The U.S.-Mexican War

A Binational Reader

Edited, with an Introduction, by CHRISTOPHER CONWAY

Translations by GUSTAVO PELL6N

Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. Indianapolis/Cambridge CONTENTS

Acknowledgments x Introduction xii Chronology of Texas and the U.S.-Mexican War, 1821—1848 xxviii Maps xxx

I. The Settlement and Independence of Texas The Imperial Colonization Law (1823) 1 The Village of San Felipe de Austin (1831) 6 Articles to Be Taken by the Emigrant (1835) 8 Mexican Views of Texas 9 Artillery Lieutenant Jose Maria Sanchez (1828) 10 Lorenzo de Zavala (1834) 11 Juan Nepomuceno Almonte (1835) 13 Mary Austin Holley on the People of Texas (1836) 14 The Texas Declaration of Independence (March 2, 1836) 16 The Fall of the Alamo (March 6, 1836) 19 Letter by William Travis (February 24, 1836) 19 Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's Proclamation on the Fall of the Alamo (March 6, 1836) 20 >• General Vicente Filisola's Account (1849) 21 Selection from Colonel Crockett's Exploits and Adventures in Texas (1836) 23 The Treaties of Velasco (May 14, 1836) 24 Public Agreement 25 Secret Treaty 27 Manifesto of the Mexican Congress (1836) 28 General Jose Maria Tornel y Mendivil on the Texas Declaration of Independence (1837) 30

II. The Annexation of Texas and the Road to War John Quincy Adams and Texas (1836) 34 Speech of the Hon. John Quincy Adams in the House of Representatives (May 25, 1836) 34 A Mexican Printer Lauds John Quincy Adams (1836) 37 Robert Walker's Argument for Reannexing Texas (1844) 39 vi Contents

James K. Polk's Inaugural Address (March 4, 1845) 43 Mexican Politics and the Annexation of Texas (1845) 47 Minister Luis Cuevas on the Annexation of Texas (March 11-12, 1845) 48 La Voz del Pueblo Responds to Luis Cuevas (May 3, 1845) 49 The Texas War Unmasked (1845) 51 "Annexation" by John O'Sullivan (July-August 1845) 51

Mariano Paredes y Arrillaga ; 54 Guillermo Prieto Remembers General Mariano Paredes y Arrillaga (1906) 54 Manifesto of April 23, 1846 55 Polk's War Message (May 11, 1846) • . •• 58

III. Scenes of War, 1846-1847 U.S. and Mexican Views of the Battle of Palo Alto (May 8-9, 1846) 62 General Mariano Arista's Report on the Battle of Palo Alto (May 8, 1846) 62 General Zachary Taylor's Report on the Battle of Palo Alto (May 9, 1846) 64 Ulysses S. Grant Remembers the Battle of Palo Alto (1886) 65 U.S. and Mexican Views of the Conquest of New Mexico (1846) 67 General Stephen W. Kearny at San Miguel (August 1846) 67 General Manuel Armijo to Mariano Salas, President of Mexico (September 8, 1846) 68 Manuel Armijo to His Compatriots (January 11, 1847) 69 Incidents of the Doniphan Expedition (1846-1847) 70 [Welcomed by the Pueblo Indians] 70 [A Religious Procession] 71 [The Difficulties of Traveling La Jornada del Muerto] 71 [Revenge] 72 The Conquest of California (1846) 73 Proclamation of the Bear Flag Revolt (June 14-15, 1846) 73 Commodore Robert Stockton to the People of California (July 29, 1846) 75 A Mexican Officer on the Difficulties of the Mexican Army (July-August 1846) 78 Dona Maria de Jesus Dosamantes at Monterrey (September 19, 1846) 80 The Horrors of War at Buena Vista (February 22-23, 1847) 82 Accounts of the Siege of Veracruz (March 22—March 26, 1847) 82 Contents vii

J. Jacob Oswandel of Co. C. First Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers (1885) 83 Account by a Foreigner Residing in Veracruz (April 4, 1847) 84 Santa Anna Calls for Mexico to Fight to the Death (March 31, 1847) 86 Mexican Views of the Battle of Cerro Gordo (April 17-18, 1847) 87 Battlefield Medicine: Pedro Vander Linden's Report (April 19, 1847) 88 Letter by a Mexican Officer (April 23, 1847) 89 Oath of Allegiance of the La Insurgente Guadalupana Guerrilla Fighters (April 23, 1847) 92 A Mexican Account of the U.S. Occupation of Jalapa (April 1847) 93 U.S. and Mexican Accounts of the Execution of the San Patricios (September 10-13, 1847) 95 Account by Colonel George T. M. Davis, Captain and Aide-de-Camp of General Winfield Scott (1891) 96 Mexican Account (1906) 98 U.S. and Mexican Accounts of the Fall and Occupation of Mexico City (1847) 99 Account by Richard McSherry, M.D., U.S.N. (1850) 100 Mexican Account of the Fall and Occupation of Mexico City (1906) 101 Another Mexican Account (1906) 102 Selections from The American Star (October 1847) 103 Assassinations 103 A Petition by Various Mexican Women 103 Advertisements from The American Star 104

