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.Several members of the Senate begged for a delay during which the actual state of affairs might beascertained.The President insisted, however, and the war was declared (May 13, 1846).The declaration of war was welcomed with wild enthusiasm in the South.Meetings were called; funds wereraised; volunteers were enlisted, equipped and despatched in all haste to the scene of the conflict.The North was less eager.There were protests, petitions, demonstrations.Many of the leaders of northernopinion took a public stand against the war.But the news of the first victories sent the country mad with anenthusiasm in which the North joined the South.The United States troops, during the Mexican War, won brilliant--almost unbelievable successes--againstsuperior forces and in the face of immense natural obstacles.Had the war been less of a military triumph theremust have been a far more widely-heard protest from Polk's enemies in the North.Successful beyond thewildest dreams of its promoters, the victorious war carried its own answer to those who questioned theworthiness of the cause.Within two years, the whole of Mexico was under the military control of the UnitedStates, and that country was in a position to dictate its own terms.The demands of the United States were mild to the extent of generosity.Under the treaty the annexation ofTexas was validated; New Mexico and Upper California were ceded to the United States; the lower RioGrande was fixed as the southern boundary of Texas, and in considerations of these additions to its territory,the United States agreed to pay Mexico fifteen millions of dollars.Under this plan, Mexico was paid for territory that she did not need and could not use, while the United Statesgave a money consideration for the title to land that was already hers by right of conquest, and of which shewas in actual possession.The American Empire, by Scott Nearing 27The details of the treaty are relatively unimportant.The outstanding fact is that Mexico was in possession ofcertain territory that the ruling power in the United States wanted, and that ruling power took what it wantedby force of arms."The war was one of conquest in the interest of an institution." It was "one of the mostunjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation."[31]Congressman A.P.Gardner of Massachusetts summarized the matter very pithily in his debate with MorrisHillquit (New York, April 2, 1915), "We assisted Texas to get away from Mexico and then we proceeded toannex Texas.Plainly and bluntly stated, our purpose was to get some territory for American development."(Stenographic report in the New York Call, April 11, 1915.)5.Conquering the ConqueredThe work of conquering the Southwest was not completed by the termination of the war.Mexico ceded theterritory--in the neighborhood of a million square miles--but she was giving away something that she hadnever possessed.Mexico claimed title to land that was occupied by the Indians.She had never conquered it;never settled it; never developed it.Her sovereignty was of the same shadowy sort that Spain had exercisedover the country before the Mexican revolution.The new owners of the Southwest had a very different purpose in mind.No empty title would satisfy them.They intended to use the land.The Indians--already in possession--resented the encroachments of theinvaders, but they fared no better than the Mexicans, or than their red-skinned brothers who had contended forthe right to fish and hunt along their home streams in the Appalachians.The Indians of the Southwest foughtstubbornly, but the wars that meant life and death to them were the merest pastime for an army that had justcompleted the humiliation of a nation of the size and strength of Mexico.The Indians were swept aside, andthe country was opened to the trapper, the prospector, the trader and the settler.The Mexican War was a slight affair, involving a relatively small outlay in men and money.The total numberof American soldiers killed in the war was 1,721; the wounded were 4,102; the deaths from accident anddisease were 11,516, making total casualties of 5,823 and total losses of 15,618.[32]The money cost of the Mexican War--the army and navy appropriations for the years 1846 to 1849inclusive--was $119,624,000.Obviously the net cost of the war was less than this gross total,--how much lessit is impossible to say.No satisfactory figures are available to show the cost in men and money of the Indian Wars in the Southwest."From 1849 to 1865, the government expended $30,000,000 in the subjugation of the Indians in the territoriesof New Mexico and Arizona."[33] Their character may be gauged by noting from the "Historical Register"(Vol.2, p.281-2) the losses sustained in the four Indian Wars of which a record is preserved.In the NorthwestIndian Wars (1790 to 1795) 896 persons were killed and 436 were wounded; in the Seminole War (1817 to1818) 46 were killed and 36 were wounded; in the Black Hawk War (1831-2) the killed were 26 and thewounded 39; in the Seminole War (1835-1842) 383 were killed and 557 wounded.These were among themost serious of the Indian Wars and in all of them the cost in life and limb was small.Judged on this standard,the losses in the Southwest, during the Indian Wars, were, at most, trifling.The total outlay that was involvedin the conquest of the vast domain would not have covered one first class battle of the Great War, and yet thisoutlay added to the territory of the United States something like a million square miles containing some of therichest and most productive portions of the earth's surface.This domain was won by a process of military conquest; it was taken from the Mexicans and the Indians byforce of arms.In order to acquire it, it was necessary to drive whole tribes from their villages; to burn; tomaim; to kill."St.Louis, New Orleans, St.Augustine, San Antonio, Santa Fe and San Francisco are cities thatwere built by Frenchmen and Spaniards; we did not found them but we conquered them." "The Southwest wasconquered only after years of hard fighting with the original owners" (p.26)."The winning of the West andThe American Empire, by Scott Nearing 28the Southwest is a stage in the conquest of a continent" (p.27)."This great westward movement of armedsettlers was essentially one of conquest, no less than of colonization" (p.370).[34] None of the possessors ofthis territory were properly armed or equipped for effective warfare.All of them fell an easy prey to theorganized might of the Government of the United States.FOOTNOTES:[27] "The Winning of the West," Theodore Roosevelt.New York, Putnam's, 1896, vol.4, p.262.[28] "American Negro Slavery," U.B.Phillips.New York, Appleton, 1918, pp.171-2.[29] "History of the United States," James F.Rhoades.New York, Macmillan, 1906, vol.I, p.87.[30] "Personal Memoirs," U.S.Grant.New York, Century, 1895, vol.I.[31] "Personal Memoirs," U.S.Grant.New York, Century, 1895, vol.I, pp.115 and 32.[32] "Historical Register of the United States Army," F.B.Heitman.Washington, Govt.Print., vol.2, p.282.[33] "The Story of New Mexico," Horatio O.Ladd.Boston, D.Lothrop Co., 1891, p.333.[34] "The Winning of the West," Theodore Roosevelt.Vol.I, p.26, 27, and Vol.II, p.370.VI.THE BEGINNINGS OF WORLD DOMINION1 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]