MEXICO, September 28, 1847-12 o'clock, meridian. An official letter has this moment reached here, announcing that Peña y Peña has entered upon the discharge of the executive duties, and is to proceed forthwith to Queretaro. It is dated Toluca, September 26, and signed by Don Luis de la Rosa, (a peace man) as Minister of Foreign Relations. I have opened this to say that a long letter, most interesting, from one of the best and ablest men of the country, has just been read to me, dated the 26th at Toluca. The anarchists have thus far been completely foiled, and the prospect is highly encouraging. These anarchists (in the State legislature) are men without character or weight of any kind. They had passed a decree declaring the separate sovereignty of the State; and that they would recognize no federal authority save that of the coalition of Lagos. The governor has refused to publish the decree. [No. 17.-Confidential.] HEAD-QUARTERS OF THE U.S. ARMY, SIR: I transmitted, some days since, via Vera Cruz, my numbers 15 and 16, together with duplicates of 12, 13, and 14. Duplicates of the two former are herein enclosed. After my packet had been sealed and delivered to the person who was to carry it, I received some interesting intelligence from Toluca, which formed the subject of a hurried note, sent by the same individual. Thus far, the friends of good order and of peace are proceeding prosperously in their efforts to organize a government in strict conformity with the constitution. Mr. Peña y Peña, who, by virtue of the office of president of the supreme court of justice held by him, is the chief executive of the republic, has assumed this charge, and has appointed Don Luis de la Rosa Minister of Relations. This has been officially announced to the diplomatic corps, and they (Peña and Rosa) have proceeded together to Queretaro, where Congress are to meet on the 5th instant. It was proposed to the State legislature, then assembled at Toluca, to administer the oath of office to Señor Peña; but after a very protracted and angry discussion, they refused to do so, and passed a violent anti-peace decree, declaring that they would recognize no federal authority save that of the congress of the Lagos coalition. The governor (Olagubel, one of the many opponents of Santa Anna, whose dispositions in regard to peace have become considerably modified by his downfall) refused to allow this anarchical decree to be published, and there has been a general burst of indignation against it. According to every appearance, it will do good. The delegation from the State to the sovereign Congress has determined to disregard it. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, JAMES BUCHANAN. N. P. TRIST. [No. 18.] HEAD QUARTERS OF THE U. S. ARMY, SIR: I availed myself, a short time since, of an opportunity (the first that has occurred for such purpose since my arrival in this country) to send you a file of Mexican papers. In these will be found, marked, such articles and passages as are calculated to afford an idea of what is going on in the republic at the present crisis. Although the friends of order have thus far succeeded, even beyond their most sanguine hopes, in organizing, and obtaining support for, a federal executive, which presents specious claims to a sanction from the constitution, and bids fair to stand firm until it can be replaced by a constitutional election of President and Vice President, (now taking place;) yet those claims, when the question is closely and fully examined into, are found liable to objections which it is impossible to answer; and the existing execu-' tive can, in strict truth, be considered only as a government de facto, spontaneously arising, at its own mere motion, out of the chaotic state of things consequent upon the total dissolution of the federal organism, which occurred simultaneously with the capture of this metropolis. This dissolution, I say, was total. It is true, that the authority of the constitution of 1824 had been legitimately restored; but, as yet, no action had taken place under it, and it was altogether uncertain whether any ever would. Previously to the final defeat of the army, and the prostration of Santa Anna, by which it was attended, (as everybody knew, beforehand, that it must be,) the very strongest probability had existed, that, if his power should continue but a little while longer, all the fruits of the labors of the sovereign constituent Congress would prove but a dead letter; that the constitution would be smothered under the pretexts and facilities which the state of the country afforded for the establishment of dictatorial power. (And the first use of this would have been, to make peace; the obvious and sure way at once. to secure all the requisites for the consolidation of that power.) After that event, the same probability remained-nay, the danger became even more imminent and more manifest than before-from the operation of other causes, tending in the opposite direction. This was the state of things, so far as regarded the constitution which had been adopted as the law of the land, but had not yet come into force. On the other hand, at the time of our entrance