TIlE WAVIR VTIT1I B[EXICO REVIEWED.








THE
WAR WITH- MEXICO
REVIEWED.
BY
ABIEL ABBOT LIVERMIORE.
SEVENTHI THOUSAND.
B 0 S,T ON:
PUBLISHED BY THIE AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETY.
1850.




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by
JOIIN FIELD, TREAS. AM. PEACE Soc.,
In the Clerk's Office of the Distrlict Court of M1assachusetts.
PRINTED ]BY
AINEA FOROnIS, 37 coRNIIrILL.




NOTE.
The Committe of Award, consisting of the Hon. SImroN GREENLEAF, LL. D., the Rev. WILLIAM JENKS, D. D., and the Rev. BARON
STOW, D. D., adjudged to the following work the Premium of FIVE
HUNDRED DOLLARS offered by the American Peace Society for "the
best Review of the Mexican War on the principles of Christianity,
and an enlightened statesmanship."
GEORGE C. BECKWITH,
Cor. Sec. Am. Peace Society.,.*








P  E F A C E.
THE delay in publishing this Review demands a word
of apology or explanation. The author was absent in
the West Indies for the benefit of his health when the
award was made by the judges, and he did not return
home until June.  Since that date the leisure which
could be snatched friom numerous professional duties
has been devoted to a careful revision of the work, and
the incorporating of some new materials, procured at
the seat of government by personal research and the
kindness of friends.  For a session of Congress has
intervened since the essay was written, which has confirmed and developed some important points.  Hence
the attempt is made to bring its conclusions down to
the present time.
The conflict with Mexico was short, and, measured on
the scale of European warfare, comparatively insignificant, but in its lessons it is instructive, and in its effects
on a forming national character powerful.  To draw
good out of its evils, is the aim of the American Peace
Society, and of the work which now goes forth under




V111                   PREFACE.
its auspices.  War, the great social wrong, like idolatry,
the great spiritual injury, must fall in due time before
the progress of the Gospel. To doubt this result, seems
to presume that the Prince of Peace has come in vain,
and that finite creatures can eventualy frustrate the
plan of the Infinite Creator.  Meanwhile, for the justification of the humble labors of any individual or society
in so stupendous a regeneration, it is enough to say, that
God works by means and by men. When was the
lowest whisper of prayer unheeded, or the faintest effort
unblessed, that ran parallel with his benevolent purposes
and his eternal laws?
The highest ambition of the writer will be amply
satisfied, if these pages shall contribute to swell in a
small degree the rising tide of public opinion in favor
of Peace, and - awaken a deeper abhorrence for the
bloody and needless arbitration of the sword.
A. A. LIVERMIORE.
KEENE, N. H., September 11, 1849.




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X                      CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII.
THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.                     66-81
CHAPTER VIII.
THE EXPENDITURES OF THIE WAR.....82 -102
CHAPTER IX.
THE DESTRUCTION OF HUMAN LIFE.... 102 -114
CHAPTER X.
THE IHOSPITAL AND TIIE BATTLE-FIELD.... 115-122
CHAPTER XI.
LEGITIMATE BARBARITIES OF THE WAR... 122- 139
CIHAPTER XII.
ILLEGITIMATE BARIBARITIES.1..                  39 -156
CIAPTER XIII.
MILITARY EXECUTIONS....... 156-161
CHAPTER XIV.
ILLEGALITIES..          162-167
CHAPTER XV.
POLITICAL EVILS OF THE WAR AT HOME.           168-179
CHAPTER XVI.
POLITICAL EVILS OF THE WVAR ARLiOAD... 179-187




CONTENTS.                      Xi
CHAPTER XVII.
THE NEW TERRITORIES.187-199
CHAPTER XVII.
NEW SCIIEMES OF INVASION AND ANNEXATION.. 200 - 203
CHAPTER XIX.
MILITARY GLORY.204 - 208
CIHAPTER XX.
THE TRUE DESTINY OF THE UNITED STATES.. 208-212
CHAPTER XXL
THE STATESMAN'S RETRIBUTION.213-219
CHAPTER XXIL.
WAR MAXIMS.. 19 - 227
CHAPTER XXIL
MARTIAL LITERATURE.227.  - 230
CIHAPTER XXIV.
WAR AND THE FIRE-SIDE...             231- 240
CIHAPTER XXV.
THE VICES OF THE CAMP...... 240 - 245
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE WAR-SPIRIT AND THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST.         245- 254




xii                     CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED...           255-258
CIIHAPTER X.XVIII.
LESSONS OF THE WAR.                               259 - 269
CIHAPTER XXIX.
SUBSTITUTES FOR RAR.                              269 - 277
CIIAPTER XsX.
PACIFICATION OF TIlE WORLD.                       277-281
CILI'PTER XXXI.
CONCLUSION.                                      281 - 287
APPIEND IX
TIHE IIISTORICAL EVENTS OF TIHE WAPr..287 seq.




THE WAR WITH MEXICO REVIEWED.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
" The principles of true politics are merely those of morality enlarged." - BURKiE.
HISTORY has assumed, under the light of the Gospel, a
new value. it is no longer regarded as owing its chief interest to its royal genealogies, or its bloody record of battles.
It is beginning to be understood, that the Providence of God
is manifested through the rise and fall of nations. The actors in the scenes of the past have been the agents of a higher power than they themselves recognized. "The hoary
registers of time" are the map of the grand march of humanity. To draw the moral of history, therefore, becomes of
equal importance to the office of narrating its events. If it
be "philosophy teaching by example," it becomes a question
of the first importance to learn what the examples teach;
what warning of evil, what encouragement to hope; what
lessons for rulers, or for the people. And since the light has
shone down out of Heaven upon the' dark confusion of lu.1




2                   INTRODUCTION.
man affairs, we can discern a meaning in the most perplexing passages, and trace a guiding clew through labyrinths
more intricate than that of' Crete.
In harmony with the comprehensive use, thus briefly indicated, of civil and political history, the American Peace
Society wished to subject the late war between the United
States and Mexico to the crucible of a philosophlical and
Christian analysis. The friends of peace have often drawn
their arguments and illustrations in vindication of their holy
cause from Herodotus and Thucydides, or Hume and Robertson; but unhappily they have now been provided with a
fearful strife nearer home; whose fields of blood are hardly
yet dry, and whose wounds are still ghastly, fiom which they
may teach the evils of international war. And now the thunder of artillery and the shrieks of the wounded having died
away, they wish to repeat again in mournful recitative,
though it be but with a jarring human tongue, the angel's
sweet hymn, "on earth peace, good will toward men."
The language of the schedule, issued by the Society in
February, 1847, was as follows: "The Review should be
written without reference to political parties, and present
such a view of the subject as will commend itself; when the
hour of sober and candid reflection shall come, to the good
sense of' fair-minded men in every party and in all sections
of the country. The war, in its origin, its progress, and the
whole sweep of its evils to all concerned, should be reviewed
on the principles of Christianity and of enlightened statesmanship; showing especially its waste of treasure and human life; — its influence upon the interests of morality and
religion, - its inconsistency with the genius of our republican institutions, as well as with the precepts of our religion, and the spirit of the age,- its bearings immediate and
remote, on free, popular governments here and through the
world;- how its evils might have been avoided iwith better results to both parties -  and  hat means may and should be




INTRODUCTION.                     3
adopted by nations to prevent similar evils in future. Our sole
aim is to promote the cause of permanent peace, by turning
this war illto effectual warnings against resorts to the sword
hereafter."
Here, then, is a distinct purpose, avowed at the outset, to
use the Mexican WTar as an argument for the cause of peace;
to "beat its swords into ploughshares, and its spears into
pruning hooks," for the culture of humane and Christian sentiments.  Without following the above-mentioned order of
topics, with rigid accuracy, it will then be the aim, both of
our logic and our rhetoric, in this Essay, to draw the moral
of this event in the nineteenth century, and to employ it as
a powerful instrument, furnished by our opponents themselves, - if peace have any opponents, - to scatter the illusions of military glory, and to reveal the incalculable evils of
international war.  We have great advantages for the accomplishment of' this purpose, in the very recent occurrence
of the contest; the voluminous public documents, correspondence, and speeches; the numerous memoirs, sketches, and
letters, written by eye and ear-witnesses andactors in the
field and the camp; and in able and eloquent essays, for and
against the war, Blwhich hlave been laid before the public during its progress. M3uch of the history of the blood-stained
past has been Awritten and sung by the advocates of war, the
bards and historians of the world's boisterous childhood, who
have showered the richest gifts of their genius upon those
fierce heroes, who were ready to
"Wd1(le thrull:l  slaughter to a throne,
Arll sl:hut the:iates of mnercy on mankind."
Brut the time has now come to examine the subject of war in
1al its aspects and all its issues; to decompose its glittering
ftbric of glory into its constituent elements; and while it is
" fiesh and gory," to arrest the fugitive attention of the publi, and confine it to the solemn lessons of Providence and




4                  INTRODUCTION.
Revelation. And he, whose pen is moved by pulses from a
Christiarsheart, will not fear to question any customs, usages,
or laws pertaining to this relic of barbarism, according to the
plain and positive precepts of Christ, and the whole spirit
of his religion.  Such is the subject, plan and promise
of the following pages; the fulfilment must rest with Him,
who deigns to be a co-worker with the humblest of his creatures for good.
In the investigation of this war, we would rise, as suggested in the circular of the Society, far above the tempestuous
region of partisan politics, and the extravagances of zealous,
but injudicious reformers. We would speak, as men bound
by the laws of natural justice, and as Christians bowing to
the benevolent precepts of Christ, as the ultimate authority
in every question of public, not less than of private morals.
One of the vices of the times is headlong ultraism;- the ultraism of conservatism, as well as that of radicalism. Impatient of halves, men "go the whole," to use the national
phrase. It is not a day of qualification, or moderation. Parties tolerate none in their ranks, that will not ride the pendulum of their peculiar notions to the utmost point of its
swing. The very nature and form of' social progress, developed in our country, predisposes us to this fierce intolerance.
The rush and eagerness of our daily life, the earnest enterprise that is busy all over the land, that plies every tool and
machine, spins along the lines of city intercourse, pours forth
into forests and prairies, skims every river and lake, and careers over every ocean, in the pursuit of wealth, naturally
incline our people to adopt very decided opinions upon every
subject. They act under a momentum  that easily throws
them into extremes. We would guard against this weakness.
We would speak "' the words of truth and soberness." However severe may be our judgment of the late contest between
the United States and Mexico, it shall be a censure within
the bounds of reason and religion, and therefore commending




CIRCUMSTANCES PREDISPOSING TO THE WAR.    5
itself to whatever there may be of reason and religion in
the minds of our readers; and all the more severe because
springing not from wholesale and indiscriminate abuse, but
from the simple and eternal principles of right. It requires
no far-fetched proofs or strained positions; no fanatic appeals or ultra doctrines, to brand the war in question with
an adequate seal of infamy. For its own history is its sufficient exposure. Its origin, causes, purposes, and results
are truth-telling witnesses against it. To be abhorred and
condemned, it needs but to be recorded and reviewed.
CHAPTER II.
CIRCUMSTANCES PREDISPOSING  TO  THE WAR WITH
MEXICO.
"If that the Heavens do not their visible spirits
Send quickly down to tame these vile offences,'T will come.   ~   *   *
Humanity must, perforce, prey on itself,
Like monsters of the deep." - SHAKSPEARE.
No event in history has an independent and solitary existence. All its facts may be said, in one sense, to be the
effect of all that precedes, and the cause of all that follows.
For history is not so much a chain, as a network. Its transactions do not obey a law of simple succession, but of intricate combination. The working out of the great designs of
Providence is furthered by a diversity of agencies, - some
in conflict, and others in alliance.  We can, therefore, underritand historically nothing by itself.  To know  even one
1*




6    CIRCUMISTANCES PREDISPOSING TO THE WAR.
nation truly and thoroughly, we need to know all nations.
Viewed according to this judgment, the history of mankind
is a unity, and its truest designation is universal.
This general principle holds true, in its application to the
important matter under review. To comprehend it aright,
we need to have been diligent students of' the past as well
as the present. It involves, especially, the great questions
of European colonization in America, in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, under the English, or Protestant, and
Continental, or Catholic forms, and their respective issues
down to this moment.
In truth, far back even beyond the third and fourth generation, the causes have been in process to predispose us to
this Mfexican crisis, and, if prudence and wisdom did not
govern both the aggrieved and the aggressor, to plunge us in
a brute strife. This is no sudden leap. This is no mine
sprung without warning. On both sides, the elements have
been silently brewing, through many years, for the issues of
to-day. As the cannons that have mowed down ranks of
living men, and the deadly bombs that have crashed through
homes of affection, have in many cases been lying rusty and
ancient, the relies of days gone by; so have the causes that
set these horrid engines in operation been long accumulating in the arsenal, so to speak, and lying unused, until the
fatal imprudence or passion of one or both parties has summoned them into action.
To specify a leading cause, we would advert to what Sir
Robert Peel has called, in the British Parliament. "a development of military ambition in the United States;" in one
sense, both cause and effect of the war -with Mexico. The
attentive student of history will be at no loss to trace the
origin and growth of this fearful passion.  For the time we
have existed as a people, we have been no sluggards in the
use of the sword. The old French and Indian wars occupied our great grandfathers; the Revolution our grand



CIRCUMSTANCES PREDISPOSING TO THE WAR.   7
fathers; the war of 1812 our fathers; and Creek and Cherokee expatriations, and Black Hawk, Patriot, Semrinole, and
Mormon skirmishes their sons. The martial spirit is always
a tiger, and we have given the tiger too much room and
freedom. In fact, the Temple of Peace has not remained
long shut during our national existence. Though most of
our wars have been small ones, that circumstance has not
prevented their imbuing a large portion of our citizens with
the ambition of arms. It is one of our maxims, that "in
time of peace we should prepare for war."  The whole
population are armed; there is not, probably, a house in the
country, unless it belong to a Quaker or a Non-resistant,
without its sword, pistol, musket, or rifle. The expenses of
our army and navy, even in time of peace, have always exceeded, by many millions, the maximum of the civil list.
Hence there is always existing a large profession of men,
whose seeming interest it is to have their country engaged
in war; for then every expenditure in this direction is enormously increased; active service creates vacancies and accelerates promotions; and the prize money of war is better
than the earnings of industry.
But other causes, besides those above noted, have contributed to awaken in "Young America" the aspiration for
military renown. General literature, whether in the form
of poetry, oratory, or history, and whether imported or
domestic, has always thrown the decisive preponderance of
its influence into the war scale. Republicans have wished
to show that they were equal to the performance of any feat
that king or kaiser ever dared, or that minstrel ever sung.
It has been openly avowed on the floor of Congress, by the
most distinguished men of' the country, that the time had
arrived for us to do "some great thing," to let the Old
World know that we were not the cowards or sluggards
they might otherwise suppose us to be. As if it were not
well known in every land, from north to south, that the




8    CIRCUMSTANCES PREDISPOSING TO THE WAR.
United States was rising to be a leading power in the earth;
as if two wars with the British monarchy, in which we certainly were not worsted, were not sufficient witnesses to our
valor, without seeking a quarrel with a rent and distracted
nation to show our republican manhood; as if the good
opinion of the crumbling, bankrupt, starving, war-taxed, and
groaning kingdoms of Europe were to be purchased at the
fearful price of one drop of human blood unrighteously
shed. In the recent tremendous agitations, that have swept
like a resistless tide over that continent, the example of
repubflican America has been loudly and cheeringly quoted;
— would that we were more worthy of the title of the banner republic! —but what has been quoted for imitation, for
inspiration, for justification, by the masses struggling for
their inalienable rights, has not been our wars, our slaveries, our inconsistencies, but our equal rights, our bread
enough and to spare, our wise institutions, our world-renowned enterprise and industry, and our unrivalled prosperity.
Again; the pride of race has swollen to still greater insolence the pride of country, always quite active enough
for the due observance of the claims of universal brotherhood. The Anglo-Saxons have been apparently persuaded
to think themselves the chosen people, the anointed race of
the Lord, commissioned to drive out the heathen, and plant
their religion and institutions in every Canaan they could
subjugate. The idea of a "destiny," connected with this
race, has gone far to justify, if not to sanctify, many an act
on either side of the Atlantic; for which both England and
the United States, if nations can be personified, ought to
hang their heads in shame, and weep scalding tears of repentance. When they can produce any Mosaic commission
from the Almighty King of kings, to diffuse the gospel of
peace at the point of the bayonet, or the benign arts and
sciences of a civilized age by the brute force of an earlier




CIRCUMSTANCES PREDISPOSING TO THE WAR.    9
period, it will be quite time enough to consider their authority. Meanwhile, the inquiry presses powerfully, are these
same destined Anglo-Saxon missionaries so immaculate in
their character, so wise in their great national ideas, and so
unbendingly true in their realization of them, that they have
earned a title or authenticated " a divine right" to conquer
and colonize the rest of God's earth?  And when on one
shore we have taken the guage of Ireland's woes and
wrongs, and the oppressions of the factories, collieries, ships,
and colonies of England; and, on the other shore, recalled
the repudiation of State debts, the slavery of three millions
of immortal beings, and the endless wrongs of the natives
of the soil, which we so proudly tread, to enumerate no
other crimes; — we shall admit, with great reluctance, that
either of the gigantic progenies of the Anglo-Saxon race
has established by past wisdom, fidelity, or consistency, a
presumptive title to be appointed guardian over the decrepid
races of the Eastern or Western hlemisphere.  They may,
doubtless, plead the right of might; but that is far from
being the might of right.  They may use the old appe.al,
ultirna ratio regum, the ultimate resort of kings, and alas!
we now see, of republics too; but so long as they have no
more divine method than that, of civilizing the savage, and
Christianizing the heathen, they are held down by an eternal gravitation to the vulgar level of
"Macedonia's madman and the Swedec"
True, they possess arts and arms, but there are even more
potent agents than these in the progress of humanity. Have
we read the history of sixty centuries, and failed to learn
even the alphabet of the sublime lessons she would teach, -
that truth, love, righteousness, great and heavenly principles
only, can worthily and successfully preside over the processes of human improvement?  It is still an unsettled




10   CIRCUMSTANCES PREDISPOSING TO THE WAR.
question, whether the Crusades, the Norman conquest, or the
wars of the old French Revolution, did more evil or good.
But there is not the glimmer of a doubt that the mariner's
compass, the art of printing, the steamboat, the railroad, and
the telegraph, have been ministers of good to mankind.
We must be dull scholars in the Christian lore, and the
veriest laggards in the work of the present age, if we still
cherish the old folly of ambition and vainglory that has
demonized the nations of the dead. But not to dwell longer
upon considerations that will come up again in another connection, none can be blind to the pride of race as one of the
causes that has prompted the hostilities in Mexico.
European emigration, too, has had its effect. Hundreds
of thousands, with all their old-world ideas, unbaptized into
the spirit of liberty, except it be as license, have been transplanted into the vast regions of the Middle States, the
West and South-West. They have been accustomed to the
bloody dramas of Europe, and they have supposed that the
same must be acted over again in America. Far be it from
us to take up any slanderous speech against our emigrant
brethren, many of whom have shown themselves capable of
understanding the rights and discharging the obligations of
freemen, and have added much to the wealth, intelligence,
and morality of their adopted country. But it is well known
that no inconsiderable part of the American army has consisted of foreigners. They have been warmly commended
as showing, by their readiness to enlist, and espouse our
quarrels, their enthusiasm in the cause of liberty, and fidelity
to their land of refuge. But the lover of peace will see, at
the bottom of this fair-seeming, the dangerous element of
military habits, acquired during the turbulent scenes of the
last fifty years, transferred from the banks of the Rhine, the
Elbe, and the Shannon, to those of the Ohio, the Missouri,
and the Colorado. The roots of the old war-encumbered
civilization, -torn and broken, indeed, but possessing an




CIRCUMSTANCES PREDISPOSING TO THE WAR.  11
unyielding tenacity of life, — are set out in the rich soil of
the American prairies. Whether they live and bear their
bitter fruits, or wither and' die, is for the friends of peace,
under God, to decide. The great valley of the West may
become the hot-bed of war; and nothing but a wide and
early dissemination of the pacific principles of the Gospel,
by books, tracts, lectures, and conversation, can prevent our
late foray into a sister republic from being the prolific seed
of sorrows without end.
Indeed, the slow advance in their full power, of the schoolhouse and the church, after the fugitives that have gone into
the wilderness, has given time for a rank development of
barbaric passions and habits. The tendencies to physical
violence, somewhere or upon somebody, it mattered little
where or upon whom, have had too little check. The true
American ideas have been supplanted by a system of Bedouin morality in the minds of not a few, cast beyond the control of a high-toned public conscience. Powerful as the
older and more civilized portions of the Union have been in
their enterprize, zeal for fieedom, and moral and religious
character, wherever their sons have pitched the tents of
their wanderings, yet the truth compels us to say, that in
some portions of the East, the Centre, the feudal South,
and South-West, and the rude West, the good principles of
an earlier day have lost their savor, and the way has been
opened for precisely such results as have been developed
during the last four years, - the Annexation of Texas, a
sanguinary and embittered war, and the dismemberment of
Mexico. The relations of cause and effect hold true in the
moral as surely as in the material world. Nations reap
what they sow. We have, in sober fact, been educating
ourselves for a considerable time for just such issues as have
lately been developed. Our treatment both of the red man
and the black man, has habituated us to "feel our power,
and forget right." 5Wars enough have been waged to keep




12   CIRCI,5ISTANCES PREDISPOSING TO THE WAR.
our muskets bright. Our fourth-of-July oratory has inserted
in youthful veins the deadly virus of warlike passion. The
dauntless enterprize of the emigrants who have battled with
the wolf and the savage for their domains, and who have
been "famous according as they had lifted up axes upon the
thick trees," * has been but too ready, under the promptings
of a selfish arggrandizement, to conquer armies as well as
forests, and to blow up capitals with as little compunction
as steamboats. The West and South have many noble and
heroic elements of character; but a true fiiend of either will
not hesitate to bid them respectively beware of War and
Slavery, as institutions and customs at variance with free
institutions and the Christian religion.
The passion for land, also, is a leading characteristic of
the American people. Coming out of the straitened limits
of the old countries, where human beings seem to be hydrostatically compressed within the smallest possible limits,
they naturally expatiate at large upon the boundless savannahs of an unappropriated soil. A vast, indefinite, but everhaunting ambition, seizes the new  comer. The physical
grandeur of scale awakens an aspiring imagination. Territory becomes inwoven to all ideas of personal or national
welfare. Almost every man owns his rood or his township
of this generous fee-simple of nature; and almost every
farmer owns and attempts to till more than is justified by
good husbandry. This may prove true nationally, not less
than agriculturally. An incessant grasping after more territory has characterized our past policy. The god Terminus is an unknown deity in America. Like the hunger
of the pauper boy of fiction, the cry has been, "5 More, more,
give us more."  But we must confess that we have actually
settled and subdued to the uses of civilization only a minor
part of the vast regions we occupy. We have struck the
* Psalm 74: 5.




THE CHIEF MOTIVE OF THE WAR.                13
Pacific Ocean, and, far from being content with the immense
slopes of the Rocky Mountains, and the great Valley of the
Mis.sissippi on the east, and that of the Columbia on the
west, we have cllafed against the boundaries of nature and
of our neighbors,  and, like Jezebel, have coveted their
vineyards.  Tile history of the last few years has wielded a
melancholy illustration of the eloquent special pleading of
the exhorbitant passions, and the self-deceiving justifications
of ambition.  Prompt excuses have been discovered for this
boa-constrictor appetite of swallowin,  states and provinces,
in the glory of free institutions, the blessings of civil and
religious liberty, and the extension of our industrial and
commercial system.  Alas! we have thus discovered opiates
to lull our consciences when they were uneasy, and tonics to
invigorate our ambition when it was halting.  Under the
dominion of this lust for territory, however acquired, we
have pushed onwards in a hot and unjustifiable invasion,
and by a compulsory peace, have extorted friom our neighbors  more thanl half a million of square miles of land,
reaching fromn the Atlantic to the Pacific, across the breadth
of the North American continent.
C IAPTER  III.
THE CHIEF MOTIVE OF TIlE WAR.'lie finds his fellow guilty of a skin'ot colored like his own; and having power'' elfo:,rce the wrong, for suc(h a worthy t'ause,
Dooms an(d devotes him as his lawful prey." - CowPER.
TIhE nmotives which actuate public men and political parties, are not alway; openly avowed.  There are secrets of




14        THE CHIEF MOTIVE OF TH1E WAR.
state in the administration of republican as well as despotic
governments, though not of the same number or extent.
The causes which determine the line of national policy, can
sometimes only be inferred, though the inference may be
raised to a high degree of probability. Important documents, which would no doubt throw great light upon international affairs, are buried in the archives of state, and a
seal put upon their publication by the plea, more or less
valid, that it would embarrass the public service. We are,
therefore, left somewhat in the dark in reasoning upon the
events of history, though of a very recent date; and we can
hope to reach in our conclusions only a reasonable measure
of moral probability, not an irresistible mathematical certainty.
The circumstances enumerated in the last chapter, were
predisposing causes of war, but, of themselves, they would
not have produced that unhappy result. Hence we look for
some more positive and potent element. We are ready to
concede something to the pacific settlement of the Oregon
question, which turned the war spirit into a new channel;something to the desire of giving eclat to a new administration;, something to the vast expansion of civil and military
patronage produced by war; something to the interested
clamor of Mexican claimants and their friends; something
to the magic -power of Texan scrip; something to a widespread suspicion and a quick jealousy of European interference in the affairs of this continent; but we feel confident
that we are stating a solemn and incontrovertible truth,
when we say that we discern in slavery the main-spring to
the war with Mexico.  Had the idea of extending the
"peculiar " institutions of the South, and the political power
resulting therefrom, been entirely excluded from the question, not a shot would ever have been fired.
We desire to make such a record on this point as will
stand justified fifty years hence, when the planners and




THE CHIEF MOTIVE OF THE WAR.             15
actors in present scenes have passed off the stage. For
the purpose of confirming our statements, we shall take the
liberty of quoting published and authentic documents, without reference to parties. We shall thus be led directly to
the conclusion expressed above.
It is unnecessary here to recount the details of the annexation of Texas to the United States, as our aim is not a history, so much as a review, of an important portion of history,
recent and well-known. That event, however, was regarded by llMexico as an act of war in itself;, and was, no doubt,
one of the prominent causes, notwithstanding all disclaimers, that led to the actual commencement of hostilities; for
our armies surely never would have advanced either to the
Nueces or to the Rio Grande, had it not been for the ostensible purpose of' protecting our newly-acquired domains.
But the scheme of Annexation was devised,- as openly
declared by some of its staunchest advocates, —to give
greater security to the institutions of the South. The clear
and direct inference is, that slavery and the war with Mexico have had a cause-and-effect connection. Had slavery
not existed in our land, there would have been no annexation; and had there been no annexation, there would have
been no strife. Who can dispute these propositions, when
he has candidly and truthfully weighed the following declarations of some of the leading politicians of the day?  The
idea of Southern aggrandizement was early broached and
steadily avowed. Let the credible witnesses give their testimony.
Mr. Upshur was a member of the Virginia Convention
in 1829, and said in that body: " Nothing is more fluctuating than the value of slaves. A late law of Louisiana reduced their value twenty-five per cent in two hours after its
passage was known. If it should be our lot, as I trust it
will, to acquire Texas, their price will rise." *
* Debates of that body.




16         THE CHIEF MOTIVE OF THE WAR.
Mr. Doddridge, another member of the same convention,
made a similar declaration; " that the acquisition of Texas
would greatly enhance the value of the property in question."*
Mr. Gholson said, in the Legislature of Virginia in 1832; t
"that the price of slaves fell twenty-five per cent within two
hours after the news was received of the non-importation
act which was passed by the Legislature of Louisiana. Yet
he believed the acquisition of Texas would raise their price
fifty per cent at least."
Mr. Calhoun avowed his opinions in the Senate of the
United States, as early as May 23, 1836; "there were powerful reasons why Texas should be a part of this Union.
The Southern States owning a slave population were deeply interested in preventing that country from having the
power to annoy them; and the navigating and manufacturing interests of the North, were equally interested in making
it a part of the Union." +
Meantiime, the Cuban slave-trade had fearfully increased,
and fresh commissions were constantly arriving at Havana
from Texas, to buy the wretched sons of Africa who had
been torn from their native soil, and transported across the
ocean by fiends in human shape. President Houston said
in his annual 3Message to the Congress of the Republic of
Texas, in 1837; "not unconnected with the naval force of
the country is the subject of the African slave-trade. It
cannot be disbelieved that thousands of Africans have lately
been imported to the Island of Cuba, with a drsiffgn to transfer a large portion qf therm into this republic."  The British
commissioners for the suppression of the slave-trade, who
resided in Cuba agreeably to the treaty of 1817 with Spain,
reported that twenty-seven slave-vessels arrived in Havana
in 1833, thirty-three in 1834, fifty in 1836, and in 1835, that
* See note on preceding page.
t Journal of Session, 1832.
$ 29th Congress, 2d Session. Congressional Globe, pp. 495.




THE CHIEF MOTIVE OF THE WAR.             17
more than fifteen thousand negroes must have been landed!
Sir T. F. Buxton stated that in 1837 and 1838, no less than
" fifteen thousand negroes had been imported from Africa
into Texas." Other accounts rate the number still higher.
One Taylor, of Barbadoes, was convicted of sending free
negroes to this new market, and selling them. The Albany
Argus of 1844, mentions the case of one man who sent ten
thousand dollars to Cuba for the purchase of human beings.
The emigrants from the United States had a palpable motive to expose this infamous traffic, and seek to extinguish it,
because it cheapened their own slaves. *
The project of annexation was not suffered to sleep, but
from year to year was cherished and developed by its zealous and untiring friends. The great end, too, which it
would eventually subserve, was kept distinctly in view.
Mr. Upshur, Secretary of State, wrote to W. S. Murphy,
charge d'affaires of the United States in Texas, in a letter
dated Washington, Aug. 8, 1843, as follows; " The establishment, in the very midst of our slave-holding States, of an
independent Government, forbidding the existence of slavery, and by a people born for the most part among us, reared
up in our habits, and spreading our language, could not fail
to produce the most unhappy effects upon both parties. If
Texas were in that condition, her territory would afford a
ready refuge for the fugitive slaves of Louisiana and Arkansas, and would hold out to them, an encouragement to run
away which no municipal regulations of those States could
possibly counteract."
"Few calamities could befal this country more to be deplored than the establishment of a predominant British in4uence, and the abolition of domestic slavery in Texas." t
* Moody's Facts for the People, pp. 69, 70.
t 28th Congress, 1st Session, Senate, 341, pp. 21, 22.
2*




18         THE CHIEF MIOTIVE OF THE WAR.
On Sept. 22d, the subject was renewed; lie said:-" there
is no reason to fear that there will be any difference of
opinion among the slave-holding States; and there is a large
number in the non-slave-holding States; with views sufficiently liberal to embrace a policy absolutely necessary to
the salvation of the south, although, in some respects, objectionable to themselves." *
I-le wrote to MIr. Murphy, Jan. 16, 1844, "if Texas
should not be attached to the United States, she cannot maintain that institution ten years, and probably not half that
time." t
Said Mr. Miurphy to Mr. Upshur, Sept. 23d; " Saying
nothing therefore which can offend even our fanatical brethren of the North; let the United States espouse at once the
cause of civil, political and religious liberty (?) in this hemisphere; this will be found to be the safest issue to go before
the world with." +
*            *     "*   He wrote on Sept. 24th;  " The
Constitution of Texas ~ secures to the Master, the perpetual
right to his slave, and prohibits the introduction of slaves
into Texas from any other quarter than the United States.
" If the United States preserves and secures to Texas the
possession of her Constitution, and present form of Government, then we have gained all we can desire, and also all
that Texas asks or wishes."
"Take this position on the side of the constitution and
the laws, and the civil, political and religious liberties of the
* 28th Congress, 1st Session, Senate, 341, p. 26.  t Ibid. p. 46.
Ibid(l. p. 25
~ Art 8. Sec. 1. Lawus of Texas. " The Legislature shall have no
power to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves, without the consent
of their owners, nor without paying their owners previously to such
emancipation, a full equivalent in money for the slaves so emancipated,"




THE CHIEF MOTIVE OF THE WAR.                   19
people secured thereby, (saying nothing about akolition) and
all the world will be with you." *
Mr. Upshur writes, Nov. 21, 1843, in a letter to 1Mr. 3Murphy, "we regard it, (annexation) as involving the security
of the South; and the strength and prosperity of every part
of the Union."
It would be easy to quote by chapter and verse, from  the
official documents of the time, many passages of a similar
import.  But as Mr. Calhoun has saidt "I may now  rightfully and indisputably claim to be the author of that great
event," (annexation), let us look at his declarations on this
subject.
His language was to Mr. Pakenham, the British Minister,
April 18, 1844: "It is with still deeper concern the President regards the avowal of Lord Aberdeen of the desire
of Great Britain to see slavery abolished in Texas.+
And on the 19th, he wrote to Mr. Green, charge d' affaires
to Texas: " It was impossible for the United States to witness with indifference the efforts of Great Britain to abolish
slavery there." ~
Respecting the Treaty of Annexation, then under negotiation, he wrote to the British Minister, on the 27th, that
"It was made necessary in order to preserve domestic institutions, placed under the guaranty of their (United States
28th Congress, 1st Session, Senate, 341, pp. 23, 24.
t Printed speech in the Senate, Feb. 24, 1847, p. 3.
t 28th Congress, 1st Session, Senate, 341, p. 50.
Mr. Benton well criticised this extreme sensitiveness, in his speech
in the Senate on the Treaty of Annexation, May 16, 18 and 20, 1844.
Reported in the Naltional Intelliqencer, AMay 30, 1844.'" Great Britain
avows all she intends, and that a wish - to see - slavery abolished in
Texas; and she declares all the means which she means to use, and
that is, advice where it is acceptable.
"It will be a strange spectacle, in the nineteenth century, to behold
the United States at war with Mexico, because Great Britain wishes -
to see the abolition of slavery in Texas."
~ 28th Congress, 1st Session, Senate, 341, pp. 54, 66.




20          THE CHIEF MOTIVE OF THE WAR.
and Texas) respective constitutions, and deemed essential to
their safety and prosperity." *
And in a speech in the Senate, Feb. 24, 1847, he said, —
"Sir, I admit, even at that early period, I saw that the
incorporation of Texas into this Union, would be indispensable both to her safety and ours. I saw that it was impossible that she could stand as an independent power between
us and 3Mexico, without becoming the scene of intrigue of
foreign Powers, alike destructive of the peace and security
of both Texas and ourselves. I saw more: I saw the bearing of the slave question at that early stage, and that it
would become an instrument in the hands of a foreign Power, of striking a blow at us; and that two conterminous
slave-holding communities could not co-exist without one
being wielded to the destruction of the other."t
The Galveston Gazette, April, 1844, rejects the idea that
any-thing less than slavery over the whole vast region of
Texas would be accepted by the Southern States. It says
that " It is thrown out, in some of the papers of the United
States, that the annexation of Texas is to be a measure effected by a compromise, a condition being that the Territory
of Texas is to be divided into three States, in one of which
slavery is to be tolerated while it is to be prohibited in the
others. This idea, we think, must have originated from
* This panic was afterwards confessed by some of the chief actors in
annexation to be a mere ruse, got up for the sake of effect, and without any substantial foundation in facts. See Gen. Samuel Houston's
Letter to a friend on the subject, published in 1848, and his speech in
the Senate, Feb. 19, 1847, Congress. Globe, 29th Congress, 2d Session.
p. 459. And yet so strong was the jealousy of foreign interference
thus excited, that Mr. Choate used this language in his speech in the
Senate on the Treaty of Annexation, May 22, 1844; " Sir, besides
the apprehension that England will, by treaty or influence, induce
Texas to emancipate her slaves,- besides this, there is not even the
pretence of a reason for this war (by the separation of Texas from
Mexico) on your friend. This apprehension is all."
t Printed speech, p. 8.




THE CHIEF MOTIVE OF THE WAR.              21
other than official sources; and the measure proposed would,
we believe, be far better calculated to defeat than to secure
the success of the project of annexation. It might satisfy
the North; but it would displease the South in the same
proportion, and would, we feel confident, never receive the
sanction of the slave States."
Numerous testimonies to the deep interest taken by
Southern statesmen in the measure of annexation, as destined to enlarge, not "the area of freedom," but of slavery,
may be gathered from the discussions both in and out of
Congress, on the Treaty offered to the Senate for confirmation by President Tyler. In his Message of April 22, 1844,
he said: " At the same' time, the Southern and the SouthWestern States will find, in the fact of annexation, protection and security to their peace and tranquillity, as well
against all domestic as foreign efforts to disturb them."*
Mr. McDuffie took the same view, in his speech in the
Senate, May 23, 1844, reported in the National Intelligencer,
June 8th. Speaking of the African race, he said: " That
population in the United States cannot be diminished, but
must be increased. Now, if we shall annex Texas, it will
operate as a safety-valve to let off the superabundant slave
population from among us, and will, at- the same time, improve their condition; they will be more happy, and we
shall be more secure. But if you pen them up within our
present limits, what becomes of the free negroes, and what
will be their condition?"
Mr. Archer, of Virginia, asked in the Senate,t June 8,
1844: "Did this result, of keeping open a drain for slave
labor in Texas, involve no advantage to the slave holding
States? Certainly, the highest advantage. But it was not
* 28th Congress, 1st Session, Senate, 341, p. 6.
t 28th Congress, 1st Session, Appendix to Congressional Globe,
May, 1844 p. 696.




22         THE CHIEF MOTIVE OF THE tVAR.
present pecilniary advantage, nor did it tend to the extension
of slave-holding influence in the government."
MIr. Foster, Senator from Tennessee, was fiank and open
in his avowal in the same debate: "It cannot be denied, Sir,
but that the measure is essentially Southern in its character
and purposes, and intended, if its policy is hereafter faithfully
executed, to protect the South and the South West, both at
home and from abroad, in the more peaceful and secure enjoyment of certain property, guarantied to the inhabitants
of that section of the Union, by the solemn sanctions of the
Federal Constitution."
The N. H. Patriot, May, 1844, avowed, that "Slavery
and the defence of slavery, form the controlling considerations urged in favor of the treaty (of annexation), by those
who have been engaged in its negotiations."
Mr. Preston, of South Carolina, in a speech at Baltimore,
quoted in the lVactional ziteliigencer, Oct. 31, 1844, says:
" Annexation was desired, fobr the purpose of sustaining and
extending the institution of slavery, - a motive by which he
could not be governed. The institution of slavery was one
which belonged exclusively to us of the South; it ewas our
own domestic affair; we were to take care of it for ourselves, without any extraneous interference; and lie would
be the first to resist any such interference.  But when he
attempted to acquire territory, with a view and fobr the purpose of extending slavery beyond its proper limits, the case
was altered; we had changed our position fiom the defensive to the aggressive. Were we, who boast of our free
principles, to raise the black flag and go to war with a sister
republic, to extend the institution of slavery?"
The NVew York  Eveenin9 Post, April, 1844, took a similar
view of the subject, in an article on the Treaty: "It is
evident,.that this presents to the people of the Union a
question entirely new, and which they cannot avoid. This
issue is not asl to the abolition of slavery in the So-uthern




THE CHIEF MOTIVE OF THE WAR.               23
States, the District, nor the Territories of the Union, but
whether this government shall devote its whole energies to
the perpetuation of slavery; whether all the sister republics
on this continent, which desire to abolish slavery, are to be
dragooned by us into the support of this institution."
Mr. Calhoun writes a letter to MIr. Pakenham, April 18,
1844, in which he goes into a labored defence of slavery;
seems almost to doubt whether the Free States have done
well in abolishing it; declares that Texas is to be annexed,
to guard against the danger of its being abolished in the
Southern States; and finally declares: " That what is called
slavery is in reality a political institution; essential to the
peace, safety, and prosperity of those States of the Union in
which it exists."
The diplomatic agents, both American and Mexican,
agreed as to the object of annexation, however they might
differ as to its means and modes.
S. Bocanegra, Minister of Foreign Relations in Mexico, wrote to 2Mr. Green, charge d'affaires to the United
States, M3ay 30, 1844: t "But when, in order to sustain
that slavery, and avoid its disappearance from  Texas and
from other points, recourse is had to the arbitrary act of
depriving ]Mexico of an integral part of her possessions, as
the only certain and efficacious remedy to prevent what TMr.
Green calls'a d.,ngerous event;' if Mexico should be
silent, and lend her deference to the present policy of the
Executive of the United States, the reproach and the censure of nations ought to be her rebward."
M3.r. Green had previously said, on the 23d of the same
month, what -would justify this AMexican inference: } "The
undersigned is also instructed to state to the Miexica  Gov* 28th Congress, 1St Session, Senate, 341, p. 53.
t Ibid. 2d Session( House of Representatives, Ex. Doe. 2, p. 54.
t Ibid, p. 52.




24         THE CHIEF MOTIVE OF THE WAR.
ernment, that this step (Treaty of Annexation) was forced
upon the Government of the United States in self-defence,
in consequence of the policy adopted by Great Britain, in
reference to the abolition of slavery in Texas. It was impossible for the United States to witness with indifference
the efforts of Great Britain to abolish slavery in that territory. They could not but see that she had the means in her
power, in the actual condition of Texas, to accomplish the
objects of her policy, unless prevented by the most efficient
measures; and that, if accomplished, it would lead to a state
of things dangerous in the extreme to the adjacent States, and
to the Union itself."
The same idea was continued by Mr. Shannon, American
Minister to Mexico, in a letter to S. Rejon, the Mexican
Secretary, Oct. 14, 1844:* "It (annexation) has been a
measure of policy, long cherished and deemed indispensable
to their (United States') safety and welfare, and has, accordingly, been an object steadily pursued by all parties, and
the acquisition of the territory made the subject of negotiation by almost every administration for the last twenty
years. This policy may be traced to the belief, generally
entertained, that Texas was embraced in the cession of
Louisiana by France, to the United States, in 1803, and was
improperly surrendered by the Treaty of Florida, in 1819;
connected with the fact, that a large portion of the territory
lies in the Valley of the Jflississippi, and is indispensable to
the defence of a distant and important frontier. The hazard
of a conflict of policy upon important points, between the
United States and one of the leading European powers, since
the recognition of Texas, has rendered the acquisition still
more essential to their safety and welfare; and accordingly, has increased in proportion the necessity of acquiring it."
* 28th Congress, 2d Session, House of Representatives, Ex. Doc.
2, p. 47.




THE CHIEF MOTIVE OF THE WAR.             25
The Treaty of Annexation was lost in the Senate, by a
vote of 35 to 16; but when, in 1845, the mode of annexation by Joint Resolution of the Senate and the hIouse of Representatives was under debate, avowals equally bold were
made of the pro-slavery views of its warmest friends. I
quote out of a multitude only a few of the most explicit
declarations.
Mr. Holmes, of South Carolina, member of the House of
Representatives, inquired, during the discussion: * "Would
Southern gentlemen consent to divide Texas into two States:
one slaveholding, and one not?- slavery to be admitted into
the portion adjacent to the South, while free labor was confined to the portion which bordered on Mexico. Would any
Southerner agree to this?  Would he cut off his own
egress, and fetter the energies of the slave-holding community? If any Southern man assented to such a proposition,
he must be either a fool or a knave: a fool, not to perceive
its bearing; and a knave, if perceiving it he did not resist
it."
Mr. Merrick, of Maryland, said in the Senate:t "The
domestic tranquillity of the country is endangered, and if
you reject Texas now for reasons such as these, think you
that the South will sit down quietly under it? Will the
spirit of abolition cease to goad and war upon the sensitive
interest of the South? And to what must its assaults inevitably lead?  We are now in a minority in both houses of
Congress, in point of fact, on this question. Restore the
balance of power, and all will be safe. The South does
not want power to encroach upon the North; no one dreads
or thinks of that. But we need power to defend and protect ourselves. It has grown into a maxim, that the best
security for peace is to be prepared for war. The best
security for the South is to be able to protect herself. The
- Appelcndix to the Congressional Globe, 28th Congress, 2d Session,
p. 10.                     t Ibid p. 233.
3




~26        THE CHIEF MIOTIVE OF THE WAR.
balance of power once restored, abolitionists would then let
as alone, and this blighting agitation would die its natural
death. For these reasons, sir, I am warranted in saying,
that, for the purpose of preservin#g domestic tranquillity,, we
should admit Texas."
iMr. Ashley, of Arkansas, said in the same debate in the
Senate:* "That if Texas should not be admitted, the
Southern States must be depoptulated. It might be true, that
the admission of Texas would change the local position of'
some of our planters; but that was a matter very immaterial, because their relation to the Union and to the government would still continue the same. All the cotton raised
by our citizens would be raised within our own country, and
by men having the same feelings and interests with ourselves."
IMr. Johnson, of Louisiana, made these remarks: f  "The
measure was boldly opposed, in and out of Congress, on the
ground that it would perpetuate slavery, and add to the
strength and power of the Southern States. Such an opposition, proceeding from such sources, for such purposes,
had operated powerfully on his mind in favor of annexation."
" The State he had the honor in part to represent was a:3
deeply interested in the slave question as any other in the
Union; and could it be supposed that he could listen witb
indifference to such attacks, made on the rights of property
of its citizens, or oppose a measure calculated, in his opinion,
to strengthen those rights, and to promote the permanenit
prosperity and glory of the nation?"
The WaSshington Union of Alay 23, 1845, quoted withi
approbation the words-of an American, who had lately been
in Texas, and who congratulated the editors on the success
* Appendix to the Congressional Globe, 28th Congress, 2d Session,
p. 287.
t Ibid. p. 224.




THE CHIEF MOTIVE OF THE WAR.               27
of annexation, "as giving the South so national a guaranty
against the folly of the abolitionists."
So far, then, as the -Annexation of Texas involved us in
difficulties with our neighbors, or Nwas a preliminary to open
war, so far is the institution of slavery in our country implicated in the same unhappy results.  For that the latter was
an actuating motive to effect the former, is explicitly stated
in the above plain declarations, which we might multiply
indefinitely. We are not now pronouncing upon the fitness
or unfitness of such a connection, but we simply state it as
a fact, that is substantiated by the best authority.  To have
omitted this piece of history, in chapters on the antecedent
circumstances and causes of the Mexican War, would be, to
use the illustration of another, as absurd as " acting the play
of Hamlet, with the part of Hamlet omitted."
But the institution in question has not only been accessory to the war through annexation, but it also acted directly
to prolong it, in furtherance of its own ulterior purposes.
Let us call some trust-worthy witnesses to the stand.
The Clarleston Coutrier speaks thus: * "Besides, every
battle fought in Mexico, acud every dollar spent there,
but insures the acquisition of territory, which must widen
the field of Southern enterprise and power in the future;
and the final result will be to readjust the whole balance of
power in the confederacy, so as to give us control over the
operations of the government in all time to come. If the
South be triue to themselves, the day of our depression is
gone, and gone forever."
In a debate in Congress, upon a bill introduced by Mr.
Preston King,, but not passed, that slavery should be excluded fiom the territory that might be acquired from lMexico, MIr. Hiilliard, of Alabama, said:t "That gentlemen
transcended the rules which should govern them here; if
l loody's Facts, p. 124.              t Ibid. p. 126.




28        THE CHIEF MOTIVE OF THE WAR.
they proceeded, they would rouse a feeling at the South
that would rend the bonds of this Union, as Sampson burst
the withes that bound him. Was this the doctrine that was
to be acted on, - that, acquire what territory we might, free
labor might be suffered to go there, but the men of the
South should not take their slaves with them there? If this
thing was to be done, this government would be unequal, and
its days would be numbered."
Mr. Dargan, from the same State, also said:* "What
would be thought by the volunteers from the South, when it
was announced to them that slavery was to be excluded
from the territory, their arms had acquired? This question
must be settled before we proceed to acquire more territory,
for afterwards it will be too late."
*                  *         *         *
"Say to the South, that they are only fighting to make
free territory, that it is only for this that the brave men of
Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, are periling their lives,
and they will demand the settlement of this question now,
preliminary to any further prosecution of the war."
Mr. Sims, of South Carolina, in a speech in the House of
Representatives, Jan. 28, 1847: "And I have no doubt, - I
express the opinion here, - that every foot of territory we
shall permanently occupy south of thirty-six degrees thirty
minutes, will be slave territory." In reply to a question by
Mr. Burt, whether it would be in consequence of the state
of public opinion in the Northern, Western, or Middle
States? or whether it was in consequence of the known
determination of the Southern people, that their institutions shall be carried into that country, if acquired? Mr.
Sims answered: "'It is founded on the known determination
of the Southern people, that their institutions shall be carried there; it is founded on the laws of God, written on
* Moody's Facts, pp. 126, 127.




THE CHIEF MOTIVE OF THE WAR.               29
the climate and soil of the country; nothing but slave labor
can cultivate profitably that region of country. I have no
idea that the North or the West will resist to the death.
This Union never will be dissolved on that question."
Mr. Roberts, of Mississippi, demanded in the House of
Representatives, Feb. 4, 1847:* "And are we to tell a
Butler, a Quitman, a Davis, a Yell, a Price, a Pillow, and a
host of other, Southern gentlemen, officers, and soldiers, who
have bravely volunteered, and shed their blood, and dissipated their treasure, who represent millions of slave holders,
that, after the territory that may be acquired has been purchased at so fearful a cost, they; or their wives, or their
children, or their firiends, or relatives, shall not go upon the
territory to possess it, people it, and cultivate it, and build
upon it, fbr themselves and their clfildren?  No, sir; they
will tell us, and I tell you, the South will have her rights,
come what may."
Mr. Calhoun t in the Senate maintained, in like manner,
the right of slave-holders to carry their slaves, and hold their
slaves in the new territories conquered from  Mexico:-;" The case of our recently-acquired territory from Mexico,
is, if possible, more marked. The events connected with
the acquisition are too well known to require a long narrative.  It was won by arms, and a great sacrifice of men
and money. The South, in the contest, performed her full
share of military duty, and earned a full share of military
honor; has poured out her full share of blood freely, and
has and will bear a full share of the expense; has evinced a
full share of skill and bravery, and if I were to say even
more than her full share of both, I would not go beyond the
truth; to be attributed, however, to no superiority in either
respect, but to accidental circumstances, which gave both its
* Printed speech, pp. 6, 7.
t Printed speech, p. 12, June 27, 1848.
2*




30          THE CHIEF MOTIVE OF THE WAR.
officers and soldiers more favorable opportunities for their
display.  All have done their duty nobly, and high courage
and gallantry are but common attributes of our people.
Would it be right and just to close a territory thus won
against the South, and leave it open exclusively to the
North?  Would it deserve the name of free soil, if one half
of the Union should be excluded and the other half should
monopolize it, when it was won by the joint expense and
joint efforts of all? Is the great law to be reversed, - that
which is won by all should be equally enjoyed by all?"
Forcibly and unanswerably was it argued by Mr. Dix of
New York in the Senate, Feb. 28, 1849: * "When the war
with Mexico was commenced, we were charged with the intention of acquiring territory with a view to carrying slaves
into it.  The charge was denied.  We repelled the imputation as doing injustice to our motives.  Yet, in the very
first attempt to establish a government for that territory,
the right is insisted upon, the purpose is confessed. Whether
the Mexican Government was aware of this imputation, I
do not know; but in the negotiation with Mr. Trist, the
Mexican commissioners wished us to stipulate not to carry
slavery into the territory which was proposed to be ceded.t
"These Mexicans, whom  we have been accustomed to
~* Printed speech, p. 11.
t " 13th. The United States shall compromise themselves not to
permit slavery in the part of the territory which they may acquire by
this treaty." - Preliminaries of the Mexican Coml7aissioners, Aug. 24,
1847.
Mr. Trist, in a letter to Mr. Buchanan, Sept. 4th, mentions that this
topic came up in discussion  that the commissioners assured him that
if it were proposed to the people of the United States to part with a
portion of their territory in order that the Inquisition should be established in it, the proposal would not awaken greater abhorrence than
that awakened in Mexico by the prospect that slavery would be introduced in any territory parted with by her; that he assured them




THE CHIEF MOTiVE OF THE WVAR.                31
consider half-civilized, vanquished in the field, driven from
their capital, compelled to make peace with us almost on our
own terms, and forced to cede a portion of their territory,
implore us not to carry slavery into it.  Sir, I ask how
should we stand before the world, liberal and enlightened as
we are, proclaiming to mankind the principle of human liberty as one of the inalienable rights of our race, if we were
to disregard these entreaties?"
WVe deem the frank statements of Calhoun, and others,
sufficient proof that the South would neither have embarked
in nor pursued the MIexican war, had they supposed that the
new conquests would become free territories and states.  As
this is only a review, and not a history of the war, it is sufficient. to give a specimen of the large amount of documentary evidence existing upon this subject.
We are obliged, therefore, shocking as the statement is,
and blushing for our native land as we do, while we record
it, to declare that the paramount cause and motive of the
war with 3Mexico, without doubt or controversy, was territorial aggrandizement, under the dominion of domestic
slavery and the internal slave-trade. This cause, first advocated by a few, and afterwards entangling the nation,
severed the province of Texas from Mexico, and annexed it
to the United States. This cause carried the sword in its
devastating career from Palo Alto to Buena Vista, and from
Vera Cruz to the city of' Mexico.  War has, in former
times, made slaves of its captives; but it re'served to this
advanced period of the world its chief exploit of seeking to
that he did not differ with them probably on slavery, considered in it-;elf, )but that they had erroneous impressions of slavery as it existed;n the United States, and that he could not accept the new territory on
condition that slavery was excluded, not if its value were increased
tenfold, " mad, in acdditionl to that, covered a foot thick all over zwith pure
gold." The topic was dropped. 30th Congress, 1st Session, Senate,
Ex. Doe., 52, pp. 199, 315.




32               PRETEXTS FOR WAR.
convert the land of freedom, which it had conquered, into
the area of slavery, and of spreading over new parallels of
latitude the blight of national injustice and eternal wretchedness.
CHAPTER IV.
PRETEXTS FOR WAR.
"I believe that if the question had been put to Congress before the
march of the armies and their actual conflict, not ten votes could have
been obtained in either house for the war with Mexico under the existing state of things." -WEBSTER.
THE chief motive to this war, however it might be incidentally dropped by incautious lips or pens in the ardor
of debate, or in the anonymous newspaper article, was yet
too culpable to be openly avowed in the documents of a
republican government. More plausible reasons were assigned. The United States were represented as the injured
and insulted party. The war was claimed to be a war of
self-defence. The vindication of national rights and honor
was loudly insisted on, and a spectator might have supposed
that our existence as a people was in danger, and that nothing but the most energetic measures could avert the impending ruin. But we find, now the smoke has cleared
away, and the excitement is over, and we can view things
calmly and considerately, that what were alleged as reasons
for the war with Mexico, prove to have been but windy
pretences. Many patriotic and good men of all parties in
the United States, did not at the time regard them as worthy




PRETEXTS FOR WAR.                  33
causes of such fearful consequences. They received the
pointed censure of the wisest and best in the fieest countries
of Europe. They were soon weighed in the balances, and
found wanting, by the votes and voices of a majority of the
popular branch cf the American Legislature.  They were
divested of most of their plausibility by the progress of the
war, the conditions on which peace was made, and the
revelations of subsequent political history; and they now
stand in the judgment of impartial history convicted, condemned, and sentenced to -o to "their own place."
The first, in order of' time and importance, of these pretexts for war, was the non-fulfilment by Mexico of her
agreement to indemnify the citizens of the United States for
wrongs inflicted upon their business and commerce.
The subject is elsewhere considered in other connections
in this review, but the following condensed statement by the
venerable Albert Gallatin, will afford all the necessary information to make our argument intelligible:"It may be proper, in the first place, to observe, that the
refusal of doing justice in cases of this kind, or the long
delays in providing for them, have not generally produced
actual war.  Almost always, long-protracted negotiations
have been alone resorted to. This has been strikingly the
case with the United States. The claims of Great Britain
for British debts, secured by the treaty of 1783, were not
settled and paid till the year 1803; and it was only subsequently to that year that the claims of the United States,
for depredations committed in 1793, were satisfied.  The
very plain question of slaves carried away by the British
forces in 1815, in open violation of the treaty of 1814, was
not settled and the indemnity paid till the year 1826. The
claims against France, for depredations committed in the
years 1806 to 1813, were not settled and paid for till the
year 1834. In all these cases peace was preserved by
patience and forbearance.




34              PRETEXTS FOR WAR.
"With respect to the Mexican indemnities, the subject
had been laid more than once before Congress, not without
suggestions that strong measures should be resorted to.
But Congress, in whom alone is invested the power of declaring war, uniformly declined doing it.
"A  convention was entered into on the 11th of April,
1839, between the United States and Mexico, by virtue of
which a joint commission was appointed for the examination
and settlement of those claims. The powers of the commissioners terminated, according to the convention, in February, 1842. The total amount of the American claims
presented to the commission, amounted to $ 6,291,605. Of
these, $2,026,140 were allowed by the commission; a further sum of $ 928,628 was allowed by the commissioners of
the United States, rejected by the Mexican commissioners,
and left undecided by the umpire; and claims amounting to
$3,336,837 had not been examined.
" A new convention, dated January 30, 1843, granted to
the Mexicans a further delay for the payment of the claims
which had been admitted, by virtue of which the interest
due to the claimants was made payable on the 30th of April,
1843, and the principal of the awards and the interest accruing thereon, was stipulated to be paid in five years, in
twenty equal instalments every three months. The claimants received the interest on the 30th of April, 1843, and
the three instalments. The agent of the United States,
having, under peculiar circumstances, given a receipt for
the instalments due in April and July, 1844, before they
had been actually paid by Mexico, the payment has been
assumed by the United States and discharged to the claimants.
"A third convention was concluded at Mexico on the
20th of November, 1843, by the plenipotentiaries of the two
governments, by which provision was made for ascertaining
and paying the claims on which no final decision had been




PRETEXTS FOR WAR.                 35
made. In January, 1844, this convention was ratified by
the Senate of the United States, with two amendments,
which were referred to the Government of Mexico, but respecting which no answer has ever been made. On the
12th of April, 1844, a treaty was concluded by the President with Texas, for the annexation of that republic to the
U nited States. This treaty, though not ratified by the
Senate, placed the two countries in a new position, and
arrested for a while all negotiations. It was only on the 1st
of March, 1845, that Congress passed a joint resolution for
the annexation.
" It appears most clearly that the United States are justly
entitled to a full indemnity for the injuries done to their
citizens; that, before the annexation of Texas, there was
every prospect of securing that indemnity; and that those
injuries, even if they had been a just cause for war, were in
no shape whatever the cause of that in which we are now involved." *
Thus far Mr. Gallatin; from which, and from other general knowledge on the subject, no doubt possessed by our
readers, we come to the following conclusions: —
1. That the claims made by us on other nations, though
long refused, were not deemed sufficient causes of war.
2. That Congress, the proper war-making power, had repeatedly declined resorting to arms to collect these debts of
Mexico.
3. That, on the whole, the conduct of Mexico, considering
her disordered condition, would, upon the question of indemnities, compare not unfavorably with that of England and
France.
4. That the annexation of Texas was the chief cause of
the non-fulfilment of her engagements by Mexico.
5. That the large amount of claims preferred, and the'* Peace with Mexico, p. 2.




36               PRETEXTS FOR WAR.
much smaller amount allowed by the umpire, leads to the
strongest conviction that many of' them were fraudulent, an
inference fully sustained by an examination of them individually as published in the reports and documents of the
time.*
6. That, although these difficulties were assigned as the
cause or excuse for war, subsequently, yet at first, both in
the documents of the Executive and the legislative branch
of the Government, no explicit declaration was made, when
war was declared, of the indebtedness of ]Mexico to the
United States as a bond fide reason for fighting.
The next pretext was the refusal by Mexico, in 1845 - 6,
to receive Mr. Slidell as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary, to reside in that Republic. The whole
history of that affair is recorded in the journals of the day,
and the documents of Government, and need not be tediously repeated here. The main facts are these, and they are
not disputed by any party. After the passage of' the joint
resolution for the annexation of Texas, in March, 1845,
Almonte, the Mexican 3Iinister at Washington, demanded
his passports and returned home. In September, the President of the United States made proposals for restoring a
cordial understanding between the two countries.  The
Mexican Government replied that they felt deeply injured,
but would receive a commissioner to "settle the present
dispute," referring to the Texas question, provided the naval
forces, placed in a menacing attitude in sight of Vera Cruz,
were recalled. This was done by the United States. Mr.
Slidell, of Louisiana, was appointed Envoy Extraordinary
and Minister Plenipotentiary. He arrived in the city of
Mexico Dec. 6, 1845, and left the country about the 1st of
April, 1846. He was not recognized by the Mexican Government, as was alleged on their part, because he came as a
a 27th Congress, 2nd Session, Executive Documents, No. 21.




