Resource Center OLLibrary
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287. Polk's Administration
(Eleventh President, One Term, 1845-1849); Dispute about
Oregon. Congress had annexed Texas (§ 285), and
when Mr. Polk 1 entered office the first
question was, what |
should
be done about Oregon. We claimed the whole country west
of the Rocky Mountains, north of California (then a part
of Mexico), to Alaska; that is, from parallel
42o to 54o 40'. Our claim rested
on: (I) Captain Gray's discovery of the Columbia River
(1792) (§ 216); (2) Lewis and Clark's exploration
1805-1806) (§ 216) (3) fur-trading posts begun by
Astor (1811) (§ 216); (4) our treaty with England
(1818), and with Spain (1819) (§ 238). (Map, p.
194.) But England disputed our claim to the country and
wanted to keep it a wilderness in order to get supplies
of furs there.|
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make homes in the far West. Two years later, quite a
number of missionaries, with their families, went out by
sea to help Jason Lee in his work. They were followed
(1842) by more than a hundred settlers who traveled
overland to take up farms. |
help
for his mission. He also hoped to get some families to go
out there. The distance was between three and four
thousand miles, and the doctor's sufferings on the way
were severe. He had to face winter storms in the
mountains, the terrors of starvation and of attacks by
Indians. But be kept on and in five months reached
Boston.|
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Britain made a treaty by which they agreed to divide the
country between them.1 It was our fourth step in
national expansion (§§ 215, 238, 285). We took the
portion between the boundary of upper Mexico (now California), or
42o, and the parallel of 49o north,
including the Columbia River; the English took the remainder, from
49o to Alaska. (Map, p. 251.) Our part included what
are now the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and parts of
Wyoming and Montana, -- a territory covering in all not far from
300,000 square miles. (Map, p. 332.)
290. The Mexican
War; Battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. But though
the Oregon Treaty settled the fact that we should not fight with
Great Britain, yet we were soon at war with our next-door
neighbor, the feeble republic of Mexico. Texas and Mexico got into
a dispute over the western boundary of Texas (§ 285). Texas
stoutly insisted that the line was at the Rio Grande River; Mexico
denied this, and vehemently declared that it was on the Nueces
River, about a hundred miles east of the Rio Grande. (Map, No. I,
p. 253.)
The President commanded General Taylor to seize
the strip of land between the rivers. To quote General Grant's
words, our troops were sent there "to provoke a
fight."2 Mexico was weak, but not cowardly. The Mexican
government ordered Taylor to leave the eastern bank of the Rio
Grande, where he held Fort Brown. He refused, and the Mexicans
crossed the river (April 24, 1846), and shed the first
blood.3 Soon after, General Taylor or "Old Rough and
Ready," as his men called him -- gained the victory in the battle
of Palo Alto (May 8, 1846); and the next day (May 9) that of
Resaca de la Palma. The Mexicans retreated across the Rio Grande;
Taylor followed them and took possession of a small town on
Mexican soil.
1 The treaty of 1846
extended the Webster-Ashburton line (§ 283) through to the
Pacific. The boundary is marked by mounds, heaps of stones, posts,
and cast-iron pillars; the pillars are placed a mile apart.
2 See "Personal Memoirs of U. S.
Grant," 1, 68.
3 The blood was shed on territory
claimed by Mexico; but the President's message stated that it had
been spilt on "our own territory." Abraham Lincoln, then in
Congress, demanded, in a series of resolutions, known as the
"Spot" resolutions, to be informed where the exact "spot" of this
bloodshed was, and whether it had not been provoked by a body of
armed Americans sent there by order of our government.
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291. Congress declares War; Battles of
Monterey and Buena Vista; Conquest of California and New
Mexico. Congress now (May 13, 1846) declared war against
Mexico, and thousands of
No. 1, THE MEXICAN WAR; No. II SCOTT'S MARCH TO THE CITY OF MEXICO
volunteers, mainly from the southern and southwestern states,
enlisted to fight against her.
In the autumn (September 24, 1846) General
Taylor attacked the Mexicans at Monterey, and took the town after
a desperate battle of four days.1 Early the next year,
Santa Anna, the Mexican
1 Read Hoffman's poem
of "Monterey" in "Heroic Ballads" (Ginn and Company).
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president and commander in chief, led a force of 20,000 men
against Taylor, who had only about a fourth of that number. The
battle was fought at Buena Vista, in the mountains (1847). We had
the advantage of position, and after an all day's fight the
Mexicans retreated. (Map, p. 253.)
This victory gave us possession of northeastern
Mexico. General Taylor returned home in November (1847) and the
fame of this battle made him President of the United States two
years later. Meanwhile (1846), an American fleet with the help of
Colonel Frémont had conquered California; and General
Kearny had seized Santa Fe, and with it the territory now called
New Mexico.
292. General Scott sent to Mexico; he takes
Vera Cruz; Victory of Cerro Gordo. General Winfield Scott
(§ 231) had now been ordered to Mexico with a second army.
His plan was to land at Vera Cruz (Map, p. 253), and march
directly on the city of Mexico, 200 miles distant. After nine
days' fighting he took Vera Cruz and the strong fortress of San
Juan de Ulua, which defended it by sea (spring of 1847). General
Scott said that this important victory was due in great measure to
the remarkable engineering skill of Captain Robert E. Lee of
Virginia, who eighteen years later became commander in chief of
all the Confederate armies in the Civil War. Then pushing forward,
Scott fought a battle at the mountain pass of Cerro Gordo, driving
the Mexicans before him. Late in the summer (1847) he crossed the
last ridge of mountains, and saw the spires and towers of the
capital of Mexico glittering in the sun. The city is situated in a
valley. It was surrounded with fortifications, and could only be
reached by a few narrow roads of stone built across the marshes.
Scott had about 11,000 men to attack an army which numbered more
than three to his one, while the city itself had a population of
nearly 200,000.
293. Victories in the Vicinity of the City of
Mexico; the City taken. With heavy loss to ourselves as well
as to the enemy, we fought and won in a single day (1847) a
succession of battles1 near the city, -- every one
ending in victory to our arms. A few weeks
1 These were the
battles of Contreras, San Antonio, and Churubusco.
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later we attacked and carried the fortified mill of Molino del
Rey; five days later we took the castle of Chapultepec.
The next morning (September 14, 1847) Scott's
little army, now numbering only 6000 men, entered the city of
Mexico and hoisted the Stars and Stripes over the ancient palace,
or so-called "Halls of the Montezumas."1 In the
conquering army there was a young lieutenant from Ohio, whom we
shall meet again-his name was Ulysses S. Grant.2
The fall of the city of Mexico practically ended
the war, which had lasted less than two years. With the exception
of our recent contest with Spain (1898), it was the only war
recorded in American history in which all the victories were on
one side; for our troops gained every battle, and gained it in
every instance against a larger force.
294. Our Fifth Step in National Expansion;
Cessions of Mexican Territory; Other Results of the War. By a
treaty of peace (1848) we obtained the territory of California and
New Mexico, with undisputed possession of Texas -- or in all,
nearly a million of square miles.3 (Map, p. 332.) It
was our fifth step in national expansion (§ 289).
A few years later (1853) we bought from Mexico a
strip of land now included in southern Arizona and New Mexico, and
known as the "Gadsden Purchase." (Map, p. 332.) The Mexican War
educated many of the American officers who fought in it, or were
connected with it (such men as Grant, Lee, Sherman, and
"Stonewall" Jackson), for the battlefields of the Civil War.
1 The Montezumas
(mon-te-zu'mas) were the rulers of Mexico at the time of the
Spanish conquest by Cortez (see § 19). The palace, which we
called the "Halls of the Montezumas," was built by the Spanish
successors of Cortez.
2 General Grant says, in his
"Personal Memoirs," I, 53, that he considered the Mexican War "one
of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker
nation." The feeling against the war in New England found witty
and able expression in Lowell's famous poems of the "Biglow
Papers" (First Series).
3 We, however, paid Mexico
$15,000,000 for the territory, besides assuming certain debts of
hers, amounting to about $3,000,000 more. We had previously
assumed the debt of Texas, of $7,500,000; so that the whole cost
of the entire territory, exclusive of the expense of the war, was
$25,500,000. This was thought to be an enormous outlay, and, as it
had been incurred through the annexation of Texas, many people
grumbled, and said that "Texas" was simply "Taxes," with the
letters differently arranged. To-day the assessed valuation of
Texas alone is much more than forty times greater than the cost of
the whole Mexican land cession.
