[1-3] 4-28 (treaty, text in parallel columns of Spanish and English); [1-3] 4-27 [1] pp. (8vo) 24.8x17.5 cm (9¾x6¾"), original beige printed upper wrapper with typographical border, lacks lower wrapper, new stitching. First Edition
Text of the treaty as signed at Querétaro 2 February 1848. Nicholas Trist, President Polk’s representative, and Mexican officials began negotiations after the fall of Mexico City for a treaty of peace, and concluded on February 2, 1848. By the treaty, Mexico ceded 55 percent of its territory (present-day Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, and parts of Colorado, Nevada, and Utah) in exchange for fifteen million dollars to compensate for damage to Mexican property by U.S. troops.
The Texas border was set at the Rio Grande (Article V), civil and property rights of Mexican citizens living within the new border were guaranteed (Articles VIII and IX), and protocols were established for arbitrating future disputes (Article XXI). When the U.S. ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe in March, it deleted Article X, pledging protection of Mexican land grants. U.S. troops departed Mexico City after Senate ratification.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is often described as resounding, and that is no exaggeration. Decades of “Manifest Destiny”—overt and sub rosa—were at last realized by the United States. Geography, property ownership, culture, religion, civil rights, lives, and ways of life were forever altered by the words in this imprint. This treaty is a foundation stone in the history and literature of the borderlands. In a 1987 exhibit at the Huntington Library, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was proposed as a possible addition to an expanded Zamorano 80.