Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol. 1 of 2 / A Historical, Geographical, Political, Statistical and Social Account of That Country From the Period of the Invasion by the Spaniards to the Present Time.

CHAPTER VII.
1843–1846.

After the foundation of the new system in 1843, the country continued quiet for a while, and when the Mexican Congress met, in January 1844, propositions were made by the executive department to carry out Santa Anna's favorite project of reconquering Texas. It is probable that there was not much sincerity in the president's desire to march his troops into a territory the recollection of which must have been, at least, distasteful to him. There is more reason to believe that the large sum which it was necessary to appropriate for the expenses of the campaign—the management of which would belong to the administration,—was the real object he had in view. Four millions were granted for the reconquest, but when Santa Anna demanded ten millions more while the first grant was still uncollected, the members refused to sustain the president's demand. The congressmen were convinced of that chieftain's rapacity, and resolved to afford him no further opportunity to plunder the people under the guise of patriotism.

Santa Anna's sagacious knowledge of his countrymen immediately apprised him of approaching danger, and having obtained permission from congress to retire to his estate at Mango de Clavo, near Vera Cruz, he departed from the capital, leaving his friend General Canalizo as president ad interim. Hardly had he reached his plantation in the midst of friends and faithful troops, when a revolt burst out in Jalisco, Agnas Calientes, Zacatecas, Sinaloa and Sonora, against his government, headed by General Paredes. Santa Anna rapidly crossed the country to suppress the rebellion, but as he disobeyed the constitutional compact by taking actual command of the army whilst he was president, without the previous assent of congress, he became amenable to law for this violation of his oath. He was soon at enmity with the rebels and with the constitutional congress, and thus a three fold contest was carried on, chiefly through correspondence, until the 4th of January, 1845, when Santa Anna finally fell. He fled from the insurgents and constitutional authorities towards the eastern coast, but being captured at the village of Jico, was conducted to Peroté, where he remained imprisoned under a charge and examination for treason, until an amnesty for the late political factionists permitted him to depart on the 29th of May, 1845, with his family, for Havana.

Upon Santa Anna's ejection from the executive chair, the president of the council of government, became under the laws of the country, provisional president of the republic. This person was General José Joaquim de Herrera, during whose administration the controversies rose which resulted in the war between Mexico and the United States.

The thread of policy and action in both countries is so closely interwoven during this pernicious contest, that the history of the war becomes, in reality, the history of Mexico for the epoch. We are therefore compelled to narrate, succinctly, the circumstances that led to that lamentable issue.

*****

The first empresario, or contractor, for the colonization of Texas, was Moses Austin, a native citizen of the United States, who, as soon as the treaty of limits between Spain and our country was concluded in 1819, conceived the project of establishing a settlement in that region. Accordingly, in 1821 he obtained from the Commandant General of the Provincias Internas, permission to introduce three hundred foreign families. In 1823, a national colonization law was approved by the Mexican Emperor Iturbide during his brief reign, and on the 18th of February, Stephen F. Austin, who had succeeded his father, after his death, in carrying out the project, was authorized to proceed with the founding of the colony. After the emperor's fall, this decree was confirmed by the first executive council in conformity to the express will of congress.

In 1824 the federal constitution of Mexico was, as we have narrated, adopted, by the republican representatives, upon principles analogous to those of the constitution of the United States; and by a decree of the 7th of May, Texas and Coahuila were united in a state. In this year another general colonization law was enacted by congress, and foreigners were invited to the new domain by a special state colonization law of Coahuila and Texas.

Under these local laws and constitutional guaranties, large numbers of foreigners flocked to this portion of Mexico, opened farms, founded towns and villages, re-occupied old Spanish settlements, introduced improvements in agriculture and manufactures, drove off the Indians, and formed, in fact, the nucleus of an enterprizing and progressive population. But there were jealousies between the race that invited the colonists, and the colonists who accepted the invitation. The central power in the distant capital did not estimate, at their just value, the independence of the remote pioneers, or the state-right sovereignty to which they had been accustomed at their former home in the United States. Mexico was convulsed by revolutions, but the lonely residents of Texas paid no attention to the turmoils of the factionists. At length, however, direct acts of interference upon the part of the national government, not only by its ministerial agents, but by its legislature, excited the mingled alarm and indignation of the colonists, who imagined that in sheltering themselves under a republic they were protected as amply as they would have been under the constitution of the North American Union. In this they were disappointed; for, in 1830, an arbitrary enactment—based no doubt upon a jealous dread of the growing value and size of a colony which formed a link between the United States and Mexico by resting against Tamaulipas and Louisiana, on the north and south,—prohibited entirely the future immigration of American settlers into Coahuila and Texas. To enforce this decree and to watch the loyalty of the actual inhabitants, military posts, composed of rude and ignorant Mexican soldiers, were sprinkled over the country. And, at last, the people of Texas found themselves entirely under military control.

