GUERILLAS PEACE NEGOTIATIONS TRIST. 379 



tirely under his control. Throwing himself, like a true military 

 demagogue, publicly, if not at heart, at the head of popular feeling 

 in regard to the war with the United States, he adopted every mea- 

 sure and availed himself of every resource in his power to place the 

 city in a state of defence, and to fan the flame of resistance. Jn 

 the meanwhile the guerilla forces, organized on the eastern coast, 

 chiefly under a recreant clergyman named Jarauta, harassed every 

 American train and detachment on their way to the interior, and ren- 

 dered the country insecure, until a fearful war of extermination was 

 adopted by our garrisons on the line. 



The government of the United States had, during the whole of 

 this unfortunate contest, availed itself of every supposed suitable 

 occasion to sound Mexico in relation to peace. In July, 1846, and 

 in January 1847, overtures were made to the national authorities 

 and rejected; and again, early in the spring of 1847, as soon as the 

 news of the defeat at Cerro Gordo reached Washington, Mr. Nich- 

 olas P. Trist was despatched by the President upon a mission which 

 it w T as hoped would result in the restoration of international amity. 

 The commissioner reached Vera Cruz while the American army 

 was advancing towards the interior, but it was not until the forces 

 reached Puebla, and General Scott had established his head quar- 

 ters in that capital, that he was enabled, through the intervention of 

 the British Minister, to communicate with the Mexican government. 

 The stringent terms of the decree to which we have already alluded, 

 of course, prevented Santa Anna, powerful as he was, from enter- 

 taining the proposals in the existing state of the public mind, and, 

 accordingly, he referred the subject to Congress, a quorum of whose 

 members was, with difficulty, organized. On the 13th of July, 

 seventy-four assembled, and voted to strip themselves of the respon- 

 sibility by a resolution that it was the Executive's duty to receive 

 ministers, and to make treaties of peace and alliance, and that their 

 functions were confined to the approval or disapproval of those 

 treaties or alliances when submitted in due form under the constitu- 

 tion. But Santa Anna, still adhering to the letter of the mandatory 

 decree passed after the battle of Cerro Gordo in April, alleged his 

 legal incapacity to treat, and recommended the repeal of the order, 

 inasmuch as the American commissioner's letter was courteous, 

 and the dignity of Mexico required the return of a suitable reply. 

 Before the appeal could reach Congress, its members had dispersed, 

 foreseeing probably, the delicacy, if not danger, of the dilemma in 

 which they were about to be placed. Without a constitutional tri- 

 bunal to relieve him from his position, the President finally referred 