PRETEXTS FOR WAR.                     87
resident M[inister, and not as a Commissioner.* But a change
of the national administration fiom the hands of' the pacific
Herrera to those of the warlike Paredes, whlich occurred in
the interim, was a great obstacle to the success of his mission.
By a comparison of dates, however, it; will be found that
the Amlerican Minister was not finally r ejected until after
the gates of' war were thrown open by the order to Gen.
Taylor to take his position of offence on the east bank of' the
Rio Grande.
IMr. Slideli wrote home,t Dec. 27, 1845, that on the 21st
of that month he had "received fiom  Pena y Pena his
promised reply, conveying the formal and unqualified  refusal of the Mexican  Government to receive me in the
character for which I am  commissioned."  This letter was
not received by the authorities at Washinogton, until Jan.
23, 1846, and, therefore, could not have been the basis of the
order of Jan. 13th; ten days before, ordering Gen. Taylor
to invade the disputed territory on the Rio Grande.  Mr.
Buchanan states explicitly in a letter to Mr. Slidell, of Jan.
28, 1846, that his despatches of the 27th and 29th of December were received on the 23d instant. +
But Herrera's power was overturned, and Paredes came
to the head of affairs on Jan. 3, 1846. Still, there was hope
even with the new warlike administration, of negotiating a
treaty. On AMarch 1st, MIr. Slidell, at Jalapa, had letters
from  the city of Mexico, which spoke "confidently of his
reception,"~ and gave information of it to the Department.30th Congress, Ist Session, House of Representatives, Executive
Documents, No. 60: " The delay has arisen solely from certain difficulties occasioned hv the nature of the credentials."  See the Letter of
Pena y Pena to Mr. Slidell, Dec. 16, 1845. See his letter also to the
Mexican Council, Dec. 11, 1845.
t 30th Congress, 1st Session, House of Representatives, Executive
Documents, No. 60, p. 32.
XIbid. p. 54.         ~ Ibid. p. 62.
4




38               PRETEXTS FOR WAR.
at Washington. Meanwhile, the Union, the official organ,
had said, on Feb. 10, 1846, that letters had been received to
the 14th of January from Mr. Slidell; that he had not then
"been received by the Government in his official capacity;
neither had they declined his reception."
On March 12th, Mr. Buchanan wrote to Mr. Slidell, "I
am directed by the President to instruct you not to leave that
Republic until you shall have made a formal demand to be
received by the new government."*
On the 14th of January, Mr. Slidell had stated that his
notes to Mr. Pena y Pena had " not yet been considered;"
and he spoke of the new minister of foreign relations as one
whom he knew at heart to be " decidedly favorable to an
amicable adjustment of all questions pending between the
two governments." t
And it was not till March 18th, l  more than two months
after the virtual war-order of Jan. 13th, that the American
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary wrote
home that he had received his decided rejection by the
Paredes Government, and that he had demanded his passports. On that very day Gen. Taylor dated his despatch to
the War Department,~ at " El Sauce, 119 miles from Corpus
Christi," and, of course, thus far into a disputed territory, as
much as that on the north-eastern boundary in debate a few
years before, between England and the United States, or
that portion between 49~ and 54~ 40' on the Pacific slope,
negotiated in 1845- 6.
The warlike movements of the United States are seen by
these letters to have been pushed forward independently of
the reception or the rejection of lMr. Slidell. If the defeat
of his mission was a real cause of war, and not a pretext, an
afterthought, used to justify what had been already done,
* 30th Congress, 1st Session, House of Representatives, Executive
Documents, No. 60, p. 64.     t Ibid. p. 50.
t Ibid. p, 66.              ~ Ibid. p. 123.




PRETEXTS FOR WAR.                 89
the course of modesty would at least have dictated that the
onset to arms should not be sounded until the Minister had
been able to leave the country, and the Executive had time
to lay the matter before Congress to decide the question of
peace or war.
The Christian mode of proceeding cannot he better stated
than in the words of Mr. Gallatin: " Yet, when Mexico refused to receive Mr. Slidell as an Envoy Extraordinary and
Minister Plenipotentiary, the United States should have
remembered that we had been the aggressors; that we
had committed an act acknowledged, as well by the practical law of nations as by common sense and common justice, to be tantamount to a declaration of war; and they
should have waited with patience till the feelings excited
by our own conduct had subsided."*
The conclusions are, therefore,
1. That the refusal to receive an Envoy is not, according
to the law of nations, a just cause of war, until at least every
rational appeal has been exhausted.
2. That the movements of the American army that led to
the spilling of blood, were ordered without special reference
to the mission in Mexico.
3. That, in case the refusal to receive Mr. Slidell were
grave cause enough to involve two great nations in war, the
question should have been submitted to the decision of the
Congress of the United States, then in session, and authorized by the Constitution to decide precisely such questions.
The final and immediate reason assigned at the beginning
of the war was, that " Mexico has passed the boundary of
the United States, has invaded our territory, and shed American blood upon the American soil."  How amply this reason, when closely investigated, bears the character of a pretext, will be shown in detail in chapters seventh and eighth,
to which we refer our readers on the question of boundary.
" Peace with Mexico, p. 5.




40               PREPARATION OF WAR.
CHAPTER V.
PREPARATION OF WAR.
" No, Sir; if we would awaken the desire for peace in the bosom of
England, - if we would render America invincible in battle, - we nmulst
prepare the heart of the nation for the defence of its rights and its honor,
by honestly telling the people the real state of the facts, and by giving
them the reason for the measures we adopt." -  IR. ALLE-N, in Senate
of the U. S. Dec. 16, 1845.
IT was reserved to our day to witness the change of the
popular maxim, "in time of peace prepare for war," into
another rule, of even  more questionable morality, "in
time of peace prepare war."  But, from  a careful examination of the documents relating to the Annexation of
Texas, and its consequences, and of the leading newspapers
of the time, and the means used to act upon the public mind
before the war broke out, we cannot avoid the conclusion,
that a conflict with Mexico was early anticipated, desired,
and prepared for, by those who understood but too well how
easily the war spirit could be kindled in the heart of the
nation. The reasons assigned for the war were but pretences, covering ulterior designs, which it would not do at
once to disclose; but which have, in due succession, all come
out, and now stand in their naked deformity before the
world: Conquest, Dismemberment, Annexation of new territories, the extension of Slavery, the domestic Slave Trade,
and the Slave Power. A distinguished statesman, with
equal truth and severity, characterized the war as a "war
of pretexts." What can prevent it from occupying that position on the pages of candid and impartial history?




PREPARATION OF WAR.                  41
To show that we speak not "; without book" on this subject, let us investigate some of the means by which the ball
was set in motion, and the pretences by which-its crushing
progress was justified after it began to roll.
From the moment that Texas was virtually annexed, in
March, 1845, the clang of arms resounded through the West
and South West. We have already seen that politicians of
opposite parties declared the identity of annexation and war.
But war did not immediately ensue; and, weak and distracted as Mexico was, there was no immediate likelihood of
its occurrence.  Time might heal the wound. A pacific
administration was in power in that republic, and much was
to be hoped from a conciliatory policy. Such were the views
and feelings, now on record, of many of the friends of annexation, as well as of its determined opponents.
But other counsels prevailed. An endeavor seemed forthwith to be made, to irritate, rather than to tranquillize, our
neighbors. The frontiers southward bristled with arms. In
1844, when the Treaty of Annexation was under consideration, assurances had been made to the Texan authorities, by
the United States,* that, during the negotiation and settlement of difficulties, Texas should be defended by the naval
and military forces of this republic, in case they conceived
Mexico had any serious intention of invasion, and the
pledges were redeemed.t But, in 1845, the tone began to
change from defence to offence. As soon as the Joint Resolutions were accepted by the Texan Legislature, and before
the measure of annexation could be perfected, steps were
taken on the part of Texas to receive, and on the part of
the United States to send troops, ostensibly to ward off
* Mr. Houston's speech in the IJ. S. Senate, Feb. 19, 1847. Also,
his Letter to the Texas Banner, July 18, 1847.
t See Pres. Tyler's Message to the Senate, May 15, 1844, with the
accompanying Documents, 28th Congress, 1st Session, Senate, 341,
pp. 82 and following.
4*




42              PREPARATION OF WAR.
attacks from MIexico. A formidable naval force, of nine
war-ships, was placed in the Gulf; a squadron was despatched to the Pacific coast; an expedition, professedly scientific in its aims, but found capable, afterwards, of being
converted into a hostile instrument, was equipped for California and Oregon, and applications to enter it were more
numerous than could be received?.  In a word, all the elements began to muster their tempestuous powers, and brew
the hurricane.
At this critical moment, the press, mighty engine for weal
or woe, interposed but too often its vast influence, to fire the
warlike passions in our countrymen.  In the summer of
1845, no less than three long series of essays appeared in
the organ of the national administration, relative to our difficulties with Mlexico, and characterized by a belligerent tone
of thought and feeling. The distant valley of the West was
agitated by "rumors of wars."  Texas already snuffed the
coming storm. Unusual activity reigned in the barracks,
forts, and navy yards of the country.  The signs of the
times were not to be mistaken; and the wonder now is, that,
with all the preparations that were made for war, during the
year 1845, any body should have been taken by surprise
when it came, in 1846. They who had watched the filling
of the magazine were not startled, when the spark was applied, to witness its explosion.
The following paragraphs, from various journals of that
period, will show the temper of the times; and, when we
consider that the newspaper press has an almost boundless
power, both in creating and expressing public opinion in the
United States, can we hesitate to believe, since effects must
lave a cause, that such sentences as these, read, copied,
caught up by ardent temperaments, repeated from mouth
to mouth, did not a little to precipitate the collision of
arms?
* The Washington Union, June 14, 1845.




PREPARATION OF WAR.                 43
The Harrisburg, (Pa.) Union, April, 1845, has these remarks on "our Foreign relations:" "AMexico, pronzcucianmezto-loving Mexico, threatens the United States with all
sorts of perils short of actual war, if the President executes
a solemn act of Congress, and the expressed will of his
constituents. We pity Mexico, torn as she is by domestic
factions, whose sole object is to rob its poor and suffering
people; but when she talks of war with a friendly nation,
which has spared her on former occasions, we cannot help
looking at her situation and resources, and recollecting how
tempting it is to be invited by aggression to conquer her territory, and free her enslaved population from their petty tyrants.
"The ports of Mexico on the Gulf, Tampico and Vera
Cruz, can be closed by our cruisers in a few days' sail. Her
harbors on the Pacific are open and defenceless, and an
army marching from Texas would be paid in its rout by the
silver mines scattered along its path, and the gold, jewels,
and silver of. the city of Montezuma, would reward its adventurous assailants, while it paid the debt of its conquest.
The settlers of Oregon would take permanent possession of
the Californias, which would thus be added to our territory
on the shores of the South sea.
" Let AMexico therefore beware how far she tempts us by
insolent and threatening language."
The Daily 1Union at Washington, May 10, 1845, has the
following: "The Government of the United States has
been compelled in consequence of the hostile demonstrations
on the part of Mexico, to despatch a powerful squadron to
the Gulf; prepared to prevent or resist any warlike movements. The naval force in the Pacific is, of course, apprized of the posture of affairs. Troops have been assembled
on our Southern frontier, ready to act as circumstances may
demand.




44             "PREPARATION OF WAR.
"These proceedings, however, are purely and exclusively
defensive.  Unless Mexico should commence hostilities,
nothing will be attempted on our side."
The Daily Union, May 14, 1845, has an extract from a
private letter from New Orleans: " Are we going to have
war or not (with Mexico).... ar is all the talk here, as
you may readily conceive. There are many brave fellows
among us who are anxious to show their mettle." Continues
the Union in comment,-" Sound but the trumpet, and there
would pour volunteers enough from the valley of the Mississippi alone, to overrun Mexico, and subdue California.
There would scarcely be wanting a single regular soldier
to form the nucleus of twenty-thousand volunteers."
The Nashville Union of May 24th, quoted in the Washington Union of May 31, 1845, discourses thus: "Mexico
may declare war, but that will not dissolve the bonds of annexation; it may result in additional annexation; and that
view of the case deserves to be well weighed in Mexico before war is resorted to. In such a war, it will be found that
annexation will be sustained by Whigs as well as Democrats."
Correspondent C. in Art. 14th, on Mexico, in the Union
May 28th, says: " The other nations of the earth, must either
exclude her from the rank which she claims among them,
or must compel her to observe those laws of the government
to which they voluntarily and cheerfully submit. We have
seen, that by a timely resort to those measures of coercion
which the circumstances of the case rendered necessary,
France and England have compelled her to redress the
wrongs which she had perpetrated, and to obey that law
which she had violated.  Were this course universally
adopted, Mexico herself would grow richer and happier as
well as better."
The Union of June 2d, predicts, — " The march of the
Anglo Saxon race is onward. They must in the end accom



PREPARATION OF WAR.                45
plish their destiny - spreading far and wide the great principle of self-government; and who shall say how far they
will prosecute the work?
"We infinitely prefer the friendly settlement of the great
question now pending. It will secure the peace and welfare
of the Mexican nation. It can now be done, and it should
now be accomplished. For who can arrest the torrent that
will pour onward to the West? The road to California will
be open to us. Who will stay the march of our Western
people? Our Northern brethren, also, are looking toward
that inviting region, with much more interest than those of
the South. They, too, will raise the cry of Westward, ho!
However strongly many of them may now oppose annexation, yet, let California be thrown open to their ambition,
and the torrent even of their population will roll westwardly
to the Pacific."
Some papers lifted up a warning voice against this warcry. Thus the Cincinnati Gazette, in reference to the last
article, justly remarks: "We feel, as we fear, the spirit of
the article in The Union. It bodes no good; it is evil. Ho!
Westward! Halls of* the Montezumas, and the mines of
Mexico, would start into being 20,000 volunteers! Ay, so
it would. What then?  Why, in this valley, teeming with
life, a spirit of aggrandizement, - of mad and maddening
excitement, - of a selfish and burning thirst of power, - of
military excitement, —of conquest, in its worst and most
detestable form, —would rule as a master tyrant, sweeping
all befbre it, and, as sure as it lives, desolating the hope of
the virtuous and the free. Let all parties shun this spirit as
they would dishonor. Let the country smite it down in its
early manhood, ere that manhood be smitten unto death, by
its foul and degrading breath."
The Houston Star, of May 24, 1845, says: "We are
happy to state here, that arrangements have been made to
obtain accurate information of the movements of the Mex



46              PREPARATION OF WAR.
ican forces; and it is believed that our government will be
prepared to repel any incursions of Mexican troops into the
disputed territory (previously stated to be the territory' West of the Nueces.' ")
The Washington U/5ion, of June ll th, advises that "the
Texana-themselves should collect their own volunteers, and
march to repel the Mexicans from their borders.  If the
troops of Mexico have crossed the Rio Grande, it would be
better for Texas to clear her own confines at once, than wait
for the movements of our regulars.  We hazard nothing in
saying that such, too, would be the decided preference of our
own government. We had understood, indeed, that such was
also the determination of the Texans, if the Mexicans should
be found hovering in the country between the Rio Grande
and the Nueces. We do not mean to say, that if the Texans
should be found wanting to themselves, we should suffer a
hostile foot to tread her legitimate soil, as soon as her Congress and her Convention have ratified our propositions."
The New Orleans Picacyune, of June 7th, says: " We have
received intelligence, by this arrival, to the effect, that the
Miexicans are really concentrating a large force on the Rio
Grande, preparatory to war, in case Texas should agree to
Annexation.  Our informant states, further, that the feeling
in the latter country is thoroughly warlike; the talk is of
nothing else than a brush with Mexico, if she wishes it."
Th/e Unzionz, of June 23d, confesses: "We are for peace,
but it must be an honorable peace. We are for war, if the
rights and honor of our country demand it. This is our true
position."
Otsego, a correspondent in T71e UTion, of June 9th, writes:
"Ten years ago, our country rang with applause of the
heroes of San Jacinto.  It was a New Orleans victory, so
far as Texas was concerned, and was universally regarded as
a successful termination of the brief but glorious contest she
had waged for national freedom."
*           *           *




PREPARATION OF WAR.                 47
"In spite of the active exertions of its opponents, open
or disguised, it is hardly a figure of speech to say, that Annexation is a thing, of the past. Its substance was obtained in
the determination of the Texan people. They are about to
supply the forms, when this gredt American question will proceed steadily, and, it is hoped and believed, peacefully, to its
fulfilment.  Yet, this may not be.  MIadness is sometimes
inflicted upon nations, as upon man; and, if it be true that
the Deity, in his inscrutable wisdom, first deinents the people
whom he would destroy, it may be that the time is not distant, when the banner of freedom will float on her hill tops,
and the Plaza of cliexico be the camping ground of an American army."
The New Orleans Picayune, of June 24th, says: " We
heard nothing of the rumor ourselves, (that the government
had ordered all the troops on the Sabine to advance upon
the Rio Grande, to repel the menaced irruption of the MIexicans upon the territory of Texas,) but we must say that we
had rather see our troops marching towards the Rio Grande,
than to any other quarter of the habitable world."
MTr. Shannon, who had just returned from Mexico, where
he had been Minister Plenipotentiary, in a letter of July 2d,
to Mr. Buchanan, Secretary of State, writes: " While it
may be expected that these drafts (the ones that had not yet
been honored by the Mexican government, and that included
two instalments, amounting to $275,000) will be paid by iJiexico, so soon as her financial abilities will enable her to do so,
without regard to the future relations of' the two countries,
I do not feel justified in giving you any assurance that the
remaining instalments will be paid, until the difficulties existing between the two countries are finally adjusted, or our
government shall adopt strong measures, in order to coerce
2Mexico into a compliance with her treaty stipulations."
TIZe Unzion, of July 18th, quotes from the Missouri Expositor, an extract from a letter dated at Taos, New Mexico:




48             PREPARATION OF WAR.
"The glorious spirit of Annexation is spreading, like a
prairie-fire up the Rio del Norte, and rattling the dried
bones in New Mexico.   *    *    *
" Both Americans and MVIexicans are making large purchases of land upon the streams running into the Rio del
Norte and Arkansas, and anticipating Annexation. ExGovernor Armijo is stirring up and concentrating around
him the means of ejecting Mexican domination, and will
shortly succeed in so doing."
A plan of the war is sketched in a communication to the
Union of Aug. 16th: " 4,000 militia and 2,000 regulars in
Texas, 2,000 militia and 1,500 regulars in other parts of
U. S. 9,500 regulars, 25,000 volunteers, =-34,500.  With
these begin the forward march.  Go a-head! the word, and
prudence and watchfulness to guide. Pass the Rio Grande.
Leave a military force to maintain the captured places in
Mexico, and keep up our line of communication with our
base of operations, and with 30,000 men advance direct
upon Mexico. Vera Cruz should be taken," etc.
In this same month of August, 1845, Major-Gen. Gaines
made a requisition on the Governor of Louisiana, without
any orders, it was said, from the Secretary of War, for 2,000
men, and the troops were received and sent on to the frontiers. The military spirit was rampant in the capital of the
Mississippi Valley. The War Department of the United
States was put in a state of unusual activity; arms were
made ready and despatched even on the sacred day of rest;
ships of war were refitted, manned, and commissioned, and
all was made ready. Gen. Gaines reviewed the troops in
New Orleans on Sunday. Gen. Patterson, of Philadelphia,
came to Washington to offer his services to the President, to
raise 6,000 volunteers. lion. R. M. Johnson, ex Vice-President of the United States, in a letter to the President, dated
Aug. 25th, offered himself and the brave Kentuckians for the
cause. Are not all these things faithfully recorded in the




PREPARATION OF WAR.                   49
chronicles of that period? and are they not significant facts
in the history of this war?  The movements of Gen. Taylor
to Corpus Christi were eagerly copied into all the journals.
The Oregon discussion kept up an excitement during the
session of Congress, 1845 - -6, favorable to -warlilke preparations, and training the people to be familiar with the idea
of a resort to arms.  The cry had been loud, "All of Oregon
or none; now or never; fifty-four forty, or fight;" and all
this inflammatory patriotisrm  was easily turned, -when the
occasion served; into another channel, and the.sword drawn
against M8exico instead of Engiand.  The conflict burst upon
the country suddenly, at last, and took mlany by surprise;
but had they watched the course of public affairs more
closely, they would have anticipated from  such causes as
had been diligently set in operation, the very results which
followed.  The effect on 31exico of' these warlike rumors
and preparations, is well described in the following article:
The Uiu:on of Jan. 12, 1846, says, "Extracts firon  the
papers of Mlatamoras, published in tile Vera Crusano, sperak
of incursions of thle American troops, of detachments of t)a.rties of forty or fifty soldiers, reconnoitering and spying out the
land   The position and movements of the United States'
troops at Corpus Christi, ever since Gen. Taylor has been
there, have excited much alarm, fear, and jealousy, in the
minds of the M3exicans. They seem to be hourly expecting
that the United States' troops ale about to maIrch upon
Ilatamoras, to seize upon that place, and thence, perhaps, to
march to capture some others of their cities."
The state of feeling, too, in the United States, among great
numbers of the people, was, probably, but too correctly
represented in the two sentences below, emanating from
two great commercial and political cities.
The Nfew Orleans Picayune of January, 1846, says, " Be
the result of the rebellion (pron unicreznto of Paredes) what




50           rI~PREPARATIOTL9 Oh- THE WAR,
it may, it seems to us that our relations with Mexico should
not be longer kept in a state of doubtful peace."
The New York Courier, of the same date, said, " We hope
that our Government will promptly force our MAlexican
affairs to a crisis."
With this development of the spirit of conquest in the'
heart of the American people, with the extended means
which had been put in readiness by land and sea to carry
on war, and with the press from almost all quarters sounding
the watchword of battle, we are astonished not that the
crisis of blood came so unexpectedly, but that it was so long
delayed.
There were certain causes assigned for the war, as the
old question of claims, and the new one of boundaries, the
threatened invasion of an American State, and the rejection
of &ur minister at Mexico; but they have already been
partially considered. They were, however, better called
pretexts, than causes of war. They cloaked the designs of
ambition. They were ready stimulants to national pride in
the hands of expert moulders of public opinion. But the
real circumstances that predisposed our countrymen to wary
and the deep main-spring that moved all the chief agents
and advocates in the premises, we have already laid openl
The steps taken to accelerate the tremendous crisis, to rouse
millions of minds to sanguinary sentiments, and pour forth
fire and sword upon Mexico, have been indicated in this
chapter. In succeeding ones, we propose to "count the
cost" of our national pastime in arms, as it respects property, life, and all the elements of human prosperity and
happiness.




ARGUMENTS FOR PEACE.                      51
CHAPTER VI.
THE BEGINNING AND ENDING  OF' TIHE WAR ARGUMENTS
FOR PEACE.
"We daily make great improvements in 11qtt,'oaI, threr is one I wish
to see in moral, philosophy, —the discovery of a plan that would induce and oblige nations to settle their disputes without first cutting one
another's throats. When will human nature be sufficiently improved
to see the advantage of this?"F —RALIX.
ALTHOUGH serious difficulties existed between the United
States and Mexico previously to the advance of Gen. Taylor from the Nueces to the Rio Grande, yet no doubt war
might have been averted, had all parties concerned been
deeply coivinced of tle blessings of peace, the guilt and
horrors of a conflict, and the necessity of finally resorting to
negotiations, because the sword itself could settle nothing.'W'e had been in as great straits before, and had come out
of the danger without shedding one drop of human blood.
Granted that this was a peculiarly exasperating case of
spoliations upon our commerce;* yet had not the United
States a long list of grievances of this kind to adjust with
several European powers at the close of the wars of Na* Yet so late as Aug. 5, 1836, Gen. Jackson said in a letter to Gov.
Cannon, of Tennessee, " Sould Mexico insult our national flag, invade our territory, or interrupt our citizens in the lawful pursuits
which are guarantied to them  by treaty, then the Government will
promptly repel the insult, and seek reparation for the injury. But it
does not appear that offences of this kind have been committed by
Mexico."




52              ARGUIMIENTS FOR PEACE.
poleon, and never thought it necessary to make the appeal to
brute force?  Granted that this was a case of violated sovereignty and trespass upon the rights of American citizens;
yet we had pacifically negotiated with England, but a few
years before, the difficult affairs growing out of the " Caroline " and the " Patriot TWar," and the storm-cloud of danger
was scattered.  Granted that it was a case of deferred payment of acknowledged claims; yet France owed us more and
longer than IMexico, and we bore and forbore; and when,
after long but peaceful urgency, we obtained the money, our
burning sense of justice suddenly congealed, and we have
not to this day paid over what we have received to the individual claimants fbr damages! Granted that it was a
most delicate and difficult question of boundary lines; still
we had hardly seen the ink dry on " the treaty of Washington," and the negotiations of Oregon, by which our limits
were adjusted on the north from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
What but the lust of territory, and the schemes of annexation, and the purposed extension of slavery and the slave
power, prevented the same results in our Mexican difficulties
on the south?  As "a masterly inactivity" had averted an
Oregon war with Great Britain, so might it have averted a
Texas war with MBexico. Never was a finer argument supplied to the cause of peace, as demonstrating the superiority
of her counsels to those of war, than is afforded by the
beginning of the contest with Mexico. Never was there a
more conclusive exhibition of the truth that what the advocates of war call " the necessity" of hostilities, is a necessity
of their own creation, or, at least, of their own exaggeration,
and has no reasonable foundation in national honor, rightly
understood, or patriotism, truly felt.*
* "Mr.'Webster's admirable letter to Lord Ashburton on the subject
of Impressment, did more to settle that question than a hundred battles
could have done." -- Dnr. DEWEY'S PEACE ArDnTnrS, MIay 29, 1848,
p..q




ARGU~MENTS FOR PEACE.                 53
The contrast of our conduct towards Great Britain and
that towards Mexico, is very mlarked.  It was said that
"our title to the whllole of Oregon was clear and unquestionable," but the fleets and armlies of the United States
were not immediately despatched to take possession.  The
final decision was delayed till the next session of Congress,
and submitted to their wisdom.  It was finally settled by
negotiation, and, notwithstanding the claim to 540 40', the
line of the treaty was fixed at 49~. It was conceded, on the
other hand, that the boundaries of Texas were not "clear
and unquestionable," but were matters of future negotiation;
the final ceremonies of annexation were not concluded till
Dec. 22, 1845; but the forces of the United States had
already taken up threatening positions in the Gulf, on the
Pacific, and upon the Nueces; rumors of war were rife; and
althoulgh Congress was in session at the time, a secret order
was despatched to Gen. Taylor, on Jan. 13, 1846,  less
than a month after annexation was finally adjusted, -to advance up to the Rio Grande, into a country which the articles of the Joint Resolution themselves implied was debatable ground.  Could any key to such different measures in
the two cases be detected in the fact that Great Britain was
strong, and that 31exico was weak? or, in the fuirther fact,
that Oregon was free territory and was not wanted, and that
Texas was a slave State and was wanted, and wanted, too,
up to the extreme limit to which she had ever swelled her
revolutionary pretensions?
It is very true that MIexico was deeply incensed against
us on account of the annexation of Texas, that her Minister
called for his passports and returned home after that measure was passed by Congress, and that the further payment
of the claims was suspended, and that ~Mexico refused to
accredit Mr. Slidell as a Resident Minister.  MIany statesmen of all parties in the United States did not blame her
indignation.  A former President of the Republic of Texas;*




54               ARGUVMENTS FOR PEACE.
said in the Senate of the United States, that we "annexed
war,"' when we annexed Texas.  But though wnar might
exist de jure in the judgment of the Mexican Government,
since it was through the instrumentality of citizens of the
South  and WAest that Texan independence was securied,*
yet war did not exist de facto.  The return home of Almonte, the Mexican Minister at Washington, did not necessitate the interruption of all friendly relations between the
two countries; witness the recent dismissal of the English
Mlinister, Bulwer, fiom the court of Spain.  No declaration
of the final non-payment of claims, still due, had been announced on the part of the indebted nation.  Three instalments out of twenty had been punctually paid, and the
fourth was receipted for, but not received.  Mlexico but
paused to see what would be the end of these things.  She
did not reject a commissioner    empowered to settle the,
question of boundaries, but she refused a resident minister,
as his reception would imply that the relations between the
two countries were entirely amicable.  The questions at
issue must first be settled, and then she would be prepared
to resume all the forms of a mutual good understanding.
VWe see, therefore, by this rapid glance, that although
there were serious irritations and recriminations between
the parties, there was no actual war; not a swNord had been
drawn.  There was still hope, that by reason and forbearance on both sides, the term  "sister republics" woulcl not
cease to be even a figure of speech.1:  Similar difficulties
The langua(ge of MIr. Van Buren in his letter to M1lr. Ilammett,
April 20, 1844, on the Texan question, was,', Nothing is either more
true or more extensively known than that Texas was wrested from
Miexico, antd her independence established, thlrotthgl the instrumentality
of citizens of the United St:tes."
t 30th Congress, 2nd Scssmion, HIouse of Pepresentativcs, Executive
Documents, No. 60, pp. 16, 17, 24. 23, 29, 30,,31.
t " General Worth. Has ~Meico declared war against the UTnited
Rta9t~aQ




ARG'UMENTS FOR PEACE.                     55
had been peacefully despatched before in our international
history, and none presumed to doubt that the same result
would follow  now.  It was the nineteenth century of the
Christian era.  The 3yorld had grown wiser and better.
Christian ideas had begun to enter cabinets and conglresses
Negotiations were more satisfactory, as well as more innocent instruments than bayonets.  War was an unpopular
gamlne, and public opinion had joined with the higher voices
of a Christian civilization in branding it as the master crime,of the earth.  So most men felt, wrote, and spoke.
There appeared to be no pressing exigency that required
an instantaneous settlement of the long-standing, difficulties.
No new invasion of Texas was seriously meditated by her,old enemy.*  Mexico had not the sinews of war.  Time
would heal her wounded  honor and pride.  A  handsome
bonus for the brilliant gem, plucked from her coronet, miglt;
be found in remitting a portion or tb.e whole of the instalments still outstanding.  We had waited with other nations
until they had recovered their reason; why could we not do
the same with MAexico?  W~e had borne long and patiently
wvith the old monarchies of Europe, we should  naturally
treat, it might be supposed, with unusual tenderness and
jong-suffering the young republic at our sideBut the military forces of the United States were first
" General Veq'a. No
4' General ItJorth. Are the two countries still at peace?
" General Feqa. Yes. - Minutes of an Interview betiween General IMrorth,
o,4f the United States' carmy, and General TVeya of the Mlexican armny, at
J.iatmntoroms, iZ3archl 28, 1846. 30th Congress, 1st'Session, House of
Representatives, Ex. Doc. No. 60, p. 136,
h"1ostilities"' (still not declared war) "may now be considered as
c.ommenrued." - Generel Taylor's Letter to the Depasrtent, April 26,
84G. samne'Documents.
* Mr- Kaufmlan, of Texas, said in the Senate, July 27, 1848, that
"'the annexation of Texas was the cause, but not the immediate or
nieco sary c.use, of the late wvar with RMexico."




56              ARtGUMENTS FOR PEACE.
advanced to Corpus Christi in the summer of 1845, with
the ostensible purpose of protecting the new State of Texas.*
Not that any imminent danger threatened.  No army of
invasion was mustering against her.  At the most, only
some windy menaces, which the sagacious estimated at their
true value, were aimed at her security.  Mexico was deeply
engaged in her own affairs at homne.  She had little time
or means to attend to truants abroad.  Revolution chased
revolution, and leaders rose and fell on the stormy sea of
her politics.  She -was in no state to wage a war of re-conquest; and we believe most firmly that. it was not in her
heart to win back her lost province at the tremendous hazard of a war with the strongest power on the western continent. Therefore, although Dr. Channing had said in 1836,
that " to annex Texas is to declare perpetual war with
MIexico;"t though MIr. Forsyth, Secretary of State, when
the plan of annexation was proposed by Texas in 1837, had
replied, that "so long as Texas shall remain at war, while
the United States are at peace with her adversary, the
proposition of the Texan Minister Plenipotentiary (for annexation) necessarily. involves the question of w-ar with that
adversary;;"'  and iMr. Van Buren had written, that "we
cannot avoid the conclusion, that the immediate annexation
of Texas would draw after it a war with AMexico;"~ and
M3r. Clay, in the same year, had used the words "annexation and war with M3exico are identical;"}[ and though a
Texan chief magistrate had, as already quoted, declared the
same, after the deed was consummated; yet no immediate
lacts of war did follow.  3Iexico did not refuse to receive a
5 30th Congress, 2rld Session, House of Representatives, Ex. Doce
< o. 60, pp. 79 - 93.
t WVorks, vol. 2, ip. 206, 207.
$ 28th CongTess, Ist Session, Senate, No. 341, p. 114.
~ IIis Letter to AMr. H1nmmet, April 20, 1844.
ii Mr. Clay's RTZlcig'a Letter.




A, RGUM'EINTS FOR P EACE.               57
special commissioner to treat of disputed questions and
boundaries, and w-e affirm whlat. will be the eternal verity of
history, as we believe, when we say that facts demon;tr:alte
there would have been no war after the erection of Texas
into one of the States of' the Aimerican Union, had Gen.
Taylor never removed his camp firom  tlhe banks of the
Nueces to those ef the Rio   ranlde.  It was peculiarly a
case for cool, calm  deliberation, negotiation, dignified fol.bearance, in which the greater power would lose no honor,
but would gain much, by a temperate and conciliating course
with the weaker one.  No final door of conferelnce w-as
closed, and much x;;as to be hoped from that healing emfcacy
of time, which soothes at once the griefs of a nation as
lthose of the humblest of its citizens.
But on the 13th of January, 1846, as bfore stated, the
fatal order wa.s issued by the American Executive, by which
Gen. Taylor was directed to advance and eccupy, with the
troops under his command, " positions on or near the east
bank of the Rio del Norte," as soon as it could be conveniently done.  How little this measure was necessary for the
protection of Texas, or to ward off any threatened or suspected invasion, is apparent firom  the letters of' the com_nander-in-chief, -who was on the spot, and knew what was
going on, written to the Secretary of War at home.*  Aug.
15, 1845, Gen. Taylor writes, " Nor do I fear that the reported concentration of troops at SMatamoras is for any purpose of invasion."  Aug. 20th, " Caravans of traders arrive
occasionally from  the Rio Grande, but bring no news of
importance.  They represent that there are no regular
troops on that river, except at MIatamoras, and do not seem
* See this whole correspondence in 30th Congress, 2nd Session,
House of Representatives, Ex. Doe. No. 60. The President said in
his annual message, Dec. 1845, that the forces of the United States
were in a position (on the Kueces) " to defend our own and the rights
of Texas."  Why then were they advanced to the Rio Grande 1




58             AARGUMIENTS FOR PEACE.
to be aware of any preparations for a demonstration on this
bank of the river."  Sept. 6th, " I have the honor to report
that a confidential aent, despatched some days since to
lMatamoras, has returned, and reports that no extraordinary
preparations are going forward there."  Oct. 11th, "Recent arrivals from tle Rio Grande bring no news of a different aspect from what I reported in my last."  Jan. 7,
1846, "A'   recent scout of volunteers from  San Antonio
struck the river near Presidio, Pio Grande, and the commander reports everythling quiet in that quarter."  Feb.
16th, "Many reports will doubtless reach the Departmernt,
giving exaggerated accounts of ]Mexican preparations to
resist our advance, if' not indeed to attempt an invasion of
Texas.  Such reports have been circulated even at this
place, and owe their origin to personal interests connected
with the stay of the army here. I trust that they will receive no attention at the War Department."
If all were thus tranquil, and hopeful of peace, why did the
world hear that thunder-clap in a clear sky, that the American army had changed their quarters 150 miles further West?
But, to those who had fathomed the deep purpose of the
Annexation of Texas, " the trumpet gave no uncertain
sound," as it heralded the march over that desert prairie;
for its every note rang of conquest, new additions of territory, and the expansion of Southern institutions.  Is not
this true? and, if true, should it not now be as fearlessly
spoken, as it was then daringly done?  W7e are no sectionists, or disunionists, or partisans; but the truth must out,
else it were better that every lip were cold, and every tongue
dumb.  YWe consider the war had virtually befun, the moment Gen. Taylor had struck his tents at Corpus Christi.
The door of conciliation might then be con.sidered as shut
and barred.  The Ituobicon was crossed.
The next step in this argument for peace, drawn from the
commencement of the -war, is to consider the boundary




ARGUMiENTS FOR PEACE.'       59
question.  Who was the aggressor?   Difficulties existed,
but not war de facto.  W ho applied the spark that fired the
magazine?  On which side was war an offensive, and on
which side a defensive act?  And here it is to be observed,
thlt whichever party in such a case first assumes active hostilities, has much to answer for. It is no light matter to
Cry havoc; and let slip the dogrs of war."  And though in
such events both sides are always to be blamed for pushing
their quarrels into the neighborhood of such an awful extremity, yet a peculiar guilt rests upon the invader, who strikes
the first blow.
It is conceded, in all quarters, that there was a boundary
question between Mexico and the United States.  The official documents, on both sides, demonstrate this fact in the
strongest manner.  The Resolutions that authorized Texas
to annex herself to the Union, bore this fact on their face.
The language of one was: "First, said State to be formed,
subject to tlhe adjustment by this Government of all questions of boundary, that may arise with other governments."
The clause "other governments," can have no reference to
any power but M3!exico; because Texas borders upon no
other country, except the United States, to which it was
annexed.
IMr. Ashley, of Arkan sas, when advocating annexation in
the United States Senate, said: * "The third (his own resolution) speaks for itsel', and enables the United States to
settle the boundary between M3exico and the United States
properly.  And I will here add, that the present boundaries
of Texas, I learn from Judge Ellis, the President of the
Convention that formed the Constitution of Texas, and also
a member of the first Legislature under that Constitution,
were fixed as they now are, (that is, extending to the Rio
Appendix to the Cougressional Globe, 28th Congress, 2d Session,
p. 288.




60              ARGU.MAIENTS FOR PEACE.
Grande,) solely and professedly with a view of havi2ng a large
margin in t'he legotition w ith liexico, and not with the expectation of retair.,ing them as they now exist in their statute
book."  Even Texas had not yet ventured to grasp such a
lion's share, except as an advantageous position to occupy
when she  went into negotiation.
W57hen t1he project of' annexing Texas by a treaty was in
process, lMr. dalhoun, Secretary of State, wrote to 31r.
Green, our leharg d'Xaf:iires at MIexico: "You are enjoined,
also, by the President, to assure the M3exican Government
that it is his desire to settle all questions between the two
countries, which may grow out of this treaty, or any other
cause, on the most liberal and satisfactory terms, including
that of boundary; and, with that view, the minister who
has been recently appointed will be shortly sent, with adequate powers."  And again, in the same letter, he says
"The United States have left the boundary of Texas without specification, so that wh-at the line of boundary should
be might be an open question, to be fairly and fully discussed and settled, according  to the rights of each,- -the
mutual interests andl security of the two countries."
31r. Benton, and Airr. Silas WTright, of the Senate, both
spoke and voted against the Treaty of Annexation, partly
on this very ground of boundary. "I wash my hands," said
the former, "of all attempts to dismember the Mexican
Republic, by seizing Iher dominions in New MNexico, Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Tamaulipas.  The treaty, in all that
relates to the boundary of the Rio Grande, is an act of unparalleled outrage on Mexico.  It is the seizure of two
thousand miles of her territorvy, without a word of explanation with her, and by virtue of a treaty with Texas, to
which she is no party."  And he closed his speech by offering the following resolution: " Resolved, That the incorporation of the left bank of the Rio del Norte into the American Union, by virtue of a treaty with Texas, comprehend



ARGUMENTS FOR PEACE.                  61
ingl, as the said incorporation would do, a portion of the
M.Zexican departments of New Mexico, Chihuahua, Coahuila,
and-Tamau!ilipas, would be an act of direct aggression upon
M3Iexico, ibr all the consequences of which the United States
Nwould stand responsible."
Mr. Wright, in a speech at Watertown, N. Y., said: " I felt
it to be my duty to vote against the ratification of the Treaty
of Annexation. I believed that the treaty, from the boundaries
that must be implied from it, embraced a country to which
Texas had no claims, over which she had never asserted
jurisdiction, and which she had no right to cede."
The intention was, however, as is evident fiom the letter
of Mr. Calhoun, fbr the United States, as MIr. Ashley had
said of Texas, to have "a lacrge narguyian iln the neyotiation
with MI[exico."  And finally, as a conclusive and unanswerable proof that there was a question open relative to the
boundaries, we have the MIessage of President Polk, Dec.
1845,* in which it is said that Mr. Slidell was authorized, as
" an Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to
Mexico, clothed with full powers to adjust and definitely,settle all pending dilherences between the two countries,
including those of boundary between Mexico and the State
of Texas."  The matter was so understood by 3Ir. Donelson, diplomatic agent to Texas, who wrote to Gen. Taylor,
during the summer of 1845: " I would by no means be understood as advising you to take an offensive attitude in regard
to Mexico, without further orders fiom the Government of
the United States."
"The occupation of the country between the Nueces and
the Rio Grande, you are aware, is a disputed question."
In 183G, an agent, IMr. Mlorfitt, was despatched by Gen.
Jackson, the President of the United States, to examine
and report upon the condition of Texas, which had then
d See, on this and other points belo0w, the official documents of Congress, and the Appendix to the Congressional Globe.
6




62              ARGUIIENTS FOR PEACE.
established an independent government; and in his report,
dated in August of that year, he stated: that "the political
limits of Texas proper, previous to the last revolution, were
the Nueces River on the west, along the Red River on the
north, the Sabine on the jeast, and the Gulf of MIexico on
the south."*
Again; M3r. Donelson, in a, letter to justify his refusal to
order Gen. Taylor to occupy the east bank of the Rio
Grande, writes, July 11, 1845, to IMr. Buchanan, Secretary
of State: " The Joint Resolution of our Congress left the
question (of limits between Texas and Mexico) alln open
one."
" I have been far from admitting that the claim of Texas
to the Rio Grande ought not to be maintained.  This was
not the question. It was, whether, under the circumstances,
we should take a position to make war for this claim, in the
face of an acknowledgment on the part of this government,
(Texas,) it could be settled by negotiation.  I at once
decided that we should take no such position, but should
regard only as within the limits of our protection that portion of territory actually possessed by Texas, and whilh she
did not consider a subject of negotiation."  " What the executive of Texas had determined not to fight for, but to settle
by negotiation, to say the least of it, could as well be left to
thfe United States upon the same condition."
IMr. Woodbury, in his speech in favor of ratifying the
Treaty of Annexation, says: " Texas, by a mere law, could
acquire no title but what she conquered from MIexico, and
actually governed. Hence, though her law includes more
than the ancient Texas, she could hold and convey only
that, or at the uttermost only what she exercised clear jurisdiction over."t
X House Jolrnal, No. 35, 2d Session. 24th Congress; 24th Congress,
2d Session, IIo. of Rep. Ex. Doc. No. 35, p. 12.
t Appendix to Congressional Globe: June, 1844, p. 768.




ARGIJMENTS FOR PEACE.               63
3Mr. Gallatin says: "The Republic of Texas did, by an
act of Dec. 1836, declare the Rio del Norte to be its boundary. It will not be seriously contended that a nation has a
right, by a law of its own, to determine what is or shall be
the boundary between it and another country. The act was
nothing more than the expression of the wishes or pretensions of the government. As regards right, the act of Texas
is a perfect nullity."*
Up to the last moment before the war broke out, Gen.
Taylor acknowledged that the question of boundaries was
open; for, in his reply to Gen. Ampudia, who commanded
him to retire beyond the Nueces, he said, April 12, 1846: t
"I have been ordered to occupy the country up to the left
bank of the Rio Grande, until the boundary shall be definitively
settled."
A work, entitled The Republic of the United States of
America, embracing a review of the war and defending it,
says, p. 112: "By the act of annexation, the question of
boundary between Mexico and Texas was left an open one,
to be decided by negotiation between the govcmments of
Mexico and the United States."
The Message of the President of the United States, in
relation to the territories of New Mexico and California, of
July 24, 1848, states: "That the province of ZNew Mexico,
according to its ancient boundaries, as claimed by Mexico,
lies on both sides of the Rio Grande. That part of it on
the east of that river was in dispute when the war between
the United States and bMexico commenced.   *  *  *  *
"Though the republic of Texas, by many acts of sovereignty which she exerted and exercised, some of which
were stated in my Annual Message of becenmber, 1846, had
established her clear title to the country west of the Nueces,
and bordering on that part of the Rio Grande which lies below
~ Peace with Mexico, p. 7.
t 30th Congress, Ist Session, Ex. Doe. No. 60, p. 139.




64              ARGUMENTS FOR PEACE.
the province of New Mexico, she had never conquered or
reduced to actzial possession, and brought under her qovernmrent and laws, that part of New Mexico lying ctast of the Rio
Grande, which she claimed to be within her limits.  On the
breaking out of the war, we found Mexico in possession of
this dislprted territory.  As our army approached Sante F6,
(the capital of New Mexico,) it was found to be held by a
governor under JIexican authority, and an armed force collected to resist our advance. The inhabitants were JMexicans, acknowledging allegiance to J3iexico. The boundary
in dispute was the line between the two countries engaged in
actual war, and the settlement of it, of necessity, depended on
a treaty of peace." *
Observe, this was a region east of the Rio Grande. Observe, too, that as Santa F6e, on the Upper Rio Grande, was
confessedly not brought under the government and laws of
Texas; so was neither the port of Point Isabel, nor other
towns and villages on the Lower Rio Grande. All that can
be predicated of one can be of the other, so far as their
being " conquered and reduced to the actual possession" of
Texas was concerned.
Finally, we quote at length a most significant passage on
the special subject of the boundary, and the general question
of the war, from "the author" of annexation himself; Mir.
Calhoun, whose sincerity in declaring his opinions, whatever
we may think of their nature and bearing, never has been
called in question.
Hie says t "It is true Mlexico claimed the whole of
Texas; but it is equally true that she recognized the difference, and showed a disposition to act upon it, between the
country knowpn as Texas proper and the country between it
and the Del Norte. It is also true, that we and Texas
recognized the same difference, and that both regarded the
* The italics are ours.
t Printed speech, United States Senate, Feb. 24, 1847, pp. 12, 13.




ARGUMENTS FOR PEACE.                65
boundary as unsettled; as the resolution of annexation,
which provides that the boundary between Texas and M!exico shall be determined by the United States, clearly shows.
It is worthy of remark, in this connection, that this provision
in the Joint Resolution is understood to have been inserted,
in consequence of the ground taken at the preceding session
by the Senator friom Missouri, on the discussion of the
treaty, that the Nueces was the western boundary of Texas,
and that to extend that boundary to the Rio del Norte would
take in part of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and New Mexico.
What, then, ought to have been the course of the executive,
after annexation, under this resolution?  The very one
which they at first pursued, - to restrict the position of our
troops to the country actually occupied by Texas at the
period of annexation. All beyond, as far as the executive
was concerned, ought to have been regarded as subject to
the provisions of the resolutiolis, which authorized the government to settle the boundary.
" Why negotiate, if it were not an unsettled question?
Why negotiate, if the Rio del Norte, -is, as it was afterwards assumed, - was the clear and unquestionable boundary?  And if not, upon what authority, after the attempt
to open negotiation had failed, could he determine what was
the boundary, viewing it as an open question?  Was it not
his plain duty, on such an occurrence, to submit the question to
Congress, which was then in session, and in whom the right
of establishing the boundary and declaring war was clearly
invested?  Had that course been adopted, I greatly mistake
if the sense of this body would not have been decidedly
opposed to taking any step, which would have involved the
two countries in war. Indeed I feel a strong conviction,
that if the Senate had been left free to decide on the question, not one-third of the body would have been found in
favor of war. As it was, a large majority felt themselves
6*




66              ARGUMIENTS FOR PEACE.
compelled, as they believed, to vote for the bill recognizing
the existence of war, in order to raise the supplies of men
and money necessary to rescue the army under Gen. Taylor,
on the Del Norte, from  the dangers to which it was exposed."
CHAPTER VII.
THE SADIE SUBJECT CONTINUED.'" Let us hope, then, that the law of nature, which makes virtuous
conduct produce benefit, and vice loss to the agent, in the long run,
which has sanctioned the common principle, that honesty is the best
policy, will in time influence the proceedings of nations as well as
individuals; that we shall at length be sensible, that war is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; that it multiplies,
instead of indemnifying losses.' - JEFFERSON.
NOTWITHSTANDING the foregoing irrefragable proofs that
the boundary between Texas and Mexico was in dispute, it
has been asserted that the Louisiana purchase, of 1803, extended to the Rio Grande.  So it was claimed, as it is customary to have "a large margin for negotiation."  But it
was a trick of diplomacy. Western Florida was laid claim
to, as a part of the same purchase, but the claim did not
stand. So Oregon was claimed, to 54~0 40', but the treaty
reduced the line down to 49.~ These large margins of
claims are the last things a reasonable being would suppose
that nations would be willing to earry before the bar of the
Public Opinion of Christendom, as adequate causes of war.
If annexation was but re-annexation, why did the United
States sleep so many years, and allow an independent republic of Texas to swallow up the claim, and put in peril of




ARGUMENTS FOR PEACE.                      67
perpetual alienation, or of foreign domination, the rights
of the  American  Union, from  the  Sabine to  the  Rio
Grande? *
The defence that is set up on the ground that Texas,
when she became independent, claimed to the Rio Grande,
and that Santa Anna, in 1836, allowed the claim, is equally
futile.  Why Texas aspired so far, is confessed in the quotation already made from  Mr. Ashley, in which he vouches
for the reason why that was done, on the very competent
authority of the President of the Texan Convention that
formed the Constitution.  The fact that Santa Anna was a
Texan prisoner of war, which is stated at the very head of
tile preamble of the alleged treaty, and in imminent danger
of having his head cut offtt if he did not concede all that
was required of him, is a sufficient answer to that branch
of the argument.:  A  compulsory olligation of that kind,
* Hon. J. Q. Adams said, in tihe House of Representatives, May
13, 1846, "I wrote that despatch as Secretary of State, and endeavoured to make out the best case I could jbr my country, as it was mzy
duty. But I utterly deny that I claimed the Rio del Norte as our
boundary, in its full extent. I only claimed it a short distance up the
river, and then diverged -to the northward some distance from the
stream." - Appendix to the Congressional Globe, p. 907, 29th Congress,
ist Session.
t Article sth of the " Treaty."  " The President and Cabinet of the
IRepublic of Texas, exercising the high powers confided to them by
the people of Texas, do, for and in consideration of the foregoing
stipulation, solemnly engage to refrain from taking the life of the Preszdent, Santa Anna, and of the several officers of his late army," etc. And
article 11th threatens, in case of refusal to enter into such an agreement, such treatment as Texas might deem proper in view of Mexican
cruelties!
t Gen. Lamar, Secretary 6f war of Texas, says, in a letter to the
President, Burnet, May 12, 1836, " Wrhat good can they hope to result
from an extorted treaty? General Santa Anna is our prisoner of war.
*    *    *    What he assents to whilst a prisoner, he may reject
when a freeman."




68              ARGUMENTS FOR PEACE.
loses its binding force fiom the very nature of the circumstances which give it birth. Besides, he could not constitutionally act for the whole Mexican Government, although
he was President; and one of the first acts the government did when he returned home, was to disown the socalled "treaty" of' San Jacinto.
It is true that Texas had exercised some acts of " sovereignty and jurisdiction "west of the Nueces. Corpus Christi
was on that side of the river. But power was one thing, and
right was another.  She might and did exercise such power
west of the Nueces; but that was a very different jurisdiction
from going to the Rio Grande, 150 miles, in the use of her
prerogatives.  She had an imperfect revolutionary title to
certain places and parts,* as just stated; but the documents
already quoted make it as plain as noon-day that both
Texas and the United States, before and after annexation,
regarded the Rio Grande only as a negotiable, not as an
established line. The Texas of annexation was not a definite, but an indefinite territory.  Every speech, every
resolution, every letter, every message declared it without
a dissenting voice before the war began.  To go to war
with AMexico for debatable land, was what Texas did not
expect or require, as MIr. Donelson stated; for the question was not one to be settled by war, for war settles nothing, but unsettles everything; but it was a legitimate subject for diplomacy, and Mexico consented to meet the United
States in the person of a commissioner appointed for that
purpose, and for none other.
* The Texas county of San Patricio was west of the river Nueces,
and lay in the immediate' neighborhood of Corpus Christi. The
official language of Mr. Donelson was, "Corpus Christi * * * is
the most western point now occupied by Texas."
"The occupation of the country between the Nueces and the Rio
Grande, you are aware, is a disputed question. Texas holds Corpus
Christi; Mexico, Santiago, near the mouth of the Rio Grande."




ARGUI3IENTS FOR PEACE.                  69
The fact that certain gazeteers, geographies, and atlases,
from 1820 to the present time, stated the Rio Grande as the
boundary of Texas, are all of suspicious authority, for they
are chiefly American works; and they no more prove that
such was the real boundary of that province, than Mitchell's
outline map, extending the northern line of Oregon to 54~ 40',
proves that that was the true limit of the United States in
that direction.  Claims and rights are different terms.  The
blue and red of geographical lines are often the negotiable,
rather than the.adjusted limits.  Let them  pass for what
they are worth; but they cannot shake one documentary
fact, one diplomatic concession. Another conclusive proof
that the left bank of the Rio Grande was not " American
soil," in any other sense than that it was North American
soil, is furnished by the facts that Mexican custom-houses
were recognized at Brazos Santiago, or Point Isabel, and at
Santa Fe, by the United States; and that duties were paid
by its citizens at those places after the annexation of Texas.
An official order was issued by the Secretary of the Treasury regulating exportation to, and importation from Santa
Fe, as a Mexican town within the period, when, according
to other statements of high authority, it must have constituted an integral portion of Texas, and, therefore, of the
Ujnited States, after annexation.*
* An act of Congress was passed, May 3, 1845, "allowing a drawback upon foreign mcrchandize exported in the original packages to
Chihuahua and Santa FE, in 3Iexico," etc. And Mr. Walker, Secretary of the Treasury, says, in his annual report, December, 1845, that
it had "gone to some extent into effect." - See the Official Dociuments.
The Austin Democrat, of 1848, in arguing the claims of Texas to
Santa Fe, puts the case with great strength: " If Santa Fe is a province taken by force of arms from Mexico, (and, therefore, belonging
to the United States as a territory, and not to the State of Texas), so
was the country between the Nueces and the Rio Grande; and the
ver moment Gen. Taylor get foot on the westtrn bank of the former




70               ARGUMENTS FOR PEACE.
This point was so indisputable, that it was freely admitted before the war, though, after the war broke out, it
seemed to be, in spirit at least, denied. Thus the Secretary
of War, July 8, 1845, in a letter to Gen. Taylor, wrote as
follows: —" This Department is informed that Mexico has
some military establishments on the east side of the Rio
Grande, which are, and for some time have been, in the
actual occupancy of her troops. In carrying out the instructions heretofore received, you will be careful to avoid
any acts of aggression, unless an actual state of war should
exist.  The Mexican forces at the parts in their possession,
and which have been so, will not be disturbed as long as the
relations of peace between the United States and Mexico
continue." *
On July 30, 1845, the Secretary again wrote to the
American General as follows:-"You are expected to occupy, protect, and defend the territory of Texas, to the extent that it has been occupied by the people of Texas. The
Rio Grande is claimed to be the boundary between the two
countries, and up to this boundary you are to extend your
protection, only excepting any posts on the eastern side
thereof which are in the actual occupancy of Mexican
forces, or JMexican settlements, over which the Republic of
Texas did not exercise jurisdiction at the period of annexation, or shortly before that event. It is expected, in selectstream, lie committed an aggression upon a foreign soil, and hostilely
invaded a country with which his country was at peace. If Laredo
was ours, so was Santa F6; if Santa Fe was not, neither was Laredo."
We give a list of the following towns and hamlets then belonging to
Mexico on the east side of the Ptio Grande, taken from Mr. Davis's
speech in the Rouse of Representatives, Dec., 22, 1846, and from Lieut.
Emory's Map:- Embuda, Canada, Nambe, Pojuaque, Santa ZFe,
Agua Fria, San Juan, Zandia, Alameda, Albuquerque, Valencia,
Tome, Las Nutrias, Parida, Valverde, Prenido, Laredo, and many
others.
* MOth Congress, l st Session, Ex. Doe. No 60, p. 88.




ARGUJIENTS FOR PEACE.                 71
ing the establishment for your troops, you will approach as
near the boundary line, the Rio Grande, as prudence will
dictate.  With this view the President desires that your
position, for a part of your forces at least, should be west of
the river Nueces."'
And on Nov. 10, 1845, the American Executive instructed Mr. Slidell, envoy to Mexico, to offer a relinquishment
of the claims of the United States against that nation, and
5,000,000, provided she would allow the Rio Grande to be
established as the western boundary of Texas. t
It were easy to quote from Mexican authorities numerous
declarations to the effect that the occupation of the left bank
of the Rio Grande was an act of invasion, and, therefore,
of war, on the part of the American troops. But it will be
more to our purpose to show, at some length, that such was
unconsciously, and even against stout disclaimers, the feeling
and natural expression of the Americans, as well as of the
Mexicans, and even of the prime agents and actors in the
annexation of Texas, and the war with Mexico.  " Nature
cannot be driven out with a pitchfork."  What men really
feel, they will unconsciously, and unfavorably to their own
cause, express, if not directly, yet at least incidentally.
We pass by in this connection the declaration of Mr. Benton in the Senate, that to occupy the east bank of the Rio
Grande, " would be an act of direct afggression on Mexico,"
and quote that of Mr. Ingersoll in the House of Representatives,+ that "the stupendous deserts between the Nueces
and the Bravo (the Rio Grande or del Norte) rivers, are
the natural boundaries between the Anglo-Saxon and the
ZMauritanian races.  There ends the valley of the west.
* 30th Congress, 1st Session, Ex. Doe. No. 60, pp. 82, 83.
t Ibid. z-o. 52, p. 7S. $ 25,000,000 were to be offered for California,
and $20,000,000 for that province, provided the line of boundary
should not include Monterey on the Pacific. p. 79.
I 29th Congress, 1st Session, Appendix to Cong. Globe.




