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307

War and

UncertainPeace in Mexico

Part I: An Unstable Republic

Guadalupe Victoria was a hero. His years spent in the mountains, deserted evenby his ollowers, endowed him with the aura o romance. But his glory adedduring his years as president o the Republic o Mexico. O course, his task wasimmense — to unite a country divided by deep class distinctions, dependent on

a powerul military, simmering with opposed ideas o government and society. Moreover,the only authority recognized by New Spain in 300 years — the king o Spain — hadbeen cast aside; why, then, would anyone respect a new, untried authoritywhen there seemed no good reason to do so?

The congress elected in 1824 was composed o mostly creole intel-lectuals enamored o Anglo-American notions o government. Theproblem was that Mexico had always been a country whose govern-ment was centralized in the king; it thus had no traditions o local,sel-government, as had the English colonies to the north. The

1824 ederalist constitution drawn up by the new congress notonly provided or a decentralized, ederal system but extendedthe surage to every male, including millions who could not readand, in many cases, not even speak, Spanish. Thus, raud andcoercion o voters were rampant in the irst elections.

Mexico had strong actions that could resist, and did resist,government intererence. The military jealously guarded its fue-ros, or traditional rights. Many o the large creole landowners had joined the revolution to be ree o the power o the gauchupines andwould brook no domination by the republican government. Then therewas the Church, which held vast lands; and, while the Church devotedmuch o her possessions to charitable purposes — education, missions, hos-

pitals — some, among both the secular and religious clergy, used the Church’sprestige or personal enrichment.

The problem or President Victoria was that he had to keep the military happy by pay-ing their salaries; but he had insuicient tax revenues to do that and to provide or theother needs o the country. Altogether, the government’s expenses ran to about 18 million pesos a year, but taxes were bringing in only 9 million pesos annually. Victoria could notpropose taxing the wealthy landowners — they would never stand or that; nor could he taxthe Church, since her traditional privileges let her ree o government intererence in suchmatters. Victoria thus had to take out oreign loans, and the British government was all toowilling to oblige him.

George Canning, byRichard Evans

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308 LANDS OF HOPE AND PROMISE: A History of North America

George Canning, who had become Great Britain’s prime minister in 1822, saw Mexicoas a lucrative market or British business. When Spain, in a conederacy o Europeannations called the Holy Alliance, had threatened to reconquer Mexico, Canning recognizedMexico’s independence. Canning’s diplomat in Mexico, H. G. Ward, seeing Victoria’s moneyproblems, convinced the president to accept two loans o three million pounds each romBritish banking houses. Though much o the money never reached Mexico, and much o it

was ill spent ater it did, the loans did help shore up Victoria’s unstable government. But,more ominously or the uture, the loans helped make Mexico a British economic satellite.Deeply in debt to Great Britain, Mexico had no choice but to allow British business intereststo acquire large portions o Mexico’s trade and to permit British capital to develop mines orextracting the country’s rich mineral wealth. Soon, France and Germany were investing inMexico. Though politically independent o Spain, Mexico was losing her economic reedomto northern Europe.

Federalists and Centralists

The United States’ opportunity to seize some o the investment spoils rom Mexico was ham-pered by the irst U.S. ambassador to independent Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett. Poinsett’szeal or Anglo-American style democracy and his intererence in Mexican politics had made

him suspect to the Mexicans. Some wondered i the ambassador were trying to destabilizeMexico so that the United States could seize some o Mexico’s northern states. Such earswere not assuaged when, in 1830, Poinsett suggested the sale o Texas to the United States.Many Mexicans thought their neighbor to the north was not to be trusted.

Poinsett’s introduction o York Rite Masonry helped organize the Liberal action inMexican politics. Though the creole moderados (moderates) dominated the congress, theinluence o the Liberals, called puros or Yorkistas (because they ollowed the York rite oMasonry), was growing. Among them were some o the most prominent intellectuals oMexico — José Luis Mora, an economist and theoretician; Lorenzo de Zavala, the mestizo governor o the state o México; and Valentín Gómez Farías, a physician rom Zacatecas andthe leader o the puros.

The most prestigious o the conservatives (called Esconcistas, because they ollowed theScottish rite o Masonry), was Lucas Alamán. Alamán believed Mexico should continue its

tradition o centralized government; he opposed the division o Mexico into states on themodel o the United States. He avored bringing in a oreign monarch to rule Mexico;

and i that weren’t possible, he wanted to see the establishment o a home-bredauthoritarian regime.

Liberator, sí, Liberal, no! summarized the political philosophy o Nicolás Bravowho shared Alamán’s opinions on government. Though during the revolution

Bravo had been an ardent supporter o independence and had served under Morelos,he did not avor radical social change. Now, in 1827, earul o Poinsett’s inluence

and the too Liberal policies o Victoria’s government, Bravo mounted a rebel-lion, calling or a return to centralized government, the abolition o Masonic

lodges, and the deportation o Poinsett. But another old revolutionary,Vicente Guerrero, leading government troops, put down the rebellion, and

Bravo went into exile.The conservative and Liberal divisions mobilized or the election o

1828. The Esconcistas supported the moderado Gómez Pedraza or presi-dent, while the Yorkistas backed Vicente Guerrero. Though Guerrero wasthe more popular candidate, Pedraza won the election with ten states tonine (each state had one vote in electing the president). Though it wassuspected that Pedraza (who had been secretary o war) had strong-

armed the state legislatures, Guerrero conceded the election to him.

A bust of Lucas Alamán

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Chapter 14 War and Uncertain Peace in Mexico 309

But in Veracruz, Antonio López de Santa Anna would not tolerate a Pedraza victory. Santa Anna was a political chameleon who had wavered between theconservatives and the Liberals. Sensing now that power lay with Liberalism,Santa Anna unurled the banner o rebellion. Guerrero, he proclaimed,was the rightul president. “How could I see in cold blood,” declaredSanta Anna, with his wonted bombast, “the republic converted into a

vast Inquisition? Santa Anna will die beore being indierent to suchdisasters.” Santa Anna’s proclamation was a bit premature, and gov-ernment troops drove him into Oaxaca. There he barricaded himselin a monastery.

