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Mr. Donelson then states the grounds on which the claim to the Rio Grande would be defensible.

1. "The revolutionary right of the people of Texas to resist oppression and enforce such a political organization as they deemed necessary."

2. "The acknowledgment of Santa Anna in 1836,

by which Texas was prevented from following up the advan tages of victory, among which was the opportunity of estab lishing herself on the Rio Grande."

3. "The capacity of Texas, if not now, at least in a short period, to establish by force her claim to this boundary. This capacity is fairly inferrible from the offer of Mexico to recognize her independence, and is self-evident to all who have any knowledge of the relative power and position of Mexico and Texas."

4. "The United States, in addition to the foregoing grounds, will have the older one, founded on the Louisiana claim."

5. "But... all these considerations are but subsidiary to the necessity which exists for the establishment of the Rio Grande as the boundary between the two nations." "Texas has at pleasure taken possession of her [the Mexican] posts there, and has only suspended jurisdiction because it was inconvenient to maintain it. . . . On such grounds it cannot be doubted that Mexico already considers the whole of the territory between the Rio Grande and the Nueces as lost to her."

"There is a disposition in some members to resort to some action, the expectation of Texas that the Rio Grande will be maintained as the boundary, but no provision making this a sine qua non in our action hereafter will be adopted.' 91, 92.

pp.

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Let us take a word of comment from another source. 1836, General Jackson sent Mr. Morfit to Texas, to learn the state of things. Mr. Morfit thus writes, in August, 1836:

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'It was the intention of this [the Texan] government, immediately after the battle of San Jacinto, to have claimed from the Rio Grande along the river to the thirtieth degree of latitude, and thence due west to the Pacific. It was found, however, that this would not strike a convenient point in California, ... and that the territory now determined on would be sufficient for a new republic." "The political limits of Texas proper were the Nueces

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River on the west," &c. "The additional territory claimed by Texas since the declaration of independence, will increase her population at least 15,000."-Doc. of Ho. of Rep., 2d Sess., 24th Cong, No. 35.

Mr. C. J. Ingersoll, in his speech on the 3d of March, 1845, said,

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"The deserts between the Nueces and the Bravo [the Rio Grande] are the natural boundaries. . . . There ends the Valley of the West. There Mexico begins. While peace is cherished that boundary will be respected. Not till the spirit of conquest rages will the people on either side molest or mix with each other."

II. WAR WAS EXPECTED AS THE CONSEQUENCE OF THE

ANNEXATION.

In his letter of June 4th, 1845, to Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Donelson says,

"If Mexico takes possession of the country between the Nueces and the Rio Grande, and comes still further east within the Texan territory, . . . are the United States to stand still? . . . Mexico has about seven thousand troops on the Rio Grande." "I look upon war as inevitable, a war.. intended. . to deprive both Texas and the United States of all claim to the country between the Nueces and the Rio Grande.” — p. 54.

June 22d, writing to Mr. Buchanan, he says, "The British minister who has been recently to Mexico — informed President Jones that he thought war would be the consequence of the determination of Texas to accept the terms of annexation." ―p. 55.

Again, in writing to Mr. Allen, June 11th, 1845, he says, "Mr. Allen remarks 'that a new invasion of Texas may be reasonably apprehended, if the proposals [of annexation] lately received from the United States . . . should be accepted. 'Such a war would be hastened and occasioned by the acts and aimed at the interests, no less of the United States than of Texas.' . . . The undersigned is authorized to say that a force consisting of three thousand men, will be prepared to act without a moment's delay," &c. p. 57.

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Again to the same, June 13th

"Such an invasion, occasioned by the acts of the United States, it will of course be the duty of the President of the United States to repel."—p. 69.

June 22d, 1845, he writes to Captain Stockton, "The prospect of a Mexican war is so immediate as to justify your remaining on the lookout for the worst. It is openly threatened by Mexico."―p. 78.

June 26th, he writes to Mr. Buchanan,

"The very preference manifested by . . . Texas for annexation. . . must be mortifying to the pride of Mexico, and may very probably induce her to commence against this country sudden and active hostilities." - p. 80.

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June 28th, he thus writes to General Taylor: invasion of Texas may be confidently anticipated."-p. 93. July 24th, 1845, he writes to Mr. Buchanan,

"The common opinion of the citizens best acquainted with the Mexican population is, that the [Mexican] government will be obliged to declare war."

p. 96.

III. THERE WAS A SCHEME TO THROW THE BLAME OF THE WAR UPON MEXICO.

June 11th, 1845, he writes to Mr. Buchanan, "Care will be taken to throw the responsibility of aggressive measures on the government of Mexico."-p. 56.

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Again to the same, June 23d,

'If she undertakes such an expedition, she of course puts upon the hazard of war the whole claim, and gives us the right of going not only to the Rio Grande, but wherever else we may please."· p. 74.

