eign state had the right to make herself independent if it suited her interests.[1] This was quite a different doctrine from that enforced at the mouth of the cannon by the northern United States against the Southern twenty-five years after. Of course it is right for a Mexican state to secede if the United States wants it, but it is very wrong for any of the states of the northern confederation to secede on any pretext whatsoever. It will be well to state here that Forsyth had on the 29th of May, 1836, assured Gorostiza that his government would adopt no resolution or decision on that question which was not founded on the same rules and principles that had guided its action in the dissensions between Spain and her American colonies. The department of state was now reminded of that declaration by Monasterio, the Mexican minister of foreign affairs, and asked if the Texans were in the same position that the Mexicans held toward Spain when the United States acknowledged Mexico's independence. Did the American government see the slightest point of similarity between a nation of upward of six million people, who by their unaided efforts had thrown off the yoke of Spain after a bloody struggle of eleven years, and a revolting "few thousand adventurers without country, without religion, without virtues, and without laws, menaced by a numerous army," etc.? The minister also alluded to Jackson's message of December 22, 1836, and in obedience to the orders of the executive makes known the solemn protest of Mexico before all civilized nations against the recognition of the "pretended republic of Texas," made by the United States.[2] General Tornel, minister of war of Mexico, in a speech before the congress of Mexico, accused
- ↑ See Arrangoiz, Méj., ii. 262.
- ↑ José María Ortiz Monasterio's note bears date of March 21, 1837. His protest involves the following points: that the acknowledgment complained of could in no manner whatever weaken, diminish, or compromit the rights of Mexico to the territory of Texas, nor her right to employ every means in her power to recover that territory. A translation of the note is given in Niles' Reg., lii. 248-9.
