Letter 7.
The War will make us better acquainted with each other.
December 5, 1846.
There is one advantage we shall derive from the war: we shall become better acquainted with our southern neighbor, and she will become better acquainted with us. Even in a geographical point of view, in spite of all the writers, from Humboldt down to the latest, and in spite of all the map makers, the American public, is very imperfectly acquainted with Mexico. In nothing is this more remarkable than in the extent of surface, distance of places, and in the amount of population, of which we have no adequate conception. The ignorance of the Mexicans respecting the United States is, of course, still greater. When Santa Anna invaded Texas he actually spoke of marching to Washington in case our Government interfered! We have very little idea of the distance from the Rio Grande to the capital of Mexico; but the thousands who have marched over it in various directions, and the numerous publications giving accounts of military expeditions, will render the country more familiar to our people than it could be in the usual course of things, in fifty years.
In our imaginations, it has been a region of romance, associated with gold and silver, with a climate and beauty of an earthly paradise. Our soldiers and volunteers will return with very different impressions; taken as a whole, it is vastly inferior to the United States, in natural wealth, in fertility of soil, in climate, and in everything calculated to minister to human happiness. That incessant craving for the delights of the land of Montezuma, will be effectually cured, and with it, that wild spirit of conquest, which has prevailed until now, in the southern and western portions of the confederacy. It will be effectually cured, and nothing else would have cured it. We shall rest satisfied that our own is, incomparably, a finer country, and, in fact, one of the most favored portions of the Globe. We have no tierras calientes, where the vegetable growth is, indeed, most luxuriant, but man looses all his energy, and becomes little better than a vegetable. Their tierras templadas, or temperate lands, in general, are barren rocks or dry plains, which cannot be cultivated without irrigation. And when we look at the population, their want of well ordered government, the barbarous ignorance and indolence of the masses, their religious, or rather superstitious bigotry, their robberies and assassinations in cold blood, where is the American who would not prefer his own country? We have, no doubt, many things among us to deplore and to amend; but what are these in comparison to the state of things continually presented in those countries which are said to be “blessed of God and cursed of man?” I do not assent to the first part of this expression, for, I believe, there is no portion of the earth, of the same extent, “so blessed of God,” as these United States.
In one thing we have been undeceived; we supposed that the Mexicans are a rich people; that is, possessed abundant stores of the necessaries and luxuries of life. So far from it, that we have been compelled to draw nearly all of our supplies for our armies from the States. There are, doubtless, rich individuals among them, but the mass of the people are miserably poor. They lay up no stores, and have little beyond what is required by their immediate wants. The very abundance of the productions of nature may be one of the causes of this general poverty. As a people, they are sunk in sloth, in vice and ignorance. I speak in general, for there are, no doubt, numerous exceptions. Their opinions of the “Yankees,” as they call us, in contempt and derision, is likely to undergo an entire change. They will entertain a different opinion of us; they will look upon us with fear and respect, and will be as anxious to cultivate a good understanding as they were to insult us and ill treat our citizens. Hereafter, their Government will take a second thought before it countenances the plunder and murder of Americans. Treaties of peace will be respected, and we may venture into the country without danger to person or property, provided we conduct ourselves with propriety.
