sued by him. İn this proclamation he says: "I solemnly announce, that I do not declare war against the United States of America, because that power pertains to the august congress of the nation. But the defence of the Mexican territory, which the United States troops have invaded, is an urgent necessity, and my responsibility would be immense before the country, did I not give command to repel these forces, which act like enemies. I have so commanded."

On the 6th of April, General Taylor wrote to the adjutant general as follows: "On our side a battery for four eighteen pounders will be completed, and the guns placed in battery to-day. These guns bear directly upon the public square of Matamoros, and are within good range for demolishing the town." On the 13th, Ampudia, the general commanding at Matamoros wrote to General Taylor, ordering him to break up his camp, and retire beyond the Nueces, to leave the soil of the department of Tamaulipas "while our governments are negotiating the pending question in relation to Texas," and declaring that his remaining on the soil of Mexico must be consid

ered an act of aggressive war. To this he adds: "If you insist in remaining within the territory of Mexico, it will clearly result that arms, and arms alone, must decide the question." On the receipt of this communication, General Taylor issued orders to our naval commander at Brazos Santiago, to blockade the mouth of the Rio Grande, for the purpose of cutting off the supplies and trade of Matamo

ros.

And not until eighteen days after this new outrage, on the 24th of April, General Arista, who had taken command of the Mexican army, gives notice to our commander that he considered hostilities commenced and should prosecute them.

We have thus seen our army ordered to advance one hundred and forty miles beyond the spot which government was officially informed to be the most western point occupied by Texas, to cross that silent solitude of sand, the boundary of the Mississippi valley, and of the Anglo-Saxon race, and to enter a territory inhabited by citizens of Mexico and governed by her laws. We have seen the army take forcible possession of that country, against the pro

tests of its authorities and its citizens. We have seen the inhabitants flying before our forces, two harbors blockaded by our vessels, and one of the principal towns of northern Mexico invested by our batteries.

On the other hand, there is not a single fact which tends to warrant any other supposition, than that the advance of our army to the Rio Grande, and its continuance on the soil of Mexico, was the sole cause, as it was certainly a sufficient cause of the hostilities which it begun. Then on that movement must rest its entire responsibility.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE Object of this movement of our Army. The reason given by the Executive not the real motive, as proved by the circumstances of the case, and by the dispatches to Mr. Slidell. The provocations urged by our government considered. The war designed to be brought about in such a manner as to throw on Mexico the odium of its commencement.

Ir is natural to seek the reason for a measure exhibiting in the executive of the United States such an unconstitutional assumption of power, such a disregard of the acknowledged rights of Mexico, such a violation of the laws of natural justice, and from which such momentous consequences have flowed.

The reason given by the president in his message of May 6th, 1846, for this movement, is, that "it became of urgent necessity to defend that portion of our country;"-meaning, we suppose, the state of Texas.

Now we will state a train of circumstances

which give us the right to suppose, nay, which leave us no room to doubt, that protection to our citizens was not its object, but that its expected and intended result was war with Mexico.

The last settlement which it became of such "urgent necessity to defend" was left by the army one hundred and forty miles in their rear. We have seen that government knew that this movement would be a violent disregard of the claims of Mexico, which itself had declared entitled to its respect, and moreover that it would be an invasion of the territory of Mexico, and a violation of the homes of its citizens. Now it is very difficult to understand why, if an invasion from Mexico was apprehended, a position for our army and all its stores, one hundred and forty miles from the people and territory which it was to defend, and which could be attacked from so many different directions, was so much more advantageous than any other, that this great outrage must be committed and war thus rushed upon to attain it.

It is plain that the reason given by the executive for this act, even if true, would not only have been insufficient as a justification, but