Instructions from the Department of State to diplomatic agents of the United States at Mexico.

No. 27.

Mr. Clay to Mr. Poinsett.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,"

Washington, April 21, 1828.

SIR Mr. Tayloe has arrived, bringing the treaties of commerce and limits, recently concluded at Mexico, which will be immediately laid before the Senate for their advice and consent as to the ratification of them. It is probable that both will obtain their approbation.

I transmit, herewith, a transcript of judicial proceedings which have been instituted, in the State of Tennessee, against several persons of the name of Harden, who have been charged with the perpetration of an atrocious murder, and who subsequently fled to Texas, where they now are. An application for their surrender has been made by an agent sent from Tennessee for the purpose, but without success. A copy of the corre spondence which took place on the occasion is herewith also transmitted. You will apply to the Government of Mexico, and request the surrender of the accused. By one of the late treaties, provision is made for the reciprocal delivery of fugitives who have committed the crime of murder. But, until the exchange of the ratifications of that treaty, we have no right strictly to demand the surrender of these men. That exchange will probably speedily take place; and, as the treaty makes no exception as to murders committed prior to its conclusion, none ought, perhaps, to be made in its practical operation. Without the exchange, the Mexican Government, moved by a sense of justice, and actuated by a disposition to preserve good neighborhood, may be induced to direct the delivery of the accused. Should such an order be given, they may be put into the custody of the agent from Tennessee, who is believed to be yet remaining within the Province of Texas. If he shall have taken his departure, some other mode may present itself of having them safely brought to the United States, without unnecessary expense; or the Mexican Government may be willing to arrest and detain them in custody until you communicate the fact to this Department, and some provision is made for their transportation to the United States.

I am, respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOEL R. POINSETT, Envoy Extraordinary

H. CLAY.

and Minister Plenipotentiary to Mexico.

P. S.-I also transmit, herewith, a copy of a correspondence between the honorable J. K. Polk, M. C., and this Department, on the subject of the application to the Mexican Government, which you are now instructed to make.

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H. C.

Accompaniments to the instruction of Mr. Clay to Mr. Poinsett, of the 21st of April, 1828.

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WASHINGTON CITY, April 1, 1828. SIR: I have the honor to present, through you, to the President of the United States, the accompanying documents, forwarded to me for that purpose, by Joseph B. Porter, Esq., a respectable citizen of the State of Tennessee. He solicits the Government of the United States to aid him in having surrendered to justice the murderers named in the enclosed dicial record, who have fled from the United States, and taken refuge in the Province of Texas, within the Mexican dominions. The names of the murderers, as will be seen by an inspection of the record, are, Benjamin F. Harden, Benjamin W. Harden, William Harden, and Augustine B. Harden. Swan Harden has been taken, and is now in confinement in Tennessee.

Mr. Porter, whose son was one of the unfortunate persons slain, and at whose instance I make this application, employed an agent, during the last year, to go to the Province of Texas for the purpose of taking the offenders into custody, to the end that they might be delivered over to the judicial tribunals of the State of Tennessee for trial. That agent ascertained in what part of the Province they had taken refuge, but was unable to take them into custody, for the reasons assigned in the enclosed correspondence between him and the commandant of the military division in that part of the Mexican dominions.

Mr. Porter has abandoned all hope of bringing them to justice, unless he can obtain the favorable interposition of his Government in his behalf. He therefore, through me, respectfully requests the President of the United States, if, in his opinion, consistent with the laws of nations and the obligations of the Government to its citizens, to cause a demand to be made of the Government of Mexico, to surrender these offenders to the authorities of the United States, that they may be dealt with according to law. Mr. Porter will, at any time when advised that it is proper to do so, send an agent to identify their persons. Any communications to him on the subject can be made through me. I will only suggest that the offenders have a numerous family of friends in the United States, and, if measures should be taken for their arrest, it will be prudent that it should remain secret, lest they should be informed of it, and be thereby enabled to escape.

When the President shall determine on the course proper to be pursued, be pleased to advise me of it.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient and humble servant,

Hon. HENRY CLAY,

Secretary of State, Washington City.

JAMES K. POLK.

STEAMBOAT HIGHLAND LADDIE,

Red River, April 5, 1827.

