[15.] Herald, Aug. 30, 1845. News in Nat. Intelligencer, Sept. 4, 1845. Journ. of Comm., May 21, 1845. Gen. Worth wrote in the autumn of 1845: “Our people will not rest satisfied without a war with some power” (N. Y. Times, July 16, 1916). Claiborne (Quitman, i, 310): the people “demanded war and were determined to have it.” For information regarding the state of mind prevailing in western Tennessee and the adjacent regions the author is greatly indebted to Gov. James D. Porter of Nashville, who was a young man at the time of the Mexican war. The fact that hunting occupied the place of work had no little influence. (Hunting) Rose, McCulloch, 29.
[16.] Comm. Bulletin, Mar. 17, 1842. (Wealth) Smith, Annex. of Texas, 49. (Willing) Tribune, May 11, 1845. [210]I. E. Holmes to Hammond, May 10, 1846 (The Westerners want to despoil the churches and plantations). (Letter) Globe, Aug. 25, 1845. News in Mobile Herald and Tribune, Sept. 7, 1845. The Whigs were of course inclined on partisan grounds to denounce the Democratic party and the administration for every sign of hostility to Mexico, and to maintain that if the Texas policy of their candidate for the Presidency, Henry Clay, had been followed there would have been no danger of war. Indeed, it would seem at first sight as if they could have found no logical escape from this position. But they were able to say, particularly in the south: We opposed immediate annexation; we predicted that it would cause trouble with Mexico; but the country voted that way, and now as patriotic Americans we accept the consequences. Sentiment in favor of fighting Mexico was by no means confined to the Democrats.
[17.] (“Slaves”) N. Orl. Comm. Bulletin in Savannah Republican, Aug. 15, 1845. The popular American idea of a Mexican was a fat face, a double chin, a muddy complexion, a bloated body, coarse appetites, a crude organization generally, and no brains to speak of above the ears—only enough to talk with. Spanish rule and the mixture of Indian blood had tended naturally to produce something of this sort, but finer types were very numerous and sometimes brilliant. (Soldiery) N. Y. Tribune, May 11, 1845; [354]Welles papers. (Picture) Comm. Bulletin, Mar. 17, 1842. “Who’s for Mexico?” ran Colonel Dakin’s advertisement in the New Orleans Tropic; “All who may feel disposed to make a pleasant excursion to the Frontiers of Mexico (and perhaps to explore some parts of that country) will find all the means and facilities requisite by enrolling themselves in the Regiment of Louisiana Volunteers” (Phila. No. American, Aug. 27, 1845).
[18.] Nat. Intelligencer, Sept. 4. Picayune, Aug. 27. Enquirer, Aug. 10. Union, Aug. 21, 1845; Feb. 10, 1847. Reveille, Aug. 28. (“Go”) Picayune, Aug. 17. [297]Buchanan to McLane, Sept. 13.
[19.] (News) Mobile Herald and Tribune, Sept. 7; Oct. 22, 1845. Less was said for a time, but probably no less was felt. Of course the New Englanders did not share the sentiment very fully. The South Atlantic states—influenced by Calhoun and, as Poinsett admitted ([192]to Lewis, Jan. 5, 1846), by the dread of privateers—did not feel sure that the stake was worth the risk. But the total sentiment in favor of war with Mexico was tremendous. Calhoun himself recognized that the country stood that way (Jameson, Cal. Corresp., 704 to T. G. C.). Correspondent, Apr. 15, 1846. Enquirer, Jan. 20, 1846. Mo. Reporter, Apr. 18, 1846. [210]Hammond to Simms, Mar. 21, 1847.
[20.] (Glory) [345]Poinsett to Van Buren, Mar. 9, 1848. (Power) Jameson, Calhoun Corresp., 728. (Oregon) Pendleton, Stephens, 76. (Re-elected) Johnston and Browne, Stephens, 200. (Bancroft) Schouler, U. S., iv, 498; Howe, Bancroft, i, 288, 290. The subject of California will be discussed fully in chap. [xvi], but in order to allay prejudice it is touched upon here.
[21.] See “Office-seekers” in index of Polk’s Diary.
[22.] Anson Jones, the last President of the Texas republic, asserted in his book that Polk was “pre-determined to have a war” with Mexico (p. 46). As evidence he maintained that Donelson, the United States minister in Texas, under the pretext of defending Texas against an unreal danger of invasion, brought into that country American troops in order to ensure a collision with Mexico; but (1) Donelson fully believed that Texas was in danger of invasion, and (2) there were ample grounds for that opinion (Smith, Annex. of Texas, 449). Moreover Donelson, instead of hurrying our troops into Texas, was very anxious that none should cross her frontier until after her full acceptance of annexation, which could not occur before July 4, 1845 (ibid., 446, 448, 456); and we have seen how threatening were the language and movements of Mexico at that stage. As Texas became to all intents and purposes a part of the United States on accepting our proposition, the duty to protect her people was then clear.
Jones also asserted that agents of Polk urged him to send the Texas militia against Mexico in the spring of 1845 in order to bring about a war;but this is misleading (Smith, Annex. of Texas, 446–8). The confidential orders given to Conner and Stockton of the navy and the correspondence between the state department and Donelson prove that Polk’s administration had not the least intention of adopting at this time an aggressive course toward Mexico.
Finally, Jones stated that he received clear proof of his charge from Texan agents at Washington. He admitted, however, that (although he does not appear to have lost any other important documents) he had mislaid their reports; and his assertion is inconsistent with known facts. For example, he said (p. 491) that Lee, one of these agents, reported about September 13 that he found Polk, Marcy, Walker and Ritchie “excessively angry” with Jones for not consenting, months before, to an attack upon Mexico; but Lee did in fact report, September 6 and 8, that he was received “cordially” by Polk, Walker and Ritchie, and that Polk sent his “sincere regard” to Jones (Jones, Memoranda, 485, 490; Tex. Dipl. Corres., ii, 398). Again, according to Jones another Texan agent informed him “of the deep anxiety expressed by Polk for a war with Mexico.” Now of course Polk may have said that a war was needed to redress American wrongs, but to suppose that a man who kept his own counsel so closely would have confessed to this comparative stranger a dishonorable intention concealed from everybody else, and would have done so knowing that in reality he and Jones were at swords’ points on a vital matter, annexation, is incredible. When Jones wrote his book he was a ruined man in consequence of the general and well-founded belief that he had tried to prevent the incorporation of Texas in the United States, and he was very bitter against Polk. Not long afterward he committed suicide. His book, apparently prepared as a defence of himself, is often untrustworthy; and how clear-headed he was at the time of writing it is shown by his assertion that Texas was in undisputed possession of the territory to the Rio Grande, yet that by advancing to that stream Taylor “produced the Mexican war” (p. 68).