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were vetoed by the president, the river and harbor bill, and the bill for indemnifying the sufferers from French spoliations on American commerce. On the 10th of August, after an unusually long session, Congress adjourned.

The twenty-ninth Congress assemCongress assembled for its second session on the 7th of December, 1846. The president's message was principally occupied with the subject of the Mexican war, upon which, from the nature of the case and the progress of our arms, a great deal was to be said.* Mr. Polk announced, that the receipts of the last fiscal year were nearly $29,500,000, while the expenditure exceeded, by a little, $28,000,000. The balance in the treasury was above $9,000,000; the public debt was considerably more than $24,000,000, of which nearly $6,500,000 had been incurred by the present administration; and notice was given that a further loan of $23,000,000 would be required for the prosecution of the war in Mexico.

Most of the measures of this session -the short one before a new election related to the war; and of these, one alone, ("the three million bill," as it was called,) needs here to be spoken of, because there was appended to it the "Wilmot proviso." The House passed this "proviso" again, but the Senate rejected it; and the Representatives, finding the other branch of the

The scheme of appointing a lieutenant-general, (who was to be Colonel Thomas H. Benton himself,) and various matters connected with it, occupied a good

legislature resolutely determined not to allow it, assented to the passage of the bill, without this amendment. A bill making appropriations for the improvement of harbors and rivers again passed both Houses, but did not receive the approval of the president. The session closed on the 3d of March, 1847.

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Affairs in Mexico, meanwhile, were becoming more and more serious, and necessarily attracted the attention of the people. The government of Herrera had been overthrown; Paredes had assumed the reins of government; Mr. Slidell, the American commissioner and envoy, had been refused a reception in his diplomatic character; and, as we have stated on a previous page, (p. 428), collision had actually occurred between the Mexicans and a portion of General Taylor's troops. Paredes, at the close of March. having announced that "peace not be ing compatible with the maintenance of the rights and independence of the nation, he should defend its territory, while the national congress would undertake to declare war against the United States," he gave orders, in April, to that effect; and on the 6th of July, the Mexican congress passed a decree "authorizing the government to use the natural defences of the country to repel aggression committed against many of the departments, and to make known to friendly nations the justifiable causes which obliged the nation to defend its rights by repelling force by force."

Years' View," vol. ii. pp. 678–9.

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shadow forth the uses to which it was intended to apply the anticipated results of the contest. By this plan, an "army of the west" was to be raised, and to march, under General Kearney, from its rendezvous at Fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri, against New Mexico, and thence westward to co operate with the fleet, which was to be reinforced, against California; and an "army of the centre," under General Wool, was to invade Coahuila and Chihuahua; but these were to be subordinate to the main design, (as formed by General Scott,) which was, to penetrate into the interior by the line taken by Taylor, and perhaps from the coast, and to strike hard blows, and to repeat them until Mexico should understand, that her true interest consisted in making peace on such terms as should be agreeable to the United States.

Point Isabel being in danger from the Mexicans, General Taylor left Major Brown in the entrenched camp opposite Matamoras, and marched to the relief of the garrison at the Point. The Mexican commanders, looking upon this retrograde movement as a retreat, crossed the Rio Grande in force, and occupied the road along which Taylor had marched. From the batteries on the right of the river they also commenced a vigorous, but not very hurtful, bombardment of Fort Brown; and at Matamoras they published bombastic bulletins setting forth their prowess in arms, and their determination speedily to crush the northern invaders.

Taylor, having put his dépôt at Point Isabel in a condition to resist any attack that might be made upon it, re

431

solved to force his way through the enemy, and to relieve those whom he left on the Rio Grande. Late on the evening of the 7th of May, he left Point | Isabel, with his reinforcements, yet having less than three thousand men of all kinds with him, and being encumbered with a train of three hundred wagons, containing provisions and munitions of war, and of course, in the presence of a stronger force of the enemy, requir ing a considerable escort.

