Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: r CHAPTER III. The origin of the war between the United States and Mexico?The early settlement of Texas by Stephen Austin?Jealousies between the American and Mexican population?The federal system overthrown in Mexico, and a central government adopted?Zacatecas and Texas refuse to give in their adhesion to this change?Mission of Austin to the city of Mexico, and his imprisonment there?Texas declares herself independent?The massacre of Fannin, and the battle of San Jacinto?Commodore Moore and the Texan navy?The United States navy?Acknowledgment of Texan independence by the United States, and the principal powers of Europe ? Negotiations and intrigues previous to annexation?Mission of Mr. SlideLL and the rapture of diplomatic relations. Let us now inquire, briefly, into the origin of the war; a portion of the events of which I propose to sketch. Nothing is more difficult, than to arrive at the true state of any question in the United States, having a political aspect. Such is the habitual rancor of politicians, that even facts are often distorted to suit party prejudices. The accounts we have of the origin of the Mexican war, is a remarkable illustration of this want of political morals, on the part of the mass of those who seek office in our country; and that politicians, with a few honorable exceptions, have descended to the position of mere office-seekers, is a fact as humiliating to our pride, as it is obvious to our senses. Grave books, purporting to be histories, written long after the events they record have transpired, do but reproduce these garbled statements, in a more enduring form, unpurged of the party taint to which they have been subjected, by the accusatio falsi, as well as the supp -estio veri. Not being a politician, and having heard both parties, I will...