Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/68

56 of Texas, whenever, subsequent to the battle of San Jacinto, she adopted, either voluntarily or by compulsion, a limit to the territory, all of which she regarded as having been forcibly and unjustly wrested from her, that limit was the Rio Grande. The southern and western bank of the river formed the outer limit of her military posts and fortifications. When her armies crossed it in force, the preparations made, the dispositions for the march, and the orders of the officers, showed that the movement was considered one of invasion; and when compelled to retreat, they retired behind it as to a place of refuge. An armistice was entered into in 1843, in which it was stipulated that the Mexicans should conﬁne themselves to the right bank of the river, and that the Texans should remain on the left bank. Tornel, the minister of war, in his letter dated July 7th, instructed General Woll, the commander-in-chief of the army of the north, that hostilities against Texas were "to be immediately suspended at all points of the line under [his] command," and that he must withdraw to it his advanced parties. The line commanded by General Woll was the Rio Grande; and in his proclamation declaring the armistice at an end, he gave notice that every individual found one league from the river, on the east, would be looked upon as favoring "the usurpers of that territory," and be brought to trial before a court-martial, to be severely punished, if found guilty. Here, it seems, the Mexican general treated the question as one of usurpation, and admitted that the territory usurped extended to the Rio Grande. Canales, also, issued a pronunciamento against the government of Paredes, at Camargo, in February 1816, in which he described himself as being