DEAR SIR: I arrived yesterday at Natchitoches from the Province of Texas, and embarked this morning for Alexandria. It will be necessary

to give you a succinct account of my trip, and the causes of its failure. I was joined at Alexandria, in the latter part of the month of March, by Dr. Bills, the young gentleman whom you sent on for the purpose of identifying the Hardens and Colonel Lindsy. I had previously been up to Natchitoches and made the necessary arrangements for the aid of the United [States] garrison, near the Sabine river, for the conducting of the. prisoners in safety to Natchitoches, the point of embarkation. Knowing, when I left Nashville, that General Gaines was on his annual inspection of the Southern posts of the United States, I followed him to New Orleans, and found he had embarked for Natchitoches. I pursued him thither, and obtained from him a positive order to the commanding officer, (Lieutenant Colonel Many,) of the garrison near the line, to have a guard sent to the Sabine river to receive from the Spanish authorities the prisoners, and keep them in safe custody until they could be embarked on board of some steamboat to Nashville. Having made this arrangement, and obtained from Colonel Milum, empresario of the northern grant of Texas, a letter of introduction to the principal commandant of Texas, earnestly recommending the arrest and delivery of the criminals, I proceeded on my journey with Dr. Bills, and arrived at Nacogdoches, in Texas. On the 30th of March I addressed a note to the commandant, and received an answer, both of which I enclose to you. A long personal interview took place between us; I urged the necessity of delivering up the murderers; I stated the atrocity of their crimes, committed under circumstances admitting of no palliation. He regretted very much he could not comply with my demand. He stated he had peremptory orders to refuse and prohibit any arrest whatsoever. In our interview, he informed me he would most strenuously urge to the commander-in-chief the necessity of an immediate arrest; and, if he obtained the order, he would immediately have them taken into custody, and notify me of the fact at Alexandria. It will be necessary for you to send me the Governor's proclamation, and also get him to make a demand on the Governor of Louisiana for the criminals; also procure a demand from the President of the United States on the Mexican Government for the murderers. The mode of doing all this you can get some friend to give you the necessary instructions. The Hardens are all in Texas, and I refer you to Dr. Bills for details. Should you decline prosecuting this affair any further, notify me of it immediately. You will please to remit me the amount of my expenses, which is $170: this, by agreement, you agreed to do. I am entirely out of funds.

I am, yours, very respectfully,

MORGAN A. HEARD.

P. S.-Dr. Bills has strictly done his duty in this affair, and there is no longer a necessity of his remaining in this country.

M. A. H.

NACOGDOCHES, March 30, 1827.

SIR: I transmit to you the judicial proceedings of the State of Tennessee of the United States of the north, against certain persons therein named, who have been guilty of the most atrocious murders, and fled

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into the Mexican dominions, and now residing in Texas, on the Trinity river. I am authorized to demand of you those persons, and prepared to identify those persons by witnesses accompanying me. Upon an inspection of the documents accompanying this note, I trust you will have those felons arrested and delivered to the authorities of the United States of the north at the Sabine river.

I have the honor to be yours, respectfully,

Don MATEO AHUMADA,

Military Commandant.

MORGAN A. HEARD.

The above is a true copy of a communication made by Major Morgan A. Heard to the Spanish colonel commandant at Nacogdoches, in the Province of Texas, for the delivery of the Hardens, who fled from Maury county, Tennessee, for the murder of Isaac N. Porter and William H. Williamson.

NACOGDOCHES, March 30, 1827.

STATE OF TENNESSEE, Rutherford county:

PLACEBO M. BILLS.

Pleas before the honorable William E. Kennedy, one of the judges of the circuit courts of law and equity within and for the State aforesaid, at a circuit court begun and holden for said county of Rutherford, at the court-house in Murfreesborough, on the fourth Monday in February, A. D. 1826, and in the fiftieth year of American Independence.

STATE OF TENNESSEE,

vs.

Indictment for the murder of William H. Williamson and Isaac Newton Porter.

SWAN HARDEN, and others. Be it known and remembered that on the 27th day of February, 1826, there was filed in the clerk's office of said court a transcript from the records of our Maury circuit court, in the words and figures following: "At a circuit court begun and holden in and for the county of Maury, at the court-house of said county, in the town of Columbia, on the third Monday in December, (being the nineteenth day of said month,) in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five, before the honorable Robert Mack, judge of the sixth judicial circuit of the State of Tennessee

Present, said judge presiding; George M. Martin, clerk of said court; and Nimrod Porter, sheriff.

The sheriff returns into court the following copy of a record from the clerk of the court of pleas and quarter sessions for the county of Maury, in the following words, to wit:

At a court of pleas and quarter sessions, begun and holden for the county of Maury, at the court-house in the town of Columbia, on the third Monday in July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five, being the eighteenth day of said month, before Abraham Looney, Nicholas J. Long, and John C. Wormley, justices of the peace, presiding; Joseph B. Porter, clerk; Nimrod Porter, sheriff— Ordered by the court that the sheriff summons the following persons, good and lawful men of the county of Maury, to serve as jurors at the