actual march to the Rio Grande and the war that ensued, were only the resumption of a pohcy that had merely been suspended to allow lime to ascertain whether Cahfornia could possibly be obtained by negotiation. The suspension, however, was brief. We have already noticed the avowal of Mr. Buchanan, Secre- tary of State, that in case of the refusal of Mexico to re- ceive Mr. Slidell, " nothing can remain but to take the redress of the injufies of our citizens, and the insults to our Government, into our own hands," in other words, to go to war. On the 12th January, 1846, the first dispatch was received from Slidell, from which it ap- peared probable that, although the Government had not yet refused to receive him, it would enter into no negotiation with him, except in reference to Texas. Of course there was no hope of a cession of California ; and the very next day peremptory orders were sent to Taylor to ad- b.:\'ie;x of the Mexican war. 135 vance to the Rio Grande ; an order unquestionably dic- tated by the avowed determination we have mentioned.
It seems, therefore, that the Government resolved on war 7;?-o/es5e(% for two causes ; 1st, The injuries to our citizens, all of which were estimated in dollars and cents. To collect a few millions of alleged debts, it acknowledges it wilhngness to commence the work of human slaughter, and that, too, at the very moment when no less than six States of the Union were indebted in the prodigious amount of 852,000,000, of which they paid neither prin- cipal nor interest. " The very idea of collecting two or three millions of dollars by spending a hundred or more in mur- dering the debtors, is so utterly absurd and diiibolical, that we must be excused from believing Mr. Jiuchanan when he pretends that such was the intention of the Cabi- net. The second cause assigned is little less credible.
The insults to our Government which, were to be revenged by killing Mexicans, are the imputations of bad faith cast by their rulers upon the Government at Washington for its conduct towards Texas ; imputations