The Mexican masses, mistaking vanity for true national pride, had hitherto persevered in resisting every effort to settle the international difficulties. Diplomacy, with such a nation, is extremely delicate. If we exhibited symptoms of leniency, she became presumptuous;—if we pushed hostilities to the extreme, she grew doggedly obstinate. On the 21st of August her capital was in Scott's power. His victorious army was at her gates. Two terrible battles had been fought, and the combatants on both sides had shown courage, skill and endurance. The Mexican army was routed, but not entirely dispersed or destroyed. At this moment it doubtless occurred to General Scott, and to all who were calm spectators of the scene, that before the last and fatal move was made, it was his duty to allow Mexico to save her point of honor by negotiating, ere the city was entered, and while she could yet proclaim to her citizens and the world, that her capital had never been seized by the enemy. This assuaged national vanity, and preserved the last vantage ground upon which the nation might stand with pride if not with perfect confidence. It still left something to the conquered people which was not necessary or valuable to us.
There are other matters, unquestionably, that weighed much in the very responsible deliberations of General Scott. If our army entered the city triumphantly, or took it by assault, the frail elements of government still lingering at that period of disorganization, would either fly or be utterly destroyed. All who were in power, in that nation of jealous politicians and wily intriguers would be eager to shun the last responsibility. If Santa Anna should be utterly beaten, the disgrace would blot out the last traces of his remaining prestige. If so fatal a disaster occurred, as subsequent events proved, the Americans would be most unfortunately situated in relation to peace, for there would be no government to negotiate with! Santa Anna's government was the only constitutional one that had existed in Mexico for a long period, and with such a legalized national authority peace must be concluded. It was not our duty to destroy a government and then gather the fragments to reconstruct another with which we might treat. If a revolutionary, or provisional authority existed, what prospect had we of enduring pacification? What guaranty did we hold in a treaty celebrated with a military despot, a temporary chief, or a sudden usurper, that such a treaty could be maintained before the nation? What constitutional or legal right would an American general or commissioner have, to enter into such a compact? Was it not, therefore, Scott's duty to act with such tender caution as not to endanger the fate of the only man who might still keep himself at the head of his rallied people?
Besides these political considerations, there are others, of a military character, that will commend themselves to the prudent and the just. The unacclimated American army had marched from Puebla to the valley of Mexico during the rainy season, in a tropical zone, when the earth is saturated with water, and no one travels who can avoid exposure. Our men were forced to undergo the hardships of such a campaign, to make roads, to travel over broken ground, to wade marshes, to bivouack on the damp soil with scarce a shelter from the storm, to march day and night, and finally, without an interval of repose, to fight two of the sharpest actions of the war. The seven or eight thousand survivors of these actions,—many of whom were new levies—demanded care and zealous husbanding for future events. They were distant from the coast and cut off from support or immediate succor. The enemy's present or prospective weakness was not to be relied on. Wisdom required that what was in the rear should be thought of as well as what was in advance.
May it not then be justly said that it was a proper moment for a heroic general to pause in front of a national capital containing two hundred thousand people, and to allow the civil arm to assume, for a moment of trial, the place of the military? Like a truly brave man, he despised the eclat of entering the capital as Cortéz had done on nearly the same day of the same month, three hundred and twenty-six years before. Like a wise man, he considered the history and condition of the enemy, instead of his personal glory, and laid aside the false ambition of a soldier, to exhibit the forbearance of a christian statesman. [73]
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The American Commissioner unquestionably entered upon the negotiations in good faith, and it is probable that Santa Anna was personally quite as well disposed for peace. He, however, had a delicate game to play with the politicians of his own country, and was obliged to study carefully the posture of parties as well as the momentary strength of his friends and enemies. Well acquainted as he was with the value of men and the intrigues of the time, he would have been mad not to guard against the risk of ruin, and, accordingly, his first efforts were directed rather towards obtaining the ultimatum of the United States, than to pledging his own government in any project which might prove either presently unpopular or destroy his future influence. The instructions, therefore, that were given to General José J. de Herrera, Bernardo Couto, Ignacio Mora y Villamil and Miguel Atristain, the Mexican commissioners, were couched in such extreme terms, that much could be yielded before there was a likelihood of approaching the American demands. In the meanwhile, as negotiations progressed, Mexico obtained time to rally her soldiers, to appease those who were discontented with the proposed peace, and to abjure the project if it should be found either inadmissible or impossible of accomplishment without loss of popularity.
For several days consultations took place between Mr. Trist and the commissioners, but it was soon found that the American pretensions in regard to the position of Texas, the boundary of the Rio Grande and the cession of New Mexico and Upper California, were of such a character that the Mexicans would not yield to them at the present moment. The popular feeling, stimulated by the rivals of Santa Anna, his enemies, and the demagogues, was entirely opposed to the surrender of territory. Sensible as the President was, that the true national interests demanded instantaneous peace, he was dissuaded by his confidential advisers from presenting a counter projét, which would have resulted in a treaty. Congress, moreover, had virtually dissolved by the precipitate departure of most of its members after the battles of the 20th.
All the party leaders labored diligently at this crisis, but none of them with cordiality for Santa Anna, in whose negotiations of a successful peace with the United States, they either foresaw or feared the permanent consolidation of his power. The puros, or democrats, still clung to their admiration of the constitution of our Union; to their opposition to the standing army; to their desire for modifying the power and position of the church and its ministers, and to their united hostility against the President. They were loud in their exhortations to continue the war, while Olaguibel, one of their ablest men and most devoted lovers of American institutions, issued a strong manifesto against the projected treaty. This was the party which, it is asserted, in fact desired the prolongation of the war until the destroyed nationality of Mexico took refuge from domestic intrigues, misgovernment and anarchy, in annexation to the United States.
The monarquistas, who still adhered to the church and the army, proclaimed their belief in the total failure of the republican system. Revolutions and incessant turmoils, according to their opinions, could only be suppressed by the strong arm of power, and in their ranks had again appeared General Mariano Paredes y Arrellaga, who, returning from exile, landed in disguise at Vera Cruz, and passing secretly through the American lines, proceeded to Mexico to continue his machinations against Santa Anna, whom he cordially hated.
The moderados formed a middle party equally opposed to the ultraisms of monarchy and democracy. They counted among their number, many of the purest and wisest men in the republic, and although they were not as inimical to the United States as the monarquistas, or as many of the puros pretended to be, yet they cordially desired or hoped to preserve the nationality and progressive republicanism of Mexico. In this junto Santa Anna found a few partizans who adhered to him more from policy than principle, for all classes had learned to distrust a person who played so many parts in the national drama of intrigue, war, and government. As a party, they were doubtless unwilling to risk their strength and prospects upon a peace which might be made under his auspices.