it most advisable, instead of proceeding to submit the foregoing resolution to the Republic of Texas as an overture on the part of the United States for admission, to negotiate with that Republic, then

"Be it Resolved, That a State, to be formed out of the present Republic of Texas, with suitable extent and boundaries, and with two representatives in Congress, until the next apportionment of representation, shall be admitted into the Union, by virtue of this act, on an equal footing with the existing States, as soon as the terms and conditions of such admission, and the cession of the remaining Texan territory to the United States, shall be agreed upon by the governments of Texas and the United States.

"And be it further enacted, That the sum of one hundred thousand dollars be, and the same is, hereby appropriated to defray the expenses of missions and negotiations, to agree upon the terms of said admission and cession, either by treaty to be submitted to the Senate, or by articles to be submitted to the two Houses of Congress, as the President may direct."

President Tyler elected to submit the first and second sections of the Resolution of Annexation to the authorities of Texas, which election was approved by his successor, and the annexation was completed in conformity thereto. The administration of Mr. Polk, therefore, succeeded to all the liabilities and advantages incurred or secured by the accomplishment of this great measure.

The central authorities of Mexico, though possessing no right to complain, by reason of the justifiable resistance of Texas when the federal league of 1824 was violently ruptured, and of their inaction for so long a period, did not remain silent while the negotiations for the annexation of Texas were in progress, or the act itself be

ing consummated. On the 23d day of August, 1843, Mr. de Bocanegra, the Mexican Minister of foreign relations, addressed a note to Mr. Thompson, the American Minister in Mexico, calling his attention officially to the agitation of the question in the United States, and announcing that the Mexican government would consider equivalent to a declaration of war against the Mexican Republic, the passage of an act for the incorporation of Texas with the territory of the United States; the certainty of the fact being sufficient for the immediate proclamation of war; leaving to the civilized world to determine with regard to the justice of the cause of the Mexican nation, in a struggle which it [had] been so far from provoking. The tone of a portion of the note of Mr. de Bocanegra was so harsh and dictatorial, that it elicited a sharp reproof from Mr. Thompson. A second note was written by the former, in September, which was more subdued in its character, and assured the American Envoy that Mexico did not threaten, still less provoke or excite; but that she would "regard the annexation of Texas to the United States as a hostile act."*

In November of the same year, a similar correspondence took place, at Washington, between General Almonte, the Mexican Minister, and Mr. Upshur, the American Secretary of State; the former protesting, in an official note written on the 3d instant, in the name of his government, against the annexation, and declaring that on sanction being given by the American Executive to the incorporation of Texas into the United States, he

* House of Representatives, Exec. Doc., 2-1st Session 28th Congress, p. 26, et seq.

4

should consider his mission ended, and that the Mexican government was resolved to declare war so soon as it received information of such an act. * Two decrees were about the same time issued by the Mexican government, one of them excluding foreigners from the retail trade in Mexico, and the other closing the customhouses in the northern departments. The object of these decrees if not avowed, at least not concealed was to compel the American shopmen to leave the capital, and to cut off the valuable western trade with New Mexco and Chihuahua. Mr. Thompson remonstrated against these decrees, but the Mexican authorities positively refused to repeal them.

The treaty of annexation concluded by Mr. Calhoun was signed on the 12th day of April, 1844. Immediately upon the conclusion of the treaty, Mr. Green, the American Chargé d'Affaires in Mexico, by the direction of the Secretary of State, assured the Mexican government, that it was the desire of the President of the United States to settle all questions between the two countries, that might grow out of the treaty," or any other cause, on the most liberal and satisfactory terms, including that of boundary ;" and that the boundary of Texas had been purposely left without specification in the treaty, so that it might be "an open question, to be fairly and fully discussed and settled, according to the rights of each, and the mutual interest and security of the two countries.‡

*Senate Doc. 341, 1st Session.

House of Representatives, Exec. Doc. 2 1st session 28th Congress, p. 31, et seq.

Senate Doc. 341-1st session 28th Congress, p. 53.

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Mr. Thompson having returned home, a new Envoy was subsequently sent to Mexico, with full and adequate powers to enter upon the negotiation. He, also, was instructed by Mr. Calhoun, on the 10th of September, 1844, to renew the declaration made to the Mexican Secretary by our chargé d'affaires, in announcing the conclusion of the treaty, that the measure was adopted in no spirit of hostility to Mexico, and that, if annexation should be consummated, the United States [would] be prepared to adjust all questions growing out of it, including that of boundary, on the most liberal terms."*

When it became known in Mexico that the treaty had been signed, Mr. de Bocanegra addressed a circular letter to the foreign ministers resident in Mexico, dated the 31st of May, 1844, in which he pronounced the treaty of annexation, absolutely, "a declaration of war between the two nations." In reply to the assurances of Mr. Green, the Mexican minister repeated his declaration that Mexico would consider the ratification of the treaty as a positive act of war. The authorities of Mexico were doubtless emboldened to assume this warlike and offensive tone, by the powerful opposition offered to the annexation of Texas in the United States, and they claimed great merit among their people for their bold resistance of what they termed the aggressions of the American govern

ment.

war.†

Santa Anna, the President of Mexico, took the same ground with Mr. de Bocanegra, in a public announce

* House of Representatives, Exec. Doç.-2d session 28th Congress-p. 21, et seq.

† Ibid., p. 52, et seq.

ment made on the 12th of June, 1844, and declared it to be the firm determination of Mexico to re-conquer Texas. This announcement was followed by a requisition for thirty thousand men, and four millions of dollars, to carry on the war, which, it was threatened, would be one of extermination. Generals Canalizo and Woll were ordered to the north with an armed force, but accomplished nothing in the way of subjugation. When the annexation resolutions were passed, General Almonte protested against them in his official capacity as the accredited minister of his government, on the 6th of March, 1845, and demanded his passports. These were delivered to him by Mr. Buchanan, who assured him that the government of the United States was favorably disposed toward Mexico, and was desirous of treating with it in an amicable and friendly spirit, for the adjustment and final settlement of all questions in difference between the two countries, including the boundary of Texas. These pa

cific overtures were not regarded, and on the 2d day of April the American Minister in Mexico was refused all intercourse with that government, upon the ground, as stated by the Mexican minister of foreign relations, that the government of Mexico could "not continue diplomatic relations with the United States, upon the presumption that such relations [were] reconcilable with the law" of annexation. President Herrera, the successor of Santa Anna, also issued a proclamation, on the 4th of June, 1845, declaring that the annexation in nowise destroyed the rights of Mexico, and that she would maintain them by force of arms. Two decrees of the Mexican Congress were affixed to this proclamation, providing for calling