Excerpt from Diplomatic Relations of Texas and the United States, 1839-1843<br><br>During the five years since Texas had declared her independ ence, in lieu of any arrangement with the United States concern ing commerce, she had been placed in the anomalous position of considering the provisions of the treaty of 1831 between Mexico and the United States as binding upon her in so far as they could be applied. This treaty was about to expire, a fact which was made known to Webster.2 But the Secretary did not see fit to take up the matter at once, being engrossed in the Maine boundary question, although frequently urged by Bee after his return to Washington in June. The Texan Minister, however, busied himself with planning the articles of the treaty, and wrote for a letter of authorization to conclude the agreement at Wash ington. On July 27, 1841, he wrote a formal letter to Webster in which he stated four fundamental propositions upon which he thought that the negotiation should turn. These were: (1) Free navigation of the Sabine River and the right to ship goods down the Red and Mississippi rivers, (2) establishment of the right of en trepot on boundary rivers for the transshipment to foreign places of the produce of each country from that of the other, (3) settle ment of questions concerning Indian tribes along the border, (4) commercial and maritime intercourse on and near the high seas,' The proposal did not bring matters to a head as had been hoped, and the middle of September arrived with nothing accomplished.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.