72             ARGUMENTS FOR PEACE.
There Mexico begins. Thence, beyond the Bravo, begin
the Moorish people and their Indian associates, to whom
Mexico properly belongs, who should not cross that desert
if they could, as on our side we ought to stop there; because
interminable conflicts must ensue from  either our going
south, or their coming north of that gigantic boundary.
While peace is cherished, that boundary will be sacred.
Not till the spirit of conquest rages, will the people on
either side molest or mix with each other; and whenever
they do, one or the other race must be conquered or extinguished."
iMr. Calhoun, too, in a letter dated Aug. 12, 1844, to 3Mr.
King, the American minister to France, says, "N ature herself has clearly marked the boundary between her (Mexico)
and Texas, by natural limits too strong to be mistaken." *
We come. then, first, to an incidental and unconscious testimony of the commander of the American troops himself.
VWhen he met on the river Colorado on his march, the
MIexican officer, who forbade his crossing that river, and
declared that the act would be regarded as an unwarranted
aggression on MIexico, how did Gen. Taylor conduct the
matter? Did he act and speak as if the IMexican troops,
by advancing some thirty miles east of the Rio Grande, had
violated the territory of the United States?. Did he charge
them with invasion, and order them to retire into their own
country on the right bank of the Rio Grande?  Not at all.
Ile manifests no zeal to repel invasion. He kindles with no
indignation that they should threaten to shed "American
blood on American soil." IHis whole mien and behavior
wear the most indubitable and natural semblance to that
of an invader. He does not order off the opposing troops,
as if they had no right there, but he manifests a deter* 28th Congress, 2nd Session, Appendix to Congressional Globe,
p. 5,




ARGUMENTS FOR PEACE.                 73
mined spirit to go whither he was ordered, right or wrong,
and no matter through what opposition. He had none of
the passion with which he would have met a British force
advancing in hostile array into New York or Illinois. His
whole bearing says in words that could not lie, "M Ay march
is an aggression on Mexico, or 4 least an advance upon disputed territory. If the Mexicans are invaders, so much
more am I. But a soldier must obey orders." If these
things were not so, why did not the brave commander fire
on these presumptuous aggressors, who had penetrated so
far into an American State under the protection of the
Union?  Once at least Gen. Taylor so far forgot himself as
to write thus, "It was my earnest desire to execute my
instructions in a pacific mTanner, to observe the utmost regard for the personal rights of all citizens residing on the left
bank of the river, and to take care that the religion and
customs of the people should suffer no violation."" Truly
a very worthy spirit. But why this exceeding care, if these
were citizens, not of Mexico, but of the United States, as
the pretended boundary claim made them?
A similar undesigned, and therefore altogether more powerful, evidence that Gen. Taylor had advanced upon Mexican,
or at least disputed, soil, is afforded by his officers and men,
writing home to their friends, or by letter-writers, who were
in favor of the Mexican war, and who did not see the bearing
of their own statements. We, quote high Executive authority to the same effect.
In his annual message of Dec., 1846, the President says,
"by rapid movements the province of New Mexico, with
Santa Fe, its capital, lihas been ccptured without bloodshed,"
Again, he says in the same missage, s" in less than seven
mo'nths after Mexico commenced hostilities, at a time selected by herself, we have taken possession of many of her
4 30th Congress, 1st Session, House of Representatives, Ex. Doc.
L'o. 60, p. 145.
71




74             ARGUMENTS FOR PEACE.
principal posts, driven back and pursued her invading army,
and acquired military possession of the Tizexican provinces of
New MIexico, New Leon, Coahuila, Tamaulipas," * etc. But
all these provinces extended east of the Rio Grande, except
New Leon.
T. B. Thorpe, author of " Our Army on the Rio Grande,"
and other works, in describing the approach of Gen. Taylor's army to that river, says, " Large droves of splendid
horned cattle were now frequently seen; and occasionally a
small cotton field, hedged in by thorn bushes, strengthened
by trunks of trees set in the ground, gave welcome evidence
of a settled country.  Scattered Mexican huts next appeared."  Could this have been a part of Texas proper?
The author of " the Life of General Zachary Taylor, and
a History of the War in Mexico," published in the " Brother
Jonathan, Battle Sheet, 1847," an advocate of the war, uses
the following language: " The administration at Wrashington,
on the 13th of January, 1846, ordered Gen. Taylor to move
forward, and occupy the east bank of the Rio Grande, opposite Matamoras, but not disturb any of the i1exican settlements, or any military posts that might be on this side of the
Rio Grande, and to purchase every thing needed for the army
at the highest price."
Again, "on setting out on this march, he (Gen. Taylor)
embodied the above instructions in one of his general orders,
which he caused to be circulated among the Mexicans on the
east side of the Rio Grande."
Again, "on the 24th, Gen. Taylor, leaving the main command with Gen. Worth, and taking with him  Col. Twiggs,
and his dragoons, approached Frontone, a small M1exican
village at Point Isabel, in the department of Tamauliopas,
* The Legislature of Tamaulipas has demanded two millions of dollars of the Federal Government, as indemnity for the territory North
of the Rio Grande, ceded to the United States by the treaty of Gaudealupe.- Newspaper, 1848.




ARGUMENTS FOR PEACE.                      75
where Gen. Garcia was stationed with two hundred and fifty
men."
And once more; "but three or four inoffensive Mlexicans
were found in the place (Frontone)." *
We ask how could all these things have been, if this were
American, Texan, or United States soil?
Capt. W. S. Henry, of the U. S. Army, wrote a work, entitled " Campaign Sketches of the War with Mexico," in
which the following passages, unconscious witnesses of the
truth, are found:
"Friday, August 1, 1845.  After enjoying the delightful
view from the bluff, a party of us strolled over the beautiful
plain, on the borders of which many ILfexican families reside."
Observe that this was in the immediate vicinity of Corpus
Christi.
"M Iarch  19, 1846.  Passed many pens in which the
Mifexicans confine their droves of cattle and horses."
"March 23d.  "This part of the country is really beautiful, and I am not surprised that the AMexicans are loath to
part with it."
"March 28th.  As we approached the bank we passed
through a long line of Mexican huts."
"Two hours after our arrival a flag-staff was erected, under the superintendence of Colonel Belknap, and soon the
* A law was passed by the Congress of the United States, after the
annexation of Texas, Dec. 29, 1S45, "'That the State of Texas shall
be one collection district, and the city of Galveston the only port of
entry, to which shall be annexed Sabine, Velasco, Matagorda, Cavello,
La Vaca, and Corpus Christi, as ports of delivery only."  No port
routes were established beyond the valley of the'ueces until after the
commencement of the war.
By an additional act of Congress, passed March 3, 1847, Saluzia was
made the only port of entry, and Matagorda, Aranzas, Capano, and
Corpus Christi, the only ports of delivery in that collection district of
Texas.
Why were Brazos, Santiago, and Point Isabel left out, if they belonged at that time to Texas?




76              ARGUMENTS FOR PEACE.
flag of our country, a virgin one, was seen floating upon the
banks of the Rio Grande, proclaiming in a silent but impressive manner that the'area of freedom' was again extended.
As it was hoisted, the band of the 8th Infantry played the'Star-spangled Banner,' and the field music' Yankee Doodle.' There was not ceremony enough in raising it. The
troops should have been paraded under arms, the banner of
our country should have been hoisted with patriotic strains
of music, and a national salute should have proclaimed, in
tones of thunder, that' Liberty and Union, now and forever,
one and inseparable,' had advanced to the banks of the Rio
Grande." Then it is certain that they had not reached that
river before Gen. Taylor pitched his camp there, by this
writer's own testimony.*
The same author says, under date of BMarch 30th, "our
situation is truly extraordinary: right in the enemy's country
(to all appearance,) actually occupying their corn and cotton
fields, the people of the soil leaving their homes,t and we, with
a small handful of men, marching with colors flying and
drums beating, right under the very guns of one of their
principal cities, displaying the star-spangled banner, as if in
defiance under their very nose; and they, with an army twice
our size at least, sit quietly down and make no resistance, not
the first effort to drive us off."
In a "Life of Major-General Zachary Taylor, with an
account of his brilliant achievements on the Rio Grande,"
etc., etc.by C. Frank Powell, is the following passage;;  "we
* The Italics are ours.
t " The population fled at the approach of your army. I wish to
know if it has come to this, that when an American army goes to protect American citizens on American territory, they flee from it as from
the most barbarous enemy? Yet such is the assumption of those who
pretend that on the east bank of the Rio Grande, where your arms took
possession, there were Texas population, Texas power, Texas lawvs,
and American United Statea power and law." _ Corwin's Speech in the
Smatbe, Feb. 11, 1847.        t p 13.




ARGU3JENTS FOR PEACE.               77
shall not make it our province to question the policy of taking
forcible possession of a territory known to be held in dispute
by two free and independent republics; but nothing is clearer than that the commander of the American forces but complied with implicit instructions of the Department, which were
his guaranty and justification."
"We cannot say, that neutrality would have been preserved had possession not been taken; and it would seem
that the acquisition of the republic, - but in equal part
interested in the dispute, - by a third power, did not change
the position of affairs, or authorize such pIower to invest the
territory. Be this as it may, however, on the 28th of 3larch,
1846, the United States' army took up its quarters opposite
Matamoras, and planted the United States' flag in the ancient
department of TanmaUiipas."
Gen. Taylor wrote to the Adjutant General,* April 6,
1846: "On our side, a battery for four 18 pounders will be
completed, and the guns placed in battery to-day. These
guns bear directly upon the public square of Mlatamoras,
and within good range for demolishing the town. Their
object cannot be mistaken by the enemy."
The force of these quotations from active agents or advocates df the war, is to prove that acts of invasion and hostility, if committed by either party up to the date of these
extracts, were chargeable on the American authorities.
They had pushed their troops into a debatable region.
They had penetrated among MIexican villages and fields,
and planted their cannon in hostile array, commanding a
Mexican city. If these were not acts of war, (casus belli,)
they were acts provocative of war; and, if not designed,
yet, assuredly, they were perfectly adapted, to plunge the
two countries into a sanguinary conflict. Had pacific counsels prevailed in both governments, we can now see how
* 30th Congress, 1st Session, House of Representatives, Ex. Doc.
No. 60, p. 1.33.
7*




78             ARGUMENTS FOR PEACE.
easily and honorably those occasions and steps might have
been shunned, which resulted at last in such terrific evils,
both to the victor and the victim. Far be it from us to
exempt either Mexico or the United States from deep guilt,
in bringing on the contest; but which government was chiefly
instrumental in springing the mine at last, has been made
sufficiently clear by the preceding remarks.
In this connection it will be proper, as a part of the history of the war, to state, that it had actually begun, and two
principal battles, those of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma,
had been fought, before the Congress of the United States,
the war-making power, was apprized of what was going forward, and the steps which had been taken to bring matters
to a crisis; or had been favored with an opportunity to pronounce on the merits or causes of a war with Mexico.
Their vote, therefore, was but a foregone conclusion.
They but registered the decision that had gone forth from
another branch of the government.  While, accordingly,
the House of Representatives of the 29th Congress, on May
13, 1846, voted, by a majority of 173 to 14, that, "by the
act of the republic of Mexico, a state of war exists between
that government and the United States;" on Jan. 3, 1848,
the newly chosen House of Representatives of the 30th
Congress voted, in a Joint Resolution of thanks to Gen.
Taylor, his officers, and men, by a majority of 85 to 81, that
the war was " unnecessarily and unconstitutionally begun by
the President of the United States; " and this vote was subsequently sustained against reconsideration, on Feb. 14th, by
a majority of 115 to 94.
Having thus far discussed the beginning of the war, as an
argument for peace, as a precedent, illustrating the saying
of the Wise -Man, that it is better to "leave off' contention
before it be meddled with; " we now proceed to make a few
remarks on the termination of the contest, as also bearing
witness in behalf of the cause of peace.




ARGUMENTS FOR PEACE.                 79
Various proposals were made to the Mexican Government, during the prosecution of the war, to enter into negotiations of peace. Offers were addressed, at different periods,
by the superior commanders, acting under directions from
home, to treat of matters in dispute between the two countries; but lMexico, feeling herself deeply wronged and
aggrieved, and clinging to the principle of the integrity of
the national domains, rejected with scorn all pacific counsels
It was with this view, that an armistice of eight weeks
formed one of the articles of the capitulation of 3Ionterey.
And, after the battle of Buena Vista, Gen. Taylor sent an
officer to Gen. Santa Anna, "to express to him the desire
still cherished by the American Government, for the reestablishment of peace." "'Say to Gen. Taylor," was the
reply, "that we sustain the most sacred of causes, — the
defence of our territory, and the preservation of our nationality and rights."
After the battle of Cerro Gordo, Gen. Scott addressed a
letter to the 3Mexican people, to persuade them to entertain
propositions of peace, and to understand their true interests.
But the effort was fruitless.
Finally, the sword, drunk as it was with human blood,
proving an ineffectual instrument of pacification, a more
hopeful plan suggested itself to the American Government.
N. P. Trist, Esq., as before stated, was appointed, on the
15th of April, 1847, an agent, by the President, unconfirmed
and unauthorized by the Senate, the confirming and treatymaking power; and his commission stated that he was invested, "in the fullest and most  eomple.t  manner, with
ample power and authority, in the name of the United
States, to meet and confer with any person or persons, who
shall have similar authority from the republic of 3Iexico,
and between them to negotiate and conclude an arrangement
of the differences which exist between the two countries —
a treaty of peace, amity, and lasting boundaries. 3Mr. Trist




80              ARGUTIENTS FOR PEACE.
carried with him to MIexico, from the department of State,
" a project of a treaty."  Its principal features were, the
cession to the United States of the disputed territory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande, with the adoption of
the latter river as the boundary line; the cession of New
Mexico, and both Upper and Lower California; and the
free right of way forever across the isthmus of Tehuantepec.
Three millions of dollars had been placed, by Congress, at
the disposal of the President of the United States, by which
the provisions of a treaty of peace might be concluded, and
its objects fulfilled. Mr. Trist accompanied Gen. Scott and
his army to the Valley of Mexico; and, after the battles of
Contreras and Churubusco, he met Mexican commissioners,
specially appointed to negotiate a treaty. From the 27th of
August, 1847, to the 7th of September, the commission thus
jointly constituted was in session, at a small village in the
immediate vicinity of the capital. Mr. Trist laid his project before the Mexican commissioners, who also proposed
conditions of peace, that rested essentially on these points:
the adoption of the Nueces as the boundary; thence west to
the eastern boundary of New Mexico; thence north with
that boundary to the thirty-seventh degree of latitude;
thence west with that parallel to the Pacific; and that the
country between the Nueces and the Rio Grande should be
left as an uninhabited country. But the commission could
not agree; the failure turning wholly on the claim of the
south part of New MIexico, which neither party would yield;
while Mr. Trist was willing to concede Lower California,
and to refer the question of the Nueces territory to the
cabinet at Washington. On  lthu 7-th of September the discussions closed, and on the 8th Gen. Scott opened hiz cannons
on Molino del Rey.
Mr. Trist was subsequently recalled, by the President of
the United States, and his authority as a peace commissioner
declared to be at au end. But he remained in Mexic6, with




ARGrxMXENTS FOR tPEACE.              81
the army; and, on the 2d of February, 1848,* he negotiated,
with commissioners appointed by the TMexican Government,
the treaty of peace, which has already in the precedil:g
chapter been mentioned, as receiving finally the ratification
of the lawful powers of both governments.  The articles of
pacification are too well known, to be repeated at length.
It is sufficient to state, that the troops of the United States
were to withdraw from Mexico; the blockaded ports to be
opened; the Rio Grande to be the boundary line on the
Gulf of Mexico, and on the Pacific the line between Upper
and Lower California; the payment of fifteen millions of
dollars to Mlexico, in consideration of the territory thus
acquired; and the exoneration of Mexico from all claims of
citizens of the United States for spoliations, to the amount
of several millions more.
The conclusion of the war thus demonstrates the superior
power and blessings of peace.  Both parties were tired of
the contest; the one of being defeated and ravaged, the
other of losing thousands of lives, and millions of money.
So far as the peace was a measure forced by the sword, it is
as dishonorable in the light of' humanity and Christianity to
the victorious, as it is humiliating to the vanquished nation.
For Fenelon, noble champion for his day of the humane
spirit in international intercourse, says, in his " Directions
for the Conscience of a King," that "a treaty of peace,
that is made from necessity, because one party is the
stronger, is like that which is made with a robber, who
has a pistol at your head." And so far as the power of
money prevailed, where the power of the bayonet had failed,
so far as the negotiation, though unauthorized at the time,
succeeded, where the bravest general had been frustrated in
" conquering a peace," the treaty might as well have been
negotiated in February, 1846, as in February, 1848.
* 30th Congress, 2d Session, House of Representatives,,Ex. Doe.
No. 50, on the Treaty of Peace. Also, Senate, Ex. Doc. No. 52.




82           EXPENDITURES OF THE WAR.
CHAPTER VIII.
THIE EXPENDITURES OF THIE WA;R.
"I said one day in Venice, in a company which was very clamorous
for a war, I wish that each of the great men and great women present
was ordered by the emperor to contribute, at the rate of four thousand
ducats a head, to the charges of the war; and that the other fine gentlemen among us were made to take the field forthwith, in person." —
PRINCE EUGENE.
WE devote this chapter to " the waste of treasure," produced by the MIexican War, to both the nations concerned.
There are men of reputed wisdom and high standing, who
scorn the consideration of the cost of a war. They deem it
a sordid act to put money into one scale, to weigh against
national glory in the other.  We confess that money is not
the chief good of life, and that wasting it by millions is not
the chief evil of war. We confess that there are things
which a nation should hold infinitely dearer than an overflowing exchequer, and for which it should pour out its gold
and silver with the bountifulness of the rains of heaven.
Such are the maintenance of its just rights by Christian
means, the diffusion of education and reu!igion among its
people, and the contribution of food and clothing for the
famished and naked abroad, as well as to build up every
good institution, asylum, and public work, that will insure
the physical, domestic, and moral improvement of its masses.
But we do not recognize this war as among these objects;
it belongs to a very different category.
When we' look, too, on one hand, at the horrid destitution
and consequent degradation and wretchedness of extensive




EXPENDITUIES OGF TIE' WAi-R.          83
strata of society in the old world, and then witness, on the
other, the fruitful cause, direct or indirect, of' this incalculable woe, in the war-debts which hang like Alps and Andes
around the necks of the European powers, we would utter a
cry that should pierce the hearts of' our countrymen, and
warn them friom the ambition of copying into their unwritten
history so dat:' a chlnapter. Vice and misery need be no riddle or wonder in England or France, after we have read the
history of' their battles. Doubtless, many other causes besides war have contributed to dry up the sources of public
prosperity, to make the rich richer, and the poor poorer, and
multiply pauperism and crime to an almost boundless extent.
We, as citizens of a republican government, think we can
identify these causes in some measure with the old feudal,
monarchical, and ecclesiastical institutions that yet have a footing beyond the Atlantic. But it is still our conviction that
these causes, bad as they may be in themselves, have derived
tenfold virulence of evil fromn the omnipresent and overshadowing institutions and customs of War. For war, not only
in a time of war, with its ruinous drain, near or remote, upon
every branch of production and industry in the state; but
war, contradictory as the terms may be, in a time of peace,
has swallowed up many millions more than the civil list.
The treasury of the richest country on the earth, thus becomes, like the sieve of the Danaides, always filling and
always empty. And the fortune of the state is repeated in
miniature in the fortune of the hulmblest citizen. For the
waste of war is not half enumerated when we have summed
up the huge public expenditures, which are as much beyond
our imagination adequately to conceive, as the distance to one
of the fixed stars, but we must gather up a countless heap of
items, eacrh minute in itself, but constituting a mountain of
aggregate loss, - the poor man's garden trampled by the hoofs
of the war-troop, the corn-fields cut up for forage, the little
improvements on his acre ravaged, the one " ewe.-lamb " ta



84           EXPIFNXDILTRES OF THE WAR.
ken, the widow':; cow driven away, or the widow's son wrested from  her side to bleed and languish in foreign parts.
These, - and the catalogue might be run to any length, —
constitute " a waste of treasure " and of human comfort in
their lowlier aspects, which are never registered in the national legers of the contending powers, but which are all recorded with a pen of iron in the book of human life and of
God, where every leaf is a broken heart.  There need be
some great cause, "known and read of all men," to justify
the infliction at home and abroad of such manifold woes, else
they accumulate and darken into a crime, before which all ordinary guilt is but a breath of air.
But the expenses of this war, great as they are, will not
be too great a price to pay, if they shall serve to awaken any
considerable portion of the people to the wrongs and barbarities of this old-world institution. We may rejoice, in one
sense, in the heavy burdens men bring upon themselves for
their sins. It is of a piece with the great retributive Providence of God, as good as it is just.  Fearful indeed would it
be, if we could carry on such a contest with a powerful nation, and not have a mete recompense of reward following
after it, to the pecuniary, as well as other interests of the
country.  We cannot act in this world under an exhausted
receiver, in which we are cut off from the great vital atmosphere of humanity, nor disconnect ourselves from the comyound system  of life, in which mutual action and reaction
throughout are reigning principles.  Thus viewed, the cost
of our Wars, our Slaveries, our Intemperance and other vices
and vicious customs, is a wise and kind punishment, inflicted
upon us to remind us how far we have strayed from the ways
of our God, and how hard and harder, the farther he walks
in it, becomes the way of the transgressor.
Property is one of the trusts of God to man, and though
it is, of and by itself, one of the inferior blessings of life, yet
the spirit in which the trust is discharged, and the uses to




EXPENDITURES OF THE WAR.              85
which money is applied, are matters of the first importance.
As we use or abuse its magic power, we can kill or make
alive, raise or sink, bless or curse, ourselves, our family, our
town, our state. Property is one of the momentous trusts
of government, and it may be transformed into camps or
schools, bullets or books, destructive armies, or pacific exploring expeditions. It may be cast into the scale of civilization
or barbarism. It may be employed to convert the goodly
earth into a Pandemonium, or to hasten the Millennial ages.
When, accordingly, the revenues of a people are expended
in war, and a debt of fearful magnitude is saddled upon posterity, it is right to demand that a strong and sufficient reason be made out to justify such extraordinary measures.
Much as men may be enamored of military glory, and passionately as they may resent any infringement upon their
rights, yet war is a ruinous game to the winner as well as the
loser. Every battle is as truly the destruction, by its immediate and its ramified influences and effects, of millions of the
earnings of the laboring and producing classes, as if the balls
were of silver, and the wadding Treasury notes. And somewhere and upon somebody the loss will fall, and fall with the
certainty of gravitation.  Far away it may be; and mixed
up and mystified with endless details of currency, and tariffs
and income-taxes, it probably will be; but upon the rich
man's property, upon the poor man's sinews even more surely, the reckoning will come, and the money, the mines and
mints of money that were absorbed into mighty fleets and
armies, and that went down at Trafalgar, or were blown into
the canopy of smoke that shrouded Cerro Gordo, must all be
paid, cent for cent, and dollar for dollar. Such is the waste
and profligacy of war. Such is the tremendous responsibility of those who set in motion its destroying agencies of fire
and sword, famine and pestilence.
The figures used in calculating the expenses of wars in
general, are so vast that they are blunted in their force by
8




86           EXPENDITURES OF THE WAR.
their very magnitude. For when we say, as is said on good
authority, that the American Revolution cost Great Britain
$680,000,000, that the French Revolutionary war of nine
years from 1793, cost $2,320,000,000; that the contest with
Napoleon, from 1803 to 1815, cost $5,795,000,000, or an
average of $1,323,082 every day, or more than a million of
it for war-purposes alone every day; that Europe spent
$15,000,000,000 for the wars that raged from 1793 to 1815;
and that we of the United States expended in a period-of
forty-one years, from 1791 to 1832, during which time we
had only two years and a half of' actual war, the sum of
$842,250,891, of which sum only $37,158,047 belonged to
the civil list, the rest used for war purposes; when we have
read a few statistics of this appalling kind, we seem to lose
in the indefiniteness of such inconceivable sums of money the
vivid impression which even the loss visibly of a single dollar out of our own pocket would occasion. And it is perhaps
somewhat to this intellectual incapacity of comprehending
the billions of the war-tax, as well as to moral apathy, that
we may fairly attribute the ease with which every government
satisfies the mass of its subjects in its outrageous expenditures for forts, and ships, and armies. And the marvel is,
after we have surveyed the devastations of war upon man's
prosperity, not that he starves, rebels, or speculates wildly
about his condition on earth, not that multitudes suffer and
perish in pauperism, famine, ignorance, and sin, but that society has any life left at all, that every vein of circulation is
not stagnant, and every nerve of motion palsied.
Though much of the property thus expended by a nation is not actually annihilated, but only passes from one
hand to another in purchasing the articles of war, yet
when we have added to the qualified public account the
innumerable private losses that go unrecorded, the sum total
would exceed rather than fall short of the above statements.
And here observe, that nothing of all that man does under




tXPENDITt'RES OF THE WAR.                87
the sun, is so purely, so prodigally wasteful as war. It
is killing, burning exploding, consuming, wasting, cheating,
in all its processes. It has no producing power. If
called, in company with other trades and guilds to show
the results of his labors, the warrior can only point to
the smoking battle-field, to the shattered city, to the trampled fields, to dead and dying men and horses, to broken
weapons and dismounted batteries, as the most consummate
material trophies of his skill. HIis implements till no
soil but " the dark and bloody ground," and his arm
gathers no harvest but the harvest of death. His messengers are missiles of destruction, and his arm rests when
he has done his weary day's work on a pyramid of human
sktlls. " Thrifty, unwearied Nature, ever out of our great
waste educing some little profit of her own," may "shroudin the gore and carnage," and "next year the lIMarchfeld
will be green, nay greener;" but for every ear of wheat
that waves over the unnatural field, some tear was shed,
some heart was broken, some life was lost. The productiveness of war would furnish a new chapter for Smith
or Say on the wealth of nations and the laws of political
econonmy-.
From  the enormous outgoes of other wars we readily
draw  the expectation, that our frugal republican habits
have suddenly launched out into the most spendthrift ways
in our recent contest. The Florida war of six years with a
handful of naked Seminoles cost $42,000,000. The French
war with Algiers has for sixteen years cost $20,000,000,
annually, making a grand total of $320,000,000.  The Aftghan war, short as it was, cost Great Britain $65,000,000.
For with all their inventions men have not yet discovered how to wage a cheap war. They invent labor-saving
and ingenious machinery for every other work, but the
horrid work of battle requires to be done by the practised
hand and the steady eye of an intelligent agent. Hence




88             EXPENDITURES OF WAL.
wRith all the increased means of destruction, man has still
in a great measure to do the bloody drudgery himself, and
work his own hellish engines; he cannot drag the reluctant
steam or electricity into his service to tend his cannon,
or propel the serried array of his lances. General Taylor
is thoucht to have given a heroic command to his troops
in his General Orders on the day preceding the battle of
Palo Alto in saying, " he wishes to enjoin upon the battalions of Infantry that their main dependence must be on
the bayonet;" but it shows the manual labor, so to speak,
of a battle, and.the impossibility, as in the arts of peace,
of shifting off a large amount of the toil upon the spontaneous forces of nature. It requircs men to kill men by
the hundreds and thousands. The business cannot be done
by machinery.
The time of reckoning the cost of the Mexican war has
not yet come. The most that can be done now is to make
some general estimates from what is known and authenticated to what is unknown, and to what never will be known.
But from documentary statements we learn that this war
has not proved an exception to the general rule. It has
consumed millions upon millions of American, and what to
the philanthropist and Christian will be deeply, if not
equally deplorable, millions upon millions of Mexican property. The capital that the two chief young republics
of the earth could ill afford to lose, has been squandered. Heavy debts that will require years for their
disbursement have been contracted. The energies of many
thousand men in both countries have been diverted from
industrial and productive occupations. BIany have taken
up the profession of arms, and will not return again to the
pursuits of peace, but will seek to find, in some "Buffalo
Hunt on the Rio Grande," or some "Fox Hunt in Canada,"
the chosen theatre of their adventures.
The cost of the war to Mexico has probably on the whole




EXPENDITURES OF THE WAR.                    89
been as great as it has been to the United States.'*  For
though her troops did not leave their own soil, nor require
to be transported thousands of miles by land and water,
yet she had three or four times as many in the field, and
the. killed and wounded men, cut off ill the primle of life
from all occupations, were far more numerous.  The United
States in most cases honorably paid the inhabitants where
the country was conquered for all the articles consumed
by the troops, but MIexico  lost an immense sum  by the
blockade of' every port in the Gulf and on the Pacific, the
diversion of her maritime revenues into the coffers of her
elnemy, and  the heavy  mlilitary  contributions that were
levied upon the respective provinces, invaded both by General Taylor and General Scott, and by the commodores on
the several naval stations.  She also lost an incalculable
amount of public stores, and the material of war of every
description. So far as conquest was concerned and the
fruits of conquest, all the gain was on the part of the United
States, and all the loss on the part of her helpless victim.t
* Thrllee causes have been mentioned by some periodical writer,
why the United States have suffered less pecuniary loss in this war,
than nations ordinarily do in such contests; 1. The distance of the
active warfare fiom our own soil. 2. The perfect security and freedomn of our commerce. 3. The influx for a time of foreign specie,
owing to the famine in Europe.-lAdvocate of Peace, Miarch axnd
April, 1848, pp. 176-178.
t The Quarter Master General reports, Nov. 24, 1847, the receipt
of $46.960,82 captured in Mexico, or accruing from customs.
The Secretary of the Navy reports, Nov. 17, 1847, the collection
by officers of the United  States of $530,810,46  in  the four
cities of Vera Cruz, Tampico, Matamoras, and Saltillo, as military
contributions levied upon them.
The General Orders of Scott, dated Mexico, Dec. 31, 1847, assessed $3,046,568. on the several States of Mexico, according to their
ability, being " quadruple of the direct taxes paid by the several
States to their Federal Government in the year 1843 or 1844."
It was not, however, nearly all collected.
8*




90            EXPENDITURES OF THE WAR.
The actual destruction of private and public property must
necessarily have been immense in the path of the invadinog armies, and at the sieges of -Monterey, Vera Cruz,
Puebla, Atlixco, and Mexico, to say nothing of the bombardment of other places, Tuspan, Tobasco, and IIuamantla.
It will let us into the secrets of war-making a little to read
such as the following items of intelligence taken at hazard.
Edwards, in his sketch, entitled "Doniphan's Campaign,"
pp. 153, 154, writes, "at this same Ceralvo we arrived
on the twenty-ninth.  It is one of the few  places which
Taylor did not destroy along the road: —he had been
compelled to lay waste most of the ranchos and small towns,
on account of their affording concealment to parties of
guerillas who would occasionally rob the waggon trains."
General Taylor in a letter to the W;Tar Department, dated
Monterey, Sept. 28, 1846, says,  "The command left by
Colonel Harney at the  Presidio  crossing, having been
fired upon by the MIexicans with the loss of one killed
and two wounded, set fire to the public stores they were left
to protect, and retreated to San Antonio." The bombardment of Vera Cruz was computed to have destroyed
between one and two millions of property.* These facts
may serve to show the losses which probably ensued to a
The Secretary of War reports, Dec 1, 1848, that the amount of
"contributions, and avails of captured property" cannot at that time
be fully and accurately ascertained, but $3,844,373,77 were reported
as received, and more was expected from New Mexico and California.
— 30th Congress, 2nd Session, House of Representatives. Ex. Doe.
l,p. 80.
An officer, on board the United States' man-of-war Independence,
wrote under date of April 15, 1848, Mazatlan, that "we have collected or secured at the Custom House here duties to the amount
of $150,000. "
* It was computed by some that the bombardment of Vera Cruz
destroyed property to the amount of $6,000,000; and Mexican anthorities asserted an equal loss at the capital, but it was no doubt
exaggerated.




EXPENDITURES OF THE WAR.               91
greater or less extent at every point, touched or occupied by
the American arms. When to these considerations we add
the loss of part of her provinces of Tamaulipas, Coahuila,
Chihuahua, and the whole of New  ]Mexico, and Upper
California, we shall stand justified in the opinion that notwithstanding what she has received in indemnity, viz.
the relinquishment of the claims, and the payment of
$15,000,000, as a make-peace, the loss to AMexico has been
fully equal to that of the United States.
We proceed to state what that is, according to the most
reliable documents and estimates; premising, however, that
many years must pass, before any one can say what the
expenses are in full; since all the incidentals, —as pensions,
bounties, and private claims, — of neither the Florida war,
nor that of 1812, nor even that of the American Revolution,
have as yet been ascertained and paid. The details, too, in
official documents, are so difficult to analyze and understand,
that none but an accomplished financier can do the subject
full justice. Even Ir. Gallatin himself, one of the ablest
and most experienced of living men in his day, in this department of affairs, in his Treatise of 1848, entitled "War
Expenses," is obliged, sometimes, to confess himself at
fault.
War was declared by the President of the United States,
Mi3ay 13, 1846, and peace was ratified by the Mexican Congress, May 25, 1848. The two nations were, therefore,
embroiled with each other about two years. The fiscal year
of the United States ends June 30th, and the two years of
the war may be regarded as covering, in some measure, two
fiscal years. The expenses of the war extended, however,
materially into the fiscal year beginning June 30, 1848,
and ending June 30, 1849.




92             EXPENDITURES OF THE WAR.
The whole expenditures * of the Government of the
United States, for the year ending June 30th,
1847, were..                            $59,451,000
Whole expenditures of the year ending June 30th,
1848.........,58,241,000
Estimated expenditures of the year ending June 30th,
1849........   54,195,000
$171,887,000
The expenditures of the three previous years, however, viz., 1844, 1845, and 1846, were only..  90,957,000
Leaving the round sum of.$80,930,000
which may chiefly be attributed to the war with
Mexico.
If to this sum we add the money to be paid to Mexico for new territories.                            15,000,000
Extra pay for three months, allowed bv Congress,
July 19, 1848, to all soldiers, computed by the Secretary of War at from 80 to 100,000, engaged in
the war, say..2,000,000
Claims, for which the Government is liable..     3,250,000
We have the sum of..                               $101,180,000
as the direct expenditure of the war.
If we take another,t more specific method, we arrive at
nearly the same result.
Expenditures of 1845- 6 over those of 1844- 5, attributable to Gen. Taylor's movements.             $4,299,000
Expenditures of army and navy proper, 1846- 7, over
those of previous years...                    0,777,000
Ditto, 1846- 8.                                     31,715,000
Other increased expenditures of the War Department over those of previous years.               15,217,000
Expenditures after June 30th, 1848, for return of
troops, etc. etc.                                    4,000,000
For new territories..15,000,000
Extra pay..                                           2,000,000
Claims........         3,250,000
By which we have.                    $106,258,000
as the sum of the positive expenditures, independently of the endless array of bounties, pensions,
and claims, which will now pouP like the Gulf
Stream into Congress.
* See Official Documents.
t See Official Documents.




EXPENDITURES OF THE WAR.                 93
When to this sum, which has been a direct cost, we add
the long array of indirect expenditures, that will stretch
through the next half century, to reward the officers and
soldiers engaged in this war; the injury to the business of
the country, by withdrawing so many millions of capital,
and scattering it over a foreign land; the destruction of so
many thousand lives, the loss of health to so many thousand
more, thus sinking a large amount of the productive labor
of the country; the employment of multitudes in the barren
and unproductive work of equipping the warrior, the warhorse, and the war-ship, with their enginery of death, besides the using of military stores and arms in arsenals; and
the interruption of business, consequent upon a state of war
with one of our trading neighbors; then we shall not think
it extravagant to say, that the indirect cost of the war, were
it ferretted out in all its particulars, would equal the direct
expenditure, and amount to $100,000,000 more; thus swelling the grand total to $200,000,000.
To fortify these results, we will adduce some other considerations, relative to the finances of the. war. Thus the
military and naval appropriations for the year ending June,
1847, were $40,863,155.96; for the year ending June, 1848,
$31,377,679.92; and, for the year ending June, 1849, $42,
224,000; amounting, in all, to $114,466,835.88. A part of
this sum goes for other expenditures than those of the Mexican hostilities; but this sum does not include the price paid
for California and New Mexico, the claims which the United
States have obligated themselves to pay, and the bounty of
160 acres of land * to every volunteer, making, as has been
* " The Mexican War land-warrants will greatly outnumber those
of the Revolution, or the war of 1812, as there are many more soldiers. They are worth more, also, as there is a wider field allowed for
selections. All the soldiers, who volunteered for twelve months, are
entitled to one hundred and sixty acres of land, and the six months'
volunrteers are entitled to eighty acree. The wife, cbildeh, father, or




94             EXPENDITURES OF THE WAR.
computed, for 60,000 men 9,600,000 acres, or $6,000,000 in
Treasury scrip, if the soldiers or their heirs prefer to take
the equivalent; to say nothing of the large sums which were
voted by State Legislatures, or contributed by individuals, to
equip and furnish the volunteer regiments and their officers,
and the thousands and the tens of thousands expended in
welcoming back, in a festive manner, the survivors, on their
return home.
One Senator stated, in.his official place, that the war was
costing, at one period, at the rate of $500,000 per diem.
Another said: "I am  satisfied, that one year of this war
will cost us about $100,000,000."  Hle then cited the appropriations, to justify such an inference. For the army alone:
By the Act of the 13th May, 1846                    $10,000,000
By the Act of the 20th June.                      12.000,000
By the Act of the 8th August.                        2200,000
$24,200,000
Raised by loans, to meet war expenses:
By the Act of the 20th of July...       $10,000,000
By the Act passed winter session, 1846-7.       23,000,000
Surplus in the treasury when the war began, consumed,    12,000,000
The necessary appropriations, to be passed the same
session..                                         50,000,000
Total,*                                           $119,200,000
Such were the expenditures made, or estimated, up to
mother, of soldiers who died in the service, are allowed the same quantity of land." - Newburyport Herald.
* The Secretary of War says, Appendix to the Congressional Globe,
30th Congress, 2d Session, p. 22: " More than 60,000 claims have been
presented under the Act of 11th Feb. 1847, for bounty land and treasury scrip About 40,000 have been acted on and allowed; 20,000 are
now pending; and it is estimated that there are 40,000 yet to be presented." See, also, 30th Congress, 2d Session, Ex. Doc. No. 1, p. 369.
90,000 claims had been presented, May, 1849, as we learnt by personal
inquiry at the War Departmelit.




EXPENDITURES OF THE WAR.              95
Mlarch 3, 1847, according to the uncontradicted statements
of a United States Senator, made in his seat.
A distinguished Governor of Tennessee, an advocate of
the war, declared, in a public address, that the expenses
would be $8,000,000 per month.
Colonel Doniphan's regiment of mounted dragoons consisted of 1,000 men. They volunteered for one year. WVhen
they returned home, each of them received $560 for his pay,
his horse, etc., and his land scrip in addition; making, in all,
the sum of $750,000.
The claims of' citizens of California against the United
States, for money and supplies furnished by them during the
war, amounted to $500,000 -or $800,000.*
The President, in a Message to Congress, dated July 6,
184&, stated that the debt of the United States, before the
war began, was $17,788,799.62; and that, in consequence
of the war, it had been increased to $65,778,450.41; thus
making the actual war debt $47,989,650.79. He then says,
that $12,000,000 were to be paid to Mexico; and that the
unliquidated claims, assumed by the United States, were
$1,519,604.76, and the interest thereon; all which, added to
the above sum, make the total of a direct debt of $61,509,
255.55, in July, 1848, according to the admission of the
President of the United States.
From these and a variety of other facts of a similar character, we draw the conclusion that this war cost the United
States, directly and indirectly, at a moderate computation,
$200,000,000, and that it cost Mexico, directly and indirectly, an equal sum.
Suppose this sum were allotted to be paid by the people
of this country at so much a poll, and reckon the population
at 20,000,000, then each man, woman, and child, would
* 30th Congress, 1st Session, Senate, Rep. Com. No. 75, pp. 2,
7,) I, 50.




96            EXPENDITURES OF THE WAR.
be laid under a direct tax of $10, or say, on an average,
each family, of $50.  Or, if we suppose the actual expen
ses to come within the exceedingly moderate estimate of
$100,000,000, we should then have a direct tax of $5 a
head. And if the levy were made not according to heads,
but purses, the burden would fall on men in proportion to
their ability to pay, and every man of substance would ask
with an increased interest, What is the Mexican war?
~Why was it fought?  And what are its pleas and benefits?
As the war was ostensibly prosecuted, in part, for the
ends of a suit at law, to recover a bad debt of an unwilling
debtor, the result has taught the old lesson of the folly of
going to law for a redress of grievances.  The report of
the commission that sat nearly two years on the United
States' claims for Mexican spoliations upon her commerce,
states that
The whole iamount claimed was..          $11,850,578.49
The two Mexican Commissioners agreed in allowance of only.                     630,406.76
The two American Commissioners allowed.      3,846,311.00
Awarded by the Prussian umpire, Baron
JRoenne.$1,586,745.00
Agreed by all the Commissioners..   439,393.00
Total finally allowed..  $2,026,138.00
This was the original legal and conceded debt of Mexico
to the United States.  Her finances were embarrassed, and
she did not meet her engagements.  NTations, like individuals, find it hard to pay old debts; and the older the harder.
Witness France, witness the United States, witness Spain,
witness every nation.  But in 1843 a new treaty was entered into, and Mexico agreed to pay promptly and in
regular instalments, principal and interest.  But she was
poor and revolutionary, and the Texan difficulties, and her
jealousy of the United States, increased the embarrassment,
and perhaps, as was natural, the indisposition to pay.  So is
it explicitly declared by 3Ir. Voss, the American agent, in




EXPENDITURES OF THE WAR.               97
an official letter. Some of the instalments were promptly paid, all were declared good, but procrastination prevailed
in the Mexican councils, and the United States naturally
became indignant and impatient. This is one of the final
and alleged causes of the war, that Mexico would not pay
her honest debts. But even if she did not, it was a costly
method to collect the dues, to send Generals Taylor and
Scott, and Commodores Conner, Perry, Sloat, and Stockton,
as sheriffs, with such an expensive posse comitatus to levy
on the Mexican estate and pay the debt by such an execution.
"It was," to use the homely phrase of the American philosopher, "paying too dear for the whistle."  Then, too, it
was not for us, who have waited long decades of years for
the old European monarchies to pay up for the spoliations
they committed on our commerce; and who, even when they
did pay, delayed promptly to disburse to the private claimants; it was not for us, who have in too many States repudiated our debts; it was not for us, the stronger republic,
to force to sharp practice and summary punishment, our
younger, weaker sister republic. It was not a just or a
magnanimous act, and, — what is mainly relevant to the
object of this paragraph,-it was not a profitable business
transaction; for we now pay for the war, pay for the new
territory, and pay the claimants.
The master-evil of war-expenditures, however, is not, as
before hinted, so much in the money that is lost, as the
spirit that is left behind. This point has been so ably set
forth by the LDemocratic Review of February, 1847, that we
need not apologize for quoting its language. "It is not
alone the war, and the expense, great though it be, that is
to be dreaded. We are rich and industrious, and having
plenty of resources, can pay any sums. A protracted war
is, however, building up a great military interest heretofore
unknown to our institutions. The great peril which destroyed
Mexico we are about to encounter. The long Spanish war
9 




998                          OFSXlE~DITURES Of THE'AV,
of independence stifled her industry and smothered het
eomimerce.  No) interest flourished but the military, and her
liberties ultimately perished in its giant gripe. This interest, having no, sympathy with industrial pursuits, in its
nature aristocratic, is already rapidly growing aimong us.
A few years only will consolidate its strength1 and spread
its influence through all the ramifications of contractors and
employ/ees, dependent upon war expenditures.  Such an interest is one to be dreaded, perhaps, more tlhan,any other1
when ore reflect upon the materials of strife within us, the
rancor of party spirit, and tlhe rekl:esness of fanaticism."
A further consideration which will impress upon us more
vividly the wickedness of "the waste of treasure" in war, is
the various beneficial uses to which such mighty sums of
money might be devoted.  If' "moneys,i as the old Roman
said, "are the sinews of war," so are they talso the sinews
of peace. If the "dollar" be not "almighty," and the god
of this world, it is at least an1 essential instrument in promoting every good word and work among mankind. Money
builds the city, and beautifies the country. Money fills the
sails and turns the water-wheel. Mloney tunnels the mountains, and barricades the rivers.  Money speeds the loom,
and propels the cars, and operates tle telegraph. MIoney
gives food to the well and medicine to the sick. Money
clothes our bodies and raises our houses.  IMoney erects
the schoolhouse and the san-ctuary, and puts a teacher in
one and a preacher in the other.  _Money multiplies the
Scriptures, and heralds the blessed news of salvation from.clime to clime. It is money that is needed at this moment,
as the great coiperator, to send civilization and Christianity to those who are now sitting in darkness and the
shadow of death, as well as to re-civilize civilization itself,
and to re-Christianize Christendom. Money, money, is the
call of the educator, the reformer, the philanthropist, the
missionary; and it is not a selfish call; for by this power




EXPENDITURES OF THE WAR.               99
the printing, and teaching, and speaking, and exploring, and
travelling, are physically sustained, and "seed is given to
the sower, and bread to the eater."
In this light, consider that the $200,000,000 of money
squandered in this unjust, unnecessary, and unconstitutional
war, would found a library in each of the ten largest cities
of the United States, namely, New York, Philadelphia,
Baltimore, Boston, New  Orleans, Cincinnati, Brooklyn,
Albany, and Washington, which should contain as many
volumes as the largest library on the continent of Europe,
and endow it with a princely fund sufficient to keep it in
repair, and enrich it with the accessions of all living literature from every nation, thus opening inexhaustible fountains of knowledge for all future generations, and placing
the interests of learning on a foundation worthy of the first
republic on earth.
Or, suppose this sum devoted to the endowment of common schools, academies, and colleges, of agricultural, reformatory, scientific, normal, and professional seminaries of instruction; and to the establishment of Lyceums, Lowell
Institutes, Adult Schools, Teacher's Institutes, and then a
magnificent apparatus of means and agencies of every description would be provided to cultivate what the poet has
called
"Acres of untilled brains,"
to develope the mighty mind and the great heart of our
America, and to prevent the hourly repetition of that pathetic " tragedy," of which the prose-poet speaks, " that there
should one man die ignorant who had the capacity for
knowledge."
Imagine such a sum employed in the industrial and material improvements of a country, to give security to its
navigation and commerce; to facilitate domestic and foreign
intercourse; to bind city to city, and State to State, and
nation to nation, in harmonious cooperation; to develope the




100         EXPENDITURES OF THE WAR.
physical and mineral resources of the earth, and make her
not the step-mother, but the own mother, of her children;
and how many millions of naked would be clothed, and how
many millions of the hungry would be fed, and how much
time would be redeemed from inexorable toil to devote to
the higher culture of our nature, and to the making not of
money, but of men, worthy to be called men!'Or, were it expended in the fine and the useful arts, to
join everywhere in eternal union, beauty and utility; to
stimulate and reward invention; to carry all the sciences,
and, consequently, all the arts depending upon them, to a
higher state of perfection; to multiply in the cities and
habitations of a free people the rarest productions of architecture, painting, sculpture, — the works of genius. baptized
into the name of Christ; how ample would be the instrumentalities for developing such a national character as
the world has never before seen, except in the dream of
some rapt sage, or the vision of some inspired prophet!
Let it be consecrated on the altar of philanthropy, and
what chain would not be broken, what prisoner not visited, what sick untended, what beggar unrelieved, what insane given over, what iAliot abandoned, what blind, or deaf,
or dumb, or maimed uncared for, what inebriate unreformed,
what licentious not purified, and what criminal uninstructed
and unrecovered!
Or, propose the sublimest of the works done, or to be done
in this world, and the one in a manner comprehending all the
other enterprises referred to, we mean the Christianizing of
the whole world, the sanctification of the five human races;
and in the interest alone of this gigantic war-bill we should
find abundant means, so far as pecuniary resources are concerned, to set in operation forty-eight majestic missionary and
Bible societies, as large as the American Board, and the
British and Foreign Bible Society, to work with omnipresent and almost omnipotent power in every land, and shed the




EXPENDITURES OF THE 7WAR.              101
light of divine truth and mercy in every benighted heart and
habitation, and plant the churches of the Redeemer on every
hill-top and in every valley from pole to pole. Call it not
folly or fanaticism to imagine such a Millennium. It was
once the hope of prophecy; it was later the vision of Christ;
and it shall one day be the Kingdom of God on earth.
If this be our strength and glory to raise money, and expend it in wicked and wasteful wars, tormenting our neighbors and ourselves, then is our strength weakness, and our
glory shame. If a whole nation will expend without reluctance their kingly treasures, (that might constitute the moral
lever to raise the earth,) in the arts of human butchery and
misery, in conquest and invasion, what title has it to be
called a Christian nation? It has none. It is a heathen
people with a Christian cloak; heathen in spirit, and heathen
in practice. We may cry, " Lord, Lord," but the use of holy
words cannot save the workers of iniquity from the condemnation of the Judge of all.
In concluding this chapter, a practical question suggests
itself; how shall the masses of a nation be made to feel the
abomination of spending hundreds of millions in war? and
how shall the future be exempted from the grinding injustice
of having its labor and property mortgaged in advance, and
forever crippled by the war-debts of the past?  In one way,
and we believe in one way only. Let these untold millions
be paid at once by a direct tax. Pay as you go, should be
the rule of nations as well as of irrdividuals. We have no
right to make our children settle with their, toil and tears the
debts of our folly. Now the war-expenses are not felt, because they come obliquely and stealthily, and are so mixed
up with tariftt and indirect taxes, and the consumption of the
proceeds of the public lands, that few understand their operation. But apply the principle of a direct tax, and every
man in the community would inquire into the merits and demerits of a war, and would not fail to clamor loudly and
9*




102       THE DESTRUCTION OF HUMAN LIFE.
effectually against all wars of aggression, invasion, conquest,
and slavery. We are happy to strengthen our position by
the opinion of one of the ablest Judges on the Bench of the
Supreme Court of the United States.*  "All wars should be
accomplished by a system  of direct and internal taxation.
Nothing short of this can show, in addition to sacrifice of life,
what we pay for military glory. This was the policy in the
better days of the Republic."
CHAPTER IX.
THE DESTRUCTION OF IIUMAN LIFE.
"Seek, -burn, — fire, - kill, - slay."
" Food for powder, food for powder." — SIXAKSPEARE.
PHYSICIANS are accustomed to make an examination, after the disease has proved fatal, in order to ascertain more
clearly its seat, causes, and diagnosis. It is not a grateful
task to enter into the bloody chambers, where life was mysteriously hidden; but they do it for the sake of the living,
and to prevent the repetition of like effects. The moralist
and Christian, too, are sometimes obliged to make, so to
speak, post mortem examinations, for however painful it may
be to live overagain scenes of violence and wrong, and to follow
the track of armies, yet they feel it to be a duty if they can
by this means obtain powerful evidences in behalf of the cause
they advocate. They wish thus to call the surgeon, as well
as the financier, to testify to the evils of war, and to invoke
* Judge McLean.




ITHE DESTRUCTION OF HUMAN LIFE.         103
the hospital no less than the exchange, to pronounce its condemning sentence.
But here, as in the matter of war-expenditures, the very
immensity of the suffering —wounds, mnaiming, sickness, death,
caused by war, - staggers our-conception, and paralyzes otur
imagination. When we read that a thousand men died in
battle, that two thousand were sick in the hospital, we no
more realize that infinite sum of misery than we do the length
of eternity. But let only one image of personal agony rise
vividly before us, - the active, hopeful, widely-endeared
young man, reeling headlong from his horse, crushed and
bleeding by the terrible canfion ball, — or the father on whom
a whole family depends, languishing month after month in a
foreign clime, anxious, weak, pained, dying by inches, with
no hand of wife or child to bathe the fevered temples, or minister the healing cup; and we have a deeper impression of
the unutterable miseries of war than solid pages of statistics
could give us. And if we could then multiply one by many,
and consider what a single hostile meeting of armies is, and
does, could be in it, and yet not of it, could view it as a selfpossessed spectator, could see all the cruel machines of death
in " awful activity," the earth trembling with the thunder of
artillery, the air rent with shrieks and shouts, the light of the
sun shut out by sulphurous clouds, the waters running crimson with the heart's blood of thousands, every shot carrying
away a lirmb or a life, every charge sweeping to the dust hundreds of poor wounded, dying creatures, we should pronounce
a battle the very incarnation of hell on earth.
But men do not know what war is, how much of all that
js most fearful in pain, and terror, and suffering, and death, is
as surely drawn in its train, as any cause leads to any effect.
MBen at home who make war, do not know what they are doing,
what mountains of misery and sin they are heaping upon
their fellow men; for if they did know and had not hearts of
flints, they would say, sooner than do this thing, this infinite
evil, a' perish our right arm from its socket, palsied be our




104       THE DESTRUICTION OF HlUMAN LIFE.
tongue in our mouth!"  Men in camp and field become nmailed and triple-mailed in their sensibilities by their dreadful
familiarity with exhibitions of suffering; and whereas they
would once have fainted at witnessing tile slightest surgical
operation, they can at last look unmoved on the carnage of
Waterloo.  So that the history of war never has been written,
and from the necessity of the case, never can be. We may
get a glimpse here and there, where its thunder-clouds are
parted, and we look upon the ground strewed wvith the dead
and dying; or where we walk through its long range of hospital wards, and hundreds of ghastly faces start up at the
sound of our steps; but its physical, like its other evils, are
too vast to be comprehended by a finite mind.
We are accustomed to speak of the late war between MIexico and the United States, as if it were the conflict of two
soulless generalizations, two historical or geographical bodies,
that pitched their camp and arrayed their battle, one against
the bther. The terms are corporate, political, and insensible.
Happy indeed were it, if it were the meeting of names
on paper, and not of living men in  the bloody field.
Happy were it, even if the old custom  of more chivalrous days were revived, and they, the historical personaees
who make the war, should themselves do the fighting, king
meeting king, or president, president, either in their own persons, or in the representatives, and substitutes of their respective choice and country.  Rivers of blood would thus be
spared, and the question subjected to an equally fair mode of
arbitrament and decision. But the nature of war, as it is now
carried on, is far different. It is the personal conflict of
thousands of Mexican men against thousands of United States'
men. It is the raising of hand against hand, and the baring
of hundreds of human bosoms to the awful hail of balls, and
sabre strokes, and lance and bayonet thrusts. It is upon bodies
keenly sensitive to the least wound, in every vein, and nerve,
and fibre of which the Almighty has set the seal of his creative wisdom and goodness, and which he has made capable




THE DESTRUCTION OF  U)IMAN LIFE          105
of vast enjoyment; and suff-ering; it is upon head and heart,
upon life and limb, that the bruises and lacerations come,
smiting, crushing, snapping the bones as if they were worth
no more than pipe-stems, rending open the flesh as if it were
the meat of the shambles, and battering to pieces the image
of God as if it were the common clay of the potter. It is
not Mexico that suffers by the war; it is some thousands of
her people, many of them innocent men, women, and children,
who happened to come within the reach of the destroying ball
and bomb, in the battle and siege. It is not the United States,
that has been visited by pain, grief, loss of life, of health,
friends, morals, through the instrumentality of this conflict;
but it is certain men, families, living hearts, suffering bodies,
agoonized souls. In looking then at the tremendous devastations of war, let us remember that they all fall on individual
human beings, and not on soulless corporations, insensible
nations, or geographical names.
This destruction of human life in any aspect in which we
can view it, is a complex evil. It has branches of mischief
shooting in all directions. Existence is the free gift of God,
and not lightly or unnecessarily to be trifled with or squandered. Every man born in a civilized community, reared to
manhood, and armed and equiped with the requisite training,
experience, and principle to act well his part in society, is to
be considered as so much capital, invested for the best good
of the land he lives in, and paying the rich percentage of
usefulness and reciprocity to a large circle of fellow creatures.
WRhen prematurely taken away, before he has lived out half
hIis days, by accident or sickness, we feel that it is an inscrutable Providence. But when by suicide he cuts short his
probation, or when by the exposures and dangers of war,
another species of suicide in one sense, he dies before his
time, there is a great and positive loss to'every intorest of
the community. Here is a world of work of every kind to
do, the season is pressing, time does not halt, the harvest is




106       THE DESTRUCTION OF HUAiIAN LIFE.
white unto the sickle, but the laborers that should enter into
this rich and varied field, and reap fruit unto eternal life, are
taken from their families, and far away are made " food for
powder," or mowed down by disease, as if they were so many
worthless animals. Little calculation is made to save their
lives, except as constituting one of the prime materials for
war. In making good a battle or forcing a siege, the aim
is not to save the men but to gain the victory. Napoleon
never hesitated to sacrifice any number of lives, provided he
could thereby carry his point. Every general, in order to be
successful, must adopt more or less the same principle. But
every man that is offered upon the bloody plain to the god of
battles, is one heart, one head, one life less, to do the great
work for which men were placed temporarily on the earth,
- to glorify their MIaker, and benefit one another. So much
has been subtracted out of the most valuable capital of a
country, which no money can replace. A nation's life has
been abridged; a nation's heart has bled some great drops of
blood. Human life is the basis and condition to all other
good, and in proportion as any considerable amount of it is
violently abstracted from the community, do all the great interests of humanity receive a sensible shock.
In immediate connection with the above considerations up
on the evils resulting from the loss of life in war, it should be
added that it has especially a barbarizing influence upon the
humane and moral sentiments of a people. This is true even
of the wholesale mortality produced by the plague, cholera,
famine, earthquake, or volcano. The heart of a community
is apparently stunned by the frequent presence of death. De.
foe, in his history of the plague in London, records with graphic simplicity the dreadful brutality and wickedness of the
survivors, even while they were admonished every instant
that death was at the door, if not rioting in the house. Much
more does the waste of human life by agencies of man's own
choosing and operating, harden the heart, and paralyze the




THE DESTRUCTION OF HUMAN LIFE.           107
conscience. War is the most formidable of these agencies.
It is " Death on the pale horse," seen by the Revelator,* " and
hell followed with him."  " And power was given unto them
over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and
with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth."
In proportion as a Christian civilization has made its beneficent way among men, it has raised the value of man, shown
his worth, and dignity, and set a higher price upon his life.
Gross and savage customs have been ameliorated, or done
away. All that relates to human comfort, and welfare, has
been invested with a new and sublime interest, because of
the nature and destiny of the being in whom it centres. But
war, waged under the most favorable circumstances, and with
all possible palliations and neutralizing influences, arrests
these humane movements, revives the barbarian estimate of
life, and all that appertains to it, and strides on to-its infernal
revelry of blood and glory, though it send the voice of lamentation and woe through the homes of a whole people. The
oft-repeated spectacle of death under every shocking mode of
agony, mutilation, carnae, and disease, steels the heart of
the spectator. The news of it, also, sent far and wide on the
wings of a war-literature and a martial press, produces a demoralizing influence upon a whole nation. Human life becomes cheap in view of these immense butcheries, and then
human virtue too is undervalued. MIen care less what they
say, or do, or how they live. A spirit of recklessness is engendered. Crimes increase in number and in turpitude. Offences against person and life are multiplied by the contagion
of the camp, and the brilliant examples of the battle-field.
MIany are ready to dispute the maxim, that one murder does
make a villain, if millions make a hero. They emulate the
daring spirit, and the summary Indian justice of war, that demands eye for eye, and tooth for tooth, and life for life. A
whole Christian people may thus be sensibly degraded by the
* Rev. 6: 8.




108        THE DESTRUCTION OF HUM3AN LIFE.
waste of human life, and the means by which it is effected,
and fall to a lower standard of morals and public order. This
is not one of the least evils of war.
It is quite as difficult to ascertain accurately the mortality,
as it is the cost of' the Mexican war. Persons of different
views and temperaments will give different estimates.
All that we can accomplish in either of these matters, is
an approximation to the reality.  National governments
do not feel it to be a duty to render such an account
of their doings, that the people at large can see how much
is the cost in life, limb, and dollars of their "glory."
No open and intelligible debt-and-credit account is kept.
Besides, the books cannot be " posted up," till many years
after the war. WVe have to glean therefore, the census
of death firom many unsatisfactory sources, but we shall
endeavor to avoid the common sin of exaggeration, and
to justify all inferences by well-authenticated facts.
There were some causes which rendered the late conflict peculiarly fatal to life. The scene of strife was not,
as in the Revolutionary war, that of 1812, or the Florida
war, within our own borders. We were invaders of a
foreign land. WTe dared the burning Line. A long march
by land, or a voyage by sea, transported the combatants
to  the scene  of action.  Their food, climate, habits
were changed. If sick or wounded, they were too far
from  home for wife or sister to visit them, too far to
be easily restored to their friends.  The process of acclimation had to be encountered under the most unfavorable
circumstances. Fever, vomito, dysentery, erysipelas, and
other disorders raged among the troops with terrible virulence. Far more perished in the hospitals than in the
field. The deaths at the city of Mexico among the Ameri.
can soldiery averaged a thousand a month for a considerable
time after they occupied " the halls of the Montezumas,"
and three or four hundred a month  afterwards.  The




THE DESTRtUCTION OF HUMAN LIFE.         109
wounded very generally died by the effects of the climate,
and the access of sickness. The fact, too, that so large
a portion of the troops were raw volunteers, wholly unused
to a soldier's life, and often unwilling to submit to the
necessary sanitary regulations of the army, accounts in
part for the almost incredible expenditure of life. Many,
also, that escaped death brought home broken constitutionls, and hacked and shattered frames, and will linger
out a species of living death the rest of their days.  The
dissipationi of the camp, too, prostrated hundreds, and returned many a once athletic young man to his friends
decrepit in mind and body.
While on the side of the Mexicans, (whose woes and
losses now at least, if not before, we may consider and
regret, since wve are at peace, and friends again,) the loss
in battle was very great from the precision and rapidity
of the American fire, and the greater number of troops
they had in the field. They were also ill provided with
the necessary supplies of food and clothing, and camp
equipments. The army of Santa Anna was in great destitution before the battle of Buena Vista; and after its
retreat, the road-side was encumbered for sixty leagues with
those who were dying of hunger and thirst. We have
no accurate statements of the number of soldiers on the side
of Mexico enTaged in the war; but we should set the
estimate no doubt within very moderate bounds, if we
should say, that three times the number compared with our
troops were in the field, and that -the loss in battle averaged
three times as much; and that the loss in battle and sickness
together was as much or more than that of the Americans.
The Northern States, according to one statement, furnished 22,136 volunteers, and the Southern States 43,213,
in all, 65,349. The Northerners generally enlisted for the
war; the Southerners for one year or a less term.
The Report of the Adjutant General, April 5, 1848,
10




110        THE DESTRUCTION OF HUMAN LIFE.
to the Secretary of war* " makes the whole number of
the reygular army employed everywhere in the prosecution
of the war, inclusive of December 1847, about 26,690,
besides a battalion of marines, (350.)\" " Twenty-nine
thousand men have been recruited since the 13th of May,
1846."  The whole number of volunteers mustered in the
service, from  -May, 1846 was 71,309, of which 56,926 were
finally accepted.  The  naval force was 8,000 at least.
When to these numbers we add at least 5,000 teamsters,
and "the large number of recruits," which Gen. Jones
says, "arrived at Vera Cruz and other places in Mexico,"
and were never reported or accounted for, we deem it a
very moderate statement to make, that 100,000 Americans
were in AIexico during the war. t
Suppose that only one man in five of the 100,000 men,
who first and last have been in the war, has perished,
and the very moderate computation gives us 20,000 dead.
It has often been stated in Congressional speeches, that
the American loss could not be less than that number,
ant we believe it to have been even far more.
The hospital often proved more destructive even than
the battle-field.
On Sept. 3, 1846, Gen. Taylor wrote from Camargo,
"there has been great sickness and mortality in some
of the volunteer regiments."
He writes on June 30, 1847, at the camp near lMonterey,
" it is confidently hoped that the troops in that camp (near
MIier) will escape, in a great measure, such excessive sickness as prevailed last year at Camargo, and which is now
beginning to be felt there. "
From  the same place he says, on July 27, 1847, " great
* 30th Congress, 1st Session, Senate, Ex. Doe. No. 36.
t In Angust, 1846, Congress authorized an increase of the Navy,
from 7,500 to 10,000, but owing to various circumstances it was not
incrensed to more than 8,000.




