404 



DELIBERATIONS OF COMMISSIONERS. 



May it not then be justly said that it was a proper moment for a 

 heroic general to pause in front of a national capital containing two 

 hundred thousand people, and to allow the civil arm to assume, for 

 a moment of trial, the place of the military ? Like a truly brave 

 man, he despised the eclat of entering the capital as Cortez had 

 done on nearly the same day of the same month, three hundred and 

 twenty-six years before. Like a wise man, he considered the his- 

 tory and condition of the enemy, instead of his personal glory, and 

 laid aside the false ambition of a soldier, to exhibit the forbearance 

 of a christian statesman. 1 



The American Commissioner unquestionably entered upon the 

 negotiations in good faith, and it is probable that Santa Anna was 

 personally quite as well disposed for peace. He, however, had a 

 delicate game to play with the politicians of his own country, and 

 was obliged to study carefully the posture of parties as well as the 

 momentary strength of his friends and enemies. Well acquainted 

 as he was with the value of men and the intrigues of the time, he 

 would have been mad not to guard against the risk of ruin, and, 

 accordingly, his first efforts were directed rather towards obtaining 

 •the ultimatum of the United States, than to pledging his own gov- 

 ernment in any project which might prove either presently unpopular 

 or destroy his future influence. The instructions, therefore, that 

 were given to General Jose J. de Herrera, Bernardo Couto, Ignacio 

 Mora y Villamil and Miguel Atristain, the Mexican commissioners, 

 were couched in such extreme terms, that much could be yielded 

 before there was a likelihood of approaching the American demands. 

 In the meanwhile, as negotiations progressed, Mexico obtained time 

 to rally her soldiers, to appease those who were discontented with 

 the proposed peace, and to abjure the project if it should be found 

 either inadmissible or impossible of accomplishment without loss of 

 popularity. 



For several days consultations took place between Mr. Trist and 

 the commissioners, but it was soon found that the American preten- 

 sions in regard to the position of Texas, the boundary of the Rio 

 Grande and the cession of New Mexico and Upper California, were 



1 1t will be remembered that even Cortez had paused in the precincts of the ancient 

 capital of the Aztecs, in order to give them a chance of escape before striking the 

 fatal blow. See Prescott, vol. 3, p. 199. It is alittle remarkable also, that the dates 

 of Scott's and Cortez's victories coincide so closely. Cortez's victory was on the 

 J 3th of August, 1521, Scott's on the 20th of August, 1847. The date of Cortez's 

 achievement is given according to the Old Style, but if we add ten days to bring it 

 up to New Style, it will be corrected to the 23d of August! 



