conspicuous person in a white hat. This retiring individual, however, was his cousin, Charles Elliot, the British chargé in Texas, who had induced the commander of the Eurydice to assume the rôle of a bearer of despatches in order to divert attention from himself; and three days later, after having been duly robbed en route by the brigands, the travellers arrived safely at the capital with the Texan proposition."

The outlook for their mission appeared distinctly favorable. The President, Herrera, was a mild, fair, thoughtful, and patriotic citizen, and his policy was not characterized by the animosity towards the United States, real or assumed, that many previous governments of Mexico had exhibited. The official journal had even reprinted. without comment an article from an American newspaper condemning Rejon's bitter correspondence with Shannon. Already the President had indicated a willingness to make advances to Texas and the terms now received from Jones were unexpectedly favorable to Mexico. In fact Bankhead described the proposition that Texas would not join any foreign nation as "a positive and unsolicited concession" to the mother-country. The British minister was regarded at this time by the American consul as the dominant factor at Mexico. Indeed the consul intimated that the administration was "under the tutelage of the British Legation", and all the influence of England favored, of course, an acceptance of the Texan overture, while the Memoria of Cuevas was believed to have prepared the public mind for concessions. A council of the ministers was at once convened; the proposition was laid before it; and the decision of the cabinet was to accept it.23

There existed, however, a difficulty. As the government possessed no authority to alienate any portion of the national territory, it was necessary to ask Congress for the power to do so. Several days were therefore taken to prepare that body for the request, and then, on April 21, Cuevas laid the subject before the Chamber of Deputies in what was termed an Iniciativa. "Circumstances have arisen ", he said, "which render negotiations for the blocking of the annexation of Texas to the United States not only proper but neces

"Elliot to Jones, April 5, 1845, endorsement, Anson Jones, Memoranda, etc., p. 443; Dimond, no. 236, April 12, 1845, State Dept., Desps. from Consuls, Vera Cruz, I.; Elliot to George Elliot, April 5, 1845, and memorandum, F. O., Texas, XV.; George Elliot to Austen, May 2, 1845, ibid.; Bankhead, no. 46, April 29, 1845, F. O., Mexico, CLXXXV.

Shannon, no. 8, January 16, 1845, State Dept., Desps. from Mins., Mexico, XII.; Bankhead, no. 110, December 31, 1844, no. 46, April 29, 1845. F. O., Mexico, CLXXVII., CLXXXV.; Parrott to Buchanan, May 13, 1845. State Dept., Desps. from Mins., Mexico, XII.

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sary .. [and] Texas has at last proposed a settlement." To refuse to treat regarding this matter would constitute "a terrible. charge against the present administration"; yet the President, though satisfied of its importance and of the urgency of doing something in regard to it, is also convinced that the Executive cannot act in the affair without a previous authorization from the Chambers". Should this be granted, the proper steps will be taken. If an honorable arrangement can be made, the government will lay it before Congress; while if not, the government will be the first to declare for a war, "which will be the more just, the greater have been our efforts to prevent it". To adopt any other course than to break at once with the United States is a very great sacrifice for the administration; but, with a view to the welfare of the country, we suggest that "the Government be authorized to hear the propositions made regarding Texas, and proceed to negotiate such an arrangement or treaty as may be deemed proper and honorable for the Republic". This request was received "most favorably", reported Bankhead; and Elliot wrote to Jones before the day was over that in a week the conditions of peace would be formally signed.24

Public sentiment, however, had been following the Texas affair with growing excitement. The government's proposition to the Chamber was made in secret, but more or less distorted accounts of it leaked out. The Federalists accused the administration savagely of selling a part of the country for British gold, insisting that England's efforts in the matter were for selfish ends. Tornel, formerly Santa Anna's crafty satellite and now the editor of a paper, cried loudly for war though personally a notorious coward. "Let us die, but let us die bathed in the blood of our enemies!", exclaimed El Veracruzano. "The triumph will be ours", declared El Jalisciense more hopefully but with no less fury, "and the infamy will fall to the enemies of justice." "Let us fly to Texas and recover the honor of the nation!", exhorted El Observador of Zacatecas. "The entire nation demands war. . . . What, then, is the Government about? . . . Alas for the Mexican nation if it lose these moments, precious for overcoming its enemy! Alas for Mexico, if she forget that her independence, that her liberties are to-day in danger!", cried La Voz del Pueblo; and still more furiously the same popular journal exclaimed, after Cuevas had presented his Iniciativa to the Chamber, "Extermination and death to the Sabine was the cry of our legions victorious at the Alamo, Béjar and El

