of that revolted province had for years maiatained their independence in spite of Mexico, and no doubt can be entertained that their mih- tia were amply able to drive back any army Mexico might send into her territory. There was not a female in our country whose slumbers were broken, through apprehension of the pretended invasion of the United States. Not a Mexican soldier had trod on soil owned by an American citizen—not a shot had been fii-ed within a hundred miles of an American dwelUng.
The apparent panic, therefore, under which Congress voted fifty thousand additional troops for defence, was not real but feigned. The war, as we have seen, was not commenced to recover the amount of our claims, and procure redress of grievances, but avowedly for defence ; a motive so palpably false and absurd, that, although officially professed by the President, and in the preamble of the Act of Congress, but one ^ single member of Congress, it is believed, had the hardihood to urge it in justification of his vote. The true object of the war * The followiBg particulars are gathered from the work on Mexico, by Brantz Mayer :