the
rights of citizens of the United States." It provided also that in the
meantime they should be maintained in the enjoyment of their liberty,
their property, and their civil rights now vested in them according to
the Mexican laws. It secured to them similar political rights with the
inhabitants of the other Territories of the United States, and at least
equal to the inhabitants of Louisiana and Florida when they were in a
Territorial condition. It then proceeded to guarantee that ecclesiastics
and religious corporations should be protected in the discharge of the
offices of their ministry and the enjoyment of their property of every
kind, whether individual or corporate, and, finally, that there should
be a free communication between the Catholics of the ceded territories
and their ecclesiastical authorities "even although such authority
should reside within the limits of the Mexican Republic as defined by
this treaty."

The ninth article of the treaty, as adopted by the Senate, is much more
comprehensive in its terms and explicit in its meaning, and it clearly
embraces in comparatively few words all the guaranties inserted in the
original article. It is as follows:

Mexicans who, in the territories aforesaid, shall not preserve the
character of citizens of the Mexican Republic, conformably with what
is stipulated in the preceding article, shall be incorporated into the
Union of the United States and be admitted at the proper time (to be
judged of by the Congress of the United States) to the enjoyment of all
the rights of citizens of the United States, according to the principles
of the Constitution, and in the meantime shall be maintained and
protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty and property and
secured in the free exercise of their religion without restriction.

This article, which was substantially copied from the Louisiana treaty,
provides equally with the original article for the admission of these
inhabitants into the Union, and in the meantime, whilst they shall
remain in a Territorial state, by one sweeping provision declares that
they "shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their
liberty and property and secured in the free exercise of their religion
without restriction."

This guaranty embraces every kind of property, whether held by
ecclesiastics or laymen, whether belonging to corporations or
individuals. It secures to these inhabitants the free exe