History of the War Between Mexico and the United States with a Preliminary View of its Origin Part 2

"These solemn a.s.surances, in answer to our demand for redress, were disregarded. By making them, however, Mexico obtained further delay.

President Van Buren, in his annual message to congress of the 5th of December, 1837, states that 'although the larger number' of our demands for redress, and 'many of them aggravated cases of personal wrongs, have been now for years before the Mexican government, and although the causes of national complaint, and those of the most offensive character, admitted of immediate, simple, and satisfactory replies, it is only within a few days past that any specific communication in answer to our last demand, made five months ago, has been received from the Mexican minister;' and that 'for not one of our public complaints has satisfaction been given or offered; that but one of the cases of personal wrong has been favorably considered, and but four cases of both descriptions, out of all those formally presented, and earnestly pressed, have as yet been decided upon by the Mexican government.'

President Van Buren, believing that it would be vain to make any further attempt to obtain redress by the ordinary means within the power of the executive, communicated this opinion to congress, in the message referred to, in which he said that 'on a careful and deliberate examination of the contents,' of the correspondence with the Mexican government, 'and considering the spirit manifested by the Mexican government, it became his painful duty to return the subject, as it now stands, to congress, to whom it belongs, to decide upon the time, the mode, and the measure of redress.'

"Instead of taking redress into our own hands, a new negotiation was entered upon with fair promises on the part of Mexico. This negotiation, after more than a year's delay, resulted in the convention of the 11th of April, 1839, 'for the adjustment of claims of citizens of the United States of America upon the government of the Mexican republic.' The joint board of commissioners created by this convention to examine and decide upon these claims was not organized until the month of August, 1840, and under the terms of the convention they were to terminate their duties within eighteen months from that time. Four of the eighteen months were consumed in preliminary discussions on frivolous and dilatory points raised by the Mexican commissioners; nor was it until the month of December, 1840, that they commenced the examination of the claims of our citizens upon Mexico. Fourteen months only remained to examine and decide upon these numerous and complicated cases. In the month of February, 1842, the term of the commission expired, leaving many claims undisposed of for want of time. The claims which were allowed by the board and by the umpire, authorized by the convention to decide in case of disagreement between the Mexican and American commissioners, amounted to _two millions twenty-six thousand one hundred and thirty-nine dollars and sixty-eight cents_. There were pending before the umpire when the commission expired additional claims which had been examined and awarded by the American commissioners, and had not been allowed by the Mexican commissioners, amounting to _nine hundred and twenty-eight thousand and twenty-seven dollars and eighty-eight cents_, upon which he did not decide, alleging that his authority ceased with the termination of the joint commission. Besides these claims, there were others of American citizens amounting to _three millions three hundred and thirty-six thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven dollars and five cents_, which had been submitted to the board, and upon which they had not time to decide before their final adjournment.

"The sum of two millions twenty-six thousand one hundred and thirty-nine dollars and sixty-eight cents which had been awarded to the claimants, was an ascertained debt by Mexico, about which there could be no dispute, and which she was bound to pay according to the terms of the convention. Soon after the final awards for this amount had been made, the Mexican government asked for a postponement of the time of making payment, alleging that it would be inconvenient to pay at the time stipulated. In the spirit of forbearing kindness towards a sister republic, which Mexico has so long abused, the United States promptly complied with her request. A second convention was accordingly concluded between the two governments on the thirtieth of January, 1843, which upon its face declares, that, 'this new arrangement is entered into for the accommodation of Mexico.' By the terms of this convention, all the interest due on the awards which had been made in favor of the claimants under the convention of the 11th of April, 1839, was to be paid to them on the 30th of April, 1843, and "the princ.i.p.al of the said awards, and the interest accruing thereon," was stipulated to "be paid in five years, in equal instalments every three months." Notwithstanding this new convention was entered into at the request of Mexico, and for the purpose of relieving her from embarra.s.sment, the claimants only received the interest due on the 30th of April, 1843, and three of the twenty instalments. Although the payments of the sum thus liquidated, and confessedly due by Mexico to our citizens as indemnity for acknowledged acts of outrage and wrong, was secured by treaty, the obligations of which are ever held sacred by all just nations, yet Mexico violated this solemn engagement by failing and refusing to make the payment. The two instalments due in April and July, 1844, under the peculiar circ.u.mstances connected with them, were a.s.sumed by the United States and paid to the claimants. But this is not all of which we have just cause of complaint. To provide a remedy for the claimants whose cases were not decided by the joint commission under the convention of April the 11th, 1839, it was expressly stipulated by the sixth article of the convention of the 30th of January, 1843, that 'a new convention shall be entered into for the settlement of all claims of the government and citizens of the United States against the republic of Mexico which were not finally decided by the late commission which met in the city of Was.h.i.+ngton, and all claims of the government and citizens of Mexico against the United States.'