Though Victoria’s term o oice had not expired, it was Pedrazawho responded to Santa Anna’s declaration by arresting puros,including the governor o the Mexico City district, Lorenzo deZavala. The arrests angered the Liberals, who, across the country rosein rebellion against Pedraza. Led by Zavala, soldiers at the prison oLa Acordada in Mexico City rebelled in November, and or our daysighting raged in the city streets. The léperos, ever ready to urther therule o chaos, attacked and burned El Parián Market, the chie marketplace

o the capital, destroying the many shops o oreign merchants there. Fromearly morning until late aternoon o December 4, 1828, the léperos controlledthe city. Finally Pedraza, inding his cause hopeless, led the city and went into exile.The triumphant Liberals, led by Zavala, marched into the presidential palace, abandoned byall save President Victoria, the impotent igurehead o the republic.

By the end o January 1829, the rebellion was over. Congress met and proclaimedGuerrero president and a conservative, Anastasio Bustamante, vice-president. Peace wasrestored, but not or long.

The Hero of Tampico

The same year Guerrero became president, a leet o Spanish ships carrying Spanish troopsset sail rom Cuba, bound or Mexico. Their quest, by order o King Fernando VII, was toland on the coast o Mexico and reconquer the country or Spain. Land they did, on theTamaulipas coast, and they seized the ortress o Tampico. There the leet abandoned thearmy (the admiral had quarreled with its commander) and returned to Cuba. At Tampico,the Spanish troops, unused to the sultry, swampy coast, soon succumbed to yellow ever,and many died.

The news o the invasion caused alarm inMexico City. President Guerrero, given neardictatorial powers because o the danger, toldGeneral Santa Anna at Veracruz, just downthe coast rom Tampico, to advance againstthe invader. Fortunately or Santa Anna, by thetime he reached Tampico, the Spanish orcehad been so reduced by disease that it sur-

rendered to him ater only a brie engagement.The victory, such as it was, made Santa

Anna suddenly very popular — the peoplehaled him the “Hero o Tampico!” He hadsaved the atherland rom the hated gauchupines! Santa Anna now awaited an opportunemoment to use his newly won ame to advancehis political ortunes.

El Parián Market inMexico City, early 19thcentury

Vicente Guerrero, aposthumous portraitfrom 1850, by AnacletoEscutia

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He did not need to wait long. President Guerrero, a mestizo o Spanish, Indian, and Aricanheritage who did not speak Spanish well, aced sti opposition rom the creole conservativecentralists. It was no secret that the president hated creole society, yet he conducted nopurges o his opponents; rather, he had pardoned those who had opposed him and allowedNicolás Bravo back into the country. Still, the conservatives denounced Guerrero, sayinghe was an atheist, a Mason, and an enemy o religion. On a misty night in late 1829, troops

commanded by Vice President Bustamante crept along the Guadalupe causeway that led intoMexico City and seized the capital. Guerrero led the city and took reuge in the mountainso the south where, years beore, he had waged guerrilla war against Spanish troops.

Learning o the coup d’êtat , Santa Anna, who ancied himsel the “Napoleon o theWest,” issued a dramatic pronouncement against Bustamante and the conservatives: “I shallstubbornly oppose those who, on any pretext whatever, would temerariously hurl rom thepresidential chair the Illustrious General, Citizen Vicente Guerrero, and they will succeed indoing so only over my dead body, when I shall have perished deending the Chie Magistrateo the Nation!”

Santa Anna’s bluster, though, was mistimed. Soon the entire country, with the excep-tion o only a ew Liberals under General Juan Alvarez, accepted Bustamante as president.Giving way to necessity, Santa Anna retired to Manga de Clavo, his estate near Veracruz,

and bided his time.Though reluctant to use violence against his political opponents, Bustamante ound thatthe conservatives who surrounded him, including Lucas Alamán, wanted drastic measurestaken against Liberals. In the name o public order, troops armed with bayonets and can-non surrounded congress. The army removed Liberal governors and legislatures in 11 states,suppressed newspapers, and jailed, shot, or exiled leaders o the puros.

But the government could do little about Guerrero, who, with General Juan Alvarez,was ensconced in the southern mountains. Guerrero, with his old comrades, resisted thegovernment until, ater about a year, General Bravo deeated him in battle at Chilpancingo.Guerrero retired to Acapulco, where he took reuge on an Italian ship, the Colombo, com-manded by a riend. But the captain, loving money more than riendship, took Guerreroprisoner and sold him to the government or 50,000 gold pesos. Proclaimed mentally inca-pable o governing, Guerrero was imprisoned. On February 14, 1831, he repeated the story oHidalgo and Morelos, dying by iring squad in Cuilapa, in the state o Michoacán.

The execution o Guerrero and the repression o Liberals sparked a rebellion o the north-ern states in 1832. Santa Anna, again seeing an opportunity, seized Veracruz and proclaimedthe moderado Gómez Pedraza (whose term would have ended that year) the rightul presi-dent. Seeing resistance hopeless, Bustamante relinquished power and went into exile. Aterinstalling Gómez Pedraza as provisional president on January 3, 1833, Congress proclaimedSanta Anna “Liberator o the Republic” and “Conqueror o the Spaniards.” On March 30they elected him president and the radical Liberal, Valentín Gómez Farías, vice president.

Santa Anna loved pageantry. As he triumphantly entered the capital, our carriages illedwith ladies holding pictures and tokens o his victories greeted him. However, though lov-ing the dash and grandeur involved in seizing power, the Hero o Tampico did not relish thetedious duties associated with actual governing. On inauguration day, Santa Anna inormed

Congress that he was too sick to attend the ceremonies and returned to his hacienda, Mangade Clavo, to revel in the joys o cock-ighting and gambling. Santa Anna was still president,but the actual job o governing ell to Gómez Farías.

Thus, Gómez Farías had ree reign to put through his radical agenda. First, in the sum-mer and autumn o 1833, Congress issued indictments against members o Bustamante’sgovernment, chasing Lucas Alamán into hiding. Then the vice president pushed throughCongress a series o laws designed to weaken the Church’s power. These laws abolished thecompulsory payment o tithes to the Church; allowed monks and nuns to renounce their vows; transerred the oversight o education rom the Church to the state; and ordered the

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secularization o the missions in Caliornia. The government enorced these mea-sures even though the Constitution o 1824 had pledged Mexico to protect theCatholic religion “by wise and just laws, and prohibit the exercise o any otherwhatever.”

