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20
Arkansas to inquire, had not been idle during the time that
these negotiations were going on. He became a settler in
Texas, very soon worked himself up into a discontented
citizen, and finally became the head of an insurrectionary
force. The quarrel came to an issue not long after Mlr. Butler
had surrendered all hope from negotiation. And when
it seemed by no means unlikely, that General Santa Anna,
who was advancing with a military force from Mexico,
would be able to stifle the revolt at once, the government
at Washington, and General Jackson, by a subsequent letter,
under his own signature, authorised and directed General
Gaines to advance into the territory of Texas, and remain
there, under the pretence that the boundary was still
unsettled and that the presence of a United States force was
necessary to secure it against Indian hostility.
It appears that from the period of the recall of Mr. Butler
from Mexico, and the breaking out of the struggle in Texas,
which events were nearly cotemporaneous, the policy of the
administration took a new turn. It was no longer necessary
for the government of the United States to coax Mexico to
a voluntary cession of a territory which was now in a state of
hopeful rebellion. The more advisable course seemed to be
to give as much aid and countenance to the insurrection as
was consistent with our professedly neutral position, not
merely by securing the presence of the United States troops
in the theatre of the war, but also by trying to pick a quarrel
with Mexico on a new and separate account of our own.
Whilst on the one hand General Jackson announced by a
message to Congress, on the 22d December, that under all
the circumstances attending the contest in Texas, it was unadvisable
at that time to acknowledge the independence of
that country; on the other hand he equally announced, six
weeks afterwards, that no peaceful adjustment of certain matters
in controversy between the United States and Mexico
could be expected, that was not sustained by war measures,
and the granting of authority to make reprisals upon her conmmerce.
The decisive battle of San Jacinto had been fought,
and General Santa Anna who had been made prisoner to the
Texans, was sent to Washington to experience the double
satisfaction of a war threat from the United States on one
side, and of a sense of his personal danger from his victors on
the other, if he did not use all his influence to bring about the
grand desideratum, the annexation of Texas to the United
States. He appears to have been willing to concede all that
was required of him under this state of duresse. The consequence
was immediately perceptible. Notwithstanding and
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Adams, Charles Francis. Texas and the Massachusetts Resolutions, book, January 1, 1844; Boston, Massachusetts. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2355/m1/20/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.