AFFAIRS AT TAMPICO
But in Tampico as elsewhere, the people had much less to suffer, in all probability, than from the Mexican troops who formerly had garrisoned the town, and the big United States flag set up in the plaza near the Pánuco represented substantial benefits. Many new kinds of manufactured articles made their appearance, and all such things were sold at low prices. Business became active. According to tradition the paving of the city dates from this time. A theatre was built. Preparations were made and presumably carried out for the extension of the mole. An American newspaper appeared. Mexican visitors had to give an account of themselves, and there were no riots and no dirks. Patrols marched up and down the broad streets; sentries with fixed bayonets were on hand at every gathering, even balls; and the very happiest of frolics were pretty sure to end before morning with a nap on the guard house floor.[14]
Some of the Mexicans thought our volunteer officers were afraid of their men, but Gates, Shields and the other commanders do not seem to have been. The assistance of the leading Mexicans in maintaining order was invited; many of the citizens fraternized with our men; and in general a high rate of mortality was probably the only serious consequence of reckless tendencies. The residents thought the American volunteers careless, badly dressed and poorly drilled; but some of them admitted they had never felt so safe before.[14]
Clearly our troops improved in conduct as time went on, but none the less their early excesses had serious consequences. For a long while there had been a tendency in the northeastern parts of Mexico to secede. The primary scheme had been to join Texas; and after our absorption of Texas ended it, the idea of an independent republic, with American protection or annexation to this country in view, gained much support. Early in 1846 the authors of this project were in communication with Taylor and the American government. Whether such a plan could have been executed or not, there were reasons for our wishing to have the people cherish it. In such a mood they were bound to be our friends instead of enemies, and the paralyzing influence of their temper would have extended into other provinces.[15]
Accordingly Taylor was instructed to favor the idea. But reports of the outrages committed by our volunteers penetrated to all quarters; the Mexican authorities, who understood the popular tendencies, were doubtless active in spreading the reports; and the disposition to view us with cordiality received a shock from which it never recovered. “People near Matamoros, previously inclined to favor the Americans,” declared the comandante general of Nuevo León in a broadside, “have written these weighty words: ‘The domination of the Grand Turk is kinder than that of the Americans. Their motto is deceit. Their love is like the robber’s. Their goodness is usurpation; and their boasted liberty is the grossest despotism, iniquity and insolence, disguised under the most consummate hypocrisy.’” As an offset, the bad conduct of Mexican officers and troops did not signify. That was a family affair.[15]
The blackest shadow in the picture, however, was New Mexico. Armijo had compensated the people for his tyranny and robbery by permitting them every sort of license in their social relations. Virtue was little known and less valued. Even women fought duels with dirks or butcher-knives. Dances, at which all classes mingled in the revelry, were the chief amusements; the church bells announced them; and at mass one heard the same music, played by the same musicians. Gambling and cock-fighting stood next in esteem, perhaps; and then came other vices that seemed more precisely necessities than ornaments of existence.[18]
To throw into a small and isolated community of that sort, without books or society or proper diversions, a large number of young and reckless frontiersmen greatly above the average in physical vigor, was to make it a seething caldron of gross passions. The soldiers were not willing to do what little work there was, and they scorned regulations. “The dirtiest, rowdiest crew I have ever seen collected together,” was a responsible British traveller’s description of the American forces; and a soldier wrote in his diary, “A more drunken and depraved set, I am sure, can never be found.” To be liked, an officer had to be lax, and to be unpopular was liable to mean—as good officers learned—a pistol or a sabre in one’s face. Half the captains, a letter said, could be found every night in bad places. The disorder of the governor’s Christmas dinner party disturbed the whole town. There was probably no deliberate oppression. Gross outrages appear to have been few. But the drunken, brawling, overbearing volunteers despised the men about them and showed it; and the latter, flouted at every turn, and in particular robbed of their women, scowled and brooded with all the ferocity of an indolent but passionate, jealous race, and plied the knife when they dared.[18]
Kearny might perhaps have ridden the tempest, but a local politician like Price could only be swept away. A few of the better Americans got up a prayer-meeting, but that was just a dewdrop in Tartarus. One began to be ashamed of one’s nation, wrote a good officer. To enhance dissatisfaction, the Indians continued their depredations as if no treaties had been made. A well-meant code of laws was drawn up, but it contained certain troublesome provisions about land titles; and some taxation had to be imposed. The people took fright. “We have come for your good; yes, for all your goods,” began to be their interpretation of Kearny’s assurances.[18]
Naturally an insurrection occurred. Price now showed energy, and the troops courage. In a brief campaign, January and February, 1847, the malcontents were put down. But the people, though cowed, loved the victors none the better, and the victors trusted and respected the people none the more. The conditions became perhaps worse than ever.[16] Supplies were uncertain. Discipline became lax again, and the Indians were now more rapacious than for twenty years. Dissipation resulted in much sickness and many deaths. Moreover the people felt wronged because political privileges bestowed by Kearny in excess of his authority had to be withdrawn. For most, if not all, of the time it was impossible to obtain the money required for the administration of civil affairs, and the civil authorities clashed with the military.[17] Undoubtedly serious difficulties were inherent in the situation, but nothing could excuse our government for permitting such a state of things to continue for so long a time.[18]
AMERICAN RULE IN CALIFORNIA