IV. The Politics of War : Yucateco Separatism (January 2, 1846) 106 • Debate over the War in the House of Representatives (May 1846) 107

,; Joshua Giddings of Ohio (May 12, 1846) 108 Stephen Douglas of Illinois (May 13, 1846) 109 The Wilmot Proviso (1846-1847) 110 The Wilmot Proviso (August 8, 1846) 110 Congressman David Wilmot on His Proviso (February 8, 1847) 110 The Return of Santa Anna to Mexico (August 16, 1846) 111 Maria de la Salud Garcia, Mexican Patriot (August 31, 1846) 113 The Polkos Revolt (February-March 1847) 116 Plan for the Restoration of True Federalist Principles by Matias de la Pefia y Barragan (February 27, 1847) 116 Proclamation of Valentin Canalizo (February 27, 1847) 117 viii Contents

Excerpt from an Editorial from ElRepublicano (February 28, 1847) 118 General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna to Vice President Valentin G6mez Farias (March 6, 1847) 118 The All-Mexico Question (1847) ' 118 President Polk's Third Annual Message to Congress (December 7, 1847) 119 Senator John C. Calhoun (January 4, 1848) 120 Senator Daniel S. Dickinson (January 12, 1848) 121 Martin Robison Delany to Frederick Douglass (February 11, 1848) 122 Abraham Lincoln's Spot Resolution (December 22, 1847) 122 Frederick Douglass on the War (June 8, 1849) 124 Jane Grey Swisshelm Remembers the War (1880) 125 From Haifa Century 126

V. Legacies of War Selection from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) 127 Mexican Views of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (May 1848) 131 Manuel Crescendo Rejon (April 17, 1848) 131 Manuel G6mez Pedraza (May 24, 1848) 133 Considerations on the Political and Social Situation of the Mexican Republic in the Year of 1847 (1848) 136 The Mexican Cession and the Slavery Question 139 "American Workingmen, versus Slavery" by Walt Whitman (September 1, 1847) 140 Henry Clay's Resolutions (January 29, 1850) 141 Speech by John C. Calhoun (March 4, 1850) 143 Speech by Daniel Webster (March 7, 1850) 144 Racial Conflict in California (1855-1856) 147 The California Anti-Vagrancy Act of 1855 147 The Murder of Antonio Ruiz (July 19, 1856) 148 Maria Candelaria Pollorena's Deposition 148 Editorial by El Clamor Piiblico 149 Juan Cortina's Proclamation to the Mexicans of Texas (1859) 150 The Navajo Long Walk (1863) 151 Kit Carson's Letter to Captain B. C. Cutler (January 23, 1864) "' 152 The U.S.-Mexican War and the U.S. Civil War ' • • ' 153 Ulysses S. Grant Remembers the Lessons of the War (1885) ' 153 Grant and Lee Reminisce about Mexico at Appomattox in 1865 154 The Plight of the Mission Indians (1883) ' 154 Contents ix

Letter to the President of the United States by Ramon Cavavi 155 Letter to Helen Hunt Jackson, Indian Agent, by Antonio Leon 155 Letter to the Secretary of the Interior of the United States by Josd Jesus Castillo 156 Affidavit of Patricio Soberano and Felipe Joqua of the Township of Pala 157

VI. Literature, Culture, and Memory Heroes 158 Major Samuel Ringgold, Martyr of the Battle of Palo Alto (1849) 158 The Child Heroes of Chapultepec (1901) 160 Caricature 161 • Uncle Sam's Taylorifics (1846) 161 The Battle of Cerro Gordo (1847) 163 Wartime Songs (1846-1848) 165 "Uncle Sam and Mexico" 165 "La Pasadita" 167 Wartime Poetry (1846-1851) 170 Two Poems by Guadalupe Calderon, Josefa Teran, and Una Zacatecana (1846) 170 "The Angels ofBuena Vista" byjohn GreenleafWhittier (1847) 173 "A Solemn Moment. To My Motherland" by Guillermo Prieto (1847) 176 . "Illuminations for Victories in Mexico" by Grace Greenwood (1851) 181 The War and Its Legacy in Fiction 183 Legends of Mexico by George Lippard (1847) 183 "Don Luis Martinez de Castro or The National Guard" by Niceto de Zamacois (1847) 188 "A Faithful Negro" by Thomas Bang Thorpe (1848) 190 , The Life and Adventures of Bandit Joaquin Murieta, the Celebrated California Bandit by John Rollin Ridge (1854) 192 The Coiner by Nicolas Pizarro Suarez (1861) 194 "Captain Ray, the Young Leader of the Forlorn Hope" (A True Story of the Mexican War) by General James A. Gordon (1920) 196

Suggestions for Further Reading 199