"THREE HUNDRED MEN FOR TEXAS. General Dunlap of Tennessee is about to proceed to Texas with the above number of men. Every man is completely armed, the corps having been originally raised for the Florida War."

"This morning more than 200 men, commanded by Colonel Wilson, and on their way to Texas, passed this place in the Tuskina, with drums beating and fifes playing. They will be followed by 300 men more, all from old Kentucky."

In vain did the Mexican Minister, from time to time, call the attention of the Government to these violations of neutrality. Notwithstanding the solemn and repeated assurances given by the Secretary of State, not a serious effort was made to arrest the tide of war which was rolling from the United States upon the Mexican territory. No proclamation was issued, warning our citizens of their duties and responsibilities; no instructions were given, as in former instances, to military officers, to arrest the violators of our neutrality. Jefferson had succeeded in bringing a man, lately one of the highest functionaries in the country, to trial, for secretly planning an invasion of the Spanish dominions. Jackson, one of the most energetic Presidents that ever occupied the executive chair, never enforced the penalties of the law on one individual of the many thousands who openly perpetrated the crime which Burr had only designed.

When commanding in the southern department, General Jackson thought proper to put to death two foreigners, named Arbuthnot and Ambrister, accused of aiding the Indians in their hostilities, and thus expressed himself in his order for their execution :-" It is an established principle of the law of nations, that any individual, of any nation, making war against the citizens of another nation,

they being at peace, forfeits his allegiance, and becomes an outlaw and a pirate."

The "established principle of the law of nations," announced by the General, was not recognized by the President when his own personal and political friends were the outlaws and pirates, and were struggling to effect an object most dear to his own heart. On the 10th May, 1836, General Gaines transmitted to the President the news of the victory of the Texans at San Jacinto, over Santa Anna, and indulged the anticipation that in conseof the victory, quence 66 THIS MAGNIFICENT ACQUISITION TO OUR UNION" would grace his administration.

CHAPTER IV.

EFFORTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION TO EXCITE A WAR WITH

MEXICO.

THE distracted and exhausted state of Mexico, the energy and rapidily increasing numbers of the Texans, the vast supplies they were daily receiving from the United States, together with the presence of a friendly army, ready, when necessary, to interpose between them and the enemy, all combined to render the issue of the struggle certain. Texas, it was seen, would become independent of Mexico. But her independence would not necessarily add to the political power of the slave-holding interest in the United States. For this purpose annexation was indispensable. But annexation could not be effected at present, without drawing after it a war with Mexico, and this obvious consequence strengthened the objections entertained to the measure at the North. It was well ascertained that no treaty of annexation, especially at the price of a Mexican war, would at present receive the sanction of Congress. But, if Mexico could be induced to commence hostilities against the United States, or should her conduct justify a declaration of war against her, then one powerful obstacle to annexation would be removed, and Texas would become ours, by right of conquest, and with the unanimous consent of her inhabitants. Every attempt to purchase Texas had failed, and all hope of acquiring it by this means, was abandoned on the termination of Mr. Butler's fruitless mission. From this time, the

policy of the administration was to force Mexico into a war. The commencement of this new policy was the advance of American troops into Texas, on the pretence of protecting the frontier against Indians.

On the 5th of August, 1836, the President, in a letter to the Governor of Tennessee, countermanded a requisisition by Gaines for troops, assigning this remarkable reason: "There is no information to justify the apprehension of hostilities to any serious extent from the Western Indians."

The victory of San Jacinto had now been won, and the President probably thought that General Gaines's zeal in behalf of Texas was putting the country to unnecessary expense. Why the order countermanding the General's requisition was not given through the Secretary of War does not appear. Possibly it was deemed most prudent not to put the important admission we have quoted, on record in the War Office, and it is to some accident or carelessness that we are indebted for this letter, among the official documents published by Congress. Let its date be kept in mind. 5th August, 1836.

On the 10th of the succeeding September, the Mexican Minister at Washington wrote to the Secretary of State, and, referring to some newspaper statements that the United States troops had invaded the Mexican territory, averred that, if this invasion was sanctioned by the Government, his mission must terminate. And what reply was returned? Did the Government apologize for the invasion as having been induced by false reports? Did it acknowledge, that there was now no information to justify the apprehension of hostilities to any serious extent from our Western Indians," and that therefore the troops should be immediately recalled? Far different was the response returned. The Secretary of State admitted

that American troops were then stationed at Nagadoches, and further, that on the 4th of that month the President had instructed General Gaines to enter the Mexican territory, if he shall be satisfied, "that any body of Indians who disturb the peace of the frontier of the United States, receive assistance or shelter within the Mexican territory."

The Minister denied that Mexico had any wish to excite the Indians against the United States, and he formally demanded the withdrawal of the troops from the Mexican territory (Texas). This demand was, on the 13th October, met by a flat refusal—a refusal coupled with insult. The Minister was informed by our Secretary of State, that by treaty each party was bound to restrain its own Indians from making hostile incursions upon the territories of the other; and, as Mexico had not the ability to fulfil her engagement, the United States had the right in selfdefence to occupy her territory. Not a particle of evidence was adduced to show that the frontiers of the United States were menaced by Mexican Indians—not an argument advanced to prove the necessity of our army advancing into Texas in self-defence, and the whole pretext is stamped with the brand of impudent falsehood, by the confession made to the Governor of Tennessee by the President in the letter we have quoted.

Two days after this insult to Mexico, her Minister demanded his passports. * This was a great point gained by the administration. Diplomatic intercourse with Mexico was so far interrupted; and the rupture, if properly managed, might result in war, and consequently in annexation. While in the very act of inflicting the grossest outrages upon Mexico, and amid professions of neutrality as ardent as they were false, the administration thought it

* See Ex. Doc., 2d Sess., 24th Cong. Vol I.