New Mexico Quotes
Realizing that as a mulatto she was subject to claims of slavery in New Mexico, she tool the precaution of getting this affidavit to protect her freedom. An interesting side note is that she states that she is “not bound by marriage or slavery.” For a woman the state of marriage meant the loss of most of her civil rights and was even then put in a similar category to slavery.
The Rio Grande River flows through New Mexico on its way to Texas. However, for many reasons the river flow is diminishing and only a little water makes it to Texas. Some Texas politicians wanted the New Mexican farmers, who were miles from the river and have paid to drill wells which they use to pump water for their irrigation, to limit their water pumping. They argued that the pumping was diminishing the water in the underground aquifer, and this was causing some of the water flowing down the river to flow into the New Mexico aquifer thereby diminishing the river flow. The New Mexican farmers argue that they paid a great deal for that land because it came with water rights under the ground and the water is theirs. This was one of the many intractable problems of agricultural water allocation in the West where farmers plant many crops that would not normally survive in that part of the country without artificial irrigation.
The then Secretary of State instructed his agent to attempt to purchase New Mexico and part California from Mexico:
