IV. Efforts of the Administration to excite war with V. Claims on Mexico, and war recommended, VI. Acknowledgment of the Independence of Texas, VII. New claims made against Mexico, VIII. Treaty of annexation proposed and rejected, IX. Treaty of arbitration-action of the slaveholders, X. Results of the treaty of arbitration, . XXV. Motive for acquiring territory-the Wilmot XXVI. Unworthy expedients for facilitating conquest, XXIX. Sufferings inflicted on Mexioo by the war, XXX. Cost of the war to the United States, XXXI. Political evils of the war, REVIEW OF THE MEXICAN WAR. CHAPTER I. EARLY EFFORTS TO WREST TEXAS FROM MEXICO. LOUISIANA was ceded by France to restored to the former power in 1800. Spain in 1762, and it was ceded by France to the United States. In none of these cessions, was there any specification of boundaries. The territory was a vast undefined region east of the Mississippi; and with rare exceptions, untenanted by civilized inhabitants. It, of course, adjoined the Spanish dominions in Mexico, but the separating line could not easily be ascertained. As the American settlements in Louisiana extended, the question of boundary necessarily became a matter of discussion, between the governments of Spain and the United States. This question was finally settled in 1819, by a treaty with Spain, in which the contracting powers severally ceded to each other, all claims to territory beyond their respective sides of a defined line. In 1820, the State of Missouri, formed out of the Louisiana territory, was admitted into the Union as a slave State. To facilitate its admission, and to overcome the formidable opposition of the Northern States, to the incorporation into the confederacy of another slaveholding State, the slaveholders proposed and effected the celebra ted Missouri compromise, a law declaring that in future slavery should be prohibited north of 36° 30" north latitude. It was not long however, before it was discovered that this Missouri compromise, together with the southern boundary of the United States, as defined in the Spanish treaty of 1819, had reduced within comparatively narrow limits, the area from which slave States might hereafter be formed; with the exception of Florida, the territory south of the Missouri compromise line, was not probably sufficient for more than two States. The State of Louisiana was separated from the Spanish province of Texas, by the Sabine river, and the soil, climate, and position of that province, rendered it a desirable acquisition to the slaveholding interest. Various expedients were from time to time devised, to obtain possession of this coveted territory-forcible seizure-colonization-purchase-independence, and annexation. The first was attempted soon after the Spanish treaty, had extinguished all claims of the United States to Texas, as included within the territory of Louisiana. A man named James Long, without about seventy-five lawless adventurers, left Natchez on the 17th June, 1819, and proceeded to Nacogdoches, about forty miles within the limits of Texas. On the 23d of the same month, he there issued a proclamation which may be regarded as the first step in that career of fraud, falsehood, and violence, which ultimately led to the annexation of Texas, and the war against Mexico. In this document, which was probably prepared in the State of Mississippi, Long, styling himself President of the Supreme Council of Texas, declared "that the citizens of Texas, have long indulged the hope that in the adjustment of the boundaries of the Spanish possessions in America, and of the territories of the United States, they should be included within the limits of the latter." As this hope had been dissipated by the recent treaty, the proclamation proceeds to announce the independence of the REPUBLIC OF TEXAS. This paper, was of course, intended as an invitation to American citizens to repair to Long's standard, and participate with him in the intended plunder; and it was consequently published in the Louisiana Herald, printed in New Orleans. In a little while, the whole party were dispersed, some being killed, and the others taken prisoners by the Spaniards.* The plan of colonization was next adopted. Moses Austin of Missouri, in 1821, obtained leave from the Spanish authorities, to introduce three hundred families into Texas, on certain conditions. The permission was granted, as is said, on the representation of Austin, that Catholics were oppressed in the United States, and it was agreed that all the settlers to be introduced by him, should be of the oppressed religion. Austin dying, the grant was in 1823, renewed to his son, who commenced a colony on the Brazos, with emigrants from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana. By the renewed grant, the settlers, it is asserted, were to be exclusively Catholics; .but whatever was their creed in other respects, they were believers in the right of man to hold property in man, and accordingly carried their slaves with them. In 1826, a body of emigrants from the United States, settled about Nacogdoches, again raised the standard of insurrection under a man of the name of Edwards, and published a declaration of independence. They were, however, soon crushed by the Mexican forces. At the date of the boundary treaty, Mexico was a * |