DECLARATION OF AVAR AGAINST MEXICO.
The receipt of Taylor's letter of the 26th April, relating to the capture of Thornton's party which had, as we have seen, " become engaged " with the Mexicans by attacking them, gave the administration its first intelligence that the march to the Rio Grande had led to its intended result. The letter reached Washington on Saturday the 9th May.
Its contents were speedily made known, and on Sunday evening a meeting of members of Congress, partisans of the President, was held, and war was decided on."* On Monday morning, the President sent a war message to Congress, which from its lengthf must either have been written on the day devoted by the Creator to holy rest, or else prepared some time before in anticip9,tion of the success of Taylor's mission. In this message, after ad- verting in the usual style to the grievous wrongs perpe- trated by Mexico upon our citizens throughout a long pe- riod of years, he closed the mournful catalogue by an- nouncing to the representatives of the nation, " Mexico HAS PASSED THE BOUNDARY OF THE UnITED StATES, HAS INVADED OUR TERRITORY, AND SHED AMERICAN BLOOD UPON THE American soil. She has proclaimed that hos- tilities HAVE commenced, AND THAT THE TWO NATIONS * Speech of C. J. Ingersoll. App. to Cong. Globe, 29th Cong., 2Sess.,p. 125.
t Occupying six pages in print.
ARE AT WAR." " I invoke," said Mr. Polk, " the prompt action of Congress to recognize the existence of the war, and to place at the disposition of the Executive the means of prosecuting the war with vigor, and thus hastening the restoration of ^;mce (.^)" Thus emulous was this gentleman of the blessing ^promised to the peace-maker.