anti-slavery feeling of the North. It was e^ident the nation was not yet prepared to incur the calamities of war for the sole purpose of hastening the annexation of Texas and moreover, such a Avar, to receive the concurrence of the North, must at least be commenced by Mexico. A aourse was therefore adopted, more sagacious than that urged by the fiery impatience of the President. Com- mittees of the two Houses of Congress, made reports well calculated, by exaggerating the misconduct of Mexico, to exasperate the ili-feehng already existing, but recommending that one more demand should be made for re- paration.
On the last day of the Session, an appropriation was made for the salary of a Minister to Mexico, " whenever in the opinion of the President circumstances will permit a renewal of diplomatic intercourse honorably with that Power." It was only in the preceding December that the Diplomatic intercourse had been broken off by instructions from the President, on the ground that it could not honor- ably be continued ; and yet, on the 30th of March, with- out any circumstance having occurred in the interval to invite a renewal of that intercourse, except the refusal of Congress to go to war, the President nominated a Minister to Mexico ! " And who,'' to use the language of J. Q. Adams, " was this Minister of peace, to be sent With the last drooping twig of olive to be replanted and revivified REVIEW OF THE MEXICAN VvAR. 61 in the genial soil of Mexico ? It was no other than Pow- hattan Ellis, of Mississippi, famishing for Texas, and just returned in anger and resentment from an abortive and abruptly terminated mission to the same Government.
His very name must have tasted like wormwood to the Mexican palate ; and his name seems alone to have been used for the purpose of giving a relish to these last re- sources of pacific and conciliatory councils. But though appointed, he was not permitted to proceed upon his em- bassy. He was kept at home, and in his stead was despatched a courier of the Department of State, with a budget of grievances good and bad, new and