[1.] Webster in the Senate, June 24, 1846: “We certainly wished her [Mexico] success.... We wished her well; and I think now that the people of the United States have no desire, it would give them, I think, no pleasure, to do her an injury beyond what is necessary to maintain their own rights. The people of the United States cannot wish to crush the republic of Mexico; it cannot be their desire to break down a neighboring republic; it cannot be their wish to drive her back again to a monarchical form of government, and to render her a mere appanage to some one of the thrones of Europe” (Writings, ix, 158). Crittenden spoke as follows in the Senate, May 11, 1846: “From the first struggle for liberty in South America and Mexico, it was the cherished policy of this country to extend to them sympathy, comfort, and friendship.... They were regarded as a portion of that great system of republics which were to stand forth in proud contrast with the Governments of the Old World.... As the head of the republican system, our policy was to cheer and cherish them, and lead them in the way to that liberty we had established, and of which we had set the example ... it was our interest to cherish them, and cultivate their friendship” (Cong. Globe, 29, 1, p. 788). As it may be thought that these statements were made for public effect, the following passage is quoted from resolutions passed by the people of Bloomington (now Muscatine), Territory of Iowa, June 5, 1846: “Mexico, being a sister republic, has been looked to by citizens of the United States with the sincere hope that that country would become an enlightened, free and liberal nation ... and thereby, become another beacon (as the United States already is) to the monarchies of the world, to show them that men are capable of governing themselves, and let them see the advantages of a free, republican government” (Iowa and War, no. 12). These statements were no doubt fundamentally true despite the resentment produced by the outrages perpetrated upon Texans and Americans, etc., which was mainly directed toward official Mexico.
Senator Hannegan rebuked sentimentality (often feigned for political reasons) in these words: I cannot “participate in the sympathy which I have heard invoked in behalf of Mexico as a sister republic. In the first place the wrongs she has done us, and our citizens resident within her borders, show no very sisterly affection on her part; and in the next, I must confess my want of sympathy with any people where anarchy rules in the name of liberty. Her history is a libel upon republican government. When human sympathy shall follow insubordination, misrule, and bloodshed, then, but not till then, will it be properly invoked for Mexico” (Cong. Globe, 29, 2, p. 517, col. 1). [354]Welles papers.
[2.] London Times; Aug. 6, 1847. Webster to Thompson, Apr. 5, 1842: “Every nation, on being received, at her own request, into the circle of civilized Governments must understand that ... she binds herself also to the strict and faithful observance of all those principles, laws, and usages, which have obtained currency among civilized States.... No community can be allowed to enjoy the benefit of national character, in modern times, without submitting to all the duties which that character imposes” (Ho. 266; 27, 2, p. 32). Mex. Nat. Museum, Boletín i, no. 9. Ramírez, México, 235. London Spectator, Dec. 9, 1911: “When a country can not manage its own affairs, and can not keep order among its own people, it has already lost its independence.”
[3.] This and following paragraphs are of course a very incomplete summary, which the reader can fill in from the first chapters of this work. With reference to the annexation of Texas Cass justly said: “The peace [and prosperity] of the world cannot be put to hazard by the pertinacious obstinacy of any nation, which holds on to nominal claims, without the power or the disposition to maintain them” (Cong. Globe, 30, 1, app., 425). It was the reasonable opinion of many that if Taylor had had a strong army, well placed [especially had he been a general capable of impressing the Mexicans] there would have been no war (e.g. [132]W. R. King, June 1, 1846; So. Qrtly. Rev., Nov., 1850, 428).
[4.] Grant, Mems., i, 168–9: “I have seen as brave stands made by some of these men [Mexican troops] as I have ever seen made by soldiers.” [113]Beauregard: The Mexicans stood artillery and infantry fire “fully as well as our own troops,” etc. Picayune, Oct. 4, 1846 (Haile): All admit that the Mexicans handle guns in battery as well as we could. [364]Worth to S., Nov. 2, 1846. The Americans won mostly with the bayonet. The Mexicans lacked the discipline and the confidence in themselves, one another and their officers which were necessary to sustain them against a charge. Constitutionnel, Aug. 17, 1847. Negrete, Invasión, iii, app., 443; 489 (Otero). S. Anna, Apelación, 57. Id.., Comunicación Oficial. [76]To Ocampo, Dec. 18, 1847 (the chief cause of our ills is a want of military men possessing a political conscience). Richtofen, Zustände, 59, 60. [76]Mora, Apr. 14, 23, 1847. Memoria de ... Relaciones, Jan., 1849. Consideraciones, 7, etc. Sen. 52; 30, 1, p. 242. [76]Olaguíbel to Relaciones, Aug. 15, 1847. Puebla Nacional, Jan. 19, 1848 (Payno). México á través, iv, 698–9. Pacheco, Exposición. Ramírez, México, 234–5.
The Mexican newspapers did much to sap courage. From north to south there was a chorus of disheartening epithets for the adored patria: sad, unfortunate, lamentable, ill-starred, suffering, doomed. The whole diapason of misery filled the air. On all sides echoed confessions—on one another’s account, of course—of mistakes, blunders and vices; egotism, cynicism, deceit, selfishness, hypocrisy, rancor, partisanship, dissension, indifference to the welfare of the nation, unscrupulous ambition, malfeasance in office, wholesale plundering, rascality favored by the authorities, personal degeneracy, social demoralization, military incompetency. Even the orthodox estimate of the Americans tended the same way. What had become of justice in heaven and hope on earth when our “infamous,” “incompetent” generals could triumph again and again, with a handful of barbarians and adventurers, cowardly, ill-clad, ignorant, debased and undisciplined, over devout Catholics and valiant patriots? A particular fact tended to promote dissension. There were three groups of states—the north, the centre and the south; and the first and the third felt that their interests had always been sacrificed to those of the centre. This paragraph and most of the other paragraphs of the present chapter are of course to be read in the light of what has already been said. For this one may refer to the index.
Some readers may feel that the author is inconsistent in saying (vol. i, p. 116) that Mexico wanted the war and here that she was not really in it; but (1) many persons desire things which they feel unwilling later to pay for, and (2) the course of the war was very different from that which Mexico had expected. The nation desired the uprising against Santa Anna, December, 1844, but was soon dissatisfied with the results of it.
[5.] Sedgwick, Corresp., i, 150; Kenly, Md. Vol., 391; Encarnacion Prisoners, 69; Stevens, Stevens, 145.
[6.] Balbontín, Invasión, 135–6. Scott, Mems., ii, 466. [13]Doyle, no. 1, 1848. Memoria de ... Relaciones, Jan., 1849. Sen. 52; 30, 1, p. 242. [13]Bankhead, no. 86, 1847. Sierra, Evolution, i, 376. [76]Mora, Apr. 28, 1847. Monitor Repub., Nov. 8, 1847. Id.., Nov. 30, 1847 (Uraga). Apuntes, 347. México á través, iv, 698.
Judging Santa Anna one must allow for the facts that his subordinates were incompetent, and that neither he nor they had known what real armies and real wars were. But this condition of things was far more due to him than to any other person. It should be remembered, too, that while the Americans had numbers against them, they possessed the advantage of the offensive. But this, again, was very largely the fault of Santa Anna.