BLOODLESS CONQUEST OF NEW MEXICO: HOW IT WAS DONE: SUBSEQUENT BLOODY
INSURRECTION, AND ITS CAUSE.
General Kearney was directed to lead an expedition to New Mexico,
setting out from the western frontier of Missouri, and mainly
composed of volunteers from that State; and to conquer the province.
He did so, without firing a gun, and the only inquiry is, how it was
done? how a province nine hundred miles distant, covered by a long
range of mountain which could not well be turned, penetrable only
by a defile which could not be forced, and defended by a numerous
militia--could so easily be taken? This work does not write of
military events, open to public history, but only of things less
known, and to show how they were done: and in this point of view the
easy and bloodless conquest of New Mexico, against such formidable
obstacles, becomes an exception, and presents a proper problem for
intimate historical solution. That solution is this: At the time of
the fitting out that expedition there was a citizen of the United
States, long resident in New Mexico, on a visit of business at
Washington City--his name James Magoffin;--a man of mind, of will,
of generous temper, patriotic, and rich. He knew every man in New
Mexico and his character, and all the localities, and could be of
infinite service to the invading force. Mr. Benton proposed to him
to go with it: he agreed. Mr. Benton took him to the President and
Secretary at War, who gladly availed themselves of his agreement
to go with General Kearney. He went: and approaching New Mexico,
was sent ahead, with a staff officer--the officer charged with a
mission, himself charged with his own plan: which was to operate
upon Governor Armijo, and prevent his resistance to the entrance
of the American troops. That was easily done. Armijo promised not
to make a stand at the defile, after which the invaders would
have no difficulty. But his second in command, Col. Archuletti,
was determined to fight, and to defend that pass; and if he did,
Armijo would have to do the same. It became indispensable to quiet
Archuletti. He was of different mould from the governor, and only
accessible to a different class of considerations--those which
addressed themselves to ambition. Magoffin knew the side on which
to approach him. It so happened that General Kearney had set out
to take the left bank of the Upper Del Norte--the eastern half of
New Mexico--as part of Texas, leaving the western part untouched.
Magoffin explained this to Archuletti, pointed to the western half
of New Mexico as a derelict, not seized by the United States,
and too far off to be protected by the central government: and
recommended him to make a _pronunciamiento_, and take that half
to himself. The idea suited the temper of Archuletti. He agreed
not to fight, and General Kearney was informed there would be no
resistance at the defile: and there was none. Some thousands of
militia collected there (and which could have stopped a large
army), retired without firing a gun, and without knowing why. Armijo
fled, and General Kearney occupied his capital: and the conquest
was complete and bloodless: and this was the secret of that facile
success--heralded in the newspapers as a masterpiece of generalship,
but not so reported by the general.
But there was an after-clap, to make blood flow for the recovery of
a province which had been yielded without resistance. Mr. Magoffin
was sincere and veracious in what he said to Col. Archuletti;
but General Kearney soon (or before) had other orders, and took
possession of the whole country! and Archuletti, deeming himself
cheated, determined on a revolt. Events soon became favorable to
him. General Kearney proceeded to California, leaving General
Sterling Price in command, with some Missouri volunteers. Archuletti
prepared his insurrection, and having got the upper country above
Santa Fé ready, went below to prepare the lower part. While absent,
the plot was detected and broke out, and led to bloody scenes in
which there was severe fighting, and many deaths on both sides. It
was in this insurrection that Governor Charles Bent, of New Mexico,
and Captain Burgwin of the United States army, and many others were
killed. The insurgents fought with courage and desperation; but,
without their leader, without combination, without resources, they
were soon suppressed; many being killed in action, and others hung
for high treason--being tried by some sort of a court which had no
jurisdiction of treason. All that were condemned were hanged except
one, and he recommended to the President of the United States for
pardon. Here was a dilemma for the administration. To pardon the
man would be to admit the legality of the condemnation: not to
pardon was to subject him to murder. A middle course was taken: the
officers were directed to turn loose the condemned, and let him run.
And this was the cause of the insurrection, and its upshot.
Mr. Magoffin having prepared the way for the entrance of General
Kearney into Santa Fé, proceeded to the execution of the remaining
part of his mission, which was to do the same by Chihuahua for
General Wool, then advancing upon that ancient capital of the
Western Internal Provinces on a lower line. He arrived in that
city--became suspected--was arrested--and confined. He was a
social, generous-tempered man, a son of Erin: loved company, spoke
Spanish fluently, entertained freely, and where it was some cost
to entertain--claret $36 00 a-dozen, champagne $50 00. He became a
great favorite with the Mexican officers. One day the military judge
advocate entered his quarters, and told him that Dr. Connolly, an
American, coming from Santa Fé, had been captured near El Paso del
Norte, his papers taken, and forwarded to Chihuahua, and placed
in his hands, to see if there were any that needed government
attention: and that he had found among the papers a letter addressed
to him (Mr. Magoffin). He had the letter unopened, and said he did
not know what it might be; but being just ordered to join Santa
Anna at San Luis Potosi, and being unwilling that any thing should
happen after he was gone to a gentleman who had been so agreeable
to him, he had brought it to him, that he might destroy it if
there was any thing in it to commit him. Magoffin glanced his eyes
over the letter. It was an attestation from General Kearney of his
services in New Mexico, recommending him to the acknowledgments of
the American government in that invasion!--that is to say, it was
his death warrant, if seen by the Mexican authorities. A look was
exchanged: the letter went into the fire: and Magoffin escaped being
shot.
But he did not escape suspicion. He remained confined until the
approach of Doniphan's expedition, and was then sent off to Durango,
where he remained a prisoner to the end of the war. Returning to
the United States after the peace, he came to Washington in the
last days of Mr. Polk's administration, and expected remuneration.
He had made no terms, asked nothing, and received nothing, and had
expended his own money, and that freely, for the public service. The
administration had no money applicable to the object. Mr. Benton
stated his case in secret session in the Senate, and obtained an
appropriation, couched in general terms, of fifty thousand dollars
for secret services rendered during the war. The appropriation,
granted in the last night of the expiring administration, remained
to be applied by the new one--to which the business was unknown,
and had to be presented unsupported by a line of writing. Mr.
Benton went with Magoffin to President Taylor, who, hearing
what he had done, and what information he had gained for General
Kearney, instantly expressed the wish that he had had some person
to do the same for him--observing that he got no information but
what he obtained at the point of the bayonet. He gave orders to
the Secretary at War to attend to the case as if there had been
no change in the administration. The secretary (Mr. Crawford, of
Georgia), higgled, required statements to be filed, almost in
the nature of an account; and, finally, proposed thirty thousand
dollars. It barely covered expenses and losses; but, having
undertaken the service patriotically, Magoffin would not lower its
character by standing out for more. The paper which he filed in the
war office may furnish some material for history--some insight into
the way of making conquests--if ever examined. This is the secret
history of General Kearney's expedition, and of the insurrection,
given because it would not be found in the documents. The history
of Doniphan's expedition will be given for the same reason, and
to show that a regiment of citizen volunteers, without a regular
officer among them, almost without expense, and hardly with the
knowledge of their government, performed actions as brilliant as
any that illustrated the American arms in Mexico; and made a march
in the enemy's country longer than that of the ten thousand under
Xenophon. This history will constitute the next chapter, and will
consist of the salutatory address with which the heroic volunteers
were saluted, when, arriving at St. Louis, they were greeted with a
public reception, and the Senator of Thirty Years required to be the
organ of the exulting feelings of their countrymen.