"In conformity with this stipulation, a third convention was concluded and signed at the city of Mexico on the 20th of November, 1843, by the plenipotentiaries of the two governments, by which provision was made for ascertaining and paying these claims. In January, 1844, this convention was ratified by the senate of the United States, with two amendments, which were manifestly reasonable in their character.

"Upon a reference of the amendments proposed to the government of Mexico, the same evasions, difficulties, and delays were interposed which have so long marked the policy with that government towards the United States. It has not even yet decided whether it would or would not accede to them, although the subject has been repeatedly pressed upon its consideration.

"Mexico thus violated a second time the faith of treaties, by failing or refusing to carry into effect the sixth article of convention of January, 1843."[23]

The allegations made in this message are unquestionable. They rest upon the evidence of doc.u.ments which are accessible to all in the published papers of the government.[24] The outrages of Mexico consisted in seizure of property, illegal imprisonment of citizens, deprivation of just rights, interference with our lawful commerce, forced loans, violations of contracts, and arbitrary expulsion from the territory without trial. All these misdeeds formed the exasperating burthen of our complaint, and their perpetration was in fact proved beyond the possibility of cavil by the awards in favor of our claimants made by the Baron von Roenne, who, as Prussian minister, was umpire between the Mexican and American commissioners.

It must not be forgotten that we had claims also against Spain, France, England, Denmark and Naples, which were adjusted by negotiation and liquidated in strict accordance with treaties. These, demands, however, originated during the wars in Europe which followed the French revolution, so that it remained for Mexico to peculate on our commerce and persecute our people during a period of entire international peace, and without any excuse save the direct villainy of her government, or the corrupt ignorance of her subordinate officers.

We must now retrace our steps, in order to narrate an event of interest in the series of causes that originated this war.

It appears that the Mexican government, in antic.i.p.ation of some attack on its distant territories of California, had, in the summer of 1842, sent a number of troops thither, under the command of Don Manuel Micheltorena, who was appointed commandant general and inspector of both the Californias. These troops arrived at San Diego, the southernmost port on the Pacific side of California, in the middle of October, and were on their way to Monterey, the capital, when the occurrences in question took place.

Monterey, on the Pacific, is a small village founded by the Spaniards in 1771, at the southern extremity of a bay of the same name, near the 36th degree of lat.i.tude, about a hundred miles south of the great bay of San Francisco, and about three hundred and fifty miles north from the town of Angeles, where the Commandant Micheltorena was resting with his troops when the events in question occurred.

Whilst Commodore Jones was visiting the port of Callao, in September, 1842, he received from Mr. John Parrott, our consul at Mazatlan, a copy of a Mexican newspaper of the 4th of June, containing three official declarations against the United States, which he regarded as "highly belligerent."[25] He also obtained a newspaper published in Boston, quoting a paragraph from the New Orleans Advertiser of the 19th April, 1842, in which it was a.s.serted,--upon what the editor deemed authentic information,--that Mexico had ceded the Californias to England for seven millions of dollars. These doc.u.ments reached our sensitive commodore at a moment when his suspicions were aroused by other circ.u.mstances. For, on the 5th of September, Rear-Admiral Thomas, a British commander, sailed from Callao in the Dublin having previously despatched two of his fleet with sealed orders just received from England. The whole fleet, he believed, was secretly on its way to Panama to embark reinforcements of troops, from the West Indies, to take armed possession of the Californias in conformity with the allegation of the Boston and New Orleans editors.[26]

Commodore Jones immediately hastened from the port of Callao to Lima, where, in a conversation with the American charge d'affaires, Mr.

Pickett, he formed the decided opinion that there would be war not only with Mexico but with Great Britain also.[27] Accordingly, he lost no time in preparing for sea, and on the 7th of September, sailed for the coast of Mexico.

On the 19th of October, Jones arrived at Monterey, in the frigate United States, accompanied by the Cyane, Captain Stribling. They did not communicate with the sh.o.r.e or endeavor, in any authentic way, to ascertain the state of our political relations; but at four o'clock in the afternoon, Captain Armstrong, the flag captain of the United States, landed, and delivered to the acting governor, Don Juan Alvarado, a letter from Commodore Jones, requiring the immediate surrender of the place, with its forts, castles, ammunitions and arms, to the United States, in order to save it from the horrors of war, which would be the immediate consequences of a refusal to submit. Alvarado, upon this summons, consulted the military and civil authorities; and, finding that the garrison consisted of only twenty-nine men, that the artillery was composed of eleven pieces, entirely useless from the rottenness of their carriages, and that the whole number of muskets and carbines, good and bad, did not exceed a hundred and fifty, he surrendered the place, which was taken possession of by the Americans early on the 20th of October.

The articles of capitulation signed on the occasion provide, that the Mexican soldiers shall march out with colors flying, and shall remain as prisoners of war until they can be sent to Mexico, and that the inhabitants shall be protected in their persons and property, so long as they conduct themselves properly, and do not infringe the laws of the United States. Commodore Jones at the same time issued a proclamation to the Californians, declaring that "he came in arms as the representative of a powerful nation, against which the existing government of Mexico had engaged in war, but not with the intention of spreading dismay among the peaceful inhabitants," and inviting them to submit to the authority of a government which would protect them forever in the enjoyment of liberty.

The evening and night of the 20th pa.s.sed quietly; but, on the next day, the commodore seems to have reflected on the results of a bloodless conquest which was even more easily won than the victories of Cortez and Pizarro three hundred years before. Learning that there was late and pacific news from Mexico, and, forthwith despatching his private secretary and chaplain to seek for it, they discovered, in the office of the Mexican commissary, several packages containing unopened files of gazettes, as late as the 4th of August. "The general tone of the articles,"--says the commodore,--"relating to the United States, in these papers, was pacific, whilst the certainty that Mexico had not commenced hostilities against us, up to the 22d of August, was established by private commercial letters from Mazatlan." Thus, it seemed to him, that the crisis had pa.s.sed; that his victory was barren, that the reported cession of the Californias to England was untrue and could not have been prevented even by his valor. The war which had been recklessly undertaken upon surmises or newspaper articles, and stimulated by the sailing of an English fleet with sealed orders, came to an end as it began--by Mexican journals.

Accordingly, on the 21st of the month, Commodore Jones addressed another letter to the acting governor, Alvarado, announcing that information received since the capture of the place, left him no reason to doubt that the difficulties between Mexico and the United States had been adjusted; and that, being anxious to avoid all cause of future controversy, he was ready to restore the place, with its forts and property, to the Mexicans, in the same condition in which they were before the seizure. Monterey was therefore at once evacuated by the Americans, and reoccupied by the Mexicans, whose flag, on being rehoisted, was saluted by our s.h.i.+ps.

If the commodore of our squadron had prudently despatched his secretary and chaplain on a pacific mission of inquiry under a flag of truce, immediately upon his arrival, it is extremely probable that they would either have discovered on the 20th the newspapers they found on the 21st, or have received the commercial letter which terminated the capture. This would have prevented an angry diplomatic correspondence; it would have allayed the irritation of national sensibility, and, whilst it saved us from the imputation of attempting to intimidate a weak power, would not have subjected our forces to the mortification of mistake upon such grievous subjects as peace and war. The Mexican papers, of course, viewed the matter as a national insult; and the government gazette, published in the capital, unequivocally a.s.serted that Commodore Jones attacked Monterey, agreeably to orders from his government, with the view of conquering California, but that finding the country in a state of defence, (for which thanks were due to President Santa Anna and his efficient minister of war,) he was obliged to abandon his plan and invent a story for his justification.[28]

It is scarcely possible for a citizen of the United States to take a different view of the subject without a full knowledge of the facts; for it could hardly be believed that the commander of a naval station, during a period of profound peace, would venture to summon towns to surrender, to land forces, take prisoners, and hoist our national flag on friendly soil, without the authority or connivance of his government.[29]

FOOTNOTES:

[19] This river is known by various names in different authors. By some it is called Rio Bravo, by others, Rio del Norte, and by others, again, Rio Grande. I shall adhere to the latter throughout this work.

[20] See the Natchez Daily Courier of 18th January, 1843, for an excellent article on Mexico, signed EGO ET ALTER.

[21] Report No. 1096 to the H. of R., 27th congress, 2d session.

[22] See senate doc.u.ments of that session.

[23] President Polk's annual message to congress, 8th Dec. 1846, p. 6.

[24] See Doc. No. 139, 24 cong. 2d sess. H. of R.--Senate Doc. No. 320, 2d sess. 27 cong.--Doc. No. 57, H. of R. 27 cong. 1st sess.--Senate Doc.

