Texas & the Mexican War: A Chronicle of the Winning of the Southwest

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 Excerpt: ...into offering annexation? These questions remain as yet unanswered. What we do know is that in 1843 Houston appeared to turn away from the American affiliation and certainly began to lean heavily on the friendship of England. At his request Elliot, through the British Minister at Mexico City, arranged an armistice. Houston by proclamation suspended hostilities. As might have been expected, nothing came of the ensuing negotiations. Texas would not acknowledge Mexican sovereignty. Mexico would not recognize Texan independence. For more than a year, however, the miserable Mexican War was suspended. It was in May, 1843, that Santa Anna's terms of peace with Texas, carried by the released prisoner Robinson, were communicated to Aberdeen. He thought they were not of "a very practical description." Nevertheless he wrote to Elliot to make every effort to persuade Texas that virtual independence was worth the "nominal concession" demanded by Santa Anna. What he probably thought and what all shrewd observers must have thought was that both Texas and Mexico were for the moment exhausted and that each was playing for time in which to recuperate. Aberdeen, true to his conciliatory impulse, would have liked to use this pause in the war to effect a permanent peace. In the early summer of 1843 his career as Foreign Secretary was as yet distinctly bright. The difficult task of undoing the bad effect upon America of Palmerston's diplomacy appeared to have been accomplished. The Ashburton mission had ended brilliantly in a treaty concluded at Washington in August, 1842. If the Oregon question was still open, at least the other vexatious matters concerning the Maine boundary and the slave trade were settled. The provisions of the Quintuple Treaty were virtu...