certainly would not make it mine; and if I were to claim it by a deed which I had made myself, and with which you had had nothing to do, the claim would be quite the same in substance—­or rather, in utter nothingness.  I next consider the President’s statement that Santa Anna in his treaty with Texas recognized the Rio Grande as the western boundary of Texas.  Besides the position so often taken, that Santa Anna while a prisoner of war, a captive, could not bind Mexico by a treaty, which I deem conclusive—­besides this, I wish to say something in relation to this treaty, so called by the President, with Santa Anna.  If any man would like to be amused by a sight of that little thing which the President calls by that big name, he can have it by turning to Niles’s Register, vol. 1, p. 336.  And if any one should suppose that Niles’s Register is a curious repository of so mighty a document as a solemn treaty between nations, I can only say that I learned to a tolerable degree of certainty, by inquiry at the State Department, that the President himself never saw it anywhere else.  By the way, I believe I should not err if I were to declare that during the first ten years of the existence of that document it was never by anybody called a treaty—­that it was never so called till the President, in his extremity, attempted by so calling it to wring something from it in justification of himself in connection with the Mexican War.  It has none of the distinguishing features of a treaty.  It does not call itself a treaty.  Santa Anna does not therein assume to bind Mexico; he assumes only to act as the President—­Commander-in-Chief of the Mexican army and navy; stipulates that the then present hostilities should cease, and that he would not himself take up arms, nor influence the Mexican people to take up arms, against Texas during the existence of the war of independence.  He did not recognize the independence of Texas; he did not assume to put an end to the war, but clearly indicated his expectation of its continuance; he did not say one word about boundary, and, most probably, never thought of it.  It is stipulated therein that the Mexican forces should evacuate the territory of Texas, passing to the other side of the Rio Grande; and in another article it is stipulated that, to prevent collisions between the armies, the Texas army should not approach nearer than within 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 the boundary of Texas, it contains the singular feature of stipulating that Texas shall not go within five leagues of her own boundary.