Mexico was quietly massing troops along the Rio Grande, in the disputed
territory, to be ready to fight, while sounding England to see if she
would not help her against the United States. England was too wise to
do so openly, but stood ready to take advantage of whatever the chance
of war might throw in her way. As Mexico owed England money it was
thought England would take California as soon as fighting began, both
as security for the debt, and to get possession of a Pacific port,
which we were preventing her from doing in Oregon, and would prevent
in California. On the other hand, if war broke out, our Government had
determined to take California itself and at once. So something more than
a question of boundary was depending on war with Mexico.
If now Mexico had chosen to give up the boundary in dispute, without
a fight, there is no telling how the decision might have affected the
future of the United States. The question is perhaps, itself, the best
apology we can find for the war.
The quarrel having thus become ours, troops were sent to the Lower Rio
Grande to hold possession. The Mexicans brought forces to oppose them,
and fighting began. After driving back the Mexicans at Palo Alto, and
Resaca de la Palma, our forces crossed the Rio Grande into Mexican
territory. General Zachary Taylor commanded on this line.
[Illustration: MEXICAN ARASTRA, FOR GRINDING ORES.]
War being thus begun, steps were taken to push it by assembling an
army of fifty thousand volunteers, and plans laid to invade Mexico
at different points. In Generals Scott, Taylor, and Wool, we had able
leaders, but the men they had under them were mostly new to war, being
hastily levied and sent off into the field before they could be properly
trained in the use of arms.
In the North the war was unpopular.[2] Its coming was foreboded and
its consequences viewed with alarm. That section therefore looked on
with indifference until the actual fighting roused the national spirit.
Then the people, in general, heartily desired the success of our arms,
though they still deprecated the war itself.
On the other hand, in the South, and particularly the South-west, the
war was hailed with enthusiasm. The people there did not stop to inquire
whether its aims were such as should control the acts of one powerful
nation toward its weaker neighbor, but gave it unstinted support from
the first. In Texas the war spirit was fully aroused by the promise of
meeting her old enemy on more equal terms.
The war soon developed the larger issues we have pointed out. So though
sometimes called "a little war," it is seen that the contest with Mexico
was being waged for a large stake.
FOOTNOTES
[1] THE NUECES had been the acknowledged line between the
provinces of Coahuila and Texas, before the latter achieved
her independence, as shown by maps of the time.
[2] THE WAR UNPOPULAR. Placards calling for volunteers were
posted in the streets, headed with the words "Ho for the Halls
of the Montezumas!" The attempt of the administration party
to kindle a war spirit, however, fell flat.
The regiment raised in Massachusetts was not even cheered when
passing through the streets of Boston on its way to the front,
and on its return home its flags were refused a place in the
State Capitol.
But in Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi the war
fever ran so high that fifty thousand men could have been
furnished by these States alone. In some districts the rush
was so great that it was feared there would be too few whites
left to keep the negroes quiet.
CONQUEST OF NEW MEXICO.
While the heaviest fighting was going on in Old Mexico, the Government
easily took possession of New Mexico and California, by means of
expeditions organized on the remote frontiers.
New Mexico was wanted for the emigration to the Pacific. If we were to
have California we must also have the right of way to it. In the hands
of the Spaniards, New Mexico barred access to the Pacific so completely
that the oldest travelled route was scarcely known to Americans at all,
and but little used by the Spaniards themselves.
If now we consult a map of the United States it is seen that the
thirty-fourth parallel crosses the Mississippi at the mouth of the
Arkansas, cuts New Mexico in the middle, and reaches the Pacific
near Los Angeles. It was long the belief of statesmen that the great
tide of emigration must set along this line, because it had the most
temperate climate, was shorter, and would be found freer from hardship
than the route by way of the South Pass. This view had set on foot the
exploration of the Arkansas and Red rivers. But if we except the little
that Pike and Long had gathered, almost nothing was known about it.
Yet the prevailing belief gave New Mexico, as related to California, an
exceptional importance.
These considerations weighed for more than acquisition of territory,
though the notion that New Mexico contained very rich silver-mines
undoubtedly had force in determining its conquest. Otherwise it was
held to be a poor country, with little arable land, mostly mountainous,
and scarcely fertile in the valleys, while in consequence of its great
elevation the winters were severe.
Thus New Mexico seemed placed by Nature as a half-way house may stand
alone at the summit of a mountain pass with deserts upon either side.
It offered a place for the refreshment of the nation's travellers. At
best it was only a thin wedge of semi-civilization driven north into
barbarism as far as Spanish power could send it, but this force had
spent itself long ago, and New Mexico now lay a stumbling-block in the
path of progress, in contented isolation. Our Government determined to
remove the obstruction.
With this object General Kearney marched from Fort Leavenworth in June,
1846, for Santa Fé, at the head of a force[1] of which a battalion of
Mormons formed part. After subduing New Mexico, Kearney was to go on to
California, and with the help of naval forces already sent there, for
the purpose, conquer that country also.
[Illustration: PUEBLO WOMAN GRINDING CORN.]
It is worth while to dwell a moment upon one feature of this expedition,
if only for its singularity. The Mormons were to be paid off in
California, were to turn the sword into a ploughshare and settle in
the country, and had therefore been allowed to take their families and
property with them. They were seen when setting out on the march by Mr.
Parkman, who thus describes them: "There was something very striking in
the half-military, half-patriarchal appearance of these armed fanatics,
thus on their way with their wives and children to found, it might be,
a Mormon empire in California.
"In the morning the country was covered with mist. We were always early
risers, but before we were ready the voices of men driving in the cattle
sounded all around us. As we passed above their camp, we saw through the
obscurity that the tents were falling, and the ranks rapidly forming;
and, mingled with the cries of women and children, the rolling of the
Mormon drums and the clear blast of their trumpets sounded through the
mist.
"From that time to the journey's end, we met almost every day long
trains of government wagons, laden with stores for the troops, crawling
at a snail's pace towards Santa Fé."
[Illustration: BOY AND DONKEYS.]
General Kearney marched by the Upper Arkansas, to Bent's Fort,[2] and
from Bent's Fort over the old trail through El Moro and Las Vegas, San
Miguel and Old Pecos, without meeting the opposition he expected, or
at any time seeing any considerable body of the enemy. On the 18th of
August, as the sun was setting, the stars and stripes were unfurled over
the palace of Santa Fé, and New Mexico was declared annexed[3] to the
United States. Either the home government thought New Mexico quite safe
from attack, or, having decided to reserve all its strength for the main
conflict, had left this province to its fate.
After organizing a civil government, and appointing Charles Bent of
Bent's Fort, governor, General Kearney broke up his camp at Santa Fé,
Sept. 25. His force was now divided. One part, under Colonel Doniphan,
was ordered to join General Wool in Chihuahua. A second detachment was
left to garrison Santa Fé, while Kearney went on to California with
the rest of the troops. The people everywhere seemed disposed to submit
quietly, and as most of the pueblos soon proffered their allegiance to
the United States Government, little fear of an outbreak[4] was felt.
Before leaving the valley, a courier was met bearing the news that
California also had submitted to us without striking a blow. This
information decided General Kearney to send back most of his remaining
force, while with a few soldiers only he continued his march through
what is now Arizona for the Pacific.
[Illustration: PUEBLO OF TAOS.]
Near his point of departure from the Rio Grande, a deputation of the
Apaches came to have a talk with the general. These hereditary foes of
the Spaniards were lost in wonder at seeing the order and celerity with
which our cavalry obeyed the bugle-call of "boots and saddles,"—the
order to mount for the march. The pent-up wrath of three hundred years
broke forth among them in hot words. "You have taken New Mexico, and
will soon take California," they said. "Go, then, and take Chihuahua,
Durango, and Sonora. You fight for land. We care nothing for land. We
fight for the laws of Montezuma and for food. The Mexicans are rascals,
and we will kill them all!"
Leaving this force to make its slow way down the Gila, and across the
sandy desert of Lower California, we will now inquire what had happened
to wrest California from Spanish rule without bloodshed.
FOOTNOTES
[1] GENERAL STEPHEN WATTS KEARNEY'S FORCE consisted of
two batteries of artillery (Major Clark commanding), three
squadrons of dragoons (Major, afterward General, Sumner),
Doniphan's and Price's (afterward General C. S. A.) Missouri
regiments, and the Mormon Battalion (Colonel P. St. George
Cooke). It was called the Army of the West.
[2] BENT'S FORT (two hundred miles south-east of Denver)
was all-important to the success of this campaign. It was a
large quadrangle with adobe walls and bastions, similar to
Fort Laramie (refer to description of Fort Laramie). Named
for Charles Bent, its founder.
[3] NEW MEXICO ANNEXED. General Kearney's act was premature.
This could be done only by Act of Congress.
[4] NO OUTBREAK EXPECTED. But a general one began at Taos,
January, 1847, with a massacre of Americans, Governor Bent
being one of the victims. It was quelled by Colonel Price, who
took Taos. The old church of Taos was occupied by insurgents,
who were driven out by Kit Carson and St. Vrain.
THE TAKING OF CALIFORNIA.
The courier who had been stopped by General Kearney was Kit Carson,
Fremont's old guide. Carson[1] was on his way to Washington with
despatches from Commodore Stockton and Captain Fremont.
A few words will explain how Fremont came to be in California at so
critical a time. While trying to make his way back to the States,
through the Sierras, he had been forced to recross their snows into
the Sacramento Valley, and had descended this valley, which was found
uninhabited, save by Indians, to Sutter's Fort,[2] where means were
furnished him to continue his journey homeward.
Delighted with the country, he had made so favorable a report of it that
he was again sent out (1845) for the purpose of finding the shortest
route for a railroad to the Pacific, and especially to the neighborhood
of San Francisco Bay.
When Fremont set out, war with Mexico was thought to be near at hand.
Our Government coveted California for several reasons. For one thing,
our whale-fishery in the Pacific had grown to be a great business, in
which twenty thousand sailors and two hundred thousand tons of shipping
were employed. This interest therefore wanted California, because the
port of San Francisco was the only one in the North Pacific not blocked
up by a sand-bar, like that which renders the mouth of the Columbia so
difficult of access.
Moreover, a considerable emigration[3] had already found its way into
California, whose fine climate and fertile soil these people praised
so much to their friends at home, that many were already on the road,
and more preparing to follow them. Unknown to themselves they were
to be the founders of a new commonwealth. And even at this early day
Government and people were talking of a Pacific railroad, as a thing of
coming necessity, and the more sanguine believers in "manifest destiny"
thought as many as fifteen thousand Americans would be settled in Oregon
and California during their lifetime. Thus we had important commercial
views touching California, and we were throwing into it what might be
considered in the light of the vanguard of an army of occupation. We
had won Texas in this way, and would win Oregon too.
[Illustration: BIG TREE.]
It became a prime object with President Polk to secure California,
peaceably if we could, forcibly if we must. Mexico was first asked to
sell it, but refused. Our Government then began a secret negotiation
through the American consul[4] at Monterey, which aimed to bring
about the voluntary secession of California from the Mexican Republic
altogether, and the setting-up instead of an independent government
there under our protection. But if this plan failed—and it did not
succeed—every thing was made ready to take California by force of arms.
There was also fear lest England might try to obtain in California what
she was about to lose in Oregon, namely, a Pacific seaport. Her ships
were in those waters. Mexico owed England money, as we have said. How
far this fear was well founded, is not clear; but that it was felt
there can be no doubt, for we find Mr. Buchanan, our Secretary of
State, instructing our consul at Monterey that "the United States would
vigorously interpose to prevent California becoming a British or French
colony."
In furtherance of these views our squadron in the Pacific had orders to
take possession of the chief ports of the country, so soon as war should
begin.
Fremont therefore started on his third expedition across the continent
well informed of the general policy of the Government toward California.
For the rest, his work was to be done wholly on Mexican ground, which,
being taken with the other elements of the case, of itself seems plainly
foreshadowing the views of the Government.
