Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/77

patched to Mexico." A confidential interview took place between Mr. Black and Peña y Peña, the Mexican Minister of Foreign Relations, in which the substance of the dispatch received from his government was made known by the American Consul; and on the 13th of October, he addressed an official note to the Mexican Minister, communicating the instructions he had received, in the precise terms of the letter of Mr. Buchanan, as before quoted. On the 15th of October, Peña y Peña informed Mr. Black, in writing, that his government was "disposed to receive the commissioner of the United States," who might come "with full powers" "to settle the present dispute in a peaceful, reasonable, and honorable manner; "but requested, as a preliminary step to negotiation, that the naval force in sight of Vera Cruz should be recalled. Great secrecy was observed by Peña y Peña in his communications with Mr. Black, and the guarded language employed in his note shows that the Mexican government designed, at that time, to lay the foundation for a refusal to comply with the terms of the proposition which they professed to accept, although it positively precluded the idea of any negotiation except in relation to all causes of difference between the two countries. The offer to send a minister was made in a frank and honorable manner, and presumed to have been accepted in a similar spirit; and hence no notice was taken of the apparent discrepancy between the terms of the proposition as made by the American government, and as accepted by the Mexican Minister. Herrera, the President of Mexico, had always been regarded as a firm and decided federalist, and was supposed to be favorable to an amicable settlement of the differences with the United States. Previous to his elevation to the Presi-