A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year Part 39

[Sidenote: Revolt of Cracow]

[Sidenote: Anarchy in Austrian-Poland]

[Sidenote: Cracow incorporated in Austria]

[Sidenote: Tennyson on Poland]

For the time being the Austrian Government was too preoccupied with its troubles at home to carry its Italian policy to extremes. The Polish refugees at Paris had long determined to strike another blow for the freedom of their country. It was arranged that the Polish provinces in Austria and Prussia should rise and revolt, early during this year, and extend the revolution to Russian Poland. But the Prussian Government crushed the conspiracy before a blow was struck. In Austria the attempt was more successful. Late in February insurrection broke out in the free city of Cracow. General Collin occupied the city, but his forces proved too weak. The Polish n.o.bles around Tarnow in Northern Galicia raised the standard of revolt. Some 40,000 Polish insurgents marched on Cracow. A severe reverse was inflicted upon them by the government troops. Now the peasants turned against the n.o.bles, burning down the largest estates and plunging the country into anarchy. The landowners, face to face with the humiliating fact that their own tenants were their bitterest foes, charged the Austrian Government with having instigated a communistic revolt. In a circular note to the European courts, Metternich protested that the outbreak of the Polish peasantry was purely spontaneous. A simultaneous attempt at revolution in Silesia was ruthlessly put down. Austria, Russia and Prussia now revoked the treaty of Vienna in regard to Poland. Cracow, which had been recognized as an independent republic, was annexed by Austria with the consent of Russia and Prussia, and against the protests of England, France and Sweden. New measures of repression against Polish national aspirations were taken in Russia. The last traces of Poland were blotted from the map of nations. It was then that Tennyson wrote his famous sonnet on Poland:

"How long, O G.o.d, shall men be ridden down, And trampled under by the last and least Of men? The heart of Poland hath not ceased To quiver, tho' her sacred blood doth drown The fields, and out of every smouldering town Cries to Thee, lest brute Power be increased."

In Russia during this year Otto von Kotzebue, the great navigator and Arctic explorer, died in his fifty-ninth year.

[Sidenote: Civil war in Portugal]

Almost simultaneously with the attempted revolution of Poland, another revolt broke out in Portugal. On April 20, the northern provinces rose against the Ministry of Costa Cabral, the Duke of Tomar. After desultory fighting, the Duke of Plamella, one of the commanders of the const.i.tutional army, gave up the struggle. He resigned his post and was banished from the country. Late in the year the Marquis of Saldanha, with a force of Pedro loyalists, defeated Count Bonfinn at the Torres Vedras.

[Sidenote: Spanish princesses married]

In Spain, the long-pending diplomatic struggle over the Spanish marriages culminated, on October 10, in the wedding of Queen Isabella to her cousin, Don Francisco d'a.s.sisi, Duke of Cadiz. Put forward by France, this prince was physically unfit for marriage. Simultaneously with the Queen's wedding, her sister was married to the Duke of Montpensier, the son of Louis Philippe. Thus the King of France and his Minister, Guizot, had their way.

[Sidenote: Guizot's doubtful success]

Lord Palmerston's candidature of the Prince of Saxe-Coburg for Queen Isabella's hand was foiled. It proved a doubtful success for France. The _entente cordiale_ between France and Great Britain was broken. Guizot was charged in the Chambers with sacrificing the most valuable foreign alliance for the purely dynastic ambitions of the House of Orleans. Having cut loose from England, Guizot now endeavored through his diplomatic envoys to form a new concert of Europe from which England should be left out.

[Sidenote: Oregon treaty signed]

[Sidenote: Rae's Arctic explorations]

Great Britain's diplomatic dispute with America, concerning the northwestern boundary, was satisfactorily settled by the Oregon treaty, signed on June 15. Before this a peremptory demand had been put forward by the American Congress that the joint occupation of Oregon should cease. The British originally claimed all the territory west of the Rocky Mountains, from Mexico to Alaska. For years the land was settled jointly. Now the forty-ninth degree of northern lat.i.tude was accepted as the boundary between British North America and the United States. The Columbia River was retained by the United States, with free navigation conceded to English s.h.i.+ps, while the seaport of Vancouver, the importance of which was not as yet recognized, fell to England. The value of this possession was soon revealed. Agents of the British Hudson's Bay Company selected Victoria, on the Island of Vancouver, as the most promising British port in the Pacific.

During this same year, Dr. John Rae, by sledge journeys of more than 1,200 miles, explored the northernmost region, Boothia, wherein was determined the northern magnetic pole.

