to the other side of the Rio Grande_; and in another article it is stipulated, that to prevent collisions between the armies, the Texan army should not approach nearer than five leagues--of _what_ is not said--but clearly, from the object stated, it is of the Rio Grande. Now, if this is a treaty recognizing the Rio Grande as a boundary of Texas, it contains the singular feature of stipulating that Texas shall not go within five leagues of _her own_ boundary. “Next comes the evidence that Texas before annexation, and the United States afterward, exercising jurisdiction beyond the Nueces, and _between_ the two rivers. This actual _exercise_ of jurisdiction is the very class or quality of evidence we want. It is excellent so far as it goes; but does it go far enough? He tells us it went _beyond_ the Nueces, but he does not tell us it went _to_ the Rio Grande. He tells us jurisdiction was exercised _between_ the two rivers, but he does not tell us it was exercised over _all_ the territory between them. Some simple-minded people think it possible to cross one river and go beyond it, without going all the way to the next; that jurisdiction may be exercised _between_ two rivers without covering _all_ the country between them. I know a man, not very unlike myself, who exercises jurisdiction over a piece of land between the Wabash and the Mississippi; and yet so far is this from being _all_ there is between those rivers, that it is just one hundred and fifty-two feet long by fifty wide, and no part of it much within a hundred miles of either. He has a neighbor between him and the Mississippi--that is, just across the street, in that direction--whom, I am sure, he could neither _persuade_ nor _force_ to give up his habitation; but which, nevertheless he could certainly annex, if it were to be done, by merely standing on his own side of the street and claiming it, or even sitting down and writing a deed for it. “But next, the President tells us, the Congress of the United States _understood_ the State of Texas they admitted into the Union to extend _beyond_ the Nueces. Well, I suppose they did--I certainly so understand it--but how _far_ beyond? That Congress did _not_ understand it to extend clear to the Rio Grande, is quite certain by the fact of their joint resolutions for admission expressly leaving all questions of boundary to future adjustment. And, it may be added, that Texas herself is proved to have had the same understanding of it that our Congress had, by the fact of the exact conformity of her new Constitution to those resolutions.