THE DESTRUCTION OF HUMAN LIFE.           111
sickness and mortality have prevailed among the volunteer
troops in front of Saltillo."
He adds the Tollowing, in a letter dated Camp, near Monterey, Aug. 10, 1847: " There continues to be much sickness
among the new troops, both at Mier and Buena Vista, accompanied by an unusual share of mortality. Nearly twentyfive per cent. of the force present is disabled, at-this moment,
by disease."
We see, by these declarations, that the great warrior
dreaded the sweeping scythe of disease, far more than he
did the sword of the enemy. Indeed he declared, in a
speech made at Port Hudson, La., on occasion of the return
of the volunteers, reported in the newspapers, 1848, that,
"of those who have died in active service in Mexico, the
proportion of those cut down by disease to those who fell on
the battle-field, is about five to one "
Besides the losses on the field and in the hospital, on
Gen. Taylor's line of operations, many perished by the hand
of violence, - either in private, or by armed parties of guerillas.
The sickness on the Vera Cruz line was even more formidable than on that of the Rio Grande. It was a more
southern latitude. The tierra caliente, or hot region, of the
sea-coast, and the tierra templada, or table land, of the interior, and the valley of Mexico, were all found to be fatal to
the American soldier.  Gen. Scott writes from Puebla, June
4, 1847, as follows: "The effective strength of this army
has been surprisingly reduced.  Besides the discharge of
seven regiments, and two independent companies, of old
volunteers, we had to leave in hospital about 1,000 men at
Vera Cruz, as many sick and wounded at Jalapa, and 200
sick at Perote. Here we have on the sick report 1,017.
Not a corps has made a forced march, except in the pursuit
after the battle of Cerro Gordo, and every possible attention
has been given to the health of the troops. The general




112       THE DESTRUCTION OF HUMIAN LIFE.
sickness may be attributed to several causes: 1. The great
contrast in elimates, above and below Cerro Gordo; 2. The
insufficiency of clothing, but little having arrived when the
army marched firom Vera Cruz; and 3. The want of salt
meats, the troops not having had any oftener than one day
in nine, since we reached the elevated country; as our insufficient means of transportation allowed us to bring up only
small quantities of bacon and no mess pork. The prevailing
diseases have been chills and fevers, and diarrhcca."
On July 25th, Gen. Scott reported the sick at Puebla at
87 oficers and 2,215 men; in all, 27302.
Mansfield, in his History of the Mexican War, states that
Gen. Scott left Puebla, on Aug. 7 - 10, with 10,738 men,
and that 3,261 were left in garrison and in hospitals. Of' the
last, the largest part were in hospital, where there were, at
one time, no less than 1,900 sick! Of these, 700 found their
graves at Puebla!
With 3,217 sick in the hospitals at Vera Cruz,-Jalapa,
Perote, and Puebla, early in June, at the very beginning of
the sickly season, and 2,302 at Puebla alone, the last of
July, and 1,900 in August, we can imagine what must have
been the later scenes of the same summer, as the army
fought its way, through -quadruple its own numbers, to the
capital of the country. The accounts of the mortality there,
before referred to, thus become perfectly credible.  The
names have been published of no less than 700 men, who
died at Perote in a few months. Even on ]Dec. 4, 1847,
Gen. Scott stated officially, that there were 2,041 sick, exclusive of officers, in the city of Mexico.
Let us now consider what have been the losses of individual regiments and companies, and how they sustain the
above estimate.
Of 80 Sappers and Miners, who left West Point for the
battle-fields of Mexico, only 24 returned home; all the rest
having found graves in that distant land.




THE DESTRUCTION OF HUMAN LIFE.         113
Of the 730 in the Ninth Regiment of Infantry, that left
Fort Adams, in 1847, there were but 105 or 106 that returned home, in 1848: 14 died on the voyage from Vera
Cruz home, between July 11th and August 14th.
The South Carolina Regiment, of 1,100, had, at the end
of nine months, only 80 or 90 remaining, to enter with Scott
the city of Mexico. " The destruction of life in Napoleon's
march to Moscow did not equal this."
Col. William B. Campbell's First Regiment of Tennessee
volunteers, returned only 350 of the 1,000 it carried into
MIexico. The average loss was 50 men a month.
"The North Carolina Regime'nt," says an officer writing
from Buena Vista, in Sept. 1847, "was paid off the last of
August on muster-rolls made two months previous; and
almost every fifth man had died since muster. The AMississippi Regiment had suffered still more.  Companies, that
came into the field 85 and 90 strong, now number scarce 30
men on parade."
Another officer writes from the city of Mexico: "Of
nearly 400 men, who left Columbus (Georgia) in the five
companies, we have not more than 40 fit for duty. About
35 are in hospital at Jalapa, and the remainder in that of
Perote."
Of 648 men, in the regiment commanded by Gen. Pierce,
only 120 remained fit for service in the city of Mexico.
Col. Baker, Member of Congress from Illinois, declared
in the House of Representatives, that his regiment of volunteers of 820, lost 100 in six months, in the Rio Grande Valley; dismissed 200 more, to die by the way, or finA their
way home, with constitutions broken down. He also said,
that the bones of nearly 2,000 young men, in whose veins
flowed some of the best blood of the country, who had never
seen the face of an enemy, were now resting in the mould on
the banks of that river.
The Adjutant General, in answer to a resolution of Con10*




114      THE DESTRUCTION OF HUMIAN LIFE.
gress, reported, Feb. 1847, that of the volunteers who had
joined the army up to that time, there had, in a period of
from sixty to ninety days, 331 deserted; 76 been killed in
battle; died of disease, 637; and discharged, in consequence
of sickness or disability, between 2,000 and 3,000 men; or,
as stated by Mr. Hudson, in a speech in the House, Feb. 15,
1847, a loss of 20 per cent. in about two months and a half,
or about eighty per cent. a year.
But it is needless to accumulate such reports. The conclusion is obvious. Many put the loss at 20,000, on the part
of the United States; others raise it to 30,000; we are safe
in saying it was between 20,000 and 25,000.
And, as we have already seen, if we turn to the other side,
we can have no doubt that Mexico suffered an equal mortality. For if the sickness, which was great even among
the natives, was less, the destruction in battle was treble or
quadruple, if the American bulletins speak the truth.
Owing to the limited medical and surgical appointments of
the Mexican armies, and their poverty of means, great multitudes of the wounded perished. When we have added to
the above list the deaths by disease, we can have no doubt
that 20,000 is a very moderate estimate for the Mexican
vwaste of life. Gen. Scott computed that 7,000 Mexican officers and men were killed and wounded in the several battles
in the vicinity of the capital alone.
We conclude, from these various considerations, that the
mortality on both sides, during the two years of the existence of the war, reached no less than 40,000; or 20,000 a
year, or 10,000 annually on each side. The' reports of the
generals, the climate, the great number of the battles, sieges,
skirmishes, being about twenty-eight, the proportion lost in
single regiments and companies, and the great proportion
that died by sickness, assure us that this immense loss of
human life, with all its attendant evils, and woes, and pains,
is chargeable upon the authors and abettors of this stupendouis system of legalized murder.




THE HOSPITAL AND THE BATTLE-FIELD.    115
CIIAPTER X.
THE HOSPITAL AND THE BATTLE-FIELD.
" WVoe to the hand that shed this costly blood;
Over thy wounds now do I prophesy, -
Which, like dumb months, do ope their ruby lips,
To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue; —
A curse shall light upon the limbs of men."- SHAKSPEARE.
BUT besides the catalogue of the dead, there is the great
army of the wounded and the broken down, whose lot is
often more pitiable than death.
We find either reported, or moderately computed, Americans
wounded.3,968
Mexicans.7,210
Total....       11.178
Add as many more sick and otherwise disabled...  11,178
Total                       22,356
No one who read the newspapers during the progress of
the war, can doubt that we set the number very much
within bounds when we estimate the wounded and the
ruined in health on both sides, at 22,000. For scarcely a
public print came to hand that did not record the ghastly
return of the once robust young man, the horrid apparition
of gaunt, and maimed, and cadaverous forms, that were once
called fathers, or brothers, or sons. A returned volunteer
at Brighton, Mass., could not make for a long time his own
mother know him, as his appearance was so much changed,
and he had lost his voice. Hle came home but to rest his
anguished head on her bosom, and die.
The reasons have already been given why-such ravages
were made by disease; but the number of Americans




116     THE HOSPITAL AND THE BATTLE-FIELD.
wounded in the battles, who survived to return home, was
less than in most wars; first, because the barbarity of the
Mexican troops instigated them often to kill the prostrate
foe when opportunity offered; then, because the slightly
wounded in that hot climate, were often snatched away by
the intervention of some disease; and, finally, because the
distance was so great home, both by land and sea, that many
perished in the act of removal. The forces of the United
States had not time to be acclimated; and at the very
period when that process was in its most critical stage, they
were hurried on with all the daring impetuosity of the
American character, from march to march, and from battle
to battle, travelling in some instances on foot forty miles in
a day. Col. Baker, of the Illinois volunteers, and also a
member of Congress, stated in his place in the House, during
the session of 1846-7, that "of 2,400 Ohioans who left
Cincinnati in June, 1846, 900 are no longer in their regiments, — dead, or with ruined constitutions. The number
of dead, dying, or lost, will make about the proportion of
forty per cent in one year. Out of 18,000 volunteers of
June and July, 1846, 7,000 are already dead or gone."
There were at one time in a single hospital in New Orleans,
680 of the returned volunteers sick.
In attempting to form any adequate idea of the sufferings
of the sick and wounded in hospitals, we must consider that
they are away from home, and often home-sick; that they
are in general nursed, if nursed at all, not by the natural
kindred of home and neighborhood, or by the tender hand
of woman, but by strangers and men, and, perhaps, foreigners, who were often indeed more kind than their own
people; that medicines are often wanting; delicacies that
win a sick appetite are unknown; ill-conditioned and unventilated rooms, poor furniture, bedding, and changes of garments, and the lack of the indescribable atmosphere of home;
uneducated and inexperienced physicians and surgeons, ac



THE HOSPITAL AND THE BATTLE-FIELD.         117
cording to the testimony of high official authority; the assemblage together of large numbers of the sick and wounded, with all their groans, insanity, loathsomeness, contagion,
and scenes of death, in large apartments; the morbid imagination generated and aggravated by such environments of
discomfort and danger. When we have summoned up these
and similar circumstances of the war-hospital, we wonder
not that death resorts thither as to the chosen hall of his
revelry, and the inscription seen by Dante, in his awful
vision, might well be supposed to be written over the door,
" No hope to those that enter here."
A writer, speaking of a large number of discharged volunteers sent home by the ship "Virginia," and dating his
letter Nov. 13, 1846, Balize, La., says, "Half these were
wounded or sick, some having lost their legs, others their
arms, others being wounded in their arms and legs. Will
you believe me when I tell you that with all these sick and
wounded, and dying men, not a surgeon or nurse was sent
along to attend upon them, not a particle of medicine furnished, not a patch of linen for dressing wounds? Such is
the truth, and such, I understand, is the usual manner in
which the men who have been out to fight our battles, but
who are unfortunate enough to get wounded or become sick,
are sent home, like old horses turned out to die."
The testimony of another eye-witness is as follows,- and
we should bear it in mind that most American writers and
correspondents who went into 3Iexico, were advocates, defenders, or at least palliators of the war: —" I left our sick
at Matamoras yesterday. It makes one's heart bleed to
witness the sufferings of these poor fellows. In camp, you
must know, few of the conveniences considered necessary
to the ill at home, can be had. A man gets sick, and he is
carried to the hospital with his blanket and his knapsack.




118    THE HOSPITAL AND THE BATTLE-FIELD.
Bed and bedding there are none, and as the country is
destitute of lumber, bedsteads are not to be had. A blanket
and the ground is, therefore, the couch upon which the
volunteer lies sick, and dies, if he does not recover. If he
dies, the same blanket forms his winding-sheet and coffin,plank is not to be had."'
A shell from one of Gen. Scott's batteries struck the
Charity Hospital at Vera Cruz, in the siege of that city,
penetrated the roof; bursting in the room where the sick
inmates were lying, and killed twenty-three.
At the siege of Puebla, the less severely sick and wounded of the hospital were obliged to take an active part in
protecting the American quarters; and the list of the physician and surgeon numbered, according to the report of
Col. Childs, 1,800.
A young soldier writes to The PIeiladelphia Inquirer, from
Perote, in November, 1847, "Oh, the misery of this hospital life, who would believe it!   *    *    *' Imagination cannot picture to you a military hospital.
It cannot be given to you on paper. Tall, bony skeletons,
torn and racked by disease, struggling to make a step, tottering along like Hamlet's ghost! A year ago they were
among friends smiling upon them. Here they are sick and
dying in this Lazar-house of slaves, once freemen! See
there! keep back, and let that once manly, now decrepit
form pass between the arch. His assistants can hardly support him. That arch he is passing for the last time. Tomorrow sees him  borne along on the barrow. HIe looks
around, the tear glistening in his eye, but, his manly spirit
yet unsubdued, brushes it awnay. That deep sigh proclaims
all hope fled. His shattered mind dwells on by-gone days.
He raises his sunken eyes to heaven, and mutters all his
earthly- joys, - Home, - Father, - Mother! Others, in
idiocy or raving lunacy, sink into the slumbers of death.
Others, with the loss of' a leg or an arm, or perhaps both,




THE HOSPITAL AND THE BATTLE-FIELD.    119
are still thankful that they have life. And there are no
charms or enjoyment to make them feel their loss. Fame,
glory, ambition, have brought many here, but I assure you
that bane of society, rum, has had a large share in the
business; many, many have told me so,
"These few disconnected lines may serve to give you
some idea of the state of things here, but my powers of
description are not sufficient to show up the realities of
every-day life. Were I an Irving, I could picture scenes
that would distress you, but which I hope none will ever
see again.-It is a noted fact, that many who die here, have
their fate hastened, if not caused, by thinking and grieving about home. And all this for Fame. I think she will
break her trumpet ere she can honestly sound the glories of
the Hospital!"
A soldier from Maine stated that he was allowed by the
Government twenty cents per day for his support from New
Orleans home. The Volunteers from Massachusetts were
subsisted home from the same place at about the rate of
one cent per mile, —many sick and suffering!  Said a
Western editor, "we spent some hours in conversation with
those poor fellows, endeavoring to understand the meaning
of such overwhelming squalor, want and misery; for we do
not exaggerate when we say, that we never beheld its
parallel except at the Irish emigrant sheds in Canada last
summer. The condition of these poor creatures was outrageously offensive to every human sense, as well physical
as moral."  Said another editor, "Private Avery died
yesterday.; and the sick receive no attention, except those
who are so fortunate as to have friends who visit them.
All are broken; many are destitute; and individual charity
and friendship constitute the only succor which has yet been
bestowed upon those who have found relief."
But not to make these details of wretchedness tedious, let
us pause a moment before we conclude, and contemplate




120     THE HOSPITAL AND THE BATTLE-FIELD.
this tremendous spectacle of death, sudden or lingering,
in war. What but the voice, at which the dead themselves
shall live, has potency enough, or can plead trumpettongued against the deep damnation of such a taking off of
thousands of our fellow-men? Life, as well as property,
is a great trust from the Creator, to be held, preserved and
employed, according to the will of the principal.  WVe have
no right to lay violent hands on it ourselves, nor to suffer,
if we can prevent it, and keep a clear conscience, any other
man to do it harm or hazard. Moses proclaimed from
3Mount Sinai, Jesus from  Mount Zion, "Thou shalt not
kill." It is the law of the moral and social world, and it cannot he openly, frequently, and flagrantly broken, as is done
in war without involving one or both the parties concerned
in a most solemn responsibility, both to God and man. We
are pained even at the sight of an animal killed; what should
be our horror then at the contemplation of a battle where
men meet in vast numbers with all the skilful enginery
of destruction, for the express aim of setting this law of
God at the utmost defiance, and imbruing one another's
hands in the blood of children of the same Heavenly
Father, and disciples of the same Saviour! The following
is from an actor in the battle of Buena Vista: " The morning of the 23d came. The fight was renewed, and soon
the battle became general. The hissing shot swept like a
hurricane through the serried ranks, opening huge gaps,
instantly to be closed by fresh victims; the shell, with its
fearful surging noise, flew over the plain, leaving a blue
streak behind, and after cutting down several, would burst,
its fragments disemboweling and tearing off heads and arms
alike; the flesh would be rent from a soldier's body and
hurled in a million shreds, into the face of his comrade, who
would shrink as if struck by the ball itself. Brains, and
bones, and blood flew  in the air over a fighting line
like drops of water lashed from its current by a falling tree.




THE HOSPITAL AND THE BATTLE-FIELD.    121
IIere the opposing forces stood in speaking distance, and
piteously poured a wasting fire into one another's breasts;
there the work was hotter and deadlier, and as the column
surged forward and back, the thrust of the bayonet was to
decide the victory. In a few instances, men threw down their
guns, and grappling the hair or throat, plunged their long
knives into their enemy, and may be, while the reeking blade
was raised for a second blow, the strong and blood-dyed arm
fell lifeless. A man would rise from the close embrace of the
death-struggle, and, ere he was erect, a sabre stroke had
cleaved his skull and crushed thrlou1gh his face. In the rear
-and on the flanks, heavy squadrons of cavalry hung,
and flew in thundering gallop, eager to detect some assailable point, that they might trample to death a broken line.
Oh! it was a cruel and heart-sickening sight to look upon
that dense impassioned mass of men rioting in blood and
carnage like demons."
It is the unspeakable aggravation of the loss of life in,war, as compared with the mortality of a famine, or a disease, that it is man killing man, brother lifting up sword
against brother, and repeating the example of Cain, in each
one of a hundred or a thousand legalized murders. The
chief evil of war is its sinfulness, its unholy motives,
its fiendish passions, its repeal of every. thing good, and
its encouragement of all the worst fcelings and desires of
the carnal man. Its battles, fought on the shores of
time, send their hellish influences throu,ghll eternity. According to the  ingenious mathematical demonstration of
a great Natural Philosopher of the present day, whatever
sound is made, goes on and on resounding  and reverberating  in  never-ending  echoes; —the  shriek  of the
murdered, "the confused noise of the warriors," rolling forever through the universe, and repeated to the last syllable
of time. This is a faint image of the everlasting evils that
will follow on earth and in futurity, the convulsions of war.
11




122    LEGITIMATE BARBARITIES OF THE WAR~.
The loss of life in this manner is attended, also, with the
two-fold painful feeling, that many who perish are not candidates for this change in the ordinary course of nature,
but that they are often the young, the vigorous, and the
enterprising; fathers, sons, brothers, who call ill be spared
from the sphere of active life. War feeds on some of the
most active of our race. But a yet more aoffecting idea to
the Christian and moralist associated with this mode of
death, is that it takes place oftentimes not only in the absence of all suitable preparation, but in a state of the most
extreme disqualification and violent unfitness;-the soul
agitated with the most tumultuous, if not the most diabolical
passions; the weapons of death clenched in the grasp of
a dreadful resolution, "the human face divine"' lighted up
with the fires of ambition or revenge, the eye kindling with
exultation at seeing a brother fall, and the word of impiety
and undying hate still trembling on the lips. What a state
in which to bid adieu to this solemn life of earth, and to
enter on the more solemn scenes of an eternal world
CHAPTER XI.
LEGITIILATE BARBARITIES OF T]HE WV'AR
"Were not the mercies of God infinite, it were in vain for those of
the military profession to hope for any portion of them, seeing the
cruelties by them permitted and perpetrated are also infinite."MOULUC, ITXARIIAL OF FRANCE.
WAR, in its nature, is a barbarism.  It implies a return
to the brute force, that governs men in the savage Etats.




LEGITIMATE BARBARITIES OF THE WAR.    123
It is a substitution of might for right. The parties do not
rest the strength of their cause upon the weight of their
arguments, but the calibre of their cannon.  Since the
whole system combines physical violence, in all its varieties
and most shocking displays, we must expect to find, in each
separate act and scene, the marks of its atrocities and cruelties. Every battle, from the necessity of the case, must be
a reign of the Furies. Every camp must be a school of
abominations.  Every march, though "the land is as the
garden of Eden before," must leave " behind it a desolate
wilderness." *
These are natural and necessary results.  We cannot
wound and kill men without hurting them. War is the god
of cruelty. It is the embodiment of inhumanity. It cannot
be carried on, for a single day, upon Christian principles.
It militates against every social precept of the Gospel. Its
aim is not to love, but to hate our enemies; to do them evil,
not good; to destroy men's lives, not to save them; to return not good for evil, but evil for evil, a greater evil for a
less evil, or even evil for good; to curse, not bless our enemies; to see how far it can make mankind, not the children
of " the Highest, who is kind unto the unthankful and to
the evil," but the children of " him who was a murderer from
the beginning."
In bringing, therefore, the Mlexican War before the bar
of public opinion and the religion of Christ, we shall expect
to find it, like all other wars, a system of barbarities, -a
reversal of civilization and Christianity.  Though carried
on between two nominally Christian nations, and with loud
professions, at its outset, of humanity, we shall soon discover,
by the testimony of unimpeachable witnesses, that it is the
same old "trade of barbarism," as Napoleon called war;
and that, while it was a contest not particularly embittered
*Joel 2:.3




124     LEGITIMATE BARBARITIES OF THE WAR.
by religious animosities, though fought between a Catholic
and a Protestant power, and while its period was the nineteenth century of the era of the Prince of Peace, the boasted
age of intelligence, science, refinement, and philanthropy,
yet that its outrages and horrors are equal to those of any
war, of any age, in proportion to its duration and the number of its combatants.  Its evils, in other respects, have
fitly corresponded to its amazing waste of treasure and
life.
There are, in the first place, what may be called the
legitimate and inevitable horrors of the battle, the siege, the
camp, and the hospital. These we have already adverted
to; but they deserve a more emphatic consideration, that
our readers may realize, in some measure, what a war is,
and for what kind of a thing they vote or speak, when they
advocate a war. Then there are what may be called the
illegitimate barbarities; those which military men themselves
condemn, and which, even they feel, dim the beauty of their
great idol, the glory of arms, and wither the laurels of the
victor. To the examination of the evidence, on both these
points, we will now direct our attention; and, if testimony
summoned from these fields of blood possess any credibility,
if language convey any meaning, - and if the human
heart be alive to human pains and sins, - we must feel that
we stand in the presence of calamities that ought not to be
allowed to drop into oblivion, without giving us their most
solemn lessons of peace, and admonitions against war.
Here, also, let it be remarked, that we have, in these
accounts, a more unbiassed description of war, as it is, than
can often be obtained, from the fact, that those who went
into it were, for the most part, not hardened and professional
soldiers, but men fresh from peaceful pursuits, and, in not a
few cases, ardent patriots and worthy citizens, though they
might not, to use the Western phrase, stop " to see whether
they were right," before they "went ahead."  The letter




LEGITIIMATE BARBARITIES OF THE WAR.    125
writers, too, were generally spectators, rather than actors, in
the scenes they portray. The two leading generals, whose
reports we shall quote, were also humane and kindly-hearted
men, so far as the profession of arms will allow.  We have,
therefore, a fair chance to know something of the real character of war, from the declarations of those whose bosoms
had not become wholly steeled to its miseries.
Palo Alto and Resaca de la Pacllna. A correspondent of the
Boston Courier, says: "That night was to me a terrible
one, which I shall never,'never forget. The screams and
groans of the wounded and dying on both sides, mangled
and torn as they all were, with the grape and six-pounder
shots - the conflagration of the battle-ground, fit emblem of
the awful work of death which had so long been going on,the moans of the poor oxen and horses, so terribly mangled,
- and the dreadful uncertainty of the extent of our loss,
and how many of our friends, who were alive at dinner,
were then asleep forever, - the night-work of our surgeons,
with their horrible instruments all besmeared with human
blood,- were sights, and sounds, and thoughts, I pray God,
in his mercy, may never visit me again."
An officer of the army writes fiom Matamoras, May 23,
1846: " I went over the field, after the battle of Resaca de
la Palma; and the sight which met my eye there was one
which imagination San scarcely depict. Bodies of Mexican
soldiers were lying about in every direction; some with
their heads entirely or partly shot off, others without legs or
arms, others with their entrails torn out. One man, a finelooking fellow, was lying on the ground, with a cartridge in
his fingers; having evidently been killed while in the act of
priming his musket. I crept about on my hands and knees
through the chapparal, and at every few paces I would
come across dead bodies; and, at one spot, I discovered the
body of a beautiful Mexican girl, staked through the
heart."
11*




126    LEGITIMATE BARBARITIES OF THE WAR.
"Go where you would," says T. B. Thorpe, in " Our
Army on the Rio Grande," " and there were evidences of
the artillery. Ringgold had written the strength of'his
arm' with terrible distinctiveness.  Arims and legs gone,
shattered bodies, ghastly wounds, all too hideous for the
musket, were everywhere to be seen. It was surprising
that men could live, thus torn to pieces. And yet the greatest suffering, apparently, was from a musket ball. IHad it
been grape, or of heavier material, it would have done its
work effectually, and left its victim painless in death. As
it was, it had gone through the breast, tearing the fine
machinery of the lungs to pieces, and yet left vitality enough
\to have them move on in their ruins, poisoning the whole
frame with impure blood, and leaving the patient to suffer
beyond the power of imagination to conceive. Poor soldier!  His breath rattled and tore away at his vitals; his
sufferings were, indeed, a dark spot on the bloody page of
war."
IH-e also describes the awful scenes at the Rio Grande,
during the retreat and crossing of the 3Mexicans, and the
confusion at the city of Matamoras: "The water was covered with the miserable beings, who, confused -and desperate, plunged about in the waves, calling on God to help
them, or venting their impotent maledictions upon those who
had forced them to a watery grave. They sunk by scores,
clutching each other in the agonies of death; and the "mad
river" fairly boiled, with the expiring breath of those who
had sunken under its dark waves!
" In the midst of the panic, Father Leary arrived at the
bank, and by his presence restored order, in a certain degree, among the fugitives. He took his place on the flat,
already crowded with troops.  It was about shoving off,
when down the bank swept a flying column of. cavalry.
Goaded by their riders, the steeds madly leaped into the
boats; crushing to death scores of their victims, and driving




LEGITIMATE BARBARITIES OF THE WAR.    127
the remainder into the river. The holy father raised his
crucifix above his head, muttered an ejaculatory prayer, and
disappeared, with the mass of his fellow-beings, under the
waves.
"Nothing could exceed the consternation that reigned in
Miatamoras, on the night of the 9th. Between 4,000 and
5,000 lawless soldiers were wandering, panic-struck, about
the streets.        *    -*
"The night was made hideous, by the constant arrival of
the wounded, in sacks; many yelled like fiends, as the
rough carriage and contracted form  started afresh their
bleeding wounds; others were found dead in their sacks,
having been drowned while crossing the river on swimming
mules.    ~    *    *
"The more substantial citizens hurriedly gathered together their effects, and fled into the country; many of
these fell by the hands of unorganized troops, and their
property was divided among the murderers.  Hundreds of
soldiers were scattered over the country, who pillaged all
within their reach, and attacked the defenceless that came
in their way. - Social, civil, and military order was scattered
to the winds; dark (nime and unbridled passion rioted in
the terrible confusion that followed this terrible defeat.
Monterey. The attack on this place had the character of
a battle, a siege, and an assault, and combined the horrors
of all. Let us call the witnesses, remembering that they
are war-men, and observing that their stories have internal
marks of genuineness and authenticity.
Young WVynkoop, of Zanesville, Ohio, writes, "During
the filght of the second day, a flag of cessation was sent to
the Mexicans, requesting a few hours to bury the dead
which were strewed in frightfiul piles over the field.  This
was refused, and the wounded and dead lay where they fell,
beneath the rays of a scorching sun till the battle was ended.
It was then almost impossible for our men to endure the




128     LEGITIMLAITE BARBARITIES E1' THE WAR.
stench, while they heaped dirt over the poor fellows where
they lay. The bodies of the dead were as black as coals.
]Many of them were stripped of their clothing by the Mlexicans during the night. Several of those who were wounded
during the first day's fight, crawled into ditches and holes to
avoid the balls which were rolling like hailstones over the
field, whence, exhausted by the loss of blood, they were
unable to crawl, or give signs of distress. As a consequence,
many perished, though some who were found in this condition were removed, and are recovering.
~" I am satisfied with glory, if it is to be obtained only by
butchering my fellow-men; and I wish some of our valorous
friends at the North could see a little more of the realities
of war, and they would not be so anxious to rush into one
on every trivial occasion.  It makes me sick now, when
I think of the scenes I witnessed.  They were perfectly
horrid. On the night of the 23d, as our shells exploded in
the city, they were followed by the most terrlfic caries, perhaps from  wonwenz and children, which did not cease till
morning. Thank God'! I only threw two shells that nigi,
on account of being told the Texans were on the roofs of
the houses immediately in my line of fire, and as I was
about to open in the morning upon the principal plaza, which
was filled with four thousand troops, I was stopped by the
appearance of a flag of truce, and the result was the capitulation of the city, and a suspension of arms for two months,
which I hope may termirate in a general peace, and that we
may be permitted again to see our families."
But what heart, though it be of stone, is not pierced and
thrilled with the following tragedy of real life!  To think
that an humble, disinterested heroine like this woman should
perish in her work of humanity! Hers was the true glory.
The warrior's fame is a sham and a cheat. She shall live in
the eternal memory of history.  WTe may say, without irreverence, of her, as was said of the woman of the new Tes



LEGITIMATE BARBA.ITIES OF THE WAR.    129
tament, that wheresoever this battle shall be spoken of "in
the whole world, there slh-ll also this, that this woman hath
done be told for a memorial of her."
The following is an extract of a letter addressed to the
"Louisville Courier," dated Monterey, Oct. 17, 1847' —
"While I was stationed with our left wing in one of the
forts, on the evening of the 21st, I saw a Mexican woman
busily engaged in carrying bread and water to the wounded
men of both armies. I saw the ministerinl  angel raise the
head of a wounded man, give him water and food, and then
bind up his ghastly wound with a handkerchief she took
from her own head. After having exhausted her supplies,
she went back to her house to get more bread and water for
others. As she was returning on her mission of mercy, to
comfort other wounded persons, I heard the report of a gun,
and saw the poor innocent creature fiail dead! I think it
was an accidental shot that struck her. I would not be
willing to believe otherwise. It made me sick at heart, and,
turning fiom the scene, I involuntarily raised my eyes toward heaven, and thought, Great God! is thlzs war? Passing the spot the next day, I saw her body still lying there,
with the bread by her side, and the broken gourd, with a
few drops of water still in it, — emblems of her errand. We
buried her, and while we were digging her grave, cannon
balls flew around us like hail."
Bucena Vista. "At one time during the fiht,'" says an
eye-witness, writing from Saltillo, "w-e returned over the
ground on which we made our first charge. WVe there saw
the mangled bodies of our fallen comrades, and, although
animated by the excitement of the fierce contest which was
just then renewed, yet I think there was not a heart among
us which did not for a moment cease to beat on beholding
that horrible scene. But for his straw hat, and a few other
articles of clothing which the ruffians had left on him, I
should have failed to recognize the body of young Eggleston.




130    LEGITIMATE BARBARITIES OF THE WAR.
He was shot, stabbed, and otherwise abused. This was,
indeed, the fate of all whom I saw. Lieut. MINoore, and a
man named Couch, of our company, were the only persons
whose bodies I easily recognized.
"After the battle, I rode over the whole field. Parties
were engaged in burying the dead; but still there were
hundreds of bodies lying stiff and cold, with no covering
save the scanty remnant of clothing which the robbers of
the dead found too valueless to take from them. I saw the
human body pierced in every place. I saw expressed in the
faces of the dead almost every expression and feeling. S6me
seemed to have died defending their lives bravely to the last.
Some seemed to have died execrating their enemies, and
cursing them with their last breath; others had the most
placid and resigned expression and feeling; while others
evidently used their last words in supplicating for mercy.
Here lay youth and mature age calmly reposing in untimely
death.
"Among the hundreds of' the dead whom I saw there,
I was much touched by the appearance of the corpse of a
Mlexican boy, whose age, I should think, could not have
exceeded fifteen years.  A  bullet had struck him  full
through the breast, and must have occasioned almost instant death. I-Ie was lying on his back, his face slightly
inclined to one side, and although cold, yet beaming with a
bright and sunny smile, which eloquently told the spectator that he had fallen with his face to his country's foe.
" Saltillo is one vast hospital. Besides our own wounded
(four or five hundred in number), Gen. Taylor has collected
all the wounded Mexicans who were left by their army,
and put them in hospital. It is most disgusting to visit one
of these places. All the Mexicans are badly wounded; for
those who were slightly wounded went off. They are dying
every hour in the day."
Says Capt. Carlton, in his work called "The Battle of




LEGITIMATE BARBARITIES OF THE WAR.    131
Buena Vista,"-" -We imagined that during the battle, and
upon the field when the conflict was ended, and afterwards
upon the road over which the enemy had retreated, we had
witnessed human suffering in its most distressing forms.
But such was not the case. The scene presented to our
eyes on entering within the walls of Encarnacion, was so
filled with extreme and utter agony, that we at once ceased
to shudder at the remembrance of any misery we had ever
before looked upon. There were 300 men crowded together
in that wretched place, 222 of whom had been wounded at
Buena Vista, and brought thus far. There were five officers
amongst them. As they had received but little surgical
attention, and had been harassed and worn down by travelling so far while debilitated with pain and loss of blood,
their wounds were nearly all either gangrened or highly
inflamed. nMany of them were enduring the most excruciating torments; many were delirious from excess of anguish; while others, whose wounds had become mortified,
were perfectly composed, and yet were even more piteous
to behold, as their very quietness was but a more certain
indication of speedy dissolution. In fine, the whole hacienda
presented at one glance a picture of death, embracing all the
degrees, from  the strong man bearing up with fortitude
against the sure and speedy fate which awaited him, down
to the poor mortal struggling in the last throe of existence.
And all intermixed with them, were the bodies of those who
had just commenced the long journey, yet warm, and lying
in the various positions they were severally in when life
departed. Poor fellows!  No beloved eye had beamed
tearfully upon them  in their last moments. No voice of
affection had murmured in their ear little gentle words of
hope, or that touching comfort, "we shall meet again."  And
there was no kind hand to honor their remains by straightening them for the grave."
Such is war, Christian war, or war carried on by one




132     LEGITIMATE BARBARITIES OF THE WAR.
Christian nation against another, as described by its colonels,
captains, and soldiers! It is not perhaps in good taste to
call up such horrid and loathsome images; but better, infinitely better it is, that we should have our sensibilities
even painfully aroused to feel the unutterable horrors of
war, than that we should ever by our guilty indifference or
unremonstrating silence allow or encourage those causes to
go into operation, by which all these miseries are produced,
or should exert a direct and interested part in bringing them
to pass. What indeed must be the magnitude and terror
of those evils in their reality, when the mere description of
them on paper is so abhorrent and disgusting! Let us be
willing to encounter a horrid image of distress in our reading, if it shall move us to seek by all means in our power
to arrest some father, son, brother, fellow-man, firom falling
into that distress in actual life, or to stay a nation's myriadhanded power from  embarking in the business of human
butchery.
It was in reference to the action at Buena Vista in particular, and other battles in general, that the highest military, executive, and legislative authorities in the nation used
the phrases,-" the grateful task of congratulating the
troops upon the brilliant success which attended their arms,"
- " a great and glorious victory,"-" a success which commands universal admiration," -  "a glorious triumph," —
" brilliant successes," - "galilant army," -'" brilliant series,"
" glorious actions," and many other terms of a like import.
But would it not be more in harmony with the dictates of
humanity and the Gospel, and with the proper feelings in a
free and prosperous nation, that this A" exultation of success,"
to use the language of the American commander-in-chief,
should be " checked by the heavy sacrifice of life which it
has cost;" and that even if wars are necessary things, which
we are not yet prepared to concede, the heart-rending scenes
which are exhibited on its fields of death, and in its hospitals




LEGITIMATE BARBARITIES OF THE WAR.    133
of anguish, should have no such epithets as "great," "g'lorious," "gallant," "brilliant," appended to them?  Far be
it fiom ius to undervalue courage, patriotism, and many of
the qtualities which the soldier may manifest in the hour of
danger, but the spirit of glorification is not in good taste,
either intellectual or moral, in these awful scenes. Fiends
in the regions of woe may exult over the fallen and the
lost, the sorrowing and the despairing; but it is not for
man, frail, suffering, dependent man, needing mercy himself,
be he king or president, general or senator, to glory in war
and the exploits of war; but if necessity requires such inconceivable atrocities and agonies, to veil his face and bow
his head, and pray for mercy on the victims, as he would at
the foot of the gallows supplicate for the malefactor.
Vera Crtuz (True Cross!).  According to the statements
of official authority, Gen. Scott gave permission for the
foreign consuls and their families to retire to neutral ships
in the harbor, or other places of safety, and allotted time
before he opened his cannon and completed his investment,
for all womenrr and children, and non-combatants, who desired to do so, to depart from danger into the country. But
all chose to take their chance in the besieged and bombarded
city. The scenes which followed,- behold them!
The General-in-chief writes to the ]War Department,
March 25, 1847, "All the batteries, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5,
are in awful activity this morning.  The effect is no doubt
very great, and I think the city cannot hold out beyond todav."
The British, Frenclh, Spanish, and Prussian Consuls, in
a letter to Gen. Scott, Matrch 24th, speak of " the frightful
results of the bombardment of Vera Cruz during yesterday
and the day befobe."
The following is an extract from the New oForlk Herald:
— " The bombardment of four days placed the town in ruins,
12




134    LEGITIMATE BARBARITIES OF THE WAR.
under which great numbers of non-combatants, men, women,
and children, were buried.
"The bombardment is represented to have been terrific,
and to its thunders succeeded the moans of the dying in
every part of the town for several days afterwards."
The _/ew Orleans commercial Times says, " A shell from
one of our mortars passed through the dome of one of the
churches, and exploded on the altar, killing ten or fifteen
women who had gathered there for protection."
A correspondent of the Alton Telegraph, writing from
Vera Cruz, says, " The French families in the city were the
greatest sufferers. I heard a great many heart-rending tales
which were told by the survivors with breaking hearts; but
I have neither the inclination nor the time now to repeat
them. One, however, I will name. A French family were
quietly seated in their parlor the evening previous to the
hoisting of the white flag, when a shell from one of the mortars penetrated the building, and exploded in the room, killing the mother and four children, and wounding the residue.
Another shell struck the charity hospital, penetrated the
roof, bursting in the room where the sick inmates were
lying, and killed twenty-three. Thus rushed into eternity,
in the twinkling of an eye, not only the invalid, but the
innocent and unoffending. Such are a few of the horrors
and fearful calamities that have marked the progress of this
siege and capture."
Sketches still more graphic and heart-rending are given
in the Advertiser, Auburn, N. Y., from E. C. Hine. "' After
penetrating some distance," he says, "I paused and looked
around me. Save our little party, not an American was to
be seen. We were literally alone in an enemy's city. We
were the first, of our countrymen who had entered Vera
Cruz.
"Never had I beheld such destruction of property.
Scarcely a house did I pass that did not show some great




LEGITIMATE BAZIBARITIES OF THE WAR.    135
rent by the bursting of our bomb-shells. At almost every
house at which I paused to examine the destruction occasioned by these dreadful messengers of death, some of the
family, if the house did not happen to be deserted, would
come to the door, and, inviting me to enter, point out their
property destroyed, and, with a pitiful sigh, exclaim, La
bombac! la bomba! (the bomb! the bomb!)  MIy heart ached
for the poor creatures.
"During my peregrinations, I came to a lofty and noble
mansion, in which a terrible bomb-shell had exploded, and
laid the whole front of the house in ruins. While I was
examining the awful havoc created, a beautiful girl of some
seventeen came to the door and invited me into the house.
She pointed to the furniture of the mansion torn into fragments, and the piles of rubbish lying around, and informed
me, with her beautiful eyes full of tears, that the bomb had
destroyed her father, mother, brother, and two little sisters,
and that she was now left in the world alone. O war! war!
who can tell thy horrors!
" During the afternoon I visited the hospital. Here lay,
upon truckle beds, the mangled creatures who had been
wounded during the bombardment. In one corner was a
poor, decrepit, bed-ridden woman, her head white with the
sorrows of seventy years. One of her withered arms had
been blown off with the fragment of a shell. In another
place might be seen mangled creatures of both sexes, bruised
and disfigured by the falling of their houses and bursting of
the shells. On the stone floor lay a little child, in a complete state of nudity, with one of its poor legs cut off just
above the knee! The apartment was filled with flies, that
seemed to delight in the agonies of the miserable creatures
over whom they hovered; and the moans were heartrending."
"W Te are yet ignorant," says a Mexican paper, "of the
exact number of the killed and wounded; but, by the best




19336   LEGITIMATE BARBARITIES OF THE WAR.
data we have obtained, estimate both at not less than 1,000
persons. The damage done to dwellings and edifices is
five or six million dollars, -- which cannot be repaired for
many years."
The same authority says: "In a short time the hospitals
were crowded with the wounded, the dead being simultaneously buried. The bombs entered the walls of the church
of Santo Domingo, killing the unfortunate wounded, fiightening away the nurses and doctors, who, after arriving with
haste and risk at the church of'San  Francisco, and the
chapel of the third order, encountered the same dismal fate,
as well as at the'hospitals of Belen and Loretto, where, it is
well ascertained, one bomb assassinated nineteen innocent
persons.  In all quarters perished  unfortunate persons,
seeking a shelter from this frightful desolation; while the
wounded retaining strength enough to raise themselves, fled
as cripples, and sprinkled the streets with their blood.
Most of the fatmilies, whose houses had been destroyed,
had lost everything; all the property remaining to them
being the clothes on their backs, because whllat the flames
did not consume was buried under the ruins. Hundreds of
persons, as well as fathers of numerous families of children,
heretofore relying upon certain incomes, to-day find themselves without a bed to lie upon,. without covering or clothing to shelter them, and without any victuals.  Having been
a target, during five entire days, for 6,000 or more projectiles, whi\ch separated when they exploded,-forming, without ceunting the stones and rubbish thrown up, other elements of destruction to the amount of 2,500,000 shots,after sustaining this attack. we remain reduced to the most
frightful misery, without any one knowing how, to-morrow,
to feed his family."
Tobasco. "In view of this scene, Commodore Perry ordered the vessels again to be cast loose fiom the steamers,
to retake their position for raking the town, and now gave




LEGITIMATE BARBARITIES OF THE'WAR.    137
the order to open it, in vengeance and retaliation. Two
hours were spent in throwing shot, round canister, and
grape, and musket balls, into the place, demolishing parts
of those houses from which Mexicans were seen to fire;
and, at random, but always with certain accuracy, on some
part of the town, the balls and shells fell; and wo was
borne with them, even to the sickening of the hearts of
those who sent them. Signals, at length, were made by the
commodore, to unite-the tow of the different schooners to
the steamers,- the steamers taking a schooner under each
wing. The anchors of the steamers were then weighed,
and they stood near in to the town, as they passed up the
stream, and raked the buildings as they went by. Winding
ship, they came down again, discharging their other battery
continually, and, in a naval point of view, beautifully,'as
they glided by the town, and now left it in its injuries, blood,
and sorrow."'
7lfexico. One of tile surgeons of the army, (who has
since been dangerously wounded,) writing to a friend after
the battles of Contreras and Churubusco, says: "After
operating, with my assistants, till three o'clock in the morning, I left the building of which I had made a temporary
hospital, to take an hour's rest in the open air. I turned
round, to laok at my amputation table; under it was a perfect
heap of arms and legs; and, looking at myself, I was covered
with blood from head to foot."
" We are permitted," says the " Syracuse Daily Journal,"
"to make the following extracts from a letter, written by
one of the most distinguished officers of the army, to his
wife:
"The sight of one battle-field cures one of a desire for
military life. If he could see the literal piles of mangled
corpses of the slain, - some without heads, some without
legs or arms, some with their bowels torn open, the ground
12*




138    LEGITIMATE BARBARITIES OF THE'WAR,
strewn with the wounded, dead, and dying, -he would be
content with his lot.
"The most heart-sickening spectacle I ever beheld Was
the arch-episcopal palace at Tacubaya, converted into a hospital on the day of AIolino del Rey. The floors of the spacious apartments were covered with wounded officers and
men, to the extent of many hundreds, who were suffering
horrid agonies, while the corps of surgeons were actively
engaged in amputating limbs; some of the victims screamed
with agony, while others sustained themnselves with heroic
fortitude. I had occasion to go through the spacious building twice that day, and witnessed many operations. I saw
the amputated limbs quivering with life, while the gutters
of the court were filled with streams of human blood. It
was heart-sickening, and enough to cure any man of a taste
for war."
A Mexican writes as follows, of the taking of the Capital:
"On the morning of the 14th, before day-light, the enemy,
with a part of his force, commenced his march upon the
city. Our soldiers, posted behind the arches of the aqueducts, and several breast-works which had been hastily
thrown up, annoyed him  so severely, together with the
trenches which he had to bridge over, that he did not arrive
at the gates until late in the afternoon. Here he halted and
attempted to bombard the city, which he did during the
balance of the day and the day following, doing immense
damage. In some cases, whole blocks were destroyed, and
a great number of men, women, and children killed and
wounded.
"The picture was awful. One deafening roar filled our
ears, one cloud of smoke met our eyes, now and then mixed
with flamle; and, amid it all, we could hear the various
shrieks of the wounded and dying.
"Many were killed by the blowing up of the houses;
many by the bombardment; but more by the confusion




ILLEGITIMATE BARBARITIES.               139
which prevailed in the city; and altogether we cannot
count our killed, wounded, and missing, since the actions
commenced yesterday, at less than 4,000, —among whom
are many women and children.  The enemy confesses a loss
of over 1,000; it is, no doubt, much greater."
CIIAPTER XII.
ILLEGITIMATE BARBARITIES.
" WVar is also the fruitful parent of crimes. It reverses, with respect
to its objects, all the rules of morality. It is nothing less than a temporary repeal of the principles of virtue. It is a system out of which
almost all the virtues are excluded, and in which nearly all the vices
are included." - ROBERT HALL.
BUT there is another picture, -not of fierce and cruel
passions, clothing themselves in the garb of the laws of war,
or riding on the whirlwind of battle, but bursting forth,
without any law, restraint, or sanction, unless vengeance
have a law.  Here, too, we see the natural fruits of war,
the natural accompaniments, more or less, of every war.
For, when the passions are aroused to their maximum, they
cannot be checked at any particular point of propriety,
morality, or even military subordination; but are ready to
break over all bounds, and rush into the most ungovernable
extremes of cruelty and lust.
In order to substantiate the facts under this branch of
the subject, we shall quote the testimony of the soldiers and
letter-writers, and confirm their statements by the authentic
reports of the commanding generals on both sides.  We
shall thus see that the Mexican War, waged in the nine



140          ILLEGITIMATE BARBARITIES.
teenth century, between two professedly fine and Christian
nations, was in most respects no better, and probably no
worse, than the wars of past times. We have said all that
can be said, when we call it waR.
In relation to the march of a body of troops from the
Rio Grande towards Monterey, a correspondent of the
Louisville Joitrnal writes as follows, in vindication of severe
language used by Gen. Taylor, respecting the volunteers:
"The march of the regiment, from the lawless character of
some of those composing it, was everywhere marked by
deeds of wanton violence and cruelty. Along the whole
extent of the nfarch, ranchos were burned, cattle were
shot, hogs and poultry were killed, and even pet pigs were
slaughtered at the very feet of the women and children
that owned them. The shooting of cattle was often done
in utter wantonness; the marauders either suffering them to
lie just as they fell, or merely cutting out their tongues and
leaving their carcases to rot; thus showing that it was not
the want of food that incited them to outrage. These putrages were all reported to Gen. Taylor, before his arrival at
2Marin, and can be substantiated by Col. Fauntleroy, of the
2d Dragoons; Col. Randolph, of the Virginia Volunteers;
Col. Belknap, Inspector General of the U. S. Army; Lieut.
Patterson, of the Mississippi Regiment, and many others, if
necessary.
"At Marin itself, where the severe language of Gen.
Taylor is said to have been used, the conduct of the advanced guard of Col. Curtis's regiment was marked by similar atrocities. The night before the arrival of the Ohio
Regiment there, Gen. Taylor had slept in the town and
seen the Alcalde, had been the guest of some of the principal citizens, had broken bread with them, and had promised
them protection. But the advanced guard of Curtis's regiment entered the town; and instantly the work of pillage,
robbery, and devastation was begun. At least four houses
were set on fire by them."




ILLEGITIMATE BARBARITIES.            141
The Monterey correspondent of the Charleston lMercury,
after the capitulation of the city, says: "As at IMatamoras,
murder, robbery, and rape, were committed in broad light
of day; and, as if desirous to signalize themselves, at Monterey, by some new act of atrocity, they burned many of the
thatched huts of the poor peasants. It is thought that more
than one hundred of the inhabitants were murdered in cold
blood; and one Mexican soldier, with Gen. Worth's passport in his pocket, was shot dead at noon-day, in the main
street of the city, by a ruffian from Texa4  But for the
moral influence, and the finally exerted physical force of the
hirelings of government, the dark deeds of Badajoz would
have been repeated at Monterey.  Guards of'mercenaries'
are now placed in every street, and over every building, in
the city; to prevent depredations being committed by those
who come here from devotion to'the land of the free and
the home of the brave.'
" The Mexicans themselves admit, that before the arrival
of the volunteers upon the Rio Grande, all Eastern Mexico
was ripe for revolt, and annexation to the United States.
Now there is no portion of the country so bitterly hostile to
us and our institutions."
The army correspondent of the New  Orleans Picayune,
Ir. IIaile, writing from  near Mier, Jan. 4, 1847, says:
"Below Mier we met the 2d regiment of Indiana troops,
commanded, I believe, by Col. Drake. They encamped
near our camp, and a portion of them were exceedingly irregular in their behavior; firing away their cartridges, and
persecuting the Mexican families at a rancho near by."
" On arriving at Mier we learned, from indisputable authority, that this same regiment had committed, the day
before, outrages against the citizens of the most disgraceful
character; stealing, or rather robbing, insulting the women,
breaking into houses, and other feats of a similar character!
W'e have heard of them at almost every rancho up to this
place.




142          ILLEGITIMATE BARBARITIES.
"Gen. Taylor has issued proclamations, assuring the inhabitants of the towns in the conquered territory that they
should be protected and well treated by our troops. Since
this place has been garrisoned by volunteers, the families
have 1Seen subjected to all kinds of outrages. At Punta
Aguda it has been the same; most of those who could go,
have left their houses. Some have fallen into the hands
of the Camanches, while flying from the persecutions of
our volunteer troops. Recently, the troops have received
treatment from men stationed here, (I do not know who
commands them,) that negroes in a state of insurrection
would hardly be guilty of. The women have been repeatedly violated, (almost an every day affair,) houses are
broken open, and insults of every kind have been offered
to those whom we are bound by honor to protect. This is
nothing more than a statement of facts. I have no time to
make comments; but I desire to have this published, and I
have written it under the approval of Capt. Thornton, Major
Dix, (who has in charge $250,000 of the United States'
money,) Capt. De Hart, Col. Bohlen, Lieut. Thorn, Mr.
Blanchard, and my own sense of duty; and I am determined, hereafter, to notice every serious offence of the above
mentioned nature."
In confirmation of these anonymous and other statements,
we cite, from the Reports and Orders of Gen. Taylor, as
follows. He writes from Monterey, Oct. 6, 1846, to the
department at Washington: * "I have respectfully to report,
that the entire force of Texas volunteers has been mustered
out of service, and is now returning home by companies.
With their departure we may look for a restoration of quiet
and order in M3onterey; for, I regret to report, that some
shameful atrocities have been perpetrated by them, since the
capitulation of the town."
* 30th Congress, 1st Session, House of Representatives, Ex. Doc. 60.
pp. 4S0, 512. 513, 521.




ILLEGITIMATE BARBARITIES.            143
Again; he issues orders, from the same place, Nov. 27,
1846, that "The many outrages, that have been recently
committed in the city of Monterey, and elsewhere, upon the
persons and property of Mexican citizens, render it neeessary to restrict the extensive use of riding animals among
the rank and file of the army." So it appears that the Texans were not the only peccant soldiers in the camp.
On Dec. 2, 1846, orders are again sent out, to the following effect; " Grave complaints have come to the commanding general, touching depredations alleged to have been
committed near MIarin and Ramos, by troops and armed
parties passing on the road. The general is therefore under
the necessity of calling the attention of all officers, commanding escorts or other bodies of troops, and of all discharged
men or others who may travel armed, between this point
and Camargo, to the great importance of respecting the
rights of all Mexican citizens. The good faith of the country and the army has been pledged to this course; and it
is the interest of all to see that the reputation of neither be
disgraced, by scenes of plunder and marauding. The troops
are well supplied with the subsistence and forage allowed by
law, and nothing can justify the wanton destructioi of private property."
On Oct. 5th a Mexican lancer was shot in open daylight
in the streets of MIonterey, according to the report of the
commander in chief.
The Special Orders of Dec. 7, 1846, relate to a "court
of inquiry, convened at the request of Captain C. WV. Bullin, 1st Kentucky regiment, to investigate the imputations
against Company D, as connected with the violent death of
a Mexican."
A published letter from Monterey, dated Nov. 30, 1846,
says, "The tables have been turned on the AMexicans, and
for those who have been assassinated of the volunteers, a
double number of the enemy have suffered within a day or




144          ILLEGITIM3ATE BARBARITIES.
two.  It is reported this morning, that Gen. Taylor has
ordered the 1st Kentuckians to Ceralvo, to prevent this
killing."
"The war," says the same writer, Dec. 1, 1846, "between
the Kentuckians and Mexicans, as it is familiarly termed,
has created no little excitement both in town and the camp.
It is thought that not less than forty Mexicans have been
killed within the last five days, fifteen of whom, it is said,
were killed in one day, and within the scope of one mile.
From this, you will see that the boys are determined to have
and to take revenge for the assassination of their comrades.
" Ever since the occupation of Matamoras by our troops,
the Mexicans have been cutting off our men, whenever they
could be found in convenient places for the job; and the
compliment has been invariably returned, generally two for
one."
A  letter from Camargo, Jan. 8, 1847, says, "assassinations, riots, robberies, etc., are so frequent that they do not
excite much attention. Nine-tenths of the Americans here
think it a meritorious act to kill or rob a Mexican; and as
large or larger proportion of the latter think it is doing' God service' to retaliate in kind. Sometimes one side, and
then the other are the aggressors. Intense and bitter hatred
exists on both sides; and the impunity with which crimes
are committed operates as a license. There exists a kind
of military authority and a species of civil power, neither
well defined, nor of much efficiency.
" To enumerate the various acts of violence committed,
would fill a column or two of your paper, and probably not
do much good.  il the newspaper published here, they are
occasionally briefly stated. Two days since, a Mexican, well
known here, was found in the public road about two miles
from town, mortally wounded.  He lived long enough to
state that he had been met by two young men with muskets
and bayonets. They demanded his blanket; he gave it up,




ILLEGITIMATE BARBARITIES.            145
and as he was riding off, one of the men deliberately shot
him through the body. He leaves a widow and five or six
young children. Murders equally cruel, have been perpetrated on our people, and no one can be discovered as the
guilty person."
The horrid tale below is from a letter published in the
St. Louis Republican.
"Camp of the Army at Agua Nueva )
Mliexico, February 13, 1847.
"Some most unfortunate events have transpired in our
column lately, which will arouse the vengeance of the'paisanos' (peasants) in this country against our troops, and will
furnish the disaffected at home with new food for vituperation against the war. Occasional murders of our men have
been perpetrated ever since we have been in this country, —
all killed by the lasso. The Arkansas regiment of horse,
from their having been employed as scouts, and occupying
the outposts, have been particularly exposed to this guerilla
warfare, and have lost four or five of their men. The day
before yesterday, it was reported that one of their number
had been killed by the AIexicans, as he had been missing
from camp since the day before, when he went out to look
for his horse.
"i Search was made for the body, and it was found about a
thousand yards from our camp, with'a lasso * around the
neck, and tied to a prickly pear, having been dragged some
hundred yards upon the face through the chapparal. It presented a horrible sight: the name of the young man was
Colquitt, a nephew of the senator. The Arkansas men
vowed vengeance, deep and sure. Yesterday morning, a
number of them, some thirty perhaps, went out to the foot of
the mountain, two miles off, to an' arroyo' which is washed
in the side of the mountain, to which the' paisanos' of Agua
* The "lasso" was in use among some of the Ewnild troops in
Xerxes' army ill his invasion of Greece. Ikerodotus, 7. 85.
13
0
a H




146           ILLEGITIMATE BAKRBARITTES,
Nueva had fled upon our approach, and soon commenced an
indiscriminate and bloody massacre of the poor creatures, who
had thus fled to the mountains and fastnesses for security.
A number of our regiment being out of camp, I proposed to
Col. Bissel to mount our horses and ride to the scene of carnage, where I knew, firom the dark insinuations of the night
before, that blood was runningp freely. We hastened out as.
hastily as possible, but owing to the thick chapparals, the
work of death was over before we reachled the horrible
scene, and the perpetrators were returning to camp glutted
with revenge.
" Let us no longer complain of 3Iexican barbarity,- poor,
degraded,'priest ridden' as she is. No act of inhuman
cruelty, perpetrated by her most desperate robbers, can excel
the work of yesterday, committed by our soldiery. God
knows how many of the unarmed peasantry have been sacrificed to atone for the blood of poor Colquitt. The Arkansas regiment say not less than thirty have been killed. I
think, however, at least twenty of them have been sent to
their eternal rest. I rode through the chapparals, and found
a number of their dead bodies not yet cold. The features,
in every instance, were composed and tranquil, -lying upon
their backs, eyes closed, and feet crossed. - You would have
supposed them sleeping, but for the gory stream which bedewed the turf around them. In some instances, after the
vital spark had fled, in the overflow of demoniac vengeance
the carbine ball dashed out the brains of its clayey victim."The following is an extract from one of the Orders of
Gen. Taylor in relation to this barbarity. " The Commanding
General regrets most deeply that c(ircumstances again impose
upon him  the duty of issuing orders upon the subject of
marauding and maltreating the Mexicans.  Such deeds as
have been recently perpetrated by a portion of the Arkansas
cavalry, cast indelible disgrace upon our arms, and the reputation of our country.  The General had hoped that he




ILLEGITIMATE BARBARITIES.            147
might be able in a short time to resume offensive operations,
but if orders, discipline, and all the dictates of humanity are
set at defiance, it is vain to expect any thing but disaster
and defeat. The men who cowardly put to death unoffending Mexicans, are not those who will sustain the honor of
our arms in the day of trial."
Gen. Taylor showed his sagacity in this prediction, for it
was' precisely those troops that a few days afterwards were
the first to fly from the field of Buena Vista.
It was in reference to these and similar barbarities that
Santa Anna said to Gen. Taylor's messenger at Agua Nueva
on the day after that battle; "the Americans wage against
us a war of Vandalism, whose excesses outrage those sentiments of humanity which one civilized nation ought to evince
toward another. In proof of this assertion, you have but to
go outside of this apartment to see still smoking the dwellings
of this recently flourishing village; you passed the same
vestiges of desolation at La Encantada on your route hither;
and if you will go a little farther on, there, to Catana, you
will hear-the moans of the widows and orphans of innocent
victims who have been sacrificed without necessity."
We gather the following from the' Boston Daily Times of
May 11, 1847:" By a letter from Gen. Taylor of the 4th April, it appears
that a party of Americans, under Col. Mitchell's command,
the 1st Ohio U. S. Dragoons, and Texas Rangers, made
prisoners of twenty-four Mexicans at Guellapea, gave them
a mock trial by night, and then shot them through the head! "
The above narrative will lead us to believe, that the Mexican accounts of the war are not wholly exaggerations. They
refer to " the thousand and ten thousand assassinations committed-by our troops;" "multitudes of Mexicans wandering
in the woods, and pursued like wild beasts in their own
country, robbed of their property, and driven from their
families; the multitude of peaceable and honorable men,




148          ILLEGITIMATE BARBARITIES.
who have been insulted, seized and beaten in presence even
of a beloved daughter, or idolized wife; the proud barbarity,
the shameless cruelty required to burn the village, to slay
the simple rustic, the feeble woman and the innocent child,
as we beheld at Agua Nueva, Hidalgo, and other towns of
the North."
So outrageous was the conduct of the United States troops,
that General Mora y Villamril, commander at San Luis Potosi,
wrote a spirited remonstrance to Gen. Taylor, dated May
10, 1847, in which he says;* "that the treacherous assassinations of Agua Nueva, Catana, and Marin have not been
the only ones; " and that the " ruin, devastation, and conflagration of towns mark every where the march of the invading army."  in his reply of May 19, 1847, Gen. Taylor
acknowledges the facts referred to, and says that " they were
in truth unfortunate exceptions, (to the mode in which the
war was generally conducted in that part of Mexico) caused
by circumstances beyond my control." He also states the
violent provocations which led to the above mentioned barbarities, and says also, "Mexican troops have given to the
world the example of killing wounded men upon the field
of battle."  In a letter to the War Department at Washington, dated May 23, 1847, he discusses the unpleasant subject, confesses the facts, attributes them to the volunteer
troops, and says, " while no one can regret their occurrence
more than I do, yet I have not to reproach myself with the
omission of any precaution to prevent them.  WVithout a
sufficient regular force even to guard our magazines and
depots, I have found it entirely impossible to enforce, in all
cases, the repeated orders which have been given against
marauding and other irregularities."
Still later, June 16, 1847, we have the following somewhat " rough and ready " t sentences from the same pen;   I
* 30th Cong. 1st Sess. Ex. Doc. 60. IHouse of Rep. pp. 1139-1142.
t "Rough and Ready;" this phrase occurs in Carlyle's edition of;the Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromuwell," First Parliament,
Speech Second. 1845.




