navy might
prove an incentive to war. And so when war did come--war, not with
Europe, but with our nearest neighbor--the United States had little
floating force to join in it. Fortunately, little was needed.

Though war was not declared by the United States against Mexico until
May, 1846, it had been a possibility ever since the establishment of
the Texan Republic by the defeat of the Mexicans at San Jacinto in
1834, and it had been a great probability since 1841, when it was
discovered that both England and France were holding out prospects of
assistance to the Mexicans in case of conflict with the United
States. Neither of these European powers was sincere in the diplomatic
game which deceived the proud but ignorant Mexicans, but neither did
either of them scruple to foment a quarrel out of which some selfish,
though indefinite, advantage might be gained. Indeed they played the
diplomatic game so skilfully that they deceived a considerable
minority in the United States and made these believe that the
admission of Texas to the United States would be unwise and
inexpedient, and the probable war with Mexico a wickedness dire and
dreadful. Even General Grant, when he wrote his book, said that such
were his views at the time, though he was then an army officer and
trusting to war for advancement. But when hostilities were begun, and
victory for American arms followed victory, the protests of the peace
party were unheard amid the enthusiastic shoutings of those who took a
saner view of the conditions which led to the conflict.

Mexico claimed title not only to Texas, but to California, and if the
United States had not gone to war in regard to the former, she would
have had to do so in defence of her conquest of the latter. In
securing California the navy bore a conspicuous part, and as early as
1842, Captain Thomas Ap-Catesby Jones, commanding the Pacific
squadron, was as active as though war had already been declared. In
September of that year, with his squadron of four ships, he was at
anchor in the harbor of Callao, and noticing the suspicious conduct of
the British frigate "Dublin," which shoved off the port and then bore
away, he concluded to follow her and see just what game she sought, as
he had been informed by the Navy Department that England was plotting
in Mexico against the United States; he had also read in a Mexican
newspaper that war was likely to be declared, if indeed hostilities
had not already begun. C