24 Bankhead, no. 46, April 29, 1845, loc. cit.; Cuevas, Iniciativa, April 21, 1845, Diario, April 21, 1845; México á través de los Siglos, IV. 539; Elliot to Jones, April 21, 1845, Jones, Memoranda, p. 452.

AM. HIST. REV., VOL. XVI.-4.

Salado. Extermination and death will be the cry of the valiant regulars and of the citizen soldiery, marching enthusiastically to reconquer Texas." "Mexicans! . . . Already you have ceased to possess a frontier or even a dividing line between yourselves and your perfidious neighbor. Already you have lost the hope of preserving your independence. Day by day from now on that independence will grow feebler; and at this very moment we see our liberties, our cherished liberties, Mexicans, threatened by an enemy close at hand. You, then, Mexicans, what are you doing?"-thus appealed El Veracruzano Libre. "The Texas affair has ceased to be a question", declared the Boletin de Noticias; "In the face of the world the most horrible of perfidies has now been consummated, and the peril of our country places before us the terrible problem whether to exist or to exist no more." It is actually proposed to renounce forever, so the Courrier Français summarized the language of the extremists, a province that is ours; the intervention of England and France would cost us too dear; no sort of arrangement with rebels ought to be tolerated; “Delenda est Carthago!"25

Particularly violent was La l'oz del Pueblo, and its editors, not satisfied to hurl thunderbolts-or at least firebrands-in every issue, brought out a pamphlet in which they spoke as follows:

There is a power which-thanks to the shrewd and tortuous policy of its government-keeps up in a marvellous manner despite its immense debt and its internal poverty. This power has discovered in the independence of Texas an efficacious means of advancing its interests, and has concerned itself so prominently in the affair as to give the protection of its flag to the propositions of the Texan rebels. The object of Señor Elliot's visit has been very publicly known, and the infantile confidence with which Señor Cuevas and his associates have listened without hesitation to proposals coming through such a channel has been truly wonderful. The particular attention of the whole republic is invited to the speed and opportuneness with which the Memoria of Señor Cuevas, the arrival of Señor Elliot, and the proposition reported by the committee on Texan affairs, have followed one upon the other. [Señor Henry Wheaton has shown that the new routes from northern Europe to central Asia will increase the importance of Austria and lessen that of Great Britain; and he has pointed out that, in order to avoid ruin, England must establish somewhere in America a system of trade like that now flourishing in the East Indies.] What better point can be found, say we, than Texas? [Firmly settled there, she will reach out to California, and use the magnificent harbor of San Francisco to establish direct relations with Asia.] We should then have to carry on a per

25 (Tornel) Bankhead, no. 48, May 20, 1845, F. O., Mexico, CLXXXV.; El Veracruzano, April 5, 1845; El Jalisciense, April 1, 1845; El Observador, April 6, 1845; La Voz del Pueblo, April 16, May 3, 1845; El l'eracruzano Libre, March 24, 1845; Boletin de Noticias, March 4, 1845; Courrier Français, quoted by Diario, May 18, 1845.

petual war, and the lot of our brethren on the frontier, the lot of all Mexicans, would perhaps be no more tolerable than that of the Mahrattas in Hindostan. . . . Fascinating the eyes of the Texan rebels with the prestige of a distinguished place among the nations of the earth and at the same time impressing upon them the necessity of securing powerful support, England would transform their country, as she transformed the Ionian Islands, into a republic under her special protection.26

