Note 33 — IV THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO 1843–1846

Ho. 60; 30, 1, p. 63 (Slidell). Memoria de ... Relaciones, 1846. The council said that Slidell could not be received on any footing, unless Taylor (now at Corpus Christi) should retire. “The limiting of the mission of the comisionado to the sole question of Texas,” it remarked, “was a tacit condition (una condición tácita).” This admitted once more that the condition was not stated. The council admitted also that comisionado was not the proper term for an envoy ad hoc, which refutes again the contention of a certain American school that Mexico explicitly required us to send a “commissioner” instead of a minister. Castillo’s reply to Slidell (Mar. 12) said: Mexico cannot have agreed to receive a regular minister, for it would have been imprudent to do that; by fraud and violence the fair province of Texas has been stolen; and now, after robbing and outraging Mexico, your country seeks to obtain a pretext for war by demanding of us the impossible humiliation of receiving you (Ho. 60; 30, 1, p. 67). At this time Castillo did not know that Taylor was advancing toward the Rio Grande (Diario, Mar. 15, 1846). 166Slidell to Conner, Feb. 7; Mar. 15.