into this city, the only actually existing federal authority was that vested in, first, the "sovereign constituent Congress," elected for the twofold purpose of re-establishing the constitution of 1824, (with amendments,) and disposing of all questions connected with the war; and, secondly, the executive provisionally created by that body, when it first met, in appointing Santa Anna and Gomez Farias, president and vice president ad interim. But, many months had elapsed since the Congress had formed a quorum, and it was exceedingly doubtful whether they could ever again be brought together; and, with respect to the executive branch, it was not merely vacated, but its existence totally ceased with the resigna tion and flight of Santa Anna; for the appointment of Farias had, ever since the month of April, been rescinded by Congress, and the vice presidency ad interim left vacant. There was, then, no executive authority in existence, nor the possibility of the creation of one, except by a new appointment ad interim by the sovereign constituent Congress, (in regard to which it was very doubtful whether it would ever again meet,) or by an election under the recently resuscitated constitution, which had yet to show whether the generally prevailing belief, against the possibility of its ever coming into force, was or was not to prove just. That instrument did, to be sure, contain a provision to meet this emergency; for, in case of vacancy in the offices of president and vice president, it devolves the executive functions upon the president of the supreme court of justice: but it so happened, that this office was itself vacant. The person who had last held it (by election, as prescribed by the constitution) was dead. Señor Peña y Peña was, at most, but the senior justice of the tribunal; and the validity of his title to be considered even as belonging to it at all, was questionable on more than one point. These objections, however, were overlooked, through the desire to avoid utter anarchy; or, more strictly speaking, to rescue the country from it, for it was already in full progress; several of the State legislatures having passed decrees, and others being upon the point of doing so, declaring the federal government dissolved, and the States to be reinstated in their respective sovereignties. At first, it seemed that nothing could stay the swelling tide, and that the whole country was soon to be overwhelmed by it, past all redemption; but, through efforts the most active and unremitting on the part of a few men, whose characters commanded confidence, congenial spirits to their own were suddenly roused and incited to similar exertions, at various centres of action throughout the country; and although, for a time, the most sanguine among them almost despaired of success, they have finally triumphed in obtaining a general recognition of the provisional authority of Peña y Peña; a triumph which, considering the serious constitutional objections which existed against his recognition, and the number of factions at work to prevent it, is a subject of just wonder. The last of these factions which has reared its head (and for a week or two, recently, it kept all hopes at a stand, and even caused them to flow back) consists of the Santanistas, the devoted personal adherents of Santa Anna, who have always been ready to go for him, without regard to the views which he might profess for the occasion. These men, availing themselves of the exasperation and desperation to which the army have been brought by the universal scorn with which they are treated, and by the daily augmenting indications of a general determination to get rid of them, organized a plot to resuscitate Santa Anna, by means of a pronunciamento at Queretaro and other points. The scheme, however, though the movements and demonstrations which took place in pursuance of it were for awhile productive of great uneasiness, has entirely failed; and it is not considered at present as a just cause for ap prehension. This plot is the explanation of Santa Anna's having lingered in the neighborhood of Puebla, after his recent discomfiture there; delaying his departure towards Oajaca, which had been his destination (in order to get out of the country) when he quitted this district; at which time, he had not any idea whatever of engaging in the attempt he subsequently made upon Puebla ; being incited thereto by a combination of fortuitous circumstances, that caused his expiring hopes to flicker up for an instant, and delude him with the fancy that his ruin might not yet have been consummated; although, in the opinion of the most sagacious men of all parties, it was sealed forever from the moment this capital. fell. Strong and firm, however, as this belief is, it would be a great relief to those who find comfort in it to know that he was once fairly out of the country. It is considered unfortunate, too, that the risks attending an attempt to escape through the parts of the republic occupied or blockaded by us should have driven him towards Guatemala; where-even if he should fail to find in the State of Oajaca a refuge and a centre of action, as well as inducements to engage in