[Illustration:  Route From VERA CRUZ TO MEXICO]

“MEXICANS!  The late events of the war and the measures adopted in consequence by our Government make it my duty to address you, in order to lay before you truths of which you are ignorant, because they have been criminally concealed from you.  I do not ask you to believe me simply on my word—­though he who has not been found false has a claim to be believed—­but to judge for yourselves of these truths from facts within the view and scrutiny of you all.  Whatever may have been the origin of this war, which the United States was forced to undertake by insurmountable causes, we regard it as an evil.  War is ever such to both belligerents, and the reason and justice of the case, if not known on both sides, are in dispute and claimed by each.  You have proof of this truth as well as we, for in Mexico, as in the United States, there have existed and do exist two opposite parties, one desiring peace and the other war.  Governments have, however, sacred duties to perform from which they can not swerve; and these duties frequently impose, from national considerations, a silence and reserve that displeases at all times the majority of those who, from views purely personal or private, are formed in opposition, to which Governments can pay little attention, expecting the nation to repose in them the confidence due to a magistracy of its own selection—­considerations of high policy and of continental American interests precipitated even in spite of circumspection of the Cabinet at Washington.  This Cabinet, ardently desiring to terminate all differences with Mexico, spared no effort compatible with honor and dignity.  It cherished the most flattering hopes of attaining this end by frank explanations and reasonings addressed to the judgment and prudence of the virtuous and patriotic government of General Herrera.  An unexpected misfortune dispelled these hopes and closed every avenue of an honorable adjustment.  Your new Government disregarded your national interests, as well as those of continental America, and yielded, moreover, to foreign influences the most opposed to these interests, the most fatal to the future of Mexican liberty and of that republican system which the United States holds it a duty to preserve and protect.  Duty, honor, and dignity placed us under the necessity of not losing a season of which the monarchical party was fast taking advantage.  As not a moment was to be lost, we acted with a promptness and decision suited to the urgency of the case, in order to avoid a complication of interests which might render our relations more difficult and involved.  Again, in the course of civil war, the Government of General Paredes was overthrown.  We could not but look upon this as a fortunate event, believing that any other administration representing Mexico would be less deluded, more patriotic, and more prudent, looking to the common good, weighing probabilities, strength, resources, and, above all, the general