At a spot called Palo Alto, General Arista, with double the number of Taylor's army, and twelve pieces of artillery, had posted himself quite across the road, having both flanks covered by thickets of chaparral, and a reserve in his rear. At two in the afternoon, the advancing army came in sight, and the Mexican batteries opened upon them when within seven hundred yards' distance. Taylor's artillery replied with terrible effect upon the enemy's troops. The Mexicans attempted a charge with their calvary, but were thrown into confusion before they got near our men, and retreated; another attempt failed in the same manner. They were equally unsuccessful in endeavoring to turn Taylor's right flank; and an advance of their own right was met by two eighteen-pounders, which were placed so as to enfilade their line, and caused great slaughter. After some two hours' fighting, the prairie having taken fire, the battle was intermitted, and when night fell, both sides withdrew, but neither far from the field. The loss on the side of our countrymen was nine killed and forty-four wounded, and two missing. The gallant Major

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Ringgold was mortally wounded, and died a few days subsequently. The official return of the total Mexican loss was two hundred and fifty-two; but, as Arista abandoned the field of battle, and with it his dead and wounded, there is good reason for believing that it was nearly double that amount.

The Mexican general, virtually defeated, fell back on the road to Matamoras, and the next morning took up a strong position on a ravine called the Resaca de la Palma, where he was reinforced by some two thousand men. As soon as this had been ascertained, General Taylor put his army in motion; in the course of the afternoon of the 9th of May, his skirmishers, advancing through the thick chaparral, came upon the enemy's forces. One battery was brought up to oppose them, and very speedily a charge of cavalry, under Captain May, swept the Mexicans from their guns and broke their line on the other side of the ravine, in spite of one or more gallant attempts to retrieve the fortune of the day; while the infantry, now fighting as skirmishers, and now forming and resorting to the bayonet, drove the enemy before them in total rout. From all parts of the field the discomfited Mexicans rushed to the river, where numbers were drowned in the vain attempt to cross. Their camp fell into the hands of the victors, with all Arista's private papers, and a large supply of arms and ammunition.

Thus, with a force of little more than two thousand men, General Taylor had completely defeated the enemy, although their force was three times as large as his own. Thirty-three were

killed and eighty-nine wounded, in this battle; while the Mexican loss in killed and wounded was not short of a thousand men. Very probably, had General Taylor pushed forward, he might have taken Matamoras at once; but he was contented with what was accomplished in having driven the Mexicans over the Rio Grande, and relieved Fort Brown. This fortification had suffered but little from the bombardment spoken of above (p. 431), which was kept up from the 3d till the 9th of May, nor were the losses of the garrison severe, as to number, there being but one killed and nine wounded, of whom one, and he the gallant Major Brown, who commanded the defence, and after whom the fort was named, died subsequently.

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The 10th of May was spent by our countrymen in burying the dead, and by the Mexicans in rallying a fraction of their force in Matamoras. An exchange of prisoners was also effected. General Taylor next made preparations for passing the river; and took possession of a village on the right bank, some miles lower down. By the 17th every thing was in readi ness; and Arista then proposed an armistice for diplomatic action about the boundary question, which Taylor summarily declined, and next day crossed, without encountering any resistance, and entered Matamoras; the Mexicans having finally evacuated the place early in the morning, carrying off eleven guns, the rest being spiked or thrown into the river. Their sufferings on this retreat were very severe, although they were not pursued for more than sixty miles, and were left unmolested after

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433

ner,

The government at Washington was aware of the fact, that Santa Anna was living as a refugee at Havana, and presuming that, if he were in Mexico again, he would favor the ultimate designs of Mr. Polk and his cabinet, or at least, would prove a serious obstacle in the way of Paredes and his administration, the secretary of the navy, Mr. Bancroft, was directed to give orders for his admission into Mexico so soon as Santa Anna pleased. Accordingly, a brief note was addressed to Commodore Concommanding the blockading squadron at Vera Cruz, in which note Mr. Bancroft said, "if Santa Anna endeavors to enter the Mexican ports, you will allow him to pass freely." The Mexican general availed himself right gladly of this opportunity. A pronunciamento of his party was fulminated against Paredes at the end of July, and on the 5th of August he was a prisoner. On the 16th, Santa Anna entered Vera Cruz, and regardless of promises on his part, or expectations on the part of the American government, he determined to seek his own aggrandizement, and to put himself at the head of the army, confident that he could drive out the insolent invaders. New offers