Gómez Farías next went ater the military. Congress reduced the size othe army and the number o oicers and deprived the military o its fueros.

Such acts roused the ire o one Colonel Ignacio Escalada; he called on “theIllustrious Conqueror o the Spaniards, General Don Antonio López deSanta Anna” to rise and deend the “privileges o the clergy and the army,which are threatened by the usurping authorities.” Thus the conservatives,crying Religión y Fueros! called on the Liberal Santa Anna to deend tradi-tional rights. Santa Anna, however, who rom time to time assumed presi-dential powers in the capital, took no action against Gómez Farías’ policies.Unsure which way the political wind blew, Santa Anna retired once again toManga de Clavo. He only awaited a sign to indicate the course he should ollow.

He soon received his sign. In April 1834, the military garrison at Cuernevacaissued a plan, calling or the expulsion o the Liberals and the protection o religion.Moreover, the Church pronounced its support or the Napoleon o the West. Throughout

Mexico, provincial leaders lined up behind Santa Anna, who had discovered that he was aconservative. Soon Gómez Farías was in light to New Orleans, and the Liberal governmentwas scattered. Santa Anna marched into Mexico City, dismissed Congress, and or the nexteight months ruled as military dictator, abolishing state legislatures and governors andreplacing them with generals.

By December 1834, Santa Anna had completely purged the government o Liberals.He called a new congress, whose members he hand-picked himsel. The new congressreplaced the republican Constitution o 1824 with a new instrument that set up a PoderConservador — a committee o citizens, who were to see to it that the executive, legislative,and judicial branches did not encroach on each other. The Poder had supreme power andwas accountable to no one — not even Congress. The Poder Conservador would, in the nextew years, be the arbiter o who should be president.

But again growing tired o government (and, perhaps, earing to lose the good graces ohis supporters i he remained too long at the reins o government), Santa Anna again retiredto Manga de Clavo, leaving the government in the hands o his vice-president, GeneralMiguel Francisco Barragán.

Remember the Alamo!The large number o Anglo-Americans who had settled in a northern territory o Mexicocalled Tejas were unhappy. The great upheavals in Mexico, along with the ineiciency oMexican oicials, annoyed and rustrated them. Then there was the sheer oreignness oMexican law. For one thing, it did not provide or trial by jury, a right every Anglo-Americanheld dear — it had never been a part o Spanish legal tradition. And there was no common

law . Furthermore, Tejas (or, as the Anglo settlers called it, Texas) was not even its own statebut ormed the northern portion o Coahuilla. Anglo-Texans chaed — they could not evenbe decently sel-governing!

Yet, these “Texians,” as they were called, had chosen to emigrate rom their native coun-try and into the rich Mexican lands watered by the Trinity, Brazos, and Colorado Rivers,so they really couldn’t complain — not too much. But by 1833, the Anglo-Americans greatlyoutnumbered Mexicans (called Tejanos) in Texas. Beore 1823, there had been about 3,000Tejanos in Texas; ten years later, largely on account o Anglo immigration, the number owhites had grown to between 20,000 and 30,000.

Valentín Gómez Farías

common law: a body

o law that arisesrom custom orprecedent — prior judicial interpreta-tions o written law

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In the last years o her rule, Spain had encouraged immigration o U.S. born Americanso English, Irish, and Scots Irish extraction to Texas, hoping by this means (oddly enough)to keep the United States rom seizing the largely unpopulated territory. In 1821, aConnecticut Yankee named Moses Austin had received a large land grant in Texas romthe Spanish king. Austin had been something o a rolling stone: he had been a dry-goodsmerchant in Philadelphia and Richmond, and ater buying lead mines in Virginia, he went

to Missouri to pioneer lead mining there. In St. Louis, he had become a banker beore set-ting his sights on Texas.

Moses Austin died six months ater receiving his Texas grant. In 1823, theMexican government conirmed the grant to Austin’s son, Stephen. The grant

gave Stephen Austin the right to settle 300 amilies in Texas. Each amilywould receive 177 acres o rich arming land, plus 13,000 acres o prairie

pasture. Austin, himsel, would receive a bonus o 65,000 acres. Inreturn, the settlers would have to become Mexican citizens and con- vert to the Catholic Church. Moses Austin had converted shortly

ater receiving the grant, and Stephen ollowed his ather’s example.Fiteen other empresarios (as the land grantees were called)

received land grants along with Austin. They settled in the south-

eastern section o what is now the state o Texas, and over theyears their numbers grew. Until 1829, Austin was the sole author-ity in the Texas colony, and, in the early days, he and many otherempresarios tried to conduct themselves as good Mexican citizens.Not every settler, though, converted to the Catholic aith, since the

decree ordering conversion was not strictly enorced. Most o thesettlers were slave owners, attracted by the black loam that was so

good or cotton growing. Though he opposed slavery, Austin permittedit in his colony. The Mexican Constitution o 1824 had abolished slavery;

but, in 1827, the Mexican government gave Austin permission to permitslave-holding in Texas.

Troubles began to surace between Texians and Mexicans in the mid 1820s.Mexico revoked a land grant to an empresario in Nagodoches , Haden Edwards, who hadattempted to seize Tejano lands or Anglo settlers. His ollowers protested and proclaimedthe independent Republic o Fredonia, complete with its own red and white lag. The would-be revolutionaries, however, led when the Mexican army arrived on the scene to put downthe rebellion.

The Fredonia episode, however, brought about a change in Mexican policy towardAnglo settlement. Lucas Alamán, or one, thought it oolish to allow so many Anglos intoTexas; it would end, he said, in the annexation o Texas to the United States. Then, in 1829,President Guerrero issued a decree abolishing slavery in Mexico, a move aimed, at least inpart, at Texas, since slavery existed nowhere else in Mexico. A year later, under PresidentBustamante, Alamán issued another decree orbidding urther Anglo settlement in Texas.The Decree o 1830 also ordered the collection o customs duties along the Texas/Louisianaborder, thus burdening the trade o the Texians with the United States. The sending o

troops to enorce the decree, along with a urther crackdown on smuggling, drove theTexians to the verge o revolt.

