Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 2).djvu/292

282 the majority, advised the President to accept, and the treaty was promptly concluded and ratified. Thus the Oregon question, which produced so much noisy excitement, was put out of the way, while the cloud on the southern horizon silently rose and grew blacker.

The American Minister in London reported that the British government would hardly have been so forward in proposing the forty-ninth parallel had it known what at that period was passing on the Rio Grande.

On March 1 Slidell demanded that the new Mexican President, Paredes, should declare whether he would receive him in the character of a minister plenipotentiary or not. Paredes replied that the threatening attitude of the United States made the reception impossible. On March 11 General Taylor began his movement from Corpus Christi to the Rio Grande. On the 28th he arrived opposite Matamoras, and planted a battery commanding the public square of that town. With some vessels of the United States near at hand he blockaded the mouth of the Rio Grande to cut off all supplies from Matamoras, to the end of forcing the Mexican troops stationed there either to withdraw or to take the offensive. On April 24 the Mexican General, Arista, declared that he considered hostilities thus begun, and the following day a detachment of American dragoons became engaged on the eastern bank of the Rio Grande with a superior force of Mexicans, and lost sixteen men.