defrauded by a man who I understand, was well recommended.62 Escudero continued in the Santa Fe trade in 1827. On 1 July of that year, a relative and fellow member of the Chihuahua elite, Sr. Licenciado don Jos Agustn de Escudero received a permit in don Manuels name from the customs house in Santa Fe to send 346 pesos worth of foreign merchandise to Chihuahua. There, a Luis Escudero would receive them. Whether don Manuel was still in Santa Fe that July is not clear, but Jos Agustn was.63 Perhaps one of the more enduring results of don Manuels failed diplomacy was that he introduced Jos Agustn to New Mexico and the Santa Fe trade. Jos Agustn went on to produce an important book on New Mexico, Noticias histricas y estadisticas de la Antigua provincia del Nuevo-Mxico, published in 1849.64 He also wrote a ringing condemnation of the ways that American traders avoided paying tariffs to the Mexican governmentan expos that led to the reform of the Santa Fe customs house and the appointment of a new administrator.65 Although we do not know when don Manuel came home to Chihuahua from his visits to New Mexico and the United States, it is clear that he returned to trouble rather than laurels. On 19 October 1825, even before he reached Washington, the Chihuahua legislature, having learned of his trip to St. Louis, censured him in no uncertain terms. The honorable Congreso Constituyente of the free State of Chihuahua, having taken in consideration the abuse that Deputy Don Manuel Simon de Escudero committed by having gone off to a foreign power without a suitable license, and overstaying the two months that the Congress gave him for a trip to the territory of New Mexico, has found it well to decree:
Poinsett to Clay, 13 April 1827, in ibid., 25. For the original copy of this document, see box 1, folder 3, Poinsett Papers.
63 Guas, in Weber, ed. and trans., Extranjeros, 32. Jos Agustn later wrote that he was in Santa Fe that year. Carroll and Haggard, ed. and trans., Three New Mexico Chronicles, 2. I have not been able to identify the relationship between Jos Agustn and don Manuel. Born 22 June 1801, in Parral, Mexico, Jos Agustn could have been a younger brother of don Manuel, who was born in 1783, or perhaps a nephew. He studied law in Mexico City and Guadalajara and moved to Chihuahua in 1824, about the same time that don Manuel did. There, beginning in 1825, when he was elected a member of the city council, he occupied a number of city and state offices. Beginning in 1833, he represented Chihuahua in the Mexican Senate for five terms and was a deputy to the Mexican Congress for two terms. Learned and scholarly, he published books about Chihuahua, Durango, Sonora, and Sinaloa as well as New Mexico. For more biographical information on Jos Agustn, see Rafael Espinosa, Biografa del seor licenciado don Jos Agustn Escudero, Boletn de la Sociedad Mexicana de Geografa y Estadstica 10, no. 6 (1863): 379; Francisco Sosa, Biografas de mexicanos distinguidos (Mexico City, 1884), 3514; and Almada, biografa chihuahuenses, 1923. 64 65 62
433
Carroll and Haggard, ed. and trans., Three New Mexico Chronicles, 2.
Jos Agustn to Jos Antonio Chvez, 1 April 1839, is referenced and transcribed in Albert William Bork, Nuevos aspectos del comercio entre Nuevo Mxico y Misuri (Mexico City, PhD diss., Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico, 1944), 75, 1247.
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1 that the Deputy Don Manuel de Escudero has been unworthy of the public trust. 2 That his daily salary [as a deputy] will be paid for the term of the expressed license [to visit New Mexico] and not for more.66 Escudero asked the legislature to repeal its censure, and it did so in September 1827, ordering that the repeal be printed and distributed in Chihuahua.67 The case that Escudero made to clear himself can only be imagined, but it apparently consisted of the presentation of the documents that demonstrated that he had acted on behalf of Governor Baca of New Mexico. Jos Agustn had these and other documents related to don Manuels journey to Washington in his possession when he prepared his book on New Mexico. Don Manuel, Jos Agustn wrote, made the trip from Mexico to the United States at his own expense and, in a grievous journey, sustained a great financial loss. Don Manuel, Jos Agustn argued, had no plans to engage in diplomacy until asked to do so by Baca.68 Sr. Licenciado don Manuel Simn de Escudero overcame his financial difficulties and his censure by his fellow deputies to become a mine owner and a judge. He died in 1840.69 Beyond that, we know little about him. His venture into international commerce and diplomacy, however, opens a window on a brief, hopeful moment in early U.S.Mexico relations. In 1825 officials in New Mexico and Missouri thought that Indians might be brought under control along the Santa Fe Trail, making it safe for commerce. If Escudero believed that too, his hopes must have been dashed when Osages robbed his party and when his countrys minister to the United States, Pablo Obregn, told him that his commission from the governor of New Mexico did not empower him to represent Mexico in Washington. Obregn himself did no better at securing the Santa Fe Trail. He had reached Washington in November of 1824, the fourth minister appointed to that post and the second to actually arrive. Four years later, ill and lacking sufficient funds from his government to live in comfort, he ended his life by hanging himself in the Mexican legation in Washington, DC.70 National diplomacy did no better than frontier diplomacy. Comanches, Kiowas, and Pawnees continued to attack traders on the road between New Mexico and Missouri and U.S.-Mexico relations deteriorated into what
66 Copia de las leyes y decretos expedidos por el Honorable Congreso de Chihuahua, Gobernacin, legajo 41-A, expediente 23, foja 5 reverso, Archivo General de la Nacin, Mexico City (hereafter Gobernacin). I read and took notes on this document years ago, and I am grateful to Alan Omar vila for relocating both this and the following document after the archival numbers had changed. 67 A decreto reporting on the decision of the Congreso Constitutional de Chihuahua, 15 September 1827, printed and circulated by order of Jos Antonio de Bustamante, legajo 41-A, expediente 9, foja 21, Gobernacin. 68 69 70
Almada, biografa chihuahuenses, 193. Carroll and Haggard, ed. and trans., Three New Mexico Chronicles, 114. Manning, Diplomatic Relations, 2430, 16689.
David J. Weber
one specialist in this era called the quibblings and misunderstandings that poisoned relations between the United States and Mexico in the years leading up to the war of 18461847.71
435
71 Ibid., ix. For a discussion of the continuing Indian raiding, see Stephen G. Hyslop, Conflict at the Crossing, chap. 10 in Bound for Santa Fe: The Road to New Mexico and the American Conquest, 18061848 (Norman, 2002), 16280.

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Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/westhistquar.43.4.0417 . Accessed: 20/02/2014 17:45

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Benjamin OFallon to Clark, 9 July 1824, OFallon Letterbook.

Bartolem Baca to OFallon, 24 February 1824, OFallon Letterbook.

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Constitucin de 1824, ttulo 6, seccin tercera, no. 162, iv.

Obregn to the Secretario de Estado, 16 January 1826, AHD.

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Missouri Intelligencer, 2 June 1826.

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