Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/348

328 independence was but a preliminary step toward annexation to the United States. But it seems that certain of their statesmen allowed themselves to be carried away with the idea, partly inspired by the leading men of Texas with General Houston at their head, that the small party existing in the new republic who sincerely wanted a separate nationality, and looked to a not distant day when they could carry her boundaries to the Sierra Madre, would succeed in warding off the annexation. Elliot supported that party, among whose members the annexationists had agents; he even went to Mexico and tried to prevail on the government to grant Texas her independence.

Texas as one of the family of nations now enjoyed facilities for trade of which both her citizens and those of the United States availed themselves to the fullest extent; and it may well be supposed that war material greatly entered into it, to the further displeasure of the Mexican government. Hence its protest on the 12th of May, 1842, wherein the minister Bocanegra accused the American government of flagrant violations of the treaty of friendship between the two nations in allowing its citizens to afford personal and other aid to Texas, and even at public meetings and in other ways, to promote her annexation to the United States. The Mexican minister asked if the United States could act in a more hostile manner toward his government short of actual war. This protest was reiterated on the 31st of May, Bocanegra expressing "regrets that, to judge from facts patent to all the world, the United States cabinet and authorities observe a conduct openly opposed to the most sacred rights of men and to the solemn pact of friendship existing between two nations." Repeating the charges of his previous note, he adds that the "countenancing of this toleration will be regarded as positively hostile