This suited neither the principles nor tastes of the colonists, who, in 1832, took arms against this warlike interference with their municipal liberty, and after capturing the fort at Velasco, reduced to submission the garrisons at Anahuac and Nacogdoches. The separate state constitution which had been promised Texas in 1824, was never sanctioned by the Mexican Congress, though the colonists prepared the charter and were duly qualified for admission. But the crisis arrived when the centralists of 1835, overthrew the federal constitution of 1824. Several Mexican states rose independently against the despotic act. Zacatecas fought bravely for her rights, and saw her people basely slain by the myrmidons of Santa Anna. The legislature of Coahuila and Texas was dispersed by the military; and, at last, the whole republic, save the pertinacious North Americans, yielded to the armed power of the resolute oppressor.

The alarmed settlers gathered together as quickly as they could and resolved to stand by their federative rights under the charter whose guaranties allured them into Mexico. Meetings were held in all the settlements, and a union was formed by means of correspondence. Arms were next resorted to and the Texans were victorious at Gonzales, Goliad, Bejar, Conception, Lepantitlan, San Patricio and San Antonio. In November they met in consultation, and in an able, resolute and dignified paper, declared that they had only taken up arms in defence of the constitution of 1824; that their object was to continue loyal to the confederacy if laws were made for the guardianship of their political rights, and that they offered their lives and arms in aid of other members of the republic who would rightfully rise against the military despotism.

But the other states, in which there was no infusion of North Americans or Europeans, refused to second this hardy handful of pioneers. Mexico will not do justice, in any of her commentaries on the Texan war, to the motives of the colonists. Charging them with an original and long meditated design to rob the republic of one of its most valuable provinces, she forgets entirely or glosses over, the military acts of Santa Anna's invading army, in March, 1836, at the Alamo and Goliad, which converted resistance into revenge. After those disgraceful scenes of carnage peace was no longer possible. Santa Anna imagined, no doubt, that he would terrify the settlers into submission if he could not drive them from the soil. But he mistook both their fortitude and their force; and, after the fierce encounter at San Jacinto, on the 21st of April, 1836, with Houston and his army, the power of Mexico over the insurgent state was effectually and forever broken.

After Santa Anna had been taken prisoner by the Texans, in this fatal encounter, and was released and sent home through the United States in order to fulfil his promise to secure the recognition of Texan independence, the colonists diligently began the work of creating for themselves a distinct nationality, for they failed in all their early attempts to incorporate themselves with the United States during the administrations of Jackson and Van Buren. These presidents were scrupulous and faithful guardians of national honor, while they respected the Mexican right of reconquest. Their natural sympathies were of course yielded to Texas, but their executive duties, the faith of treaties, and the sanctions of international law forbade their acceding to the proposed union. Texas, accordingly, established a national government, elected her officers, regulated her trade, formed her army and navy, maintained her frontier secure from assault, and was recognized as, de facto, an independent sovereignty by the United States, England, France and Belgium. But these efforts of the infant republic did not end in mere preparations for a separate political existence and future commercial wealth. The rich soil of the lowlands along the numerous rivers that veined the whole region soon attracted large accessions of immigrants, and the trade of Texas began to assume significance in the markets of the world.

Meanwhile Mexico busied herself, at home, in revolutions, or in gathering funds and creating armies, destined, as the authorities professed, to reconquer the lost province. Yet all these military and financial efforts were never rendered available in the field, and, in reality, no adequate force ever marched towards the frontier. The men and money raised through the services and contributions of credulous citizens were actually designed to figure in the domestic drama of political power in the capital. No hostilities, of any significance, occurred between the revolutionists and the Mexicans after 1836, for we cannot regard the Texan expedition to Santa Fé, or the Mexican assault upon the town of Mier as belligerant acts deserving consideration as grave efforts made to assert or secure national rights.