[Sidenote: Ether in surgery]

[Sidenote: Chloroform]

On October 16, Dr. J.C. Warren of Boston, to whom Drs. Wells and Morton had communicated their discoveries with sulphuric ether, demonstrated the potency of the drug in a public test. A severe operation was performed at the Boston Hospital, in the presence of some of the foremost medical men of the city, while the patient remained unconscious. The news was heralded abroad and was received by medical men throughout the world as a new revelation. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the famous physician and author, named the new method "Anaesthesia." The credit of the new discovery was claimed forthwith by several persons--notably by Dr. Charles T. Jackson of Boston, and Dr. Crawford W. Long of Alabama. A few months after the value of ether in surgery had come to be clearly recognized, a Scotch surgeon, Sir J.V. Simpson, discovered that chloroform could be administered with a.n.a.logous effect.

[Sidenote: Mexican war begun]

[Sidenote: Mexican success]

[Sidenote: American reverse at Fort Brown]

[Sidenote: Palo Alto]

[Sidenote: Resaca de la Palma]

[Sidenote: Invasion of Mexico]

In the United States, during this period, the long-expected war with Mexico was well under way. By a joint resolution of Congress, Texas had at last been admitted into the Union. General Taylor took position in Texas, opposite Matamoras on the Rio Grande, where the Mexican troops were gathering. Taylor presently moved his troops to Point St. Isabel. There a fleet of seven s.h.i.+ps brought supplies. Leaving a part of his force there, he marched to a point on the Rio Grande opposite Matamoras, where he built Fort Brown, named after Major Brown, whom he left in command. The ground was malarious, and many soldiers died of disease. On April 12, the Mexican general, Ampudia, moved forward with a strong force to drive Taylor beyond the Rio de la Nueces. Ampudia demanded that Taylor should withdraw within twenty-four hours, but Taylor refused to leave what he claimed to be the soil of the United States. Ampudia hesitated, and General Arista was appointed in his place. Learning that two vessels with supplies for the Mexicans were about to enter the Rio Grande, Taylor caused the river to be blockaded, at the "cost of war." Arista prepared to attack Fort Brown, and cut off communication between Taylor and his supplies. Captain Thornton's command, sent out to reconnoitre, was captured on April 26. Only Thornton escaped by leaping his horse over a dense hedge. On May 1, leaving Major Brown in command at the fort, Taylor made a forced march to Point Isabel.

The Mexicans promptly sent men across the river to the rear of Fort Brown, and opened fire together with the guns of Matamoras on that work. Major Brown was first among the killed. Signal guns were fired to recall Taylor.

With 2,300 men he turned back on May 6. Meanwhile, 6,000 Mexicans had arrived and taken up a strong position at Palo Alto. On the 8th, Taylor a.s.saulted the superior force confronting him. Two eighteen-pounders and two light batteries made fearful havoc in the closed ranks of the Mexican infantry. The prairie gra.s.s between the two armies took fire. Both lines drew back, but soon renewed the fight. Taylor's left was met by cannonade, but the Mexican column was overthrown and the entire force fell back to Resaca de la Palma. The Americans took up their march to Fort Brown. When within three miles of the fort they encountered the Mexicans, strongly posted in Resaca de la Palma, a ravine three hundred feet wide bordered with palmetto trees. Taylor deployed a portion of his force as skirmishers, and a company of dragoons overrode the first Mexican battery. The Americans then advanced their battery to the crest. A regiment charged in column, and, joined by the skirmishers, seized the enemy's artillery. After hard fighting in the chaparral, the Mexicans were put to flight. The Mexicans lost one thousand men, the Americans conceded but one hundred.

Refusing an armistice, Taylor crossed the river on May 18, and unfurled the Stars and Stripes on Mexican territory. Another attempted stand of the Mexicans resulted in worse defeat. Arista's retreat became a rout. Of 7,000 men he brought only 2,500 to Linares. The American troops occupied Matamoras, Reinosa and Camargo. The three States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Nuevo Leon were annexed to the territory of the Rio Grande. In the interior of Mexico a revolution broke out. General Paredes was made President.

[Sidenote: Kearney annexes New Mexico]

[Sidenote: Fremont in California]

In July, Colonel Philip Kearney, with an American force, marched unopposed from the Arkansas River and took possession of Santa Fe. On August 1, he annexed the State of New Mexico as a Territory of the United States. In May, Captain John C. Fremont, in charge of an exploring expedition in the South, received a message from Secretary of State Buchanan and Senator Benton, whose daughter he had married, suggesting that he should remain in California. Fremont took the hint and returned to Sacramento. There he learned that the Mexican commander was about to take the offensive. He at once a.s.sumed command of the American forces, and on June 15 captured Sonoma. Meanwhile Commodores Sloat and Stockton took possession of the coast towns as far as Los Angeles, and, on August 13, held Monterey, the capital of California. Fremont set up a provisional government, placing himself at the head. In the meantime, the United States had sent a company of artillery, which took two hundred days in making the journey around the Horn. Among its members were three future heroes of the American Civil War--Lieutenants Sherman, Halleck and Ord.

