Page:A series of intercepted letters in Mexico.djvu/20

 itself only with matters of the war, and, absolutely, no other business can be attended to. In truth, this war is going to cease, as I suppose, because, on the 19th and 20th, at the gates of Mexico, our nation has covered itself with mourning and dishonor, and our generals and chiefs in particular, with opprobrium. There is not even left to us the glory to say, with that French personage well known in history, that "all is lost but our honor;" as our army has long since lost both honor and shame, which is not necessary to prove when this capital groans with sorrow, and anger against those who call themselves its defenders. The enemy, as yet, has not soiled with his tread the palaces of the Montezumas, but that is because a suspension of hostilities has caused him to pause in his triumphant march. This suspension, which has no other object than to collect the wounded and to bury the dead, as some say, has also another purpose, and that is, to see the propositions of peace from the government at Washington, of which Mr. Nicholas Trist is the bearer. The actual government, that is to say, the President, who finds himself compromised before the nation, has sent a message to Congress, which I take to be a matter of mere form, that upon hearing the above mentioned propositions he would use only> the powers belonging to him by the Constitution. The Congress, beside the fact that it does not exist, there being assembled today but twenty-five deputies, as yet has nothing to do with the matter, so that the message of the President seems to me to be untimely; nevertheless, being so or not, Congress, as I said before, as it does not exist, can do nothing. From this I deduce, with other friends of the same opinion, the following results: That the case being an urgent one, the enemy waiting an answer at the gates of the city, a meeting of Congress being impossible in order to review treaties which must be concluded, at the latest, next week, the Executive is necessarily obliged to assume powers not conceded to it by the constitution, to wit: that of approving treaties after having made them. In a normal state of the country this would be an assumption, and against law, so that the Executive, in order to exercise this power, finds it necessary to use revolutionary means. Hence, the necessity of a Dictatorship, which is already announced to us, and I think but a few days will elapse before this will be realized. Be on the look out. If I learn any thing more I will inform you of it. It is true, that if our army had been successful we should have fallen under a Dictatorship, about which our military chiefs have so much occupied themselves, and perhaps they were dreaming of that when they were all beaten; but being beaten the same hopes remain, with this difference, that as they must have