Such was the condition of things from 1836 until 1844, during the whole of which period Texas exhibited to the world a far better aspect of well regulated sovereignty than Mexico herself. On the 12th of April of that year, more than seven years after Texas had established her independence, a treaty was concluded by President Tyler with the representatives of Texas for the annexation of that republic to the United States. In March, 1845, Congress passed a joint resolution annexing Texas to the union upon certain reasonable conditions, which were acceded to by that nation, whose convention erected a suitable state constitution, with which it became finally a member of our confederacy. In the meantime, the envoys of France and England, had opened negotiations for the recognition of Texan independence, which terminated successfully; but when they announced their triumph, on the 20th of May, 1845, Texas was already annexed conditionally to the United States by the act of congress.

The joint resolution of annexation, passed by our congress, was protested against by General Almonte, the Mexican minister at that period in Washington, as an act of aggression "the most unjust which can be found in the annals of modern history" and designed to despoil a friendly nation of a considerable portion of her territory. He announced, in consequence, the termination of his mission, and demanded his passports to leave the country. In Mexico, soon after, a bitter and badly conducted correspondence took place between the minister of foreign affairs and Mr. Shannon, our envoy. And thus, within a brief period, these two nations found themselves unrepresented in each other's capital and on the eve of a serious dispute.

But the government of the United States,—still sincerely anxious to preserve peace, or at least, willing to try every effort to soothe the irritated Mexicans and keep the discussion in the cabinet rather than transfer it to the battle field,—determined to use the kindly efforts of our consul, Mr. Black, who still remained in the capital, to seek an opportunity for the renewal of friendly intercourse. This officer was accordingly directed to visit the minister of foreign affairs and ascertain from the Mexican government whether it would receive an envoy from the United States, invested with full power to adjust all the questions in dispute between the two governments. The invitation was received with apparent good will, and in October, 1845, the Mexican government agreed to receive one, commissioned with full powers to settle the dispute in a peaceful, reasonable and honorable manner.

*****

As soon as this intelligence reached the United States, Mr. John Slidell was dispatched as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary on the supposed mission of peace; but when he reached Vera Cruz in November, he found the aspect of affairs changed. The government of Herrera, with which Mr. Black's arrangement had been made, was tottering. General Paredes, a leader popular with the people and the army, availing himself of the general animosity against Texas, and the alleged desire of Herrera's cabinet to make peace with the United States, had determined to overthrow the constitutional government. There is scarcely a doubt that Herrera and his ministers were originally sincere in their desire to settle the international difficulty, and to maintain the spirit of the contract they had made. But the internal danger, with which they were menaced by the army and its daring demagogue, induced them to prevaricate as soon as Mr. Slidell presented his credentials for reception. All their pretexts were, in reality, frivolous, when we consider the serious results which were to flow from their enunciation. The principal argument against the reception of our minister was, that his commission constituted him a regular envoy, and that, he was not confined to the discussion of the Texan question alone. Such a mission, the authorities alleged, placed the countries at once, diplomatically, upon an equal and ordinary footing of peace, and their objection therefore, if it had any force, at all, was to the fact, that we exhibited through the credentials of our envoy, the strongest evidence that one nation can give to another of perfect amity! We had, in truth, no questions in dispute between us, except boundary and indemnity;—for Texas, as a sovereignty acknowledged by the acts, not only of the United States and of European powers, but in consequence of her own maintenance of perfect nationality and independence, had a right to annex herself to the United States. The consent of Mexico to acknowledge her independence in 1845, under certain conditions, effectually proved this fact beyond dispute.

Whilst the correspondence between Slidell and the Mexican ministry was going on, Paredes continued his hostile demonstrations, and, on the 30th of December, 1845, president Herrera, who anxiously desired to avoid bloodshed, resigned the executive chair to him without a struggle. Feeble as was the hope of success with the new authorities, our government, still anxious to close the contest peacefully, directed Mr. Slidell to renew the proposal for his reception to Paredes. These instructions he executed on the first of March, 1846, but his request was refused by the Mexican minister of foreign affairs, on the twelfth of that month, and our minister was forthwith obliged to return from his unsuccessful mission.

All the public documents, and addresses of Paredes, made during the early movements of his revolution and administration, breathe the deadliest animosity to our union. He invokes the god of battles, and calls the world to witness the valor of Mexican arms. The revolution which raised him to power, was declared to be sanctioned by the people, who were impatient for another war, in which they might avenge the aggressions of a government that sought to prostrate them. Preparations were made for a Texan campaign. Loans were raised, and large bodies of troops were moved to the frontiers. General Arista, suspected of kindness to our country, was superceded in the north by General Ampudia, who arrived at Matamoros on the 11th of April, 1846, with two hundred cavalry, followed by two thousand men to be united with the large body of soldiery already in Matamoros.