Ardent ederalists, the Texians, along with many Tejanos, bitterly disliked Bustamante’scentralist regime. Texian leaders, including Stephen Austin, were Masons and had, in 1828,petitioned or the establishment o the York rite in Texas — thus showing their support orthe apparently-Liberal Santa Anna’s rebellion. In this way they hoped to gain some conces-sions rom the radical Gómez Farías. Stephen Austin undertook the long, arduous journeyto Mexico City to ask Farías to seek a repeal o the Law o 1830 and to make Texas a sepa-rate state rom Coahuila. Farías reused Austin’s request. Austin then wrote a letter to the

Stephen Austin

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Texians, telling them to establish a state legislature, in spite o the government in MexicoCity — or which that government threw him into prison, where he remained or a year anda hal.

Among the chie motivations or Texian discontent with Mexican rule was the earthat the Mexican government might enorce the slavery decree o 1829 even in Texas.Immigrants rom the United States had come to Texas to escape the poverty they had known

in their home states. Texas’ rich soil, so suited to cotton growing, held out to them thepromise o riches. These hardscrabble armers hoped that they, too, could become wealthyplanters. This dream o riches necessitated slavery — or so the people thought. “Texas mustbe a slave country,” wrote Stephen Austin not long ater Bustamante issued his 1829 decree.“Circumstances and unavoidable necessity compels it.” And, besides, said Austin, “it is thewill o the people there.”

The Texians, too, eared that talk o emancipation would inspire slave revolts — ashad happened on the island o Santo Domingo in the Caribbean in 1813 and ended in abloodbath or the island’s white, French population. So it was that Mexico’s emancipationmeasures inspired thoughts o revolt among the Texians. Writing rom Matamoros onthe Rio Grande in January 1830, Captain Henry Austin described the eects o Mexicanemancipation measures on the Texians. “We have rumors here,” he said, “o a revolutionary

disposition in the people o Texas on account o the decree reeing all slaves in theRepublic.”Meanwhile, no one was enorcing the immigration measures o the Law

o 1830, and Anglos continued to pour into Texas rom the U.S.. Unlikeearlier settlers such as Stephen Austin, who counseled peace withMexico, many o the newcomers were unwilling to put up withMexican rule and ormed a “war party” in the territory. One o theselatter was Sam Houston.

Six eet, two inches tall and broad o chest, Houston was an oldriend o Andrew Jackson, had served in the Creek War, and hadworked as an agent to help move a band o Cherokee rom EastTennessee to Indian Territory. In 1818, ater Secretary o WarJohn C. Calhoun rebuked him or appearing beore him dressedas an Indian (and or charges o oicial misconduct), Houstonresigned as agent and went to practice law in Nashville. Aterserving one term in Congress, Houston was elected governor oTennessee in 1827; but two years later, ater his wie o three monthslet him, Houston resigned his governorship and went to live amongthe Cherokee. The Indians adopted him as a member o their tribe andgave him the unlattering epithet, “Big Drunk.” In 1832, at the age o 39, hewent to Texas, where he became a Mexican citizen and a Catholic. Houstonwas an important member o the convention that had petitioned the Mexicangovernment or the separation o Texas rom Coahuila.

Revolution

In his latest transormation — into a conservative dictator — Santa Anna had decided thathe had to do something about Texas. Liberalism was triumphant there. The laws werenot being observed. Anglo-Americans, like a barbarian horde (that’s how the Mexicanssaw them), were crossing the border illegally. To remedy the situation, Santa Anna sentan army under General Martín Perecto de Cos north to enorce obedience to the law.Learning o Santa Anna’s plans rom Lorenzo de Zavala, who had gone north to warn theTexians o the general’s approach, Stephen Austin, now released rom imprisonment, calledon Texians to take up arms. Sam Houston was made general o a Texian army. In earlyOctober 1835, Cos arrived with 1,200 troops at San Antonio de Bexár; he ortiied the city,

Sam Houston, ca. 1850,by Thomas Flintoff

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including the old Franciscan missionchurch, San Antonio de Valero, knownas the Alamo. Throughout October andNovember, armed Texians and someTejanos arrived at San Antonio de Béxarand lay siege to the city.

On December 4, Texian colonelBenjamin R. Milam gathered the Texianarmy and, the next day, assaulted Cos’position in the city. For ive days battleraged as the Texians pushed their wayinto San Antonio. Finally, on December10, Cos surrendered. The Texians occu-pied the city and ortiied the Alamo.

Santa Anna had had second thoughtsater he sent Cos to Texas; he decidedthat he wanted the glory o crush-ing the Texian revolution or himsel.

Establishing his headquarters at SanLuis Potosí, about 260 miles northwesto Mexico City, Santa Anna impressedIndians and other “recruits” — men whohad known nothing o army servicebeore — until he had built up a sizableorce. The government had no money to

inance an army, so Santa Anna took out loans at ruinous interest rates. He manuacturedmunitions and requisitioned horses and carts. Whipping the men into some semblance odiscipline, Santa Anna drove them north across the deserts o Coahuila, toward Texas.

Those who know nothing o deserts may not understand how bitterly cold they can be inwinter. Both men and animals in Santa Anna’s army suered terribly rom cold, hunger, anddisease. Still, the ever implacable Hero o Tampico orced them on until, having let behindmany dead, the Mexican army stood, hal starved, outside the walls o the Alamo.

Meanwhile, the Texians at the Alamo were quarreling over how to conduct the war andchanged their commander almost daily. The garrison, numbering only about 150 men, even-tually ell to the command o 27-year-old William Barrett Travis. Born in South Carolina,

Travis had spent many years in Alabama, where he had become a lawyerand a Mason. Abandoning his wie, son, and unborn daughter, Travis wentto Texas in 1831, where he set up a law practice and joined those who wereconspiring or independence rom Mexico. Houston had ordered Travisto evacuate the Alamo, but he was determined to remain. He ordered theortiication o the mission to prepare or the assault he knew would come.

Deending the Alamo with Travis were both Texians andTejanos — amongthem the rontiersman David Crockett and James Bowie, amous or his

long hunting knie. Bowie had come to Texas in 1830. Beore that, bothhe and his brother, Rezin (pronounced like reason), had engaged in illegalslave smuggling in Louisiana (the pirate, Jean Laitte, was their supplier)and in land speculation. Shortly ater coming to Texas, James Bowie wasbaptized a Catholic and married into a prominent San Antonio amily.Over the next ew years he gambled, engaged in land speculation, andearned the ill will o Stephen Austin, who thought him a charlatan. Bowie,though, had distinguished himsel as a brave leader in the battle o Béxaragainst General Cos.

Map of Mexican Texas

Ri o G r a n d

e

N u

e c e s R.

Guadalupe R.

Colorado R.

San Antonio R.

Brazos R.

Trinity R.

O l d

S a n

A n t

o n i

o R o a d

Washington

Nacogdoches

Austin

BastropSan Felipe

Harrisburg Galveston

BrazoriaVelasco

MatagordaVictoria

Goliad

San AntonioGonzales

LaGrangeColumbus

M E X I C OG u l f o f

M e x i c o

30°N

30°N

100°W

Texas

TEXAS

David Crockett

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David Crockett was a late-comer to Texas, having arrived at the lag end o 1835. Already alegendary rontiersman, Crockett had ought in the Creek Wars and had served in Congressas a representative rom Tennessee, where he distinguished himsel as an opponent oJackson’s Indian removal policy. When in 1835 he lost his congressional seat to a Jacksonman with a peg-leg, Crockett told riends, “Since you have chosen to elect a man with a tim-ber toe to succeed me, you may all go to hell and I will go to Texas.” And to Texas he went,

arriving just in time to join Colonel Travis at the Alamo.On February 23, 1836, Santa Anna with 3,000 ragged troops laid siege to the 150 deend-

ers o the Alamo. For two weeks, Travis reused to surrender. Finally, in the early hours oMarch 6, Santa Anna ordered the trumpeter to sound the deguello — the ancient signal usedin the Spanish wars against the Moors, signiying “take no prisoners.” The assault began.Travis died early on in the battle, with a single bullet through the head. Bowie, whom sick-ness had conined to bed, had his skull shattered by six bullets. Almost all the deenders diedwithin a ew hours, and Santa Anna commanded that those who had been captured must beshot. It is uncertain what happened to David Crockett. One account by an eyewitness, theMexican oicer José Enrique de la Peña, says that Crockett was among the captured. De laPeña continues that, ater his plea or his lie was reused, Crockett was bayoneted and thenshot. He died bravely, without complaint.

A ew days beore the Alamo massacre, a convention o Texians had met at Washington-on-the-Brazos, 200 miles east o San Antonio de Béxar, and proclaimed Texas an indepen-dent republic. They appointed David Burnet provisional president, and as vice presidentthey chose Lorenzo de Zavala, the ormer governor o the state o México. Sam Houston,hearing that Santa Anna’s army had turned east and was terrorizing the population as itadvanced, ordered a general retreat. The entire population o Texas was in light beore the victorious Santa Anna.

The grand conqueror, hearing that the provisional Texas government had removed toHarrisburg at the mouth o the San Jacinto River, thither led his orce to bag Houston’s armyand the rebellious government at once. Santa Anna met Houston and his small army atLynchburg Ferry on the San Jacinto, and a ace-o ensued between the two armies. A daypassed, and no action. Santa Anna, whose tent sat on a small rise not ar rom the enemy’slines, lay down to take a conqueror’s well-earned siesta. He had posted no sentries or pickets,so the irst notice he received o Houston’s attack was the impassioned shout, “Rememberthe Alamo!” He had barely time to escape. Houston’s small orce, with a loss o only threedead and 18 wounded, destroyed the Mexican army — 400 died, 200 were wounded, and 730were taken prisoner. Next day, the Texians captured Santa Anna; they ound him hiding inhigh grass, clad in a blue shirt, white trousers,and red slippers.

The Battle o San Jacinto ended the war.To assure his release, the conquered Napoleonpromised to recognize the independence oTexas. Santa Anna did not return home directlybut went on to Washington where he met withPresident Jackson. Ater a cordial meeting,

Jackson sent Santa Anna home by ship. Arrivingin Mexico, Santa Anna retired to Manga deClavo, his loss o Texas having assured his loss othe presidency. Anastasio Bustamante succeededSanta Anna and Barragán as president.

Though the Mexican government reused toacknowledge Texas’ independence, it did noth-ing to win back the rebellious territory. Texasremained an independent republic.

Map of the San Jacintobattle ground

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Military Anarchy Monsieur Remontel, a French citizen, owned a pastry shop in the Tacubaya section oMexico City. One night, a group o Mexican oicers entered his shop, locked him in hisback room, and devoured all his pastries. The enraged pastry cook, unable to get satisac-tion or his loss rom the Mexican government, appealed to his own government or jus-

tice. Remontel was not the only one to complain o property loss; other French citizens inMexico had had property destroyed when the léperos sacked Mexico City’s El Parián marketin 1828. It was ostensibly in response to its citizens’ plight that France demanded compen-sation rom Mexico — 600,000 pesos — an amount Mexico said it could not pay. So, in 1838,a French leet appeared o Veracruz and blockaded the port rom April to November. OnNovember 26, the leet bombarded the ortress o San Juan de Ulúa. The ortress soon sur-rendered, and a new war, called the Pastry War by the Mexicans (in honor o MonsieurRemontel) commenced.

The bombardment o San Juan de Ulúa could be heard at Manga de Clavo. It had been ayear since Santa Anna had returned rom Texas in disgrace; now, the conqueror saw a wayo redeeming his ortunes. Mounting his white horse, he rode to Veracruz and then, by ski,

paddled out to the ortress o San Juan de Ulúa to con-

vince the French commander to surrender it. When thisailed, Santa Anna returned to Manga de Clavo. Receivinga military command rom President Bustamante, SantaAnna prepared his orces and then marched proudly anddeiantly into Veracruz.