On this journey, Fremont crossed from the head of the Arkansas into
Utah, and from the Utah Desert to the Humboldt Mountains and River, both
of which he named at this time for the great German scientist. From here
he again struck the Sierra Nevada, which he crossed, as before, into
the Sacramento Valley.
[Illustration: STATES AND TERRITORIES ACQUIRED FROM MEXICO.]
Upon reaching the vicinity of Monterey, Fremont was ordered out of the
country by the Mexican authorities. Intrenching himself on a hill, back
of Monterey, he hoisted the American flag, and bade defiance to the
order. Finding the Mexicans would not attack him, he marched northward
up the Sacramento Valley as far as Klamath Lake unmolested, save by
Indians with whom he had several combats.
At this place, Fremont was overtaken by a messenger who had come across
Mexico with despatches from the Government. It is thought Fremont was
unofficially advised to make the most of any opportunity that should
present itself. At any rate, he seems to have thought the time was
come for him to drop his character of explorer and turn his presence in
California to account. He therefore set out at once for Sutter's Fort,
where he could be near the American settlers, who were living in the
lower part of the valley or about the Bay of San Francisco. Fremont thus
became the rallying-point for his countrymen in California, and their
protector.
[Illustration: CALIFORNIA INDIANS AND TULE HUTS, SACRAMENTO VALLEY.]
This was in June, 1846. Rumors of war were now flying thick and fast.
The Californians were quarrelling among themselves over questions
then dividing the Mexican nation. The American settlers were thrown
into more or less alarm by the threats made to drive them from the
country. We had ships-of-war at San Francisco and Monterey, but their
commanders hesitated to act until it was known the two nations were at
war. The settlers put an end to all indecision by raising the flag of
revolt themselves. On the 14th these settlers seized Sonoma, a military
post lying to the north of San Pablo Bay. They immediately proclaimed
California an independent republic. Upon this Fremont put himself at
their head. He marched first to Sonoma, and next to the Presidio of San
Francisco, whose garrison fled at his approach. By these prompt acts
all the country lying north of the Bay of San Francisco fell into the
hands of the insurgents.
These events were followed by the raising of an American flag over
Monterey, July 7, by Commodore Sloat. The same thing was done by his
order at Yerba Buena and Sonoma. As soon as he heard of it, Fremont
also hoisted the flag at Sutter's Fort. He then marched for Monterey,
where the ships Savannah, Congress, Cyane, and Levant were lying with
their guns commanding the town. An English line-of-battle ship was also
anchored in the basin of Monterey, and another at Yerba Buena. With
whatever intentions they had come, they had arrived just too late.
In this manner what is known as the Bear Flag Revolution, from the
settlers' having borne a bear on their standard, began and ended with
Fremont for its central figure. Without him it would never have been
possible. But for him the conquest would not have come when it did, but
it would have come.
Commodore Stockton, an energetic officer who succeeded Sloat, now took
active steps for putting down all armed resistance to the United States.
Fremont's battalion,[5] now mustered into the service of the United
States, but until then acting independently, was sent to San Diego on
board the Cyane. No resistance was met with at San Diego. Fremont then
marched on Los Angeles, the actual capital, which he entered in company
with a force led by Commodore Stockton from San Pedro, on the coast.
The Californians nowhere made a stand, but fled to the mountains rising
behind Monterey.
California having thus fallen so easily into our hands, steps were at
once taken to quiet it. Civil officers were appointed to administer the
government. The inhabitants were promised protection so long as they
kept peace, while, as if to clinch what had been done already, numbers
of emigrants were coming down into the Sacramento Valley from the north,
and coming to stay.
[Illustration: EL CAPITAN, YOSEMITE.]
An insurrection in the south put an end to this state of things. In
a little time the interior country was again overrun. While it was
in progress, General Kearney was heard from. After making one of the
longest marches on record, he had arrived near San Pasqual, where the
insurgents were found in some strength. A fight took place in which
Kearney's overmatched force was roughly handled, and for a time hemmed
in by foes. The Californians were themselves in turn defeated at San
Gabriel and the Mesa, and meeting Fremont coming to attack them from
Santa Barbara, gave themselves up to him.