[Sidenote: Tardy declaration of war]

The news of these events did not reach Was.h.i.+ngton until after Congress had declared war on April 26, authorized a call for 50,000 volunteers, and made an appropriation of $10,000,000. Three hundred thousand volunteers responded. Of these some 75,000 were enrolled with the regular army of 40,000. President Polk, on May 11, sent to Congress an aggressive measure, announcing that war existed by the act of Mexico. On May 23, Mexico made her formal declaration of war. General Taylor, with the army of occupation, was ordered to seize and hold points on the Rio Grande.

[Sidenote: a.s.sault of Monterey]

[Sidenote: Hoffman's stanzas]

[Sidenote: Long armistice]

General Taylor waited at Matamoras until September 19, when, having been joined by General Worth, he encamped with 6,000 men within three miles of Monterey, a strongly fortified place, ninety miles distant from Matamoras.

On the north, Monterey was protected by a strong citadel, with lunettes on the east, and by two fortified hills on either side of the river just above the town. Worth's division planted itself above the city on the Mexican line of retreat. Garland's brigade, advancing between the citadel and the first lunette, reached the city with heavy loss. After three companies had failed to move to Garland's support, two other companies pa.s.sed to the rear of the citadel and compelled the Mexicans to abandon that point. An attempt on the second lunette failed with heavy loss to the Americans. The next morning Worth endeavored to capture the fortified eminence south of the river. The Americans advanced in the face of a plunging artillery fire. A host of skirmishers clambered over the parapet and turned its guns on the fleeing Mexicans, and, with two supporting regiments moving along the slope, drove the Mexicans out of Fort Saldado. At daybreak the hill on the north side of the river was carried. These positions commanded the western half of the city. On the morning of the 23d, the American troops fought their way in, but were driven out again. Worth's men then pushed into the town from the west, and finding the streets swept by artillery, broke into the houses. On the next morning, September 24, Ampudia capitulated. The capture of Monterey inspired the American poet, Charles F. Hoffman, to a song modelled after the famous St. Crispin's Day speech in Shakespeare's "King Henry V.":

We were not many--we who stood Before the iron sleet that day; Yet many a gallant spirit would Give half his years if he but could Have been with us at Monterey.

Our banners on those turrets wave, And there our evening bugles play; Where orange-boughs above their grave Keep green the memory of the brave Who fought and fell at Monterey.

An armistice of eight weeks was agreed upon. The armistice was disapproved by the American Secretary of War, and, in November, General Scott was ordered to take command and conduct the war on his own plans.

[Sidenote: Revolution in Mexico]

In Mexico, General Paredes, who favored the restoration of monarchical rule, was opposed by General Alvarez in the south. When Paredes left the capital to go to the front, revolution broke out behind him. Don Mariano Solas, the commandant of the City of Mexico, summoned to his aid General Santa Anna. On his arrival this popular general, but recently banished from the capital, was hailed as the saviour of his country and was invested with the supreme military command. Paredes went into exile. Santa Anna, after inexplicable delay, raised war funds to the amount of six million dollars, and advanced toward San Luis Potosi. There the "Napoleon of the West," as they called him in Mexico, wasted more precious months.

[Sidenote: Howe's sewing machine]

[Sidenote: Iowa becomes a State]

On the American side, too, little was done. On August 8, the Wilmot Proviso was considered. It was a proviso to the $2,000,000 bill asked by the President to arrange peace with Mexico, and it declared it to be "an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory from Mexico, that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist therein." August 10 the proviso came up for final pa.s.sage, but John Davis of Ma.s.sachusetts, in order to defeat action on the bill, held the floor till the session expired. Congress adjourned on that day. Great agitation prevailed in the North over the defeat of this proviso. The Democrats lost their majority in the Twenty-ninth Congress, owing to the new tariff and the predominance of pro-slavery issues in the war. Polk had but 110 votes against 118 when the new Congress met. Now the new tariff went into effect.

Howe, the American inventor, secured a patent for an improvement in sewing-machines, which embodied the main features of the machine used at present; to wit, a grooved needle provided with an eye near its point, a shuttle operating on the side of the cloth opposite the needle to form a lockst.i.tch, and an automatic feed. On December 28, Iowa was admitted to the Union as the twenty-ninth State.

1847

[Sidenote: Santa Anna's advance]