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"In spite of the active exertions of its opponents, open or disguised, it is hardly a figure of speech to say, that Annexation is a thing of the past. Its substance was obtained in the determination of the Texan people. They are about to supply the forms, when this great American question will proceed steadily, and, it is hoped and believed, peacefully, to its fulfilment. Yet, this may not be. Madness is sometimes inflicted upon nations, as upon man; and, if it be true that the Deity, in his inscrutable wisdom, first dements the people whom he would destroy, it may be that the time is not distant, when the banner of freedom will float on her hill tops, and the Plaza of Mexico be the camping ground of an American army."

The New Orleans Picayune, of June 24th, says: "We heard nothing of the rumor ourselves, (that the government had ordered all the troops on the Sabine to advance upon the Rio Grande, to repel the menaced irruption of the Mexicans upon the territory of Texas,) but we must say that we had rather see our troops marching towards the Rio Grande, than to any other quarter of the habitable world."

Mr. Shannon, who had just returned from Mexico, where he had been Minister Plenipotentiary, in a letter of July 2d, to Mr. Buchanan, Secretary of State, writes: "While it may be expected that these drafts (the ones that had not yet been honored by the Mexican government, and that included two instalments, amounting to $275,000) will be paid by Mexico, so soon as her financial abilities will enable her to do so, without regard to the future relations of the two countries, I do not feel justified in giving you any assurance that the remaining instalments will be paid, until the difficulties existing between the two countries are finally adjusted, or our government shall adopt strong measures, in order to coerce Mexico into a compliance with her treaty stipulations."

The Union, of July 18th, quotes from the Missouri Expositor, an extract from a letter dated at Taos, New Mexico:

"The glorious spirit of Annexation is spreading, like a prairie-fire up the Rio del Norte, and rattling the dried bones in New Mexico.

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"Both Americans and Mexicans are making large purchases of land upon the streams running into the Rio del Norte and Arkansas, and anticipating Annexation. ExGovernor Armijo is stirring up and concentrating around him the means of ejecting Mexican domination, and will shortly succeed in so doing."

A plan of the war is sketched in a communication to the Union of Aug. 16th: "4,000 militia and 2,000 regulars in Texas, 2,000 militia and 1,500 regulars in other parts of U. S. 9,500 regulars, 25,000 volunteers, = 34,500. With these begin the forward march. Go a-head! the word, and prudence and watchfulness to guide. Pass the Rio Grande. Leave a military force to maintain the captured places in Mexico, and keep up our line of communication with our base of operations, and with 30,000 men advance direct upon Mexico. Vera Cruz should be taken," etc.

In this same month of August, 1845, Major-Gen. Gaines made a requisition on the Governor of Louisiana, without any orders, it was said, from the Secretary of War, for 2,000 men, and the troops were received and sent on to the frontiers. The military spirit was rampant in the capital of the Mississippi Valley. The War Department of the United States was put in a state of unusual activity; arms were made ready and despatched even on the sacred day of rest; ships of war were refitted, manned, and commissioned, and all was made ready. Gen. Gaines reviewed the troops in New Orleans on Sunday. Gen. Patterson, of Philadelphia, came to Washington to offer his services to the President, to raise 6,000 volunteers. Hon. R. M. Johnson, ex Vice-President of the United States, in a letter to the President, dated Aug. 25th, offered himself and the brave Kentuckians for the cause. Are not all these things faithfully recorded in the

chronicles of that period? and are they not significant facts in the history of this war? The movements of Gen. Taylor to Corpus Christi were eagerly copied into all the journals. The Oregon discussion kept up an excitement during the session of Congress, 1845-6, favorable to warlike preparations, and training the people to be familiar with the idea of a resort to arms. The cry had been loud, "All of Oregon or none; now or never; fifty-four forty, or fight;" and all this inflammatory patriotism was easily turned, when the occasion served, into another channel, and the sword drawn against Mexico instead of England. The conflict burst upon the country suddenly, at last, and took many by surprise; but had they watched the course of public affairs more closely, they would have anticipated from such causes as had been diligently set in operation, the very results which followed. The effect on Mexico of these warlike rumors and preparations, is well described in the following article:

The Union of Jan. 12, 1846, says, "Extracts from the papers of Matamoras, published in the Vera Crusano, speak of incursions of the American troops, of detachments of parties of forty or fifty soldiers, reconnoitering and spying out the land The position and movements of the United States' troops at Corpus Christi, ever since Gen. Taylor has been there, have excited much alarm, fear, and jealousy, in the minds of the Mexicans. They seem to be hourly expecting that the United States' troops are about to march upon Matamoras, to seize upon that place, and thence, perhaps, to march to capture some others of their cities."

The state of feeling, too, in the United States, among great numbers of the people, was, probably, but too correctly represented in the two sentences below, emanating from two great commercial and political cities.

The New Orleans Picayune of January, 1846, says, "Be the result of the rebellion (pronunciamento of Paredes) what

it may, it seems to us that our relations with Mexico should not be longer kept in a state of doubtful peace."

The New York Courier, of the same date, said, "We hope that our Government will promptly force our Mexican affairs to a crisis."

With this development of the spirit of conquest in the heart of the American people, with the extended means which had been put in readiness by land and sea to carry on war, and with the press from almost all quarters sounding the watchword of battle, we are astonished not that the crisis of blood came so unexpectedly, but that it was so long delayed.

There were certain causes assigned for the war, as the old question of claims, and the new one of boundaries, the threatened invasion of an American State, and the rejection of our minister at Mexico; but they have already been partially considered. They were, however, better called pretexts, than causes of war. They cloaked the designs of ambition. They were ready stimulants to national pride in the hands of expert moulders of public opinion. But the real circumstances that predisposed our countrymen to war, and the deep main-spring that moved all the chief agents and advocates in the premises, we have already laid open. The steps taken to accelerate the tremendous crisis, to rouse millions of minds to sanguinary sentiments, and pour forth fire and sword upon Mexico, have been indicated in this chapter. In succeeding ones, we propose to "count the cost" of our national pastime in arms, as it respects property, life, and all the elements of human prosperity and happiness.

CHAPTER VI.

THE BEGINNING AND ENDING OF THE WAR ARGUMENTS FOR PEACE.

"We daily make great improvements in natural, there is one I wish to see in moral, philosophy,—the discovery of a plan that would induce and oblige nations to settle their disputes without first cutting one another's throats. When will human nature be sufficiently improved to see the advantage of this?" — FRANKLIN.

ALTHOUGH serious difficulties existed between the United States and Mexico previously to the advance of Gen. Taylor from the Nueces to the Rio Grande, yet no doubt war might have been averted, had all parties concerned been deeply convinced of the blessings of peace, the guilt and horrors of a conflict, and the necessity of finally resorting to negotiations, because the sword itself could settle nothing. We had been in as great straits before, and had come out of the danger without shedding one drop of human blood. Granted that this was a peculiarly exasperating case of spoliations upon our commerce;* yet had not the United States a long list of grievances of this kind to adjust with several European powers at the close of the wars of Na

* Yet so late as Aug. 5, 1836, Gen. Jackson said in a letter to Gov. Cannon, of Tennessee, "Should Mexico insult our national flag, invade our territory, or interrupt our citizens in the lawful pursuits which are guarantied to them by treaty, then the Government will promptly repel the insult, and seek reparation for the injury. But it does not appear that offences of this kind have been committed by Mexico."

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