The war on the Pacific coast was thus ended, while that on the Atlantic
was still in progress. General Taylor had taken Monterey, and later
fought the battle of Buena Vista, which was obstinately contested. A
second army under General Scott landed at Vera Cruz, and, with the aid
of the fleet, took the castle of San Juan de Ulloa. This army then began
its victorious march for the City of Mexico, winning battles at Cerro
Gordo, Churubusco, Molino del Rey, and Chapultepec. Having overcome all
opposition, the capital was entered, and the war ended Sept. 14, 1847.
By the treaty of peace, which followed (Feb. 2, 1848), the United States
acquired New Mexico and California, for which fifteen millions were
paid. Mexico also gave up her claim to the territory east of the Rio
Grande. That river on the east, and the Gila on the west, now formed
the southern boundary of the United States, from the Gulf of Mexico to
the junction of the Gila with the Colorado. From thence a straight line
extended it to the Pacific, so as to include the port of San Diego.
FOOTNOTES
[1] CARSON'S HOME was at Taos, and he knew the country
thoroughly. He had promised Fremont to go to Washington in
sixty days, and had already killed or worn out thirty mules
when he met Kearney.
[2] SUTTER'S FORT. Captain John A. Sutter was by birth a
Swiss. He came from Missouri to California in 1838-39, and
made the first settlement in the valley on a tract granted him
by the Mexican Government in consideration of his keeping the
Indians in check. To this end he built a fort, and armed it
with guns bought of the abandoned Russian Colony at Bodega.
The fort was a quadrangular structure, built of adobe,
mounting twelve guns, and capable of containing a thousand
men, though Fremont found in it but thirty whites, and forty
Indians whom Sutter had domesticated. It stood on the banks
of a creek running to the American River. Vessels ascended to
within two miles of it. Fremont found in Sutter's Fort a base
ready prepared for his operations against the Californians.
Though holding a Mexican commission, Sutter soon joined the
American party himself. The fort is perhaps best known in
connection with the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill, now
Coloma, fifty miles above it. Sutter lived here independently,
raising large crops and herds with Indian laborers. His
extensive grant was called New Helvetia, and included the site
of Sacramento City. Except this, the Spaniards had neither
post nor settlement in the great basin of California.
[3] DE MOFRAS, a Frenchman who visited California, estimates
its whole white population in 1842 at only five thousand, of
which three hundred and sixty were Americans, and about six
hundred natives of other countries.
[4] THE AMERICAN CONSUL was Thomas O. Larkin, a native of
Charlestown, Mass., who went to California in 1832. He was the
first and only American consul in that country, and performed
his duties so well as to win the confidence of all parties.
"To him, perhaps more than to any other man, the country
is indebted for the acquisition of that territory."—_W. W.
Morrow._
[5] FREMONT'S BATTALION. "Fremont rode ahead, a spare,
active-looking man.... He was dressed in a blouse and
leggings, and wore a felt hat. After him came five Delaware
Indians who were his body-guard, and have been with him in
all his wanderings. The rest, many of them blacker than the
Indians, rode two and two, the rifle being held by one hand
across the pommel of the saddle."—_Lieutenant Walpole, R.N._
THE MORMONS IN UTAH.
The Mormons, or Latter Day Saints[1] as they prefer to call
themselves, have been mentioned in a former chapter. They are a
religious community whose teachings differ widely from those of
any other Christian body in the land. For one thing, they allow
polygamy,[2] which is not only repugnant to the moral sense of the
great body of Christian people, but to the laws as well.
Driven from Missouri (1838), and from Illinois ten years later, their
leaders cast about for some place of refuge, so remote that persecution
could not reach them, and where they might practise their religious
forms freely. Like most religious sects the Mormons seemed to thrive
upon persecution, for their numbers were constantly increasing under it.
[Illustration: SALT LAKE CITY AND TABERNACLE.]