[27.] Ho. 60; 30, 1, pp. 31, 58 (Peña); 28 (Black). [52]Slidell, Dec. 17.
[28.] Ho. 60; 30, 1, p. 58 (Peña). [77]Relaciones, circular to govs., Dec. 11. Comunicación circular. Memoria de ... Relaciones, Dec., 1848. Sen. 337; 29, 1, pp. 21, 24, 25, 28, 32 (Slidell); 22 (Black); 25, 30 (Peña). Slidell, Dec. 17.
Even the unfriendly Mexican correspondent of the London Times wrote, “For once” the United States is right, for the documents prove that Mexico made no ad hoc condition (Times, Mar. 13, 1846). The matter can be viewed in another light also. Peña agreed to receive a “comisionado”; later he said he had agreed to receive a “comisionado ad hoc.” If the words “ad hoc” added anything, they indicated a difference between his earlier and his later positions; if not, why were they used? Many Americans, doubtless without perceiving what the significance of the act would have been, have insisted that the United States ought to have humored poor little Mexico by sending an envoy ad hoc. Aside from the weightier objection to so doing, such a concession would probably have led to further demands (see note 34). Peña, instead of recognizing our magnanimity in taking the first step to heal a breach caused by Mexico, described our overture as “a tacit but clear and strong confession of the rights of Mexico [and] of the wrongs done to her” ([77]circular, Dec. 11). Gallatin stated that treaties of peace were always negotiated by special commissioners, but this was incorrect (see e.g. Jenkinson, Collection, iii, 355).
[29.] Memoria de ... Relaciones, 1846. The council of state said: From the language in which the ministry “explains the condition of receiving the proposed envoy (enviado), we cannot draw a satisfactory reason for not receiving Mr. Slidell.” Ho. 60; 30, 1, pp. 28–49, 56. Bankhead, no. 127, 1845.
In his manifesto of July 26, 1846 (Diario, July 30), Paredes mentioned, as third among the causes of the war, the attempt of the United States to induce Mexico to receive a resident minister, so as to restore friendly relations without first making amends for the offence [annexation of Texas] that had broken off official intercourse.
[30.] Webster, Writings, iv, 32. R. C. Winthrop, another leading Whig, took the same ground (Union, Mar. 20, 1847). (Awkward) Calhoun in Benton’s Abr. Debates, xvi, 99.
[31.] Revolution of Paredes. Memoria de ... Relaciones, Dec, 1846 (including documents). Contestaciones (between Paredes, Arista, and the government, 1845). Carreño, Jefes, clxiii-clxxvii. Patriota Mex., Dec. 23, 1845. Ramírez, México, 80–124. [77]Relaciones, circular, Jan. 3, 1846. México á través, iv, 546–56. [56]Mexican corr. of London Times to W. S. Parrott, Nov. 19; Dec. 18. [76]Guerra, circular, Jan 5. Dimond, nos. 279, 302, 1845. Aguila del Norte, Feb. 11; Mar. 18, 1846. Rivera, Gobernantes, ii, 281–5, 287–8. Giménez, Mems., 91. [285]Tornel to Paredes, Nov. 19, 1845. Bankhead, nos. 94, 97, 116, 119, 120, 124, 1845; 2, 1846. Tributo á la Verdad. [56]W. S. Parrott, Aug. 16, 29; Sept. 29, 1845. Black, June 10; Sept. 2, 1845. Picayune, Jan. 24, 1846. Portrait of Herrera: city hall, Mexico. London Times, Feb. 10; Mar. 2, 20, 1846. Monitor Constit., Jan. 1, 16, 1846. Slidell, Dec. 27, 1845; Jan. 14; Feb. 6, 1846. Memorial Histórico, Jan. 14, 1846.
The condition of Mexico on the eve of this revolution was well described by the Revista Económica y Comercial: “The country wavers, goes backward, loses courage, and loses hope, because all the systems of government that it has tried, one by one, have failed to give the fruits promised by their authors, and, worn out and exhausted by so many and varied medicines that have been applied in vain, it desires only order, peace, and some degree of security. Our men of merit, education, and patriotism are silent, live in retirement and sadness in their houses, occupied solely with private affairs ... we have become a nation of soldiers, officials, lawyers, clergymen, and smugglers, where the number who produce bears a miserable proportion to the number of those who live by the labor and sweat of the producers, and where the continual political changes, the disorders, the bad administration of justice, and the bad commercial and financial system offer more or less sustenance to those who produce nothing, always at the expense of the toilers and their allies, the merchants.” The political situation was thus explained by El Siglo XIX: “When a long series of civil dissensions, of frauds upon the public, of treasons against the parties, of perjuries to principles, have mixed up men and things, blotted out the line between political groups, and confused all ideas, politics must become a genuine chaos. Mexico is in precisely that condition.” When charged with upsetting public order Paredes replied, “None existed” (Esperanza, Jan. 8, 1846). As late as Aug. 6, 1846, Texas was called upon, like the other political divisions of the country, to elect members of Congress.
[32.] (Scheme) [52]Black, Dec. 30, 1845; [52]Slidell, Dec. 27; [297]McLane to Polk, private, Jan. 17, 1846; Memorial Histórico, Jan. 26, and the Mexican press generally. Slidell saw grounds for hope: the delay in furnishing him an escort; a possibility that Paredes might hold that Herrera had committed Mexico; the improbability that money to pay the troops could be borrowed while war seemed likely (hence he sent a hint to the government that money could be obtained by accepting a boundary satisfactory to the United States); Castillo, with whom he had talked a number of times before he became minister of relations, was intelligent and averse to a war with the United States. Buchanan to Slidell, Jan. 20, 28; Mar. 12.