To this all must be added the secret gratification to Mexico that the money to be paid by the United States is made to appear on account of the cession of territory; that is, establishing new boundaries between the two countries, and one of these boundaries being the middle of the Rio Grande; therefore, after all having the moral force, at least, of including Texas in the ceded territory.

On the 29th of May General Butler announced to the army the end of the war; on the following day began the evacuation of the City of Mexico; on the 12th of June the Stars and Stripes gave place to the Mexican flag on the Capitol and Palace, and the last troops marched towards Vera Cruz; and by the last of July all the fierce North Americans had withdrawn from the territory of Mexico. The honor of closing up the affairs of the army and leading it from Mexico fell to General Butler. Although this was in itself a thing that might have been done by many another, it singularly enough, gave Butler an immediate political prominence. It would have been just and honorable for General Scott to have the pleasure of winding up the affairs of his great camgaign and leading towards home an army much attached to him, notwithstanding his disposition to quarrel with those who came in the way of privileges he held for himself. The General's manner towards the Administration was at times irritating, there is no doubt, but his character and method of dealing were well understood before, and his removal from the command of the army in

Mexico was uncalled for and inconsiderate, if not founded on partisan considerations, and a wish, as he had claimed, of degrading him before the country. The letter of the 13th of January from the Secretary of War notifying him that, "In view of the present state of things in the army under your immediate command, and in compliance with the assurance contained in my reply to your letter of the 4th of June, wherein you ask to be recalled, the President has determined to relieve you from further duty as commanding general in Mexico," has hardly the ring of sincerity about it. Although his contention with Worth and Pillow and others was not admirable in the General-in-chief, and the whole squabble about the honors may not appear to the unmilitary reader as the highest display of patriotism, yet Scott's suspension from the command of the army, and the organization of a court for his trial on the very scene of his magnificent successes as a military leader, present, by no means, an agreeable picture. It was It was a humiliating spectacle which might have been spared him to the credit of the Administration, however well founded its cause of complaint against him. Nothing good to anybody came of the arrests and trials, and indeed, as in all other such cases, it was a foregone conclusion that nothing would come of them. They subserved the purpose of making more unpopular a war that has never been an especial cause of pride to Americans, save in the apparently splendid achievements of their armies.

The territorial acquisitions of this war were very great, and although their cost in blood and money was enormous, it would be difficult now to estimate their value, especially that of California, to this country. It is inestimable. For this over fifteen thousand men were actually killed in battle, or died of wounds received in battle before the first of January, 1848. At that date six thousand had died of diseases contracted in Mexico; five thousand five hundred were discharged by reason of disabilities contracted in the service, many of whom died on their way home, or afterwards; and two or three thousand died of disease after the 1st day of January, 1848. Of the enormous number of deserters (about five thousand) many died of disease and were killed in battle, to say nothing of the large number General Scott hanged in the Valley of Mexico. During the war about one hundred thousand men including the old regulars were called into the service, although some of these never reached the scene of action, and some of them did not even leave their homes. More than seventy-five thousand actually saw service of some kind in Mexico. The ⚫ number mustered out of service fell several thousands short of the number enrolled, and these never were accounted for. They were among the unknown dead and missing. Besides the fifteen or twenty thousand lives estimated as lost in this war, of the fifty or sixty thousand that returned home, a vast number brought with them the seeds of diseases from which they never recovered, and from which many

died, or lived wretched lives. Had the advice of Thomas H. Benton and some other leading Democrats been followed, or had Martin Van Buren or Henry Clay been elected President, it is quite certain there would have been no war with Mexico, and it is equally certain, perhaps, that the annexation of Texas would have been accomplished peaceably in the course of time. But it is needless to speculate about what might have been, or, indeed, what should have been. And from this date looking back over the events of a third of a century few men would care to say that the present would be better had the affairs of that day fallen under the guidance of other hands. The history of the past ever carries with it the extraordinary and unsatisfactory problem of what might have been. But one great lesson of history undoubtedly is, that the affairs of this earth even, have resulted more beneficially than could have been provided for in the wisdom of men.

CHAPTER XXV.

TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES - TREATIES AND BOUNDARIES "RE-ANNEXATION" OF TEXAS

THE

A PARTY CRY.

HE treaty of peace providing for the independence of this country was signed at Paris on the last day of September, 1782. In that treaty are the following articles, covering the matter of boundaries:

"ARTICLE I.—His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz.: New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, to be free, sovereign, and independent States; that he treats with them as such; and for himself, his heirs, and successors, relinquishes all claims to the government, proprietary, and territorial rights of the same, and every part thereof. And that all disputes which might arise in future on the subject of the boundaries of the said United States may be prevented, it is hereby agreed and declared, that the following are and shall be their boundaries, viz. :

"ARTICLE II.-From the north-west angle of Nova Scotia, viz.: That angle which is formed by a line drawn. due north from the source of St. Croix River to the Highlands; along the Highlands which divide those rivers that empty themselves into the River St. Lawrence