Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/435

Rh were opposed to his concluding a peace with the enemy, and were powerful enough to prevent it. Seventy members of Congress retired to Toluca, declaring their unwillingness to deliberate in the capital; and on the 30th of August, the Congress of the State of Mexico, in session at Toluca, pronounced against peace. Similar sentiments were heard from the rabble in the streets, instigated by the clergy and the disaffected; the passage of supplies to the army of General Scott, was repeatedly obstructed by the populace, and soldiers in disguise; American traders, long residents of the city, were molested; and the Mexican authorities did not, or dare not, interfere to prevent those violations of the armistice.

Matters were thus unfavorably situated, when Mr. Trist invited the Mexican Commissioners to submit to him the proposition laid before them on the 2nd of September. This was regarded as his ultimatum on the subject of boundaries, and as soon as it had been considered in a council of ministers and others, before the Mexican Commissioners presented their counter-projét, and without notice to the American commander, Santa Anna, under cover of the darkness, and in violation of the armistice, actively recommenced strengthening the defences of the city, — alleging, subsequently, in a note to General Scott, that the works already constructed had been merely repaired, so as to place them in the same condition they were in on the conclusion of the armistice. Determined no longer to place any reliance on the Punic faith of the Mexican