These military demonstrations denoted the unquestionable design and will of Paredes, who had acquired supreme power by a revolution founded upon the solemn pledge of hostility against the United States and reconquest of Texas. His military life in Mexico made him a despot. He had no confidence in the ability of his fellow-citizens to govern themselves. He believed republicanism an Utopian dream of his visionary countrymen. Free discussion through the press was prohibited, during his short rule, and his satellites advocated the establishment of a throne to be occupied by an European prince. These circumstances induced our government to believe, that any counter-revolution in Mexico, which might destroy the ambitious and unpatriotic projects of Paredes, would promote the cause of peace, and accordingly, it saw with pleasure, the prospect of a new outbreak which might result in the downfall, and total destruction of the greatest enemy we possessed on the soil of our sister republic.

CHAPTER VIII.
1846.

Whilst Slidell was negotiating, and, in consequence of the anticipated failure of his effort to be received,—as was clearly indicated by the conduct of the Mexican government upon his arrival in the capital,—General Taylor, who had been stationed at Corpus Christi, in Texas, since the fall of 1845, with a body of regular troops, was directed, on the 13th of January, 1846, to move his men to the mouth of the Rio Grande. He, accordingly left his encampment on the 8th of March, and, on the 25th, reached Point Isabel, having encountered no serious opposition on the way. The march to the Rio Grande has been made the subject of complaint by politicians in Mexico and the United States, who believed that the territory lying between that river and the Nueces, was not the property of Texas. But inasmuch as Mexico still continued vehemently to assert her political right over the whole of Texas, the occupation of any part of its soil, south of the Sabine, by American troops, was in that aspect of the case, quite as much an infringement of Mexican sovereignty, as the march of our troops, from the Nueces to the Rio Grande.

As it is important that the reader should understand the original title to Louisiana, under which the boundary of the Rio Grande, was claimed, first of all for that state, and, subsequently, for Texas, we shall relate its history in a summary manner.

Louisiana had been the property of France, and by a secret contract between that country and Spain in 1762, as well as by treaties between France, Spain, and England, in the following year, the French dominion was extinguished on the continent of America. In consequence of the treaty between this country and England in 1783, the Mississippi became the western boundary of the United States, from its source to the thirty-first degree of north latitude, and thence, on the same parallel, to the St. Mary's. France, it will be remembered, had always claimed dominion in Louisiana to the Rio Bravo del Norte, or Rio Grande; by virtue:—

1st. Of the discovery of the Mississippi from near its source to the ocean.

2d. Of the possession taken, and establishment made by La Salle, at the bay of Saint Bernard, west of the river Trinity and Colorado, by authority of Louis XIV. in 1635—notwithstanding the subsequent destruction of the colony.

3d. Of the charter of Louis XIV. to Crozat in 1712.

4th. Of the historical authority of Du Pratz, Champigny and the Count de Vergennes.

5th. Of the authority of De Lisle's map, and of the map published in 1762, by Don Thomas Lopez, Geographer to the king of Spain, as well as of various other maps, atlases, and geographical authorities.

By an article of the secret treaty of San Ildefonso in October, 1800, Spain retroceded Louisiana to France, but this treaty was not promulgated until the beginning of 1802. The paragraph of cession is as follows: "His Catholic majesty engages to retrocede to the French republic, six months after the full and entire execution of the conditions and stipulations above recited, relative to his royal highness the Duke of Parma, the colony and province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it already has in the hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed it, and, such as it should be, after the treaties passed subsequently between Spain and other powers." In 1803, Bonaparte, the first consul of the French republic, ceded Louisiana to the United States, as fully, and in the same manner, as it had been retroceded to France by Spain, under the treaty of San Ildefonso; and, by virtue of this grant, Messrs. Madison, Monroe, Adams, Clay, Van Buren, Jackson, and Polk, contended that the original limit of the new state had been the Rio Grande. However, by the third article of our treaty with Spain, in 1819, all our pretensions to extend the territory of Louisiana towards Mexico on the Rio Grande, were abandoned by adopting the river Sabine as our boundary in that quarter.

