hope that she would be compelled to make the cession we demanded. And what was that cession? Why, all the territory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande, toge- ther -with the whole of New Mexico, and all California, both Upper and Lower! An inspection of the map of Mexico Avill show that these demands, exclusive of Texas proper, are estimated at upwards of eight hundred thou- simd square miles, while the whole area of the Repubhc is supposed to contain one million six hundred thousand. Thus did Mr. Polk seek for a "just and honorable peace"
in the seizure of one half of Mexico !* Such was the territorial indemnity we attempted to extort from a vanquished and almost unresisting enemy.
Napoleon, in the career of conquest, never indulged in wilder rapacity. Mexico, humbled and disabled, offered to cede all Texas proper, beyond the Nueces, and all of New Mexico and.CaUfornia North of the S'Zth degree of latitude ; an extent of territory equal to nine States of the ijize of New York ! It is true, that in the Mexican projet ' of a treaty containing this proposed cession, there was a stipulation for compensation for injuries done by *he Ame- rican troopSy a mere matter of discussion, but not repre- sented as a sine qua non. The negotiation was broken off not on account of that or other exceptionable proposals, but because Mexico refused to cede the whole of New * These estimates are taken from an official statement of the areas of the different provinces, published by the Mexican Government, and attached to Disturnell's map of Mexico.
180 REVIEW OF THE MEXICO N -\vA ??.' Mexico and California. Mr. Polk, in Ins Message to Con- gress, declared, " the boundar}^ of the Rio Grande, and the cession of the States of New Mexico and Upper Cali- fornia constituted an ultimatum whicK our Commissioner was under no circumstances to yield." It may seem strange that Mr. Polk refused to accept the proffered cession. The solution is easy, and will be given in the sub- sequent chapter.