HOW WE ROBBED MEXICO IN 1848
By Robert H. Howe
1916
THERE is one page of our own history that our historians pass over lightly and to which America cannot point with any feeling of pride, but only with shame and disgrace. I refer to the Mexican war. When the causes and results of that war are studied it can be readily understood why the Mexicans hate us and why the rest of the South American republics view us with suspicion.
Prior to the Mexican war the Nation was divided over the question of chattel slavery. That form of property had been abolished north of the Ohio river and Mason and Dixon line, but altho the South was still in the saddle, it felt that its seat was by no means secure. At that time the Nation consisted of 28 states, 14 of them free and 14 slave. States were admitted to the Union practically in pairs—one free and one slave state being admitted at the same time. This kept the United States Senate equally divided. But the more rapid growth of the population in the free states of the north threatened the political supremacy of the slave holding power. Wisconsin was applying for admission, and further west Minnesota, Dakota, Kansas and Nebraska loomed up as future free states. Louisiana, admitted in 1812, was the western limit of slave territory. Beyond Louisiana lay Mexico. Adventurers not only permitted, but encouraged by the slave power, entered Mexico and joined in a revolt against Mexico, and Texas was declared an independent state. Negotiations were immediately begun, looking to the annexation of Texas with the intention of dividing it into four states, and thus securing the South with a new lease of power.
Upon its admission a conflict with Mexico arose over its western boundary—Mexico claimed that the Nueces river was the dividing line, while the United States claimed the territory to the Rio Grande. This left a strip about 150 miles wide as debatable ground. Here was a question that could easily have been settled by diplomacy and a treaty drawn up and the War of 1848 prevented. But the American army invaded the disputed territory and was met by resistance by the Mexicans-a number were killed and wounded and the rest compelled to surrender. The war spirit always lying dormant in some people was lashed into a frenzy by such public declarations as "Our country has been invaded," "American blood has been spilled on American soil," all of which sounds strangely familiar to us today.
General U. S. Grant was a soldier in the army at this time and it is pertinent at this point to quote the following extracts from his Personal Memoirs:
"There was no intimation that the removal of the troops to the border of Louisiana was occasioned in any way by the prospective annexation of Texas, but it was generally understood that such was the case. Ostensibly we were intended to prevent filibustering into Texas, but really as a menace to Mexico.... And to this day I regard the war which resulted as one of the most unjust ever waged