Early one morning, as Santa Anna slept, the Frenchsent a landing party into the city. Awakened by shout-ing and iring in the streets, Santa Anna, clad only inhis underwear, barely escaped to the outskirts o the city.There he organized his orces and marched again into thecity where the Mexican troops engaged French marines,who were ighting rom behind a barricade. Ater severalhours, the French began withdrawing to the ortress.Santa Anna, proclaiming victory, led a charge against theretreating oe. But then, a cannon ball, ired rom a Frenchship, struck him below his let knee, shattering his leg.

Ater this brie military exchange, the French withdrewrom Veracruz. (There was no need or them to remain,

or the Mexican government payed the 600,000 pesos compensation). The now one-leggedSanta Anna sent a dispatch to Mexico City announcing that he had repulsed the Frenchadvance; he had saved the Fatherland! The timing was perect. Mexico was suering, notonly rom the Pastry War, but rom a severe inancial crisis. Moreover, Indians were attack-ing creole villages in Sonora and Chihuahua; and Yucatan in the south and Mexican statesin the north were threatening secession. Two generals, José Urrea and José Antonio Mejía,had risen up in revolt, threatening Bustamante’s government. Only the “Hero [now] o

Veracruz” could save the country. The Poder Conservador begged him, once again, to takeup the reins o government.

Carried by carriage to the capital, Santa Anna played the part o the a hero injured in hiscountry’s services. Pallid and unsmiling, languidly waving his hand, Santa Anna witnessedthe aection o his country: rockets were ired, speeches were given; triumphal archesadorned his route. Upon Santa Anna’s arrival in the capital, the Poder Conservador pro-claimed him Benemerito de la Patria (“Well Deserving o the Fatherland”) and made himpresident. Hearing that General Mejía had taken Veracruz, Santa Anna sent troops againsthim and deeated the rebel. Condemned to execution, Mejía said, “Santa Anna is doing to

Bombardment of San Juan de Ulúa

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me what I should have done to him; onlyhe is shooting me three hours ater mycapture, while I should have shot him inthree minutes!”

It did not take long, however, beoreSanta Anna grew bored with government;

once again he returned to Manga de Clavo.No sooner had he gone than Nicolás Bravo,whom he had let in charge, aced a newinsurrection. Gómez Farías had returnedrom exile in New Orleans and called ora restoration o the ederal Constitutiono 1824. For 11 days ighting raged in thestreets o Mexico City until it became clearthat neither side could prevail — and thatneither side had received the blessing oSanta Anna. Both sides proclaimed a truce,and Gómez Farías went again into exile

while Anastasio Bustamante re-assumedthe presidency.But Bustamante was unable to raise

enough money to pay the military, and in 1841, he aced another revolt. Generals MarianoParedes and Gabriel Valencia issued a proclamation against the government. They weresoon joined by Santa Anna himsel. Marching rom Veracruz, El Benemerito de la Patriaentered the capital; or 28 days street ighting rocked the city. In desperation, the conserva-tive Bustamante sought Liberal support by proclaiming a restoration o the Constitution o1824, but it was too late. Bustamante led into exile. Santa Anna, riding triumphantly intothe city, assumed the oice o dictator.

With absolute power at his disposal, Santa Anna’s extravagance ully blossomed. Hisrevenues ar exceeded the exactions o his predecessors. He coerced loans rom the Church,raised import duties to 20 percent, sold mining concessions to English investors. With theincreased revenue he built a new theater in the capital, El Gran Teatro de Santa Anna; raiseda statue o himsel, with one hand pointed towards Texas (and, it was noted, the nationalmint); paved the capital’s streets; built a new market; and recruited a personal bodyguardo 1,200 men, decking them out in sumptuous uniorms. The year 1842 was a continualiesta, with “His Serene Highness” (as Santa Anna was addressed) at the helm. His let legwas disinterred rom its burial place at Manga de Clavo and carried in state to the capital,where it was re-interred in the cathedral cemetery. The capital reveled in holidays, celebrat-ing Santa Anna’s birthday, independence day, and other occasions. Solemn Masses weresung in thanksgiving.

The taxation to provide or all this pageantry, however, drained the country’s wealth, anddiscontent swelled. With the election o a moderado congress in June 1842, and tired o thecomplaints issuing rom all quarters, Santa Anna again returned to Manga de Clavo, leav-

ing Nicolás Bravo at the head o government. Bravo dissolved Congress and established a Junta o Notables that, in 1843, drew up a new constitution that established the president asa virtual dictator. In January 1844, the junta asked Santa Anna to resume the presidency. Buthis return to Mexico City was short-lived; once again, he retired, leaving General ValentínCanalizo in charge.

When, in June 1844, the news that Texas was again requesting admission to the UnitedStates reached Mexico City, Santa Anna once more took power. With a loan o 3 million pesos coerced rom unknown sources, Santa Anna ordered a levy o 30,000 soldiers, mostlyIndians pressed into service, to lead in war against the United States. This time, however, his

Mexico after the TexasRevolution

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extravagance had reached its limit, and General Mariano Paredes proclaimed a revolutionagainst him in Jalisco.

Gathering his army, Santa Anna marched against Paredes, but bad news rom the capi-tal orced his return. Mexico City had risen against him; the léperos had even disinterredhis leg and was dragging it ignominiously through the streets! Little by little, and then inlarge numbers, Santa Anna’s own troops deserted him. Fleeing with only his cook and two

adjutants in tow, Santa Anna sought reuge in the mountains o Veracruz. There he wasdiscovered and captured. Instead o shooting him, however, the government allowed ElBenemerito de la Patria to go into exile in Havana, Cuba, where he was supposed to remainor the next ten years.

A California InterludeBack in January 1822, Governor Sola o Alta Caliornia had written the governor o BajaCaliornia about certain documents he had received reporting the progress o the revolutionin Mexico. “Such documents,” in Sola’s opinion, “are printed in a country o dreamers, sinceindependence is a dream. Day by day their presses will turn out absurdities by the thousand;

but you and I, aware that the immortal, incomparableSpanish nation has many and great resources withwhich to make hersel respected, must look with con-tempt on such absurd views.”

