The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 50, July 1946 - April, 1947 Page: 269

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H. BAILEY CARROLL
NSERTED at this point is a reproduction of half of a printed
copy of the map which was transmitted by President John
Tyler to the Senate of the United States on April 26, 1844, in
connection with the then proposed annexation of the Republic
of Texas as a state in the Union. The other half of the map will
be reproduced in the next issue of the Quarterly.
This map is important even from the antiquarian viewpoint.
It was made by men having excellent technical standards for
1844. It reveals in a striking manner the extent of geographical
information about Texas and the Southwest approximately a
century ago.
The map is further important with reference to two boundary
disputes having to do with Texas: (1) the Nueces-Rio Grande
and (2) the western boundary of Texas. The map shows
clearly that the original assumption on the part of the govern-
ment of the United States was that Texas was to be annexed
with boundaries as defined by the Texan Congress on December
19, 1836. Twelve years before the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
Texas claimed the area between the Nueces and the Rio Grande.
The Old Alcalde, Chief Justice O. M. Roberts, made the classic
statement of the case in State vs. Bustamente (47 Tex. 320) :
Texas claimed the territory [between the Nueces and the Rio Grande],
in defining its boundaries on the 19th day of December, 1836. In 1846,
the claim was perfected by possession and by actual exercise of exclusive
jurisdiction, and from that time it was lost by the State of Tamaulipas,
in Mexico, for all purposes whatever, whether of judicial action or the
exercise of powers relating to eminent domain. And it never afterwards
recovered such lost powers.
Contentions that the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo dealt with
the area between the Nueces and Rio Grande and conferred
certain rights on Mexican citizens therein have recently been
dealt with in Amaya vs. Stanolind Oil and Gas Co. (62 F. Supp.
181) wherein Judge Allen B. Hannay ruled that the treaty did
not at all relate to or apply to lands north of the Rio Grande.
The disputed western boundary of Texas was substantially,
but not entirely, fixed in the Compromise of 1850. This Abert-
Emory map is important in showing the Texan claim before the
1850 settlement and in demonstrating that the Texan claim had