mischievous, or at least troublesome, machinations-he may be beset by the temptation to foster the wild project which has been started in that quarter, of making common cause with this republic. For some days past the intelligence from Queretaro has been more and more encouraging, by every fresh arrival. No doubt exists now as to an early meeting of Congress, ** * * Letters are pouring in upon the deputies at Queretaro, urging them to make peace without loss of time; the writers being generally men who have hitherto been among the most vehement in denouncing every idea of the sort. This change is owing chiefly, almost entirely, to the downfall of Santa Anna; though it has not by any means extended to all those whose opposition to peace. arose from the belief that it would serve to fix that man in power, and to subject the country hopelessly to his sway. The expedient has been resorted to of inviting the governors of the States to Queretaro to confer with the government; and many of them have agreed to meet there. They will be presented with statements of the contingents in men and money which are indispensable to the prosecution of the war; and it is expected that this argument will prove quite efficacious in making proselytes to the cause of peace. Putting out of view the merely personal factions, and confining ourselves to what may be considered as national parties, but two of these now exist with reference to the question of peace or war. Both are, in truth, disposed to peace, and the disposition is equally sincere and earnest in each. Nevertheless, the struggle is to be between these two parties, and it will be as vigorous as if one of them were actuated by the most intense and reckless animosity against us; whilst, in reality, it will be influenced solely by the desire to become incorporated with us; and if this be impracticable, to compel us at least to give them aid and support in maintaining a decent order of things, by means of a government founded on republican principles. As was remarked to me to-day by one of our officers, in conversation on this subject, the position in which our country finds itself at this juncture is a phenomenon altogether unexampled in the history of the world: a nation, to whose principles and habits and institutions the spirit of conquest is altogether foreign, actually has thrust upon her, by its own inhabitants, the acquisition of a country rich beyond calculation in numberless sources of commercial prosperity, and abounding in everything that can make a country desirable. Of these two parties the one has for its nucleus the best men of the moderado party; the other the best of the puros, or uncompromising republicans. The former, as is natural to their characters, are governed by their desire to put an end to the war. They see and feel that peace is the urgent want of their country; and they are anxious for it, on the best terms on which it can be obtained. The others, although no less strongly impressed with the evils of war, and no less anxious for peace, do not allow this desire to make them lose sight of other evils of a greater magnitude and more enduring character-the evils of misgovernment. They believe that the war may be made instrumental in averting these; and, to attain this end, they are willing that the war shall last as long as may be necessary for the purpose. They are determined that, so far as depends upon them, it shall not cease until it shall be attended with the effect of bringing about a connexion of some sort or other between the two countries, the more intimate the better; something of the kind they are inflexibly bent upon; something which shall suffice to secure among them the predominance of those political principles to which our country is indebted for the happiness which reigns there. "They talk," said one of these men to me, (a member of the present congress,) "of nationality. They say, that the first duty of the citizen is, and our first object at the present crisis should be, to preserve our nationality. But what is nationality worth-what is anything worthexcept so far as it goes to secure social advantages? This is my touchstone for all political questions, and I recognize no other. Social advantages are the object, and nothing else is of any value, except as a means for securing this object. We have none in this country, and the only way in which we can acquire any is, by political institutions similar to yours. This is the reason why I have, all my life, to the very great neglect of the profession on which I depended for the maintenance of my family, been engaged in efforts to defend and foster the germs of liberty and State rights which we have among us. I have struggled for them, solely because they are means for the attainment of that in which the happiness of man consists. Nationality has been to us barren of all good; fruitful in nothing but anarchy, misrule, oppression, and corruption. Therefore its preservation is not an object with me, and I wish to see it merged in yours." He then entered into an explanation of the designs of those whose cure for all these evils. consists in the introduction of monarchy; commented upon the 1 S |