History of the War Between Mexico and the United States with a Preliminary View of its Origin Part 9

"For example what right had Columbus to Cat Island, otherwise called Guanahani? Who has the right to it now and how came they by it? The flag of St. George and the Dragon now waves over it; but who had the right to take possession of it because Christopher Columbus found it,--the paltriest island in the midst of the ocean. European statesmen, warriors, and writers on what are called the laws of nations, have laid down a system of laws upon which they found this right. Have the Carribee Indians, in whose possession that Island was discovered by Columbus, ever a.s.sented to that system of right and wrong?

"You remember that Hume, in commencing his history of England by the Roman conquest says--"that without seeking any more justifiable reasons of hostility than were employed by the later Europeans in subjecting the Africans and the Americans, they sent over an army under the command of Plautius, an able general, who gained some victories, and made a considerable progress in subduing the inhabitants."

Then, no European has ever had any better right to take possession of America, than Julius Caesar and the Romans had to take possession of the island of Britain.

"What then was the right either of France or Spain to the possession of the province of Texas? To come to any question of right between the parties upon the subject you must agree upon certain conventional principles: where and when your question of right must become applicable to the facts; and, as between them, it was a disputed question, and had been so from the discovery of the mouth of the Mississippi river by La Salle, and from his second expedition to find the mouth of the Mississippi coming from the ocean, in which he perished.

"Spain had prior claims to the country, but the claim of France was founded upon the last voyage of La Salle, and by extending a supposed derivative right, from the spot where La Salle landed half way to the nearest Spanish settlement.

"Mr. Monroe and Mr. Charles Pinckney, in their correspondence with Cevallos, a.s.sumed this as a settled principle between European nations, in the discussion of right to American territory. It was not contested, but was not a.s.sented to on the part of Spain; and, having found it laid down by Messieurs Monroe and Pinckney, I argued upon it, and it was never directly answered by Don Luis De Onis, who could not controvert it without going to the Pope's Bull.[89]

"As between France and Spain therefore, I maintained that the question of right, had always been disputed and never was settled, from which opinion I have not since varied.

That we had a shadow of right beyond the Sabine I never believed since the conclusion of the Florida treaty, and, it is from the date of that treaty, that Great Britain had not a shadow of right upon the Oregon territory until we have been pleased to confer it upon her."

"I am, dear sir, with great respect, your very obedient servant,

J. Q. ADAMS."

To BRANTZ MAYER, ESQ., Baltimore."

[89] Alexander VIth's Bull of Donation.

[90] See "Matthew Carey's general map of the world,"--29th map--published 1814.--Kennedy's Texas, p. 4.--Mrs. Holley's Texas.--History of Texas, by D. B. Edwards, preceptor of Gonzales Seminary, Texas, 1836, p. 14. He says:--"Texas is bounded on the north by Red river, which divides it from Arkansas, Ozark District, and New Mexico; on the south by the Gulf of Mexico and the Rio de las Nueces, _which divides it from the States of Coahuila and Tamaulipas_; on the east by the eastern branch of the river Sabine and the State of Louisiana; on the west by the State of Coahuila and the territory of New Mexico."

Accompanying the work is a map of Texas with boundaries, as laid down above. In a note on one corner of the map, speaking of the Rio Grande, he says: "_If_ this river should ever become the western boundary of Texas (as desired by the inhabitants) it will add a hundred miles to its sea-coast and fifty thousand square miles to its superficies; the southern section of the surface is sandy, barren prairie, almost dest.i.tute of water; and its northern rocky, sterile mountains, nearly as dest.i.tute of timber."

[91] Primera Campana de Tejas: by Ramon Martinez Caro, secretary of Santa Anna, pp. 122, 125.

[92] Mr. Donelson wrote to Mr. Buchanan on the 2d July, 1845, from Was.h.i.+ngton, Texas, as follows: "_My position is_ that we can hold Corpus Christi and all other points up the Nueces. If attacked, the right of defence will authorise us to expel the Mexicans to the Rio Grande. It is better for us to await the attack than incur the risk of embarra.s.sing the question of annexation with the consequences of immediate possession of the territory on the Rio Grande. * * * The government left for treaty arrangement the boundary question in the propositions for a definitive treaty of peace. H. of R. doc. No. 2, 29th cong. 1st sess. pp. 78, 79.

[93] I am informed by Mr. Parrott, the secretary of legation who accompanied Mr. Slidell, that no form of letters of credence--or evidence of powers as "_commissioner to settle the Texan dispute_,"

would have secured a hearing for our envoy. The mob, the army, and Paredes were determined that no missionary of peace should be received from the United States.

[94] The _claim_ of Frederick the IInd to Silesia was considered _plausible_. As Bohemia renounced not only the possession, but all its rights to Silesia by the treaties of Breslau and Berlin and other subsequent treaties, the kings of Prussia pretended, that by virtue of the renunciation, they became sovereign dukes of the country and not subject to the emperor in their new character. To this claim it was replied that Bohemia being an imperial State, could not, of its own authority, destroy the feudal tenure by which Silesia was attached to it, and through it to the empire. The question was rendered more intricate, for one party considered Bohemia feudal only as to the electoral dignity, but as a kingdom free and independent of Germany. The Germans argued that Silesia was part of the empire, the Prussians considered it a separate and independent State. Frederick took advantage of these "state right" doctrines to sustain his claim, as Texas took advantage of her state right sovereignty when the central despotism of Santa Anna overthrew the federal const.i.tution of 1824.

[95] Arnold's fourth lecture on Modern History.

[96] Waite's State papers, 1809-11, p. 261; and Clay's speech on the line of the Perdido.

[97] Pufendorf, Lib. VIII, c. 6.--Note by Barbeyrac.

CHAPTER III.

Army marches from Corpus Christi--Taylor prepares the Mexicans for his advance--Description of the march--Beautiful prairie and desolate sand wilderness--Rattlesnakes--Chapparal--The Arroyo Colorado--First hostile demonstrations of the Mexicans--Expected fight--Cross the Colorado--Worth and Taylor separate--True nature of discipline-- Characters of Mexican and American soldiers contrasted.

On the 8th of March, 1846, the joyous news ran through the American camp, at Corpus Christi, that the tents were at last to be struck. The worn out soldiery had nothing to regret in quitting a spot where their eyes were only relieved by looking from the dreary sea in front to the desolate prairie in the rear. General Taylor had already taken means to prepare the Mexicans for his advance, although he scarcely expected resistance. Respectable citizens from Matamoros had frequently visited his camp; and to all of those who were represented as possessing influence at home he proclaimed the unhostile feelings of our government towards their country, and that when our army marched southward it would not pa.s.s the Rio Grande unless Mexico provoked war. He invariably apprized these strangers of his resolution to protect the peaceful inhabitants in all their rights and usages, as well as to pay for every thing needed by his forces instead of plundering the country for support.

Accordingly, on the morning of the 8th of the month, the advanced guard, composed of the cavalry and Major Ringgold's light artillery,--the whole under the command of Colonel Twiggs, and numbering twenty-three officers and three hundred and eighty-seven men,--took up its line of march towards Matamoros. This corps was succeeded by the brigades of infantry, the last of which departed on the 11th followed immediately by the commander in chief with his staff. The weather was favorable; the roads in tolerable order; the troops in good condition notwithstanding the winter's hards.h.i.+ps; while a general spirit of animation pervaded the whole body, inspired as it was with the hope of adventure in the neighborhood of an enemy. All, therefore, departed on this day from Corpus Christi by land, except the command of Major Monroe, who was to reach the Brazos de Santiago in transports under convoy of the United States brig Porpoise and the Woodbury. This officer was to embark with a siege train and field battery, in season to reach his destination when the army would be in the vicinity of Point Isabel.

The last adieus of our forces to their dreary winter quarter were by no means tearful, as with colors flying and music playing, they crossed the sandy hills that concealed it forever from their sight. The first day's march pa.s.sed through alternate patches of prairies and timber to the Nueces; but, on the two next, these sad wastes were exchanged for splendid fields blossoming with flowers of every hue. A delicious fragrance filled the air, and the whole surface of the earth as far as the eye could reach, seemed covered with a beautiful carpet. The edge of the horizon, in every direction, was crowded with wild animals. On one side thousands of mustangs curvetted over the gentle elevations of the rolling prairie; on another herds of deer might be seen standing for a moment filled with wonder at the unwonted sight of human beings, and then bounding off until they were lost in the vast distance. Beautiful antelopes, nimble as the wind, were beheld in countless numbers, while pecarys and wild bulls rushed in droves across the path of our men. But, on the fourth day of the march, this scene of enchantment suddenly vanished. Uncultivated prairies and immense herds of savage beasts had already testified the abandoned state of the country; yet the region our forces now entered disclosed the frightful "nakedness of the land." The water became exceedingly bad, and there was scarcely fuel enough for culinary purposes. The blooming vegetation of the preceding days was exchanged for sands through which the weary men and cattle toiled with extreme difficulty. Salt lagunes spread out on every side. At each step the fatigued soldier plunged ankle-deep in the yielding soil, while a scorching sun shone over him and not a breath of air relieved his sufferings. At times, a verdant forest loomed up along the heated horizon, fringed by limpid lakes, and our wearied columns moved on gaily, cheated, again and again, by the hope of shade and water.

Suddenly the beautiful groves dwindled into jagged clumps of thorns or aloes, and the fairy lakes changed to salt and turbid lagunes. "The wormwood star had fallen on every thing and turned the waters to bitterness." The plant whose piercing spines and sword-like leaves have ent.i.tled it to the name of the "Spanish bayonet," was the hermit shrub of this dreadful Zaharah. Around its roots the snakes lurked and crawled. Whenever the soldiers' path was unimpeded by these annoyances, scarifying his limbs as he advanced, the ground seemed heated and sinking like the _scoriae_ of Vesuvius. Man and beast sank exhausted and panting on the earth. The want and value of delicious water are never known till we pa.s.s a day like this under the burning rays of a tropical sun, toiling on foot over a scorched and arid soil without refreshment! At length the word ran along the line that it was approaching a lake whose waters were not salt. "Under the excitement of hope the faint and exhausted infantry pressed onward with renewed life, while, some miles ahead, the artillery were seen to halt enjoying the luxury of _water_. As the soldiers reached it all discipline was forgotten; their arms were thrown down, and they rushed boldly in, thrusting their heads beneath the waves in their desire to quench the thirst that was consuming their vitals."[98]

Such is the natural aspect and character of the desolate region between the Nueces and the Rio Grande,--a chequered wilderness of sand and verdure,--fit only for the wild beasts that inhabit it, and properly described in former days, as a suitable frontier between the great republics of North America.

On the 21st of March, all our forces concentrated on the Arroyo Colorado,--a salt stream or lagune nearly one hundred yards broad, and so deep as to be scarcely fordable,--situated about thirty miles north of Matamoros. Had the enemy attacked us here his a.s.sault would have been formidable, wearied as were our troops with the distressing marches of previous days. Bold, bluff banks, twenty or thirty feet high, hem in the stream, whose borders, on both sides, are lined, for a considerable breadth, with impervious thickets of _chapparal_. These th.o.r.n.y groves are to be found in all sections of the south, varying in size from a few yards to a mile in thickness, so closely interlaced and matted with briers and bushes as to prevent the pa.s.sage of animals larger than a hare. They are the sorest annoyances of travellers in Mexico, and often force the wayfarer to make a long circuit to pa.s.s their limits, though they reward him for his trouble by supplying an abundance of the _tuna_--a luscious fruit of the p.r.i.c.kly pear,--which grows luxuriantly on these natural and impenetrable walls.

Such, with the barrier of the stream, was the fortification nature had interposed for the safe guard of Mexico at the Arroyo Colorado. But the inert natives seemed indisposed to take advantage of those rare defences, though not without some hostile demonstration which the resolute conduct of Taylor soon overcame.

When our advanced corps encamped near the banks of the stream on the 19th, an armed _reconnoisance_ was sent forward to examine the country.

On reaching the river, our scouts discovered that the opposite side was lined with a body of _ranchero_ cavalry, from whom they learned, although no opposition was made to our examination of the ford, that we should be treated as enemies if we attempted to pa.s.s it. Impossible as it was to ascertain accurately the amount of the opposing force, our men were prepared for the worst, and, at an early hour of the 20th, the cavalry and first brigade of infantry were thrown in position, at the ford, while the batteries of field artillery were formed so as to sweep the opposite bank. All was now anxiety and eagerness among our gallant men. Far along the borders of the river, above and below, the bugles of the enemy were heard ringing out in the clear morning air. But the hope of frightening our men by overwhelming numbers was of no avail. Our pioneers worked steadily on the road they were cutting to the brink of the river; and, when all was ready for the pa.s.sage, the adjutant general of the Mexican forces appeared on the ground for a final effort of intimidation. With Spanish courtesy, he informed our general that positive orders were given to his men to fire upon our forces if they attempted to cross, and that our pa.s.sage of the river would be considered a declaration of war. At the same time he placed in Taylor's hands a warlike proclamation issued by Mejia at Matamoros on the 18th, containing unequivocal manifestations of the intention of the Mexicans to molest us.

