tution, the people of Texas owed allegiance.

"Emigrants from foreign countries, including the United States, were invited by the colonization laws of the State and of the Federal Government to settle in Texas. Advantageous terms were offered to induce them to leave their own country, and become Mexican citizens. This invitation was accepted by many of our citizens, in the full faith that in their new home they would be governed by laws enacted by representatives elected by themselves, and that their lives, liberty and property would be protected by constitutional guarantees similar to those which existed in the republic they had left. Under a Government thus organized they continued until the year 1835, when a military revolution broke out in the city of Mexico, which entirely subverted the Federal and State constitutions, and placed a military dictator at the head of the government.

"By a sweeping decree of a Congress subservient to the will of the dictator, the several state constitutions were abolished, and the states themselves converted into mere departments of the Central Government. The people of Texas were unwilling to submit to this usurpation. Resistance to such tyranny became a high duty. Texas was fully absolved from all allegiance to the Central Government of Mexico from the moment that Government had abolished her state constitution, and in its place substituted an arbitrary and despotic Central Government.

"Such were the principal causes of the Texan revolution. The people of Texas at once determined upon resistance, and flew to arms.

In the midst of these important and exciting events, however, they did not omit to place their liberties upon a secure and permanent foundation. They elected members to a convention, who, in the month of March, 1836, issued a formal declaration that their political connection with the Mexican nation has for ever ended, and that the people of Texas do now constitute a free, sovereign, and independent republic, and are fully invested with all the rights and attributes which properly belong to independent nations.' They also adopted for their government a liberal republican constitution. About the same time Santa Anna, then the Dictator of Mexico, invaded Texas with a numerous army, for the purpose of subduing her people, and enforcing obedience to his arbitrary and despotic government. On the 21st of April, 1836, he was met by the Texan citizen soldiers, and on that day was achieved by them the memorable victory of San Jacinta, by which they conquered their independence. Considering the numbers engaged on the respective sides, history does not record a more brilliant achievement. Santa Anna himself was among the captives.

In the month of May, 1836, Santa Anna acknowledged, by a treaty with the Texan authorities, in the most solemn form, the full, entire, and perfect independence of the republic of Texas.' It is true, he was then a prisoner of war; but it is equally true, that he had failed to reconquer Texas, and had met with signal defeat; that his authority had not been revoked, and that by virtue of this treaty he obtained his personal release. By it hostilities were suspended, and the army which had invaded Texas

under his command returned, in pursuance of this arrangement, unmolested to Mexico.

"From the day that the battle of San Jacinta was fought until the present hour, Mexico has never possessed the power to reconquer Texas. Texas had been an independent state, with an organized Government, defying the power of Mexico to overthrow or reconquer her, for more than ten years before Mexico commenced the present war against the United States. Texas had given such evidence to the world of her ability to maintain her separate existence as an independent nation, that she had been formally recognised as such, not only by the United States, but by several of the principal Powers of Europe. These Powers had entered into treaties of amity, commerce, and navigation with her. They had received and accredited her Ministers and other diplomatic agents at their respective courts, and they had commissioned Ministers and diplomatic agents on their part to the Government of Texas. If Mexico, notwithstanding all this, and her utter inability to subdue or reconquer Texas, still stubbornly refused to recognise her as an independent nation, she was none the less so on that account. Mexico herself has been recognised as an independent nation by the United States and by other Powers, many years before Spain, of which, before her revolution, she had been a colony, would agree to recognise her as such; and yet Mexico was at that time, in the estimation of the civilized world, and in fact, none the less an independent power because Spain still claimed her as a colony. If Spain had continued until the present period to assert that Mexico was one of her colo

nies, in rebellion against her, this would not have made her so, or changed the fact of her independent existence. Texas, at the period of her annexation to the United States, bore the same relation to Mexico that Mexico had borne to Spain for many years before Spain acknowledged her independence, with this important difference, that before the annexation of Texas to the United States was consummated, Mexico herself, by a formal act of her Government, had acknowledged the independence of Texas as a nation. It is true that in the act of recognition she prescribed a condition, which she had no power or authority to impose, that Texas should not annex herself to any other Power; but this could not detract in any degree from the recognition which Mexico then made of her actual independence. Upon this plain statement of facts, it is absurd for Mexico to allege, as a pretext for commencing hostilities against the United States, that Texas is still a part of her territory.

