The proceedings of her claims commissioners had a signally bad effect. "The conduct of the Mexican government towards the American claimants under the treaty between the two countries," declared the Picayune, "has been the most infamously perfidious ever practised by one country and submitted to by another." "Many earnest remonstrances and complaints," wrote Webster, our secretary of state, officially to the Mexican commissioners, have been made to me against your proceedings and those of your government in this affair; and though he refrained from expressing any opinion as to the justice of them, such a declaration was evidence of an indignation both deep and general. At the same time fresh grievances accumulated; and the Mexicans, instead of showing any appreciation of what our people regarded as kindness toward them, appeared even less Willing to grant effectual redress than ten or fifteen years before. "Forbearance and lenity toward such creatures," protested the Jeffersonian Republican, of New Orleans in August, 1845, "are all lost and worse than lost," for they are thought signs of weakness, and lead to greater atrocities.[1]
The decision of Herrera's administration to reject Slidell, our minister of peace, was generally regarded — except by the partisan opponents of our government — as a crowning roof of the vanity of forbearance and a loud call for action. This nation, said the St. Louis Republican, "owes it to herself and her character, and the just appreciation of her ministers and her standing in all foreign countries not to suffer so open an insult to her representative to pass unnoticed" "The indignity to our Minister requires atonement," was the crisper utterance of the Picayune, which was Widely recognized as the best informed authority on Mexican affairs among our newspapers. The revolution of Parades appeared to be a further evidence of hostility. The government of Mexico, observed the Delta of New Orleans, has been overthrown with no pretext except the necessity of active war against the United States; so let war be waged. Finally, the definitive rejection of our peace overture, announced in Castillo's defiant and offensive note, supplied a conclusive argument in the opinion of many against further hesitation. "We have borne and forborne long enough, and a resolute stand should be taken at
- ↑ 5
