Chapter XXIII.

Puerile as is the distinction made by Mr. Polk between conquest and territorial indemnity, it appears from his own showing, that it is a distinction without a difference ; a mere quibble on words. The President, informing Con- gress what teiTitories he had claimed of Mexico as condi- tions of peace, remarks, " as the territory to be acquired by the boundary proposed, might be estimated to be of greater value than a fair equivalent for our just demands, our Commissioner was authorized to stipulate for the payment of such additional jiecuniary consideration as was deemed reasonable." Here we see that Mr. Polk meant to take more territory, than he even pretends we are enti- tled to for indemnification. And how did he mean to ac- quire it ? By conquest ? Oh no, but by a forced sale, negotiated by a Commissioner at the head of a victorious army, ready to enter the city of Mexico ; and for this sur- plus territory he would pay such a price as he deemed reasonable, and, if the Mexicans refused to make the bar- gain on his terms, they refused at the peril of their lives, and the loss of their capital ; their blood was to flow, till they accepted, for territory to which we had no just claims, the price we might please to pay. ^ CHAPTER XXIV.