The Story of Our Country Part 14

I suppose you know that Texas is one of our states, and the largest of them all. That is, it is largest in square miles; not in number of people. In former times it was part of Mexico, and was a portion of what is called Spanish America. But there came to be more Americans in it than Spaniards. People kept going there from the United States until it was much more of an American than a Spanish country.

General Santa Anna, who was at the head of the Mexican government at the time I speak of, was somewhat of a tyrant, and he tried to rule the people of Texas in a way they would not submit to. Then he ordered them to give up all their guns to his soldiers, but instead of that they took their guns and drove the Mexican soldiers away. After that there was war, as you might well suppose, for a Mexican army was sent to punish the Texans.

I wish now to tell you about what happened to some very brave Americans.

There were only one hundred and seventy-five of them, and they were attacked by General Santa Anna with an army of several thousand men. But they were commanded by Colonel Travis, a brave young Texan, and among them was the famous David Crockett, a great hunter, and Colonel James Bowie, who invented the terrible "bowie-knife," and other bold and daring men who had settled in Texas. They had made a fort of an old Spanish building called the Alamo.

The kind of men I have named do not easily give up. The Mexicans poured bomb-sh.e.l.ls and cannon b.a.l.l.s into their fort, battering down the walls and killing many of them, but they fought on like tigers, determined to die rather than surrender. At length so many of them were dead that there were not enough left to defend the walls, and the Mexican soldiers captured the Alamo. The valiant Crockett kept on fighting, and when he fell, the ground before him was covered with Mexican dead. Then Santa Anna ordered his soldiers to shoot down all that were left. That is what is called the "Ma.s.sacre of the Alamo."

It was not long before the Americans had their revenge. Their princ.i.p.al leader was a bold and able man named Samuel Houston. He had less than eight hundred men under him, but he marched on the Mexicans, who had then about eighteen hundred men.

"Men, there is the enemy," said brave General Houston. "Do you wish to fight?"

"We do," they all shouted.

"Charge on them, then, for liberty or death! Remember the Alamo!"

"Remember the Alamo!" they cried, as they rushed onward with the courage of lions.

In a little time the Mexicans were running like frightened deer, and the daring Texans were like deer hounds on their tracks. Of the eighteen hundred Mexicans all but four hundred were killed, wounded, or taken prisoners, while the Americans lost only thirty men. They had well avenged the gallant Travis and the martyrs of the Alamo.

The cruel Santa Anna was taken prisoner. He had only one sound leg, and the story was that he was caught with his wooden leg stuck fast in the mud. Many of the Texans wanted to hang him for his murders at the Alamo, but in the end he was set free.

All this took place in 1835. Texas was made an independent country, the "Lone Star Republic," with General Houston for President. But its people did not want to stand alone. They were American born and wished to belong to the United States. So this country was asked to accept Texas as a state of the Union. Nine years after it was accepted as one of the American states.

Perhaps some of my readers may think that this story has much more to do with the history of Mexico than that of the United States. But the taking of Texas as a state was United States history, and so was what followed. You know how one thing leads to another. Mexico did not feel like giving up Texas so easily, and her rulers said that the United States had no right to take it. It was not long before the soldiers of the two countries met on the border lands and blood was shed. There was a sharp fight at a place called Palo Alto, and a sharper one at a place called Resaca de la Palma. In both of them the Mexicans were defeated.

Congress then declared war against Mexico, and very soon there was hard fighting going on elsewhere. General Zachary Taylor, a brave officer, who had fought the Seminole Indians in Florida, led the American troops across the Rio Grande River into Mexico, and some time afterwards marched to a place called Buena Vista. He had only five thousand men, while Santa Anna was marching against him with twenty thousand--four to one. General Taylor's army was in great danger. Santa Anna sent him a message, asking him to surrender if he did not want his army cut to pieces; but Rough and Ready, as Taylor's men called him, sent word back that he was there to fight, not to surrender.

