It is an indisputable fact, that the annexation of Texas, then at war with Mexico, was tantamount to a declaration of war, and that the comparative weakness of Mexico alone prevented its Government from considering it as such.
Under these circumstances, it was evidently the duty of the United States to use every means to soothe and conciliate the Mexicans, and to wait with patience for an unconditional recognition of the independence of Texas, till the feelings excited by our aggression had subsided.
It has been shown that after Mexico had resorted, as a substitute for war, to the harmless suspension of the ordinary diplomatic intercourse, the attempt to make it retract that measure, before any negotiations for the restoration of harmony between the two countries should be entered into, was neither countenanced by the acknowledged law of nations, nor necessary for any useful purpose, nor consistent with a proper and just sense of the relative position in which the aggressive measure of the United States had placed the two countries. But that the refusal of Mexico to submit to that additional contumely, should have been considered as an insult to the United States, betrays the pride of power, rather than a just sense of what is due to the true dignity and honor of this nation.
It has been demonstrated, that the republic of Texas had not a shadow of right to the territory adjacent to the left bank of the lower portion of the Rio Norte; that though she claimed, she never had actually exercised jurisdiction over any portion of it; that the Mexicans were the sole inhabitants; and in actual possession of that district; that therefore its forcible occupation by the army of the United States was, according to the acknowledged law of nations, as well as in fact, an act of open hostility and war: that the resistance of the Mexicans to that invasion was legitimate; and that therefore the war was unprovoked by them, and commenced by the United States.
If any doubt should remain of the correctness of these statements, let them be tested by the divine and undeniable precept, "Do unto others as you would be done by."
If at this moment France was to contract a treaty of defensive and offensive alliance with Mexico, a treaty taking effect immediately, and pending the war between the United States and Mexico, and binding herself to defend it with all her forces against any and every other Power, would not the United States at once consider such a treaty as a declaration of war against them?
If, in lieu of declaring war against Great Britain, in the year 1812, the United States had only suspended the ordinary diplomatic relations between the two countries; and Great Britain had declared that she would not enter into any negotiation for the settlement of all the subjects of difference between the two countries, unless the United States should, as a preliminary condition, restore those relations; would not this have been considered as a most insolent demand, and to which the United States never would submit?
If the United States were, and had been for more than a century, in possession of a tract of country, exclusively inhabited and governed by them, disturbed only by the occasional forays of an enemy; would they not consider the forcible military invasion and occupation of such a district by a third Power, as open and unprovoked war, commenced against them? And could their resistance to the invasion render them liable to the imputation of having themselves commenced the war?
Yet it would seem as if the splendid and almost romantic successes of the American arms had, for a while, made the people of the United States deaf to any other consideration than an enthusiastic and exclusive love of military glory; as if, forgetting the origin of the war, and with an entire disregard for the dictates of justice, they thought that those successes gave the nation a right to dismember Mexico, and to appropriate to themselves that which did not belong to them.
But I do not despair, for I have faith in our institutions and in the people; and I will now ask them whether this was their mission? and whether they were placed by Providence on this continent for the purpose of cultivating false glory, and of sinking to the level of those vulgar conquerors who have at all times desolated the earth.