Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/80

68 to conceal, after he had once landed; the evil which might easily have been prevented, if the Mexican government had but intimated the necessity for delay, was past all remedy; and Mr. Slidell concluded to continue his journey to Mexico.

The fact that the administration of Herrera had consented to receive a minister, was known long previous to the arrival of Mr. Slidell, although the pronunciamento of Paredes against the government, issued at San Luis, did not appear until the 15th of December. For several weeks before Mr. Slidell reached Mexico, the monarchists and centralists in the capital were very busily engaged in preparing the plan of their anticipated movement. An outbreak was regarded as a matter of certainty, unless the administration took measures to prevent it. On the second day after his arrival in Mexico, Mr. Slidell addressed a letter to the Mexican Minister, dated the 8th of December, informing him of his arrival, and desiring to know when his credentials would be received and himself accredited. No answer was returned to this communication; and in two private interviews between Mr. Black and Peña y Peña, held on the 8th and 13th of December, the latter exhibited so many symptoms of a desire to evade a compliance with the terms of the proposition which the Mexican government had accepted, that Mr. Slidell I wrote a second note, on the 15th of the month, request-ing to know when he might expect a reply to that previously written. On the following day he was informed by Peña y Peña, that there had been difficulties in regard to his reception, which it had been found necessary to submit to the council of government for their determination. The difficulties alluded to were — that Mr. Slidell's appointment had not received the