Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/264

228 denounced as unnecessary. It could have been avoided. It was a cruel aggression upon a weak adversary. It was precipitated by the &quot; slave power.&quot;

The war was, in truth, necessary and right. Texas justly owned to the Rio Grande, and the United States had assumed the obligation to defend her territory. The Mexican minister had demanded his passports and left Washington early in March, evidently regarding the annexation of Texas as extending to the United States the condition of war then existing nominally between Texas and Mexico. If Mexico chose to consider that war accrued by the annexation of Texas, how could the United States avoid it? Yet Mr. Slidell was sent to Mexico to endeavor to arrange for peace. He was rudely repulsed.

President Polk wisely and justly determined to occupy the territory as far as the Rio Grande. It would have been weak and well nigh absurd to wait indefinitely on the sullen moods of Mexico. General Taylor, in obedience to orders, advanced to the Rio Grande, taking position opposite to the fortified Mexican town, Matamoras, March 25, 1846. General La Vega, the Mexican commander, then threw a body of troops across the river. On the 24th of April a party of American dragoons under Captain Thornton were surprised by a large Mexican force and compelled to surrender, after the loss of sixteen men out of their force of sixty-three. President Paredes now appointed General Arista to command the Mexican forces on the frontier. General Arista crossed the Rio Grande with an army of 8,000 men and moved to attack General Taylor.

It is no part of our purpose to recount the events of the Mexican war. The Mexicans and the opponents of the administration in the United States, notwithstanding the fact that Mexico had declared the annexation of Texas to be an act of war, and that her minister had demanded his passports and that she had refused to entertain