Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/216

182 of New Mexico; this order had not been countermanded; the contemplated movement against Tampico was not known to him or to the American commissioners; and they did all that was required of them. in leaving the armistice subject to the ratification of their government. But beside all this, General Taylor was instructed by the Secretary of War, that hostilities were to be prosecuted for the conquest of a speedy and honorable peace; Ampudia expressly stated in the conference that propositions for peace had been made; it was notorious, too, that negotiations had been, or were, in progress; the object of the war seemed about to be gained; and the commissioners of both countries were influenced in their deliberations by these considerations.

The propositions for peace alluded to by Ampudia, were made by the authorities of the United States, in the month of July, in consequence of a change in the Mexican government. Paredes was never firmly seated in power. As early as the 8th of March, 1846, Santa Anna, then in exile at Havana, addressed a confidential letter to a friend in Mexico, accompanied with his plan for a revolution. He declared that his sentiments were changed in relation to the proper form of government for his countrymen, and that he was willing one should be established by a Congress to be chosen in accordance with the electoral laws under which the members of the Congress of 1824 were elected. These views were satisfactory to the leading federalists, and it was designed to make a movement on the 1st of April. The