Sola was no prophet. Not three months had passedsince he wrote the letter when he received dispatchesrom Mexico announcing the establishment oIturbide’s regency. By April 9, 1822, members o theruling junta o Caliornia decided that they shouldswallow their royalist scruples and take the oath oallegiance to Mexico. It had only been two yearssince they had sworn allegiance to the SpanishConstitution o 1812; but they knew that, despite its“many and great resources,” Spain could not holdCaliornia i she did not hold Mexico. Necessity was,ater all, necessity.

Convincing the riars might be more diicult, or,i royalist sentiment was strong among Californios as

a whole, it was strongest among the Franciscans. Acknowledging Mexican independencewas a struggle or them; but some, like Fray Vicente Sarriá, ater much relection, took theoath. “May God grant that all may be or the best,” said Fray Vicente. On April 11, the juntaand the soldiers gathered at Governor Sola’s house in Monterey and ormally took the oath.Fray Mariano Payeras, preect o the missions, then preached a sermon, and the day endedwith vivas, the iring o guns, and music.

More estive still were the celebrations when Don Agustín’s representative, the cleric

Agustín Fernandez de San Vicente, arrived in Monterey in late September. Fernandez oi-ciated at the ceremony at which the Spanish lag was lowered and the Mexican lag raised.“Viva la Indepencia Mejicana! ” they cried, to the iring o artillery and the music o drumand ie. “Viva el Emperador Agustín I!” Church services, then races and easting ollowed,and the day concluded with a grand ball.

A little over a year later, Luis Argüello, who had replaced Sola as governor, learned thateight months earlier El Emperador Agustín I had resigned and a new government wasin place. What this all meant was, perhaps, unclear to Don Luis. Under Agustín I, theCalifornios had obtained representation in the Mexican congress and had established their

Map of Mexican “Upperor New California” in1838, showing loca-tions of missions, set-tlements, and presidios

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when Sergeant Anastasio Carrillo arrived at Santa Inéswith a small orce, he ound that the hostile Indians hadled to the nearby mission, La Purísima Concepción.

Purísima had been the scene o another uprising onFebruary 21. Throughout the aternoon and the night,Corporal Tiburcio Tapia, with our or ive men, deended

the soldiers’ amilies and the riars against an Indianattack, until their powder ran out. During the aray, theIndians killed our travelers, Dolores Sepulveda and hiscompanions, en route to Los Angeles, while losing seven otheir own number. The next morning, the Indian insur-gents sent Tapia and Fray Blas Ordáz (who had the reputa-tion o living an irregular religious lie) to Santa Inés towarn Carrillo not to approach Purísima; i he did, theIndians would slaughter the soldiers’ amilies. Carrillo’sanswer is unknown, but the Indians inally released theamilies. The other riar at Purísima, Fray Antonio CatarinoRodriguez, remained to minister to the rebels.

Reinorced by Indians rom Santa Inés and rom other missions, the Purísima Indiansprepared to deend themselves. They sent messengers to other missions and to the gentiletribes, ortiied the mission, mounted a decrepit cannon, and waited or the inevitableassault. At Santa Barbara, on Sunday, February 22, Fray Antonio Ripoll and Fray AntonioJaime succeeded in quieting the neophytes and ordered the soldiers at the mission to with-draw to the presidio. But, at the presidio, when Captain José de la Guerra heard that two othe soldiers had been wounded in a tussle with the Indians, he marched on the mission, anda three-hour ight ensued in which two Indians were killed, three wounded. When Guerraretired to the presidio, the Indians took whatever they could rom the mission (respecting,however, the church itsel ), and led to the mountains. They had begged Fray Antonio Jaime,who was sick in bed, to go with them, but he had reused. On the same aternoon, Alférez Maitorena arrived with Guerra’s troops and, in the next two days (against the riars’ pro-tests) sacked the Indians’ houses and killed several Indians in cold blood. By the end oFebruary, the rebels had led to the Tulares.

The news o the Indian revolt rightened the governor at Monterey. He sent 100 men southunder Lieutenant Mariano Estrada and Alérez Francisco de Haro to join with Captain dela Guerra in an assault on Purísima. In the early morning hours o March 16, the Mexicancavalry anned out to let and right, while the rest o the orce opened ire on the missionwalls. Within, the neophytes, numbering about 400, returned ire with the old cannon, aew swivel guns, muskets, and arrows, but they were no match or the Mexican regulars. TheIndians tried to lee, but the cavalry prevented them. Finally, Fray Antonio Rodriguez inter-ceded or the Indians, and, at 10:30 a.m., the battle was over. Guerra and Estrada condemnedseven o the neophytes to death or the murder o the Sepulveda party and sentenced theour ringleaders o the revolt — Mariano, Pacomio, Benito, and Bernabé — to ten years laborin the presidio, ollowed by perpetual banishment. The seven condemned to death received

the sacrament o Penance and the Eucharist beore they were shot.With the deeat at Purísima, the Indian revolt lost steam. A ew smaller operations were

conducted against the remaining rebels in the Tulares, but the danger was over. By theintercession o Fray Antonio Ripoll and Fray Vicente Sarría, the governor extended a generalpardon to the rebellious Indians, and by June 16, 1824, Caliornia was again at peace.

The Fall of the California Missions

When Governor Echeandía ignored Monterey and set up his government at San Diego,he created a good deal o ill will in the north o Caliornia and awakened latent rivalries

Mission Santa Inés, asit appeared in 1904

alférez: a junior oi-cer; an ensign or sec-ond lieutenant

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between the south and the north. But the governor proved he could unite the interests othe leaders o both parts o Alta Caliornia when, in July 1830, he lay beore the diputación a plan to secularize the missions.

Echeandía proposed that, beginning with the missions nearest the presidios, the gov-ernment should take control o the temporalities (lands and anything having to do witheconomic production) rom the missionaries and deliver them to salaried oicials.

The riars would unction essentially as parish priests, or they could depart to estab-lish new missions in the interior. The neophytes would be granted a share in themission lands. The plan, which would basically hand control o the the neophytesand their lands over to a small group o Californios who had long wanted to seize themissions to exploit them, was approved by the diputación and then sent to MexicoCity or approval.