ILLEGITIMATE BARBARITIES.            149
deeply regret to report that many of the twelve months' volunteers in their route hence of (to) the lower Rio Grande,
have committed extensive depredations and outrages upon
the peaceful inhabitants. There is scarcely a form of crime
that has not been reported to me as committed by them; but
they have passed beyond my reach, and even were they here,
it would be found next to impossible to detect the individuals
who thus disgrace their colors and their country. Were it
possible to rouse the Mexican people to resistance, no more
effectual plan could be devised than the very one pursued
by some of our volunteer regimentt- now about to be discharged.
" The volunteers for the war, so far, give an earnest of
better conduct, w itll the exception of the companies ofTexas
horse. Of the inflit.ry I have had little or no complaint;
but the mounted men fiom Texas have scarcely made one
expedition without unwar~rantably killing a Mexican.  I
have, in consequence, ordered Major Chevallies' command
to Saltillo, where it can do less mischief than here, and where
its services moreover are wanted. The constant recurrence
of such atrocities, which I have been reluctant to report to
the department, is my motive for requesting thlat no more
troops may be senlt to this colubmn frome the state of Texas."*
A few items respecting the invading " Army of the West"
will give a like melancholy picture of unbridled passions and
cruel and disgraceful excesses, at which every feeling of
common justice and humanity cries out with horror. But
we record these things not to heap opprobrium upon individuals, but to demonstrate the abominableness of a system;
we do it not, because we love our country less, but because
-we love peace and right more.
F. S. Edwards in his work, "A Campaign in New 3Mexico," says, when at Ceralvo, " I have been credibly informed
that when these rangers are sent out on scouting parties, a
* 30th Ccng. 1st Sess. Ex. Doc. No. 60. p. 1178. The italics are ours.
13*




150          ILLEGITIMATE BARBARITIES.
Mexican guide is generally provided, but that lie never
returns; the Texans always shooting him on some pretext
or other before he gets back.    *    *    *
"One of the most dastardly acts I ever heard of was perpetrated by half a dozen Texan officers a short time before
we came down. They had lost their way, and hired a Alexican to show them to their caLmp, which he faithfully performed; but when they came in sight of it, they drew lots
who should shoot their faithful and unsuspecting guide;the one on whom the lot fell, immediately drew a pistol and
shot him."
The same author relates that in his march from Camargo
to Reinosa, one of the party incautiously advanced two or
three hundred yards ahead of the guard, and was shot by
some Mexicans who were seen riding off at full speed. His
comrades when they arrived at the next small town, searched
for the murderers, and having as they supposed found them,
killed seven men, aid burned down the house in which they
were found.
Dr. Wislizenus, in "a ~&Iemoir of a Tour to Northern Mexico," published  under  authority  of Congress,*
writing under the head of Parras, MBay 14, 1847, says;
" one of our waggon drivers, a very quiet man, had been
assaulted by  a Mexican  loafer, and  received  several
wounds, from the effoct of which he afterwards died. As
the prefect of Parras was not able to find out the guilty
person, the friends of the wounded man took revenge on
some Mexicans, and more disturbance would have grown
out of it, if we had stayed longer."
WVe quote another passage il om the same book. " About
six miles from Mlarin, is the spot where General Canales,
with his guerilla bands, had captured, some months past,
a rich train of the American army, and killed most of the
unarmed waggon drivers.  The bones of these ill-fated
* 30th Congress, 1st Session, Senate. Miscellaneous, No. 26. p. 73, 738.




TLLEGTIMIATE BARBARITIES.            151
men, which were either not buried at all, or dragged out
by the wolves, were scattered about in all directions.
Another more horrid spectacle offered itself to our eyes
near Agua Negra, a deserted village, where a man (and to
judge from pieces of clothing, an American) had been burnt
to ashes, some bones only being left. In seeing such horrors, known only in old Indian warfare, can any one
blame the American troops for having sought revenge, and
burning all the villages and ranchos on their route
which gave refuge to such bands of worse than highway
robbers?  The right of retaliation,(?) as well as expediency,
command, in my opinion, such measures against such unusual warfare; and when carried out with some circumspection, it will break up those guerilla bands much sooner
than too lenient a course."
He states that at Ceralvo on May 22, 1847, Nicholas
Garcia, a well known chief of a guerilla band, "who was
said to have committed many cruelties against Americans," was captured by some Texan Rangers, and shot the
same day in the public Plaza; " dying like a brave man.'
The following extract from the orders of Gen. Wool wi~l
speak for itself.
Headquarters. Army of Occupation,)
3Monterey, Mexico, February, 27, 1848. f
"A band of American robbers, composed principally of
deserters (chiefly from the Texas Battalion, and Captain
Mear's company of Volunteer Cavalry,) dishonorably discharged soldiers, and followers of the Army, have been
ravaging the country from  Parras to the Presidio de Rio
Grande, ravishing the women, and committing every spe-cies of atrocity on the defenceless inhabitants.
" A similar party has recently robbed an entire village,
under the pretence of being a detachment of the American
ArFmy, sent to levy contributions on the place.




152          ILLEGITIMATE BARBARITIES.
" These acts so criminaf in themselves, and reflecting so
much approbrium on the American name, call upon every
one to make all possible exertions to apprehend the villains,
and bring them to punishment. The officers commanding
at Monclova, Presidio, Laredo,  {ier, and Ceralvo will
endeavor to effect this object by every means in their power."
By command of brigadier General Wool,
IPTVIN McDOWELL, A. A. G."
It is unnecessary to go into California and New Mexico,
and adduce testimony of a like ignominious character
against some of the actors in the Mexican war. It mighllt
be said that in those remote and barbarous regions nothing
but outrage and revenge could be expected.  We will come
then to the theatre of Gen. Scott's operations from Vera
Cruz to Mexico, and substantiate the general truth of the
statements made, by his own indignant words.
The difficulties began at the very outset of the Campaign.
Gen. Scott reports to the Department at home, in a letter
dated Vera Cruz, April 5, 1847;* " the seven old volunteer regiments with me, now become respectable in discipline
and efficiency, cannot fail to give us much trouble w-hen the
time of their discharge and transportation back to their
homes, shall arrive."
" The inhabitants of this city, under the excellent government of Brevet Major General Worth. are beginning to
be assured of protection, and to be cheerful. Those in the
vicinity have suffered more friom  green  recruits. who
much dilute the regular companies, and from volunteers.
Bly last orders, No. 87. herewith, against outrages, have rallied thousands of good soldiers to the support of authority.
In the mean time, claims for damages, principally on the
part of neutrals, through their consuls, have been many.
* 30th Congress, 1st Session, Ex. Doe. No. 60. pp. 910, 914.




ILLEGITIMATE BABA.RITIES.             153
I am without authority or means to indemnify, and can-only
feel and deplore the disgrace brought upon our arms by
undetected villains."
These extracts are from the orders above mentioned,
dated Vera Cruz, April 1, 1847. " Notwithstanding   the
strong provisions of printed general orders, No. 20, proclaiming martial law, many undoubted atrocities have been
committed in this neighborhood, by a few worthless soldiers,
both regulars and volunteers, which, though stamping disgrace upon the whole army, remain unpunished, because
the criminals have not been seized, and reported by eyewitnesses of the atrocities.  *  *
4' One more appeal is made to the ninety-seven honorable
men, against, perhaps, the three miscreants in  every
hundred. Certainly the great mass ought not to allow themselves to be dishonored by a handful of' scoundrels, who
scout all religion, morals, law  and decency.  Therefore
let every bad man be denounced in his act of guilt, seized,
and reported for trial, and this army will march in triumph,
and be every where kindly received, and supplied with
necessaries and comforts by the peaceful and unoffending
inhabitants of the country."
We have spoken in another connection of the hanging
of Isaac Kirk, a free colored citizen of the United States,
at Vera Cruz, April 10, 1847.
it is needless to encumber these pages with detailed
accounts of the outrages to persons, property and liberty,
which marked the course of the American Army, and the
horrible deeds done by bands of the Mexican guerillas.
They are a part of the history of the war, but they find
little space for memory except on the tablets of those
bruised and broken hearts that encountered the storm of
invasion.
The American cormnander writes from the city of Mexico,
Oct. 13, 1847: "I have heard of many outrages and dis



15 4          ILLEGITIMATE BARBARITIES.
orders said to have been committed  by Major Lally's
detachment about Jalapa. I trust that the rumors greatly
exaggerate the facts; or rather that they are entirely false.
I will tolerate no disorders of any kind, but cause all to be
rigorously punished. No officer or man, under my orders,
shall be allowed to dishonor me, the army, and the United
States with impunity."
In a letter, dated Dec. 25, 1847, he says further; "I do
not mean to accuse the reinforcements generally of deficiency in valor, patriotism, or moral character.  Far from
it; but among all new levies, of whatever denomination,
there are always a few miscreants in every hundred;
enough without discipline to disgrace the entire mass, and
what is infinitely worse,-the country that employs them.
Iy daily distresses under this head weigh me to the
earth."
The following extract from an American correspondent
in the city of Mexico will illustrate the nature of some of
Gen. Scott's "distresses."
"On Sunday night a Texan  Ranger  named Adam
Alsence, of Capt. Robert's company, was attacked by a
number of Mexicans in the suburbs of the city, and killed.
He was mangled in a brutal manner, and the Texans, exasperated at the cruel death of their comrade, sallied into the
streets the next evening, to the number of fifteen or twenty,
and proceeding to the quarter where Alsence was killed,
took fearful vengeance upon a party whom they found armed
with pistols and knives.  Seventeen of the MIexicans are
reported killed, and forty wounded.  Alsence was a German, and served in Bonaparte's Cavalry and was a good
and faithful soldier."*
* The following is an extract from a letter in the New Orleals
Delta, dated City of Mexico, Dec. 13, 1847. "About an hour ago,
some of them, (Texans) were quietly passing through one of the
streets, when a crowd of leperos gathered around them, and commenced




ILLEGITI.IATE BARBARITIES.                155
The following is an extract from  a letter to Gen. Scott
from  Santa Anna relative to the renewal of hostilities after
the armistice and the fruitless attempt to negotiate a peace.
He says, and with the above declarations of the American General in our recollection, we shall probably think
that he does not speak altogether a la Mlfexique; " I have
with pain and indignation, received communications from
the cities and towns occupied by the army of your excellency, upon the violations of temples consecrated to
the worship of God; upon the robbery of the sacred vessels, and  profanation of the  images, venerated  by the
Mexican people.  I have been profoundly afflicted by the
complaints of fathers and husbands upon the violation of
their wives and daughters.  Those same cities and towns
have been sacked, not only in violation of the armistice, but
even of the sacred principles recognized and observed by
civilized nations. I had guarded silence until now, for the
purpose of not chilling a negotiation that gave hopes of
terminating a scandalous war, which your excellency has
justly characterized as unnatural."*
A few words in conclusion. The dark and dismal pages
through which we have led our readers in these chapters are
but too easily interpreted.  They are the old story of war.
They are the picture, not only of stately battles, in which
horror is legitimated, but of a running warfare, embittered
by old Texan feuds, and waged between the half-savage
throwing, stones;-the result of which was, that in a very few minutes
there were ten dead Mexicans lying in the street, and two men, badly
wounded, taken to the guardl-ouse."
Another paper records the following. "The Arco Iris says a detachment of American soldiers quartered at 5,~edelin, started for a ball
in the village about 11 o'clock at night. The ball party took alarm,
and one of them discharged a pistol at the advancing Americans, who
returned the fire, killing seven, and wounding nine, one of whom
was a woman."
* 30th Congress, Ist Session, Senate, Ex. Doc. No. 52, p. 347.




150             MILITARY EXECUTIONS.
guerillas of lMexico, and the lynch-gangs of the border and
hunter emigrant population of the Western and South Western United States, whose conduct on their way to the seat of
war, gave evidence to the cities through which they passed,
what would be the fulfilment of their career when they were
poured into Mexico.  Beasts of prey are dangerous when
they are set loose. The regular soldier may have a species
of war-conscience, which is better than none at all. But
they who go on a human hunt for the love of it, may be expected to dabble in blood even if it be a little out of the regular " orders."
But after crossing such streams of gore as we have now
waded throughl, three questions arise which we would respectively offer to the consideration of both parties, the advocates
of war, and the friends of peace.
1. What national right can be redressed by an infinite
series of individual wrongs?
2. Whlat true glory can be found in connection with the
perpetration of endless injuries and miseries?
3. What "healing peace," to use an official phrase, can
be cemented by a boundless expenditure of life and treasure,
or based on the memory of ten thousand cruelties, sufferings, and wrongs?
CHAPTER XIII.
MILITARY EXECUTIONS.
"But grow like savages, - as soldiers will,
That nothing do but meditate on blood." - SHAKSPEARE.
ANOTHER list of the barbarities of the Mexican war includes the punishments inflicted upon deserters and other
criminals. Many who have been moat strenuons advocatbs




MILITARY EXECUTIONS.                157
of this  tr,, are earnestly opposed to capital punishment.
But their inconsistency will be apparent when it is recollected, that probably more persons have been shot and hung for
various crimes by the American officers in Mexico during the
last t-wo years, than would be capitally executed in the whole
IUnited States in the ordinary course of justice during ten
years.  Some of these executions, too, have been conducted
in a manner repulsive to every humane and Christian sentiment.
As the American army contained many Irish, German, and
other emigtrants from Europe, the Mexican generals issued
proclamations, and employed every means in their power to'
entice away the soldiers from their allegiance. They offered
large bounties to deserters, promising land and money to
officers and soldiers, and giving the officers a guaranty that
they should retain their former military rank.
These exertions were far from being in vain, for no sooner
was Gen. Taylor encamped on the banks of the Rio Grande,
than the desertions began, and according to the Report of the
Secretary of War, made to the Senate, April 10, 1848, the
enormlous number of 4,966 men had deserted in Mexico frioml
the troops of' the United States. In fact, whole platoons in
some instances either went over to the enemy, or returned
home. The la7,tamoras Flay stated that on Dec. 22, 1847,
about 25 Texan Rangers deserted at one time from Saltillo,
and came home. Other cases occurred of a similar character.
To save the army from such disorders, severe punishment,
as imprisonment, whipping, and other barbaric inflictions were
resorted to,.and a considerable inumber were put to death for
desertion, murder, or other crimes.
T. B. Thorpe mentions, that two men were shot in the act
of desertion at Mataminoras, and that several were drowned
in attelnpting to swim the river.  Gen. Taylor, in a letter to
the Department, dated -May 30, 1846, confirms the account,
14




r18            MILITARY EXECUTIONS.
and says, that soon after his " arrival on the Rio Grande the
evil of desertion made its appearance, and increased to an
alarming extent;" and that verbal orders were given to the
pickets to hail those who were swimming the river, and if
they did not return, to shoot them on the spot.
The lIatarmoras Flag states that five Mexican guerillas
were hanged Dec. 19, 1847, in the main plaza of Saltillo
fobr the murder of three discharged Mississippians at Rinconada Pass; and that an American named Neazum  was
hanged a few days previously, for having murdered a 3Mexican in the streets of the city.
The Chicago Tribune records the death of Lieut. James MI.
Stewart, of Niles, Michigan, who was hanged in Mexico for
haying been enraged at a superior officer who struck him,
and having run him through with his sword. It goes on to
remark, that " an interesting family, consisting of a wife and
several young children, are thus deprived of husband, father,
and protector. This is another of the legitimate fruits of
bloody, infamous, brutal, forever-to-be-detested war."
Isaac Kirk, a free man of color, according to Gen. Scott's
Reports of April, 1847, was hung at Vera Cruz for " committing or attempting to commit a rape" upon a Mexican
woman; and in an Address to the Mexican people, he appeals
and says, " is this not a proof of good faith and energetic
discipline?"
Two young Mexicans of rank and refinement were executed Nov. 24, 1847, in the city of Jalapa.
The Vera Cruz Indicator has the following account of
the affair: -
"Gen. Patterson, while in Jalapa, governed with a rigid
hand. The Mexicans complain bitterly of the recent execution, under his directions, of two young officers, Ambrosio
Alcalde and Antonio Garcia, who were taken at Jalconumco
with a party of guerillas, some time since, and who were
alleged to have broken their parole. This the two officern




MILITARPY EXECUTIONS.             159
and their friends denied, but the evidence was too strong
against them to permit their escape.
"When the sentence was published, the whole'city rose to
beg for the lives of the young men, and deputations were sent
to Gen. Patterson from the council, from the resident foreigners, from the clergy, regular and secular, from the ladies
of the principal families, and the ladies of the convents, beseeching him to spare the lives of the unhappy youths, but
without avail. They were hanged in the Plazuela de San
Jose at noon of the 24th ultimo. Their bodies were delivered
over to their friends, and after lying in state a few hours,
were buried with the highest honors that public grief could
devise.  The whole city put on mourning, solemn processionslinedevery street, and the miserere was chanted in the
churches. A gloom was thrown over the city whlich is not
yet dissipated."
The Arco bris, says that " Gen. Patterson's division left
Jalapa on the 25th ult. Before his departure, he hanged,
on the 23d, two Americaft teamsters, for having killed a
Mexican boy twelve years old."
Reynolds, an American soldier of the 8th Regiment of
Infantry, was hanged at Jalapa on Dec. 29, 1847, for the
murder of some Mexican women.
The VNational Intelligencer recorded the execution at Saltillo on Dec. 28, 1847, of Victor Galbraith, a bugler in Capt.
Miers' company of volunteer cavalry, who was shot for
threatening the captain's life.
But the most cruel and sanguinary scene that was probably ever enacted in war under the form of its Draconic code
of laws, occurred at the villages of San Angel and Mixcoac
in the valley of Mexico. On the 9th of September, 1847,
16 deserters were hanged at San Angel, and on the 10th, 4
were hanged at Mixcoac. But as if these victims were not
enough to glut the cruel spirit of war, on the 13th, 30 more
were hanged at Mixcoac, making in all 50 victims of capital




1p               NMI;LITATRY EXECUTIONS.
punishment in four days.  WVithout crediting the Mexican
account that they were noosed by the neck and drawn up,
and that they died by inches by being strangled with their
own weight, their agony lasting more than an hour; it is
nevertheless an unquestioned fact, that, in the last case of
execution, the poor wretches, in order to slake the thirst of
vengeance, and "to associate with the glory of their regiments
the gloom of their tribunals," were pinioned, ropes put around
their necks, and each man placed under a gallows, and there
made to wait nearly two hours, with death staring them in the
face, until, according to the declaration and promise of the
presiding officer, a colonel, whose name shall not pass our
pen, the neighboring heights of Chapultepec, then assaulted
by the American troops, were carried; and that when the
American flag was planted on that fortress, thirty men were instantly launched into eternity! We ask why have not the
official reports of these transactions been published, with the
other numerous documents of the war, if they are not too
black and odious to bear the light of day, and the free judgment of a people, professing to be governed by the humane
spirit of Christianity?
The rest of this battalion of San Patricio,* under the
command of Reilly, who were captured when desperately
fighting at Contreras and Churubusco against the Americans,
were severely punished; some by being "whipped with fifty
lashes each, the letter D. for deserter being branded with a
red hot iron upon the cheek, and then condemned to wear an
iron yoke weighing eight pounds, with three prongs, each one
foot in length around the neck; to be confined at hard labor
* Nativity of the Deserters. —The  ewto York Police Gazette contains " the names and places of nativity of the deserters recently recaptured by our army, from which we are sorry to learn that a large portion were Americans. They are classed as follows: Americans 54,
Irishmen 341 Germans 17, Scotch 4, and one each from England, Nova
Scotia, France and Poland."




MILITARY EXECUTIONS.              161
in charge of the guard during the time the army should remain in Mexico, and then to have their heads shaved, and to
be drummed out of the service;" and others were flogged
with 200 lashes each, after being compelled to dig the graves
of their companions, who were executed.
Several others, both officers and soldiers, by the names of
Iare, Dutton, M3adson, Wragg, Stewart, Wall, and others,
Mwere convicted at Mexico of burglary and murder, after the
city was occupied by Scott, and sentencedto behanged, but
they were afterwards respited, or wholly pardoned.!Ruxton, in his "Adventures in Mexico," p. 230, says,
in reference to the revolution in New Mexico, Jan., 1847,
that "the troops marched out of Santa Fe, attacked their
pueblo, and leveled it to the ground, killing many hundreds
of its defenders, and taking many prisoners, most of whom
were hanged."  Another account states, that "fifteen Mexicans were executed as conspirators."
One man was executed at the town of Santa Cruz on Mlonterey Bay, in California.
We record then in all, 82 Americans and Mexicans,
who were shot or hanged by the martial law, by the
Americans,-and we probably have not ascertained all,
— an amount of capital punishment, small indeed by
the side of the wholesale slaughter of the battle-field, but
worthy of being considered by those who are strenuous advocates of the repeal of the death-penalty, for it is, as we have
said, a greater number than would suffer thus in the ordinary
course of criminal justice in ten years in the United States.
14*




162                 ILLEGALITIES.
CHAPTER XIV.
ILLEGALITIES.
"' Laws are silent in war." - CICERO.
IT has already been strongly intimated, if not declared in so
many words, that the laws of nations, and the constitution and
laws of our own country, have been repeatedly and flagrantly
broken in the war with Mexico. But in order to set this
subject in a more vivid light, we propose to devote this chapter, if not the most important, at least one of the most
curious, in the history of the day, to the various illegalities
which have been committed. Other portions of this review
will sufficiently demonstrate the opposition of the war to
every principle of liberty and Christianity, but it will be the
aim of these few pages to elucidate its equal antagonism to the
laws of man, and to show that when even a civilized people
burst through the enclosures of truth and right, they manifest in many respects the same reckless disregard of human
statutes and constitutions, as is thought to belong to earlier
stages of society.
Numerous unlawful acts preceded the war.  The conquest of Mexican territory by citizens of the United States,
with the connivance, if not the aid, of the national and State
government, was contrary to the law of nations. The seizure of Monterey, in California, Oct. 19, 1842, by Commodore Jones, was a lawless act, disavowed indeed by the
Government, but the perpetrator was never punished. The
annexation of Texas, by a joint resolution, was contrary to




ILLEGALITIES.                 163
our treaty with Mexico, to the comity of nations, and to the
Constitution of the United States.
The act of war at first was illegal. It was a violation of
the law of nations to enter a disputed territory, and hold it
by force of arms, when it was fully conceded that it was
debatable ground, and when we had recognized Mexican
custom-houses within the year in that same territory by
specific acts of Congress. Detailed proofs and illustrations
of this point are contained in chapter seventh, and need not
be recounted.
The origin of the war also was contrary to the Constitution of the United States. By this instrument it is reserved
to Congress "to declare war, repel invasions."  But by a
vote of the House of Representatives, Jan 3, 1848, it was
resolved, that the war with Mexico " was unnecessarily and
unconstitutionally begun by the President of the United
States;" and distinguished statesmen deliberately expressed
their opinion, that he had brought himself within the peril
of an impeachment.  Mr. Calhoun said in the Senate,
March 17, 1848, "I hold that the President had no more
right to order the army to march into the disputed territory,
than he had to order it to march into Mexico.*
The difficulties with Mexico were not brought before
Congress, although then in session, until Gen. Taylor had
commenced hostilities; and when the question was presented
by an Executive AMessage, it was hurried to a decision in a
surprise and panic, without the documents appended to it
being allowed to be even read, and without any proper debate or deliberation.
The object of the war was an illegal and unconstitutional
one. The:e are provisions in the Constitution to repel invasions, but not to make them. Far as heaven is from earth,
was the thought of the framers of that instrument from sanc* Printed speech, p. 16.




164                  ILLEGALITIES.
tioning by one syllable of theirs the spirit of conquest. Besides, liberty is the spirit of that great charter, and a war to
extend slavery, the slave-trade, and the political power of
slavery, clashes with the genius of Independence.  What is
its preamble? "We, the people of the United States, in
order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure
domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, pro-,
mote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to
ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America."
The progress of the war was attended by many proceedings as much at variance with the laws of man as
the laws of God. For the details we refer to other chapters of this work. The expedition of Fremont into California, in 1845 and 1846, was palpably unjustifiable, and
its purpose but very thinly disguised. The absolution by
Gen. Kearney of the inhabitants of New  MIexico and
California, from their allegiance to Mexico, his compelling
the native officers to take the oath of allegiance to the
United States,* and the execution as traitors by other commanders of those who rose and attempted to destroy their
ilnvaders, and shake off their control, were deeds that find no
justification in the recognized laws of nations, however sanctioned by the bloody code of Mars. Many other illegitimate
barbarities of the war are recounted in chapter thirteenth.
The introduction from abroad into Mexico, while the war
was waging, by a written passport of the Executive, of the
greatest General that country could boast, in the person of
Santa Anna, who immediately placed himself at the head of
large armies, and caused an immense loss of life and treasure to the Americans, was palpably against the rule fofbidding to "give aid and comfort" to the enemies of our
country, though the intention no doubt was to secure an
* 30th Congress, 1st Session, Ex. Doc. No. 41, pp. 27, 28.




ILLEGALITIES.                       165
earlier peace, and the cession of the territories which were
coveted.
The annexation of the territories of New  Mexico and
California, by General Kearney and Commodore Stockton
to the United States, before any treaty of peace had been
made, and before Congress had passed any act to that effect,
were high-handed violations of the Constitution, and also of
the law of nations. They were too gross to be owned as
acts of the Government even in this history of illegalities,
and, like not a few of the other measures of the commanding officers in Mexico, were condemned at Washington.*
The establishment in Mexico of a system of tariffs and
taxes by the dictation of the Executive of the United States,
without any sanction or cooperation on the part of the
popular branch of Government,t the appropriation of the
moneys thus collected to  whatever  uses  the  Executive
thought best, and the appointment under such a scheme of a
multitude of custom-house officers and pay-masters, were
measures declared both by Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Webster,
to be invasions of the laws and constitution of the United
States.
The dangerous march of Executive Power. was further
* 30th Congress, 1st Session, I-ouse of Representatives, Doc. No.
60, p. 150; 30th Congress, 1st Session, Senate, Ex. Doc. No. 33, p. 410.
"f  6. On the failure of any State to pay its assessments, its functionaries, as above, will be seized and imprisoned, and their property seized,
registered, reported, and converted to the use of occupation, in strict accordance to the general regulations of this army. No resignation or abdication of office by any of the said Mexican functionaries shall excuse
one of them from any of the above obligations or penalties." See also
Art. 3, 30th Congress, 1st Session, Ex. Doc. No. 60, p. 1064. It would
have been a very natural mistake if we supposed we had alighted on
one of the military laws of Santa Anna, or some other chieftain, in the
above severe enactment, not that it was in very truth a regulation of
one of those Generals who came professing to free the poor Mexicans from
military tyrants I




166                  ILLEGALITIES.
manifested by the creation of civil governments, the appointing of the various officers, magistrates, and jqdges, necessary to carry them on, and the allotment of their duties and
salaries, without any reference to the authority of Congress,
or any appeal to its judgment, any more than if that body
had been non-existent.
The conclusion of the war was also in harmony with its
commencement, object, and progress, tainted with the same
disregard of forms and rules of law. MIr. Trist had been
recalled by the power which appointed him as confidential
commissioner to negotiate a peace, but he chose still to remain in Mexico on his own responsibility; and the plenipotentiaries of that nation, with a knowledge of that fact, did
not hesitate to conclude a treaty with himn. The record of
his name, therefore, as an officer of the United States, on
that document, was not in accordance with the fact of the
case.
The commissioners, MIessr~ Cliffobrd and Sevier, conveyed
the treaty of peace, as amended by the Senate, to Mexico, to
procure its ratification by the Government of that country.
The changes made by the Senate, were the substitution of
the third article of the treaty of Louisiana in the place of
the ninth -article of this treaty, relative to the rights of Miexicans in the annexed territories; the entire suppression of
the tenth article, relative to Mexican grants in the territories, and the alteration of the twelfth article, relative to the
mode of payment by the United States of $15,000,000 to
Mi~exico.  The Mexican Government refused to ratify the
treaty until the American commissioners had signed a protocol, declaring that no essential changes had been made, and
explaining the ground of the several amendments.*  The
protocol was, however, regarded by many in Congress as
* 30th Congress, 1st Session, Senate, Ex. Doc. No. 52, pp. 5, 38;
30th Congress, 2nd Session, House of Representatives, Ex. Doc. No.
50, p. 11, et passim.




ILLEGALITIES.                 167
virtually involving a new agreement on the part of the
United States, and its concealment by the Executive for
nearly a year from the knowledge of Congress, was deemed
another specimen of illegal and unconstitutional proceeding.
We have thus baldly and briefly indicated some of the
gross and generally-conceded illegalities which have characterized the war.  iTonarchies may trample upon the laws,
and live, because they are based upon might. Republics
may trample upon their constitutions, but they will die, because they are founded upon right. The only loyalty possible in our country, is a loyalty to the Constitution and
laws, always coupled with the liberty to amend them and
square them by the laws of God, and when that sense of
allegiance is gone, the sheet-anchor of the republic parts in
tn-ain. The laws of the land are not the perfect expression
of the supreme right and truth. But they are the highest
yet seen and realized by the mass of the people; and to lift
a violent hand against them, to violate them with impunity,
is to weaken the sole restraints that remain to hold in check
the turbulent forces of the country. We are admonished by
mobs in our Atlantic cities, and 1Mormon wars and lynchings
in our western borders, and by the new plans of military adventure coming to light, hatched by this war, that this is no
period in the history of our republic to relax, by word or
deed, the sacred bonds of the Constitution and the laws.




168    POLITICAL EVILS OF THE WAR AT HOME.
CHAPTER XV.
POLITICAL EVILS OF THE WAR AT HOME.
" Of all the enemies of public liberty war is perhaps the most to bhe
dreaded. It is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and
taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes, are the well-known instruments for bringing the many under the dominion of the few. VWar is
the true nurse of executive aggrandizement.   -   No nation could
preserve its freedom in the midst of continued warfare. These truths
are well established." — MADISON.
THE science of politics, wisely viewed, is a great and a
good science. It highly concerns the welfare of states and
nations.  Its principles are noble when they are drawn from
the laws of God. And the art of government, or the carrying out and realization of these lofty principles, is a glorious
art. Politics, whether as an art or a science, have fallen into
low esteem with many sensible people, simply on account of
the chicanery of politicians, and not because the work of
organizing and governing mankind is not in itself of the
highest dignity and moment.
And if these declarations hold good of politics and government in general, then are they doubly true of the science
and administration of republican institutions. For here government exists and is moulded by the consent and will of
the governed. Castes, conventional ideas and arrangements
give way before simpler and truer views of man's relation to
man. Freedom is but one of the deep seminal principles of
republican and Christian politics.  Duties require to be considered as well as rights. Mutual help is as essential as
personal independence. Love must be the vital air of a self



POLITICAL EVILS OP  TIlE %WAR AT HOME.   169
governing community. And he who, possessed and quickened himself by these life-giving sentiments, seeks by act
and word, seeks above all by the just and benevolent conduct
of public affairs, to diffuse them abroad and impress them on
the heart of a whole nation, and give a high-toned moral
character to its history and destiny, occupies the position of
an archangel for doing good, - wide and lasting good to his
race.
It is when we have taken this more elevated and comprehensive view of the real grandeur of human government,
when rightly administered, that we descend to the consideration of such a chapter in our national career, as that of the
iexican war, with the most loathing and repugnance. We
think no event has ever occurred, since the establishment of
the Federal constitution, so ominous to the prospects of our
country in plarticular, or free institutions in general, as this
invasion. Not that we despair of the republic. Not that
we have lost one jot of our faith in the capability of man for
republican governments. Not that we see any immediate
signs of the overthrow of any one of our chartered and constitutional rights and privileges. But we are taught by an
impressive and tremendous example, that republics mlay,
under all the forms of freedom, full-blown and flourishing,
do deeds, incur responsibilities, hazard evils, and inflict injuries, at which any old barbaric monarchy might well stand
aghast. Still more pungently has the solemn lesson been
thrilled through our hearts, that if we would have a country
worth the name of Liberty and the love and service of freemen, if we would'save the name,- republic, -from becoming a hissing and a scorn in the earth, and if we would rescue this gigantic empire of the West from sinking into the
Babylon of the nations, we need to ply in season and out of
season, with all our characteristic energy as a people, the
means of intellectual, social, and religious life, the school,
the press, and the church, in all their purity and power.
15




170   POLITICAL EVILS OF THE WAR AT HOME.
Our single trust and hope are in the Gospel of Jesus Christ
to save us as a heritage of freedom, from destruction, or
from a warlike, Roman ambition, worse than destruction.
This and this only can clarify the intellect, exalt the aims,
chasteon the passions, and sanctify the career of a mighty
people, bursting away in their untamable energies from all
the revered landmarks of the past, and seemingly taking
counsel chiefly of their own impassioned youth. But God
works by human agencies. And this Gospel, divine as it is
in its source, and competent as it is as an illuminator and
Mentor, needs to be sent abroad as freely as the flowing
waters, and the sweeping breezes, to reach, and elevate, and
save the millions of the ignorant, the superstitious, the depraved, and the young, throughout our land.
With these, and similar connected views of the value of
Christian politics, we approach the subject of the political
character and issues of this conquest, and we would consider
St not for one moment as partisans, for such we are not, but
al calm and impartial patriots, without reference to parties.
Indeed, in the very matter of this war, so far as parties had
anythinrg to do with it, and any guilt rests upon its planners
and actors, we see both the great parties involved more or
less in carrying it on; we shall not stop in this Review
to ask, which was more, and which was less. Both parties
voted men and money. Both parties fought its battles. Both
parties talked of the glory gained by the victories. Both
parties have brought home candidates for the highest national
offices and honors from its red fields. Both parties have, we
believe, to a considerable extent given their sanction to this
conflict, and endorsed its effects; while in both parties have
been found its earnest denouncers, in its inception, its progress, and its results; witness the words of the great statesman of New England and those of the great statesman of
the South; both eminent leaders of their respective parties.
We choose then to regard this war as the act of the country,




POLITICAL EVILS OF THE WAR AT HOME.   171
and not the act of any party. As such we review it, criticize
it, and condemn it. The nation's mind must have been partially clouded, and the nation's soul must have been temporarily hardened, to declare hostilities and carry out this giant
system of *evil during two long years. At whatever point,
or in whatever person or persons, the evil came to a head,
the evil itself must have widely permeated the veins of the
whole republic. No single act could have brought on the
crisis, had there not been a general war-spirit smouldering
deeply in multitudes of hearts, entirely irrespective of all
parties, which only needed one breath of the bellows to blow
it into a flame.
WVe think it better to attribute much of such movements
in human affairs to the public sentiment that is behind all
the forms of law, and that is mightier than the throne itself.
We prefer to take much of the guilt of this and like deeds
to ourselves, and to remember, that if we have not approved
of the preci'e thing in question, we have probably approved
of much which may have been instrumental of leading to
such a catastrophe. We have all drank too much of the
belligerent spirit.
The demon of war has not yet been exorcised out of the
heart of Christendom. We do much to prepare for war.
We educate our youth in war-history and war-poetry. We
honor the soldier's calling, as a calling. We spend in time
of profound peace more for war than we do for peace. We
encourage military education, reviews, drills, musters. We
manufacture myriads of arms. We put a musket in every
house, and a sword in every hand. We stud our ports with
grim war-ships, and encamp our militia in every village.. And
it is not in human nature to be thus always and expressly
and enthusiastically preparing for a thing, and never doing
the thing itself. Some militia may be necessary as a police,
though they often occasion more riots than they suppress.
But the boundleis p8 pparations everywhere mage in all




172   POLITICAL EVILS OF THE WAR AT HOME.
civilized countries for war, unquestionably do much to precipitate international conflicts. Men who have been learning
the art of destruction all their days, will occasionally seek
and create the opportunities to reduce their art to practice.
He who goes armed with a bowie-knife, will be likely sometimes to use it.
We proceed now, after these preliminaries, to consider
some of the political evils which have resulted from the event
in question.
And in view of these evils, and of others which time may
yet develop, we honor the fearless resistance, and the prophetic sagacity, with which the great statesman of South
Carolina, in company with others, plead for deliberation,
when the nation were about embarking precipitately in the
war.
"In the present condition of the world," he said, "war
was a tremendous thing. The whole sentiment of the civilized world was turning stronger and stronger against
war. And let us not, for the honor of our country, — for
the dignity of the republic, be the first to create a state of
war. Mortal man cannot see the end of it. When I look
and see that we are rushing upon this most tremendous eNvent,
I am amazed. I am more than amazed, - I am in a state
of wonder and deep alarm."
One of the principal justifications of this warfare agafinst
our neighbors was the alleged vindication of the national
honor. We had been injured by Mexico, and we must return
injury for injury. We must show that we would not be
maltreated with impunity. We must demonstrate by the
glory of our arms that republican institutions could do as
much, as those of a monarchy, to render us formidable in
war. Such in brief was the argument. But we propose to
suggest, that instead of "covering ourselves with glory," as
the military phrase runs, we have contracted a serious reproach.among the nations, and lowered instead of raising,
the true reputation of the United States, as a urepublic.




POLITICAL EVILS OF THE WAR AT HOME.   173
We are far from denying that the words, " national honor"
are words of pith and moment. Though often used profanely, they have a sacred significance.  They are capable
of making the heart beat quicker, and of rousing in the true
man a noble thrill of sentiment.  True national honor is
worth everything. It is the national soul, the pulse of the
mighty national heart. Who is willing to live'in national
disgrace, and to be ashamed when he is abroad amonog the
nations, to have it known that he came from such a place, or
that he is the citizen of such a land?  Who of any country,
though he be an Icelander, or a Kamtschatkan, but takes an
honest and an honorable pride in the land that gave him
birth? And that land, though it be the frozen north, or the
desert south, who does not glory, if he can call it his own,
his native land, in its being kept untarnished in fame? Such
is the feeling of all men, savage and civilized.
But men misjudge. They do not see what true national
honor is. They think it is territory, or wealth, or armies, or
success in war or diplomacy, or some other factitious thing.
But it is a great error. The noble and honorable nations of
antiquity, as they now stand in the eyes of the world, were
the just and upright and pacific nations. Their glitter and
gold have, all perished. But all that they did of the True,
and Good, and Just, and Beautiful, now lives in eternal
remembrance on the breathing canvas, and the imperishable
marble, in song and never-dying history. The gross and
sensual, and rich and extended empires of the old world have
rotted out of the record of mankind, for they did little worth
preserving. While a magnanimous act in the humblest town
or city has survived, and is borne on the wings of fame all
over the earth. There is a retribution in history.
Much is said of national honor.  But what is highly
esteemed among men is abomination with God. If we would
seek the true honor of our own country, we shall use our
influence to carry out the principles and ideas of Free Insti15*




174   POLITICAL EVILS OF THE WAR AT HOME.
tutions to their full extent. We shall frown upon all attempts
to cast down those glorious principles and ideas to the base
and vulgar glory of ages of barbarism. It is no honor to us
that we have three millions of slaves. It is no honor to us
that we, the stronger republic, and one that can afford to be
generous, should make war upon the weaker. one. It is no
honor to us to grasp the whole continent, when we find it a
sufficient work to take care of what we have. But so far as
we do what is just, pay our own debts, live in peace with our
neighbors, give the poor Indian and African their due, carry
forward education and morality, and enterprise in every direction, and at once civilize and Christianize our-vast population, we are on the high road to honor, and shall live on the
brightest pages of history.  So may it be, should be the
prayer of every true American.
But the whole nar-system of the civilized countries is
false and dishonorable. War is for savages, not-for citizens,
gentlemen, and Christians. Its direct effect, as far as it goes,
is to carry back civilization some degrees towards barbarism.
It is the animal in man, triumphing over the human. It is
an appeal to force, not to right. It is poor policy, as well as
bad morality. It generally loses in the end more than it
gains. It may gain notoriety, but it destroys true renown.
It may conquer new lands, but it wrecks character. It is
antagonistical to Christianity, and therefore it must be false
and wrong, and in the end evil, and evil continually.
We have not been able to see, thus far, much difference
between this and most other wars. It probably had as
much cause to excuse its origin, it has been as well conducted, it has had as good a close, as most other wars. WVe
believe it is unjust, that it had no adequate reason to justify
it. We believe it is a disgrace, and not an honor, to the
American name. We believe that its victories are not glories, and that its results will not be blessings. We know
that the conscience of the civilized world, and the sympathy




POLITICAL EVILS OF THE WAR AT HIOME.   175
of Christendom, are against us, as they always are against
the powerful in their contests with the weak. And it needs
no prophet's eye to read, in the future, the impartiar condemnation of history. There we shall be defeated, without
doubt and without help, however successful we may be in
blowing up Mexican cities and dispersing M exica-n armies.
But this war is only a small part of a great system,the war-system of nations; and that system is unjust, inglorious, murderous. What we would scourge most severely,
if we could wield the pen of a Juvenal or a Pope, would be
this whole childish, ridiculous, if it were not much more,
this wrong and inhuman method, of settling national disputes. Our Mexican War is as good, and as bad, as the
war of France against the Algerines,- that of the Russians
against the Circassians, -and that of the English against
the Sikhs. And, if we speak of dismemberment, Poland
now stands not alone.
What national honor, in fine, could be gained in a contest,
which, before it broke out, Mr. Thompson; our Minister to
Mexico, said, in his " Recollections,"* would be inadequately
expressed by an encounter between "a feeble woman and
a strong man armed!"
The political evils of national debt, loss of life, and acts
of barbarism, have already been descanted upon at length.
We proceed to consider some other mischiefs, that may be
classed under the head of " political."
The recent war with Mexico has produced a kind of civil
warfiire in our own borders. It has been a very embittered
topic of debate and division. It has been a firebrand of contention and anger, on the floor of Congress. The press has
distilled gall, when the subject has been introduced. And,
worse than all, it has created strong sectional alienations,.
exasperated all the local strifies of the country, and added
* Recollections, p. 245.




176   POLITICAL EVILS OF THE WAR AT HOMIE.
new venom to politics. It has brought up the question of
slavery, and not brought it up in such a way that we can
hope for a happy issue from it.
Words are not, it is true, bullets, and the pen, however
sharp, does not prick like the bayonet; but the earnest lover
of his country will deprecate the occasions of violent party,
and especially sectional conflicts, if they can be avoided
without the sacrifice of principle. A quarrelsome nation is
but a more extended quarrelsome family. And as, in domestic life, we think it wise to shun petty bickerings, so in
national life, great animosities and the causes that fan them
up, should be carefully avoided. There will be more or less
friction in the social, as in mechanical machinery; blut, in
both instances, it is well to reduce it as much as possible.
"Fraternity" is one of the great words of a true national
motto; and no "root of bitterness" should be lighlltly suffered to spring up and trouble us. The spirit of war is
essentially a spirit of discord at home, as well as abroad. It
tends to shake, everywhere, the pillars of confidence, good
will, and a good understanding between citizens, if they be
on opposite sides of party lines.
The Mexican War will be a standing topic of crimination
and recrimination, throughll the present generation, if not
during a longer time. It has sown our soil with dragons'
teeth, and they will spring up armed men. It has started
questions of free territory, slavery, boundaries, pensions,
private claims, and new schemes of conquest and annexation, that will embroil the next fifty years, both in our public councils, and among the people and the press. These are
no contemptible evils, when we remember that union is the
strength of' a republic, and peace and love the first duties of
the Christian code.
So far especially as the Mexican conquests have banded
North and South against each other, and, by widening our
domains, weakened the joints of our body politic, they are




POLITICAL EVILS OF THE WAR AT HOME,.  177
greatly to be deprecated. In this aspect, they war against
the glorious sisterhood of the States, and pave the way for
no remote dismemberment. By introducing into the rights
and privileges of American citizens a horde of "outside
barbarians," the mongrel races of New AMexico and California, they have cheapened the American birthright, and loosened the very corner-stone in our fabric of Federal Freedom. If the spirit, of which this invasion is the first-fruits,
be not speedily and effectually discountenanced, the day
cannot be far distant when a rupture will take place between the widely-separated States, and clashing interests of
different sections of our beloved republic, that will prove
incurable.  War, in its Anglo-Saxon derivation, means
4' beware;" and well would it be for us, as a people, if the
catastrophe which has befallen us should put us on our guard
against evils yet to come, and, above all, the final dissolution
of the American Union.
Again; the liberties of mankind, as all history teaches,
are so liable to be stolen away from the unwary many by
the crafty few, that we can never be too watchful of their
unimpaired preservation. The forms, too, of fieedom may
survive, when the spirit has ebbed away. A republic, like
a church, may have a name to live, when it is dead.  What,
then, needs our perpetual vigilance, as citizens of a fiee
land, is, that the great ideas, out of which our State and
national constitutions were born, may be maintained, in their
original power, in the minds of the people.  There is a
meaning in going back to the fathers of the Revolution; for
we are then in reality going forward in the prospective
career which they marked out, - in that heroic, and, so to
say, inspired age of the nation. But, as the love of money,
ambition, ease, familiarity with free institutions breeding
contempt, corruption in high places, and the power of demagogues, wax stronger, and mould to bad uses large and unsuspecting parties, it is imperatively necessary to quaff anew




178   POLITICAL EVILS OF THE'WAR AT HIOME.
of the spirit of'76; and, if we do not servilely copy what
the sages and heroes of that period did, yet it is wise to
consider what, under the influenice of such a life-giving,
and comparatively disinterested spirit of freedom, as then
burned in their bosoms, they would now do, w. ere they in
our places.
Wrar is, in itself, a temporary despotism. Slavery is a
tremendous evil; but he who hates slavery should just as
cordially hate war, for war gave birth to slavery. The captives of war are the victims of slavery. The African slavetrade feeds on war. But, more than that, war enslaves
those that are engaged'in it. Soldiers are slaves. The inferior officers are all slaves to the superior; and the whole
army, or fleet, are subject to the most absolute, and often
tyrannical despotism of one man, the commanding general.
They have no wills, or consciences, or hearts of their own.
If they are ordered to kill the widow's only cow and burn
her cottage, they must march up and do it, without flinching.
He who undertakes to have a private opinion of his own in
an army, will soon find out his mistake, by means of cashiering or the cat-o'-nine-tails.  The defender of war is
obliged, from the necessity of the case, to defend this absolutism; for otherwise there could be no marching or fighting
to any efficient purpose. The better slaves, the better soldiers. The more total, and unquestioning, and mechanical
the obedience, the more fit and successful is the army for
accomplishing its objects. Can that be a good institution
that makes men into machines, that enthrones another's will,
however wicked or arbitrary, over the wills, consciences, reason, and every "faculty divine," of thousands and ten's of
thousands of responsible and immortal beings?
WVe have already recorded the words of Madison, in which
he warns his countrymen to beware of the despotic influence
of war.  It was timely advice.  We would single out,
indeed, no one man, or class of men, as aspiring to destroy




POLITICAL EVILS OF THE WAR ABROAD.   179
the liberties of their fatherland. But we'cannot avoid seeing that every war furnishes an. occasion for a daring march
of executive power upon the other functions of government;
for the creation of a multitude of offices, dependent upon.
the gift of one man, or a few men; for the elevation of
military talents over those of the civilian; for the increase
of a standing army, always a supple tool of arbitrary power;
for the erection of military governments over the conquered
countries; and for the introduction of officers into every
branch of the government, fiom the highest to the lowest,
whose sole or chief distinction is p-rowess in arms, and who
would naturally make military maxims the basis of their
official administration. It was when the Pretorian Guards
of Rome bore the emperor into office by their despotic will,
that the mistress of nations began to decline. And when, in
any nation, the glorious gifts of Christian statesmanship, and
ripe experience, and large converse among men, and a lifetime of civil services to one's country and the world, are
postponed and set aside for "the conquering hero," the
Genius of rational, heaven-descended Liberty is already
meditating her departure to some more congenial clime.
CHAPTER XVI.
POLITICAL EVILS OF THE WAR ABROAD.
"Freedom is fighting her battles in the world, with sufficient odds
against her. Let us not give new chances to her foes." - CIANsNIN.
THE Mexican War has done incalculable harm to the
cause of liberty, throughout our country and the world.




ISO   POLITICAL EVILS OF TtIE WAR ABROAD.
This central idea of our government, institutions, and destiny, has been foully disowned. We had already done great
discredit to our good name, by our violations of Indian
treaties, our slavery, and our repudiation of State debts.
But this attack on weak neighbors, to steal away their lands,
is capping the climax of wrong and dishonor. See, says the
monarchist, the aristocrat, your boasted government of the
people can do as wicked and unjust things, as were ever perpetrated by the kings and kaisers of the old world. It is
the same game of ambition, only it is played by different
hands. It is the ancient spirit in a new fbrm. The reality
is the same, sugar it over with fair names as much as you
please. War is war, and tyranny is tyranny, and slavery
is slavery, - whether in the United States, or Rome, or
England.
The example we have thus set before the world is a most
noxious one. The stigma we have brought upon the name
of Liberty will not soon be wiped out. We have caused the
hearts of pacific lovers of freedom everywhere to sink within
them, at the spectacle of a government of the people forgetting the rights and interests of humanity, and waging, on the
ground of the old-world notions of retaliation, force, glory,
security, and indemnity, a war of invasion, conquest, and terrible barbarity.
But when, to all these considerations of the unfavorable
bearing of the Mexican war on the interests of'freedom at
home and abroad, we add that it was begun, continued, and
ended, to subserve the extension of slavery and the slave
power, we have revealed its full enormity. That all who
were engaged in the contest, as counsellors or actors, on the
American side, were actuated by this motive, would be
more than any wise man would assert. But we regard ourselves as holding two impregnable and historical positions,
when we maintain, that had it not been for the institution
of slavery, Texas never would have been conquered and an



POLITICAL EVILS OF TIIE WAR ABROAD.    181
nexed; and that had it not been for the annexation of Texas, and the desire for more 3Mexican soil, not a drop of human blood would have been shed, nor would such endeared
names as " beautiful sight," "true cross," " holy cross," " sacrament," ever have been raised from their innocent obscurity to become the dark and terrible names of battles between two Christian nations. Ate have already adduced, in
the third chapter of this essay, documentary evidence firom
both the Executive and Legislative Departments of the
United States, to substantiate these positions. We need not
recapitulate that testimony. Suffice it to say, that since that
chapter was written, the most ample declarations have been
published by some, who were prominent in the measure of
annexation, that they acted either under the influence of a
panic got up for the occasion, that Texas was about to throw
herself into the arms of some foreign power, or that pledges
were given to insure their votes, which were not afterwards
fulfilled. We hesitate not to say on these and previous testimonies, that the Texas plot was one of the darkest conspiracies that history anywhere records, against human liberty; and that the plot not only succeeded perfectly, but
that it drew after it, as an almost necessary consequence to
the same rapacious scheme, a war of conquest, still further
to extend this wicked and unnatural, and naturally injurious
relation of absolute power on one hand, and helpless, hopeless servitude on the other, over vast regions of God's earth,
among unborn millions of his children, and down through
too patient years of wrong and suffering. What the result
will be for the new territories thus acquired, it would be
presumptuous to predict; we can only entertain the strong
hope that the Proviso of Freedom, under whatever name of
man it may be called, will be extended like the wings of a
guardian angel over this immense wilderness of nature.
But the feeling and the fear of bringing Mexican land,
purged of slavery and the slave-trade, under the dominion




182     POLITICAL EVILS OP THE WAR ABROAD.
of the United States, cannot, in concluding this head of the
subject, be better expressed than in the stirring words of a
Mexican poet writing at the beginning of the war, and of an
American one writing during its progress.  This lyric is by
Jose Ho Ace de Saltillo.*'Hearken! fiom our Northern borders
Sounds Arista's bugle call;
On the banks of Rio Bravo
Bursts the shell and ploughs the ball!
"Ghastly hands in Tenochtitlan
Strike th' old Atzec battle-drum;
Sharp of beak and strong of talon,
Lo! IMexitli's eagles come!
"Coldly sleep our slaughtered brothers;
While above their hasty graves
Sounds the hurrying hoof of rapine,
And the robber-banner waves.
"On they come, the mad invaders,
Like the fire before the wind;
Freedom's harvest-field before them,
Slavery's blackened waste behind!
" From the sellers of God's image
From the traffickers in man,
Mother gracious, mother holy,
Shield thy dark-browed Mexican!
Hecarken! up the Rio Bravo
Comes the negro-catcher's shout:
Listen!'tis the Yankee's hammer
Forging human fetters out!
" Let the land we love be wasted,
Black with fire and rough with graves;
Better far for God and Freedom
Die at once than live as slaves!
* "A Mexican of some celebrity." See Montgomery's Life of Gen.
Taylor, pp. 316, 317,




POLITICAL EVILS OF THE WAR ABROAD.    183
" We are few and they are many,
Strong in arms, and wealth, and pride;
But the saints and holy angels,
And man's heart are on our side.
"Hark! from ancient Tenochitlan,
Sounds once more the Atzec drum;
Not for conquest,.not for vengeance,
But for Freedom, Faith, and Home!"
In the poem  entitled "Yorktown," referring to the compromises of the Constitution, and the perpetuation of slavery
in the United States, Whittier breaks forth in these indignant stanzas,
" Oh! fields still green and fresh in story,
Old days of pride, old names of glory,
Old marvels of the tongue and pen,
Old thoughts which stirred the hearts of men I
Ye spared the wrong; and over all
Behold the avenging shadow fall!
Your world-wide honor stained with shame,
Your Freedom's self a hollow name.
" Where's now the flag of that old war?
Where flow its stripes? Where burns its star?
Bear witness, Palo Alto's day,
Dark Vale of Palms, red Monterey,
Where Mexic Freedom, young and weak,
Fleshes the Northern eagle's beak:
Symbol of terror and despair,
Of chains and slaves, go seek it there!
"Laugh, Prussia,'midst thy iron ranks!
Laugh, Russia, from thy Neva's banks!
Brave sport to see the fledgling born
Of Freedom, by its parents torn!
Safe now your Speilburg's dungeon cell,
Safe drear Siberia's fiozen hell:
With Slavery's flag o'er both unrolled,
What of the New World fears the Old?"




184    POLITICAL EVILS OF THE WAR ABROAD.
But we have gained, still, say the war-advocates, a great
renown, and made the nations of the earth, especially poor
AMexico, tremblingly afraid of us. This is one of the glories
of war, and its avowed merit.  But is this a manly, a
rational, or a Christian mode of reasoning? Love is as
much better than fear among nations as it is among individuals. If we have taught the nations to dread or hate us
for our injustice and rapacity, have.we probably retarded or
advanced the cause of freedom in the world?  We have
taught them that republics can be as ambitious as'monarchies, and can load their people with war-taxes as unsparingly, and squander their lives and happiness as recklessly
and as causelessly. We have shown that the eagle has
claws as sharp, and a beak as bloody, as the. tooth of the
lion, or the paw of the bear. Besides, the question is, whether this reputation for military glory is what a nation
should chiefly seek? Whether the arts of peace are not a
better foundation for honor than the arts of war?  And
whether those nations or communities, - the mobs of European cities, the cabinets of warlike States, the fierce, and
brutal, and bloody men of the age, who have no just sense
of the value of human life, and little touch of the spirit of
Christ, —whether those are to be our judges, to whom we
are to look for approval in our national acts?  Are we
to kill thousands for the sake of propitiating the military
class of Europe, or any other quarter, to the opinion that
we are after all as adroit cut-throats as, they are themselves? Is such a character the one we should be emulous to gain in the infancy of our republic? Is it not essentially a guilty, blood-stained glory, unbecoming a Christian people, and quite at variance with those smooth and
honied professions of liberty and peace which have been
upon our lips from -the beginning? Injustice never yet
gained sincere respect. The truth is, the nations hate and
loathe us for this very war. They despise the cowardice




POLITICAL EVILS OF THE WAR ABROAD.    185
that pounced upon a weaker country, and dismembered its
territory by force of arms. This war has gained us the good
opinion abroad of none whose good opinion is worth possessing.
The political effect of the war on Mexico has been bad.
The whole attention of that country has been devoted two
years to war. This cannot have been favorable to the working of free institutions. The funds of' the nation have been
diverted into channels of barren expenditure, yielding no
profitable returns. The talent, skill, power, and time of the
Mexican people for two years have been turned away from
all the works and processes of improvement, to the siege
and the battle-field. Her commerce was destroyed, and her
agriculture wasted. The manners and morals of large numbers of her people were infected by the pernicious contagion
of camp vices and habits. Her national pride and selfrespect have received a severe blow, and prepared her to
strive with less "nmight and main" to perfect republican
forms of government, or repel future invasions. She has
lost between one-third and one-half of her territory. The
spirit of revolution, always rampant in her Capital and provinces, has received-a new impetus in the generally disordered state of the country. Her military leaders will gather
new materials for civil contests in the measures that the war
has developed, and new instruments to carry them on in the
hordes of disbanded soldiers that are now thrown out of employment, and are ready to join in any scheme of violence
and plunder. So wide have been these injurious influences
upon the political weal of Mexico, that it has been said by
competent authority on the spot, that " the whole male
population of MIexico appears to be fast relapsing into a
state of brigandaoe."  The system of guerilla warfare must
have done much to demoralize the peasantry, and to infuse
into the remotest sections of the country the deadly virus of
war-habits, vices, cruelty, and abandonment of the regular
occupations of industry and honesty.
16*




186    POLITICAL EVILS OF THE WAR ABROAD.
Not the.least of the evils of the war will be an increased
bitterness and hostility in Mlexico against the United States
and against free institutions.  This was the result of the
Texas difficulties, according to ]Mr. Thompson, in his Recollections of MIexico. "The feeling of all M3exicans towards
us, until the revolution in Texas, was one of unmixed admiration; and it is our high position amongst the nations, and
makes our mission all the more responsible, that every people
struggling to be free, regard us with the same feelings, —
we are indeed the'looking-glass in which they dress themselves.' As a philanthropist, I have deeply deplored the
effects of the annexation of Texas upon the feelings of the
people of all classes in 3Iexico, towards this country, as
diminishing their devotion to republican institutions; this
should not be so, but it will be."
Much indeed has been said of the political benefits accruing to Mexico from this conquest. But were these benefits
commended to us as a people, we should not be long probably
in testifying our repugnance to the mission of foreign progagandists. We should altogether prefer to manage our own
affairs in our own way; and we should very much question
the right of any nation, -however wise, or good, or powerful,
to rivet their measures upon us by force, slice off hundreds
of thousands of square miles of our national territory, kill
thousands of our citizens, destroy millions of our property,
and ere the seal was hardly cold on the instrument of amity
and peace, to plot new schemes of invasion, or allow them
to be plotted. So imperfectly can we arrive at a true knowledge of the internal state of affairs in that unhappy, distracted country, that only on the general ground indicated
in these brief words do we comle to the conclusion, that,
though Providence, in its wise chemistry, may elaborate,
even out of this war and its miseries, good to the suffering
republic, yet we have no commission or license, as a nation,
any more than individuals, to " do evil that good may come."




