Rey (King's Mill), a group of stone buildings 500 yards long, forming the
western side of the inclosure surrounding the rock and castle of
Chapultepec, and 1,100 yards from the castle, which is a mile and a half
from the city wall. Scott's purpose was to enter the city on the south, and
he considered the castle of slight importance. He supposed that the battle
of Molino would be a small affair. Worth anticipated a desperate struggle,
and took up his position in the dark on the morning of the 8th. At 3 A.M.
he opened fire with his twenty-four pounders, and his storming party
advanced toward the point where the enemy's batteries had been, but their
position had been changed, and they suddenly opened fire on the flank of
his 500. After various contests, the fighting became a struggle for the
possession of the Molino. A desperate and deadly fight took place. The
southern gate gave way and the Americans passed in. The fight was renewed
with bayonet and sword, and Worth lost a large number of the flower of his
forces. At last the Mexicans, all but 700, retreated to Chapultepec. On the
left the Americans were received with a murderous fire, which was long
continued. Their whole artillery was then concentrated upon the Casa Mata
and its works, which, after a desperate defence, were abandoned. Except as
an outpost to Chapultepec, the position had no value. By Scott's order
Worth withdrew his command, and left to the enemy the field which had been
so dearly won. Of 3,500 Americans in the fight, 787 had fallen, including
59 officers.
[Sidenote: Chapultepec]
The Rock of Chapultepec rises 150 feet, and is crowned by the great castle.
The northern side was inaccessible; the eastern and southern sides nearly
so, and the southwestern and western could be scaled. A zigzag road on the
southern side was swept by a battery at an angle. The crest was strongly
fortified; ditches and strong walls and a redoubt were constructed at
various points. The garrison numbered 2,000, and thirteen long guns were
mounted. A select party under Captain Joseph Hooker seized the Molino, and
at night Pellow threw his whole force into it. Two forces made a desperate
assault on the intrenchments in front, united and passed the Mexicans and
mounted the western slope. A party passed around the western front, which
they scaled, and gained the parapet. Their comrades on the western side
climbed the southern slope at the same time and joined the two. The whole
castle was occupied. The Mexicans were dislodged and many prisoners were
taken.
[Sidenote: Fall of City of Mexico]
The approach to the capital was difficult. It was by two roads, each along
a stone aqueduct. On the Belen road the Mexicans were gradually pressed
back, however, and the Americans entered the first work, where they were
confronted by the citadel commanded by Santa Anna. A terrible fire rendered
further advance impossible. On the San Cosme road the enemy was pursued to
a second barricade, which was carried under Lieutenant U.S. Grant and
Lieutenant Gire. Worth's columns pushed on. Having passed the arches, they
began breaking their way through the walls of the houses. Howitzers were
hauled to the roofs, and at last the main gate was carried. During the
night a delegation proposed a capitulation. Scott refused to grant terms.
At dawn Quitman advanced to the grand palace and occupied the Plaza, and an
hour later Scott took up his headquarters there. Presently some 2,000
liberated convicts and others began casting paving stones on the soldiers,
and it became necessary to sweep the streets with grape and canister. By
the 15th Scott was in full possession of the City of Mexico.
[Sidenote: Flight of Santa Anna]
On the morning of September 14, Generals Quitman and Worth raised the
American flag over the national palace, and Scott soon afterward reined up
at the Grand Plaza, where he removed his hat, and, raising his hand,
proclaimed the conquest of Mexico. Santa Anna's men afterward treacherously
attacked the hospital at Puebla, where were 2,000 Americans, sick and
wounded. They bravely resisted and were presently rescued; the Mexicans
being routed by General Lane. Santa Anna, again a fugitive, fled for safety
to the shores of the Gulf.
[Sidenote: Many reputations made]
Among the officers who distinguished themselves were many who gained a
lasting reputation fifteen years later, during the American civil war; for
instance, Jefferson Davis, Grant, Lee, McClellan, Beauregard, Sherman,
Hill, Jackson, Hooker, Longstreet, Buell, Johnston, Lyon, Kearney,
Reynolds, French, Ewell and Sumner.
[Sidenote: Premonitions of trouble in France]
Late in the year simultaneous risings against the Bourbon government of
Naples and Sicily occurred in Calabria and at Messina. In the north a
conspiracy against further government by Austria assumed the proportions of
a national movement. In France the popular clamor for reforms grew to
threatening proportions. Prime Minister Guizot declined to enter into any
of the radical schemes for reform. In the Chambers, Guizot declared: "The
maintenance of the union of the Conservative party, of its policy and
power, will be the fixed idea of the rule of conduct in the Cabinet." Late
in December the Chambers met but promised no reforms. Defeated in this, the
opposition determined to voice its protests at a political banquet in Paris
similar to those that had been held at Strasburg, Lille, Lyons, Rouen, and
other cities. The government forbade the banquet. It was postponed until
the nest year. Popular passions for the moment were appeased by
Abd-el-Kader's final surrender to General Lamorciere in Algeria, and the
reported end of the troublesome war with the Arabs.
1848
[Sidenote: Revolution in Palermo]
[Sidenote: Neapolitan constitution granted]
[Sidenote: Anti-Austrian riots at Milan]
[Sidenote: Northern Italy aflame]
[Sidenote: Revolt at Rome]
[Sidenote: Rome bombarded]
The long seething discontent of the lower classes in Italy, fomented by the
national aspirations of such radical leaders as Mazzini and Manin, had
reached its culmination by this time. The centenary of the expulsion of the
Austrians from Genoa had just been celebrated with such enthusiasm
throughout central Italy that Austria was forewarned of the storm that was
about to burst. Metternich wrote to Apponyi, "The world is very sick. The
general condition of Europe is dangerous." Communications passed between
the patriots in northern Italy and the opponents of the Bourbon government
in Sicily. On January 12, the people of Palermo rose in revolt. The
government troops were driven from the city. Palermo was bombarded and
fighting continued for a full fortnight. In the end the insurgents were
victorious, and a provisional government was established. Other towns in
Sicily followed suit. On January 27, revolutionary riots broke out in
Naples. Threatened by revolution throughout his dominions, King Ferdinand
II. of Naples and Sicily, like his grandfather, made haste to proclaim a
popular constitution. A Liberal Ministry was called in on January 29. The
city of Messina was still in full insurrection when the standard of revolt
was raised in northern Italy. In order to deprive the Austrian Government
of one of its chief financial supports, the patriotic societies of Italy
formed a resolution to abstain from the use of tobacco, on which the
government had a monopoly. On the following Sunday, Austrian officers,
smoking in the streets of Milan, were attacked by the populace. The troops
had to be called to arms, and blood was shed on both sides. Similar
outbreaks followed in Padua and elsewhere. Radetzky, the Austrian
commander-in-chief, proclaimed martial law. On February 15, the people rose
in Tuscany, and compelled their grandduke to proclaim a constitution. In
March the insurrectionary movement spread from Lombardy to Piedmont. The
republic of Venice was proclaimed. The King of Sardinia declared himself in
sympathy with the liberation of Venice from Austrian rule. For a while Pope
Pio Nono showed similar leanings. On March 15, the Nationalists of Rome
declared against the Pope. The National Guards joined in the movement. The
Papal troops had to be called out to put down the revolt by force of arms.
The hordes of Roman lazzaroni or beggars profited by the confusion to
commit hideous crimes. The Pope created a high council and Chamber of
Deputies with privileges of limited legislation, the Pope retaining his
full veto power on whatever they might decree. But on April 29, after the
Jesuits had been expelled from Sardinia, Pio Nono turned his back on these
reforms, and returned to the conservative policy of his immediate
predecessors in the chair of St. Peter. His definite refusal to declare
against Austria provoked another insurrection at Rome. This time the revolt
grew to such proportions that the city had to be subjected to bombardment
by artillery.
[Sidenote: Spread of the revolution]
[Sidenote: Democratic governments spared]
In the meanwhile a revolution of far more serious proportions had broken
out at Paris. Successful from the start, the contagion of its example had
spread from France to most of the various principalities of Germany, to
Austria, Bohemia and Hungary, and thence to almost every quarter in Europe.
Few other events afford so striking an illustration of the modern
cosmopolitan spirit that had arisen in Europe during the first half of the
Nineteenth Century. The great revolutions of England, of America and of
France, in previous times, affected the rest of humanity only long after
their occurrence. The overthrow of Charles X. in 1830 gave rise to more or
less abortive revolutions in Belgium, Italy and Poland, as well as some of
the smaller German States. But the French February revolution of 1848
spread instantly to all the civilized communities of the world, except
Switzerland, Great Britain, and the United States of North America. The
exemption of these three countries, where alone true democratic forms of
government prevailed, was in itself a revelation of the general discontent
of European peoples. Other explanations in plenty have been given, every
one of which contained its measure of truth. To Polish refugees the
upheavals of this year have been in part attributed. The rise of the new
national spirit in literature was revealed in Italy and Germany as well as
among the Magyars, Slavs and Greeks. The apparently epidemic character of
the movement found another explanation in the improved means of transit and
communication, and the great development of the public press.
[Sidenote: Changes in Switzerland]
In the countries untouched by revolution internal progress kept pace with
the continued spread of civilization. In Switzerland, the expulsion of the
Jesuits resulted in the attempted secession of the seven Catholic cantons.
This was frustrated by General Dufour's prompt occupation of Freibourg and
Luzerne. The so-called Sonderbund of the seceding cantons was dissolved. In
place of the former union of sovereign cantons, the Swiss republic was now
reconstituted after the model of the United States of North America, as a
union of States with a central federal government at Berne. The Swiss army,
postal system and finances were put under federal control and a national
coinage was established. The separate interest of the cantons found
representation in the Staenderat, while the Swiss people at large were
represented in the Nationalrath, the members of which were elected from
districts apportioned among the cantons according to equal numbers of
population.
[Sidenote: England unaffected]
[Sidenote: Insurrection in Tipperary]
[Sidenote: Queen Victoria in Ireland]
[Sidenote: Orange River territory annexed to England]
The people of England, though the stirring events on the Continent were
brought home to them by so many eminent refugees seeking shelter in their
land, held the issues at stake too well settled by their own great
revolution of 1649 to find a sufficient incentive for another such
movement. The popularity of the young Queen doubtless contributed its share
to the stability of the government. The renewed demonstrations of the
Chartists in London were merely co-incident with the revolutionary
demonstrations abroad. Still the influence of contemporaneous events in
Europe was strong enough to frighten Parliament into passing an act which
made the utterance of seditious speeches a felony. A popular insurrection
in Tipperary, Ireland, was made the pretext for once more suspending the
habeas corpus act in Ireland. By the end of July the revolt was put down.
Its leaders, John Mitchell, O'Brien and others were apprehended and tried
in court for high treason. They were sentenced to death, but the Queen
mitigated their sentences to transportation. A calming effect on Ireland
was produced by the personal visit of the young Queen and her royal consort
to Ireland. When she held her court at Dublin in midsummer, the most
poignant causes for discontent were lost sight of amid wild demonstrations
of apparently universal loyalty. A constitution on home rule principles was
proclaimed in West Australia. In South Africa, Sir Harry Smith, the
Governor of Cape Colony, after his successful termination of a fourth war
with the Kaffirs, proclaimed the authority of Great Britain over the Orange
River territory. The Boer settlers there under the leadership of Pretorius
found themselves unable to maintain their independence. The adjoining lands
of the Basutos were declared under British protectorate.
[Sidenote: Massacre of Multan]
[Sidenote: Punjab up in arms]
[Sidenote: Sikhs and Afghans join revolt]
Early in the year, Lord Dalhousie had relieved Lord Hardinge as
Governor-General of India. Up to that time the British occupation of the
Punjab had continued without material change. Now a new fiscal system was
to be introduced there to settle up the arrears of Viceroy Mulraj of
Multan. In April, Vance Agnew, a British commissioner, with a military
escort of three hundred men, arrived at Multan to occupy the citadel as
surety for these arrears. The British officers were admitted to the city,
but as they emerged from the citadel they were attacked, and all the
Englishmen were massacred. Mulraj called upon the Sikhs to rise against the
English. A force of seven thousand British troops were sent against Multan.
When they reached the city all the native troops turned against them. The
whole of the Punjab revolted and a holy war was proclaimed against England.
Lord Dalhousie rose to the occasion. As he left Bengal to go to the front
he delivered a characteristic speech containing the historic declaration:
"Unwarned by precedent, uninfluenced by example, the Sikh nation have
called for war. On my word, sirs, they shall have it with vengeance!" The
Sikh garrisons of Peshawar joined in the revolt, which was quickly taken up
by the Afghans. George Lawrence, the British Resident there, was carried
off as a prisoner. In the fort of Attock, Captain Herbert held out for a
while, but in the end was forced to succumb. The first general engagement
between Lord Gough and Sagr Singh at Ramluggar, late in the year, resulted
in a drawn battle. On both sides reinforcements were hurried up wherewith
to wage the coming year's campaign.
[Sidenote: More Arctic expeditions]
[Sidenote: Death of George Stephenson]
[Sidenote: Stephenson's career]
From England, during this time, two more expeditions had been sent out in
search of Sir John Franklin. The first of these was commanded by Sir James
Ross, the famous Antarctic explorer. The second expedition, while
discovering no trace of Franklin, claimed that it had discovered the long
sought for Northwest Passage. The science of astronomy lost one of its most
distinguished representatives in England by the death of Caroline Herschel,
the sister of the famous discoverer of Uranus. Besides her the necrology of
the year in England included the two authors, Isaac d'Israeli, the father
of Lord Beaconsfield, and Captain Frederick Marryat, the romancer of the
sea; Lord Alexander Ashburton, the framer of the Canadian boundary treaty
that commemorates his name, and George Stephenson, the inventor of the
first practicable locomotive. Stephenson began life as a pit-engine boy at
twopence a day near Newcastle-on-Tyne. Having risen to the grade of
engineman, he was employed in the collieries of Lord Ravensworth improving
the wagon way and railway planes under ground. In 1814 he completed a
locomotive steam-engine, which was successfully tried on the Killingworth
Railway. The locomotive "Rocket," constructed by Stephenson and his son
Robert, which won the premium of five hundred pounds in 1829, offered by
the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company, ushered in the greatest
mechanical revolution since the invention of the steam-engine by Watt.
After this Stephenson became a locomotive builder on a large scale and
acquired enormous wealth. Another invention standing to the credit of
Stephenson was one of the earliest safety lamps, but a committee which
investigated the subject accorded to Sir Humphry Davy the priority of this
invention. During this year Sir Austin Henry Layard published the results
of his original researches of Nineveh and its remains. Macaulay printed the
first two volumes of his "History of England," while Matthew Arnold brought
out his "Strayed Reveller" and other poems. Elizabeth Gaskell published
"Mary Barton."
Of the various expeditions undertaken in search of Sir John Franklin, the
most noteworthy perhaps was Dr. John Rae's overland journey through the
northwestern territory of America from the Mackenzie to the Copper Mine
River. This opened up a vast tract of country to adventurous Canadians.
Another lasting benefit was conferred upon Upper Canada by the
reorganization of the public school system of Ontario.
[Sidenote: Peace with Mexico]
[Sidenote: Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo]
[Sidenote: American expansion]
On the part of the United States the war with Mexico was brought to a
close. The President of the Mexican Congress assumed provisional authority,
and, on February 2, that body at Guadaloupe Hidalgo concluded peace with
the United States. With slight amendments the treaty was ratified by the
United States Senate on March 10, and by the Mexican Congress at Queratero
on the 30th of May. President Polk, on July 4 following, finally proclaimed
peace. The Americans under the terms of the treaty evacuated Mexico within
three months, paid Mexico $3,000,000 immediately, and $12,000,000 in three
annual instalments, and assumed debts of $3,500,000 due from Mexico to
American citizens. These payments were made in consideration of new
accessions of territory which gave to the United States not only Texas, but
Arizona, New Mexico and California. The war had cost the United States
approximately $25,000,000 and 25,000 men.
[Sidenote: Gold found in California]
While these negotiations were under way, Colonel Sutter had begun the
erection of a mill at Colonna on the American branch of the Sacramento
River. In January one Marshall, who was engaged in digging a race-way for
the mill for Colonel Sutter, found a metal which he had not seen before,
and, on testing it in the fire, found that it was gold. The "finds" were
sent to Sacramento and tested, with the result that they were declared to
be pure gold. The mint at Philadelphia also declared the metal to be gold,
and the President referred to the fact in his annual message to Congress.