There are many of the geographical features of so vast a country, especially as to its mountains, table lands, and rivers, differing entirely from our portion of the continent. For instance, the character of the table lands beyond Monterey would not be understood without the explanation, that the Mexican mountains are not in regular ranges or ridges like the Alleghanies, with intervening valleys, but present, on the eastern side, the appearance of giant ramparts of naked rock, through which fissures have been made by torrents; while on their summit, a vast plain, six or seven thousand feet above the sea, like a table raised above the floor, stretches out for hundreds of miles, with occasional depressions and peaks piled up to the height of five or six thousand feet more, and covered with perpetual snow. We have no such mountains. The sides of our mountains are nearly all fertile, at least, east of the Mississippi. The precipitous sides of the Sierra Madre are broken through by several rivers, which, in the course of a hundred miles, descend six or seven thousand feet, and in consequence of this, excepting a short distance from their mouths in the Gulf of Mexico, are not fit for navigation. It is along the courses of these rivers, that the passes are found: such as that of the Panuco from Tampico; that of the Tula, near Victoria; that of the San Juan, from Monterey to Saltillo, and the Conchas, towards Chewawa. The want of good roads from the interior, and good harbors on the Gulf, essentially render the eastern portion of Mexico, an inland country. The Alvarado, Guasacualco, and Tobasco, are almost the only exceptions. The States north and east of the Sierra Madre, comprising those which we now hold, although not yet completely subdued, have no water transportation to the coast, excepting by means of the Rio Grande. The want of a carriage road is exemplified by the fact, that the British company engaged in working the mines of Catorce, which are not more than three hundred miles in a direct line from Tampico, having landed their engines at that place, could not transport them direct to San Luis, but were obliged to go north towards Matamoras, and then take the direction of Monterey and Saltillo. From the latter place, after ascending to the table land, they proceed to San Louis, making a circuit of more than twelve hundred miles, and which consumed four months.
The delightful country which I have described, as the States of New Leon, Coawilla, and Tamaulipas, is equal in extent to the eastern parts of Virginia and North and South Carolina, and large enough for a kingdom. It is, in general a plain, but not flat; on the contrary, picturesque, with a fine soil, admirably adapted to all the productions of the temperate climates, but free from frosts. This country we shall be compelled to hold, even if our conquests should extend no further. We cannot abandon it without a treaty of peace and boundaries, and to which, from present appearances, Mexico will not agree. We shall not give it up unless for a complete cession of California and New Mexico, with the boundary of the Rio Grande. The population of those States is, now, perhaps, equal to that of our Southern States during our revolutionary war, and would easily contain four or five millions. For defence, it ought now to bring fifteen or twenty thousand fighting men into the field, in guerrilla parties, and poorly armed. If supported by some regular troops, the rancheros might give us trouble. But cut off from all supplies, with no rallying points or fortified places, we could by pushing the war vigorously, effectually subdue them. If we fall back on the Rio Grande, we leave the whole country west of it, open to the operations of Santa Anna; and we shall be compelled to establish a chain of fortifications along the great river, for at least two thousand miles. On the other hand, the table land of the Sierra Madre, and on the west, towards the Pacific, being only accessible by a few passes, the inhabitants once completely subdued, must remain so. That mountain boundary is, infinitely, more easy to defend, than the line of the river; a river, which would be bordered in its whole length by an enemy, who might send detachments at any moment to make destructive inroads. It would be necessary to have both sides of the river, without which, it would be a bad boundary. If we confine ourselves to the east side of it, the inhabitants on the other bank, in case of hostilities, can at any time call in the aid of the Mexican Government. Collisions will be unavoidable, and Texas will be continually threatened, unless we keep up, at great expense, a permanent force along the line. But taking the mountains as the boundary, we could keep Mexico in her shell, until the valley shall be filled by American and European population. There is, no doubt, unappropriated land; but, even supposing the whole to be claimed under grants to the church, and to individuals, these might justly be subjected to forfeitures and confiscations, partial or total, in case of refusal to own allegiance. The tenures of all these lands are, in their nature, feudal; that is, the fee is in the sovereign, whoever that may be, and subject to be resumed and regranted at the pleasure of the sovereign. The tenure or holding, is not allodial as with us; it is rather political or military, if I may so express myself, than legal.[[3]] This subject is not generally understood among us, and it would occupy too much space to explain it more fully. If Mexico compels us to conquer the country described, we must annex it, but cannot do this without republicanizing it first; and this, again, cannot be done without abolishing the feudal system, and changing the tenure of the lands. Still, I am no advocate of conquest; I would rather take the boundary of the Rio Grande by fair treaty, than hold the States bordering on that river, by the rights of war, which are regarded by all barbarous nations, and by Mexico herself, is the highest, and most glorious of all titles.
[3]. I speak of the large grants, the smaller are allodial, as also, the grants on condition of settlement.