July 2d:

"It is better for us to await the attack than incur the risk of embarrassing the question of annexation with the consequences of immediate possession of the territory to the Rio Grande. You will find that I have guarded every point." "It appeared to me wiser to look for some advantage from the assailing movement threatened by Mexico, than to resist the passage [by the Texan Congress] of. a law .. putting the Texan forces under the Major-General, the effect of which would have been the immediate expulsion of all Mexican soldiers found on the east bank of the Rio Grande. If by such a law the whole of the Texan claim, in respect to limits, could have been taken out of dispute, its passage would have been insisted upon; but as there would have remained all the Santa Fe region, it occurred to me well enough that the subject is left as it is by this Congress." — p. 79.

June 28th, he writes to General Taylor,

"I would by no means be understood as advising you to take an offensive attitude in regard to Mexico. . . . The probability is, if Mexico undertakes the invasion, that she will attempt to drive you from the points suggested for your occupation [Corpus Christi and a point between that and San Antonio]. In that event, your right of defence will of course authorize you to cripple and destroy the Mexican army in the best way you can. You can safely hold possession of Corpus Christi and all other points up the Nueces, and if Mexico attempts to dislodge you, drive her beyond the Rio Grande." pp. 93, 94.

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Mr. Slidell, the pacific Envoy of the United States-who does not seem to understand the policy of his superiors — on the 27th of December, 1845, thus writes to Mr. Buchanan :

"The desire of our government to have peace will be taken for timidity; the most extravagant pretensions will be made and insisted upon, [by Mexico] until the Mexican people shall be convinced by hostile demonstrations that our differences must be settled promptly, either by negotiation or the sword."

We cannot forbear giving the opinion of some other men, and very eminent too, not only in the estimation of the democratic party, to which they belong, but in that of the country at large. The first is from a speech of the late Hon. Silas Wright, a man richly entitled to a distinguished place among the politicians of the day. In his address, delivered at Watertown, New York, in the summer of 1844, he says,

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"I felt it my duty to vote as a Senator, and did vote against the .. treaty for the annexation [of Texas]. I believed that the treaty.. embraced a country to which Texas had no claim, over which she had never asserted jurisdiction, and which she had no right to cede. . . . The treaty ceded Texas by name, [but] without an effort to describe a boundary. The Congress of Texas had passed an act declaring . . . what was Texas. . . . We must take the country as Texas had ceded it to us, and in doing that

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we must do injustice to Mexico, and take a large portion of New Mexico, the people of which have never been under the jurisdiction of Texas. This to me was an insurmountable barrier. I could not place the country in that position."

The authority of Col. Benton is confessedly great in all matters relating to our western boundaries. He merits the gratitude of the nation for his able discussion of our claims to

"the whole of Oregon." His motives may have been what his opponents alleged; we have nothing to do with that matter, only with his discussion, his facts, and his arguments. His speech in the Senate, on the 16th, 17th, and 20th of May, 1844, is well known. We give the resolutions offered by that distinguished member of the democratic party, on the 13th of May, while the treaty was still pending.

"Resolved, That the ratification of the treaty for the annexation of Texas to the United States would be an adoption of the Texian war with Mexico by the United States, and would devolve its conduct and conclusion upon the United States.

"Resolved, That the treaty-making power does not extend to the right of making war, and that the President and Senate have no right to make war, either by declaration or adoption."

In his speech, after reciting the rights already claimed by Texas, he goes on to prove that this territory includes towns. and villages and custom-houses in the peaceful possession of Mexico.

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First, there is the department. . of New Mexico. . . . This department is studded with towns and villages, is populated, well cultivated, and covered with flocks and herds. On its left bank, (and I only speak of the part which we propose to re-annex,) is first the frontier village, Taos, 3000 souls, where the custom-house is kept, at which our Missouri caravans enter their goods. Then comes Santa Fe, the capital, 4000 souls; then Albuquerque, 6000 souls; thence some scores of other towns and villages, all more or less populated, and surrounded by flocks and fields. Then come the departments of Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Tamaulipas, without settlements on the left bank of the river, but occupying the right bank, and commanding the left. All this-being parts of four departments now under Mexican governors, or governments, is permanently re-annexed to this Union, if this treaty is ratified, and is actually re-annexed for the moment by the signature of the treaty, according to the President's last message, to remain so until the acquisition is rejected by rejecting the treaty."

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"The President in his special message.. informs us that we have acquired a title to the ceded territories by his signature to the treaty, wanting only the action of the Senate to perfect it; and that in the mean time he will protect it from invasion, and for that purpose has detached all the disposable parts of the army and navy to the scene of action. This is a caper about equal to the mad freaks with which the unfortunate Emperor Paul, of Russia, was accustomed to astonish Europe, about forty years ago. By this declaration, the thirty thousand Mexicans on the left half

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