and co-operation could be obtained. If the United States did nothing, the French would enter the country and the whole condition of affairs would become more complicated than they had ever been. Accordingly, the President, in his message to Congress, of December 19th, 1859, recommended the passage of a law, authorizing him, under such conditions as Congress might deem expedient, to employ a sufficient military force to enter Mexico for the purpose of obtaining indemnity for the past and security for the future. After explaining the necessity and expediency of this step, and pointing out in what manner this force could aid the constitutional government of Juarez, he said that if this were not done, “it would not be surprising should some other nation undertake the task, and thus force us to interfere at last, under circumstances of increased difficulty, for the maintenance of our established policy.” The entire session of 1859-60 passed away without any notice being taken in Congress of this recommendation. The attention of that body was absorbed in discussions about slavery, and in shaping the politics of the next Presidential election. If the President’s recommendation about Mexico had been discussed, we might have been able to judge whether his political opponents were fearful that more territory would be acquired from Mexico, for the further extension of slavery. But in regard to any such result of the mode in which the President proposed to secure an indemnification of the claims of our citizens, it is to be observed that according to the terms of his recommendation, it would rest entirely with Congress to fix the preceding conditions of the intervention, and that if a treaty were to follow or precede, it would have to be ratified by the Senate. The President again brought this subject before Congress by his annual message of December, 1860. Mr. Lincoln had now been elected President and the foreign relations of the country would in three months be in his hands. At this time, however, it had become still more necessary for the United States Government to determine, and to determine promptly, whether it would leave American citizens to the mercy of Miramon’s government, or whether it would do something to establish the constitutional government of Juarez. Again the President repeated the warning that foreign powers would interfere if this matter were to be much longer neglected, although at that moment informal and verbal assurances had been given by some of the European diplomatists in Mexico that such interference was not intended. Congress, however, spent the whole winter of 1860-61 in a dreary discussion of our internal affairs, without either making any effort to arrest the spread of secession by conciliatory measures, or doing anything to strengthen the hands of the President or his successor.