adroitly thi'own upon the discretion of a Mississippi slaveholder, eager to enlarge the slave territory by the annexation of Texas. Mr. Ellis was to judge whether the reparation offered was such as our"
" accumulated wrongs" required ; he was to decide what was unnecessary delay, and he alone to determine whether the answers he received Avere or Avere not satisfactory.
We Avill noAV notice the fifteen gricA^ances, the redress -of which in a manner Which Mr. PoAvhatten Ellis might deem sufficiently satisfactory and prompt, was to.be the sine qua non of peace or war. We entreat the reader's patience While Ave enumerate these gricA'ances, and the replies to them, because as he Avill see hereafter, it was for these that our diplomatic intercoui'se with Mexico was broken off, and that the President recommended to Con- gress, a measure equivalent to a declaration of Avar, The claims afterioards urged, can of course afford no justification or apology for the conduct of the administration, founded exclusively on the fifteen transmitted to Mr.
Ellis. They Avere in substance as folloAvs :
- An American, of the name of BaldAvin, had in 1832, unjust judgments given against him in the Mexican courts, and on one occasion, on account of an altercation between him and a magistrate, he AA^as sentenced to the stocks. He resisted, and attempted to escape, and fell and injured his leg. He was thereupon seized, put into the stocks, and afterwards ifnprisoned.
- The American vessel Topaz, was chartered by the Mexican Government in 1832, to convey troops. The master and mate were murdered by the soldiers, the crew imprisoned, and the vessel seized and used in the Mexican service.
^. The American vessel Brazoria, was seized in 1832, and employed in a military expedition, without compensation.