for duties. Mr. Thompson found the Mexican credit very low, and treasury notes at a discount of about seventy per cent. His diplomatic correspondence has been published only in part, and we are thei-efore ignorant by what means he succeeded in negotiating, 30th January, 1843, a neiu convention or treaty by which Mexico agreed to pay on the 30th April of the same year, all the interest then due, and the award itself in five 3'^ears, in equal quarterly instalments. This arrangement has been repre- sented as a boon granted to Mexico,* and therefore aggra- vating her ingratitude. The assertion, like most others made in vindication or apology of the Mexican war, is untrue. Says Mr. Calhoun, Secretary of State, writing to Mr. Shannon, minister in Mexico, June 20th, 1844 "The convention (of 1839), provided that the claims which should be allowed, might be discharged by payment of Mexican treasury notes, but as these were much de- preciated in value, it became a matter of impo7'tance to effect some other arrangement by which sjyecle should be substi- tuted in their stead. To this end your predecessor (Thompson), was empowered and instructed to enter into a negotiation with the Government of Mexico, and a convention was concluded, 30th January, 1843," Mr.
Thompson, in his *' Recollections of Mexico," speaking of this convention, says, p. 223, " the market value of the treasury notes was about thirty cents on a dollar, and, if this additional two millions had been thrown upon the market, they would have been depreciated still more. The owners of these claims knew this, and were anxious CO make some other arrangement." Hence the " boon"
- Report of C J. Ingersol, Chairman of Com. of Foreign A.ffairs, June 24th, 1846.
was extorted from Mexico, and probably through the menaces of the negotiator. But the new convention did more than regulate the payment of the award. It stipulated for the negotiation of another arbitration