a strip about 150 miles wide as debatable ground. Here was a question that could easily have been settled by diplomacy and a treaty drawn up and the War of 1848 prevented. But the American army invaded the disputed territory and was met by resistance by the Mexicans- -a number were killed and wounded and the rest compelled to surrender. The war

spirit always lying dormant in some people was lashed into a frenzy by such public declarations as "Our country has been invaded," "American blood has been spilled on American soil," all of which sounds strangely familiar to us today.

•General U. S. Grant was a soldier in the army at this time and it is pertinent at this point to quote the following extracts from his Personal Memoirs :

"There was no intimation that the removal of the troops to the border of Louisiana was occasioned in any way by the prospective annexation of TexftS, but it was generally understood that such was the case. Ostensibly we were intended to prevent filibastering into Texas, but really as a menace to Mexico. . . . And to this day I regard the war which resulted as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. It was an instance of a republic following the bad example of European monarchies." (Vol. 1, Chapterlll, page 53.) .

"The same people who, with permission of Mexico, had colonized Texas, and afterwards set up slavery there, and then seceded as soon as they felt strong enough to do so, offered themselves and the state to the United States, and in 1845 the offer was accepted. The occupation, separation and annexation were, from the inception of the movement to its final consummation, a conspiracy to acquire territory out of which slave stcdes may be formed for the American Union. Even if the annexation itself could be justified, the manner in which the subsequent war was forced upon Mexico cannot."