Message from the President of the United States, transmitting A copy and translation of a Pamphlet, in the Spanish language, printed and circulated by the late Minister from Mexico before his departure from the United States, &c.
[Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1838.] 25th Congress, 2d Session. House of Representatives Document No. 190.
Octavo in 4s (8 7/8” x 5 5/8”, 224mm x 142mm): 14 2-154 [$1 signed]. 60 leaves, pp. 1 2-120. With an engraved map of the Texas Republic.
Bound in modern orange buckram. On the spine, title and imprint gilt to black sheep.
A little rubbed at the corners. Mildly and evenly tanned, with a little peripheral foxing.
Manuel Eduardo de Gorostiza (1789–1851) was born in Veracruz to the governor of that port, who was also Inspector General of Troops for New Spain, and to a learned poet from the family of Saint Teresa of Avila. After his father’s death, Gorostiza was educated in Spain before entering military service and then retiring, briefly, for the life of a playwright before serving the newly-independent Mexico as a diplomat. While in post in the Netherlands, Gorostiza kept a careful eye on Texas, which he saw as a crucial barrier between Mexico and the United States.
When part of the state of Coahuila y Tejas seceded from Mexico 2 March 1836 as the Republic of Texas, it was immediately clear that it was headed toward annexation; indeed, it became the twenty-eighth state at the end of 1845. Gorostiza was dispatched as a minister plenipotentiary to Washington, arriving on 22 March 1836, to discourage the United States’s support of Stephen F. Austin’s Empresarios and the other Anglo-American (“Texian”) rebels. President Andrew Jackson was civil initially, but eventually authorized military force against “Indian incursions,” an obvious cover for the defense of the Texians against Mexican attempts to regain their rebellious province.
A furious correspondence arose between Gorostiza and Secretary of State John Forsyth, during which it became clear that American respect for Mexican sovereignty was at best a sham, and that America would not be constrained in the protection of her borders. By summer, it was widely known that General Gaines was empowered to cross the Sabine and Gorostiza cried foul, claiming that the United States was in open violation of previous treaties. By 15 October 1836, Gorostiza ended his mission and set about publishing in Philadelphia a full record of the correspondence to demonstrate America’s flagrant disregard of Mexican sovereignty. Despite Gorostiza’s intention to circulate the pamphlet only in Mexico and Europe, a copy was shown to Secretary Forsyth, which detonated any remaining goodwill between the U.S. and Mexico.
The Gorostiza Pamphlet (published in Philadelphia in Spanish as Correspondencia… sobre el paso del Sabina por las tropas que mandaba el General Gaines) contained the first printed map of (part of) the Republic of Texas west of the Mississippi River and south of the Red River. It was indeed published in Mexico City in 1837 (making Gorostiza something of a national her) and translated into French the same year. The present volume is the first translation of the work into English (pp. 61–120) following the original text, as ordered by the House of Representatives and executed by Martin Van Buren.
Howes G 6 (under “Gaines,” not mentioning the English translation); Streeter 1220C.
Item #JLR0876
Price: $3,500