"But there are those who, conceding all this to be true, assume the ground that the true western boundary of Texas is the Nueces, instead of the Rio Grande; and that, therefore, in marching our army to the east bank of the latter river, we passed the Texan line and invaded the territory of Mexico. A simple statement of facts, known to exist, will conclusively refute such an assumption."

The President then minutely examines the validity of this plea, and, after elaborately refuting it, proceeds:—

"But Mexico herself has never placed the war which she has waged upon the ground that our army occupied the intermediate

territory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande. Her refuted pretension that Texas was not in fact an independent state, but a rebellious province, was obstinately persevered in; and her avowed purpose in commencing a war with the United States was to reconquer Texas, and to restore Mexican authority over the whole territory not to the Nueces only, but to the Sabine. In view of the proclaimed menaces of Mexico to this effect, I deemed it my duty, as a measure of precaution and defence, to order our army to occupy a position on our frontier as a military post, from which our troops could best resist and repel any attempted invasion which Mexico might make.

"Our army had occupied a position at Corpus Christi, west of the Nueces, as early as August 1845, without complaint from any quarter. Had the Nueces been regarded as the true western boundary of Texas, that boundary had been passed by our army many months before it advanced to the eastern bank of the Rio Grande. In my annual Message of December last, I informed Congress that, upon the invitation of both the Congress and Convention of Texas, I had deemed it proper to order a strong squadron to the coasts of Mexico, and to concentrate an efficient military force on the western frontier of Texas, to protect and defend the inhabitants against the menaced invasion of Mexico. In that Message I informed Congress, that the moment the terms of annexation offered by the United States were accepted by Texas, the latter be

and our army to take a position between the Nueces and the Del Norte,' or the Rio Grande, and 'to repel any invasion of the Texan territory which might be attempted by the Mexican forces.'

"It was deemed proper to issue this order, because soon after the President of Texas, in April 1845, had issued his proclamation convening the Congress of that republic, for the purpose of submitting to that body the terms of annexation proposed by the United States, the Government of Mexico. made serious threats of invading the Texan territory.

"These threats became more imposing as it became more apparent, in the progress of the question, that the people of Texas would decide in favour of accepting the terms of annexation; and, finally, they had assumed such a formidable character as induced both the Congress and Convention of Texas to request that a military force should be sent by the United States into her territory, for the purpose of protecting and defending her against the threatened invasion. It would have been a violation of good faith towards the people of Texas to have refused to afford the aid which they desired against a threatened invasion, to which they had been exposed by their free determination to annex themselves to our Union, in compliance with the overture made to them by the joint resolution of our Congress.

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Accordingly, a portion of the army was ordered to advance into Texas. Corpus Christi was the position selected by General Taylor.

e encamped at that place in August 1845, and the army remained in that position until the 11th of March, 1846, when it moved west

ward, and on the 28th day of that month reached the east bank of the Rio Grande, opposite to Mata

moras.

6

"After the joint resolution for the annexation of Texas to the United States had been passed by our Congress, the Mexican Minister at Washington addressed a note to the Secretary of State, bearing date on the 6th of March, 1845, protesting against it as an act of aggression, the most unjust which can be found recorded in the annals of modern history; namely, that of despoiling a friendly nation, like Mexico, of a considerable portion of her territory; and protesting against the resolution of annexation, as being an act whereby the province of Texas, an integral portion of the Mexican territory, is agreed and admitted into the American Union;' and he announced that, as a consequence, his mission to the United States had terminated, and demanded his passports, which were granted. It was upon the absurd pretext made by Mexico (herself indebted for her independence to a successful revolution), that the republic of Texas still continued to be, notwithstanding all that had passed, a province of Mexico, that this step was taken by the Mexican Minister.

