Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/322

302 thus granted him being attributed to a secret stipulation from which he was to derive large pecuniary and other advantages, on condition of his concluding peace with the United States. The fact is, there was no such stipulation, and President Polk explicitly stated it in his message to congress of January 12, 1848. It was issued simultaneously with the order to blockade the Mexican ports, solely upon the views of policy which he communicated to congress in his annual message, that is to say, that he believed him an element of discord. Santa Anna's recall to Mexico had been looked for long before it took place. The United States consul in Habana, Robert B. Campbell, probably by his government's instructions, called with an interpreter on Santa Anna and tried to obtain from him an explicit declaration that he would, if restored to power in Mexico, favor peace with the United States. Unwilling to return straightforward answers to the questions propounded to him, he asked permission to bring General Almonte into the conference, after which the conversation was mostly carried on through him. Santa Anna repeatedly said, and in this he was not ingenuous, that he personally was in favor of peace, but would act according to the wishes of his countrymen; if they were for war, he would wage it with all the resources at his command.

Santa Anna landed at Vera Cruz on the 16th of August, amidst demonstrations of respect; the chief of the cabinet, Valentin Gomez Farías, started on the 19th for Puebla to receive him. A