THE NEW  TERRITORIES.                 187
Evil is evil, and sin is sin, and the consequences cannot alter
the moral complexion of an act. No doubt, as Nature heals
on her beautiful face the scars of the torn battle-plain, wipes
away with her tears, shed from heaven, the stains of blood,
and even clothes herself with a greener vesture and more
blooming flowers than before; so the infinite Providence, in
which all worlds and all beings are embosomed, with a like
hopefulness and soothing efficacy of time, may work out of
the bitter woes of war a greater good than man thought of;
but God's goodness, instead of excusing our wickedness, only
makes it appear all the more guilty and shocking. Mexico
may not fall. The blow she has received may rouse her
latent energies of self-improvement.   But if the period
should ever arrive when the largest republic on earth, next
to our own, and the most hopeful and consistent.one, is blotted out of the record of nations and becomes the Poland of
the West, we shall stand condemned in the eyes of heaven
and our own, as the authors of so tremendous a catastrophe.
CHAPTER XVI1.
THE NEW  TERRITORIES.
"And what, in principle, is war? It is the duel between nations, differing in no respect from the duel between individuals, except that the
successfidl combatant is allowed to carry off as spoil the effects of his
vanquished antagonist." -- BIsior POTTER.
THE acquisition of the territories of New Mexico and
California is regarded by many as a sufficient compensation
for all the losses and evils of the war, and a summary answer




188            THE NEW TERRITORIES.
to all objectors. The ports on the Pacific, the immense
extent of country, and above all the astonishing mineral
wealth are adduced as reasons to satisfy us that it was well
the war was waged; as if these good tllings were some fair
exchange; as if the question had been put to us, what shall
it profit the nation, if it gain the whole World, and lose its
own soul of faith and freedom; and we had seemed to
answer, it shall profit us richllly, if we can gain San Francisco, the Pacific port, the Sacramento, river of gold, and a
boundless extent of new lands.
There are, however, important drawbacks to the value of
our possessions,/and to the satisfaction with which an honest
man can speak of them.
There is, in the first place, the way in which they were
acquired, - by force, by conquest, by might, and not by
right. As early as June 24, 1845, Commodore Sloat received secret and confidential orders fiom the Navy Department, to employ his squadron in the Pacific in warlike
operations, seizing and occupying San Francisco, and other
Mexican ports, as soon as he had ascertained with certainty
the existence of war between Mexico and the United States,
Seven ships of war and between 2000 and 3000 men and
officers afforded him ample power to carry into execution
his orders. Having heard rumors of the battles on the Rio
Grande, he seized, July 7, 1846, Monterey, Upper California,
without resistance, and issued a proclaination,* in which he
annexed the country permanently to the American Union,
saying that L"henceforward California will be a portion of
the United States," and in which he assured the people, that
"the same protection would be extended to them as to any
other State in the Union;" thus virtually excluding the idea
of any changes in the government, which a treaty of peace,
or the action of Congress might produce. In the language
* 30th Cong. 2d Session, Ho. of Rep. Ex. Doc. No. 1, p. 1010.




THE NEW  TERRITORIES.               189
of Commodore Stockton, " the intelligence of the commencement of hostilities between the two nations, although it had
p)assed through MfIexico, had reached Commodore Sloat in
advance of the ]Mexican authorities.  Whllen lie first made
his hostile demonstrations, therefore, the enemy, ignorant of
the existence of the war, had regarded his acts as -an unwarrantable exercise of power by the United States, and the
mlost lively indignation and bitter resentment filled the country."  The motives under lwhich the conqueror acted are
portrayed in the following extract from a letter to Commnander bIont,gomery, dated Mlonterey, July 6, 1846,* "since I
wrote you last evening, I have determined to hoist the flag
of the United States at this place to-morrow, as I would prefer
being sacrificed for doing too much t/han too little."  The danger to which lie was exposed, of being saclificed for doing
too little, was well set forth in a letter from lll. Bancroft,
Secretary of the Navy, which, after chiding him for remaining quiet from June Gth, when lie heard of' the afihairs on the
h-io Grande, till July 7th, whlen lie captured 3Ionterey, used
this tone; t "but your anxiety not to do wrong has led you
into a most unfortunate and unwarranted inactivity." Would
it not often be better fbo  our country, and for all countries,
if public officers had more of that "anxiety not to do
But the part enacted by Fremont in California sufficiently
indicated that lie was there, and that he took part in the
revolutionary and warlike movements, not without high
authority implied, thlougll not perhaps distinctly expressed.
Ile left St. Louis in June, 1845, on a topographical and
scientific survey of Oregon and California, with a command
of sixty-two nien and two hundred horses. The Oregon
boundary was in dispute, but the California boundary was
* 30th Cong. 1st Session, Senate. Rep. Com. N'o. 75, p. 73.
t 30th Cong. 1st Session, Senate. Rep. Corn.!No. 75, p. 71. Also,
p. 13.




190            THE NETW TERRITORIES.
clearly defined. And no armed party of men from thea
United States had any more right to be travelling in, and
surveying that country, than sixty armed Mexicans' to enter
Florida and travel through it on a topographical and scientific survey. There was an ulterior motive besides science.
It was remarkable too that several months had been devoted
to California, which belonged to Mexico, and not a day to
Oregon, which did belong to the United States. What Fremont's instructions were when he was sent out, are secrets
buried in the archives of the Government. But the fliets
are indisputable. Fremont was there, ready for any movement. He naturally awakened the suspicions of the Californian authorities.  Gen. Castro, military commander of
California, ordered him to leave the country. But lie took
an intrenched position and avowed his intention, if attacked,
to die in defence of the flag of his country, though he had
dishonored that flag by confessedly planting it on the foreign
soil of Mexico. I-e retired however to the north, into Oregon, before the forces of Castro, and was there reached by
an officer, Lieut. Gillespie, the bearer of important despatches
from the United States through Mexico, %which he had committed to memory, that chance might not betray them to the
Mexican government. On the 10th of ]May, 1846, the parties met. The nature of the message will best be told
in Fremont's own language: "He brought me a letter of'
introduction from the Secretary of State, (Mr. Buchanan,)
and letters and papers from Senator Benton and his family.
The letter from the Secretary imported nothing beyond the
introduction, and was directed to me in my private or citizen
capacity.  The outside envelop of a packet from Senator
Benton was directed in the same way, and one of the letters
from him, while apparently of mere friendship and family
details, contained passages enigmatical and obscure, but which
I studied out, and made the meaning to be that I was required
by the GCtvrnment to find out any fdreign schemes in rtla



THE NEW TERRITORIES.              191
tion to the Californias, and to counteract them." *  He further says, "the letter from Senator Benton had a decided
influence on my next movement.!" Lieut. Gillespie also
testified essentially to the same statement respecting his
instructions from the home government.  Capt. Owens also
declared before the committee on " California claims," that
he did not think the revolution against the government would
have taken place, or the people been united without the aid
and protection of Captain Fremont. They had not confidence enough in their strength to undertake the war without
support. Captain Fremont's party was strong and uell armed,
and went together hlke one man. Another witness, Loker,
testified, "then commenced the revolution." t
Turning back fromn Oregon into " the unsettled parts of
the Sacramento," and hearing rumors of warlike movements
by Gen. Castro, Fremont put himself, June 10th, at the head
of the Amnerican settlers at their earnest request, joining
them "with his party, and (what they deemed of great
moment) his nam e as an American officer."  The first act
of this clandestine war was the seizure of some horses of
Gen. Castro. The fort of Sonoma was captured, and on
July 5th, the Californians declared their independence, and
adopted the figure of the grizzly bear as their standard. Soon
afterwards, however, Fremont and Stockton united their
forces under the flag of the United States, and the republic
of California had an even shorter existence than the republic
of Texas.
Thus by violence and conquest, hatched, abetted and consummated befbre it was distinctly known that any declared
war existed, was the territory belonging to 3lexico torn
away, and proclaimed to be an absolute and perpetual pos~session of the United States. Is it not within the bounds of
imagination to conceive, that had the English, instead of the
* 30th Cong. 1st Session, Senate. Ex. Doec. No. 33, pp. 373, 374.
toh CoAng. 1 St si S enate  Rre1. Vom, C ny. 715; pp. 68, f9i




192               THE NEW  TERRITORIES.
MIexican, flag been flying over Monterey and San Francisco,
these officers would have paused before they pulled it down.
This insolence of power was still further illustrated by
the designation which Stockton and other officers gave to
those who rose and resisted their violent acts, calling them
rebels and insurgents,* when they were themselves confessedly acting without  what are called the rights of war; t
Fremont fighting, as he acknowledged, on his own hook,:
and Stockton on only implied powers from  his government.
One word is due to New Mexico, after which other topics
relating to the new territories acquired, will be discussed.
The conquest of this Mexican province was effected'by Gen.
Kearney with a command despatched for that purpose. But
he overstepped the line of authority, as did the officers in
California, by erecting New MIexico into a territory of the
United States before peace was made, and by absolving the
inhabitants from their allegiance, threatening them with
death, if they took up arms, ~ enacting laws, in some in* Cutts' Conquest of California, pp. 129, 130, 133. 157, 161, 163.
t The justification of Mexican cruelties towards the prisoners taken
in the Texan war, was that they were rebels, traitors to the government, and therefore -deserved to be imprisoned or executed. 28th
Cong. 1st Session, Senate, 341, p. 72.. "In June of the year 1846, being then a brevet captain of topographical engineers in the service of the United States, and employed
as such in California, he engaged in military operations with the people
of the country for the establishment of the independence of California,
bejbre the existence of cwar between the United States and Mllexico was
known, and was successful in said undertaking," etc. 30th Cong. 1st
Session, Senate. Rep. Com. No. 75, p. 1. " I informed him, that I had
acted solely on my own responsibility, and without any authority from
the government to justify hostilities." p. 13.
~ Cutts' Conquest of California, p. 46, 51, 57, 58. Perhaps the best
parallel to the ancient anecdote of Alexander and the Pirate is found
in the following interview between Gen. Kearney and an Indian warrior: "Just as we were leaving camp to-day, an old Apache chief came
in and harangued the general thus:'You have taken Santa F', let us




THE NEW  TERRITORIES.               193
stances cruel and unnatural, and forcing Mexicans against
their will to become Americans. After the conquest, Texas
claimed New Mlexico as rightfully belonging to her, and
endeavored to extend over it her jurisdiction and her system
of slavery.  What will be the result remains yet to be seen.
She is prohibited by the joint resolution of annexation from
extending slavery farther north than 36~ 30', but her laws
make no such scrupulous limits to the dominions of oppression.
The vast domains acquired from  Mexico, partly under
pretence of giving them a better government and free institutions, have been more than a year since the treaty of peace
was declared, deprived of any but a fluctuating military government, without efficiency or consistency, and the prospect
now is that this state of things will exist for some time
longer. The determination to reestablish slavery over lands
that have been redeemed and emancipated from its curse,
may still farther postpone the erection of suitable territorial
governments. Meantime, slaves have been carried into these
new regions, the buying and selling of human beings has
commenced, and the language of the slave press is, "Here
is a vast field opened to the wealth and labor of the South,
which if improved, promises a rich harvest.  Slave labor
can be employed more profitably in mining in California and
New MIexico, than it possibly can be in any portion of the
United States. Thus an extensive domain will be created
for slave labor, the surplus of which is now crushing the
Southern states." *
Parts of Tamaulipas, Chihuahua, Coahuila, and the whole
go on and take Chihuahua and Sonora; we will go with you. You
Jigtlt for the soil, we fJght for plunder; so we will agree pesfcctly. These
people are bad Christians; let us give them a good thrashing,"' etc.
Capt. Johnston's Journal, 30th Cong. 1st Session, Ho. of Rep. Ex. Doe.
No. 41, p. 580.
* The:'asf.ville Uidon, 1849.
17




194             THE N'EW TERRITORIES.
of New 3Mexico and Upper California, have all been added
by the late war and the treaty succeeding it, to the United
States. How much this measure may have done to slake the
natural thirst for territory may be considered, when it is
kown, that, according to the statistics furnished Congress in
1848 by the War Department, New Mexico contains 77,387
square miles, and Califbrnia 448,691 square miles; or total
526,078 square miles, or 366,589,920 acres. Besides this
boundless surface, that would make more than eleven states as
large as New York, Texas has gained additions to her before
immense territory, so that she possesses now 325,520 square
miles, or 208,322,800 square acres, or a region that would
make, in all, more than seven States as large as New York;
and if united with New Mexico and California, would constitute a territory carved out of Mexico more than eighteen
times as large as the Empire State, or more than one hundred
and nine times as large as Massachusetts; a tract of country
about as large as England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Spain,
Portugal, Italy, and Germany combilecd!
Butvast as these domains of New Mexico and California are,
the testimony of many travellers is, that they are not highly
valuable either for agricultural, commercial or manufactturing
purposes.
Col. Hardin, who was killed at the Battle of Buena Vista,
says, " irrigation is necessary to insure all the crops in Mexico."  "Nothing strikes an American eye sooner, or more
strongly, than the denuded landscape every where presented
to his view in Northern Mexico."
Major Gaines, another officer, says, "The country from
the Nueces to the Rio Grande is poor, sterile, sandy, andl
barren, - with not a single tree of any size or value, on our
whole route." Yet it was this disputed tract of desert that
led to the first conflict of arms. Ile adds,:' I have no hesitation in saying that I would not hazard the life of one valuable and useful man for every foot of land between San Pa



THE NEW TERRITORIES.               195
tricio (or the Nueces) and the valley of the Rio Grande.
The country is not now and never can be of the slightest
value."
We have already quoted Hon. C. J. Ingersoll, as calling it
"a stupendous desert."
Ruxton, an English traveller, says of New 1Mexico, "the
general character of the department is extreme aridity of
soil, and the consequent deficiency of' water, which must
ever prevent its being thickly settled. The valley of the
Del Norte is fertile, but of limited extent, and other portions
of the province are utterly valueless in an agricultural point
of view, and their metallic wealth is greatly exaggerated."
Lieut. Peck, of the Corps of Topographical Engineers,
says, "the boundaries of the territory (New Mexico) have
never been very exactly defined, as a great share of the line
lies over desert countries, where very little importance can
attach to any exact location."  "M any minerals, as iron, copper and lead occur in the mountains; but situated at the distance they are from the markets of the world, they will hardly
be wrought."
_Mr. Farnham calls the east part of California, " a howling
desolation."
Of another portion of California, more to the west, Col.
Emory of the U. S. A. says, " the land in the narrow valleys
is good, but high, surrounded every where by barren mountains; and where the land is good, the seasons are too dry
for men to attempt cultivation without facilities of irrigation."
Speaking of all the northern states of Mexico, he says, " in
no part of this Vast tract can the rains from heaven be relied
upon to any extent for the cultivation of the soil. The earth
is destitute of trees, and in great part also of any vegetation
whatever."
Captain Wilkes, commander of the Exploring Expedition,
gives no very sanguine views either of the agricultural or
commercial prospects of California, denies the alleged supe



196              THE NEW  TERRITORIES.
rior excellence of San Francisco, as a great Pacific port, and
says, "although I am  not disposed to question its extent and
safety, yet I think there are many considerations which show
that it is not so well adapted for the purposes of trade, or
facilities for promoting it, as is generally believed."
The testimony of some of these and other travellers is,
that the intellectual and moral aspects of the people are of a
kin with the desert character of the soil; that ignorance,
licentiousness, idleness, intemperance, and every savage and
every civilized vice, have a rank growth among the heterogeneous population. Ruxton represents the whole people as
bitterly opposed to the United States, in proof of which fact,
so far as New Mexico is concerned, he adduces the insurrection in which Gov. Bent, and his followers were cruelly murdered.  We have made a poor bargain to wage an expensive
and sanguinary war to attach such a country to our States,
and mix such elements of ignorance, vice, and discord with
republican blood. Ill especially has been the annexation,
when in addition to the war we paid some $20,000,000 for it
to Mlexico, though as an act, we rejoice that it was done, if
the land were to be taken, on the score of its justice.
5We may then class this territory among the political evils
resulting from the Mexican war.  We had more land before
than we could settle and till for years to come.  We had
room enough and to spare.  The new territories have introduced new topics of dispute.  They will require a large
standing army for their protection from  the Indians, and
others.* They expose our boundaries to perpetual inroads.
* The eleventh article of the Treaty with Mexico obligates the United States to prevent the incursions of the Indians from New Mexico,
and California into the adjoining provinces of Mexico, if necessary, by
force of arms. But most cruel and devastating wars have been waged
in 1848, and 1849, by the Indians both within our own and the limits of Mexico, against the provinces lying on the Rio Grande; and on
the other hand the local Mexican authorities, as a desperate measure.
have offered Texan troops 50 dollars a head for every Indian killed,
as if they were so many wild beasts!




THE NEW TERRITORIES.              197
They are not in themselves generally very valuable, except
in certain narrow tracts, that minister to the "auri sacra
fames," the accursed hunger for gold. We have compelled
many thousands of people in those regions to come under our
government, which is far fiom practising on the doctrine of
civil and religious liberty, and basing government on the
consent of the governed.  We had established military institutions over these countries, and dissolved the allegiance
of the inhabitants to Mexico, and annexed them to the United
States, before a treaty of peace, the only proper tribunal, had
decided where they should belong. We have inflicted a
cureless wound upon the self-respect of Mexico, by dismembering with a violent hand her provinces, and destroying the
integrity of the national domains. We have made an implacable enemy where we needed a fast friend. And so far
as we have unjustly, by might and not by right, acquired possession of parts of Tamaulipas, Chihuahua, Coahuila, and all
of New Mlexico and Upper California, we must sooner or later suffer the most condign punishment for the gigantic
wrong. As surely as there is a God reigning in heaven, or
a Providence taking note of human conduct, the day cannot
be far remote, when we shall be overtaken by the penalty of
the law we have broken. Yes, our punishment has already
begun. The ministers of Infinite Justice are upon us. Every interest of our beloved country, social, pecuniary, political,
domestic, and moral has felt the shock of this war. The
eagle eye of Liberty has drooped in sadness at the triumphs
of oppression. And the Religion, whose interdict is, "Thou
shalt not covet any thing that is thy neighbor's," veils her
holy face in abhorrence at the apostasy of her professed
children.
But finally, it is alleged that the new possessions are rich
in the precious metals. Granted.  Let every hill be a
Potosi, and every stream a Pactolus. Let millions of gold
and silver flow into the coffers of our republic from the
17*




198             THE NE'W  TERRITORIES.
El Dorado of the Pacific. But is it a wise prayer to pray
that our country should be exposed to such a temptation? that
our countrymen should be drawn still deeper into the passion
for money?  These lands we have seen were as much forced
from Mexico against her will, as the robber's booty is extorted fiom the helpless traveller by arms and threats.
We beat, we threatened, we coaxed MIexico to do what
was against her wishes and interests.  Can such treasures,
thus procured, carry a blessing to their rapacious possessors?
Not if life has one lesson left to teach; not if there is any
truth in God's word; not if Providence has any oversight
over human affairs. Ill-gotten riches, — when as a general
rule have they benefitted individuals or nations?  Are we
not rushing into the love of money, into extravagance and
worldliness, and unrepublican and unchristian habits with
sufficient rapidity, but we must invoke new powers from the
god of gold to add to their momentum?  It is quite a suf1icient offset, in the judgment of not a few, to all the abominations of this war, that it has resulted in the acquisition of
so much more material wealth; as if that were the great
good of life, as if that were what we most needed in this
country, as if it were not the means of stimulating to greater
intensity, the eager desire for gain, and making the dollar
more than ever the deity which the multitude worship.
Enterprise is spoken of; but had we not already a country resting on two remote oceans? was there any lack of
room?  Could " the American multiplication table," as it has
been called, replenish the land to overflowing in one or
two centuries?  Must we cast covetous eyes on our neighbors' lands, because we are a progressive people?  Read
the history of the nations which have most abounded in
the precious metals; read the tales of California life thus
far developed, and then let the true lover of his country, lIt
the friend of freedom  and free institutions, say whether if
he were to select any mode of retribution for the stupen



THE NEW  TERRITORIES.                199
dous folly and crime of such a war, he could devise any one
that under a fascinating disguise carries a Pandora's box
of greater evils, than the acquisition of the gold lands of the
Sacramento. The wounds of the sword may heal, but to
pamper the lust for wealth is to inflict deeper wounds than
those of the sword. The scars of the battle-field may be
grown over by the unwearied powers of nature, and the bombarded city may again be built, but the deep, eating canker
of avarice preys upon the nation's inner life, and frets and
poisons and consumes what is most fair and noble and
great and good in the character of the chief republic on the
globe.  The ancient saying may be fulfilled, "He gave them
their request, but he sent leanness into their souls." Who
that reviews the violent and fraudulent means employed
to revolutionize and conquer California, can look with honest
complacency on the gold coin stamped with that appellation?  Who that understands in any measure what makes a
State, what constitutes "the true grandeur of nations," but
must lament with an unusual bitterness of sorrow, that,
breaking away from  the high.promise and beautiful charm
of our youth, and abjuring the splendid destiny of justice,
peace and humanity, we should be content to crawl in the
dust to scrape together a little of the perishable pelf of the
world; and to care less for obedience to those eternal principles on which the moral universe is built, than for certain
plantations stocked with slaves, certain harbors on the
Pacific, and certain valleys barren in aught but the fiery
gold!*
*  "I am a friend to gold currency, but not to gold mining. That is a
pursuit which the experience of nations shows to be both impoverishing
and demoralizing to a nation. I regret that we have these mines
in California; but they are there, and I am for getting rid of them
as soon as possible. Make the working as free as possible."
"I care not who digs it up. I want it dug up. I want the fever to




200  NEW  SCHEMES OF INVASION AND ANNEXATION.
CHAPTER XVIII.
NEW  SCHEMES OF INVASION AND  ANNEXATION.
"Peace is preeminently our policy. Our road to greatness lies not
over the ruins of others, but in the quiet and peaceful development of
our immeasurably great internal resources,-in subduing our vast
forests, perfecting the means of internal intercourse throughout our
widely extended country, and in drawing forth its unbounded agricultural, manufacturing, mineral, and commercial resources. In this ampie field, all the industry, ingenuity, enterprize, and energy of our people may find employment for centuries to come; and through its
successful cultivation, we may hope to rise, not only to a state of prosperity, but to that of greatness and influence over the destiny of the
human race, higher than has ever been attained by arms by the most
renowned nations of ancient or modern times. War, so far from accelerating, can hut retard our march to greatness."-CALHoouir.
THE alleged benefit of war as ridding society of many of
its worst members, and drawing off the vicious and abandoned to supply the decimation of its hospitals and battlefields, is very problematical. For it often returns home
more vagabonds and villains, than it enlisted.  It demoraIizes many who were before pure, and spreads by means of
its disbanded troops an immoral influence far and wide in
the land. A large class of reckless, adventurous spirits are
be over. I want the mining finished. Let all work that will. Let
them ravage the earth-extirpate and exterminate the mines. Then
the- sober industry will begin which enriches and ennobles a nation.
Work as hard as we may we cannot finish soon."  Speech-of ir.
Benton in the Senate, January 15, 1849.




NEW SCIHEMES OF INVASION AND ANNEXATION. 201
educated and instigated in times of war to such a pitch of
hardened brutality, that they learn by practice to love to
fight. They are intoxicated with the excitements of battles,
and when peace is declared, they have become so enamored
of the profession of the soldier, that they long for some
new occasion for wielding the sword; it matters little what
the justice or merits of the cause may be, provided it open
a theatre for bravery, promotion and pay.
In accordance with these principles, we find that the soldiers lately embarked in the Mexican Foray, are many of
them anxious to go upon another human hunt. Some of them
remained in Mexico, and enlisted in the army there. Some
of them returned to Vera Cruz, and offered their services to
Yucatan in the late contest with the Indians. But still
others,-and it has been darkly hinted that thousands are interested in the plan,-propose to renew under the pretext
of " a Buffalo Hunt on the Rio Grande," the process of
Mexican dismemberment, and erect a new republic out
of the provinces between the Siera Madre and that River,
at first designed to be independent, but afterwards to fall
into the hands of the United States as ripe fruit from the
tree. The press has been full of rumors on the subject,
Information was requested by Congress from the President
of the United States in relation to the expedition; to which
he replied that he had no official information that any citizen
or citizens of the United States were planning to revolutionize any part of Mexico.
But however this particular plan may be, it is sufficiently
evident to all, that this war has given our countrymen a
taste for national aggrandizement, that will ask for more and
more. When the wild beast has dipped his tongue in blood,
he rages for new prey.  The strong passions that have
been quickened by this conquest will not soon subside.
The Sierra Madre republic may become an exploded idea,
but not so the ambition and reckless spirit of adventure and




202 NEW  SCHE!MES OF INVASION  AND ANNEXATION.
free-booting out of which it sprang. Intimations have been
given, in quarters entitled to serious consideration, that Cuba
would be a desirable and easy acquisition for the United
States.* The present spirit, if long indulged, will become
* The following document, which came out several months after the
text was written, proves that the fears expressed there have not been
groundless.
IPROCLAMATION.-BY TIIE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
There is reason to believe that an armed expedition is about to be
fitted out in the United States with the intention to invade the Island
of Cuba, or some of the provinces of Mexico; the best information
which the Executive has been able to obtain, points to the Island
of Cuba as the object of this e.epedi.io. ~ It is the duty of this
Government to observe the faith bf treaties, and to prevent any
aggression by our citizens upon the territories. of friendly nations.
I have therefore thought it necessary and proper to issue this proclamation to warn all citizens who shall connect themselves with an
enterprise so grossly in violation of our treaty obligations that they
will thereby subject themselves to the heavy penalty denounced
against them by our acts of Congress, and will forfeit their claim -to
the protection of their country. No such persons must expect the interference of this Government in any form in their behalf, no matter
to what extremities they may be reduced, in consequence of their
conduct.
The enterprise to invade the territories of a friendly nation, set
on foot and prosecuted within the limits of the United States, is in the
highest degree criminal, as tending to endanger the peace and compromise the honor of the nation. And therefore I expect all good
citizens, as they regard our national reputation, as they respect our
laws, and laws of other nations, as they value the blessing of peace and
the welfare of their country, to discourage and prevent, by all lawful
means, any such enterprise, and I call upon every officer of this Government, civil or military, to use all efforts in his power to arrest for
trial and punish every such offender against the laws providing for the
performance of our sacred obligation to friendly powers.
Given under my hand the 11th day of August, inthe year of our Lord
one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, and 74th of the independence of the United States.
Z. TAYLOR.
J. M. CLAYTON, Secretary of State.




NEW  SCHEMES OF INVASION AND ANNEXATION. 203
a perfect lust of conquest, and overrun the continent, if not
the world.  The fascinating, but false idea of political propagandism  may yet wreck  our fairest hopes, if it be not
seasonably checked by an appeal to right and truth.  God
grant, in his infinite mercy, not for our sakes only, but
for the cause of civil and religious liberty,* and free institutions throughout the world, and the progress of humanity,
that these political evils, which we have considered, may
so far be counteracted and neutralized by the zeal and
fidelity of the friends of peace, and all good men, that we
may be spared from disunion, a profligate ambition, and a
warlike destiny.t
* Who can fail to recognize the wisdom of the remarks of Mr. Pollock of Pennsylvania in the House of Representatives, Jan. 26, 1847?
" Do gentlemen desire the extension of our civil and religious privileges?-the pure principles of republican institutions? The influence
of our example will accomplish this more speedily and certainly than
the bayonets of our soldiery, or the thunder of our cannon. You may
conquer their teritory, but you cannot counpd the people to be free;
you may overthrow existing governments, but you cannot establish-by
the sword a system  of self-government. Self-government imposed by
force upon a people would be tyranny to them."-Printed Speech,
p. 5.
t A bill was introduced into the Senate of the United States, May
4, 1848, but not passed, to authorize the President' to take temporary
military occupation of Yucatan," now the scene of a sanguinary civil
war between the Spanish and Indian portion of the inhabitants. A
long debate cnsued.
Gen. Scott, senior officer in command in the American Army, wrote
a letter in 1849, approving of the annexation of Canada in due time
to the United States.




204                MILITARY GLORY.
CHAPTER XIX.
MILITARY GLORY.
" The drying up a single tear has more
Of honest fame, than shedding seas of gore."
BYRON.
"BUT glory, glory!" shout the defenders of the war.' Much that you say of its evils may be true, but these evils
are counterbalanced by a greater good.  The war with
Mexico has won for our army and country a European renown. None will now ask where are the United States, and
what have they done; Monterey and Buena Vista, Vera
Cruz and Cerro Gordo have answered that question."
The reply to this claim of glory has already been made
in part in chapter seventeenth on the subject of true and false
national honor. But the noxious spirit of military ambition.among individuals, and the struggle to rise by the
arts of war instead of the arts of peace, have been increased
bly the late events; while many care little what is for the
honor and welfare of their country, provided they can win
fame and place.
The disposition to laud military heroes, and thus falsify
the true and christian scale of intellectual and moral greatness, has received a fresh impulse in the late atrocious war.
The great men in these United States, who are they? Are
they the poets who are striking the finest chords of the celestial lyre, and awakenilng, by strains of sublimity that will never
die, the tastes and aspirations and immortal energies of men
of all generations? Are they the artists who are shaping the




MILITARY GLORY.                  205
marble into beauty, and giving life to the canvas, and thus
refining -rd celevatiing the soul of the w-oirld?  Are they the
orators who luhave plead for liberty vwith angelic tongue, and
urged the infinite concerns of religion with a melting persuasion?  Are they tile princely merchants who have given
their tens of thousands of dollars to the cause of education,
and the welfare of a hundred ages to come?  Are they the
retired and humble scholars, who, poor and unnoted by
the world, trim the lamp of learning, decipher the meaning
of life, unroll the map of antiquity, and extract the wisdom
of libraries, and the history of empires gone?  No; our
great men are not poets, nor philosophers, nor philanthropists, nor artists, nor judges, nor jurists, nor statesmen.
Sad day is it for humanity, when the  heroes are the
destroyers, and hosannas are sung over ruined cities and
sinking nations, to those whose weapons are not love and
truth, but fire and sword!
Every pains is taken to make the soldiers and officers think
that they are the greatest and best of their day.  Doubtless
they have often acted from an ardent devoted patriotism,
and had good intentions, though not the hilgh standard of
Christian duty.  But we submit, that dinners and speeches,
triumphal arches and temples, swords and other costly
presents, honors and titles, and all the " pomp and circumstance" with  which the troops  and  their officers are
welcomed home from  the scene of their terrible work, are
calculated to start the germs of a dozen future wars in
the breasts of the rising generation, and to make our
American youth think that nothing is so glorious as war.
Such is the practical lesson.  This is our war-education.
This dlsposition to applaud the men of war, and to raise
them to the highest offices in the State, and even to canonize
their memories, as if they were also the brightest ornanients of the church, has been conspicuously seen in two
celebrated cases, belonging respectively to the two main
18




206                MILITARY GLORY.
political parties of the country. Without uttering a word
to stir up the embers of strife which are now  going
out, in the cold ashes of the dead, we are nevertheless
clear in the belief that the choice of men firom the battleground to guide the majestic counsels of a free Christian
nation, is in exceedingly poor taste, bad policy, and worse
morality. David was not allowed to build the temple, because he was a man of war; those who enter our consecrated
temple of liberty ought to have pure hands and-clean consciences, and hearts unspotted of their brother's blood, else
they are not fit for that place, however well they may
be qualified for some other station.
One objection is, that it is to employ men in one profession who have been serving all their lives in another, and
very different one. It is not surely a wise man who gets his
blacksmith to work on his teeth, or hires his house-carpenter
to make a suit of clothes; and yet there is really as little or
less incongruity in these respective callings, than there is in
appointing military men, who are liable to be despots by
the very nature of their command, to manage the civil concerns of a republic. It is to introduce a martial spirit and
war maxims into the administration of national affairs. It
is to pave the way for future wars, to place camp-schooled
and battle-trained Presidents in the White House, who may
hoist a flag of defiance against the world, and who will
be ready to foster that system  of affairs, in whose troubled
waters they navigated their course to honor and renown.
It is to repudiate still longer, and to hold in abeyance
for some centuries the precepts of the Prince of Peace.
We want civilians, not swordsmen; Catos, not Cmsars, nor
Syllas at the head of Christian America. If our hearts,
and our consciences were alive and awake, we should reject
the idea with horror of makin(r a military man the great
man of the nation, and enthroning him aloft, as our grand
representative before the eyes, either of Christendom or




3IARTIAL GLORY.                   207
heathendom.  We virtually should say by such an act, that
is our highest ideal of what a great and good man is; that
is the American man.
It will not be one of the least of the disasters of this
Ilexican crusade, that it adds new force to a -false principle
in the working. of our government, and opens still wider to
military ambition, not only its peculiar field of distinction,
but the nobler walks of civil policy and national statesmanship, where it properly has no part nor lot.* It is time that
a policy which is too manifest in its evil effects, through all
past history, should be abandoned forever by a government
of the people, and a government, therefore, whose great
interest is, and always must be, Peace, Peace.
The illustrious Washington, himself a warrior, has testified against war.  He says: "I How much more delightful to
an undebauched mind is the task of making improvements
on the earth, than all the vain glory which can be acquired
from ravaging it by the most uninterrupted career of conquests.  How  pitiful in the eye of reason and religion,
is that false ambition which desolates the world with fire
and sword, compared to the milder virtues of making our
fellow-men as happy as their frail condition and perishable
natures will permit them to be! It is time for night-errantry and mad heroism to be at an end."
The true patriot, therefore, is he who not only cries,
* "' Tis not in battles that from youth we train
The Governor who must be wise and good,
And temper with the sternness of the brain
Thoughts motherly, and meek as womanhood.
Wisdom doth live with children round her knees:
Books, leisure, perfect freedom and the talk
Man holds with week-day mart in the hourly walk
Of the mind's business: these are the degrees
By which true Sway doth mount; this is the stalk
True power doth grow on; and her rights are these."
WORDSWORTH.




208         TRUE DESTINY OF OUR COUNTRY.
peace, peace, but earnestly eschews war. He most honors
his native land, and shows himself its best friend  and
staunchest defender, not who pours oil on the war-flame,
and exhorts the young men to fight for their country, "right
or wrong," but who advocates peace, by word and deed.
CHAPTER XX.
THE TRUE DESTINY OF OUR COUNTRY.
"Your mission was, to be a model for all governments and for all
other less flavored nations; to adhere to the most elevated principles of
political morality; to apply all your faculties to the gradual improvement of your own institutions and social state; and by your example
to exert a moral influence most beneficial to mankind at large. Instead
of this, an appeal has been made to your worst passions; to cupidity,
to the thirst of unjust aggrandizement by brutal force; to the love of
military fame and false glory; and it has even been tried to prevent
the noblest feelings of your nature. The attempt is made to make
you abandon the lofty position which your fathers occupied, to substitute for it the political morality, and heathen patriotism of the heroes
and statesmen of antiquity." — GALLATIN.
ONE of the evils which the success of the Mexican invasion has produced, is to foster the pernicious notion, that we
are, in these ambitious movements, following out our destiny.*  Men have, in past times, committed the most abom* "It is our destiny to occupy that vast region" (Texas). Mr. Calhoun to Mr. King, Aug. 12, 1844. Append. to the Cong. Globe, 28th
Cong. 2d Sess. p. 6. When Mr. Adams referred to Gen. 1: 26, 27, 28,
as the ground of the American title to Oregon, he was asked by Mr.
Kaufman of Texas, if it would not apply equally well to the Rio
Grande.




TRUE DESTINY OF OUR COUNTRY.          209
inable deeds under the holiest sanctions and pretexts. The
first conquest of Mexico was achieved at an awful cost of
human life, under the plea of extending the kingdom of
Christ and the church. The second conquest has been perpetrated under the audacious assumption of fulfilling the
plans of Providence by extending the so-called "area of
freedom," and accomplishing the destiny of the Anglo Saxon
race. Many words are not wanted to expose this infatuation,
as it has already been handled in an earlier connection of
this Review.
There is a genuine Anglo Saxon destiny, of which we can
conceive, that would be truly glorious in itself, and beneficial
to mankind. But it is a destiny of liberty, not of license.
It is a destiny of peace, not of war. It is a destiny of justice
and noble ideas, not of invasions and violent annexations.
It is a destiny whose emblems and implements are not the
bomb and the bowie-knife, but the printing-press and the
Bible. It is a destiny of raising up the fallen races, and
administering wise and equal laws, wherever our dominion
extends, not of trampling under the hoofs of the war-horse
the prostrate red man, black man, or " dark browed 3Mexican." Science, commerce, and Christianity have given England and the United States, the two Anglo Saxon powers,
an almost immeasurable influence over the rest of the human
family. But God has put this sceptre into their hands for
no idle and vain-glorious purpose, but to promote the welfare
of mankind. Did the grand vision of a true and providential destiny, the real mission God has sent them to accomplish, dawn upon the minds of our statesmen and orators,
our rulers and people, they would sheathe the sword forever. They would "trust not in uncertain riches, but in the
living God;" not in carnal, but spiritual weapons. This is
the only worthy destiny; the only one that heaven will
bless, or futurity honor. It is impious to talk as if any
people were fated to be ambitious, and grasping, and a terror
18*




210        TRUE DESTINY OF OUR COUNTRY.
to the race, and not a blessing. We might with as much
propriety say, that an individual was destined to be a knave,
or a ruffian.  The Creator has, in one sense, destined all his
children to be good and true, to obey his laws, and share in
his promises. "IJ1 is not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come unto repentance."  But men have
been gifted with the power of choice, and the opportunity
of good and of evil, and if they come short of the glory of
God, they may be said to have frustrated the divine plan,
and not fulfilled their mission and destiny, as immortal beings.
These two nations are capable, if they have grace to seize
the memorable opportunity, of leaving a mark upon the history of mankind, " above all Greek, all Roman fame." They
can make themselves felt for good, - we yet hope that in a
measure they are doing so, - to the remotest isle of the sea,
and to the savage tribe, whose name even has not yet been
domesticated in a civilized tongue. They have the saving
ideas of Science, Freedom, and Christianity, that are able,
if diffused, to keep the life-blood flowing, in strong and pure
tides through their own hearts, and also to stir the deep sleep
of paganism with fiesh and waking pulses of regeneration.
They have both the personnel, and the materiel, the ships,
tools, arts, studies, truths, men, to do this magnificent work.
They and their allies of kindred European races, if faithful
to the high vocation, wherewith they are called, and "obedient to the heavenly vision," can, in two centuries, change
the aspect of the whole habitable globe, and make the solitary place glad, and the desert blossom like the rose.
But if; abjuring this kingly power of beneficence, and
turning away from this sublime mission of realizing the
kingdom of Christ on earth, they bow themselves down to
the base uses of' Man1lnon and of' Mars, they will flingC away
an oppoltunity of useiulness, such as has been rarely afforded
in any juncture of history. If they consent to track the old




TRUE DESTINY OF OUR COUNTRY.            211
bloody round of sordid, guilty ambition, and seek not to
bring, other tribes and races under the obedience of God,
and harllonIy with his laws, but in subjection to their own
tyranny, then it requires no prophet's eye to foresee that
they are destined to fall a prey to the same passions, suici-.
dally acting on themselves, which have poured the vials of
wrath upon other countries. Their prodigious vices will be
whips enough to scourge thelm.  The immense agencies
which might have proved the instruments of an incalculable
beneficence, will become, whepi perverted, only the heavier
millstones about their necks to pull them down to perdition.
Destiny is a fearful word, and when we pronounce it, we
remember most vividly the life of that mighty man who
called himself the " child of destiny," but whose star, brilliant as it was, rushed headlong in an ill-fated moment from
the zenith of its glory into eternal night. Imperial as the
nations are, doth not the Lord " sit upon the circle of the
earth," and c"bring the princes to nothing, and make the
judges of the earth as vanity"?
To use an astronomical figure, our national globe has
enough centrifugal impulse, but it needs more centripetal
tendency. It flies round and round with fearful sweep and
speed, but may heaven grant, that it be held to the only true
centre of its rotation, God. For a long time past, we have
been but too boastful of our career, as if we could run any
race out of the circumscription of the Deity, or attain any
destiny but perdition, unless we followed his eternal ordinances and achieved his plan, and not our own caprice. Blind
and foolish indeed must we be, if with the combined lights
of history and Christianity on our path, we see any other or
grander destiny for ourselves as a republic than that of
righteousness, and freedom, and peace. "Peace hath her
victories no less renowned than war."  If the Anglo Saxons
have any other destiny than that, let them beware before
they run upon the thick bosses of those bucklers of the




212        TRUE DESTINY OF OUR COUNTRY.
Almighty, which have already drank up the blood of the
proudest victors. God keep us from our own worst passions
under a sanctified name!
Besides, the extension of our arms is far from being the
extension of our ideas. WVe are far from believing that our
armies have been missionaries of liberty or the cross to our
semi-civilized neighbors. The battles they have fought have
not been the triumphs of the Prince of Peace. The thousands killed will not be regarded as martyrs to the arts and
sciences. The blood of Buena Vista and Cerro Gordo will
not prove the seed of a new civilization. Battered cities,
and ravaged farms are not the most significant tokens of the
march of improvement. For we cannot suppose, that IMexico, after all the infinite evils and sufferings we have heaped
upon her, will love us or our institutions any better than she
did before. We have, on the contrary, violently arrested all
those gentle and irresistible processes of assimilation and
amelioration which were in happy progress, and taught her
children to curse "the men of Northern tongue."  No; the
voice of history is clear, that the conquered hate the conquerors, and all that belongs to them, and very reluctantly, if
ever, will they adopt their religious belief, social usages,
forms of government, arts, and sciences, and methods of
advancement, except by stern compulsion. The very idea
of fighting a nation into a love of progress, is preposterous.
We cannot overlap another country with our improvements,
or put upon one civilization the party-colored patch of another. The spear is no instrument to take the place of the
pruning-hook, nor the sword to do the work of the ploughshare.  The tree of civilization withers and dies, when
watered with human blood.




THE STATESMAN S RETRIBUTION.            213
CHAPTER XXI.
THE STATESMAN'S RETRIBUTION.
"If statesmen were more accustomed to calculation, wars would be
much, less frequent." - FRANKLIN.
ROBERT HALL remarks ini his Reflections on War, that,
"if statesmen, if Christian statesmen at least, had a proper
feeling on this subject, and would open their hearts to the
reflections which such scenes must inspire, instead of rushing
eagerly to arnms, would they not try every expedient, every
lenient art consistent with national honor, before they ventured on this desperate remedy, or rather, before they
plunged into this gulf of horrors?"  None but an affirmative answer can be given to such a question. But the difficulty is, that many statesmen are not Christians, and that
they do not have a proper feeling on the subject of war. Indeed, as a general rule, it is not warriors that make war in
this age, so much as it is statesmen. /Warriors know what
war is, and they do not involve nations in a conflict so readily
oftentimes as those who only know the theory of war: while
statesmen, sitting at their ease, in cabinet or congress, by a
vote or a slip of the pen, gather vast armies to the field, and
give the signal for great nations to dash themselves against
each other in mighty conflict. They have little proper feeling of the waste in war of life, treasure, happiness, virtue,
liberty.
They know not what they are doing, or if they know, it
is a dreamy, misty, distant, and unfelt species of knowledge,
that does not press with any motive-power on the springs of




214         THE STATESMAN S RETRIBUTION.
action. One day's hard march over the burning plain, one
hour of Cerro Gordo, one nighlt's fevered watching in the
hospital, the amputation of their little finger, would teach
them more what they really do when they set a war in operation, -its wounds, and pains, and horrid deaths, — than the
whole experience of their life-time. "I have read," said an
actor at Palo Alto, "many accounts of battles, but never a
description of one."
The late sangruinary contest was originated in political
causes, as already demonstrated.  It was not generals but
politicians that filled the magazine, and laid the fatal train.
There was a huge mass of combustible war-passions lying
latent and ready in the American population, but they are
chiefly responsible at the bar of God and man, who wittingly
and deliberately touched the explosive spark. Had there
been any "proper feeling" in the great body of American
statesmen, of the evils and guilt of war, they never would
have voted men and money with overwhelming majorities in
both houses of Congress to wage a distant and invasive warfare beyond the limits of our own country. Many of those
men have already lived to lament the act into which they
xvere betrayed by a sudden temptation, and many others will
yet live to see the day when they shall bitterly deplore that
deed of darkness, and all its evil consequences to their country and the world.  They miistook the age in which they
lived, when they feared to be called peace-men. They did
not anticipate the glory which would encircle the immortal
sixteen, "faithful found among the faithless."  If ever an
earnest rebuke were deserved by large bodies of men, it is
by those who at first weakly yielded to the call for millions
of money and thousands of men, and voted year after year,
after the odious schemes of conquest and slavery were disclosed, still to uphold such a system of wrong and wretchedness. The inconsistencies of political men and parties are
tco glaringll to be allowed to pass without notice and severe




THE STATESMAN'S RETRIBUTION.           215
condemnation.  Professing freedom, they waged a war to
extend slavery. Calling themselves the friiends of the people,
they sanctioned and supported a war that loaded their country
with a heavy war-debt, and sent misery into multitudes of
once happy homes. Putting peace forward as their policy,
they have been contented with waging, for the short period
of its continuance, one of the sharpest, bloodiest, and most
injurious of wars. Advocating universal humanity, and the
righllts of man as men, they have forced our free institutions,
as we call them, by stress of' arms upon large portions of' a
foreign land and a foreign people. Such palpable and flagrant
violations of' right and justice will bring a retribution sooner
or later to the authors of the war, and will involve many
of the innocent with the guilty. Men of place and power,
exalted as their position may be in the sight of men, are
amenable to the laws of God. "The statesman's retribution" is no empty phrase, but expresses a most solemn and
instructive lesson of history.
For it is well known the actual effect of war is, that instead
-of raising politicians to honor and authority, it puts them
very unceremoniously aside to make way for the elevation to
the highest civil offices of those who have fought their way
to fame. The revolutionary war furnished one warrior, but
more a civilian than a warrior, for the Presidency. The war
of 1812 supplied two candidates of opposite parties, who
entered the White House under a perfect whirlwind of
enthusiasm. The war with Mexico has already given one
incumbent to the lofty chair of state, and it has half a score
of others in expectancy. Meanwhile, the great statesmen of
the country, who have guided by their wisdom and eloquence
the national councils, and who have shed an intellectual and
historical glory over the pages of the past, and who will live
forever on the tongues of men, have- been passed by, or if
raised to this more than kingly eminence, have occujpied it
but for the shortest possible period.




216         THE STATESMAN'S RETRIBUTION.
" When politicians bring on war," says the North American
Review, April, 1848, " they must pay the penalty. In republics, if civilians wish to retain their just influence as statesmen, they must preserve peace. War always has given, and
always will give, in our own and in every free country,
ascendency to military reputation.  Snatching the prizes of
political ambition from the politician, it will carry the successful general to his seats of power. Some of the politicians who pushed this country into the war of 1812, still
live to brood over the fact, that that war raised up military
chieftains who clutched from their grasp the presidential
crown, which otherwise would have encircled their brows in
sure succession. It is a most instructive circumstance in our
history, that when James Madison, then at the head of the
government, manifested a reluctance to favor a declaration
of war with England, a committee of three was despatched
from a republican caucus to communicate to him the determination of that party to insist upon the measure. The
experienced wisdom of that great statesman was overruled,
and constrained by the short-sighted zeal of less wary politicians. Of that caucus Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun
were the master spirits, and of that committee they were
members. Although quite young men they had, by their
genius and eloquence, even then acquired the greatest degree
of popularity that can be attained in the sphere of statesmanship. The whole nation was waiting, with admiring
eagerness, to confer upon them, one after the other, its highest honor. They had their way, and war was declared.
WVhen the revolutionary series of Presidents was brought to
a close, on the retirement of James Munroe, Gen. Jackson,
the hero of New Orleans, took from Mr. Clay so many of
the electoral votes of the West, and from Mr. Calhoun so
many of the votes of the South and Middle States, as to
leave them both distanced in the race. The popularity of
Jackson yielded only to that of General Harrison, the hero




THE STATESMIAN'S RETRIBUTION.          217
of Tippecanoe; and a fresh crop of military chieftains has
just been reared, to destroy, in all probability, the last chance
of these veteran aspirants for the great prize. It is not the
least of the eminent services they have rendered their country, that, in their baffled ambition, the distinguished statesmen and truly great men whom we have named, teach to all
coming times the salutary lesson, that, if politicians will have
war, they must step aside forever from the path of honor,
and relinquish the posts of power to overshadowing rivals,
created by their own suicidal hands. It is not unlikely, that
this lesson will be corroborated by the political results of the
war in which the country is now involved. Let us hope that
it may make a deep and durable impression upon that class
of persons whom it so vitally concerns. When the leaders
of parties become convinced, that in promoting warlike
measures and a military spirit, they are digging their own
graves, we confidently rely upon perpetual peace."
The same general rule has held good in regard to a host
of other offices. The warrior has ever taken precedence of
the statesman, however wise or great. We have preferred
men of action to nien of thought, and have cared little apparently what their actions were.'Nothing shows more distinctly the low and coarse type of modern civilization than
this choice of warriors to conduct the affairs of Christian
nations. No mistake could be greater than for civilians to
encourage the madness of war, and hope in times of turbulence to rise to honor and place. For by every war they
foment and wage, they are calling into existence numbers of
popular and well-known rivals, who will easily distance them
in any race for office.  I-Iowever well educated, large in
experience, ripein civil wisdom, eloquent in council, sagacious
in trouble, indefatigable in serving the country, patriotic in
sentiment, and really laboring for the true glory of the land
and the true good of the human family, the mighty orator,
the profound statesman, the far-famed jurist, or the unsullied
19




218         THE STATESMAN'S RETRIBUTION.
patriot will be brushed aside from the p1ath to honor of the
successful warrior, as if he were a mere fly. The motto at
the head of this chapter is significant. When will politicians
learn wisdom? When will they pause before they make
wars, vainly hoping thus to gain popularity with their countrymen?  When will they cease to be instrumental of the
bold incongruity of mingling the despotism of war with the
working of free institutions, and the professions of a Christian people with the morality, manners, and spirit of the
camp?  When will they open their eyes to the fact, that so
far as they encouraged the spirit of war in their countrymen,
they are preparing trouble and ruin for the days to come;
that they are going counter at once to the dictates of republicanism and Christianity; that they are reversing the progress of the world, and bringing back the ages of darkness
and blood?  And when, especially, will they learn that impressive lesson of the past, that statesmen however eminent,
legislators however sagacious, diplomatists however successful, and jurists however learned, will stand no chance in the
competition for political honors and office with him who has
smelt gunpowder? The highest admonitions of patriotism
and religion thus combine with the lowest of self-interest to
warn them against the folly and the wickedness of seeking
to make our country a great military power.
Let them strive to repress and calm the mania for war in
our land. Let them direct the energies of a youthful nation
into the channels of industry and public improvement. Let
them understand that it will be no honor or happiness for
us to attempt to live over the warlike past of the old world,
and acquire war-debts, war-taxes, and war-customs, that will
make the remotest generations groan and curse us for our
foolishness. Oh, let the great men of our country understand, that if they would be truly great, and would live in
the glad remembrance of their countrymen, they must ally
themselves to lofty principles and causes, - Freedom, Peace,




WAR MAXIMIS.                   219
Temperance, Righteousness, Truth, — which will survive
the transient excitements of the day, and the little questions
of party and place, and bear on the -names of their advocates
to be loved and reverenced by generations y.t unborn. For
as the intellectual and moral life of mankind is more developed, and the spiritual aim of the Gospel is more nearly
reached, the true benefactors of the race will be more and
more associated with this new era of progress, while the
names of those who proved false to the high trust of their
times, and basely consented to the iniquities which have
blasted the life and happiness of successive nations and races
in history, will be held in deserved and perpetual execration,
as the real traitors to their country and its institutions, who
were willing for a mess of pottage to sell the birthright of
Freedom, and the Hope of the world.
CHAPTER XXII.
vWAR MAXIMS.
"To spoil, to slaughter, and to commit every violence; and then call
the manceuvre by a lying name,- government; and when they have
spread a general devastation, - call it peace." - TACITTS.
MOST men desire lo maintain some consistency of character and conduct, and hence, in order to justify the doing of
such deeds, as we have recorded, they appeal to certain principles like the following. " Our country, right or wrong;" *
or, as paraphrased by a distinguished general, " between my
government and a foreign nation, I never ask a question.
* Commodore Decatur.




220                  WAR MAXIMS.
]My government is always right."  "Conquer a peace;"
" Do evil that good may come."  Make war on Mexico that
we may extend "the area of freedom," and civilize, and
Protestantize h r. To all such principles it is enough to
reply, that they are good enough as secondary, but not as
supreme motives of conduct. Our first and highest relation
is to God, and our first duty, therefore, is to ask, "Lord,
what would'st thou have us do?"  Christ is a greater name
than country. He must pronounce upon all social customs
and public affairs, and what he condemns, is condemned, and
what he approves, is approved by all his faithful followers.
WVe are not allowed to make our country our god, though we
are bound to do her good service. The only difference of
opinion is, what is good service to her? Is it to encourage
and assist her in a wicked and barbarous war, and to fan the
war-spirit to greater intensity, or is it to check her going
headlong in a heaven-defying career of conquest and usurpation?  He does most to keep her fame untarnished, not
who fights her unjust battles, but who preserves her truth,
and justice, and fieedom firom becoming obsolete ideas in
the working of her institutions. Jesus said, " he that loveth
father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me." Even
the tenderest social relations were less to be regarded than
the spiritual claims of his faith and love; then how much
more would he have said the same of the ties of country.
They are good, but not the best; they are great, but not the
greatest.
This wronging of conscience and sophistication of reason
by the maxims of this war are not the least of the ill effects
to which it has given birth.  How many have adopted the
maxim, "our country, right or wrong," cannot be known,
but it has had a wide-spread currency and popularity. The
ancient doctrine, "the king can do no wrong',"* has been
* King HIenry V. in disguise and three soldiers.]
K. Henry. " Methinks I would not die any where so contented as in
the king's company; his cause being just and his quarrel honorable.