The Mexican authorities upon this subject are either silent or doubtful. No light is to be gathered from the geographical researches of Humboldt, whose elucidations of New Spain are in many respects the fullest and most satisfactory. In the year 1835, Stephen Austin published a map of Texas, representing the Nueces as the western confine,—and in 1836, General Almonte the former minister from Mexico to the United States, published a memoir upon Texas in which, whilst describing the Texan department of Bejar, he says—"That notwithstanding it has been hitherto believed that the Rio de las Nueces is the dividing line of Coahuila and Texas, inasmuch as it is always thus represented on maps, I am informed by the government of the state, that geographers have been in error upon this subject; and that the true line should commence at the mouth of the river Aransaso, and follow it to its source; thence, it should continue by a straight line until it strikes the junction of the rivers Medina and San Antonio, and then, pursuing the east bank of the Medina to its head waters, it should terminate on the confines of Chihuahua." [67]

The true origin of the Mexican war was not this march of Taylor and his troops from the Nueces to the Rio Grande, through the debatable land. The American and Mexican troops were brought face to face by the act, and hostilities were the natural result after the exciting annoyances upon the part of the Mexican government which followed the union of Texas with our confederacy. Besides this, General Paredes, the usurping president, had already declared in Mexico, on the 18th of April, 1846, in a letter addressed to the commanding officer on the northern frontier, that he supposed him at the head of a valiant army on the theatre of action;—and that it was indispensable to commence hostilities, the Mexicans themselves taking the initiative!

We believe that our nation and its rulers earnestly desired honorable peace, though they did not shun the alternative of war. It was impossible to permit a conterminous neighbor who owed us large sums of money, and was hostile to the newly adopted state, to select unopposed her mode and moment of attack. Mexico would neither resign her pretensions upon Texas, negotiate, receive our minister, nor remain at peace. She would neither declare war, nor cultivate friendship, and the result was, that when the armies approached each other, but little time was lost in resorting to the cannon and the sword.

As soon as General Taylor reached the Rio Grande he left a command at the mouth of the river, and taking post opposite Matamoros erected a fort, the guns of which bore directly upon the city. The Mexicans, whose artillery might have been brought to play upon the works, from the opposite side of the river, made no hostile demonstration against the left bank for some time, nor did they interrupt the construction of the fort. Reinforcements, however, were constantly arriving in the city. Ampudia and Arista were there. Interviews were held between the Mexican authorities and our officers, in which the latter were ordered to retire from the soil it was alleged they were usurping. But as this was a diplomatic, and not a military question, General Taylor resolved to continue in position, though his forces were perhaps inadequate to contend with the augmenting numbers of the foe. He examined the country thoroughly by his scouting parties and pushed his reconnoissances, on the left bank, from Point Isabel to some distance beyond his encampment opposite Matamoros. Whilst engaged in this service, some of his officers and men were captured or killed by the ranchero cavalry of the enemy; and, on the 24th of April, Captain Thornton who had been sent to observe the country above the encampment with sixty-three dragoons, fell into an ambuscade, out of which they endeavored to cut their way, but were forced to surrender with a loss of sixteen killed and wounded. This was the first blood spilled in actual conflict.

Meanwhile, in the United States, the news of Taylor's supposed danger, greatly exaggerated by rumor, was spread far and wide. An actual war had, perhaps, not been seriously apprehended. Taylor had been expressly commanded to refrain from aggression. It was supposed that the mere presence of our troops on the frontier would preserve Texas from invasion, and that negotiations would ultimately terminate the dispute. This is the only ground upon which we can reasonably account for the apparent carelessness of our government in not placing a force upon the Rio Grande, adequate to encounter all the opposing array. Congress was in session when the news reached Washington. The president immediately announced the fact, and, on the 13th of May, 1846, ten millions of dollars were appropriated to carry on the war, and fifty thousand volunteers were ordered to be raised. An "Army of the West" was directed to be formed under the command of Kearney, at fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri, which was to cross the country to the Pacific, after capturing New Mexico. An "Army of the Centre," under General Wool, was to assemble at San Antonio de Bejar whence it was to march upon Coahuila and Chihuahua, and, whilst the heart and the west of Mexico were penetrated by these officers, it was designed that Taylor should make war on the northern and eastern states of the Mexican republic. In addition to these orders to the army, the naval forces, under Commodores Stockton and Sloat in the Pacific, and Commodore Conner, in the Gulf of Mexico, were commanded to co-operate with our land forces, to harass the enemy, and to aid, with all their power, in the subjugation and capture of Mexican property and territory.