It was not till after the middle of July, that any further advance into the territory of Mexico was attempted by the American army of occupation; but General Taylor was not idle. In fact, his task during that period, was more harassing than the conduct of military operations would have proved. So enthusiastically did the country respond to Taylor's requisitions and the call of the government, especially after the tidings of the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, that many more volunteers flocked to his head-quarters in Matamoras than he could easily dispose of. Without equipment, without training, without discipline, it was no light task to receive and organize these recruits. "The quarter-master's department, too, was one of incessant toil and anxiety; because, called unexpectedly and for the first time into active service in the field, it was comparatively unprepared to answer the multitude of requisitions that were daily made upon it by the government, the general officers,

* Mr. Benton remarks with great severity upon the intrigues which brought about the return of such a man as Santa Anna to Mexico. "What must history say of the policy and morality of such doings? The butcher of the American prisoners at Goliad, San Paof republican government at home; the military dicta tricio, the Old Mission, and the Alamo; the destroyer tor aspiring to permanent supreme power; this man to be restored to power by the United States, for the purpose of fulfilling speculating and indemnity calculations on which a war was begun."-" Thirty Years' View," vol. ii., p. 682.

and the recruits. The whole material of a campaign was to be rapidly created. Money was to be raised; steamers bought; ships chartered; wagons built and transported; levies brought to the field of action; munitions of war and provisions distributed over the whole vast territory which it was designed to occupy."

On the 19th of July, orders were given to advance. Reynosa, Camargo, Mier, and other important posts along the Rio Grande, and on the road to Monterey, were occupied. On the 8th of August, head-quarters were removed to Camargo, which was made the dépôt, on account of its convenience for the reception of supplies and reinforcements by means of the river; land transport being almost impossible. Eleven days later, the march from Camargo commenced, and was continued without intermission, till, on September the 13th, at Papagayas, the first appearances of the enemy were discovered. Their outposts retired upon Monterey as the Americans advanced, and Taylor's whole army was concentrated on the Rio San Juan, about twenty-five miles from Monterey, on the 15th; and three days afterwards approached the city.

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Seated beneath the elevated ridge of the Sierra Madre, on the San Juan de Monterey, which is but a small stream, and surrounded by a fertile and tolerably well cultivated valley, Monterey (which contained about ten thousand inhabitants) was a place of promise, as an entrepôt, or emporium, for the commercial intercourse between the coast and the interior. General Am

pudia, whom Santa Anna had invested with the command, was here, with a force of more than ten thousand men, seven thousand of whom belonged to the regular army; and his stores of all kinds were ample. kinds were ample. General Taylor, having reconnoitred the country round, as well as the city and the works of the enemy, determined to make a circular march with a part of his force, and cut off the communications of the place with Saltillo and the interior, by a road through a vast chasm in the mountains. This movement was intrusted to General Worth, who, on the 20th, took up a position quite at the foot of the mountains, opposite to a fortified hill called Loma d'Independencia, on the north of the river, and another like it, on the south, called Loma de Federacion. Meanwhile, as a diversion, an attack was made at the eastern end of the town, which, being converted into a real assault, ended in the capture of Fort Teneria, and an ineffectual bombardment of the citadel was attempted. Next morning, the attack commenced in earnest, and was continued during the 21st, 22d, and 23d of September; on the 24th the garrison capitulated.

The battle of the 21st began with a cavalry affair, at the western extremity of the town, near the Saltillo road; being successful in that encounter, and having accomplished his design of cutting off the communications of Monterey with the interior, Worth next determined to carry the fortress on the Loma de Federacion, south of the San Juan, which commanded the lower road to Saltillo; and after a severe contest, succeeded in his pur

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