WAR MAXIMS.                       221
supplanted by another maxim every way as fatal to a Christian manhood.  If we are to be ruled by a tyrant, whose
behests must- be obeyed at whatever sacrifice of individual
scruples and remonstrances of conscience, it matters little
whether that tyrant be called "king,"  or " country."   A
democracy may oppress as well as a monarchy. If we proceed upon the principle, that we are under obligations to do
whatever our rulers command, be it an act of pillage or
blood, not because it is right, but because they command it,
then we are back again, as to all practical intents and purposes, in the age of passive obedience and blind adhesion to
authority, slaves, tools, of the make-plots and the mar-plots
Will. "That's more than we know.
Bates. "Ay, or more than we should seek after; for we know
enough, if we are the king's subjects; if his cause be wrong our obedience to the king wipes the crime of it out of us.
TWill. "But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath a heavy
reckoning to make; when all those legs and.arms, and heads chopped
off in battle, shall join together at the latter day and cry all,' We died
at such a place;' some swearing, some crying for a surgeon; some,
upon their wives being left poor behind them; some upon the debts
they owe; some upon their children rawly left. I am afeared there are
few die well, that die in battle; for how can they charitably dispose of
any thing when blood is their argument? Now if these men do not
die well, it will be black matter for the king that led them to it, whom
to disobey were against all proportion of subjection.
K. Henry. " Then if they die unprovided, no more is the king guilty
of their damnation than he was before guilty for those impieties for
which they are now visited. Every subject's duty is the king's; but
every subject'5 soul is his own. Therefore should every soldier in the
wars do as every sick man in his bed, wash every moth out of his conscience: and dying so, death is to him an advantage; or not dying,
the time was blessedly lost, wherein such preparation was gained: and,
in him that escapes, it were not sin to think, that making God so free
an offer, he let him outlive that day to see his greatness, and to teach
others how they should prepare.
Will. "'T is certain that every man that dies ill, the ill is upon his
own head, the king is not to answer for it." - Shakspeare.
19*




222'       WAR MAXIMS.
of the men in power. In foisting such a saying into the
mouths of men at this day, and getting it into a newspaper
immortality, tyranny has stolen a march upon freedom, and
free institutions become but a name "to point a moral, or
adorn a tale." The old spirit has revived under a new name.
We are to have not the tyrant One, but the tyrant.illion,
who may be quite as intolerable, and quite as subversive of
that true liberty, which respects the rights of conscience, as
the dearest object of life, and the last a moral being would
consent to relinquish. If we are to uphold our country in
her wrong, as in her right principles and measures, farewell
to the prerogatives of an American, the patrimony of freemen. We are then a nation of slaves.
Was it not for these same rights of conscience, that the
toil and treasure of the past have been freely lavished? Was
it not for this birthright of the soul that our fathers fled their
country, lived in exile, crossed the ocean, made the wilderness their home, and companied with wild beasts, and wilder
men?  What nobler staple runs through the history of the
past than this sturdy, lofty independence for conscience' sake?
This is the glory that still lingers on many a spot of the old
world, and makes holy ground of many a battle-field, tomb,
and church, where wise and holy men lifted up the voice of
non-conformity to the acts of tyrants, and dared all, and lost
all, for the sake of keeping "a conscience void of offence."
And shall this new world, in her virgin promise, repudiate
the single glorious principle which sheds such splendid renown
over the darkest scenes of history? The names of Huguenot,
and Covenanter, and Puritan are not lightly thus to be taken
in vain.
Instead of this blind and unquestioning devotion to " country, right or wrong," or rather to the existing government of
the country, for we believe that a majority of the American
people were always hostile to the war, how much more truly
noble and Christian it would have been for the officers, who




WAR MAXIMS.                   223
were opposed to the invasion, and many of the'leading ones
were, to say; "we will defend our country when she is
attacked; but our duty can never require of us to go on a
warfare of conquest. This is not the purpose of government,
and especially of our government, which is to secure the
rights, and protect the lives, and liberty, and property of alL
We can fight in a defensive, but not in an offensive war; in
a defence of freedom, but not in a crusade for slavery. We
will rather imitate the example of Lord Effingham in the
British army, and Capt. Thrush in the navy, and retire from
the service, than wound our consciences, and really wrong
our country by encouraging those who hold her destinies in
their hand, to plunge into a career of rapine and blood. If
this be treason, make the most of it. It is better to rebel
against our country than against our God."
If our country be wrong in her internal policy, or administration of civil national affairs, does any press or person
hesitate a moment to condemn the wrong, and uphold by
word and deed, by the potent weapon of a freeman, the
ballot-box, the cause of the right?  No, never. Why then
should so different a rule obtain in international affairs?
Are not the questions of war and peace as momentous, as
needful to be determined by the principles of right, as the
measures of tariffs, internal improvements, or sub-treasury?
The same laws bind us as citizens that bind us as men. If
we are not at liberty to do wrong as men, we are not at
liberty to do so as Americans. If it would be wrong to uphold an evil among ourselves, because it is the voice of the
government, which is not always the voice of the people at
the time, and which is often far from being the voice of
God, shall we advocate the idea of vindicating, even to the
death, our country's course, when we openly avow, or strongly
suspect, she is in the wrong? Never, never. " For what
shall it profit our country, if it gain the whole world at the
expense of its soul?"




c24                 WAR MAXIMS.
To "conquer a peace,"* another phrase often used, if it
have any ordinary meaning, signifies to destroy a peace, and
overthrow it. During two long years of blood, and rapine,
and demoralization, did this war subjugate the powers of
peace. But at the last the sword settled nothing. Negotiation was more powerful than eighteen-pounders. The
pen of the commissioner was mightier than the sword of the
conqueror. Two wise men from Mexico and the United
States, meeting amicably together, could, upon the basis of
the late treaty, have easily secured to the United States,
in the way of a business transaction, all the territory she
wanted by means of the bonus of $20,000,000 she has now
paid, without shedding one drop of human blood. The like
has been done before, and it might have been done again.
"Take away the sword,
States can be saved without it.'"
Some other phrases referred to have been considered in
other connections of this review, but we turn to another warmaxim.
The coat-of-arms of Great Britain has the motto, with
heraldic devices, "Dieu et mon droit," " God and my right,"
flanked by a lion on one side and a unicorn on the other.
But where would Great Britain be, if she were treated herself on the principle which she thus holds forth as the highest expression of the spirit of her government? Suppose
the nations of the world should insist on the utmost claims
of right with her, where would be most of her riches and
possessions? What would be the result of carrying out such
a doctrine in the world but eternal war? Observe that it is
* Coleridge is said to be the original author of this self-contradictory
phrase. Shakspeare better says,
"A peace is of the nature of a conquest;
For then both parties nobly are subdued,
And neither party loser"




WAR MAXIMS.                   225
not God and right, but my right; not yours, but mine; that
selfish word, my. I will have my rights, whether you have
yours or not. I will yield nothing, Conciliate, compassionate
nothing, but exact sternest justice.
So, likewise, we have a much commended saying among
us, that we " will ask for nothing which is not right, and
will submit to nothing which is wrong." Then we cannot
live in this world. For we are often obliged to forego our
rights, often obliged to yield to what is wrong in others.
What would be our condition as a nation, as individuals, if
we were treated one day by God as we propose in this rude
and barbarous justice to treat mankind? We should not be
at all. We should be non-existent. For we hang upon the
skirts of the divine compassion; we live at the momentary
merciful will of our God. If he treated us as we deserve,
and were strict to mark our iniquities against us, who could
stand before him? Could we as a people? could we as
individuals? Not one moment. 5We are not so careful to
render to others their dues and their rights, as not often to
need their pardon for the wrong; we are not so particular
in our conduct towards our Supreme Judge, as not daily and
hourly to need his forbearance. WVe are to claim our right,
but not with wrong; we are not, Shylock-like, to practise
on a blind and inexorable justice alone. The apostle assures
us that sometimes mercy is to rejoice against judgment; at
any rate, that he is in imminent danger of having judgment
without mercy, who has shown no mercy. It is a fearful
declaration, and should make us pause, before we say that
we will submit to no wrong; else we commit ourselves to a
principle at war with nature, providence, and the whole
structure of human society.
In truth, a great proportion bf the difficulties in the world
arise from this disposition to vindicate our own rights, let
whose rights else suffer, and to push matters to the utmost
verge of lawful allowance, rather than to pursue t mild and




226                 WAR MAXIMS.
forbearing policy. We are men, mortal, erring, sinful.
Who are we,.to judge another man's servants?  Who are
we, to take into our hands the blazing thunderbolts of vengeance? " Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather
give place to wrath."
We profess to be a Christian natiori, and we would feel
aggrieved if we were denied this honorable name. And
what is the law of our master, and how do we obey it? Is
it not mercy, pardon, forbearance, forgiveness, from one end
to the other of the Gospels? Did he not enrol it among the
beatitudes? "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain
mercy."  Did he not say with emphatic reiteration, "Bless
them that curse you, and pray for them that despitefully use
you?"  Did he not command us to "forgive our enemies,
and to be merciful as our father in heaven is merciful?"
In short, it is right to be merciful, according to Christianity; it is not a weakness, but a duty. It is right sometimes to yield to a wrong, and overlook it, rather than commit a greater wrong by resistance and exaction. It is right
sometimes to waive our rights, and generously to suffer ourselves, rather than to make others suffer, though they deserve
it. It is not weakness, but strength, not shame, but honor,
to forgive, not seven times only, but seventy times seven, if
the offender turn and pray to be forgiven.
We cannot better conclude this chapter than by briefly
adding, to what has been elsewhere said on the subject
of preparing war by preparing for war, the late remarks
of the Earl of Aberdeen, formerly Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs, in the House of Lords, in England,- "I
am disposed to dissent from that maxim which has been so
generally received, that,'if you wish for peace, you must
be prepared for war.' It may have applied to the nations of
antiquity, and to society in a comparatively barbarous and
uncivilized state, when warlike preparations cost but little;
but in tLoe state of society in which we now live, when the




MARTIAL LITERATURE.                  227
warlike preparations of great powers are made at enormous
expense, I say that' so far from their being any security to
peace they are directly the contrary, and tend at once to
war. For it is natural that men, having adopted means
they think efficient to an end, should desire to put their
efficiency to the test, and to have some direct result from
their labor and expense."
CHAPTER XXIII.
MARTIAL LITERATURE.
"Seven years' fighting sets a whole kingdom back in learning and
virtue to which they were creeping, it may be a whole age." —JREEXr
BENTHAM.
" The course of education from infancy to manhood, at present pursued, tends to inspire the mind with military ardor and a love of
glory. Almost as soon as a boy is born, care is taken to give his mind
a military turn."-WILLIAm LADD.
WE have before us a list of forty-eight volumes, which are
connected with the late war, and which generally approve
highly of its occurrence. They consist of both prose and
poetry, history and biography, travels and essays. They
are deeply imbued with the martial spirit, and laud to the
skies the achievements of the American arms in Mexico.
One of the unhappy consequences of this war is, that it
has thus created a literature adverse to morals, refinement
and religion.  This war-literature has circulated through
the newspapers and cheap works over the whole land.
The lives of victorious generals, the bloody feats of prowess,




228             MARTIAL LITERATURE.
the histories of battles and sieges, have formed a good part
of the reading of the mass of the people, and especially of
many young persons, during the three past years. The
sacred power of poetry has been desecrated to laud the cruel
deeds of war. The historian has exhausted upon it all
his research. The fine arts have been employed to pamper
the love of wvar, and by pictures and panoramas, to set on
fire the blood of youth with the intoxicating passion of martial achievements. The country is full of these things.
Every village has its "views" of battles, and the siege at
Vera Cruz, or the charge at Buena Vista. The eye of youth is
taught to sparkle at the sight of a battle-piece, before it
knows what war is. The natural effect upon society of such
reading, and war-songs, and exhibitions is exceedingly unfavorable to all the leading moral interests of a free country.
It places before the individual a false standard of character,
and cheats him into the belief that the best end of life
is to figure in some important scene, to do some great thing,
however wrong or bloody, and to disown the quiet pursuits of peace. It places before the nation a wrong standard,
and befools the people with the idea that war, and not
peace, is their real interest, that they shall gain some
valuable end by invading the domains of their neighbors,
and conquering a vast extent of barren and unhealthy territory. The idea of the true destiny of our country in liberty,
equality and self-government, has by this miasma of war
been corrupted into the false idea of our destiny as consisting in power, military renown, and the vulgar guilt of
the savage nations of old, or the unbaptized empires of
modern Europe.
The news of war, the descriptions of cities taken, of victories won, of men killed, are of a poisonous moral influence.
They paganize a Christian people. They familiarize them
with carnage and cruelty. They make them forget the
sermon on the mount, and the prayer on the cross. They




MARTIAL LITERATURE.               229
fill the heads and hearts of the young with perverted notions
of right and wrong, and educate them in their day and generation to be men of blood. No nation ever came out of
war but with a lowered standard of moral principle, and
an increased amount of profligacy, and an augmented number of drunkards, vagabonds, gamblers, and wretched, ruined
men.
At the present day, when the people almost universally read, the evil of such a literature is greatly enhanced.
It is so cheap that all can buy it. It is so diffused,.that
it enters every nook and corner of the land. It is so stimulating to the curiosity and passions of half-educated minds,
that they find it invested with all the charms of romance.
Indeed not less than half a dozen novels of the cheap kind,
independently of the histories and biographies above enumerated; have already taken their plots and incidents from
the war with Mexico. Nor has this military literature by any
means exhausted itself. The advertising columns show that
it has new productions in reserve. The seed of future wars
has thus been sown broadcast over our country, and wrong
impressions have been made upon thousands of young
and ductile minds which will never be effaced.
The numerous war-speeches in and out of Congress, the
voluminous war-documents issued from the capital of the
country, and the public journals spreading before the eyes of
millions of readers the " glorious news from Mexico," the
" great victory won," all belong to this noxious species
of literature. For unless accompanied with proper correctives and remonstrances, they pervert the moral principles
of the people, arouse their passion for arms, and withdraw
their interest and attention from those humble but praiseworthy pursuits of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures,
which cannot compete with the brilliant exploits of sieges
and battles, " in pomp and circumstance."  "The pestilence that walketh in darkness and the destruction that
20




230           MARTIAL LITERATURE.
wasteth at noonday" have been abroad in our land, and
gathered from city and country the fearful harvest of death;
but better, far better, that an annual cholera should decimate our population, than that the deadly malaria of such a
literature should infect the mind and corrupt the heart of
America. The evil in one case is death to the body, but
in the other it is death to Freedom, death to the progress of
Peace, and death to the hopes of the world. Vast and
beneficent is the influence of a pure and elevated literature;
but when the historians and orators of a nation contribute
by their works to foster the spirit of war and the pagan pas.
sion of glory, they are calling back the dark ages of blood
and oppression again to overshadow the earth. Many a
splendid lyric from the poet's burning soul, many a persuasive appeal from the speaker's inmost heart, have gone forth
against this war. We are thankful for these indignant
remonstrances against evils that could not be arrested. But
let us pray, if for one thing more unceasingly than another,
that the literature and the fine arts of America may be rescued from following the example of the old world, and that
they may consecrate their glorious creations of genius and
beauty to the God, not of war, but of Peace. Let them
adopt the noble motto of Allston, " No battle-pieces."




WAR AND THE FIRESIDE.                 231
CHAPTER XXIV.
WAR AND THE FIRESIDE.
" The tramp of marching hosts disturbs the plough,
The sword, not sickle, reaps the harvest now,
And where the soldier gleans the scant supply,
The helpless peasant but retires to die;
No laws his hut from licensed outrage shield,
And war's least horror is th' ensanguiined field.
Fruitful in vain, the matron counts with pride
The blooming youths that grace her honored side;
No son returns to press her widowed hand,
Her fallen blossoms strew a foreign strand."
MRS. BARBAULD.
REGARDING, aS we do, the domestic relations of life as
the appointment of heaven for the education, and happiness
of mankind, and home as the centre of some of the purest
and happiest influences known in society, we come now to
consider the Mlexican war in its bearing on these great
interests of the respective countries involved in the conflict.
The preceding chapters have already told a part of the tale.
But the subject is one of sufficient moment to deserve a
separate consideration.  " The war and the fireside" need to
be brought into direct juxtaposition, that all the wickedness
of the one may be revealed in the light and blessedness of
the other.  When Sfatan approached the Garden, where
dwelt the happy pair, the mighty poet represents him as
clothing himself in the most seductive, but most fatal, guise.
War puts on its most specious garb of honor, patriotism,
and freedom, when it comes to take away the pillars and




232            WAR AND TERE FIRESIDE.
ornaments of the Christian home, but it allures only to
betray, and promises but to disappoint. Its vast multitudes
of warring, desperate men, are all sons, many of them
fathers, and husbands, most of them brothers. They not
only bear the dreadful implements of destruction, and the
badges of their respective corps, but they carry in every
feature and outline of body some hereditary trace of an endeared parentage, some look of the fireside, some habit
of home. These beings are not fiends and devils, though,
when they are plunged in the hurricane of the battle-field,
they might be so regarded by a spectator from some other
planet, unfamiliar with the proceedings of men upon our
earth. In that dense array of armed men meet the divergent lines of ten thousand happy firesides; the cords of love
from some far-distant log-cabin, or refined family, are pulling
at the hearts of the embattled host, and nothing rises so
vividly to memory, while they hang over the giddy risks of
life and death before them, as the dear ones that they have
left behind, perhaps forever.  " War and  the fireside"!
how contrasted, and yet how connected! One, the name of
every thing most awful in passion, pain, vice, outrage, and
death; the other, the name of all the sweetest joys, hopes,
possessions and associations out of heaven.
And when the fight is over, humanity once more reassumes her sway, and returns to the field where thousands
lie dead, thousands in the agonies of death, and thousands in
the ten-fold agonies of life, disputing with death the possession of her subjects. As the hand of kindness raises this
soldier's gory head, what- word does he murmur? It is,
wife, mother, sister! As the blood gurgles from the shothole in the side of that dragoon, and every pulsation grows
fainter, what whispered syllables still linger and tremble on
the convulsed lips?  They are, father, brother, son.  0
God, we devoutly ejaculate, when we see or think of such
scenes, can this be the work of thy human children, and of




WAR AND THE FIRESIDE.              233
brothers one of another?  Can the tender frames that were
once borne in a mother's arms, and nursed at a mother's
breast, have made the living breast-work against the cannon's
mouth? Can the hand that once grasped a tenderer hand,
and vowed the vow " for better for worse, for richer for
poorer," now swing the cleaving sword, or urge the piercing
bayonet? War has brought all these horrors to pass; and
when its dead are buried, and its sick collected in the hospital, then it sends back to the lovely places of domestic
happiness the heart-rending intelligence of its dear bought
victories, or bloody defeats, and fills a whole land with lamentation and tears. Every mail carries its sorrow to some
household. Every newspaper records the bereavement of
some fond wife, some aged father, some widowed mother,
some orphan children. And into myriads of once happy circles
where the messenger of the ill tidings of death never comes,
he nevertheless sends the perpetual chill of gloomy fears
and forebodings, and keeps every ear on the alert to hear a
sinister step, every heart-string quivering with the anguish of
hope deferred, or torn by tidings of sickness, or wounds, or
captivity.
And then, putting aside all these considerations of the
heart, which all that have hearts must feel, how positively
does war wage a universal hostility against every physical
and economical interest of home. It induces reckless habits,
and spendthrift ways. It squanders on the extra finery of
the uniform or the equipments, what would fill the larder, or
give a book to a child, or a quarter's tuition at school. It
raises the taxes already high, and ill borne. It withdraws
the prop and best workman of the family to waste his sinews
in a remote country.  It returns the halt, the lame, the
blind, the maimed, the sick, to be nursed and cared for the
remainder of their days. It leaves many a widowed and
orphan group to the tender mercies of a cold and unfeeling world. And it hands down to succeeding ages the
20*




234            WAR AND THE FIRESIDE.
legacy of its debts, taxes, expensive vices, pension list, sinecures, and its immoral histories of violence, blood, and
outrage, to sow the seeds of trouble in new bridal homes,
and fling a shadow of gloom over the firesides of the third
and fourth generations.
The following reflections, after "a famous victory," by
one of the most popular editors and writers of the country,
are as feeling and beautiful as they are true and melancholy.
Why cannot those who make war "think of these things,"
before they set in operation, by a few strokes of the pen,
such an engine of domestic wretchedness and ruin?
" Every battle field," says the Louisville Journal, " is the
source of inexpressible grief, and woe, and agony. To say
nothing of the gory victims that on such fields yield up their
latest breath, who shall attempt to portray the agony that
must pierce the hearts of their surviving friends? The battle
of Buena Vista may be consecrated to fame, and poets may
hymn its glories, and attune their harps to sing the praise
of its survivors, and to chant mournful requiems over the
graves of the gallant dead; but that bloody field will also
be consecrated to human woe. Each one of the thousand
that were martyred to the fell spirit of war, had his friends,
by whom his loss will be mourned. Many fathers there fell,
leaving helpless children to struggle with the stormy tides
of life, without the protection of the parental arm. Many
husbands there died, leaving trusting wives to lament in
bitterness of soul their loss. The dearly-beloved sons of
hoary-headed sires there sighed their last breath away, to be
mourned awhile and soon to be followed to the land of spirits
by those to whom their loss is irreparable. When we reflect
on the desolation that will be carried to thousands of firesides, - the gloom that-will hang like a cloud over numberless homes, lately bright with the hues of happiness, - the
tears of orphans, the shrieks of wives, and mothers, and sisters, the groans of fathers, and sons, and brothers, - the




WAR AND THE FIRESIDE.              235
wide-spread and lasting grief that will result from the carnage of the field of Buena Vista, what heart can refuse its
sympathy with the bereaved, or refiain from cursing the
infatuation which renders such scenes of blood necessary?"
"You could tell at a glance," says Capt. I-Ienry, in his
"Campaign Sketches," " the wounded of Palo Alto or Resaca
de la Palma. The latter were mostly bullet wounds; the
amputated limbs told of the cannon's fearful execution in the
former. Beside one poor fellow a beautiful girl of seventeen
was seated, keeping off the flies.  She was his wife. In
another corner, a family group, the mother and her children
were seated by the wounded father. One bright-eyed little
girl quite took my fancy, and my heart bled to think that
thus early she should be introduced to so much wretchedness. On one bed was a corpse; on another was one dying,
holding in his hand the grape-shot that had passed through
his breast. I-Ie showed it to us with a sad countenance. I
left the hospital shocked with the horrors of war."
"On the field of Resaca de la Palma," says MIr. Thorpe,
"there was an affecting scene enacted among the dead soldiers. One of the first that fell mortally wounded was an
Irishman, - a remarklably brave fellow. All the night ensuing, his poor wife sat upon the field, the stiffened corpse of
her husband resting on her lap, her little child asleep by her
side. As the sun rose in the morning, she was discovered,
surrounded with the dead, her head upon her husband's
breast, absorbed in grief. As the day wore on, the stench
of the field became offensive; but still she held her seat by
the side of the lifeless clay, and in paroxysms of overwhelming sorrow she was torn from the dead, that it might be consigned to its mother earth."
Speaking of the'houses where the wounded were placed
at MIatamoras, he says; "amidst all their misery and desolation, amidst these places so humbling to pride, so sacrificing
to vanity, woman was there, devoted to a husband or a broth



236            WAR AND THE FIRESIDE.
er; she sat in the dust, fanned away the torturing insects
that lived on blood, and revelled in wounds, sanctifying the
most menial offices by her spirit and influence, and shedding
by her smiles, by her silent attentions, by her teachings of
hope in another world, the only bright rays that are seen to
glimmer in a Mexican hospital."
Speaking of another battle, he writes, "appalling indeed
were the scenes on that field of carnage.  Many of ihe
wounded writhed in agony, and others, quiet in their last
hour of life, gazed with anxious eyes towards the setting
sun; their faces, in the morning glowing with health, were
now wan as if with months of consuming disease. All begged
but for one drop of water to quench the thirst that consumed
their vitals.  Along the pathway of the shot that fairly
raked through the solid columns of the Tennessee regiment,
lay extended the dead in every conceivable position of horror; headless trunks, and limbless bodies cut in twain. The
faces of some wore the placid smile of happiness; in others,
the life-blood had ebbed away, leaving the expression of
defiance and revenge marked upon the inanimate clay. The
wounded strove to creep about, or, thrown hurriedly into
wagons to be conveyed to the surgeons, were in despair for
their condition; for they well knew that war permitted no
care for their condition, no thought for their relief, no gentle
sympathy for their pain, and before them was wasting disease, perhaps lingering death. Far from home, no assiduous
friend, no affectionate sister, no loving mother soothed their
anguish. The poor private died unnoticed and unknown,
yet by some quiet hearthstone, far from the tumult of cities,
tears will be shed for his fall; the stern old father will nerve
himself to his loss, by the thought that the sacrifice was made
for his country, while the aged mother's heart bleeds with a
wound time cannot heal. To such retreats must we go, if
we would learn all the suffering that resulted from that scene
before the walls of Monterey."




WAR AND THE FIRESIDE.                   237
It was in reference to another battle, that Whittier composed the noble poem, entitled, " the Angels of Buena Vista,"
founded on the following facts.
"A letter writer from  Mexico states, that at the terrible
fight of Buena Vista, Mexican women were seen hovering
near the field of death, for the purpose of giving aid and
succor to the wounded.  One poor woman was surrounded
by the maimed and suffering of both armies, ministering to
the wants of Americans as well as Mexicans, with impartial
tenderness."
We give a few of the concluding stanzas of this melting,
pathetic ballad.
"Look forth once more Ximena!" "Like a cloud before the wind
Rolls the battle down the mountains, leaving blood and death behind;
Ah! they plead in vain for mercy; in the dust the wounded strive;
Hide your faces, holy angels! oh, thou Christ of God, forgive!
"Sink, 0 night, among thy mountains! let thy cool, gray shadows fall;
Dying brothers, fighting demons - drop thy curtain over all!
Through the quickening winter twilight, wide apart the battle rolled;
In his sheath the sabre rested, and the cannon's lips grew cold.
"But the holy Mexic women still their holy task pursued,
Through that long, dark night of sorrow, worn and faint, and lacking
food,
Over weak and suffering brothers with a tender care they hung,
And the dying foeman blessed them in a strange and Northern tongue.
"Not wholly lost, 0 Father! is this evil world of ours;
Upward through its blood and ashes, spring afresh the Eden flowers;
From its smoking hell of battle, Love and Pity send their prayer,
And still thy white-winged angels hover dimly in our air!"
The personal narratives from trustworthy sources are introduced in this review of the Mexican war, as revealing to us
more distinctly than whole pages of general description




288          tWAR AND THE FIRESIDE.
could do, the indescribable and infinite miseries which alight
upon the homes of warring nations. We have much more
of the same materials on hand, but these must suffice, and
perhaps more than suffice. We have already " supped full
of horrors."
War is indiscriminate. It confounds the innocent with
the guilty in one fate, or, it may be, spares the bad to involve the righteous man in ruin. It burns the widow's cottage, while it may leave unharmed the tyrant's palace. It
kills, perchance, the father's only son, the staff of his old
age, and lets the assassin and robber escape with impunity.
Fearful, therefore, beyond the power of human thought, is
his act who takes the responsibility of involving two nations
in its wide-spread havoc. What is it but to assume for the
moment the powers of the Omnipotent without his wisdom
and mercy? to vault, as it were, into his seat, and let fly the
armies of devouring locusts, or lift the lid of the boiling
volcano, and inundate cities with floods of fire and lava, or
rock the land with earthquakes, and overwhelm multitudes
of human beings beneath the ruins of falling temples and
dwellings!  When will the rulers and legislators of the
nations awake to their awful accountableness in being either
principals or accessories to bringing on a war?
How shockingly macl apropos and incongruous was that
sentiment given by some orator on a festive occasion to some
companies parading for their departure to the fields of )Mexico, -" Washington, our homes, and our country!"  For, to
omit other considerations, we have seen in this and the last
chapter before it, that the warfare against the foreign foe is
suicidal; that the sword is two-edged, and cuts us as well as
our enemies. The recoil of every blow struck abroad is
upon some dear breast at our own fire-side, of father, brother, son, lover, fiiend. The huzzas of every triumph have
been reechoed by the groans and shrieks of wives, mothers,
orphans, bereft, distracted, penniless, friendless. Into how




WAR AND THE FIRE SIDE.             2U9
many circles of the wise and good, the prosperous and powerful, has the messenger of heavy tidings come! Into how
many lowly, homes and cabin doors has the grim image
stalked, and youth, and manhood, and age, bowed in speechless agony at his coming! The son of a Clay or a Webster
has fallen by the side of the poor and obscure man's son.
Tell us not of famine. There is no mutual strife, but the
strife of self-sacrifice. Tell us not of cholera. There is no
hand wet with a brother's blood, " smelling rank to heaven."
But in both instances there is help rendered by the weak
and sick to those weaker and sicker than themselves. There
is the sharing of the last potato with the famishing. There
is danger dared to give but a cup of medicine to the suffering. There is heavenly pity bending with moist eye over
the hungry she cannot feed, and over the sick she cannot
cure. There is godlike charity, with folded hands and upraised face, invoking that aid from God which man cannot
yield.
But it adds immeasurably to the patriotic compunction
with which an American should look on this war, when we
consider that, terrible as may have been the scenes of bereavement, destitution, and distraction at our own fire-sides,
and amid "the pleasant places," the beautiful abodes, of
civilized and Christian life, we have been busy actors, as
well as stricken sufferers. We have invaded the homes of
another nation. We have smitten down young and old,
man and woman, rich and poor, sick and well, in the relentless conquest. Verily, we have been guilty in this matter,
and our brother's blood cries against us from the ground
where it has been spilled. The poor cot, the rich hacienda,
the bishop's palace, the church of God, the halls of a republic, have been entered, plundered, bombarded, burnt. Indeed, could a fallen spirit be imagined as hovering over
Mexico in the character of its evil genius, and devising an
extended system of wrong and suffering, a huge and com



240            THE VICES OF THE CAMP.
plicated machine of exquisite, and multiplied, and far-reaching cruelties, one that should do the greatest possible evil
with the least possible good; one that should pierce the
most hearts, tarnish the most honor, wring forth the most
groans, darken the most hearths, and set a-going the most
prolific causes of sin and wretchedness in every direction,
and to the worst imaginable issues, then we should recognize
with a shudder our own country as the evil genius of unhappy Mexico, and war as the infernal engine with which
we have worked her nameless and numberless evils. And
when, in addition to the essential evil of this instrument of
woe, the evil genius be supposed artfully to veil its abominations with the gorgeous drapery of the stars and stripes,
and to seduce into its unholy service the flower of youth and
the vigor of manhood, to operate at the engine's crushing
wheels and dislocating pullies, the picture of that Briarean
Inquisition we call WAR would be complete.
CHAPTER XXV.
THE VICES OF THE CAMP.
" We have heard much of the corrupting tendency of some of the
rites and customs of the heatheni but what custom of the heathen
nations had a greater effect in depraving the human character, than
the custom of war."- NOAH WORCESTER.
" War produces the characters necessary for war. The camp is
infectious. The few who go there virtuous, if they return at all,
generally return vicious, and carry the infection into our peaceful
hainletg and the bosom of families." -, WILLIAM LADD.
MANY of the battles of the Mexican war were fought
wholly or partly on the Sabbath.  At Monterey, Sacra



THE VICES OF THE CA&MP.             241
mento, Cerro Gordo, Chapultepec, and Mexico, more or
less of the fighting was done on the Lord's day. While the
assemblies of Christians, all over the earth, were met together to hear the word of God, confess their sins, and seek
the mercy of heaven through that name which is far "above
every name that is named,: then, in those hours of sacred
rest, devotion, and brotherly love, the death-shots were falling thick and fast, the storm of battle was sweeping with
resistless fury over hundreds of the wounded and dying, and
many souls cut off unprepared and in the midst of their
days, appeared at the bar of a righteous God, to bear witness against the war-system of two professedly Christian
nations. Could there be a more shocking contre-temps than a
desperate, bloody battle, or siege, on the holy day, when
God has said, "Thou shalt not do any work," and all the
noises of the earth should be hushed, and man should "be
still and know that I am God?" The only conceivable case
is a fight on Christmas. The battle of Bracito was fought
on the generally-received anniversary of that greatest era in
the world's history, when angels from heaven sang the birthanthem of the Saviour of men, " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."
But battles are not the only violations of the law of the
Sabbath. Marchings, drills, all kinds of work, preparations
for battle, or burying the dead, and all the bustle, din, and
dissipation of a camp life, go on comparatively unchecked.
In one word, there is no Sabbath to the warrior. He must
work, or march, or fight on the day of rest just as much as
on any other day, if his commander and circumstances require it. Many of the greatest battles have been fought
on that day, though historians have not cared to state the
fact. Waterloo and Plattsburg occur to mind now among
others.  In a very few instances, generals have refused
battle on the Sabbath, but the cases are rare. -When imen
commit themselves to this murderous business, they gen21




242           THE VICES OF TIIE CAMP.
erally shut out God, and the thought of his laws, and their
accountableness to him, from their mind, and know no religion, no Sabbath, no mercy. The motto is, kill, kill;
plunder, plunder; burn, burn. Suppose two hostile ships
meet on the sea on Sunday, what do the chaplains pray for?
Is it for love to God and love to man? No! but for death
to destroy as many as possible of the other party; for the
fire, and powder, and bomb-shells, and sabres, that they do
as much execution as possible in marring the image of God,
and hurrying mortals before their time to the bar of an
eternal Judge. No single extensive cause has worked more
efficiently to abolish the Sabbath, and bring it into desecration than war. All history unites in casting this sin at
its door, and God will hold war-makers to account as so far
Sabbath-breakers.
We need not waste many words on the point that the
vices of intemperance, profaneness, and licentiousness have
a rank growth in war. The single key of explanation is,
that the whole animal nature is called into action. The
passions and appetites are supplied with unusual means of
excitement. The moral restraints of home and surrounding
society are taken off. The refuse of society congregate in
the camp, and he must be a moral hero who is not soon
laughed out of his virtuous scruples at any vice. The army
has in it many good men, as the world goes, but their influence is comparatively overpowered by the daring spirits
of wickedness.
Something has been done during the last twenty years
to stay the ravages of interfmperance, but this war engenders
habits of excess, and tends to reopen the flood-gates of desolation. For the recruiting and enlisting rendezvous has not
unfrequently been a grog-shop. Rum has been the presiding genius of the mess-room and the camp. Rum has
been the spirit of battle. Sutlers and retailers have thronged the encampments, and, in spite of the strictest commands




THE VICES OF THE CAMP.              243
of the officers, they have found way to appropriate the last
cent of the poor soldier for a glass of rum. The disbanded
soldiers will scatter anew through the length and breadth of
the land the prolific seeds of intemperance.
The violent passions and the reckless feelings enraged by
war naturally find their vent in the most horrible profaneness. This vice is as congenial to fleets and armies, as birds
to the air, or fishes to the sea. It is spoken of in history as
a wonderful triumph that Cromwell was able to banish it
from his Puritan troops. But most generals have taken no
pains, and had no desire to have the third commandment
observed by their men; indeed, as an almost universal rule,
they have been themselves grossly addicted to this practice,
which is neither "brave, polite, nor wise."  From the camp,
from the man-of-war, more curses than blessings, more oaths
than prayers go up before high heaven. If you wish to
initiate a young man in a short time into this soul-destroying
habit, you could not do better than to send him to the battlefield, where human nature is wrought up to the highest
pitch of maddened,-defiant, ferocious, blood-thirsty passion
(and must be so in order to do the awful work which is to
be done there), and pours out volleys of profaneness against
heaven while discharging volleys of death at heaven's children. He who wishes to see the doom of a profane and
God-insulting people averted from his country, will hold up
both hands to vote against war.
Licentiousness is another vice which is diffused by war.
The habits of the camp in this particular are too well known
to need description. Indeed, multitudes flock to the standard of war because they know that they shall thus find
means to gratify their passions. A chaste army would be
as novel a thing in the world as a sober one. The camp is
the resort of' hordes of abandoned females.
When a besieged city is taken, it is sometimes the premium
on the bravery of the soldiers to deliver it up tO lust and
plander.




244           THE VICES OF THE CAMP.
Such is the licentiousness of war. The friend of purity
will be the friend of peace.
Indeed, when we consider the morals of war,- and the
late war, as we have demonstrated in the preceding pages,
has been not an exception, but the fulfilment of the general
rule, - we would " wreak" our thoughts on some such words
as these, 0 war, what shall we say of thee, thou dark
spirit, thou fearful minister of wrath, thou flaming angel of.
swift destruction?  When thou art let loose, there is a
shudder in heaven, and the angels veil their faces in horror.
The soundS of thy trumpet strikes terror to the mother's
heart, and makes the sister turn pale with fear and foreboding. Wives shrink from the sound of thy coming, and
children flee from the thunder and havoc of thy train as
fiom the whirlwind.  Is there purity?  Thou dishonorest
it. Is there temperance?  Thou debauchest it. Is there
mercy?  Thou turnest it to stone. Is there love?  Thou
curdlest the milk of' human kindness to hatred. Is there
prosperity? Thou cuttest off its resources, thou multipliest
taxes. Is there home?  Thou layest it waste with fire and
sword. Is there religion?  Thou repealest every law of
the decalogue, every precept of Christ. Is there patriotism?  Thou puttest in place of the true a vile substitute,
current neither among gods nor men. Is there honor?
Thou cheatest the world with a base compound, that bears
the same relation to true honor that pewter coin does to
-pure silver. Is there freedom?  Thou draggest her a bound
captive at thy chariot wheels. Is there commerce?  Thou
chasest her from  the seas. Is there agriculture?  Thou
tramplest her harvests under the hoofs of thy coursers, and
riotest in her plenty. Is there art, practical or ideal? Thou
burnest her workshops, thou plunderest her galleries. Is
there any good thing on earth, which heaven has given, or
which mtq has made?  Thou art the curse and destruction
of all. Where thou movest, a garden is before thee, and a




THE WAR-SPIRIT AND THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST.  245
desert behind thee.  Thou art hell let loose upon the world;
and when we see thy banner in the sky, all the good angels
of heaven seem to have taken flight, and left us to ourselves
and to our own worst passions.  Thine attendant spirits are
pain, and woe, and despair, and sickness, and licentiousness,
and intemperance, and profaneness, and Sabbath-breaking,
and murder, and robbery, and cruelty. Thy victories are
the defeats of humanity. Thy conquests are the losses of
liberty.  Thy rejoicings are the wailings of the poor and
suffering. -Thy glories are the shame of immortals, and the
trophies of tigers and hyenas.  Thy laurels are red with
blood, and thy hosannas are the shrieks of the wounded, the
yells of the dying, the sobs of widows, the cries of orphans,
and the lamentations of nations.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE WVAR-SPIRIT AND THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST.
"The depravity occasioned by war is not confined to the army.
Every species of vice gains ground in a nation during war. And
when a war is brought to a close, seldom perhaps does a community
return to its former standard of morals." - NOAH WORCESTER.
"VWhat distinguishes war is, not that man is slain, but that he is
slain, spoiled, crushed by the cruelty, the injustice, the treachery, the
murderous hand of man. The evil is moral evil. War is the concentration of all human crinles. HIere is its distinguishing, accursedl
brand. Under its standard gather violence, malignity, rage, fraud,
perfidy, raplacity, and lust." — CIISNNING.
WE devote this chapter to what we regard as the chief
evils of the Mlexican war.  The moral and spiritual facul21*




246  THE WAR-SPIRIT AND THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST.
ties are at the head of the human constitution, and the interests resulting from them and involving, their development
and welfare, are the leading interests of human society.
Whatever reverses this order, and puts last what should be
first, and first what should be last, destroys thle true perspective. of human life.  War, perhaps more than any other
single cause, works this stupendous wrong. It discredits
and dwarfs the moral man. It supplies undue excitements
and gratifications to all the animal passions. It obscures
the true end of our existence, and substitutes, in place of the
honor and dignity of serving God and man, the gorgeous
mockery of military glory.
Had the war now in question been instrumental of the
loss of not one dollar or one life, and yet had it laid Waste
the great moral and religious interests of the United States
and Mexico, and left a deep wound upon the cause of Christ,
we should assign it a foremost place among the foes of our
laws, our liberties, and every social, material, and political
interest.  For every part of our complicated life is connected with every other part, as joint with joint, and limb
with limb in the body. If one suffer, all the others suffer
with it. When the moral interests of society are thrown
into disorder, the evil extends through every department of
thought and action. We have by an enumeration of separate
evils demonstrated that, if every other argument failed, the
immoralities of this invasion stamp it with the darkest colors
of guilt, and cover it with the deepest abhorrence of the
feeling heart and the tender conscience.  We have examined
its leger, and looked into its hospitals, and recited its horrors, but we will now consider its spirit.  Space will compel
us to be brief, where a volume only could do full justice to
the subject.
It is sometimes alleged, that those who fight have no
enmity, one towards another, and that it is not that they
hate their enemies, or wish them evil; but they contend at




THE WAAR-SPIRIT AND THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. 247
the call of their country, and are just as good friends when
they stop firing as any men in the world. Witness, it is
said, the kind acts- they do each other, and the relief they
give to the wounded and dying foeman. So be it. Let all
possible palliations relieve the horrid picture of the field of
blood. It does us good to think that what is best in man
sometimes appears even amid such scenes. But we propose
to record some indications of the war-spirit, and to show
that where there is such a spirit, the spirit of revenge, hardheartedness, cruelty, delight in the sufferings of others, or
cold-blooded indifference to -them, there cannot be the spirit
of him, who said, " Love your enemies."  And certainly
we are not allowed to repeal his laws of love, mutual good
will, intercessory prayers for our enemies, and returning
them good for evil; no, not even for an hour, though that
hour be the period of battle. How then can war and Christianity agree together? If it be possible to love our enemies
at the moment we are pouring vollies of grape into their
dense ranks, and to pray for them at the time we are meditating a charge with naked bayonets, theri we can conceive
of a war conducted on Christian principles and sentiments,
but not otherwise.  "War must be," as Robert Hall says,
" a temporary repeal of the principles of virtue." The truth
is, that men cannot be brought up to the point of fighting
except by the stress of most powerful motives, and those
motives in general are drawn. from the animal passions.
Generals have usually deprecated a strong religious influence in the camp.* Some have gone so far as to declare,
the worse man, the better soldier. There is a species of
morality in war, but it is of a very abject nature. Far are
we from denying that there are many good men engaged in
- The examining committee of the Military Academy at West Point
state the significant fact in their report, 1849, that the chapter or section on War in Wayland's Moral Science, a text book in the institution,
is not admitted in the course of studies!




248 THE WAR-SPIRIT AND TIE GOSPEL OF CIRIST.
the army and navy, but if there are sucht it is in spite of the
spirit of war, not in obedience to it. The better men, and
the more comprehensive Christians they become, the more
thoroughly will they abhor their calling, and say, with a
British officer of high rank in the army to his associates,
"ours is a damnable profession."
The war-spirit of the press has given expression to sentiments during the conflict like the following. We do not
give the names of the papers and reviews, because our
object is to illustrate a principle, not to attack persons. But
we quate from highly-respected.and widely-circulated journals.
These are the words of one: "Nothing but a complete
suhjugation of Mexico seems to answer the present emergency. Foraging on the enemy, and levying contributions
were at last agreed upon. The anxiety in every man's
countenance to-day is strongly depicted, and the universal
ery is, war in earnest-war; not for peace, but for conquest
and subjugation,-a real bona fide war, which supports itself
and seizes on the enemy's treasure. Unless we distress the
Mexicans, carry destruction and loss of life to every fireside,
and make them feel a rod of iron, they will not respect us."
Another journal speaks thus; "Under these circumstances,
and in view of the perfidious conduct of the Mexican Government, our Government is bound by every consideration
of honoal duty and justices to chastise them most effectually,
and to beat them into a disposition to ask for peace, and to
accept it on such terms as we may be disposed to grant
them.
"No more offers of peace, - no more paying for supplies,
-no more confidence in the professions and promises of the
enemy; but stern, vigorous, relentless war, until our just demands are fully complied with. Such must and will be our
policy now."
Another gives utterance to the following; "Our work of




THE WAR-SPIRIT AND THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. 249
subjugation and conquest must go on rapidly with augmented
forces, and, as far as possible, at the expense of Mexico
herself. From 1Aexican contributions, levied and seized, if
need be, by the strong hand, our armies must now be subsisted arrd supported in the field. The policy of forbearance
and conciliation, however magnanimously adopted by us,
and in however generous an attitude it may have hitherto
presented us before the world, is now exhausted. It has met
with no response, but new rancor and contumely from our
vanquished foe. HIenceforth we must seek peace, and compel
it, by inflicting upon our enemy all the evils of war."
Another expatiates thus; "With a nation like Mexico,
with whom no accommodation can be hoped for, and as sad
experience has shown, no faith in treaties, even when made,
can be entertained, there can be no end to the war short of
her annihilation as a nation. The matter should be taken in
hand, in the spirit of Bonaparte's bulletins, in commencing
the Prussian war: < "The House of Branrdenburgh has ceased
to reign in Europe." His vigorous strokes ceased not until
that edict was apparently accomplished, and a few weeks
sufficed for the purpose. Of the same nature should be our
proceedings.  "The Spaniards have ceased to rule in
Mexico," should be the motto, and corps after corps poured
in at all quarters, until it is enacted."
Another speculates after this wise; " if Santa Anna still
holds out, then we must take it for granted that the Mexican
people want war to the knife; and it will be time for our
government to resort to the severest measures ihi order to
make the war tell upon the population. It is to be hoped
that our army will then forage on the enemy, lay every
town and hamlet through which it passes under heavy contribution, and instead of suffering' the wealthy citizens to
depart and withdraw to the interior, retain them as hostages
for keeping the peace."
Still another exhorts to a military colonization; " Let our




250 THIE wVAR-SPIRIT AND THE GOSPEt OP CHRIST.
armies begin immediately to radiate from the city of MIexico
into all the Mexican States. And then, as a finishing stroke,
our Government should give freely of the Mexican domain
to as many of our citizens as would emigrate. This would
soon fill up the country with armed Americans, who would
complete not only the subjugation, but the civilization of
Mlexico."
"A  manifest-destiny" editor holds forth thus; "The
glorious sierras and valleys of Mexico are fated to be linked
to the mountains and prairies of the United States.*  *  *
Politicians may connive, or quake and tremble as they will;
Wilmot Provisos, Abolition, and Disruption of the Union
are lost in the tremendous shout of the American people,
Mexico must not,-shall not be abandoned! *  *  Shall
we resist Providence, that guides the course of nations? * *
A continent for freedom; its boundary the icebergs on the
north, the oceans east and west, and Central America, (until
we need it,) on the south, and short of that boundary, no
human power can stop the irresistible current of the Anglo
Saxon race."
But the following atrocious sentences are almost too bad
to copy, did they not illustrate a feeling but too prevalent,
though sometimes expressed in more refined words.
" We go for giving the Mexicans hell, whether Christ be
our guide or not. We go for whipping them thoroughly,
any way; and we must do it, or stand disgraced in the eyes
of the civilized world. None of your sentimentalism, -- none
of your " weary, wounded and worn" tales. If we had listened to them in by-gone times, the star-spangled banner
would not, as it now does, float in proud triumph over every
sea."
One more; "We trust now that we shall hear no more of
armistices or suspension of hostilities, at least from our side.
War, vigorous, devastating, unrelenting war, is the 6nly
resource, and it is to be hoped that the 3Mexicans will be
made to experience it."




THE, WAR-SPIRIT AND TItE GOSPEL OP CHRIST. 251
A member of Congress said in his official seat; "He
trusted it would be a war of conquest; he was not one of
those who would have a mild war, who were afraid of striking heavy blows. He would show no mercy till the war
was ended. If he would have his own way, one blow should
follow another without mercy."
Says a Governor of a State," in my judgment, the motto,
to' conquer a peace.' is now made indispensable-there is
no alternative. Then let the nation's power be summoned
to a mighty effort, and let it break upon that devoted country,
peal after peal, in one unceasing note of thunder. Let the
public right arm be made bare, and the sword remain unsheathed until peace is extorted."
Let these suffice to exhibit the war-mania that seized
upon a portion of the American press, and politicians.
Must not such sentiments demoralize the public mind
wherever circulated?
But we proceed to another point. Let us see what is the
war-spirit of warriors, and how far it accords with the precepts, spirit, and example of our beloved Redeemer in his
sojourn on earth. Ihere, too, we avoid the invidiousness of
giving names for an obvious reason. We attack a system, a
custom, not individuals. Our aim is principles, not men.
What are the most prominent ideas, which some men attach
to such words as grand, brilliant, splendid, beautiful, glorious,
etc., will appear -in these extracts.  We copy from official
reports chiefly. The italics are ours.
Says Lieut., " Whilst this was being done, I galloped
to the top of the hill above Arispa's mills, where a grand
sig/ht burst upon my view. The whole column (of the enemy) was winding its way along the foot of the mountain
and through the ravines, more than half the column being
in range of my gun. I galloped back to bring it up, placed
it in position and fired rapidly into their crowded ranks, producing considerable confusion, and much execution."




252 THE WAR-SPIRIT AND THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST.
This is the description of another at the terrible siege of
Vera Cruz; "In a few moments the steamers, Spitfire and
Vixen, and five gunboats, the whole under command of
Captain --    of the navy, ran in close to the lime-kiln, and
opened a beautifal fire with large Paixhan guns upon
the town and castle. Nothlling could have been done more
handsomely."
" Soon  after our batteries opened, Captain      with
Major --, stepped out to a rather exposed position to
witness the effect of our shells. "c Major," remarked Captain
V., with enthusiasm, " as you pass the mortars, please tell
the officers thai the shell are doing their duty accurately."
Another officer writes as follows; " The storming of
Cerro Gordo was a magnificent spectacle, as well as one of
the most brilliant, if not the most brilliant feat ever accomplished by American arms.  T-hat a glorious feeling of elation took possession of my soul. at that moment!  I cannot
describe it. Of the wounded, dead, and dying, we will not
speak. I have seen Death robed in all his ghastly terrors, and
feel that I aml becoming indifferent to the sufferings of my
fellows; my piofession demands it."
Of an American Lieutenant, aged 72, a -correspondent of
the New  York Post says, " he had left a home of affluence and ease, with the expressed wish to die in the service
of his country, and, if need be, on the field of battle.'They
cannot cheat me out of many more years,' said he. When
ordered with a battalion, like a forlorn hope, to the trying
contest in the mountains, he exclaimed with a look of joy, as
he drew his sword:' Now, boys, this looks like doing something."'
"I remained with hlim," says the surgeon attendant on the
dying Maj.     "all night.  He had but little pain, and at
intervals had some sleep. During the night he gave me
many incidents of the battle, and spoke with much pride of
the execution of his shot. He had but one thing to regret,




THE WAR-SPIRIT AND THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. 253
and that was the snmall number of men at his command."
His only regret that he could not kill more Mexicans! "The
condition of the brave and esteemed Capt.  ~" says an
eye-witness, "is melancholy indeed. The whole of his lower
jaw, with a part of his tongue and palate, is shot away by a
grape-shot. Hle, however, survives, though entirely incapable
of speech. He communicates his thoughts by writing on a
slate, and receives the necessary nutriment for the support
of life with much difficulty. HIe does not desire to live, but
converses with cheerfulness and exultation upon the success of
our armns, and concluded an answer to some queries concerning the battle of the 9th, by writing,' WVe gave the Jlexicans hell!'"
"' When Lieut. -, during the battle of Buena Vista,
was sent by Gen. Taylor," says the New Orleans Bulletin,
"withl a flag to a detached body of 1000 to 1500 Mexicans,
that were being cut to pieces by our fire, Col.  -was on
the eve of charging them with his dragoons; but as Lieut.
was passing with his white flag displayed,   rode
out and crossed his path to inquire the object of his mission.'I am going to tell those fellows to surrender, in order to
save their lives.'-' Wait till I have charged them.'-' Impossible; the old man has sent me, and I must go.'-' But,
my good fellow,' said --  entreatingly,'for God's sake just
rein up for five minutes, and give us a chllance at them.' -' Would do any thing to oblige you, Colonel; but I have the
old man's orders, and there is no help for it.' And he gave
rein to his horse, while the Colonel returned to the head of
his regiment in the worst of all possible humors against the
things called flags of truce."
The diabolical passion of fighting for the love of fighting
is illustrated by this report of an American General, in the
bombardment of a Mexican town, in which 219 were killed,
and 300 wounded.
"As we approached, several shots were fired at us, and,
22




254  THE WAR-SPIRIT AND THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST.
deeming it unsafe to risk a street fight in an unknown town
at night, I ordered the artillery to be posted on a hill near
the town and overlooking it, and open its fire. - Now ensued
one of the most beautiful sights conceivable.  Every gun was
served with the utmost rapidity; and the crash of the walls
and the roofs of the houses when struck by our shot and
shell, was mingled with the roar of artillery. The bright
light of the moon enabled us to direct our shots to the most
thickly populated parts of the town."
At another action, in his report says another officer, now
promoted to a generalship, "I cannot speak too highly of
Capt. K. and his management of his batteries. IHis shells
and shot fell beautfidlly upon houses and churches where the
enemy were in great numbers.  Whenever his shot took
effect, the firing soon ceased."
Such is the spirit of war and warriors,* and such, from
the necessity of the case, it ever must be.  How totally inconsistent with the spirit of the New Testament! Is it not
a hidden art, even in this inventive age, to wage war upon
Christian principles and sentiments? Killing men, women,
and children can hardly be done on the basis of loving our
neighbors, or forgiving our enemies. The single question is,
whether Christ be our supreme Master or not. When that
is settled, it will be comparatively easy to dispose of the question of war.
* The many controversies and quarrels among the authors and advocates of this war and the officers of the army and navy strikingly illustrate the combustible nature of the materials on which the war-system
is built. Perhaps we ask too much of men, who cannot keep the peace
among their own countrymen, that they should keep the peace with
the rest of mankind. Witness the quasi wars of Scott vs. Trist, Pillow
vs. Scott, Scott vs. Marcy, Kearney vs. Fremont, Fremont vs. Mason,
Benton vs. Kearney, to say nothing of other controversies and duels.




THE WAR-SPIRIT AND THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. 255
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
" War is in itself a mighty evil, an incongruity in a scheme of social
harmony, a canker at the heart of improvement, a living lie in a Christian land, a curse at all times." -LooNDON TIMES.
IT has already been shown by a detailed examination of
separate items, that the late war has been totally inconsistent
with the commands and spirit of the Gospel. But we treat
now of its general spirit. It has been an appeal to might,
and there is no evidence that the success of a battle is any
proof of the justice of the cause of the victors. Napoleon
once remarked, that he had always taken notice that Providence favored the heavy battalions! Victory perches on the
banner of might, not always on that of right.
We have seen that even the usual laws of war, and laws
of nations, have been rudely broken by the barbarities perpetrated on both sides; how much more then that perfect
law of love, revealed by Jesus Christ! If the doctrines of
Grotius and Vattel have been set at nought, how much more
have those of Paul and John?
The inconsistency of our invasion of Mexico with the
Christian faith has been brought into a stronger contrast,
from the fact, that at the very moment we were loading
down a vessel of war to the very edge with bread-stuffs for
the famishing Irish, and despatching them on this mission of
mercy, we were sending bomb-ships, laden with the most
destructive implements of war, to lay waste the cities of
Mexico, and bury men, women, and children in the ruins of




205  THE WAR-SPIRIT AND THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST.
their dwellings and churches. It is a serious inquiry for
every Christian, whether, while we have thus been aiming
fatal blows at the physical life of a sister republic, we may
not have placed ourselves in the way of receiving the fruits
of spiritual death in ourselveA.
We can conceive of no line of antitheses more directly
pitched, one against the other, than the qualities called into
the most lusty life and growth by such a war, and those
recommended and enforced in the instructions of our blessed
Lord, and shining with a holy and beautiful light in his character, " as the brightness of the firmament." It is ambition
fronting meekness; pride, lowliness of mind; revenge, forgiveness; retaliation, forbearance; cruelty, mercy; wrong,
justice; hate, love. "They," said Erasmus, "who defend
war, must defend the dispositions which lead to it; and these
dispositions are absolutely forbidden by the Gospel."
Mexico was weak, we were strong. Common magnanimity, much more that holy law that bids us " support the weak,
and be patient towards all men," condemns the onslaught of
war. In private life, our blood boils with indignation to see
the feeble beset and maltreated by the robust. Does the
magnitude of scale alter the nature of the rule?  Speaking
of those most immediately responsible for the war, Mr. Gallatin says, in his widely-circulated pamphlet, "there is not
one of them, who would not spurn with indignation the most
remote hint that, on similar pretences to those alleged for
dismembering AMexico, he might be capable of attempting to
appropriate to himself his neighbor's farm." But can the
law of Christian honesty be so palpably violated in the
smaller instance supposed, and does it receive no wound in
the larger one?
It has been complained of by the advocates of this war
that the pulpit has generally been arrayed against it. The
fact is probably true. The great mass of the clergy of every
denomination have uttered their condemnation of the war




THE WAR-SPIRIT AND THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. 257
They have preached and prayed against it. Indeed they
have felt that no prayer or song could be made out of the
subject, except in distinct and decided opposition to carrying
our arms beyond the boundaries of our enormous territory
into those of a weak and distracted neighbor. The ecclesiastical bodies of this country, with scarcely an exception
in the free States, have come out in votes and resolutions of
the most stringent condemnation of the war.*  These facts
may show how utterly they have deemed it to be opposed to
the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and may by some be regarded
as an intimation, though by no means a proof, that such was
the reality.
But, in marked contrast with the above, we record as
exemplifications of the fatal, corrupting influence of the warmiasma, the cases of some even of the ministers of Christ,
who entered the army, and who preached and prayed in
favor of the war. A private letter from a Lieutenant in
the service, says; "We have here among the volunteers a
preacher who is a captain, his officers and non-commissioned
officers are deacons of his church; and the privates members. He is called the fighting Preacher. He and his company are from -."
We have already mentioned that a preacher was killed in
the ranks in the battle of Buena Vista.
Sermons, which are now before us, were preached both
on the Rio Grande, and at the city of Mexico before the
troops, justifying the war, talking largely of the "Anglo
Saxon destiny," comparing the progress of the American
arms with the entrance of the children of Israel into the land
of Canaan, and giving the sanctions and benedictions of Christianity to the awful wrongs and barbarities of one of the
most cruel, sanguinary, and demoralizing wars on record.
* Advocate of Peace, Nov. and Dec. 1847, pp. 134-137. Feb. 1848,
pp. 166, 167. Oct. 1848, pp. 274-276.
22*




258  THE WAR-SPrIIT AND THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST.
But we need not say that this surely is no period of the
world for true Christians to justify war, and especially wars
of aggrandizement, retaliation, and slavery.  When could
the Mexican invasion assume a more -hideous aspect in the
eyes of good men, than at a time when the missionaries of
the cross are penetrating to the remotest parts of the earth
on their glorious errand of evangelizing the heathen; * and
when even _Mohammedan powers, the Sultan of Turkey, the
Shahl of Persia, the Imaum  of Muscat, and the Arabian
chiefs have either abolished slavery, or very much restricted it; and when there seems to be a universal movement in the world towards a happier age of Freedom, Peace,
and Philanthropy. Thus the spirit of the age rebukes and
condemns our war.  For into that spirit has entered, we
believe, some faint portion of " the mind that was in Christ."
Surely this of all periods, since the world began, is not the
day to exact "the pound of flesh next the heart" with a
cruel greediness, nor to resent injuries with a hasty
revenge, nor to fight for glory, territory, or oppression. Let
us hope that our countrymen will yet come to their senses,
and frown upon a spirit and a career so utterly at variance
with the holy religion we profess, and check any symptoms
of' a renewal of wars of invasion, conquest, and slavery.
* A Chinese emperor once said: "Wherever Christians go they
whiten the soil with human bones; and I will not have Christianity in
my empire."
A Turk at Jerusalem once said to Wolff, the missionary, " Why do
you come to us?"  The missionary replied, "to bring you peace."
"Peace! " replied the Turk, leading him to a window, and pointing to
Mount Calvary, "there! upon the very spot where your Lord poured
out his blood, the Mohammedan is obliged to interfere to prevent Christians from shedding the blood of each other! " —Calunet of Peace.




LESSONS OF THE WAR PWITH MEXICO.               259
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE LESSONS OF THE WAR WITH MEXICO.
"Our sole aim being, to promote the cause of permanent peace by
turning this war into effectual warnings against resorts to the sword
hereafter."- PRoPOSALs  FOR A REVIEW  OF THE WAR BY THE
AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETY.
A BRIEF survey of some of the more prominent lessons,
taught us by the events of the last two years, is all that can
be given now, though the future will no doubt teach us far
more upon this subject than the past.
The friends of peace had fondly cherished the hope that
pure republics, the governments of the many as contradistinguished from monarchies and aristocracies, the governments of the one, or the few, would be pacific.  War has
been charged upon rulers, though it has been confessed it
"Is a game, which, were their subjects wise,
Kings would not play at."
But we are disappointed. WVe see that republics can wage
as fierce, brutal, and unjust wars, as feudal and despotic
powers.* The mania of conquest may riot in the veins of a
democracy as furiously as in those of a kingdom or empire.
~ Witness republican France, waging a cruel -war against republican
Rome to restore the Pope! The example of our wickedness will find
in future history but too many imitators. Such cases need not in the
least shake our faith in republicanism; but they should convince us of
the necessity, if we would have a true republicanism, of compounding
with it large admixtures of sound education, pure religion, and the
spirit of universal brotherhood,




260     LESSONS OF THE WAR WITH MEXICO.
In this respect we witness the non-fulfilment of many wise
predictions and cherished hopes. The very independence
and self reliance taught by free institutions make the republican the most formidable soldier on earth, when he cuts
loose from the scruples of a religious education. The staterivalry and panting for distinction by the members of different sections of the Union have also blown up the war-passion
to a hotter flame, and made the battle-field an arena for the
most intense competition.
The Mexican war has accordingly taught us not to trust
to political institutions alone, however free and admirable,
for the maintenance of pacific relations among mankind. We
must strike a higher key. We must appeal to deeper motives.
Mhen may know their rights in a republic, and still be ignorant of their duties. They may know their duties, and not
discharge them.  They may have a morbid jealousy of
tyranny over themselves, and yet play the tyrant over others.
We would bring no railing accusation against our own, our
native land. Heaven bless it, every acre and rood!  But
because we love it, and would ever rejoice in its unsullied
honor and Christian fame, we deeply, deploringly remonstrate
against the spirit of political propagandism. If we have so far
lost sight of the nature of free institutions, and the true mission of the United States, as to propose to offer, Mohammedlike, the alternative of freedom in one hand, and the sword
in the other, to the other nations of the earth, the sooner our
days are numbered and finished, the happier for the peace
of the world. We say thus much, not to give " aid or comfort" to any enemy of liberty and the institutions in which
liberty is organized, but to "point the moral" of the late
war. It is not that we love our country less, but mankind
more. It is not that we would be any the less devoted
patriots, but that we would sanctify and dignify that character by being the more devoted philanthropists and disciples
of Christ.




tESSONS OF THE WAR WITH MEXICO.           261
And, in general, we have been taught by this war how
broken a reed we lean upon, when we propose to accomplish
the magnificent result of a general, permanent peace by any
temporal expedients, anry carnal weapons, any industrial, social,
political, commercial, or selfish arrangements. Satan cannot
cast out Satan, nor can even selfishness itself exorcise the
demoniac spirit of war. MIen will hardly give up the gratification of their lusts, though they could turn a penny by it.
Yea, we see that they will, under the instigation of the strong
and animal passions, fling every consideration of interest,
honest reputation, consistency, and safety to the winds, and
embark in a crusade against which their pockets, their love
of life, and every apparent interest cry out. But-wars and
figlltings come firom a different part of the human constitution
than the calculating faculties. A whole boiling cauldron of
ambition, excitement, pleasure, revenge, sympathetic ardor,
is in the breast of the volunteer.  lie cannot be controlled
except by principles and sentiments mighlltier than those that
have usurped the dominion over his reason and conscience.
But " where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty;"
liberty from those unsanctified lusts and passions of the
human heart, out of which all the terrible deeds of war
come, as streams of burning lava fiom the volcano. The
motives that are to emancipate even the freest and most
refined nations from enacting the appalling tragedy of the
battle-field, must descend from a higher plane thadl the leger,
the statute-book, and the laws and interests of conventional
life. God must thunder and lighten out of heaven. Jesus
must spread out his arms in the agony of the cross, as if to
draw all men to their spiritual unity and head. Mlan's relation to man, as a brother, owning equal rights, and bound by
equal duties, must be revealed in its full solemnity and tenderness. Then, and not till then, can we hope to see this
foul spirit cast out, from the hearts even of good men, much
less out of the sensual mind. We welcome with delight




262     LESSONS OF THE WAR WITH MEXICO.
every new tie uniting distant lands in the intercourse of commerce, science, and a material civilization. All hail to the
press, the steamboat, the railroad, and the telegraph, as
connecting men together more and more, not by links of
iron only, but by cords of love. But the causes of war are too
inveterate to be cured by any thing short of the miraculous
touch of the Son of God. He is the Prince of Peace. ITe,
and he only, can say to a warring world, as he once said to
the raging deep, "Peace, be still," and the winds and waves
obeyed him. Thanks be accorded to all who are laboring
for human improvement in every direction, and by every
instrument, for they are co-laborers with the advocates of
the uninterrupted brotherhood of nations.
But chiefly as Christianity pervades the mass of mankind
in its life-giving spirit and efficacy, will men awake to the
unutterable wickedness of war, and learn its horrid arts no
more. Civilization itself is no adequate remedy; but civilization, after the Christian type, and uplifted and empowered
with Christian ideas, will outgrow war. It has outgrown
many barbarous notions and customs, - the ordeal, torture,
persecution, superstition, - of earlier ages; and it is only a
question of time and faithful effort, when this great embodiment of barbarism shall drop off from the expanding limbs
of Freedom, on which it has so long hung as a hideous and
monstrous excrescence.
Another lesson from these hostilities is, that what are called
the improvements of warfare are poor pretexts to justify its
continuance.  Commend us not to war as a thing which is
very susceptible of improvement. The devil cannot be disguised, though he be clothed in a suit of broadcloth, and
have a musket and canteen, instead of a bow and arrows.
He is still the devil. Ile was a murderer from the beginning, and he will be a murderer to the end. I-le will make
children orphans, and wives widows, and parents childless.
He may use differentto'ols, the bomb instead of the batter



LESSONS OF THE WAR WITH MEXICO.    263
ing-ram, the rifle instead of the cross-bow, and the cannon
instead of the scythed chariot; but the devil is the devil
yet, and war is war. It cannot be smoothed, civilized, or
evangelized. Much assurance indeed was given, that the
late contest should be conducted on humane and just principles, so far as such a hellish work could be thus carried on.
But the fulfilment of these fine promises must be looked for
among the legitimate and illegitimate barbarities perpetrated.
If large masses of men are trained to kill in the most dexterous and scientific modes at the behest of their superiors, it
cannot be thought very strange if they sometimes do a little
murdering on their own private account. If they are led
forth to conquest with their passions stimulated to the utmost
with the visions of national glory and aggrandizement, it
were natural and pardonable, perhaps, that they should pilfer
a trifle on their own hook, in view of the splendid example
held up perpetually to view. Such has been the fact. Plundering, massacres, cruelties, the killing of the wounded on
the field of battle, and even in some cases burning alive at
the stake, have been recorded on the highest official authority, as a part of the history of the Mexican war. Two fiee
Christian nations, in the nineteenth century, going to war
with one another, and in that war witnessing and perpetrating barbarities that would disgrace New Zealand! Away
with the idle pretence, that war can ever be any thing else
than barbarous, sanguinary, cruel, and full of all manner of
evil! Let not those who uphold it as the true method of
settling international disputes, encourage the idea that it ever
can be, from the very nature of the case, any thing else but
violence, fraud, murder, and a temporary repeal of every
commandment of the King of kings. If we are to have war,
let us call it war, nor seek to baptize it in any other Christian title or surname. " Woe unto them that call evil good,
and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet, fbr bitter!"




