Among the
frivolous pretexts for this refusal, the principal one was that our
minister had not gone upon a special mission confined to the question of
Texas alone, leaving all the outrages upon our flag and our citizens
unredressed. The Mexican Government well knew that both our national
honor and the protection due to our citizens imperatively required that
the two questions of boundary and indemnity should be treated of
together, as naturally and inseparably blended, and they ought to have
seen that this course was best calculated to enable the United States to
extend to them the most liberal justice. On the 30th of December, 1845,
General Herrera resigned the Presidency and yielded up the Government to
General Paredes without a struggle. Thus a revolution was accomplished
solely by the army commanded by Paredes, and the supreme power in Mexico
passed into the hands of a military usurper who was known to be bitterly
hostile to the United States.
Although the prospect of a pacific adjustment with the new Government
was unpromising from the known hostility of its head to the United
States, yet, determined that nothing should be left undone on our part
to restore friendly relations between the two countries, our minister
was instructed to present his credentials to the new Government and ask
to be accredited by it in the diplomatic character in which he had been
commissioned.
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