them, and to adopt a system of true liberty, of peace, and union with their brethren and neighbors of the north; neither will I believe that they are ignorant of the falsity of the calumnies of the press, intended to excite hostility. No! public sentiment is not to be created or animated by falsehood. We have not profaned your temples, nor abused your women, nor seized your property, as they would have you believe.

We say this with pride, and we confirm it by your own bishops, and by the clergy of Tampico, Tuspan, Matamoras, Monterey, Vera Cruz, and Jalapa, and by all the authorities civil and religious, and the inhabitants of every town we have occupied. We adore the same God, and a large portion of our army, as well as of the population of the United States, are Catholics, like yourselves. We punish crime wherever we find it, and reward merit and virtue.

The army of the United States respects, and will always respect, private property of every description, and the property of the Mexican church.

Mexicans the past cannot be remedied, but the future may be provided for. Repeatedly have I shown you that the government and people of the United States desire peace, desire your sincere friendship.

Abandon, then, rancorous prejudices, cease to be the sport of individual ambition, and conduct yourselves like a great American nation; leave off at once colonial habits, and learn to be truly free, truly republican, and you will become prosperous and happy, for you possess all the elements to be so. Remember that you are Americans, and that your happiness is not to come from Europe.

I desire, in conclusion, to declare, and with equal frankness, that, if necessary, an army of one hundred thousand could promptly be brought, and that the United States would

SCOTT'S PROCLAMATION.

213

not terminate their differences with Mexico (if compelled to do so by force of arms) in any manner uncertain, precarious, or dishonoring to yourselves. I should insult the intelligent of this country if I had any doubt of their acquaintance with this truth.

The order to form guerilla parties to attack us, I assure you can procure nothing but evil to your country, and no evil to our army, which will know how to proceed against them; and if, so far from conciliating, you succeed in irritating, you will impose upon us the hard necessity of retaliation, and then you cannot blame us for the consequences which will fall upon yourselves.

I am marching with my army upon Puebla and MexicoI do not conceal it; from those capitals I shall again address you. I desire peace, friendship, and union-it is for you to select whether you prefer war; under any circumstances, be assured I shall not fail my word.

WINFIELD SCOTT.

The

This proclamation contains one of the best and most correct pictures of the conduct of the Mexican army, and the real operations of its government, anywhere to be found. It is true that it was (with a few honorable exceptions) the Mexican officers and not the soldiers who had been wanting in skill, energy, or courage. battle-fields, as here depicted, were strewed with the dead soldiers of the Mexican army; but in some instances the officers had retreated in haste, in some they were unwilling to fight, and in all they had shown a deficiency in military education, utterly incompetent to meet in successful contest the superior skill and the wonderfully developed power of modern military science. It was true, also, that the government of Mexico was one of une

qual burdens and of unstable power. It depended rather upon the will of military chiefs than the affections of the people. It imposed burdens by caprice rather than principle. It fettered trade by restrictions alike unjust and unnecessary. It was true, and as honorable as true, that the army of Scott had signalized the humanity of modern warfare by a forbearance of all the barbarities of conquest. It had seized no individual property, destroyed no church structures, violated no private rights, and imposed no contributions upon a prostrate population. The armies of Mexico were indeed swept from its paths with the fearful might of destruction, but they were swept away only in pursuance of the acknowledged rights of war, and left behind no mournful evidences of a vindictive malice. It was war and not barbarism which bore over the fields of Mexico the unfolded banner of the North American republic.

Such was the professed disposition of the United States government towards Mexico, such the address of General Scott, and such the humane manner in which the war had been carried on, when an agent of the cabinet in Washington arrived in Mexico to negotiate peace. This person was Mr. Nicholas P. Trist, chief clerk in the department of state. From the hostile attitude of the two governments towards each other, he could not come in the character of a regularly appointed envoy-a character only consistent with a state of peace. He did come, however, with certain letters from the cabinet at Washington to persons in Mexico, and with powers, on certain terms, as a commissioner to conclude a treaty of peace.1 Mr.

Mr. Polk's official commission to Trist.

REASONS FOR REMAINING AT PUEBLA.

215

Trist arrived at Jalapa just before Scott's departure for Puebla, and immediately intimated a desire to transmit certain papers to the Mexican government. If the propositions they contained were acceptable to the authorities in Mexico, they necessarily implied a cessation of hostilities while the negotiations proceeded. Such was the condition of affairs at Puebla in the beginning of June. With the government commissioner anxious for peace, and actually seeking opportunities of negotiation, on the one hand, and with an army diminished (including all its disposable force) in effective men to less than five thousand, Scott, anxious to go forward, and looking with hope to the consummation of the campaign in the city of Mexico, was yet compelled, by considerations both civil and military. to remain in Puebla.

The military reasons why the army should remain at Puebla till reinforced, were of the strongest kind, and demanded the serious attention of the boldest commander, even if convinced of the entire infallibility of his troops. The event proved their force and the superior sagacity of the general, who, hopeful of the highest glory, and anticipating only victory, sacrificed this ardor of action to high prudential considerations. These reasons were: 1st. If the entire five thousand men then at Puebla could be placed at once in the city of Mexico, they were barely sufficient to constitute a common garrison, impotent to move in any direction, or to overawe the Mexican government by any demonstrative movement. 2d. In this defensive, shut-up position, they must remain for months, before reinforcements could arrive1 sufficiently strong to

The brigade of Pierce did not arrive at Puebla till the 5th of August. -See Scott's official despatch, (No. 34,) dated September 18th.

authorize any offensive movement.

3d. The main body

of the army of Santa Anna was yet unbroken, and at this period it would have been his policy to leave the American army to shut itself up in Mexico, while he fell, in succession, on the advancing bodies of new troops marching to reinforce Scott. In this, he would either have defeated them or have prevented their junction. 4th. Alvarez, with a division of four thousand men, was within striking distance of Puebla,' and on the advance of Scott to Mexico would have taken possession of the post he left, and cut off all communication with his rear. In fine, it is only remarkable that the commander or his officers should have at all entertained the idea of advancing with so small a force. That persons in the United States should have thought their delay singular, only proved that they were very little acquainted with military affairs, and that they believed, that by some extraordinary decree of Heaven the army was rendered invulnerable to misfortune, and predestined to inevitable victory. It has, indeed, realized such a destiny; but only by science the most accomplished, by sagacity the most penetrating, and by valor the most indomitable. The children of destiny are first made such by the energy of their own character, and the superiority of their own minds.

Such was the necessity, both civil and military, which constrained General Scott to restrain his desire to advance, and maintain the army at Puebla. Nor was it

'Mr. Kendall's letter, dated October 15th, 1847.

Let the reader recollect, that notwithstanding all the reinforcements which arrived between May and September, General Scott's communications with Vera Cruz were cut off during the whole period for want of troops to keep them open!