Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/208

 to the Rio Grande, which river was claimed as the border line between the State of Texas and Mexican territory. When ordered by the Mexican General Ampudia to retire beyond the Nueces, a river running to the Gulf some fifty to one hundred miles farther north, the succession of hostilities began which formed the opening stage of the Mexican war. It was during that same month of March that Houston took his seat in the United States Senate.