cry of defence by which the nation was aroused. That amiable sympathy for "our much injured citizens" was all an imposition. The pretended necessity to take the redress of their wrongs into our own hands, was only a cloak to a darker purpose.

The enigma is solved, and as at the touch of the enchanter's wand, all the contradictions which we have exposed stand in perfect harmony. They crystalize in wondrous order

around one all-pervading purpose.

Conquest was the animating idea of all this scheme. The acquisition of the territory of another nation was the sole purpose for which this war was devised and carried on. All the pretended sympathy was for this. This it was which so mysteriously exhausted the cup of forbearance. The country of Mexico was invaded for this and this alone

This fact we shall proceed to establish by proof, convincing even to scepticism itself.

When we know that a person desires the possession of any particular object, and all his actions for a long time after are precisely adapted to its attainment, and finally he does obtain and possess it, and expresses his gratifica

tion at the acquisition which he has made, we have a right to suppose that its attainment was his constant purpose during all that time, and that the adaptation of his acts to that attainment was but the carrying out of his origi nal design.

In November, 1845, the president instructed Mr. Slidell to negotiate with Mexico for the purchase of the country down to the Rio Grande, New-Mexico, and the two Californias. He was authorized to pay not more than five millions of dollars for the first, ten millions for the first and second, and twenty-five millions for the whole, and was instructed to procure them as much cheaper as possible. He was directed and encouraged by great personal prospects to use his utmost exertions to purchase the territory.

We shall divide the war with Mexico into two acts. In the first we shall see the possession of this identical country secured, and our authority established over it; and in the second we shall witness the process by which the title to it was extorted.

The Mexican army on the Rio Grande having been defeated in two desperate and une

qual contests, General Taylor moved with his column, now increased to about six thousand men, upon Monterey. He arrived before that city on the 19th of September, and after a terrible assault, continued through two days, and against almost insurmountable obstacles both of nature and art, made himself master of that stronghold. A division of nearly three thousand men under General Wool, left San Antonio de Bexar about the last of September for the conquest of Coahuila and Chihuahua. They entered Monclova on the 31st of October without bloodshed. General Taylor's advanced position was found to command the department of Chihuahua, and it was deemed advisable to concentrate the different columns. General Wool's command was therefore diverted from its original destination, and moving southward, established a communication with General Taylor at Parras, the latter at the same time occupying Saltillo with a part of his forces.

General Kearney having been ordered to march to the conquest of New Mexico and California, left Fort Leavenworth on the 30th of June, on that distant expedition. He reached

Santa Fe on the 18th of August, after a march of nearly nine hundred miles, and took possession of the country in the name of the United States, almost without a show of resistance. With about three hundred dragoons he then commenced his long march to the settled districts of California. Before leaving the valley of the Rio Grande, however, he was met by an express from Colonel Fremont of such a nature that he determined to send back a part of his force, and selecting only one hundred men to accompany him, continued on his route. On his arrival he found all that vast country in the quiet possession of the Americans, its conquest having been already completed by Commodore Stockton and Colonel Fremont.

A company of regular artillery was sent by sea in August to Monterey upon the Pacific, and these were followed in the next month by a regiment of volunteers " persons of various pursuits," raised in New-York city and its neighborhood, for the express purpose of settling in California after they should have completed its conquest. These never returned. This plan of colonizing with soldiers the territory to be acquired by conquest was conceived

by government among the earliest plans of the war, and was communicated to the commander of the expedition within two months after the first blow had been struck on the Rio Grande. About nineteen-twentieths of these conquests were unoccupied land. The instructions given to the commanding officers were that the country was "not to be surrendered in any event, or under any contingency." Commodore Sloat, who at that time commanded our squadron in the Pacific, says in his general order of July 7th, 1846 "It is not only our duty to take California, but to preserve it afterwards as a part of the United States at all hazards." The secretary of war, in his instructions to General Kearney, says: "It is known that a large body of Mormon emigrants are en route for California, for the purpose of settling in that country. You are desired to use all proper means to have a good understanding with them, to the end that the United States may have their co-operation in taking possession of and holding that country." In August, the officer in command of our naval force in the Pacific, is ordered "to take, if not already done, immediate possession of Upper Califor