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Treachery or Hoax? The Rumored Southern Conspiracy to Confederate with Mexico by Mark J. Stegmaier Northern Free-Soilers and Southern proslavery radicals could not contain their feelings ofintensejubilation on July 3 1 , 1850. Together these two extremes had managed that day in the U.S. Senate to tear apart the Omnibus Bill, a disparate combination ofproposals to settle all the outstanding sectional issues over slavery expansion into Western territories. Neither Northern nor Southern "ultras" liked the Omnibus, largely the brainchild of Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky, and wished that no compromise be passed. The one thing the radicals of opposite extremes could agree upon was that they loathed compromise. Thus, on July 3 1 , while Clay and other moderates grieved over a loss which they believed might portend dissolution of the Union, the Senate radicals celebrated—Jefferson Davis of Mississippi grinned delightedly, William Seward of New York "was dancing about like a little top," and Salmon Chase of Ohio clasped hands with Pierre Soulè of Louisiana.1 A few days after the defeat of the Omnibus, an astounding report appeared . The account was authored by James E. Harvey, writing under the names "Independent" in the Philadelphia North American, "Veritas"in the New York Courier and Enquirer, and "Viator" in the Boston Journal, and unsigned in the St. Louis Intelligencer. The several versions presented substantially the same information, with minor variations in wording and phrasing, and were dated either August 3 or 4. Harvey related that a few months before, in April, a person of influence in the South traveled incogThe author gratefully acknowledges the excellent research assistance provided by Amalia Gensman at various archives in Mexico City, and by Sharon Orton at the Public Record Office in Surrey. 1 This scene was reported by "A Looker On" in the New York Morning Express, Aug. 2, 1850. Civil War History, Vol. XXXV, No. 1, © 1989 by the Kent State University Press TREACHERY OR HOAX?29 nito to Mexico City and there proposed to leading Mexican government officials a plan whereby Mexico would join the Southern states in a new confederacy with Mexico City as its capital. The Mexican foreign minister, José Maria de Lacunza, was said to have vigorously supported the plan in a long speech to the Mexican cabinet. The cabinet however refused to countenance the plan, and the Southern emissary then departed for California. Harvey added that the British chargé d'affaires in Mexico City, Percy W. Doyle, supported the plan to the extent of his influence. Harvey also declared that President Zachary Taylor had been informed ofthe plot several months before his death in July and had taken steps to prevent "injurious consequences." Harvey declared the evidence to be indubitable and recommended both that Congress investigate the matter and that the U.S. government demand information from the Mexican government relevant to the conspiracy.2 In a letter to the Courier and Enquirer four days later, Harvey declared that the evidence he had seen consisted ofcorrespondence from a reliable source or sources. He said that he had been shown the material in its original form and had been permitted to divulge the principal facts ofthe plot and the names ofsome ofthe parties connected with it. He indicated that he had been forbidden to reveal who had informed the government of the plan.3 Another Washington correspondent, "Henrico" (probably John E. Tuel) ofthe Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, elaborated on the scheme in his letter of August 6. Henrico claimed that the plot described by Harvey had been the subject ofa detailed plan given to Senator Sam Houston ofTexas during the previous winter. Henrico had alluded to this scheme in a letter in late May, and in several June letters had connected plans to take over Cuba by the filibuster Narciso Lopez and plans to restore monarchy in Mexico with the goals of the pro-Southern Nashville Convention. Now in August, Henrico declared that the plan delivered to Houston earlier promised him the presidency or dictatorship ofthe new confederacy if Mexico refused to voluntarilyjoin and had to be conquered; if Mexico readilyjoined, Mexico City would be the capital. Henrico claimed that the Nashville Convention had proposed that the old Missouri Compromise...

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