No. 411, 27 cong. 2d sess.--Doc. No. 1096, H. of R. 27 cong. 2d sess.--Doc. No. 158, H. of R. 28 cong. 2d sess.--Doc. No. 144, H. of R.

28 cong. 2d sess.--Senate Doc. No. 85, 29 cong. 1st sess.--Senate Doc.

No. 151, 29 cong. 1 sess.

[25] This paper contained the circular of the Mexican minister of foreign relations to the diplomatic corps, dated 31st May, 1842,--(answered by Mr. Thompson on the 1st of June,)--relative to public meetings in the United States favorable to Texas; the aid furnished Texas by _volunteers_ from the United States; and the trade in arms and munitions of war with Texas. Doc. No. 266, H. of R., 27th congress, 2d session.

[26] See doc., No. 166, H. of R., 27th congress, 3d session, page 85.

[27] Id. pages 15, 68, 73.

[28] Diario del Gobierno--Mexico, 1842.

[29] A correspondence relative to this seizure of Monterey took place at Was.h.i.+ngton between Mr. Webster, secretary of state, and Gen. Almonte, the Mexican minister; and, in Mexico, between Senor Bocanegra, minister of foreign affairs, and Mr. Waddy Thompson, our diplomatic representative. Mexico complained bitterly of our insulting descent on her territory, and our ministers apologized gracefully for the unauthorised act. The correspondence between the governments and with Commodore Jones will be found in doc.u.ment No. 166, H. of R., 97th congress, 3d session, 1843.

The recall of Commodore Jones by the secretary of the navy is the following words:

"NAVY DEPARTMENT, January 24, 1843.

"SIR: Although no official intelligence of the recent occurrences at Monterey has reached this department, yet the leading facts have been communicated in a form sufficiently authentic to justify and render necessary my immediate action. In the opinion of this government it is due to the friendly relations subsisting between the United States and Mexico, and to the respect which every nation owes to the rights of other nations, that you should be recalled from the command of the squadron in the Pacific.

"In adopting this course it is not designed to prejudge the case, _nor even to indicate any opinion as to the propriety or impropriety of your conduct in the matter alluded to_. That will of course be made the subject of proper inquiry after you return to the United States, when full justice will be done as between yourself and your own country. The present order has reference only to the just claims of Mexico on this government for such a disavowal of the attack on Monterey as will fully recognize the rights of Mexico, and at the same time place the conduct of this government in a proper light before the nations of the world.

Commodore Dallas will relieve you as soon as he can conveniently reach the station and you will return to the United States in such mode as may be most convenient and agreeable to yourself.

"I am respectfully yours,

"A. P. UPSHUR.

"Com. THOS. AP. C. JONES, commanding Pacific squadron."

I believe that the commodore was not tried by a court of inquiry or a court martial after his return, but that the affair has slumbered since the date of the above letter.

CHAPTER III.

The origin of the war--History of the pacification between Spain and Holland in 1609--Spain and Mexico should have followed the example--The Texas question--Origin of the Texas revolution-- True history of it--Resistance to the Central despotism of Santa Anna--Mexican war against Texas--Independence of Texas--Santa Anna's retraction in 1846 of his anti-federative opinions.

The student of Mexican history, at this period, will derive instruction from a narrative of the connexion which once existed between Spain and the Netherlands and its fatal rupture.

After the fall of the duke of Burgundy in 1477, his daughter Mary brought the low countries to Austria by her marriage with the Emperor Maximilian; and his grandson, Charles V, united these provinces with Spain. During the reign of Charles, their ancient liberties were carefully respected, and the country prospered whilst the Protestant religion spread throughout it in spite of stern opposition. But when his successor, Philip II, mounted the throne, all prudence in the government of the Belgic and Batavian provinces seems to have been abandoned, and unbridled persecution was let loose on the civil and religious rights of the people. Granvella and the b.l.o.o.d.y duke of Alva were the monarch's instruments in this sad misgovernment, which resulted in a total renunciation of allegiance to the king of Spain. Long and bitter was the rebellion,--continuing from the middle of the sixteenth century to the year 1609,--when the Spanish claim to the sovereignty of the new republic of Holland was virtually resigned under the form of a truce for twelve years between the belligerents.[30]

The independence of the united provinces was thus, in fact achieved, and it was recognized by all the great powers of Europe except Spain; still Holland went through the thirty years war, before her nationality was secured by the peace of Westphalia.