336 



ORIGIN OF THE WAR. 



minister from Mexico to the United States, published a memoir 

 upon Texas in which, whilst describing the Texan department of 

 Bejar, he says — ''That notwithstanding it has been hitherto be- 

 lieved that the Rio de las Nueces is the dividing line of Coahuila 

 and Texas, inasmuch as it is always thus represented on maps, I 

 am informed by the government of the state, that geographers have 

 been in error upon this subject ; and that the true line should com- 

 mence at the mouth of the river Aransaso, and follow it to its 

 source ; thence, it should continue by a straight line until it strikes 

 the junction of the rivers Medina and San Antonio, and then, pur- 

 suing the east bank of the Medina to its head waters, it should 

 terminate on the confines of Chihuahua." 1 



The true origin of the Mexican war was not this march of Tay- 

 lor and his troops from the Nueces to the Rio Grande, through the 

 debatable land. The American and Mexican troops were brought 

 face to face by the act, and hostilities were the natural result 

 after the exciting annoyances upon the part of the Mexican gov- 

 ernment which followed the union of Texas with our confederacy. 

 Besides this, General Paredes, the usurping president, had already 

 declared in Mexico, on the 18th of April, 1846, in a letter ad- 

 dressed to the commanding officer on the northern frontier, that he 

 supposed him at the head of a valiant army on the theatre of ac- 

 tion ; — and that it was indispensable to commence hostilities, the 

 Mexicans themselves taking the initiative ! 



We believe that our nation and its rulers earnestly desired hon- 

 orable peace, though they did not shun the alternative of war. 

 It was impossible to permit a conterminous neighbor who owed 

 us large sums of money, and was hostile to the newly adopted 

 state, to select unopposed her mode and moment of attack. Mex- 

 ico would neither resign her pretensions upon Texas, negotiate, 

 receive our minister, nor remain at peace. She would neither 

 declare war, nor cultivate friendship, and the result was, that 

 when the armies approached each other, but little time was lost in 

 resorting to the cannon and the sword. 



As soon as General Taylor reached the Rio Grande he left a 

 command at the mouth of the river, and taking post opposite 

 Matamoros erected a fort, the guns of which bore directly upon the 

 city. The Mexicans, whose artillery might have been brought to 

 play upon the works, from the opposite side of the river, made no 

 hostile demonstration against the left bank for some time, nor did 

 they interrupt the construction of the fort. Reinforcements, how- 



1 Memorias para la historia de la Guerra de Tejas, vol. ii, p. 543. 