264      LESSONS OF THE WAR WITH MEXICO.
We see another proof in this contest of the essential injustice of all war. As a mode of redressing injuries, it is perfectly absurd, for it creates a thousand injuries and wrongs
where it redresses one. It runs posterity into debt without
their consent, and mortgages the industry and capital of
future ages. Instead of punishing the guilty, it often visits
the innocent with its heaviest calamities. The battle-field
is not entitled in any sense to be regarded as a solemn tribunal of justice. The very notion of a battle is, that men
temporarily lay aside all that they had gained by thousands of years of civilizing and Christian processes, resolve themselves into savages, and appeal from right, from
reason, from the exercise of all those nobler faculties of our
constitution, that had been predominant in peace, to the
coarse, rude, and vindictive passions. The greatest of the
poets drew it all to the life;
"In peace, there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favored rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let it pry through the portage of the head,
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it,
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swilled with the wild and wasteful ocean;
Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostrils wide 
Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit
To his full height."
Our actions will, of course, partake of the nature of those
passions or feelings which are uppermost at the time we
act.  If then the deeds of war are performed under the
powerful stress of the animal nature, they must of necessity
be of like color and character, "earthly, sensual, devilish."




LESSONS OF TIHE TWAR WITH MEXICO.        265
And by what alembic a long career, a campaign, or several
campaigns of such actions are to be sublimated into justice,
and wrong to be righted, and evils to be cured, and injuries
to be placated, is more than we have been yet able to
discover. Such temporary returns to the brutal age of the
world inflict deep wounds upon a Christian state of society;
for they are a virtual renouncement for the time being of the
reign of truth and justice, and they cast discredit and discouragement upon all the moral and religious instrumentalities by which society is drawn up from the slough of sensual customs and habits into the light and life of civilization.
The Mexican war was, as we have seen, a signal example
of this resorting to might instead of right, and employing the
strong arm of force to compel the surrender of a part of
another country. It was a compound of the crime of the
highway-man, who puts his pistol at your head, and cries,
" Deliver, or die," and the truckling of the pedlar who trades
in small wares, and chuckles over his hard-driven bargain
after it is made. Never was there a finer opportunity for
what might be called national magnanimity, than for the
stronger power in this case to bear and forbear with the
weaker one, and aid, not thwart it, in carrying out the experiment of republican institutions.
A score of names, perhaps, in the whole range of history,
have been accounted, called great. But who are they?
How poor are all the results they left on earth compared
with his who repressed the ignoble strife of his followers,
who should be greatest. They were from below, he was
from above. Some good men have attained the title, an
Alfred, a Peter, a Charlemagne; but most have been great
in crime and blood; an Alexander, a Pompey, a Ccesar, a
Herod, a Louis, a Henry, a Frederic, a Charles, a Buonaparte. They were great in many things; great, perhaps, in
ability, great in resolution of will, great in means of influence, and striking in their results; but little in the elements
23




266     LESSONS OF THE WAR WITH MEXICO.
of a truly great character; little in honesty, in truth, in love,
mean, selfish, crafty, cruel, and implacable. They have been
willing to sacrifice any amount of human life or happiness,
to secure their end, and be accounted the greatest. But
how poor the honor, how blood-stained the glory! How
many death-pangs it has taken to refine their thrill of pleasure, how many tears to water their garlands of victory, how
much human gore to dye their purple robes of royalty!
What curses have loaded their names on earth, what awful
memories must haunt them in the world of spirits!
We want no more such great ones. We have had enough
of them. We want the truly great, the truly good. And if
we would have such from among our youth, we must fill
their heads and hearts not with pagan, or Mohammedan, but
with Christian ideas and sentiments. We must baptize our
children not only into the name of Christ, but also into his
spirit. We must show them how much greater in reality
Jesus, the well-beloved of the Father, was in washing his
disciples' feet, than Xerxes riding forth at the head of his
army to lay waste the fairest countries with fire and sword;
Jesus dying in ignominy on the cross, than Coesar making his
triumphal procession into Rome with the spoils and captives
of vanquished kingdoms.
This strife has repeated, in fresh and distinct tones, this
lesson of the perverted standard of judgment created by war.
We see how poor a thing is mere animal courage, and martial fame. We see that the most brilliant deeds of the
soldier, (sold-ier, the man who is sold), are of such a character that, were they done by any other profession, the actors
would be convicted and punished as the highest offenders
against the peace, and order, and rights of men. What right
can man claim thus to invent a system of war-morality, warhonor, war-reputation, which conflicts at every point with the
government of the Most High?
The true nature of much that passes current in society as




LESSONS OF THE WAR WITH MEXICO.          267
heroism of the highest kind, when exhibited in war, is so
well exposed by a modern writer, Dr.- Bushnell, that we
need not apologize for repeating his distinction between
"bravery " and" courage." 
" No, the true hero is the great, wise man of duty, - he
whose soul is armed by truth and supported by the smile of
God, - he who meets life's perils with a cautious but tranquil spirit, gathers strength by facing its storms, and dies, if
he is called to die,.as a Christian victor, at the post of duty.
And if we must have heroes, and wars wherein to make
them, there is no so brilliant. war as a war with wrong, no
hero so fit to be sung as he who has gained the bloodless
victory of truth and mercy.
"' But if bravery be not the same as courage, still it is a
very imposing and plausible counterfeit. The man himself
is told, after the occasion is past, how heroically he bore himself, and when once his nerves have become tranquillized, he
begins even to believe it. And since we cannot stay content in the dull, uninspired world of economy and work, we
are as ready to see a hero as he to be one. Nay, we must
have our heroes, as I just said, and we are ready to harness
ourselves, by the million, to any man who will let us fight
him  out the name. Thus we find out occasions for war, —
wrongs to be redressed, revenges to be taken, such as we
may feign inspiration and play the great heart under. We
collect armies, and dress up leaders in gold and high colors,
meaning, by the brave look, to inspire some notion of a hero
beforehand. Then we set the men in.phalanxes and squadrons, where the personality itself is taken away, and a vast
impersonal person, called an army, a magnanimous and
brave monster; is all that remains. The masses of fierce
color, the glitter of steel, the dancing plumes, the waving
flags, the deep throb of the music lifting every foot, - under
* Phi Beta Oration at Cambridge, 1848, pp. 21, 22.




268     LESSONS OF THE WAR WITH MEXICO.
these the living acres of men, possessed by the one thought
of playing brave to-day, are rolled on to battle. Thunder,
fire, dust, blood, groans, - what of these? - nobody thinks
of these, for nobody dares to think till the day is over, and
then the world rejoices to behold a new batch of heroes!
"And this is the Devil's play that we call war."
And, finally, we have been startled by this wild crusade
into a new conviction of the vast latent war-spirit of our
country and of the world, and the necessity of more untiring
and devoted labors, and more comprehensive plans to carry
the peace enterprize to a triumphant conclusion. We believe in the true mission or destiny of our nation to illustrate
the idea of Freedom and a Christian State. But if we disown the glorious career, God is not so poor that he has not
other nations and races which he can employ for purposes
equally grand and beneficent. We may hug the delusive
phantom that we are a species of Israel among other people,
but let us not forget that Israel did not escape the fiery
furnace of punishment and retribution for all their transgressions and backslidings.
And, as we reflect upon the work to be done to guide this
giant republic on a safe and peaceful career, we ask who is
sufficient for these things? Oh, for parents of peace, who
will make their well-ordered families so many living peace
societies! Oh, for Christian teachers, who will early train
the tender minds under their care to govern those passions
whence wars and fightings come! Oh, for Christian historians, who will write the dark register of crime and cruelty
with a melting heart, and a righteous, wholesome indignation, and warn while they instruct! Oh, for statesmen of
peace, who will feel that they are amenable to God more
than man, to Christ than to country, and that every war is a
stab at the very existence of civil society, a reversal of civilization, a suicide of the republic! Oh, for Gospel ministers,
who will proclaim the whole counsel of God on this subject,




SUBSTITUTES FOR WAR.               269
and from the commanding station of the pulpit, with the
meek wisdom  of their master, win all men to "study the
things that make for peace!"
CHAPTER XXIX.
SUBSTITUTES FbR WAR.
" In thirty-one days the natural results of this system of peace and
fraternity have been more valuable to the cause of France and of
liberty and of Poland herself, than ten battles with torrents of blood."
LAMARTINE.
" For what can war but endless war still breed?"
MILTON.
WE have already argued at length on the beginning and
ending of the war, as instructive and striking lessons of
peace. In continuation and expansion of the same idea, in
a little different direction, we would take up the means of
preventing war by negotiation, arbitration, congress of nations, or some other method. Surely such an infernal system
ought not to go on without the wisest counsels, and the most
strenuous efforts of all Christipns, patriots, and philanthropists to arrest it. "Shall the sword devour forever?"   Ve
believe not. WVe have full faith, that there is latent abhorrence enough against war in Christendom to sheathe the
sword, were it given utterance, and positive, practical application. There is an amount of sleeping indignation and
opposition, so to say, in the minds of the Christian men and
*women in America, were it called forth, organized, and put
into execution, to sweep the accursed institution among ourselves into eternal oblivion. But hitherto there have not
23*




z270           SUBSTITUTES FOR WAR.
been sufficient decision and action on the subject. WVe have
tampered and played and compromised with the evil. We
have perhaps unconsciously and unintentionally, but actually,
nursed the war-passion in the tender minds of our children
and youth.  Our great institutions of army, navy, militia,
arsenals, naval and military schools, have done much to
"educate the heart of the people for war." We have gloried
in the past wars of our young republic, and promoted their
heroes to the most brilliant posts of honor and emolument
at home and abroad.
The subject of Peace and War, therefore, comes as
surely under the law of cause and effect, as that of any
other in the material or moral world. The causes and
means of Peace, if properly and faithfully employed, would
eventually result in peace, just as the causes and means
of War have resulted in war. With a peace-education, a
peace-literature, a true, and not a counterfeit " peace-establishment," a peace-administration of the general government,
and shall we not say in view of some facts which have been
stated in this essay, a peace-religion, the relations of the
United States with every other government would be consolidated on a pacific basis, which nothing would be able to
shake. And to the furtherance and ultimate carrying out of
these peaceful influences on the part of society at large, two or
three additional ideas should be incorporated into the permanent law of nations.
1. ZMediation and Arbitration. These instruments of averting war, settling international questions, or putting an end to
hostilities, have been often employed of late, and oftener as
the relations of nations to one another have been seen more
in a Christian light, and as falling, like the relations of individuals one to another, under all the solemn and binding
sanctions of the law of God.
Thus, in the very matter of these difficulties between
Mexico and Texas and the United States, we have no less




SUBSTITUTES FORl WAR.            271
than three instances of the friendly offices of other governments, and in two of them the result was partially or wholly
successful, and promoting a good understanding.
In adjusting the claims for Mexican spoliations, 1840 —
1842, a Prussian umpire was employed to decide between
the Mexican and American commissioners.
In 1845, through the intervention of Great Britain and
France, Mexico consented to acknowledge the independence
of Texas, " provided she would stipulate not to annex herself or become subject to any country whatever."  That
provision was not however fulfilled.
In 1846, Great Britain offered her mediation both to
Mexico and the United States, to effect a treaty of peace,
but by both powers it was either declined, or neglected.
But were there a proper spirit prevailing among the high
officers of Christian governments, and were they sustained
by the good sense and forbearance of the people, it would
be held to be no more derogatory for two nations to accept
the intervention of a third power to effect a peace, or to
prevent war, or to submit their disputes to a friendly arbitration, than it is for individuals to do the same or similar things in their private transactions.  Unfortunately
however, the sensitivness of national honor is such, that it
often refuses, after the duelist's example, to be satisfied with
any thing short of human blood. Were the great mass of the
population in any civilized country brought to see and understand the miseries, losses, and sins of war, they would
sustain their rulers by the omnipotence of public opinion in
any honest measures that would avert such an inundation of
evils. How much more truly honorable in the sight of God
and the nations would it have been, to submit our questions
with Mexico to a board of impartial referees, or to accept
the mediatorial offices of friendly powers to stay the rivers
of blood! He who in private life is bent upon going to Jaw
with his neighbor, and rejects the proffers of conciliation,




272              SUBSTITUTES FOR WAR.
is thought to be governed by sinister motives of revenge,
apprehension of the badness of his cause, or of the results
of an unbiassed examination. May not a like unfavorable
construction be put upon the conduct of the nation that scorns
pacific measures, and strides on to its work of blood, deaf to the
entreaties, and amicable remonstrances of other powers?
The best method to insure arbitration in all cases of difficulty, is to insert in every treaty an article binding both
parties to adopt that mode of adjusting boundaries, claims,
and all questions. Mr. Roberts, first President of the Republic
of Liberia, stated at the Peace Congress in Brussels, Sept.
1848, that " he had caused to be inserted in treaties, made
with many of the African tribes, a clause, binding the parties
to refer their difficulties to arbitration, and had thus succeeded in preventing war from breaking out between those
savage tribes for ten years. If the measure were practicable among such populations, whose ruling passion was war,
what might it not do for peace, if adopted by civilized and
Christian nations?'*
There are many reasons why nations should settle their
disputes by legal forms, rather than by the uncertain chances
of the battle-field. - It is done by individuals and in corporations, and in our Union by the several States, and were it
done by nations the change from barbarism to law would be
completed. Then the chances of justice being fulfilled would
be multiplied. The innocent would not be involved with
the guilty in the horrid sufferings of war. Vast sums of
money would be saved.  The unspeakable disgrace and
wickedness of nominally Christian nations engaged in cutting one another's throats on somle punctilio of claim or
ceremony, would be averted. It is to be hoped that every
future treaty contracted by the United States and the European nations will contain a specific provision for arbitration,
like the following one in the Treaty with Mexico.
Advocate of Pcanec vol. viii., p. 297.




SUBSTITUTES FOR WAR.               273
ARTICLE XXI.
"If unhappily any disagreement should hereafter arise between the governments of the two republics, whether with
respect to the interpretation of any stipulation in this treaty,.or with respect to any other particular concerning the political or commercial relations of the two nations, the said
governments in the name of those nations, do promise to
each other that they will endeavor, in the most sincere and
earnest manner, to settle the difference so arising, and to preserve the state of peace and friendship in which the two
countries are now placing themselves; using, for this end,
mutual representations, and pacific negotiations. And if,
by these means, they should not be enabled to come to an
agreement, a resort shall not, on this account, be had to reprisals, aggression, or hostility of any kind, by the one
republic against the other, until the government of that
which deems itself aggrieved shall have maturely considered,
in the spirit of peace and good neighborship, whether it
would not be better that such difference should be settled by
the arbitration of commissioners appointed on each side, or
by that of a friendly nation. And should such course be
proposed by either party, it shall be acceded to by the other,
unless deemed by it altogether incompatible with the nature
of the difference, or the circumstances of the case."
The next Article in the Treaty is an attempt, as has been
said, to bind the parties, if they should again fight, (" which
is not to be expected, and which God forbid!") to make war
on Christian principles!
And let it not be here said, that nations must be left to
manage their own concerns for themselves, and that it is the
business of no third party to say how they shall settle their
quarrels. On the contrary, it does very much concern every
nation that every other nation be at peace. It is the busi



274               SUBSTITUTES FOR WAR.
ness, very properly and necessarily the business of every
nation, that its neighbors be not embroiled in sanguinary
conflicts on shore, spoliations upon one another's commerce
on the sea, nor that they should in any way interrupt the
great channels of human intercourse, trade, and improvement. There may at particular periods be partial benefits,
arising from war among their neighbors, to neutral powers;
but in general it is the deranger of commerce, the embroiler
of international connections beyond the parties directly involved, the signal to confusion and every evil work through
the world.  The war-trumpet blows discord into the ear
of listening nations. A slight contest between inconsiderable
powers has sometimes in history brought on that awful era
in human events, called "a general war."  Much responsibility rests upon those who first break the peace in the
family of nations. And from such considerations it is plainly
the interest and duty of neutral nations to use their good
offices to restore peace between the belligerents. On every
ground, too, of humanity and Christianity, it is imperative
that democracies of all governments should cordially welcome the amiable intervention of others to heal their
discords; for war is the enemy of the people, the enemy of
liberty, the certain subverter of most of the benefits proposed by free institutions. IIistory is full of warnings upon
this subject, and if we are not deaf as adders, we shall
hearken to the solemn voice that issues from the grave of
departed republics.
2. Congress of Nations. But mediation or arbitration, valuable as it may be and has been, is not sufficiently systematic
and general, to contribute very effectually to extinguish the
firebrands of war. We have just had mournful evidence that
some more efficacious instrument is demanded for the pacification even of Christian republics and near neighbors.
The most satisfactory plan which has yet been suggested
is that of a Congress of Nations; or a Congress and a




SUBSTITUTES FOR WAR.              275
Court of Nations, one as the preliminary and legislative
body, and the other as the judicial and executive one; the
one to enact rules, and the other to judge cases, and carry its
decisions into effect.  Many objections have been raised
against this, and every other project of perpetual pacification
among the nations, but they are in general founded either
on a misconception of the plan proposed, or on the old notion, that what has been, must be. If an august body should
meet, of the wisest and best men, venerable for age and services, experienced in all matters of a legal, judicial, political,
and moral character, elevated far above the aims of a selfish
ambition, consulting with a large vision not for any narrow
sectional interest of one or a few, but for the welfare of the
world, it would be a spectacle in itself to command the universal admiration, homage and obedience of mankind. This
object would be as sublime as it would be beneficent, to
pacificate a warring world, to staunch the bleeding wounds
of kingdoms, to actualize the prophetic and millennial age,
and establish in steadfast loyalty the undisputed reign of
the Prince of Peace.
The details of such a world-Congress, or Court, one or
both, would of course require more discussion than can be
given to them in this review. They will be found, however,
at length in the Prize Essays on a Congress of nations, published by the American Peace Society, and in a compiled
Essay on the same subject by the late distinguished philanthropist, William Ladd.'We only insert the subject here
in cohnection with another frightful chapter in our history,
that speaks in thunder-tones of the need of such an institution, or some one like it, to avert these wholesale murders.
WVhen a new idea is first broken to the mind, there is apt to
be some revulsion from it as being novel, extravagant, and
aggressive upon our previous views. But the longer it is
entertained, if it be true and valuable, the more fully do we
become convinced that all truth is harmonious, safe, and pro



276            SUBSTITUTES FOR WAR.
fitable; and that precisely what the nations are perishing
for, is lack of knowledge; that what the "whole creation
groaneth and travaileth" for, is the faithful application of
the truths of Christ to the wants of human society, in all
public affairs as well as in private conduct and to the individual heart. The word of God is no mere fine theory,
but the eternal verity, deeper than the sea, higher than the
heavens, of these momentous interests of man living with
man, and nation with nation; " neither is there salvation in
any other."
But most thoroughly are we persuaded that there is
nothing in the plan in question more wild or Quixotic than
the institution of civil society itself, especially than the
leagues and alliances recorded in history, and the Federal
Union of thirty independent States in our own government.
What is needed is, that the idea of a great pacific tribunal
to settle the disputes of the world, should be broached,
familiarized to the people, sent ab-road on the wings of the
press, hammered by dint of heavy and oft-repeated arguments into the mass of admitted and accredited truths, and
then the work is done. WVe have trained mankind to war,
we must now train them to peace. When the spirit of
peace is largely developed in the public sentiment of Europe
and America, this institution will be born in a day. The
tendency of these remarks is to show that the agitation of
the subject is what is now most exigent. By books and
pamphlets, by the living voice and the inspired pen, this
theme must be brought home to the minds and hearts of
men, and they must be made to feel that every individual,
be he high or low, rich or poor, is vitally concerned in having the great quarrels of kingdoms justly and amicably
settled, as he is that justice should be done between man
and man, and peace and order prevail in his hamlet or
village. For in the earthquake shocks of war a thousand
homes are overturned, and the mark of blood is left behind




PACIFICATION OF THE WORLD.              277
on ten thousand spheres of life once usefully and happily
filled by fathers, sons, husbands, brothers. Let us hope, and
labor, and pray, that the day may not be far distant when
civilized and Christian men will see the madness of war, its
bald inconsistency with the theory of a republican government, its hostility to the spirit of the present age, and its
nullification of every law, and promise, and prayer of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
CHAPTER XXX.
PACIFICATION OF THE WORLD.
"' Vhen the drums shall throb no longer,
And the battle-flags be furled
In the Parliament of man,
The Federation of the world." - TENNYSON.
" Neither shall they learn war any more." - ISAIAH.
SINCE war has so many evils, and peace so many blessings, may we not labor with hope for the fulfilment of the
prophet's vision? Since the expenditures of military expeditions, the destruction of multitudes of lives, the barbarities, executions, illegalities, personal, domestic, and political
evils, the vices of the camp, the creation of a species of
maltial literature, the introduction of false maxims of conduct, and the counteraction of the Gospel by the war-spirit,
chargeable upon our conflict with Mexico, are virtually the
same in all wars, may we not hope that the good sense of
mankind. and their feelinaq of llimn.n hrat.hmhaonr1 wrll




278         PACIFICATION OF THE WORLD.
finally gain such a predominance as to effect the pacification
of the whole world? And, especially, is not this expectation
encouraged by the well known fact that many other evil
customs and habits have disappeared and are disappearing
before the more Christian civilization of the present day?
What now is witchcraft? An obsolete superstition. Where
are torture, and the appeal to fire, or water? Laid away
among exploded ideas. Where are the Inquisition and persecution for heresy? Gone beyond all power of recall.
Where are privateering, and piracy, anid the slave trade?
All entered in the " Index Expurgatorius " of international
law. Where are slavery, intemperance, and war? Gradually falling under the same ban, and no longer acquiesced
in as necessary evils, but recognized as mutable and capable
of eradication with the other corrupt usages specified, if
efficient and Christian means be applied, with faith and perseverance, for their removal. The day is gone for any
man, with the Bible in his hand, and God and heaven above
him, to say that war must be eternal. We do not presume
to date the year or century of the laying aside by the
nations of their cumbrous coats of mail, and the disarmament of their numerous troops and squadrons, and the establishment of those modes of adjusting international difficulties
detailed in the last chapter. But we see already symptoms
of returning health in the body politic, though joined with
some other prognostics less favorable. Cases of mediation,
arbitration, and peaceable intervention, are multiplying.
Treaties are constructed with more reference to perrnanency. It has become fashionable even for kings and statesmen, out of deference to a certain rising public sentiment of
mankind, to speak well of peace. War has been summoned
to answer for itself before the judgment-seat of civilization
and of Christianity, and it is found to make bfit a poor justification. The friends of peace are in earnest and increasing. The solitary protestations of a Penn or Worcester




PACIFICATION OF THE WORLD.           279
have multiplied into the deep-toned remonstrances of a London, a Brussels, and a Paris World's Convention of Peace.
The press and the pulpit are enlisted. The power of association is invoked. "Olive leaves" are flying far and near.
While, therefore, the drum-beat still heralds the morning
sun round the globe, we will not so far distrust God, or
despair of our race, as to believe that, when daily triumphs
are achieved over the brute elements of nature; and fire, and
water, and, steam, and magnetism, and electricity are bowed
to the service and control of man, he is never to acquire any
better government over those brutal passions of his own
nature, whose outbreaks are far more disastrous to life and
happiness than the volcano, the earthquake, or the hurricane.
WVhen we consider how little has been done to prevent
war, and how much to cultivate its spirit, and to invest its
feats with a factitious glory; how literature and the fine arts,
and politics, and, sad to confess, even professed Christians
have encouraged, applauded, and diffused the passion for
arms, we wonder not at the frequency of battles, and the
human blood that has stained half the land and sea of the
whole earth. Indeed the martial spirit has been so prevalent,
mankind have drunk it so greedily as if it were as innocent
as water, that we are prone to forget what a thorough' education we give our children for war, and how little we do for
the pacification of the world.
For when we inquire how this vast underlying passion for
war has been educated and ripened in the heart of society, we
shall be constrained to answer: It is by the war-songs of childhood, and the studies of the classics. It is by the wooden
sword, and the tin drum of boyhood. It is by the trainings
and the annual muster. It is by the red uniform and the white
plume, and the prancing steed. It is by the cannon's thunder, and the gleam of the bayonet. It is by ballads of Robin
Hood, and histories of Napoleon, and "Tales of the Crusaders." It is by the presentation of flags by the hands of




280        PACIFICATION OF THE WORLD.
the fair, and the huzzas for a victory. It is by the example
of the father and the consent of the mother. It is by the
fear of cowardice, and the laugh of the scorner. It is by
the blood of youth, and the pride of manhood, and stories
of revolutionary sires. It is by standing armies, and majestic
men-of-war. It is by the maxims of self defence, and the
cheapness of human life, and the love of excitement. It is
by novels of love, and the " Pirate's Own Book."  It is by
the jars of home, and the squabbles of party, and the controversies of sects. It is by the misconception of the Bible,
and ignorance of God. It is by the bubble of glory, and
the emulation of schools, and the graspings of money-making.
By one and by all, the heart of the community is educated
for war, from the cradle to the coffin. W~hen we sow the
seed so copiously, we must not complain that the harvest is
abundant.
And if we would inquire, how the heart of the world can
be calmed, and enlarged, and inspired with the life-breath
of peace; we can only say that such a heart comes from the
nurture of home, and the solemnity of the church, and the
tomb of; the loved and gone. It comes by the closet of
prayer, and the communion of nature, and the table of the
Lord. It comes by a sister's love and a brother's example,
and the memory of "the good old place." It comes in the
distilling dew of Christian instruction and the infinite sanctions of death, judgment, and eternity. It comes by the
sweetness of Fenelon, and the love of Scougal; by the majesty of Luther, and the humanity of Penn. It comes by
the horror of blood, and the courage to be a coward in the
wrong. It comes by the testimonies of the wise, and the
heroism of the good. It comes by the Beatitudes of the
New Testament, and the Lord's Prayer, and Paul's masterpiece of Charity, and John's epistle of Love. It comes by
him who was born in a manger and died on a cross, the Son
of God, the Prince of Peace, the Saviour of sinners.




CONCLUSION.                     281
By these means the weaker spirit of war may be made to
yield to the mightier spirit of peace. " And," in the words
of an English divine,* suggestive of some of the foregoing
remarks, " it must appear to what most awful obligation and
duty we hold all those from whom this heart takes its nature
and shape, our king, our princes, our nobles, all who wear
the badge of office, or honor; all priests, judges, senators,
pleaders, interpreters of law, all instructors of youth, all
seminaries of education, all parents, all learned men, all professors of science and art, all teachers of manners. Upon
them depends the fashion of the nation's heart. By them it
is to be chastised, refined, and purified. By them is the state
to lose the character and title of the beast of prey. By them
are the iron scales to fall off, and a skin of youth, beauty,
freshness, and polish, to come upon it. By them it is to be
made so tame and gentle as that a child may lead it."
CHAPTER XXXI.
CONCLUSION.
"I have been apt to think there never has been, nor ever,will be, any
such thing as a good war, or a bad peace." - FRANKLIN.
" Then, at least shall it be seen, that there can be no peace that is not
honorable, and there can be no war that is not dishonorable." — CHARLES
S UMNER.
AN able writer of the present day has said, that "the
philosophical study of facts may be undertaken for three
different purposes; the simple description of the facts; their
* Rev. Dr. Ramsden.
24*




282                 CONCLUSION.
explanation; or prediction, meaning by prediction, the determination of the conditions under which similar facts may be
expected again to occur."  The Mexican war is now numbered among the things of the past. What has been done,
is done; and what has been written, is written. Its consequences, how-ever, will long remain, and will mingle with
future events and influences materially to affect our national
prospects. A treaty may stop the war, though some symptoms are unfavorable, but it cannot stop the war-results. The
question then is, hlow can this great evil be turned to the
best account. After narrating and explaining its events, so
as to get a clear idea of its origin, causes, losses of life and
treasure, and its social, political, and moral evils, the next
step is to state the conditions on which we may predicate the
recurrence of similar mischiefs; or draw such lessons of
warning and encouragement, as will tend to prevent them.
This end the American Peace Society propose to accomplish
by publishing a Review of the War, and pointing out clearly
and impressively to the citizens of our land, what measures
should be taken to save us from plunging again into like
calamities. Thus reviewed, and exposed, this darkest of all
the passages in our country's history, and most ominous of
evil to come, in the judgment of wise statesmen, and sage
moralists, may be converted into an unexpected blessing.
The wars, consequent upon the French Revolution, aroused
the friends of Peace on both sides of the ocean to more
positive and combined action in behalf of this cause, and
induced the formation of associations to work for the grand
object of a universal and perpetual pacification of the world.
nMuch has thus been effected to enlighten both rulers and
people, and to impress upon both their solemn duties. Much
has been done by the devoted and untiring laborers in this
department of Christian philanthropy, over which angels
must rejoice, and the King of kings extend his benediction.
But the great work has but just been commenced. We




CONCLUSION.                    283
cannot suppose that so "' splendid " a sin as war can at once
be stripped of its false and fascinating garb, that the deeplyrooted and long-revered customs of nations can be torn up
in a day, martial passions and habits be checked, and a public opinion, and a public conscience and heart too be formed
on the subject, of sufficient potency to sheathe the sword forever. But the slowness of progress, the discouragements of
efforts, the violent opposition with which a good cause and
its advocates meet, do not release us from our duty to that
cause, or furnish in reality a solitary reason why we should fold
our arms in despair. The cause of Peace only suffers a like
fate from opposition, misconstruction and misrepresentation, as
the other glorious causes of philanthropy, and as that parent
religion of which these causes are the legitimate and hopeful
offspring. WVe may be sure that nothing is lost, that is done
in a true spirit and a high aim for the furtherance of human
good, and the divine glory. God forbid that we should ever
fear that " His ear is heavy that it cannot hear, or His hand
shortened, that it cannot save!"
In this faith, the Mexican war is a new weapon, put into
the hands of peace, wherewith to win her bloodless victories.
It teaches us, were lessons wanting, the folly of all war, its
sin against God, and its subversion of His great plan. It
teaches us by its gory fields of carnage, and the screaming
hells of its hospitals, that a retributive God sits in the heavens, and that those " who take the sword, shall perish by the
sword."  If rightly interpreted and faithfully laid to heart,
it is capable of showing us the emptiness of military glory,
the contentious and unchristian spirit which it cherishes
among the officers and soldiers of the same side, the torrent
of vices that is let loose in the path of armies, and the profuse waste that is made of all that men hold dear, or labor
most industriously to attain. It is a lesson at home, a republican, an American lesson. It has been brought nigh to
many a heart, alas, and many a home, and burnt as with a




284                  CONCLUSION.
red-hot branding-iron upon the memory of thousands, by
bereavements and pains, such as God only can know, and
eternity measure. And we believe that all the warnings and
forebodings of the opponents to the annexation of Texas
now stand vindicated in the light of a feaIful and guilty history. Their prophecy is now fact. They predicted a war
with MIexico, the extension of slavery and the slave-power,
and infuriate lust of territory, the hatching of new schemes
of war and plunder, and a headlong course of conquest and
aggrandizement.  We are deep in these evils and their
results, or waver on the brink, apparently about to plunge in
deeper than ever. If these things be so, then let the predictions and warnings of the friends of peace at this time
not fall, Cassandra-like, on cold hearts and insensible consciences. But let every patriot and Christian, every lover
of liberty and man, study what he can do to help stay the
hour of his country's danger, and, perhaps, ruin. It profits
little to sit still and croak, like the ill-boding raven, of ills to
come; but we must forth into the field of duty, action, and
influence, and by voice and vote, by pen and purse, by
example and precept, by a living and by a dying testimony,
whether ours be the widow's mite or the rich man's offering,
the influence of the high, or the word of the humble, strive,
as for life, to arrest the downward tendency of things, recall
the promise of our young republic, relight the torch of freedom, shame modern degeneracy with the early doctrines of
our history, and set in vivid contrast the heathen nation we
are in danger of becoming, with the glory of a true Christian commonwealth.
Let, therefore, these awful lapses in national virtue only
serve to arouse to a more comprehensive and resolute course
of action the disciples of the Prince of Peace. Let them
thank God and take courage, that if they cannot wholly
extinguish the wide-spread conflagration of war, they can
yet rescue many victims from its fiery passions and its cor



CONCLUSION.                  285
rupting moral code. Let them bear their testimony against
evils, still too powerful to be subdued at once. Let them see
the hope and beauty of a brighter to-morrow symbolized in
the rainbow that spans the departing thunder-cloud. War
is but one section of the kingdom of Satan that is doomed to
be overthrown by the kingdom of God. There is as much
encouragement in laboring to remove this sin as any other
of the gigantic evils that prey upon humanity. Faith, therefore, faith is the word; faith vivified and illuminated by
hope; faith made strong, and gentle, and patient by charity;
faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord, the spiritual Governor of
men, in whose kingdom of liberty, righteousness, and love,
all nations, races, colors, clans, and sects, will at last be harmonized, and God shall be all in all.
Yea, despite the late war, despite the belligerent symptoms of the day at home, despite the warlike aspect of Christendom abroad, though all Europe seems to be turned into
barracks and camps, and every country to be resounding
with the march of armies hastening to the combat, our just
and reasonable confidence in the ultimate triumph of the
Gospel of peace is not in the least shaken. The last thirty
years of comparative pacification have not passed in vain.
Darker clouds than now overhang our horizon, have in
former times shut out the light of heaven and hope. If in
the solid midnight of sin and superstition, when the whole
world lay bound at the chariot wheels of a military despotism, Jesus and his apostles knew that a better day was coming, how undying should be our faith amid the breaking of
the morning light! For the truth is great, and it will prevail. God is faithful, and his promise will be redeemed.
The Gospel is from the Almighty, and it must prevail over
man. It is light from heaven, and the darkness of earth
must flee before it. Its power is infinite, and its obstacles
only finite.
Though for a season then, or for ages its victory may be




286                 CONCLUSION.
delayed, the final result is none the less certain, for it is
guaranteed by Him who alone is True. Verily, though the
world should again plunge into that gulf of horrojs, called a
general war; though Christian nations should apostatize,
and the churches sink into corruption; though the mighty
impulses of philanthropy should fail, and the missionaries of
the cross should return home, and renounce the sublime hope
of evangelizing the world; though our holy faith should
retire from the city and the assembly of men, and hide itself
from the gaze of the world, we would yet follow her in fear
and darkness to her last holy retreat on earth, to the spot,
where a mother was kneeling over her new-born infant, and
offering up to the Father of spirits her thanks and supplications, and even there catch a new inspiration of faith and
hope for the revival of Christianity. For we should remember the sacred scene, eighteen hundred years ago, when the
mother of Bethlehem prayed over the babe in the manger,
and blessed her Saviour-child; and angels from heaven sang
the anthem of his birth; " Glory to God in the highest, and
on earth peace, good will toward men."




APPENDIX.
THE HISTORICAL EVENTS OF THE WAR.
"Lastly, stood War, in glittering arms yclad,
VWith visage grim, stern look, and blackly hued;
In his right hand a naked sword he had,
That to the hilt was all with blood imbrued;
And in his left (that kings and kingdoms rued)
Famine and fire he held, and therewithal
IHe razed towers, and threw down towers and all.
"Cities he sacked, and realms (that whilom flowered
In honor, glory, and rule above the rest)
HIe overwhelmed, and all their fame devoured,
Consumed, destroyed, wasted; and never ceased
Till he their wealth, their name and all oppressed.
His face forehewed with wounds; and by his side
There hung his targe, with gashes deep and wide."
TunOAS SACZVLLE.
ALL honor to the hearty old English Poet, who dared thus, in a
warlike age, to unveil the hideous idol men worshipped, under the
self-contradictory terms of military glory. IIe represents the god as
no young and knightly cavalier, riding forth, splendidly arrayed, at
the sound of martial music, to do the feats of chivalry, and redress
the wrongs of the injured. Far truer is his personification. The
figure of his brain, moulded in a feeling heart, was that of a grim
and ghastly giant, bringing up the rear of the procession of Remorse,
Dread, Revenge, Misery, Care, Malady, Famine, and Death; his face
dark and stern, and scarred with wounds; his hands filled with the awful
besoms of destruction, fire, and hunger, and the sword; his rent and
battered shield  hanging at his side; and his path marked with burning
cities, desolated countries, falling realms, haggard want, and ruin and




288                       APPENDIX.
oblivion. He thus wrote, in the words of Poetry, the solemn truth of
History. Would to heaven that all his brethren of the immortal art
had been equally faithful!
In recording a brief sketch of the events of the Mexican War, for
the purpose of reference, we shall paint no battle-scenes, and utter no
eulogies. Enough of them may be found in other quarters, to satisfy
the most morbid appetite. The letter-writer, the biographer, the politician, the historian, and the rhymster, have vied with one another, in
giving illuminated editions of its fearful tales. The artist has painted
the features of its heroes, and the panoramas of its marches and batties. The engraver has traced on wood, and stone, and steel, the
deadly charge, the smoke of musketry and artillery, and the dead and
dying stretched upon the bloody earth, with the Star-spangled Banner
leading on its hosts to victory. Dazzled with the false show, and
excited with the intoxication of a momentary triumph, men thus fail
to see war as it is, in all its heart-rending realities and its lasting results. It is a mere gorgeous vision, a passing dream of glory to them.
They do not look down into its abysses of pains and agonies; its awful
Aceldama of groans, and tears, and death. We desire, by no word of
ours, to invest these scenes with aught but their own proper character. We would simply narrate coldly; and it may be tamely, the bare
facts.
The Mexican War dates virtually, though not actually, from the
3d of March, 1845, when, by a Joint Resolution, which was passed by
both branches of Congress —in the HIouse of Representatives, by a
vote of 120 to 98; and in the Senate, of 27 to 25- and which was on
that day, the last of his administration, signed by the President, John
Tyler, Texas was annexed to the American Union.
The Mexican Minister, Almonte, immediately demanded his passports, and left the country; declaring the act of annexation to be an
act of hostility to Mexico.  Distinguished statesmen of the United
States also took the same view of the sulject.
But Mexico was poor, distracted, and revolutionary, and she had no
means to vindicate what she regarded as her violated honor. The act
of war did not follow. She contented herself with protesting.
The United States, however, were not idle. In August, 1845,* Gen.
Taylor was despatched, with a regular body of troops, drawn from
different posts, - first as an army of " Observation," then of " Occupa.
tion," -to the town of Corpus Christi.
* 30th Congress, 1st Session, IHoure of Representatlves, Ex. Doe. 60, p. 101.




HISTORICAL EVENTS OF THE WAR.                     289
But on. the 13th of January, 1846, Mr. Marcy, Secretary of War of
the United States, wrote to Gen. Taylor, as' follows: *  "I am directed,
by the President, to instruct you to advance and occupy, with the
troops under your command, positions on or near the east bank of the
Rio del Norte, as soon as it can be conveniently done.
It is not designed, in our present relations with Mexico, that you.
should treat her as an enemy; but should she assume that character,
by a declaration of war, or any open act of hostility towards us, you
will not act merel on the defensive."  Gen. Taylor obeyed orders. He
received the letter early in February, and, dn the 11th of March, he
commenced his nmarch from Corpus Christi for the Rio Grande, one
hundred and fifty miles distant, across a desert, or rolling prairie. On
the 20th of the same month he was met, at the river Colorado, by the
Mexicans, whose commanding officer, Gen. Mejia, announced, that
if the American forces should cross that river, it would be considered
as a declaration of war, and actual hostilities would ensue.t But the
warning was disregarded, and the troops pursued their way, and
arrived on the banks of the Rio Grande without any serious molestation.  Repeated remonstrances were made by the authorities, both
civil and military, to the American commander, ag'ainst the occupation of what they regarded as a part of the Mexican province of
Tamaulipas. They declared the alternative of his withdrawal to the
Nueces or war. But Taylor remained, and erected Fort Brown, on
the left bank of the Rio Grande, commanding the city of Matamoras
on the other side. Several skirmishes took place between parties of
the two nations, in which lives were lost. Fort Brown, and a small
force left to keep possession of it, were bombarded, during the absence
of the commander-in-chief and his main army, to obtain his military stores, which had been landed at Point Isabel; but the Americans
maintained their position, though summoned to surrender.
On his return from Point Isabel, Gen. Taylor was met by the Mexican army, under the command of Gen. Arista, at a point on the prairies, a few miles from the Rio Grande, called Plo Alto, which is distinguished, as giving a name to the first battle of the war. The contest occurred on the 8th of May, 1846, commencing at about two
o'clock, P. M.; and was sustained during five hours, when the Mexicans were defeated, with great loss in killed and wounded.  The
* 30th Congress, 1st Session, Ihouse of Represcntatives, Ex. Doc. 60, pp. 90, 91.
Also, for the war-despatches in general, see 30th Congress, 1st Session, House of Representatives, Ex. Dec. 60. Senate, Ex. Doc. 1. Otlh Corgrecss, 21 Session, House of
representatives, Ex. Doec. 1.
t 30th Congress, 1st Session, IIouse of Representatives, Ex. Dec. 60, pp. 145, 146.
25




290                       APPENDIX.
Americans numbered 2,300, according to the report of their general;
while he says " the strength of the enemy is believed to have been
about 6,000 men."'On the following day, May 9th, Gen. Taylor advanced two or three
miles along the road through the chapparal, towards the Rio Grande,
when he found the enemy in position for battle, at a ravine called
Resaca de la Palbma.  The action commenced about four o'clock in the
afternoon, and lasted one hour and a half; when the Mexicans, under
the command of Arista, were entirely routed and pursued to the river,
in which multitudes were drowned, in attempting to cross to Matamoras.
The immediate result of these victories was the capture, without
resistance, of the city of Matamoras, and the opening of the whole
Valley of the Rio Grande to the American arms. The forces of the
enemy were dispersed, and, to use the military phrase, demoralized.
The reverses of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma had sent dismay
through the country. In the course of the summer Gen. Taylor occupied, without any difficulty, the townis of Reynosa, Camargo, Mier, and
Ceralvo, and advanced upon Monterey.
In the meantime, advices had been received at Washington of the
critical situation of Gen. Taylor, about the 1st of May; and the President, in a Message to Congress, dated the 11th of that month, used
the following language: * " But now, after reiterated menaces, Mexico
has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory, and shed American blood upon American soil. She has proclaimed that hostilities have commenced, and that the two nations are
now at war."
" As war exists, and, notwithstanding our efforts to avoid it, exists
by the act of Mexico herself, we are called upon, by every consideration of duty and patriotism, to vindicate, with decision, the honor, the
rights and the interests of our country."
On the same day, a bill passed the House of Representatives, 174
to 14, and, on the subsequent one, was enacted by the Senate, 42 to 2.
declaring, that, "by the acts of the Republic of Mexico, a state of war.
exists between the United States and that republic;" placing ten millions of dollars at the disposal of the President; and authorizing himn
to employ the land and naval forces of the United States, and to accept the services of volunteers, to a number not exceeding 50,000, in
*30th Congress, 1st Session, House of Represcntatives, Ex. Doec. 60, pp. 8, 9.




HISTORICAL EVENTS OF THE WAR.                   291
prosecuting the war. On the 13th of May, 1846, a Proclamation of
War was issued by the highest executive authority.
A warlike enthusiasm ran, like wild-fire, over the Western, SouthWVcsteln, and Southern sections of the country, and, inll many instances, the number of volunteers, said to be 300,000 in all, was
far greater than could be mustered into service, according to the general appropriation of the respective States.* The Great Valley resounded with the din of preparation. Fathers and sons enlisted.
Some of more than the allotted age of man, seized the musket. More
than one of the ministers of the Prince of Peace caught the dangerous
contagion. The latent passions of the heart took fire, like tinder, at the
cry of war.
In such popular excitements men do not reason, they only feel, and,
feeling, act. Thus impelled, they may do the noblest deeds; they may
also perpetrate the most wicked crimes, and set in motion the most
irretrievable calamities. The call to arms is the occasion, of all others,
when human beings seem to lay aside the more manly and Christian
attributes of character, and put on those of the beast of prey, or
worse. But it is necessary also to admit, that a leaven of wc4l-intentioned, though often mistaken patriotism, mingles with the dark mass
of animal and demoniac passions. A. wild love of adventure, without
reference to the innocence or guilt of the objects to which it is directed,
also carries away the settlers in a new state of society, as with a flood.
Add some anticipations of booty; some old grudges of Santa F6, and
other border traders; some Texan vengeance, for the massacres of
Goliad and the Alamo; some ideas of Anglo-Saxon destiny; some
hope of distinction, and desire of bettering perhaps desperate fortunes;
and we have glimpses of the more prominent elements that moulded
thousands to one purpose, and precipitated them upon a second " conquest of Mexico."
The means, however, of transporting the troops to the theatre of
action, were not sufficient to enable the American commander to
advance rapidly into the enemy's country. About 9,000 men only
were under the command of Gen. Taylor, in the beginning of June;
and he assaulted Monterey, the capital of Nuevo Leon, about three
hundred and forty miles from Matamoras, with less than 7,000. On
the 19th of September, 1846, he appeared before that city, and invested
it. Active operations were carried on during Sunday. the 20th, 21st,
22d, and 23d; and on the 24th, the Mexican commander, Gen. Ampudia, surrendered.
* Young's History of Mexico, p. 380.




292                        APPENDIX.
Santa Anta returned from the West Indies to Vera Cruz,* and on the
15th of September, 1846, he reentered the capital, from which he had
been driven into exile, and was placed at the head of the Mexican
armies. Ite infused hew resolution into his countrymen, after all their
reverses, and assembled an army of more than 20,000 inert, called the
"Liberating Army of the North," to oppose Gen. Taylor. He contributed largely, of his own private property, to furnish supplies to his
troops, and was engaged for months in equipping, drilling, and organizing the different corps of his forces, at San Luis Potosi.
In the autumn, Gen. Taylor advanced bodies of troops to Saltillo,
sixty-five miles from Monterey; while Gen. Wool marched an army
of 2,400 over the Rio Grande, at the Presidio del Norte, and occupied
Monclova, and subsequently Parras. Gen. Quitman captured the town
of Victoria. In fact, the northern frontier of Mexico, upon the Rio
Grande, was in the complete possession of the Americans.
But the Mexican commander-in-chief determined to strike a decisive blow against the invaders of his country; and, on the 22d and
23d of February, 1847, he met Gen. Taylor in the valley of Buena
Vista, (beautiful sight,) six miles south of Saltillo, with troops, as he
stated in his challenge to surrender, amounting to 20,000 men. After
a terrible and sanguinary battle, fought two days, the Americans again
won a complete victory, at a fearful cost of life.
The Mexicans retreated in great disorder, during the night after the
battle, and the late formidable army was wholly disorganized and
scattered.  The route, by which they retired, was strewed with the
dead and dying. Santa Anna returned to the city of Mexico, and
Gen. Taylor reoccupied his former positions, and advanced as far as
to Encarnacion. No victory could be more decisive in its results.
With the exception of guerilla skirmishes, no other battles were
fought by Gen. Taylor except the four successful ones of Palo Alto,
Resaca de la Palma, Monterey, and Buena Vista. He urged upon the
Mexican Government from time to time the question of peace, but
they persisted in declaring that as long as a single invader had his foot
upon their soil, they scorned the proposal. " Say to General Taylor,"
said Santa Anna, when the subject was communicated to him after the
* The following pass gave him admission into Mexico:
" U. S. Navy Department, Flay 13,1846.
"CoMMODORE — If Santa Anna endeavors to enter the Mexican ports, you win)
allow him to pass freely.
" Respectfully yours,               GEoRGE BAxcRIOFr.
"Commodore David Connor, Comnmanding Home S quadracn.'




HISTORICAL EVENTS OF THE WAR.                   293
battle of Buena Vista,' that we sustain the most sacred of causes, -
the defence of our territory, and the preservation of our nationality and
rights; that we are not the aggressors; and that our Government has
never offended that of the United States. We can say nothing of
peace while the Americans are on this side of the Rio Bravo del Norte,
or occupy any part of the Mexican territory, or blockade our ports.
We are resolved to perish or vindicate our rights."
After this necessarily brief and imperfect sketch of the operations of
what was at first called " the Army of Observation," then " the Army
of Occupation," and what finally became, with a significant title, the
Army of''Invasion,"-t let us turn to view another part of the field
of war.
It had been proposed soon after the war broke out, to invade Mexico
at three different points, and thus divide and distract her forces. The
main army, under Gen. Taylor, was to advance from the Rio Grande
towards San Luis Potosi; a second smaller division, called "the Army
of the Centre," under Gen. Wool, was to march from Bexar, in Texas,
upon Chihuahua, the results of both of which movements have already
been given. But a third expedition, to be called " the Army of the
West," was to proceed from Missouri, cross the plains, occupy New
MIexico, hold its capital, Santa F6, and after that was achieved, a portionl of the same troops was to occupy California.
On the 30th of June, 1846, Gen. Samuel W. Kearney led the Army
of the W'est from Fort Leavenworth,, situated on the river Miissouri, and
after a march of 890 miles, took possession of Santa Fe, without resistance, on the 18th of August, 1846. On the 25th of September,
after making provision for a temporary government of NCew Mexico, he
took 300 dragoons, and marched on the route to California. Learning
on the way that that territory had been brought under the flag of the
United States by Commodore Stockton and Lient.-Colonel Fremont,
after some severe skirmishes with the enemy, he left 200 of his troops
in New Mexico, and with the remainder he marched 1,050 miles to
San Diego, near the Pacific Ocean. Several conflicts occurred with
the enemy, in which a considerable number were killed and wounded
on both sides. But victory attended the American arms in most instances, and the territory was hopelessly subdued.
Of the troops left behind in New Mexico, and augmented by reinforcements from the States, one portion was under the command of
Col. S. Price, and the remainder under that of Col. A. W. Doniphan.
* See Appendix to lion. J. H. Crozier's speech, delivered in the House of Representatives, Jan. 21, 1847.
25*




294                      APP'ENDIX.
On the 19th of January, 1847, the Mexicans and Indians revolted
against Gov. Bent of this territory, and put him and his followers, to
the number of fifteen, to death. Col. Price, with a body of 353 men,
met the enemy at the town of Canada, on Sunday, Jan. 24, 1847, and
dispersed them. A detachment of thle same troops, under Capt. Burgwin, engaged and conquered the enemy on Jan. 29th, at the pass of
Embudo. On Feb. 3d and 4tlh, Col. Price besieged a stronghold of the
insurgents, called Pueblo de Taos, defended by 600 or 700 men, and
took it after a severe contest.
The other section of Gen. Kearney's army, 856 mounted riflemen,
under the command of Col. Doniphan, left Santa F6 on the 26th of
October, 1846, and traversed New Mexico, Chihuahua, Durango, and
New Leon. At Bracito, in New Mexico, on Dec. 25, 1846, on Christmas Day, the Colonel, with about 500 of his troops, met and defeated
1,220 Mexicans. The battle of Sacramento, in Chihuahua, was fought
on Sunday, Feb. 28, 1847. After a bloody encounter of three hours
and a half, the Mexicans fled.
The following is a short summary of the naval operations carried on
in the meantime against Mexico. On the 18th of May, 1846, the American squadron under the flag of Commodore Conner, consisting of five
ships of war, blockaded Vera Cruz, and one sloop of war was stationed
off Tampico. On the 14th of November, Commodore Conner took possession of the latter port without firing a gun. Previously to this, Commodore Perry ascended the river Tobasco seventy-four miles with several vessels, and on Sunday, Oct. 25th, he anchored opposite the town of
the same name, and summoned it to surrender. On the succeeding
day the town was severely cannonaded, and nearly demolished.
Several other ports on the eastern coast of Mexico, Tuspan, Alvarado, Panuco, were occupied by the Americans, and many vessels were
captured. In fact, the naval power of the enemy was annihilated.
On the Pacific, Commodore Sloat occupied Monterey, the capital of
Upper California, on the 7th of July, 1846, and announced by proclamation to the inhabitants that "henceforward California will be a
portion of the United States, and promised that all the peaceable inhabitants should enjoy the same rights, privileges, and protection, as the
other citizens of the republic."  But in the course of the following winter, 1846-7, the Californians rose and offered resistance to their invaders, which was suppressed by Col. Fremont with a handful of soldiers, and by Commodore Stockton with a detachment from his fleet,
and subsequently by Gen. Kearney, as before related.
The principal operations of the naval force in the war had thus far




HISTORICAL EVENTS OF THE WAR.                 295
been on land, or against ports and towns capable of being reached by
vessels at anchor, with the exception of the service of transporting
troops from the United States to the scene of action. But a new theatre of greater importance, though of similar character was opened by
the siege of Vera Cruz.
Mexico had been repeatedly solicited, after the various successful
movements which have been described, to enter into negotiations of
peace, but she would hearken to no terms whatever while her soil was
covered with hostile forces. Her noble motto was, "The integrity of
the national territory."  The next step accordingly was, to carry
the war more into " the vitals" of the country, and to "conquer a
peace " by conquering the capital of the republic. A campaign was
therefore entered upon by Gen. Winfield Scott, senior officer of the
regular army of the United States, in the early part of 1847. The
plan was to capture Vera Cruz, the principal sea-port, make that the
base of operations, advance into the interior by the great line of communication, and take the city of Mexico, situated in the heart of the
country, about 350 miles from the gulf of the same name.
Vera Cruz and the Castle of San Juan d'Ulloa were invested by land
and sea with the American forces under the direction of Gen. Scott and
Commodore Perry, in March, 1847; and on Monday the 22nd of that
month, after a summons to surrender had been offered and rejected,
the batteries were opened upon the city. The inhabitants were in number about 4,000 or 5,000, besides the families of the foreign consuls, who
had not taken advantage of the permission granted them by Gen. Scott
to retire from the scene of danger. A terrible carnage ensued among
the people from the heavy metal and the fatal accuracy of the American gunners. It was computed that 6,700 shot and shell were thrown,
weighing 463,600 pounds, in four days. On the 26th, Gen. Landero,
commanding officer of the place, made overtures for a capitulation.
The awful desolation that reigned over the devoted city counselled
submission. The terms of capitulation were signed on the 27th, executed on the 29th, and possession given of both the town and the almost impregnable castle.
The next principal engagement took place on the heights of Cerro
Gordo, fifty miles fiom Vera Cruz, on Saturday and Sunday, April
17th and 18th, between Gen. Scott and Gen. Santa Anna, in which the
latter was entirely defeated, and narrowly escaped being taken prisoner as he fled from the field.
On the 15th of May, the city of Puebla, eighty miles from Perote,
on the route to Mexico, was taken without opposition. During the




296                       APPENIDIX.
summer, reinforcements of men and arms were accumulated by Gen.
Scott at Puebla, at which place, leaving a competent garrison, he began
his march toward the capital, the 17th of August, 1847, a distance of
from 100 to 120 miles.
On the 19th and 20th of August, the successive actions of Contreras,
San Antonio, and Chnrubusco, were fought in the Valley of Mexico,
and in the immediate neighborhood of the capital. In all these battles
the usual rule held good, and the victory was won by the Americans.
After these engagements an armistice was agreed upon, and negotiations for peace were entered into by N. P. Trist, Commissioner on
the part of the Executive of the United States, and Commissioners on
the part of Mexico. But they were ineffectual, and the law of force
was again resorted to instead of the law of reason. The ultimatiun of
boundaries was understood to be the rock on which this new attempt
at peace was wrecked.
The armistice was thrown up, and the battle of El Molino del Rcy,
or Kiing's Mill, was fought on Sept. 8, 1847.
On Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, Sept. 12th, 13th, and 14th, the
strong fortress of Chapultepec, outside of the city, was cannonaded,
stormed, and carried, the defences at the gates assaulted and captured,
and early on the morning of the 14th, the city surrendered to Gen.
Scott. The operations consisted of a succession of assaults and engagements from point to point, and from one battery to another, until,
by the skill and the fierce bravery of the American troops, the object of
their ambition was attained, and they entered "the halls of Montezuma."  But victory was bought at a costly sacrifice. A  scattering
fire by leperos, - criminals set free from prison, and disbanded soldiers,
from the streets and houses, was kept up on the troops after the city
was surrendered, in which many lives were lost, but which was finally
suppressed by severe measures.  The destruction of limb and life
during these fatal days on the part of the Mexicans never was precisely known, but it must have been immense. The accuracy of the
American. aim, both of infantry and artillery, always told upon the
crowded masses of the enemy with terrible effect.
Meanwhile, there were other engagemcnts whllich form a part of the
historical survey of the war. Major Lally, conducting about 1,000 men
from Vera Cruz to Jalapa, was beset at different points in his march
by numerous guerilla forces, on Aug. 10th, 12th, Sunday 15th, and
19th, but reached his destination, and retook possession of Jalapa,
which had been vacated by Gen. Scott in his advance to the capital.
The Mexican loss in lkilled and wounded was very great.




HISTORICAL EVENTS OF THE WtAR.                297
A garrison had been left at Puebla, with 1,800 sick in the hospitals,
under the command of Col. Childs. A close investment and assault
were maintained by the Mexicans during twenty-eight days, from Sept.
13th until the American troops were relieved by the arrival of Gen.
Lane with 2,000 troops from Vera Cruz. Santa Anna, flying firom the
conquerors of the capital, conducted operations with large reinforcements during the latter part of the siege, but was unable to force
capitulation.
On Oct. 9th, Gen Lane had an engagement with Gen. Santa Anna
at Huamantla.
The town of Alixco, a resort of guerillas, was bombarded and taken
by Gen. Lane on Oct. 19th.
On the 16th of March, 1848, Gen. Price fought a battle in the town
of Santa Cruz de Rozales, belonging to the province of Chihuahua,
and about sixty miles south of the capital of the same name, against
Gen. Angel Trias, defeated him, and took him and his troops prisoners.
Other inconsiderable affairs with bands of the Mexicans occurred in
various quarters of the country, but not of sufficient moment to be
recorded in this dark calendar of misery and death. In another connection a statement has been made of the mortality of the war.
During the autumn of 1847, Gen. Scott was largely reinforced by
troops from other garrisons in Mexico, and by regulars and volunteers
from home, until his army exceeded 20,000 men. He retained possession of the capital until negotiations of peace were concluded between N. P. Trist, late Commissioner on the side of the United States,
but not at that time authorized to act in that capacity, and Commissioners on the part of Mexico. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was
finally signed by the parties, Feb. 2, 1848, and ratified with amendments by the American Senate, and signed by the President, March
10th. It was then returned to the Congress, and finally accepted by
that body on May 25th, and ratified at Queretaro, by Ambrose H.
Sevier and Nathan Clifford, Commissioners on the part of the United
States, and Luis de la Rosa, Minister of Relations of the Mexican
Republic, on the part of that Government. During the month of
June, the capital and country of Mexico were generally evacuated by
the American troops, and the blockade of the Mexican ports raised.
In concluding this imperfect historical sketch, it is only necessary
to state that the facts have been mainly derived from the official documents relating to the war, published under the authority of the Congress of the United States. The inferences and uses to be drawn from
these facts have occupied preceding pages of this. review. But we can




930o.....                   APPENDIX.
only pause here a moment to remark, how awful is the simplest record
of war! How much of all that is most horrible in pain, and sickness,
and loss of character, and ruin of " body, mind, or estate," is comprehended under the bald and dry statistics of imarchings, fightings, sieges,
and conquests! If all this operation be glory, then, in the name of
heaven and humanity, we ask what is shame?  If this be a work for
which we should applaud, honor, and reward the actors, then for what
deeds, in the range of possibility, should we condemn and execrate
them?
"First, Envy, eldest born of hell, imbrued
TIer hands in blood, and taught the sons of men
To make a death which nature never made,
And God abhorred.   *     
One murder made a villain,
Millions a hero. Princes assumed a right
To kill; did numbers sanctify the crime?"*
* Bishop Porteus's Poem on " Death."