obtaining such a peace. Should such be the result, the war which Mexico
has forced upon us would thus be converted into an enduring blessing to
herself. After finding her torn and distracted by factions, and ruled by
military usurpers, we should then leave her with a republican government
in the enjoyment of real independence and domestic peace and prosperity,
performing all her relative duties in the great family of nations and
promoting her own happiness by wise laws and their faithful execution.

If, after affording this encouragement and protection, and after all the
persevering and sincere efforts we have made from the moment Mexico
commenced the war, and prior to that time, to adjust our differences
with her, we shall ultimately fail, then we shall have exhausted all
honorable means in pursuit of peace, and must continue to occupy her
country with our troops, taking the full measure of indemnity into our
own hands, and must enforce the terms which our honor demands.

To act otherwise in the existing state of things in Mexico, and to
withdraw our Army without a peace, would not only leave all the wrongs
of which we complain unredressed, but would be the signal for new and
fierce civil dissensions and new revolutions--all alike hostile to
peaceful relations with the United States. Besides, there is danger, if
our troops were withdrawn before a peace was concluded, that the Mexican
people, wearied with successive revolutions and deprived of protection
for their persons and property, might at length be inclined to yield to
foreign influences and to cast themselves into the arms of some European
monarch for protection from the anarchy and suffering which would ensue.
This, for our own safety and in pursuance of our established policy, we
should be compelled to resist. We could never consent that Mexico should
be thus converted into a monarchy governed by a foreign prince.