of legation, has been attentively considered. It would have afforded the President sincere pleasure to give that evidence of his confidence in Mr. Mason, and of his desire to promote his success in the pursuit to which he has devoted so much of his time, could this have been done consistently with his views of the public interest. He is, however, constrained, by considerations which it is not necessary here to state, to believe that the selection of Mr. Mason would, under existing circumstances, be inconsistent with the reasons which have induced his consent to your return. His views on the subject have been communicated to General Mason, and, I am happy to be able to say, meet with his concurrence. The President has conferred the appointment on Colonel Anthony Butler, of the State of Mississippi, who possesses qualifications peculiarly adapted to the station, and who will probably have arrived at Mexico before this despatch comes to your hands. Colonel Butler's commission, instructions, and other papers, are herewith sent. You will, in the event of its becoming necessary by your determination to return, embrace the earliest opportunity to present this gentleman to the Government of Mexico in his official character, and to instruct him fully in the unfinished business of the legation. On taking leave of President Guerrero, the President directs you to say that the United States are now, as they always have been, sincerely anxious to cultivate and maintain the most friendly relations with the republic of Mexico; that, the misrepresentations of the enemies of both to the contrary notwithstanding, it is nevertheless undeniably true that, from the foundation of that republic to the present day, every act of this Government towards her has been in strict accordance with the dictates of sincere and disinterested friendship; and that he considers himself as affording renewed evidence of the continuance of this friendly concern for her success and welfare in the promptness with which he renews the diplomatic relations between the two countries, interrupted by your retirement under circumstances the nature and tendency of which no one more fully understands or can better appreciate than President Guerrero; that it gives him pain to be compelled to view the course of the Mexican Government towards this country as altogether the reverse of what it would have been if the friendly and just sentiments of the United States had been as cordially reciprocated as they were sincerely entertained; that your successor has been fully instructed to represent, respectfully, but freely and firmly, the particular facts and circumstances which have forced this conclusion upon the mind of the President, and is authorized and directed to contribute all in his power to subdue unjust prejudices, and work out a more auspicious state of things. He desires you, also, to express his apprehension that, unless a marked change is effected in the relations between the two countries, and that speedily, it will not, with the best intentions on his part, be in his power to prevent irritations, and possible collisions, which could not fail to prove injurious to the best interests of both republics, and to bring discredit on the cause of free government. He is persuaded that no one would more bitterly deplore so calamitous a result than President Guerrero; and he therefore enjoins it upon you to solicit his good offices for the preservation of peace and honest friendship, and authorizes you to promise a sincere and hearty cooperation on his part in whatever shall be calculated to promote them. The President considers it due to you, that in your interviews with the public functionaries of Mexico, you should be at liberty to speak without reserve of the election given in relation to your retirement; being fully satisfied that this permission will be used only so far as may be necessary to the vindication and preservation of your character, and at all times in subserviency to the permanent interests of your country. I am, with great respect, your obedient servant, JOEL R. POINSETT, Esq. M. VAN BUREN. Envoy Extraordinary and Min. Plen. U. S. at Mexico. OCTOBER 17, 1829. P. S. After this despatch had been fully prepared, and when the messenger was upon the point of leaving the city, a communication was received at this Department from the chargé d'affaires of the United Mexican States, requesting your recall in the name of his Government. In making this request, the Mexican Government exercises a right secured to it by the public law; and the motives which have influenced it in the adoption of the measure, as explained by Mr. Montoya, are, moreover, such as to entitle it to the most respectful consideration of the President, and to leave him, in his judgment, no alternative but that of a compliance with the application thus made on the part of the President of Mexico: He is, therefore, constrained to revoke the election above given you to remain or return according to circumstances, and to direct a discontinuance of your official functions as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States near the Government of the United Mexican States. The terms of the preceding communication, prepared before this application was made, will speak for the personal feelings of the President; and he looks to your intelligence and patriotism for a ready acquiescence on your part in the necessity of the course he has adopted. The delay unavoidably attendant upon any other, and the consequent danger to the public interest, would constitute insuperable objections to its adoption. It is proper that I should say that the communication made to this Government by that of Mexico has evidently not originated in feelings of unkindness towards you personally. It alleges that public opinion has pronounced against you, in the most general, decided, and conclusive manner, in nearly all the States of the confederacy. It does not, however, affirm the truth of the charges which have been made against you, otherwise or farther than might be inferred from its statements that the public clamor against you has extended itself to the public authorities, to men of education, and to many who have been heretofore regarded as your friends. The President can well conceive that, in a state of things like that which exists in Mexico, there may be found sufficient motives for men of intelligence, including even those who, under other circumstances, would wish to be regarded as your friends, to yield themselves to the prevailing current, without being convinced of its justice. In the absence of a contrary allegation on the part of the Mexican Government, and confiding in your assurances, he still allows himself to believe that the prejudices which exist against you are without just cause. He therefore directs me to say to you that your recall is not to be regarded as founded on the assumption of ascertained misconduct; but on grounds reconcileable with your innocence of the imputations which have been cast upon you. This communication, together with the papers for Colonel Butler, will be delivered to you by Lieutenant Andrew Ross, of the marine corps, who is despatched as a special messenger for the purpose, and on whose intelligence, fidelity, and firmness the most implicit reliance may be placed. Among the papers will be found a copy of the instructions given by the Navy Department to Captain Conner, of the Erie, by which he is directed to obey your wishes in regard to your return in that vessel, if it should be most agreeable to you to do so. You will please deliver to Colonel Butler the papers intended for him, in a suitable time after the receipt of them; and the President submits it to your discretion to make such a modification of your address to President Guerrero, on taking leave of him, as is rendered proper by the character of this addition to your original instructions. Herewith, marked B, is your letter of recall, with a copy of the same, to be communicated to the Minister of Foreign Affairs on your asking an audience of the President to deliver the original and to take leave of him. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, M. VAN BUREN. B. Andrew Jackson, President of the United States of America, to his excellency the President of the United Mexican States. GREAT AND GOOD FRIEND: The chargé d'affaires of the United Mexican States, near this Government, having communicated to me your excellency's desire that the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States of America, accredited by your excellency's Government, should, for reasons explained by him, be recalled from his present mission, I have thought proper, after full deliberation upon the subject of your excellency's request, and duly appreciating the motives by which you have been actuated in making it, and also with a view to remove every obstacle to the speedy termination of the important negotiations between the two republics, to comply with your excellency's desire. I have accordingly directed Mr. Poinsett to take leave of your excellency, and to convey to you the assurance of the continuance of our friendly sentiments towards the republic of Mexico; and in the full persuasion that this proceeding will be viewed by your excellency as an additional proof of the sincerity of these sentiments, I have designated a person to succeed Mr. Poinsett as the representative of this Government near that of your excellency, who will be instructed to repeat to you the expression of our desire to cement and perfect the bonds of friendship which unite the two nations, by a conclusion of the negotiations now pending between them. And so I recommend you to the protection of the Almighty. No. 35. Mr. Van Buren to Mr. Poinsett. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 30, 1829. SIR: The enclosed despatch has been prepared and addressed to Colonel Butler, in the expectation that, ere it came to haud, the special messenger bearing your recall, and his commission as chargé d'affaires to succeed you, will have reached Mexico, and that the colonel will have been accredited as the official organ of diplomatic communication with the Mexican Government. Should, however, this expectation have been disappointed, and accident have delayed the arrival of Colonel Butler, or the receipt of his commission, you are requested, if this letter finds you still in the discharge of your official duties, to open the despatch herein sent, and to conform yourself to its contents, as if it were addressed to you in your character of envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States near the republic of Mexico. I am, with great respect, your obedient servant, JOEL R. POINSETT, Esq. M. VAN BUREN. Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of No. 2. Mr. Van Buren to Mr. Butler. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, October 16, 1829. SIR: The President has conferred upon you the appointment of chargé d'affaires to represent the United States near the Government of Mexico; and you will receive herewith your commission, full power, credentials, and personal instructions. This appointment has been made in the expectation of Mr. Poinsett's return to the United States, and is altogether dependent upon his determination on that point, according to which your commission will be delivered to you or withheld by him. The instructions given, from time to time, by the late administration of this Government to Mr. Poinsett, with such explanations as he will furnish, together with the instructions recently sent from this Department, and with which you have been made fully acquainted, will place you in possession of all the information necessary to a prompt and faithful discharge of your official duties. From a full and deliberate review of the course which Mexico has allowed herself to pursue towards us, the President is well satisfied that but little of real advantage to the country can be expected from your labors until an entire change be effected in the disposition of that republie towards the United States. He hopes that, by a plain and candid exposi tion of the exceptionable character of their past conduct, the different departments of that Government may be led to wiser and better views as to the dispositions and objects of this. It is, therefore, his wish that you should, in the first instance, bring to their serious consideration the various acts and omissions by which the United States have been aggrieved, and against which they have just cause for remonstrance and complaint. Whilst it is his desire that, in the performance of that duty, you should avoid any thing like menace or defiance, he nevertheless wishes to have nothing withheld which is necessary to a faithful presentation of the whole matter. He is deeply and painfully impressed with the unfriendly and undeserved conduct of Mexico towards us, her neighbor and sister republic; and his only hopes for an improvement of our present relations with her are founded on her being made duly and deeply sensible of the injustice which, under the influence of bad counsel, she has been induced to do her earliest and best friend. The views and wishes of the President, both personal and official, are directed to the success and permanent prosperity of the republic of Mexico. He asks at her hands nothing but justice, and would not accept from her any advantage for the United States which would not be reciprocal; entirely satisfied, as he is, that in the prosperity and glory of the republic of Mexico the true interests of his own country would be better promoted than by her depression and disgrace. He sees with regret the attempt of Spain to re-establish her dominion over her, and sincerely wishes Mexico a safe deliverance from the attacks which are made and threatened upon her liberties. This is not, therefore, the moment which he would have selected for remonstrance against the policy of Mexico towards this country, if the imperious obligations of duty would allow of its postponement; but notorious facts, the nature of which is too well understood to require explanation, leave him no choice in the matter. Longer silence on his part might work injustice to the United States, and prove injurious to Mexico. A brief recapitulation of the leading circumstances in our intercourse with that nation is sufficient to show that her conduct has not been of that open and friendly character which it was our hope to find, as it had been our endeavor to inspire, in the people of that country, by the liberal and magnanimous bearing of the Government and people of the United States towards them. From the earliest dawn of the Mexican revolution, the friendly disposition of this whole nation began to manifest itself in a manner which could not have escaped the notice of the Mexican people, which drew from the mother country frequent animadversions upon our partiality towards her revolted colonies, and was in no small degree productive of a coolness in our intercourse with her, highly prejudicial to the interests of our citizens. Yet the United States, drawn by a community of views and feelings towards a young nation, engaged as they once had been in a struggle of life and death for independence and freedom, continued to sympathize with Mexico; and nothing but their immutable principles of non-interference in the domestic concerns of other nations, and of inviolable neutrality towards belligerants, prevented them from extending a helping hand to the young republics of America. So long as these principles required it, the United States remained inactive, though not unconcerned, spectators of the contest; while many of their citizens, voluntary |