[Sidenote: Influx of Gold Seekers]
Then the gold seekers poured into California. They arrived in multitudes
from all parts of America and other countries--thousands tracking across
the plains and mountains with ox-teams and on foot, and other thousands
crossing the Isthmus with scarcely less difficulty, while around the Horn a
steady procession of ships passed up the coast of South America and Mexico
to the new El Dorado. In two years the population of California increased
100,000, and still the hordes of gold seekers came.
Wisconsin, the thirtieth State, was admitted May 29. It had been one of the
first districts to receive the visits of the fur traders and the French
missionaries, who went thither in 1639.
[Sidenote: Death of John Quincy Adams]
John Quincy Adams was overtaken by death in the midst of his career. On
February 21 he entered the House and took his seat. Suddenly he fell to the
floor, stricken with apoplexy. As he was carried to the Speaker's room and
was laid on a lounge, he feebly murmured: "This is the last of earth. I am
content." He died on February 23.
[Sidenote: His diplomatic career]
[Sidenote: Morse on Adams]
John Quincy Adams's long career is unique in American history. At the age
of eleven he accompanied his father on a diplomatic mission to Europe, and
early acquired a knowledge of French and German. When barely fourteen he
went to St. Petersburg as private secretary to the American Minister, Dana.
At sixteen Adams served as one of the secretaries of the American
Plenipotentiaries during the negotiations resulting in the treaty of peace
and independence of 1783. At the age of twenty-seven he was appointed
Minister to Holland by President Washington, and afterward was Minister to
Berlin and Commissioner to Sweden. After serving for some years in the
United States Senate he was sent, in 1809, as Minister to Russia, where he
remained till 1815. Then he was transferred to London, where he resided
till 1817, when he became Secretary of State. His career as President of
the United States and his subsequent Congressional life was honorable in
the extreme. Yet Adams's biographer, Morse, has aptly said: "Never did a
man of pure life and just purposes have fewer friends or more enemies....
If he could ever have gathered even a small personal following, his
character and abilities would have insured him a brilliant and prolonged
success; but for a man of his calibre and influence, we see him as one of
the most lonely and desolate of the great men of history."
[Sidenote: James Russell Lowell]
During this year James Russell Lowell published his "Bigelow Papers," a
humorous satire on the Mexican war in Yankee dialect, the "Indian Summer
Reverie," and "A Fable for Critics."
[Sidenote: Death of Donizetti]
[Sidenote: Early operas]
[Sidenote: Prolific compositions]
On April 8, Gaetano Donizetti--who together with Rossini and Bellini formed
the brilliant triumvirate of Italian composers in the first half of the
Nineteenth Century--died in his native town of Bergamo. Donizetti composed
his first opera, "Enrico di Borgogna," in 1819, while serving as a soldier
in Venice. Three other operas followed quickly. His fourth, "Zoraide di
Granada," was such a success that he was exempted from further military
service in 1822. During the following six years he wrote no less than
twenty-three operas, many of which were cheap imitations of Rossini. In
1880, stung by the success of Bellini, he wrote "Anna Bolena," which
inaugurated his second more original period, which included "Lucrecia
Borgia" and the immensely popular "Lucia di Lammermoor." The prohibition of
his opera "Poliecto," while he was serving as a director of the Naples
Conservatory, so exasperated Donizetti that he betook himself to Paris in
1838. There he brought out the "Daughter of the Regiment" and "La
Favorita." After a few years he went to Vienna, where his "Linda di
Chamounix," sung in 1842, achieved an immense success. Having returned to
Italy he was stricken with paralysis from overwork in 1845. He never
recovered. Besides more than threescore of operas, Donizetti composed seven
masses, twelve string quartets, and a host of songs, cantatas and vespers,
as well as pianoforte music.
[Sidenote: Death of Chateaubriand]
[Sidenote: New world inspirations]
[Sidenote: "Essay on Revolutions"]
[Sidenote: "Atala"]
[Sidenote: "Rene"]
[Sidenote: "Genius of Christianity"]
[Sidenote: "The Last of the Abencerrages"]
[Sidenote: "The monarchy under the Charter"]
[Sidenote: The poet's political career]