Immediately after Thornton's surrender, General Taylor, availing himself of authority with which he had been invested to call upon the governors of Louisiana and Texas for military aid, demanded four regiments of volunteers from each state, for the country in the neighborhood of the Rio Grande was alive with belligerant Mexicans. He then visited the fortifications opposite Matamoros, and finding the garrison but scantly supplied with provisions, hastened back to Point Isabel with a formidable escort, and obtaining the requisite rations, commenced his march back to Matamoros and the fort on the 7th of May. But, in the interval, General Arista, had crossed the Rio Grande with his forces, and on the 8th, our General encountered him, drawn up in battle array at Palo Alto and ready to dispute his passage along the road. A sharp engagement ensued between the two armies from two o'clock in the afternoon until nearly dark, when the Mexicans withdrew from the action for the night. Our total force in this affair, according to official reports, was two thousand two hundred and eighty-eight, while that of Mexico, according to the admission of the officers, amounted to six thousand regulars with a large and probably undisciplined force drawn, at random, from the country.

The night of the 8th was passed with some anxiety in the American camp, for the fierce conflict of the day induced many prudent officers to believe it best either to return to Point Isabel or await reinforcements before again giving battle to the enemy. General Taylor heard and weighed the opinions of his most reliable officers, but, after due reflection, determined to advance. The condition of the fort opposite Matamoros demanded his urgent aid. The moral effect of a retreat would be great, at the commencement of a war, both on Mexico and our own troops; and, moreover, he had perfect confidence in the disciplined regulars who sustained so nobly the brunt of the first battle.

Accordingly the troops were advanced early on the 9th, for they found, at day dawn, that the Mexicans had abandoned Palo Alto for a stronger position nearer the centre of action and interest at Matamoros. After advancing cautiously, in readiness for immediate battle, our men came up with the Mexicans, in the Resaca de la Palma, or as it is properly called La Resaca del Guerrero,—the "Ravine of the Warrior," which afforded them a natural defence against our approach along the road. The ravine, curved across the highway and was flanked by masses of prickly plants aloes, and undergrowth, matted into impenetrable thickets, known in Mexico as chapparal. The action was begun by the infantry in skirmishes with the foe, and after the centre of the position on the road had been severely harassed and damaged by our flying artillery, a gallant charge of the dragoons broke the Mexican lines and opened a pathway to Matamoros. The engagement lasted a short time after this combined movement of artillery and cavalry, but, before night fall the enemy was in full flight to the river and our garrison at the fort joyously relieved. In the interval, this position had been bombarded and cannonaded by the Mexicans from the opposite side of the river, and its commanding officer slain. In memory of his valiant defence, the place has been honored with the name of Fort Brown.

After General Taylor had occupied Matamoros on the 18th of May,—and he was only prevented from capturing it and all the Mexican forces and ammunition on the night of the 9th by the want of a ponton train, which he had vainly demanded,—he established his base line for future operations in the interior, along the Rio Grande, extending several hundred miles near that stream. His task of organizing, accepting, or rejecting the multitudes of recruits who flocked to his standard, was not only oppressive but difficult, for he found it hard to disappoint the patriotic fervor of hundreds who were anxious to engage in the war. The Quatermaster's department, too, was one of incessant toil and anxiety; because, called unexpectedly and for the first time into active service in the field, it was comparatively unprepared to answer the multitude of requisitions that were daily made upon it by the government, the general officers, and the recruits. The whole material of a campaign was to be rapidly created. Money was to be raised; steamers bought; ships chartered; wagons built and transported; levies brought to the field of action; munitions of war and provisions distributed over the whole vast territory which it was designed to occupy! Whilst these things were going on, the country, at home, was ripe, and most eager for action.

Nor was our government inattentive to the internal politics of Mexico. It perceived at once that there was no hope of effecting a peace with the administration of Paredes, whose bitter hostility was of course, not mitigated by the first successes of our arms. Santa Anna, it will be recollected had left Mexico after the amnesty in 1845, and it was known there was open hostility between him and Paredes who had contributed so greatly to his downfall. Information was, moreover, received from reliable sources in Washington, that a desire prevailed in the republic to recall the banished chief and to seat him once more in the presidential chair; and, at the same time, there was cause to believe that if he again obtained supreme power he would not be averse to accommodate matters upon a satisfactory basis between the countries. Orders were, accordingly issued to Commodore Conner, who commanded the home squadron in the gulf, to offer no impediment if Santa Anna approached the coast with a design of entering Mexico. The exiled president was duly apprised of these facts, and when the revolution actually occurred in his favor in the following summer and his rival fell from power, he availed himself of the order to pass the lines of the blockading squadron at Vera Cruz.

After General Taylor had completely made his preparations to advance into the interior along his base on the Rio Grande, he moved forward gradually, capturing and garrisoning all the important posts along the river. At length the main body of the army, under Worth and Taylor reached the neighborhood of Monterey, the capital of the state of New Leon, situated at the foot of the Sierra Madre on a plain, but in a position which would enable it to make a stout resistance, especially as it was understood that the Mexican army had gathered itself up in this stronghold, which was the key of the northern provinces and on the main highway to the interior, in order to strike a death blow at the invaders. On the 5th of September, the divisions concentrated at Marin, and on the 9th they advanced to the Walnut Springs, which afterwards became, for so long a period, the headquarters of the gallant "Army of Occupation."

Reconnoissances of the adjacent country were immediately made and it was resolved to attack the city by a bold movement towards its southern side that would cut off its communications through the gap in the mountains by which the road led to Saltillo. Accordingly General Worth was detached on this difficult but honorable service with a strong and reliable corps, and, after excessive toil, hard fighting and wonderful endurance upon the part of our men, the desired object was successfully gained. An unfinished and fortified edifice called the Bishop's Palace, on the summit of a steep hill was stormed and taken, and thus an important vantage ground, commanding the city by a plunging shot, was secured.

Meanwhile, General Taylor seeking to withdraw or distract the enemy from his designs on the southern and western sides of the city, made a movement under General Butler, of Kentucky, upon its northern front. What was probably designed only as a feint soon became a severe and deadly conflict. Our men,—especially the volunteers,—eager to flesh their swords in the first conflict with which the war indulged them, rushed into the city, which seems to have been amply prepared, in that quarter, with barricades, forts, loop-holes, and every means of defence suitable for the narrow streets and flat roofed and parapeted houses of a Spanish town. After the first deadly onset there was, of course, no intention or desire to abandon the conflict, fatal as its prosecution might ultimately become. On they fought from street to street, and house to house, and yard to yard, until night closed over the dying and the dead. On the second day a different system of approach was adopted. Instead of risking life in the street which was raked from end to end by artillery, or rendered untenable by the hidden marksmen who shot our men from behind the walls of the house tops, our forces were thrown into the dwellings, and breaking onward through walls and enclosures, gradually mined their way towards the plaza or great square of Monterey.

Thus, both divisions under the eyes of Worth, Butler and Taylor, successfully performed their assigned tasks, until it became evident to the Mexicans that their town must fall, and, that if finally taken by the sword, it would be given up to utter destruction and pillage. A capitulation was therefore proposed by Ampudia who stipulated for the withdrawal of his forces and an armistice. Our force was in no condition to seize, hold, and support a large body of prisoners of war, nor was it prepared immediately to follow up the victory by penetrating the interior. General Taylor, who was resolved not to shed a single drop of needless blood in the campaign, granted the terms; and, thus, this strong position, garrisoned by nearly ten thousand troops, sustained by more than forty pieces of artillery, yielded to our army of seven thousand, unsupported by a battering train and winning the day by hard fighting alone. The attack began on the 21st of September, continued during the two following days, and the garrison capitulated on the 24th. This capitulation and armistice were assented to by our commander after mature consultation and approval of his principal officers. The Mexicans informed him, that Paredes had been deposed,—that Santa Anna was in power, and that peace would soon be made; but the authorities, at home, eager for fresh victories, or pandering to public and political taste, did not approve and confirm an act, for which General Taylor has, nevertheless received, as he truly merits, the just applause of impartial history.

CHAPTER IX.
1846–1847.

General Wool, who had been for a long period inspector general of the United States army, was entrusted with the difficult task of examining the recruits in the west, and set forth on his journey after receiving his orders on the 29th of May, 1846. He traversed the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi, and, in somewhat less than two months, had journeyed three thousand miles and mustered twelve thousand men into service. This expedition of a hardy soldier exhibits, at once, the powers of a competent American officer, and the facility with which an efficient corps d'armée, may at any urgent moment, be raised in our country.

