was John C. Fremont, a captain in the United States Engineers, who had recently received instructions from his government to secure a hold upon California. A few days after their declaration, Fremont and his followers joined the American Commodore Sloat, who, aware of the war, had taken Monterey, (July 7,) and entered the Bay of San Francisco, (July 9.) Sloat was soon succeeded by Commodore Stockton; and he, in conjunction with Fremont, took possession of Ciudad de los Angeles, the capital of Upper California, (August 13.) All this was done without opposition from the scattered Mexicans of the province, or from their feeble authorities. But some weeks later, a few braver spirits collected, and, driving the Americans from the capital, succeeded likewise in recovering the greater part of California, (September, October.) On the approach of General Kearney from New Mexico, a month or two afterwards, he was met in battle at San Pasqual, (December 6,) and so hemmed in by the enemy as to be in great danger, until relieved by a force despatched to his assistance by Commodore Stockton. The commodore and the general, joining forces, retook Ciudad de los Angeles, after two actions with its defenders, (January 10, 1847.) A day or two later, Fremont succeeded in bringing the main body of Mexicans in arms to a capitulation at Cowenga, (January 13.) California was again, and more decidedly than before, an American possession. Lower California was afterwards assailed, but under different commanders. La Paz and San José, both inconsiderable places, were occupied in the course of the year. On the opposite shore, Guaymas was taken by a naval force under Captain Lavalette, (October,) and Mazatlan by the fleet under Commodore Shubrick, (November.) It was all a series of skir mishes, fought in the midst of lonely mountains and on farstretching shores.

Opera

Gulf of

Mexico.

And now to return to the eastern side. From the first, a blockade of the ports in the Gulf of Mexico was but poorly maintained. Then the American fleet embarked upon various operations. Twice was Alvarado, a port to the tions in south of Vera Cruz, attacked by Commodore Conner, and twice it was gallantly defended, (August 7, October 15, 1846.) Then Commodore Perry went against Tobasco, a little distance up a river on the southern coast; but, though he took some prizes and some hamlets, he did not gain the town, (October 23-26.) The only really successful operation was the occupation of Tampico, which the Mexicans abandoned on the approach of their enemies, (November 15.)

March

Early in the following spring the fleet and the upon city army combined in an attack upon Vera Cruz. Anof Mexico. ticipations of success, however high amongst the troops and their officers, were not very generally entertained even by their own countrymen. Vera Cruz, or its castle of San Juan d'Ulloa, had been asserted, in Europe as well as America, to be impregnable; but a few days' bombardment obliged the garrison, under General Morales, to give up the town and the castle together, (March 23-26, 1847.) Once masters there, the Americans beheld the road to the city of Mexico lying open before them; yet here, again, their way was supposed to be beset by insurmountable difficulties. They pressed on, nine or ten thousand strong, General Scott at their head, supported by many officers of tried and untried reputation. Elsewhere, the war had been carried into remote and comparatively unpeopled portions of the country. Here the march lay through a region where men would fight for their homes, and where their homes, being close at hand, would give them aid as well as inspiration. The march upon Mexico was by all means the great performance of the war.

Battles on the way.

Its difficulties soon appeared. At Cerro Gordo, sixty miles from Vera Cruz, Santa Anna posted thirteen thousand of his Mexicans in a mountain pass, to whose natural strength he had added by fortification. It took two days to force a passage, the Americans losing about five hundred, but inflicting a far greater loss on their brave opponents, (April 18-19.) Here, however, they paused; a part of the force was soon to be discharged, and Scott decided he would make his dismissals and wait for the empty places to be filled. He accordingly advanced slowly to Puebla, while the Mexicans kept in the background, or appeared only as guerillas, (May 28.) The guerilla warfare had been foretold as the one insuperable obstacle to the progress of the American army; it proved harassing, but by no means fatal. During the delay ensuing on land, the fleet in the gulf, under Commodore Perry, took Tuspan and Tobasco, both being but slightly defended, (April 18-June 15.) At length reënforcements having reached the army, making it not quite eleven thousand strong, it resumed its march, and entered the valley of Mexico, (August 10.)

In valley

There the Mexicans stood, Santa Anna still at of Mexico. their head, thirty-five thousand in their ranks, regular troops and volunteers, old and young, rich and poor, men of every profession and trade, all joining in the defence of their country, now threatened at its very heart. Behind the army was the government, endeavoring to unite itself, yet still rent and enfeebled to the last degree. Even the clergy, chafed by the seizure of church property to meet the exigencies of the state, were divided, if not incensed. It was a broken nation, and yet all the more worthy of respect for its last earnest resistance to the foe. Never had armies a more magnificent country to assail or to defend than that into which the Americans had

This action,

penetrated. They fought in defiles or upon plains, vistas of lakes and fields before them, mountain heights above them, the majesty of nature everywhere mingling with the contention of man. Fourteen miles from the city, battles began at Contreras, where a Mexican division under General Valencia was totally routed, (August 19-20.) The next engagement followed immediately, at Churubusco, six miles from the capital, Santa Anna himself being there completely defeated, (August 20.) An armistice suspended further movements for a fortnight, when an American division under Worth made a successful assault on a range of buildings called Molino del Rey, close to the city. though the most sanguinary of the entire war, cans and Americans surpassing their previous deeds, without results, (September 8.) A few days later, the fourth and final engagement in the valley took place at Chapultepec, a fortress just above Molino del Rey. Within the lines was the Mexican Military College, and bravely did the students defend it, mere boys outvying veterans in feats of valor; but the college and the fortress yielded together, (September 12-13.) The next day Scott, with six thousand five hundred men, the whole of his army remaining in the field, entered the city of Mexico, (September 14.)

- both Mexi

was

'Wilmot The war had not continued three months, when proviso. the United States made an overture of peace, (July, 1846.) It was referred by the Mexican administration to the National Congress, and there it rested. In announcing to the American Congress the proposal which he had made, President Polk suggested the appropriation of a certain sum, as an indemnity for any Mexican territory that might be retained at the conclusion of the war. In the debate which followed, an administration representative from Pennsylvania, David Wilmot, moved a proviso to the proposed

appropriation: "that there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any territory on the continent of America which shall hereafter be acquired by or annexed to the United States by virtue of this appropriation, or in any other manner whatsoever." The proviso was hastily adopted in the House; but it was too late to receive any action in the Senate before the closing of the session, (August.) In the following session the proviso again passed the House, but was abandoned by that body on being rejected by the Senate.

Mexican

When the American commissioner, N. P. Trist, proviso. met the commissioners on the part of Mexico, he found them reluctant to yield any territory. It went especially against their will to open any to slavery; their instructions being quite positive on the point that any treaty to be signed by them must prohibit slavery in the ceded country. "No president of the United States," replied Commissioner Trist, "would dare to present any such treaty to the Senate."

Trist was recalled, but he took it upon himself Treaty. to remain where he was, and to treat with new

commissioners, two months after the entrance of the American army into the city of Mexico. The result of battles

rather than of negotiations was a treaty signed at Guadalupe Hidalgo, a suburb of the capital. By this instrument Mexico ceded Texas, New Mexico, and Upper California, while the United States agreed to surrender all other conquests, and to pay, for those retained the sum of fifteen millions, besides assuming the claims of American merchants against Mexico to the amount of more than three millions, (February 2, 1848.) Ratifications were finally exchanged at Queretaro, (May 30,) and peace proclaimed at Washington, (July 4.) The Mexican territory that is, the portion which remained was rapidly evacuated.