The battle that followed was a desperate one. It took place on February 23, 1847. The Mexican lancers rode bravely against the American lines and were driven back at the cannon's mouth. For ten long hours the fighting went on. The Mexicans gained the high ground above the pa.s.s and put the American troops in danger. Charge after charge was made, but like bulldogs the Yankee soldiers held their ground. On came the das.h.i.+ng Mexican lancers, shouting their war-cry of "G.o.d and Liberty," and charging a battery commanded by Captain Bragg. The lancers captured some of the guns and drove the soldiers back. Captain Bragg sent a messenger in haste to General Taylor, saying that he must have more men or he could not hold his ground.

"I have no more men to send you," said Rough and Ready. "Give them a little more grape, Captain Bragg."

The cannon were loaded with grape-shot and fired into the ranks of the enemy, cutting great gaps through them. Again and again they were loaded and fired, and then the fine Mexican cavalry turned and fled. They could not stand any more of Captain Bragg's grape.

That night both armies went to sleep on the field of battle. But when the next day dawned the Mexicans were gone. Santa Anna had led them away during the night and General Taylor had won the greatest victory of the war. He received a n.o.ble reward for it, for the following year he was elected President of the United States.

The next thing done in this war was an attempt to capture the city of Mexico, the capital of the country. The easiest way to get there was by sea, for it was a long journey by land, so a fleet was got ready and an army sent south on the Gulf of Mexico. This army was led by General Winfield Scott, who had fought against the British in the War of 1812.

Onward they sailed till they came before the seaport city of Vera Cruz.

This had a strong fort, which was battered for four days by the American cannon, when its walls were so shattered that the Mexicans gave it up.

In this way a good starting-point was gained.

But I would have you all know that the Americans had no easy road before them. The city of Mexico lies in the center of the country on land that is as high as many mountains, and the way to it from the coast goes steadily upward, and has many difficult pa.s.ses and rough places, where a small force might stop an army.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE STORMING OF CHAPULTEPEC.]

If the Mexicans had known their business and had possessed good generals I am afraid the Americans might never have gotten up this rugged road. The Mexicans had men enough but they wanted able leaders. At one of the pa.s.ses, named Cerro Gordo, Santa Anna waited with 15,000 men. The Americans had only 9,000. It looked as if they might have to turn back.

What did they do? Why, they managed to drag a battery to the top of a steep hill that overlooked the pa.s.s. And while these guns poured their shot down on the astonished Mexicans the army attacked them in front. In a few hours they were in full flight. Five generals, and 3,000 men were taken prisoners, and Santa Anna himself came so near being taken that he left his cork leg behind. Do you not think a general ought to have two good legs when he has to run as often as Santa Anna had?

Onward they marched until not very far away lay the beautiful city of Mexico. But here and there along the road were strong forts, and Santa Anna had collected a large army, three times as large as that of the Americans. You may see that General Scott had a very hard task before him. But there is one way to get past forts without fighting; which is, to go around them. This is what General Scott did. He marched to the south, and soon he was within ten miles of the capital without a battle.

August 20th was a great day for the American army. That day our brave troops fought like heroes, and before night they had won five victories. One of these was on a steep hill called Churubusco, which they charged up in the face of the Mexican guns. Then on they went, and in a short time the old city, the most ancient in America, was in their hands. That ended the war. When peace was made the United States claimed the provinces of New Mexico and California, which had been captured by our soldiers, but for which Mexico was paid a large sum. No one then dreamed how rich the provinces were in silver and gold. Not long after the gold of California was discovered, and that country, which had been feebly held by a few Mexicans, was quickly filled by an army of gold-seekers. Since then it has proved one of the richest parts of the earth.

CHAPTER XX

HOW SLAVERY LED TO WAR

ALL of my young readers must know what a wonderful age this is that we live in, and what marvelous things have been done. Some of you, no doubt, have read the stories of magic in the "Arabian Nights Entertainments," and thought them very odd, if not absurd. But if any one, a hundred years ago, had been told about the railroad, the telegraph, the photograph, the phonograph, vessels that run beneath the surface of the water, and s.h.i.+ps that sail in the air, I fancy they would have called all this nonsense and "Arabian Nights" magic. Why, think of it, a trolley car is as magical, in its way, as Aladdin's wonderful lamp.

But while you know much about these things, there has been one great step of progress which, I fancy, you know or think very little about. I do not mean material but moral progress, for you must bear in mind that while the world has been growing richer it has also been growing better.

