The state and municipal governments of Mexico were, consequently, always
quite as incompetent for self-rule as the central authority. In addition
to this, they were cordially jealous of the national powers. This arose
from the state fears of consolidation; and, as it was with these
municipal authorities, as well as with the corrupt government officers,
that our citizens were chiefly brought in contact in the ports, it is
not at all wonderful to find them soon complaining of oppression and
burthening the records of our legation with their grievances. When our
ministers sought to obtain redress, the Mexican government was reluctant
to undertake the investigation of the subject; and, when it did so,
continually encountered delay and equivocation on the part of the local
authorities. The distant peculator was anxious to escape the penalty of
his fault by procrastination, and the Mexican secretary of state, ever
willing to uphold his national pride by concealing or not confessing the
villainy of his subordinate, was ready to sustain him by an interminable
correspondence.

The history of the diplomatic and commercial relations between the
United States and Mexico, as exhibited by congress in all the published
volumes of national documents, presents a series of wrongs, which the
reader will find ably recapitulated in a report[21] made by Mr. Cushing
in the year 1842. Our claims, arising from injuries inflicted by Mexico,
were no ordinary demands founded on mere querulousness, or contrived
with a view to obtain money fraudulently from that republic. They were
brought to the notice of the ministry of foreign affairs by all our
envoys, and their justice urged with ample proof; until, at length, upon
the return of Mr. Powhatan Ellis to the United States, in the year 1837,
after demanding his passports, they became the subject of a message from
President Jackson in which he alleges that all his efforts of pacific
negotiation had been fruitless and that he found it both just and
prudent to recommend reprisals against Mexico. This serious aspect of
our difficulties immediately commended the subject to the notice of
committees in both houses of congress, and whilst they sustained the
president's opinion of the character of our wrongs, they recommended
that a forbearing spirit should still characterize our conduct, so that,
"after a further demand, should prompt justice be refused by the Mexican
government, we might appeal to all nati