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'My note will be presented at the most propitious moment that could have been selected. All attempts to effect a loan have completely failed. The suspicion of intention to introduce a foreign monarch has tended very much to abate the clamor against the United States.

"My letters from Mexico speak confidently of my recognition, but there is no safety in reasoning from the probabilities or analogies as to the course of public men in this country."

After reviewing the correspondence between the two governments, with an independence becoming the subject, and yet with the best possible spirit, Mr. Slidell says, in his letter to Don Joaquim Castillo y Lanzas, minister of foreign relations, under date of March 1, 1846,

"The president of the United States entirely approves the course pursued by the undersigned, and the communications by him addressed to the Mexican government. Had the then existing government continued in power, as no alternative would have remained, the undersigned would have been directed to demand his passports.

"The destinies of the Mexican Republic, however, having since been committed to other hands, the president is unwilling to take a course which would inevitably result in war, without making another effort to avert so great a calamity. He wishes, by exhausting every honorable means of conciliation, to demonstrate to the civilized world that, if its peace shall be disturbed, the responsibility must fall upon Mexico alone. He is sincerely desirous to preserve that peace; but the state quasi hostility which now exists on the part of Mexico is one which is incompatible with the dignity and interests of the United States; and it is for the Mexican government to decide whether it shall give place to friendly negotiations or lead to an open rupture."

MR. SLIDELL INSTRUCTED BY HIS GOVERNMENT STILL TO PER

SEVERE.

Mr. Buchanan to Mr. Slidell, March 12, 1846.

"I am directed by the president to instruct you NOT TO LEAVE that Republic until you shall have made a formal demand to be received by the new government. The government of Paredes came into existence, not by a regular constitutional succession, but in consequence of a military revolution, by which the subsisting constitutional authorities were subverted. It cannot be considered as a mere continuance of the government of Herrera. On the contrary, the form of government has been entirely changed, as well as all the high functionaries at the head of the administration. The two governments are certainly not so identical, that the refusal of the one to receive you ought to be considered conclusive evidence that such would be the determination of the other. It would be difficult, on such a presumption, in regard to so feeble and distracted a country as Mexico, to satisfy the American people that all had been done which ought to have been done, to avoid the necessity of resorting to hostilities.

"On your return to the United States, energetic measures against Mexico would at once be recommended by the presi dent; and these might fail to obtain the support of Congress, if it could be asserted that the existing government had not refused to receive our minister. It would not be a sufficient answer to such an allegation, that the government of Herrera had refused to receive you, and that you were therefore justi fied in leaving the country, after a short delay, because, in the mean time, the government of Paredes had not voluntarily offered to reverse the decision of its predecessor.

“I transmit you, herewith, a sealed letter from the president of the United States, accrediting you in your official character to General Paredes, as president, ad interim, of the Mexican Republic.

* *

*

"You suppose that appearances justify the belief that

Paredes will not be able to sustain himself until the meeting of the constitutional Congress; that his government will perish from inanition, if from no other cause.

"In this critical posture of Mexican affairs, it will be for yourself to decide the question of the time of your departure according to events as they may occur. If, after you shall have fulfilled your instructions, you should indulge in a reasonable hope that, by continuing in Mexico, you could thus best subserve the interests of your country, then you ought to remain, provided this can be done with honor. The president reposes entire confidence in your patriotism and discretion, and knows no temporary inconvenience to yourself will prevent you from performing your duty.

"It may be that, when prepared to take your departure, another revolution might be impending, the result of which would enable you, by a timely interposition, to accomplish the great objects of your mission. Besides, in the present distracted condition of Mexico, it is of importance that we should have an able and discreet agent in that country to watch the progress of events, and to communicate information on which the department could rely."

UNITED STATES MINISTER AGAIN REFUSED BY MEXICO.

Mr. Slidell to Mr. Buchanan, March 18, 1846.

"On the 15th instant, I received from the minister of foreign relations a reply to my communication of the 1st instant, of which you have already been advised.

"It is a peremptory refusal to receive me in the capacity of envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary. I have consequently, in conformity to your instructions, applied for my passports, and, so soon as they are received, I shall proceed to Vera Cruz, there to embark for New Orleans.

“I am at a loss whether to ascribe his (Paredes) refusal to receive me, at a moment when his position is so critical, to the dread of having the pretext which he had so successfully used

against Herrera, employed against himself, or to a reliance on foreign intervention. Perhaps his motive may be a mixed

one.

"As to any changes of rulers in Mexico, I look upon them as a matter of great indifference. We shall never be able to treat with her on fair terms until she has been taught to respect us. It certainly was proper to place us in the strongest moral position before our own people and the world, by exhausting every possible means of conciliation; but here all amicable advances are considered as indicative either of weakness or treachery."

THE LETTERS OF MR. CASTILLO Y LANZAS.

Mr. Castillo y Lanzas was the successor of Mr. Peña y Peña in office. He addressed several letters to Mr. Slidell, and they are published with the other documents of our government; but as they present no new views, we do not deem them of sufficient importance to be given in this place. They are written with spirit, but not with much judgment, and they add nothing to the strength of the positions of his predecessors in office.

In his letter of March 12, 1846, to Mr. Slidell, with a flippant arrogance and ill-judged rudeness, he says, "After the definite and clear explanations rendered to his excellency, Mr. Slidell, in the note of 20th December last, referred to by him, it is not easy to comprehend how the executive of the United States should still think it can find reasons for insisting upon that which was then refused upon grounds the most conclusive."

He endeavors to sustain charges of usurpation, violence, fraud, artifice, and intrigue against the United States, in a manner which might be looked for in an ultra party journal, but not in the communications of a cabinet minister. He arrives at a conclusion, as others had done before him, not warranted by the premises, or by the diplomatic usage of nations.

"The Mexican government," he says, "offered to admit

the plenipotentiary or commissioner who should come clothed with special powers to treat upon the question of Texas. Upon this point the resolve of the Mexican government is immutable.

"It is, therefore, upon the United States, and not upon Mexico, that devolves to determine in the alternative presented by Mr. Slidell, that is, between a friendly negotiation and an open rupture."

MEXICAN GOVERNMENT WITHOUT EXCUSE OR DEFENCE.

In reply to the last paragraph of the letter of Mr. Castillo y Lanzas, Mr. Slidell, under date of March 17, 1846, says,

"The Mexican government cannot shift the responsibility of war upon the United States, by assuming that they are the aggressors. A plain, unanswerable fact responds to all the subtilties and sophistries by which it is attempted to obscure the real question; that fact is, the presence in Mexico of a minister of the United States, clothed with full power to settle all the questions in dispute between the two nations, and among them that of Texas. Their complaints are mutual; the consideration of them cannot be separated; and they must be settled by the same negotiation, or by the arbitrament which Mexico herself has elected."

Again, in a letter to Mr. Buchanan, dated April 2, 1846, Mr. Slidell says, "The notes of Mr. Castillo y Lanzas will give you a correct idea of the temper of the Paredes government; and, although it will probably soon be replaced by another, we have no reason to expect a change of tone towards us until Mexico shall have been made to feel our strength."

THE REJECTED MISSION OF PEACE.

If the act of sending a minister to Mexico was one of magnanimity on the part of our government, it may be truly said, that the mission was executed in beautiful harmony with such a spirit. The requisitions of St. Paul to the Corinthians,* with

*1 Cor. chap. xiii.