Nearly nine thousand of these recruits were sent to Taylor on the Rio Grande, while those who were destined for the "Army of the Centre," rendezvoused at Bejar, in Texas. At this place their commander Wool joined them, and commenced the rigid system of discipline, under accomplished officers, which made his division a model in the army. He marched from Bejar with five hundred regulars and two thousand four hundred and fifty volunteers, on the 20th of September, and passed onwards through Presidio, Nava, and across the Sierra of San José and Santa Rosa, and the rivers Alamos, Sabine, and del Norte, until he reached Monclova. He had been directed to advance to Chihuahua, but as this place was in a great measure controlled by the states of New Leon and Coahuila which were already in our possession, he desisted from pursuing his march thither, and, after communicating with General Taylor and learning the fall of Monterey, he pushed on to the fertile region of Parras and thence to the headquarters of General Taylor, in the month of December, as soon as he was apprised of the danger which menaced him at that period.

We have already said that it was part of our government's original plan to reduce New Mexico and California,—a task which was imposed upon Colonel Kearney, a hardy frontier fighter, long used to Indian character and Indian warfare—who, upon being honored with the command was raised to the rank of Brigadier General. This officer moved from Fort Leavenworth on the 30th of June, towards Santa Fé, the capital of New Mexico, with an army of sixteen hundred men, and after an unresisted march of eight hundred and seventy-three miles, he reached his destination on the 18th of August. Possession of the place was given without a blow, and it is probable that the discreet Armijo yielded to the advice of American counsellors in his capital, in surrendering without bloodshed to our forces. Kearney had been authorized to organize and muster into service a battalion of emigrants to Oregon and California, who eagerly availed themselves of this favorable military opportunity to reach their distant abodes on the shores of the Pacific. After organizing the new government of Santa Fé, forming a new code of organic laws, and satisfying himself of the stability of affairs in that quarter, Kearney departed on his mission to California. But he had not gone far when he was met by an express with information of the fall of that portion of Mexico, and immediately sent back the main body of his men, continuing his route through the wilderness with the escort of one hundred dragoons alone. In September of this year, a regiment of New York volunteer infantry had been despatched thither also, by sea, under the command of Colonel Stevenson.

There is evidence in existence that shortly before the commencement of this war, it had been contemplated to place a large portion of the most valuable districts of California, indirectly, under British protection, by grants to an Irish Catholic clergyman named Macnamara, who projected a colony of his countrymen in those regions. He excited the Mexicans to accede to his proposal by appeals to their religious prejudices against the Protestants of the north, who, he alleged, would seize the jewel unless California was settled by his countrymen whose creed would naturally unite them with the people and institutions of Mexico. "Within a year, he declared, California would become a part of the American nation; and, inundated by cruel invaders, their Catholic institutions would be the prey of Methodist wolves." The government of Mexico granted three thousand square leagues in the rich valley of San Joaquin, embracing San Francisco, Monterey, and Santa Barbara, to this behest of the foreign priest; but his patent could not be perfected until the governor of California sanctioned his permanent tenure of the land.

In November, 1845, Lieutenant Gillespie was despatched from Washington with verbal instructions to Captain Frémont who had been pursuing his scientific examinations of California, and had been inhospitably ordered by the authorities to quit the country. Early in March of 1846, the bold explorer was within the boundaries of Oregon, where he was found, in the following May, by Gillespie, who delivered him his verbal orders and a letter of credence from the Secretary of State.

In consequence of this message, Frémont abandoned his camp in the forest, surrounded by hostile Indians, and moved south to the valley of the Sacramento, where he was at once hailed by the American settlers, who, together with the foreigners generally, had received orders from the Mexican General Castro, to leave California. Frémont's small band immediately formed the nucleus of a revolutionary troop, which gathered in numbers as it advanced south, and abstaining guardedly from acts which might disgust the people, they injured no individuals and violated no private property. On the 14th of June, Sonoma was taken possession of, and was garrisoned by a small force, under Mr. Ide, who issued a proclamation, inviting all to come to his camp and aid in forming a republican government. Coure and Fowler, two young Americans, were murdered about this period in the neighborhood, and others were taken prisoners under Padilla. But the belligerants were pursued to San Raphael by Captain Ford, where they were conquered by the Americans; and, on the 25th of June, Frémont, who heard that Castro was approaching with two hundred men, joined the camp at Sonoma. Thus far, every thing had been conducted with justice and liberality by our men. They studiously avoided disorderly conduct or captures, and invariably promised payment for the supplies that were taken for the support of the troopers. The Californians were in reality gratified by the prospect of American success in their territory, for they believed that it would secure a stable and progressive government, under which, that beautiful region would be gradually developed.

On the 5th of July, the Californian Americans declared their independence, and organizing a battalion, of which Frémont was the chief, they raised the standard of the Bear and Star.