New Honor Day - Treaties of Velasco
Two treaties were signed by ad interim president David G. Burnet and Gen. Antonio
López de Santa Anna at Velasco on May 14, 1836, after defeat of the Mexican forces at
the battle of San Jacinto. The public treaty was to be published immediately, and the
secret agreement was to be carried into execution when the public treaty had been
fulfilled. The public treaty, with ten articles, provided that hostilities would cease, that
Santa Anna would not again take up arms against Texas, that the Mexican forces would
withdraw beyond the Rio Grande, that restoration would be made of property
confiscated by Mexicans, that prisoners would be exchanged on an equal basis, that
Santa Anna would be sent to Mexico as soon as possible, and that the Texas army
would not approach closer than five leagues to the retreating Mexicans. In the secret
agreement, in six articles, the Texas government promised the immediate liberation of
Santa Anna on condition that he use his influence to secure from Mexico
acknowledgment of Texas independence; Santa Anna promised not to take up arms
against Texas, to give orders for withdrawal from Texas of Mexican troops, to have the
Mexican cabinet receive a Texas mission favorably, and to work for a treaty of
commerce and limits specifying that the Texas boundary not lie south of the Rio
Grande. Gen. Vicente Filisola, in pursuance of the public treaty, began withdrawing the
Mexican troops on May 26; the Texas army, however, refused to let Santa Anna be sent
to Mexico and prevented the Texas government's carrying out the secret treaty. On May 20th
the government in Mexico City declared void all of Santa Anna's acts done as a captive. With
the treaties violated by both governments and not legally recognized by either, Texas
independence was not recognized by Mexico and her boundary not determined until
the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848.