Our commander-in-chief, however, was not to be deterred by these threats from the fulfilment of the orders he had received to pa.s.s the Rio Grande. He answered the officer that he would "_immediately_ cross the river, and that if his hostile party showed itself on the other bank after our pa.s.sage was commenced, it would unquestionably receive the fire of our artillery." In the meantime the second brigade, which had encamped some miles in our rear, came up and formed on the extreme right; and, as the road to the river bank was by this time completed, the order to advance was given.

It was a moment of intense excitement. What forces might not lurk behind the dense walls of _chapparal_, ready to dash upon our ranks as they deployed on the other side? Our artillerists stood to their aimed and loaded guns. The Mexicans were doubtless eager and panting for resistance in the rear of the bristling plants that lined the lofty parapet of the river's bank. Every eye was strained upon the first daring rank that was to plunge into the stream as a "forlorn hope."

Mexico would fight now if ever; for her mettle was as yet untried! For an instant, profound silence reigned along the anxious line which the next moment might be involved in the fire of battle. Suddenly the gallant Worth spurred to the head of our troops, and das.h.i.+ng boldly into the flood, waved them on to the further sh.o.r.e. But not a shot was fired by the recreant foe, and as our men rose shouting from the water and rushed up the steeps of the opposite bank they beheld the valiant Mexicans in brisk retreat towards Matamoros! The fugitives were unmolested;--a laugh of scorn and pity ran through our ranks;--and, before nightfall, the first and second brigades of infantry, with a train of two hundred wagons had crossed the stream and encamped three miles from its banks.

This was an important affair, as it was the first in which the Mexicans showed themselves in a decidedly hostile att.i.tude; and it furnished an excellent opportunity to try the mettle of our men both in spirit and discipline. Not a soldier faltered.

On the morning of the 23d of March, General Taylor departed with his whole army from the camp near the Colorado. After a march of fifteen miles he reached, on the 24th, a position on the route from Matamoros to Point Isabel,--distant about eighteen miles from the former and ten from the latter,--where he left the infantry brigades under the command of General Worth, with instructions to press on in the direction of Matamoros until a suitable position for encampment was obtained, at which he might halt, holding the route in observation, whilst the commander-in-chief proceeded with the cavalry to Point Isabel. At that post General Taylor expected to meet the transports from Corpus Christi with the force under Major Monroe, and to make the necessary arrangements for the establishment and defence of a depot.

As soon as the army left the Colorado a new object, of more interest in natural history than military memoirs, presented itself to the notice of our troops. The soil was covered with a long wiry gra.s.s among which glided immense numbers of huge rattlesnakes, more appalling to our soldiers than the Mexicans. The country literally swarmed with serpents.

From the Colorado to within a few miles of Point Isabel their warning rattle was heard on all sides. They crept between the ranks as our men marched through the long herbage, and at night coiled themselves comfortably under their blankets for warmth.

Familiar as we are with the campaigns of Frederick and Napoleon, and willing to record as cla.s.sical the great deeds of the old world's heroes, we are still often loath to do justice to the brave men in our own country who have served the State so zealously in Florida and Mexico. It is not simple bravery in battle that commends a soldier to admiration, for few are cowards when the excitement of action hurries them headlong among their foes amid the shouts and thunder of actual carnage. But it is the preparatory discipline that tests a military character. The camp and the march are the soldier's training. The dreary winter-quarter pa.s.sed in patient service, and the wearying advance over burning plains or snowy mountains, are the real touchstones of courage, and prove those powers of _endurance and subordination_ which make resistance staunch and stubborn. These are the sources of discipline; and it was with troops that had borne the winter hards.h.i.+ps at Corpus Christi, I have described, and made the short but arduous march to Point Isabel, that Taylor felt sure of victory. They had encountered extraordinary fatigue, and yet were ready at a moment's notice for battle without flinching. With such schooling an army becomes a gigantic instrument moving with the accuracy of clock-work, put in motion by the general's genius. It can endure as well as perform all he requires, and he knows that the result of a battle depends alone on his numbers, his position, or his individual skill in military combination. The common soldier and the officer thus react upon each other, and the electric chain of mutual _confidence_ makes success an impulse.