"Texas, by the enthusiastic and almost unanimous will of her people, had pronounced in favour of annexation. Mexico herself had agreed to acknowledge the independence of Texas, subject to a condition, it is true, which she had no right to impose, and no power to enforce. The last lingering hope of Mexico, if she still could have retained any, that Texas would ever again become one of her provinces, must have been abandoned. "The Consul of the United VOL. LXXXVIII.

States at the city of Mexico was, therefore, instructed by the Secretary of State, on the 15th of September, 1845, to make the inquiry of the Mexican Government. The inquiry was made, and on the 15th of October, 1845, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Mexican Government, in a note addressed to our Consul, gave a favourable response, requesting, at the same time, that our naval force might be withdrawn from Vera Cruz while negotiations should be pending.

Upon the receipt of this note, our naval force was promptly withdrawn from Vera Cruz. A Minister was immediately appointed, and departed to Mexico. Every thing bore a promising aspect for a speedy and peaceful adjustment of all our difficulties. To my surprise and regret, the Mexican Government, though solemnly pledged to do so, upon the arrival of our Minister in Mexico, refused to receive and accredit him. When he reached Vera Cruz, on the 30th of November, 1845, he found that the aspect of affairs had undergone an unhappy change. The Government of General Herrera, who was at that time President of the republic, was tottering to its fall. General Paredes (a military leader) had manifested his determination to overthrow the Government of Herrera by a military revolution; and one of the principal means which he employed to effect his purpose, and render the Government of Herrera odious to the army and people of Mexico, was by loudly condemning its determination to receive a Minister of peace from the United States, alleging that it was the intention of Herrera, by a treaty with the United States, to dismember the territory of Mexico, by ceding away the department of [Z]

Texas. On the 30th of December, 1845, General Herrera resigned the Presidency, and yielded up the Government to General Paredes without a struggle. Thus a revolution was accomplished solely by the army commanded by Paredes, and the supreme power in Mexico passed into the hands of a military usurper, who was known to be bitterly hostile to the United States.

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Although the prospect of a pacific adjustment with the new Government was unpromising, from the known hostility of its head to the United States, yet, determined that nothing should be left undone on our part to restore friendly relations between the two countries, our Minister was instructed to present his credentials to the new Government, and ask to be accredited by it in the diplomatie character in which he had been commissioned. These instructions he executed by his note of the 1st of March, 1846, addressed to the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs, but his request was insultingly refused by that Minister, in his answer of the 12th of the same month. No alternative remained for our Minister but to demand his passports and return to the United States.

"Under all these circumstances, it was believed that any revolution in Mexico, founded upon opposition to the ambitious projects of Paredes, would tend to promote the cause of peace, as well as prevent any attempted European interference in the affairs of the North American Continent, both objects of deep interest to the United States. Any such foreign interference, if attempted, must have been resisted by the United States. My views upon that subject were fully communicated to Congress in

my last annual Message. In any event, it was certain that no change whatever in the Government of Mexico which would deprive Paredes of power could be for the worse, so far as the United States were concerned, while it was highly probable that any change must be for the better. This was the state of affairs existing when Congress, on the 13th of May last, recognised the existence of the war which had been commenced by the Government of Paredes, and it became an object of much importance, with a view to a speedy settlement of our difficulties and the restoration of an honourable peace, that Paredes should not retain power in Mexico.

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Upon the commencement of hostilities by Mexico against the United States, the indignant spirit of the nation was at once aroused. Congress promptly responded to the expectations of the country, and, by the act of the 13th of May last, recognised the fact that war existed, by the act of Mexico, between the United States and that republic, and granted the means necessary for its vigorous prosecution. Being involved in a war thus commenced by Mexico, and for the justice of which, on our part, we may confidently appeal to the whole world, I resolved to prosecute it with the utmost vigour. Accordingly, the ports of Mexico on the Gulf and on the Pacific have been placed under blockade, and her territory invaded at several important points. The reports from the Departments of War and the Navy will inform you more in detail of the measures adopted in the emergency in which our country was placed, and of the gratifying results which have been accomplished.