Page:The War with Mexico, Vol 1.djvu/97

68 Bocanegra, the minister of relations, now declared War upon us in the field of diplomacy. May 12, 1842, he addressed Daniel Webster, then secretary of state, directly, protesting against the aid given Texas by our Citizens, and asking whether the United States could injure Mexico any more, if openly at war against her. "Certainly not," he said, in reply to his own question. Then he issued a circular to the diplomatic corps at Mexico, in which he charged our government with tolerating aggressions made upon Mexican territory by "subaltern and local authorities," and announced that while his country did not wish to ﬁght the United States, she would certainly do all that was "imperatively required for her honor and dignity." Still not satisfied, he wrote again to Webster, though an answer to the ﬁrst letter was not yet due, accusing the American Cabinet itself of "conduct openly at variance with the most sacred principles of the law of nations and the solemn compacts of amity existing between the two countries," and threatening that a continuance of this policy would be regarded as "a positive act of hostility."

In reply to Bocanegra's first despatch, Webster said that the American government utterly denied and repelled the charges made against it, and then with characteristic power he dis—cussed and refuted them. We shall still maintain neutrality. he concluded, "but the continuance of amity with Mexico cannot be purchased at any higher rate." To Bocanegra's second letter his reply was no less positive but a great deal briefer. The President, he wrote, considers the language and tone of that communication "highly offensive," and orders "that no other answer be given to it than the declaration that the conduct of the Government of the limited States, in regard to the war between Mexico and Texas, having been always hitherto governed by a strict and impartial regard to its neutral obligations, will not be changed or altered in any respect or in any degree.

This compelled Mexico, as the British minister observed, to accept the rebuke invited by her imprudent language or begin hostilities. The former course was chosen; and Bocanegra humbly replied that, relying upon Webster's "frank declaration" of neutrality, he would not dwell further upon the subject, Even before Webster was heard from, our minister described