PROCLAMATION--OFFICIAL--Highly important if true.--I, Gil Davis, Governor and Owner of the Province of Coney Island, hereby issue this my proclamation, to all creation, that, on and after the 14th instant, May, 1846, I give to all nations, languages, people and tongues, free ingress and egress to this, my colony, for all sorts and kinds of political offenses, either against Church or State ; and more particularly, the Mexican nation will be fully admitted, without any restrictions, or expense, by way of light money, pilotage, anchorage, hospital, or any other charges, either by land or water. All the Mexican prizes may be sent in, as well as all their men-of-war, privateers, letters of marque, counter marque, and all and every description in whatsoever state ; either through stress or weather, or by being crippled by the enemy, or being scared--it's all the same.
By order of His Excellency,
Emperor and Governor,
GIL DAVIS, THE GREAT.
B. Bates. D. D., Acting Pacificator.
P. S.--The Governor reserves the right to charge a moiety upon all vessels and cargoes, which is usually charged in times of war.
--Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 15, 1846
You may recall that Gil Davis was the reported "governor" of Coney Island. Can't say he was afraid to speak his mind.
Per PBS, the real fighting in the Mexican-American War appears to have started in early May, 1846. It apparently was a rather polarizing issue for Americans--some Northerners suspected that the South was wanting to add more slave-holding states to the Union.
At the end of the war, in early 1848, Mexico ceded California, Nevada, parts of Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico, and most of Arizona to the United States.
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