No. I. ------------------------------------------------------ MEXICAN LETTERS WRITTEN DURING THE PROGRESS OF THE LATE WAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO, BY B. H. M. BRACKENRIDGE: NOW COLLECTED AND REPUBLISHED, WITH NOTES AND CORRECTIONS, TO BE COMPLETED IN TWO NUMBERS. ──────── _Genus audax Japeti._ ──────── WASHINGTON: PRINTED BY ROBERT A. WATERS. 1850. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PREFACE. ---------- One who thinks for himself, is very apt to think alone, or with a minority, especially in our free republic, where there is such proneness in opinion to run into party. The individual is restrained by party trammels from asserting his independence, and he must adopt all the articles of political, as well as religious creeds, or be expelled from the church. Although agreeing with the whigs generally, I could not agree with them in our late war with Mexico, that justice was on the side of that republic; still less could I approve of the constant condemnation of the war in which we were engaged. I applied the same principle to that war that I did to the late war with Great Britain, that is to say, that it becomes every citizen to sustain his country against the common enemy, both by word and deed. The letters now collected and submitted to the public, were written in this spirit. The author has endeavored to treat with respect the opinions of those who differed from him. He does not think he can be justly censured by any one for attempting to prove by fair and honest reasoning, that his country was in the right, and the enemy in the wrong. He may be condemned by his party at the present day, but at a future day the judgment may be reversed. These letters may serve as materials for history. There will be no difficulty in finding the records of the arguments of the administration party, which promoted and defended the war; or of the opposition, which denounced it. But before making up a verdict, the voice of the small number dissenting from the latter ought also to be heard. It is with this view chiefly, that these letters are collected and preserved. There is, besides, usually a freshness in the commentaries on contemporary or passing events, which cannot be attained by historical compilation, however elegant and philosophic, while the former, may be but rude and unpolished.