Such appeals as these were admirably calculated to excite the 'Mexicans, for they touched the springs of patriotism, pride, suspicion, jealousy, and conscious weakness. Five days after Cuevas presented his Iniciativa the American consul at Mexico reported, “War with the United States seems to be the desire of all parties rather than to see Texas annexed" to the American Union. At Vera Cruz and Puebla there were even symptoms of revolt. The cabinet felt greatly distressed. Every sign of opposition seemed invincible to the minister of foreign relations, and Bankhead reported: "It required all the argument and solicitation of Monsieur de Cyprey [the French minister] and myself to keep Señor Cuevas up to the mark, by repeating to him the absolute necessity of immediate action, and pointing out the crisis in which the Country is placed." Bankhead believed, and no doubt urged, that the incorporation of Texas into the United States would mean the opening of a door for the conquest of Mexico. Yet with all this "staring him in the face", as the British minister said, the fear of taking a responsibility often caused Señor Cuevas to present "the most puerile arguments to avoid giving a direct answer to the Texian propositions". In fact he seemed convinced by May 10 that the ministry would have to resign; but finally, stimulated by the exhortations of the British and French representatives not to abandon the cause of Mexico and encouraged by promises of support from political friends, the cabinet consented. to remain in office.27

There were, however, other causes of embarrassment. All the previously mentioned considerations tending to favor inaction in the matter of recognizing Texas had an opportunity to present themselves anew. In particular it was very difficult for the ministers to shake off the familiar notion that giving up Texas might involve the loss of other territory. It is possible that Cuevas hoped to obtain, by holding off, an English and French guaranty of the northern

26 Federacion y Tejas (México, 1845). The portions of this passage included in brackets summarize omitted sentences. The proposition of the committee on Texan affairs was in favor of the proposed negotiation.

Parrott to Buchanan, April 26, 1845, State Dept., Desps. from Mins., Mexico, XII.; Bankhead, no. 48, May 20, 1845 (see note 25); id., no. 46, April 29, 1845 (see note 23).

boundary. He knew that in June of the previous year England at least had been ready to stand behind the permanent independence of Texas, that since that time France had pursued the same Texan policy as her neighbor, and that both were now quite as anxious to have Mexico recognize that country as they had been at any previous date. He understood, too, that without such a guaranty Texan independence might prove a feeble barrier, or no barrier at all, against the United States. Seeing all this and aware that Great Britain had strongly recommended the recognition of that independence as the means of establishing such a barrier, he may reasonably have suspected that Bankhead and Cyprey were authorized to give the desired pledge should that step become absolutely necessary, and he may have adopted a policy of delay partly for effect upon them. Another statesmanlike view also may have been considered. In February the Mexican minister to the United States had written to the consul of his nation at New Orleans that the pending Oregon bill would certainly, if passed, be the cause of war between the United States and England, and this idea was forwarded to the capital. That bill, to be sure, did not become a law; but Polk's Inaugural Address took so uncompromising a stand for American claims in the far northwest that a conflict seemed once more very possible, and Cuevas may well have paused to inquire whether a war might not give his country an opportunity to make good her claim to Texas, and whether England's present eagerness to have that country recognized might not be due in a greater or less measure to a perception of this very fact.28

Procrastination, however, on the part of Mexican diplomats does not absolutely require so elaborate an explanation. Indolence was constitutional and habitual with them; and to that cause more than to any other Bankhead attributed the delay in this affair. Mexican formalism was another obstacle. Peña y Peña, chairman of the Senate committee, for example, caused the waste of several most precious days by insisting upon drawing up a labored report that went back to the Duke of Alva and the Low Countries. Then the business was nearly upset by the news that President Jones had convoked the Texan Congress to consider the American proposition for annexation, and that-as the Mexican consul at New Orleans wrote-ten more United States war vessels were coming to Vera Cruz; but Bankhead assured the government that the latter report could not be correct, and Elliot explained that Jones's action was

28 Foreign Office to Bankhead, June 3. 1844. F. O., Mexico, CLXXII.; Bankhead, no. 65, August 29, 1844, ibid., CLXXV.; Arrangoiz, no. 35 (res.), February 17, 1845, Sria. Relac.