A hundred years ago many millions of men were held as slaves in America and Europe. Some of these were black and some were white, but they could be bought and sold like so many cattle, could be whipped by their masters, and had no more rights than so many brute beasts.

To-day there is not a slave in Europe or America. All these millions of slaves have been set free. Do you not think I am right in saying that the world has grown better as well as richer? Why, fifty years ago there were millions of slaves in our own country, and now there is not one in all the land. Is not that a great gain to mankind? But it is sad to think that this slavery gave rise to a terrible war. I shall have to tell you about this war, after I have told you how slavery brought it on.

In the early part of this book you read of how white men first came to this country. I have now to tell you that black men were brought here almost as soon. In 1619, just twelve years after Captain John Smith and the English colonists landed at Jamestown, a Dutch s.h.i.+p sailed up the James River and sold them some negroes to be held as slaves.

You remember about Pocahontas, the Indian girl who saved the life of Captain John Smith. She was afterwards married to John Rolfe, the man who first planted tobacco in Virginia. John Rolfe wrote down what was going on in Virginia, and it was he who told us about these negroes brought in as slaves. This is what he wrote:

"About the last of August came in, a Dutch marine-of-war, that sold us 20 Negars."

These twenty "Negars," as he called them, grew in numbers until there were four million negro slaves in our country in 1860, when the war began. There are twice that many black people in the country to-day, but I am glad to be able to say that none of them are slaves. Yet how sad it is to think that it cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of men, and misery to mult.i.tudes of families, to set them free.

"Where did all these black men come from?" I am sure I hear some young voice asking that question. Well, they came from Africa, the land of the negroes. In our time merchant s.h.i.+ps are used to carry goods from one country to another. In old times many of these s.h.i.+ps were used in carrying negroes to be sold as slaves. The wicked captains would steal the poor black men in Africa, or buy them from the chiefs, who had taken them prisoners in war. Some of them filled their s.h.i.+ps so full of these miserable victims that hundreds of them died and were thrown overboard.

Then, when they got to the West Indies or to the sh.o.r.es of our country, they would sell all that were left alive to the planters, to spend the rest of their lives like oxen chained to the yoke.

It was a very sad and cruel business, but people then thought it right, and some of the best men took part in it. That is why I say the world has grown better. We have a higher idea of right and wrong in regard to such things than our forefathers had.

Slaves were kept in all parts of the country, in the North as well as the South. There were more of them in the South than in the North, for they were of more use there as workers in the tobacco and rice and cotton fields. Most of those in the North were kept as house servants.

Not many of them were needed in the fields.

The North had not much use for slaves, and in time laws were pa.s.sed, doing away with slavery in all the Northern states. Very likely the same thing would have taken place in the South if it had not been for the discovery of the cotton-gin. I have told you what a change this great invention made. Before that time it did not pay to raise cotton in our fields. After that time cotton grew to be a very profitable crop, and the cultivation of it spread wider and wider until it was planted over a great part of the South.

This made a remarkable change. Negroes were very useful in the cotton fields, and no one in the South now thought of doing away with slavery.

After 1808 no s.h.i.+ps could bring slaves to this country, but there were a great many here then, and many others were afterwards born and grew up as slaves, so that the numbers kept increasing year after year.

There were always some people, both in the North and the South, who did not like slavery. Among them were Franklin and Was.h.i.+ngton and Jefferson and other great men. In time there got to be so many of these people in the North that they formed what were called Anti-slavery Societies. Some of them said that slavery should be kept where it was and not taken into any new states. Others said that every slave in the United States ought to be set free.

This brought on great excitement all over the country. The people in the North who believed in slavery were often violent. Now and then there were riots. Buildings where Anti-slavery meetings were held were burned down. One of the leaders of the Abolitionists, as the Anti-slavery people were called, was dragged through the streets of Boston with a rope tied round his body, and would have been hanged if his friends had not got him away.

But as time went on the Abolitionists grew stronger in the North. Many slaves ran away from their masters, and these were hidden by their white friends until they could get to Canada, where they were safe. All through the South and North people were excited.

I do not think many of our people expected the cruel war that was coming. If they had they might have been more careful what they said and did. But for all that, war was close at hand, and two things helped to bring it on.