This study examines the efforts of the Union and Confederate diplomatic agents to influence the events along the Rio Grande during the Civil War. The paper compares the successful accomplishments of Confederate agent Jose Quintero to the hindered maneuverings of the Union representatives, Leonard Pierce and M. M. Kimuey. Utilizing microfilmed sources from State Department records and Confederate despatches, the paper relates the steps Quintero took to secure the Confederate-Mexico border trade, obtain favorable responses from the various ruling parties in northern Mexico, and hamper the Union agents' attempts to quell the border trade.

This paper provides a thematic approach to three major United States government document series relating to topics of early United States diplomatic relations with Mexico; treaty negotiations, the Santa 'Fe trade, the Texas question, and claims. The document series examined are .the United States presidential papers, United States Congressional documents , and the National Archives Record Group 59, diplomatic dispatches from United State Ministers to Mexico. Historians must make an evaluation of all: documentary evidence available for an accurate assessment of historical events. Inadequate analysis of these major United States document series has limited this necessary assessment in the area of United States Mexican diplomatic relations, 1821-1846.

In 1521 a band of several hundred Spaniards overthrew the Aztec empire in Mexico and its ruler, Moctezuma II. This defeat in itself created a major cultural shock for the indigenious population, but the later arrival of Spanish officials and colonists constituted a far greater if less dramatic upheaval. For the victorious Spaniards rejected Aztec governmental institutions, considering them to be distinctly inferior, and quickly substituted their own. Moctezuma II and a substantial number of the Aztec ruling class had died during the violence which accompanied the conquest and those who remained were not permitted to exercise leadership. It was, however, the stated policy of the Spanish Crown that the Indian population of New Spain should be treated with kindness, allowed to retain their property, and led gently toward acceptance of the Christian faith. Among the surviving members of the Aztec nobility were several of the emperor's children, to whom Spanish authorities accorded special attention because of their unique position. Moctezuma II's son, Tlacahuepan, who on his conversion was baptized Pedro de Moctezuma, was one who received special grants and favors, for it was the Crown's intention that members of the emperor's family should be treated with consideration and be …