The American and the Mexican soldier are essentially different, though both, according to the report of distinguished officers, are almost equally brave. In the anglo-saxon race bravery is the balance between prudence and courage, exercised with an indomitable resolution to achieve a desired end. The American soldier is fearless, yet he values life and seeks to protect it. His object is to subdue or slay his foe, still he determines to avoid, if possible, a fatal catastrophe. This renders him intrepid while it teaches the importance of discipline and obedience to resolute and skilful officers. He perceives at once the object to be secured or the thing to be done, and he marches on with the mingled caution and spirit requisite for success.

It may be said that a certain degree of timidity is necessary in every balanced character in order to ensure reflection, for natural courage, unaided by sensitiveness, would render it rash. But the Mexican soldier seems to be guided by a different system, and to be brave without either prudence or enduring discipline. He is trained in manoeuvres; and, believing that when he masters his manual he is equal to all military emergencies, he supposes that a battle is little more than a parade. As Mexican troops are rather political engines, designed for the domestic police of cities, than for actual service in the field, the soldier is more of a plaything than a tool or weapon. Vague, ideal notions of Roman patriotism, are infused into his mind by the demagogues of the army in bombastic proclamations, and he imagines it better to perish than surrender to his foe. But this murderous doctrine of "revenge or death"

serves rather to animate him _before_ battle than to carry him steadily through its perils. He has the ability to perceive the beauty of abstract virtue, but lacks the sustained energy, the profound endurance, to realize it. He rushes onward without deliberation, or regard of consequences. An international war is, in his estimation, a personal not a political quarrel. A brutal ferocity marks every headlong movement, and deprives him of the control of reason. Besides this, _life_, has not the same value to a Mexican as to an American warrior, for the objects and hopes of their lives are incapable of comparison.

One lives for practical liberty and progress, the other's existence is a mere strife for bread under military despotism. A Mahomedan fatalism--derived, perhaps, from his Moorish kindred--tinges the nature of a Mexican, and the impulsive blood of a tropical climate subjects him almost exclusively to his instincts. Hence Spanish wars have been long and sanguinary butcheries, while their civil dissensions are the feted ferment of corruption.

The Mexican, hot and fretful in controversy, is ever quick and sometimes secret, in ridding himself of his foe;--the American is equally prompt with his pistol, but gives his insulting enemy an equal chance. A sudden conflict with knives ends a Spanish rencontre or dispute; while periods of deliberation and cool arrangements precede the fatal field between our countrymen. The American officer is scientifically educated in military schools and _leads_ his men to battle. The Mexican is ignorant of all but ordinary drills, and either _follows_ his impulsive squadrons, or, flies at the approach of personal danger. The one has nerve and endurance, the other impulse and pa.s.sion; hence, while the Mexican strikes his blow and retreats to his lair if foiled, the American, equally unchanged by victory or defeat, moves onward with indomitable purpose until his object is successfully accomplished. The one dwindles too often into the cruel a.s.sa.s.sin or relentless persecutor,--the other, as frequently, attains the dignity of a clement hero.

These general observations apply, of course, only to the ma.s.ses, for truly brave and patriotic men exist in all countries, and nowhere are the examples of heroic qualities more conspicuous than among the Spanish races. The fault lies more in temperament than in soul. An equipoise between intellect and pa.s.sion is alone deficient in the nature of the Mexican people, for the savage has not been entirely extirpated from the mingled blood of Indian and Spaniard.

When the remarkable energy of men, born in genial climates, is tempered by self restraint, it produces that urbane and chivalrous character which once made war the school of gentlemen. But the modern ideas of liberty and patriotism have deprived standing armies of all exclusive claim to national protection; and, as long as each citizen feels that the defence of his native land or of his country's rights depends upon himself, the volunteer as well as the regular will be prompt to discharge his military duty with skill, alacrity and irresistible resolution.