APPENDIX, 
293 
Pedraza had died, and a sudden change seems to have occurred in the 
views, opinions, and feelings of the leading men of that country. It would 
not be proper, at this time, to state the nature of the influences brought 
to bear on the subject, nor the parties most actively engaged in exciting a 
feeling of hostility towards the people of this country, with the view of 
defeating the enterprise. It suffices to state, that a law was introduced 
into the Mexican Congress and passed, whereby the Congress declared, 
" that the decree of General Salas, of November, 1846, was null and 
void, because he had no power to make such decree." 
This is the only action of the Mexican Congress on the subject, and, 
although the evident intention is to annul the original grant made by 
Santa Anna in 1842 ; yet, as no pretext could be invented for attacking 
it, the committees of the Mexican Congress were driven, in their reports 
to the two houses, to rely solely on the ground that Salas was without 
the power to grant to Garay a delay of two years for commencing his 
work, feeling certain that if they could succeed in this point, they would 
be able afterwards to attack the original grant, on the ground that the 
work had not been commenced in sufficient time. 
Let this fact, however, be borne in mind, Mexico has neither annulled 
the original grant nor rejected the treaty. The rights of the company are 
precisely such as they were prior to the law of the Mexican Congress, 
with this single exception, that the law just passed affords a pretext on 
which the Government might bring suit against the company to annul 
its grant. 
Whether the pretext thus sought by the Mexican Congress can be 
made available for the intended purpose, is the next subject for consid- 
eration. 
It might be sufficient on this point to say, that the Government of 
Salas was a Government de facto, and that the universal principle on 
which all civilized nations act, is to consider that the Government actually 
exercising supreme power in a country is entitled to represent that coun- 
try in all foriegn relations ; and that even if its powers are usurped, its 
acts are as binding as would be those of a regularly constituted govern- 
ment. Our country, in its relations with others, never undertakes to 
determine whether the parties found in possession of the sovereignty are 
rightfully entitled to it, but treats with them as having the undoubted 
authority to act, and to bind the country whose destinies are at the mo- 
ment under their control. 
But the application of this general principle is not required in the 
present case, and a plain recital of the history of Salas's administration 
