264 
APPENDIX. 
Affairs of the supreme Government of the nation, and in the presence of 
the said Secretary of State, Don Jose Maria Bocanegra, also Magistrate 
of the Supreme Court of Justice, he said : that his Excellency the Presi- 
dent of the Republic, General of Division, Benemeritus of the Country, 
Don Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, in the exercise of the authority con- 
ferred upon him by the seventh clause of the Convention of Tacubaya, 
sworn to by the Nation, and by the Representatives of the several De- 
partments of the Republic, was pleased to issue, and cause to be publish- 
ed with due solemnity, the following : 
(decree.) 
" Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, General of Division, Benemeritus of 
the Country, and Provisional President of the Republic of Mexico, to all 
the inhabitants thereof, 
iittCtt) ^ nat nrm to m y purpose of aggrandizing the nation and 
of rendering the people happy, having before me the propositions which 
Don Jose de Garay has presented, and considering that no means are so 
sure and effectual for promoting the national prosperity as that of making 
the Republic the centre of the commerce and navigation of all countries, 
and that this must be the consequence of the establishment of an easy 
and short mode of transporting effects from one ocean to the other : As 
nature offers the means of accomplishing this, without opposing any great 
obstacles in the way of it, and without the necessity of incurring any vast 
expenses, in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec ; inasmuch as there the Cordil- 
lera dips or lowers itself to such a degree that it may almost be said to 
disappear, and that there are two harbors in these parts, one towards 
the north and the other towards the south, at a short distance from each 
other, a considerable portion of the space between them being easily 
transitable by means of a navigable river and lake, and the nature of the 
intermediate surface being very favorable to carrying on the works which 
it may be necessary to undertake, as it abounds in materials for construc- 
tion : And considering that if up to this moment public attention has not 
been properly called to this enterprise (which alone is capable of aggran- 
dizing the Republic), it has, perhaps, originated in not having duly cal- 
culated the important consequences which must result from it, either be- 
cause its execution has been deemed impossible, or that a prejudice ex- 
isting in favor of making a cut through the Isthmus to join the two 
oceans, the advantages of a railroad or canal destined for the tranship- 
ment of goods, by which the same results might be approximately ob- 
tained, has been entirely lost sight of : And furthermore desiring, if more 
