General Taylor reported to the government that hostilities might now be deemed opened, and that he was going to carry the war into the enemy's country.
Taylor's dispatch arrived in Washington on May 9, a Saturday, and on Monday, the 11th, Polk sent a message to Congress accusing Mexico of having invaded the territory of the United States, and announcing that war existed, notwithstanding the efforts of the government of the United States to avoid it. The same day the House of Representatives, without taking time to have the reports and dispatches read, and almost without debate, passed a bill declaring that war existed “by the act of Mexico,” authorizing the President to call out fifty thousand volunteers, and appropriating $10,000,000. Only fourteen votes were cast against the bill, at their head that of John Quincy Adams. The Senate passed the bill on the 12th by a vote of forty to two. The contrast between the treatment of the Oregon question and that of the difficulty with Mexico could not have been more glaring.
At the same session of Congress the famous tariff of 1846 was passed, substantially stripping duties on imports of their high-protective character. The cries of the Pennsylvanians who had voted for “Polk, Dallas, and the tariff of 1842” were pitiable in the extreme, but of no avail. Also the sub-treasury system was reëstablished, to remain; and Polk put his veto upon a river and harbor bill.
