Digital History
A Backhanded Compromise: The Protocol of Quéretaro
Digital History ID 564

Author:   The Protocol of Quéretaro
Date:1848

Annotation: Mexico protested the elimination of Article X and the revision of other articles, and officials of the United States responded by signing the Protocol of Quéretaro, which stated that the changes made by the Senate did not annul the civil, political, and religious guarantees provided in the original treaty. The United States government later disavowed the protocol on the grounds that its representatives had not been empowered to make the agreement.


Document: The American Government by suppressing the IXth article of the Treaty and substituting the III article of the Treaty of Louisiana did not intend to diminish in any way what was agreed upon.... In consequence, all the privileges and guarantees, civil, political and religious, which would have been possessed by the inhabitants of the ceded territories, if the IXth article of the Treaty had been retained, will be enjoyed by them without any difference under the article which has been substituted.

The American Government, by suppressing the Xth article of the Treaty of Guadalupe did not in any way intend to annul the grants of lands made by Mexico in the ceded territories. These grants, notwithstanding the suppression of the article of the Treaty, preserve the legal value which they may possess; and the grantees may cause their legitimate titles to be acknowledged before the American tribunals.

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