of, are redressed without unnecessary delay, " his farther resi- dence in Mexico would be useless."
To this insulting missive, a calm, dignified reply was returned the next day. Ellis is reminded that a delay in answering a note is not a sufficient cause for breaking off a negotiation ; and that, to decide on the grievances pre- sented, documents were to be collected from various offices in diffiirent parts of the Republic. He was informed, that measures had already been taken to procure the requisite documents, and promised that, when these were received, the decision of the government would be communicated to him. Well did John Quincy Adams remark in a note to his printed speech in Congress in 1838, " From the day of the battle of San Jacinto, every movement of the administration of this Union appears to have been made for the express purpose of breaking off negotiations, and precipitating a war, or of frightening Mexico iyito the cession of not only Texas, hut the whole course of the Rio del Norte, and five degrees of latitude across their continent to the South Sea. The instructions of the 20th July, 1836, from the Secretary of State to Mr. Ellis almost imme- diately after the battle, were evidently premeditated to 4* produce rupture, and were but too faithfully carried into execution. Hisj^Ellis's) letter of the 20th October, 1836, to Mr. Monasterio was the premonitory symptom, and no true-hearted citizen of this union can read it, and the answer to it on the next day by Mr. Monasterio, without blushinrr for his country." But neither Ellis nor his em- ployers were in the habit of blushing ; and on the 4th November the Minister, in pursuance of his instructions, gave formal notice that, unless his complaints were satis- factorily answered in two weeks, he should demand his passports !
It was only to a feeble nation, and one whose hostility was courted for ulterior designs, that the administration would have hazarded such insolence. Mexico, sensible of her feebleness, did not resent the insult, and Mr. ElHs received an answer within the number of days he had as-