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Show REPORT OF TRE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 87 of the exohange of ratifications of this treaty; and those who shall remain in the said territories after the expiration of that year, without having declsred their in- -tention to retain the ahsrecter of Meaioana, shall he considered to hsve eleoted to become citizens of the United States. In the said territories property of every kind, now belonging to Mexicans not estah-lished there, ahsli beinviolably respeoted. The present owners, the heirs of these, and all Mexicans who may hereafter scqoire said property by oootraot shall enjoy with respect ro it goaranties equally ample as if the same belonged to citisens of the United States. ARTICLE IX. Mexicans who, in rbu Trrriluriee afores&:al,s kdl llot prwarve tlln cl i~rar teor f ciri-zone of the Mexican Repnbiic, conformal,ly with what is stipolatad in the preceding , - article, shall be incorporated into the Union of the Unitad States, ancl lbe aclmirrrd s r rhd propertime(ro be judged of Ihy tllcCongreas of tlleUnired States) to the eojuy-msnt uf all rhn righra of oirirena ui tllu U~,lrodS tares accordiny to the princivlua of the Conatitution {and in themean time shall be maintained andproteot~din the free enjoyment of their liberty end property, and secured in rhe free exercise of their re- . r ligion without restriotioo. The questions are immediately presented, Who were the '' Mexic:bns * remaininqin the ceded territories t Wwe the Iudians residing therein 6cMexioans" within the meaning of these provisions of treaty ? And if so have they been admitted to the full enjo~ment of the rights of citizens of the United States by Coogross as contelnpltlted thereby? In determining the first of these questions wemust examine the history . .. of Mezican legislation on the subject of citizenship; and the last the history of our own legislatioil must decide. The p1a.n of 1guala.-We first find that on February 24,1821, the revo-lutionary government of Mexico adopted &'thep lan of Igl~ala,:i~n which it was'declared "that all the inhabitants of New Spain, without dis-tinction, whether European, African, or Indian, are citizens of this monarchy, with the right to be employed in any post aokording to their merits and virtues," and that the person and property of every citizen will be L'respected and protected by the Government." The district court of New Mexico in U. S. v. Ortiz (quoted in I New Mexico, 450), after discussing the plan of Iguala and other documeuts bearing on the subject declared as follows : - The treaty of Cordova,' August 24,18'21, and the dealaration of independence of September 28, 1821, reaffirmed them prinoiples, as subsequently did the first Mexican Congress, by two decrees, one adopted the 24th of February, 1822, the other the 9th of April, 18'23 ; the firet, "the sovereign Congress declares the equality af oivil rights to all ',be free inhabitants of the Emo. ire.. whatever msv be their orieio in the four qnarteraof theaarrh;" the other naffirmerhe tbraeguarat~tieao i rile plan oflguala: (1) ludepnndence; (2) tho Curholio religion; 3ud (I)t unim of all J!cxion~~nG f whaf- I . ~ ever race. By a i a i t of September 17,1822, to give effect tq the plan of Iguala, it .- was provided that, in the regiatrstian of citizens, "clsssifioation of them with re- ! . gard to their origin shell be omitted," and that "there shall he no diatinetion of olasa on the psrochisl books." 'Thie treaty was between thespanieh viceroy and the revolutionsry party, by which the intlependenceof New Spain or Mexico rras estilhlished for the time !Unitedstates o. Ritchir, 17 Howard, 538). |
