the Country."[32]  They both urged giving assistance and assurances to the liberals in the northern provinces of Mexico and to the revolutionists in Yucatán.[33]  Wrote Love,

I am aware that in the exhau[sted] state of our finances, that no efficie[nt] force can be put on foot for land services, but the Federalists of the North, and [in] the South, may be strengthened by forming [so]me understanding with them of aid and [subs]istance, a few hundred soldiers would [do] this on [the] Río del Norte, and a single vessel of War at Yucatán. . . . Is it not well to consider what means of aggressio[n] and annoyance we have in [our] power, and to make her feel th[at] peace with Texas is necessary [for] her own security?[34]

Very little additional expense would be incurred in the employment of the navy in an operation against Mexico since it was already equipped and manned.

John Henry Brown (later a well-known Texas historian) wrote at this time that while he was opposed to "another volunteer army from the U. S. entering Texas" and to "having anything to do with such a body," he believed that if it became necessary to prosecute the war against Mexico, it could be done best without expense to the government by having the navy blockade the Mexican ports and make reprisals.[35]  "If Texas has the ships, and Yucatán has dollars to sail and fight these ships," declared the Texas Sentinel on September 23, "we say in God's name, let them go and do the work which cannot but be honorable and advantageous to both nations."