One law in Echeandía’s plan was that, earlier the same year, March 8, 1830,President Anastasio Bustamante had appointed Colonel Manuel Victoria the newgovernor o Alta Caliornia. Victoria, however, did not arrive in San Diego until lateNovember or early December — and when he did, he discovered, to his chagrin, thatEcheandía was not there to hand over the oice to him. Traveling north, Victoria enteredSanta Barbara — but still no Echeandía. What Victoria did discover — and provoked his

wrath — was a decree Echeandía issued rom Monterey on January 6, 1831 (a month ater heknew Victoria had arrived), ordering the secularization o the missions.Victoria proceeded north again and came to Monterey, where on January 31 he took the

oath o oice as governor. The next day, he suspended Echeandía’s secularization decreeas opposed to the will o President Bustamante and the supreme government. Victoriathen worked to establish Caliornia’s government on a sound basis — at least in theopinion o Bustamante’s conservative government. He suspended the diputación,saying its members had not been elected legally, and ordered several executions opersons convicted o serious crimes. For these measures — but primarily or coun-termanding the decree o secularization —Victoria earned the ill-will o such prom-inent and Liberal Californios as the northerners, Mariano Vallejo, José Sanchez, JuanBautista Alvarado, and José Castro; and the southerners, Pío Pico o Los Angeles, hisbrother-in-law, Juan Antonio Carrillo, and Juan Bandini o San Diego. Victoria hadn’tbeen in oice a year when the southerners, including Echeandía, rose in rebellionagainst him. Though the governor’s orces routed the rebels, Victoria himsel waswounded. Beore returning to Mexico, Victoria made over the governorship to Echeandía.

With Victoria’s departure, Pío Pico o Los Angeles, as senior member o the diputación,claimed the governorship. But northerners did not not want a southerner to rule them; theynamed as governor Agustín Vicente Zamorano, who established himsel at Monterey.Further south, Echeandía also reused to recognize Pico and continued to rule in SanDiego. So, until 1833, with the arrival rom Mexico o Brevet Brig. General JoséFigueroa, Caliornia had three governors — one at San Diego, another at Los Angeles,and the third at Monterey.

Figueroa came to Caliornia with several Franciscan riars belonging to the mis-sionary College o Zacatecas; it would be their task to take over the government o

the northern missions, while the southern mission remained under direction o theaging Fernandinos. The new governor was also given the task, by order o GómezFariás’ government, to secularize the missions; but when he presented the law to theCaliornia diputación, that body ruled that the governor had no authority to executethe law.

The problem with this law or the diputación, it seems, was that it would not allowprominent Californios to beneit rom the breaking up o the missions, or it would merelyturn them into pueblos and divide the lands among the neophytes. A plan proeredby Figueroa on August 2, 1833 was more to their liking. This plan, which would divide

José Castro

Mariano Vallejo

Pío Pico in later life

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mission lands among the neophytes, did not entrust control o the lands to them but handedit over to mayordomo administrators. That these administrators were either members o thediputación or their close associates and kindred was not surprising. The control o the tem-poralities o ten out o the 19 missions thus passed rom the hands o the riars to the likeso Pío Pico, Carlos Carrillo, Juan Bandini, and Mariano Vallejo.

Under Figueroa’s secularization plan, hal o the mission lands were to go to the Indians

and hal to the Californios, but this was not how things turned out. Not ully assimilatedinto European culture, most o the Mission Indians did not attempt to arm their landsnor did they know how to manage them. In a ew years, the mission lands, became thepossession o prominent Californios, who plundered them o their wealth, while the mis-

sion Indians were scattered; or i they remained on the missions, they were orced tolabor or their new masters, oten or no pay. Many Indians ell into the vices the

riars had tried to guard them rom — idleness, drunkenness, and prostitution. Theadministrators, who cared little or nothing or the neophytes’ souls, permittedthem to neglect their religious duties; indeed, some administrators seemed bentto make the lie o the remaining riars as diicult as possible. Thus, the missionsthemselves began their swit descent into decay.

It has oten been said that the Mexican government was at ault or the destruc-

tion o Caliornia’s missions — yet, in November 1835, the new Mexican governoro Caliornia, Mariano Chico, inormed the Caliornia legislature that the Mexicancongress, in response to the threat o the loss o divine worship in Caliornia, sus-

pended the earlier ederal secularization decree and thus basically nulliied Figueroa’s1834 secularization, handing the mission temporalities back to the riars. This decree the

legislature ignored, as it did a letter to García Diego, one o the Zacatecan missionarieswhom the Mexican government named the irst bishop o Baja and Alta Caliornia inSeptember 1836. In this letter, the Mexican secretary o the interior reiterated that the gov-ernment had suspended secularization and returned the missions to the riars.

In a letter dated September 25, 1837, Fray Narciso Durán o Mission Santa Barbara,expressed his opinion that Figueroa had acted “contrary to his own judgment” in puttingorward his secularization plan; but, said Fray Narciso, the diputación threatened to rebel ithe “pusillanimous” governor went against their wishes. Then the riar, who had worked inthe missions or 31 years, made a dire prediction or Mexican Caliornia. He wrote:

How must not such enormous wrongs cry to Heaven or vengeance? And how can this

land escape being, in time, the battleield on which the chastisements o God may camp,

who cannot remain dea to the cries o the poor? O God, in ine, who tells us through

the royal prophet that faciet judicium inopis et vindictam pauperum? [“He shall make

judgment or the needy and v indicate the poor” — Psalm 139:13 (Vulgate).]

Comic Opera Wars

The secularization o mission lands, along with the Mexican government’s approval o moreland grants to white settlers, increased the number o private ranchos in Caliornia. Thesegreat cattle ranches centered on the hacienda — a long one-story adobe building, sometimes

with porticoed wings enclosing a courtyard, but always with a shaded verandah. Ranchodons were noted or their extravagant hospitality to strangers, their rodeos, bull ights, balls,and easting. Besides cattle raising, which was practically his sole occupation, the Californio illed his hours with singing and dancing.

For some in Caliornia, politics added a needed spice to an otherwise quiet, pastoral lie.Beore his death in 1836, Figueroa had appointed José Castro as civil governor; nevertheless,Lt. Colonel Nicolás Gutiérrez, a companion o the ormer governor, decided to unite civiland military aairs under himsel. It was 1836, and centralism was triumphant in Mexico.When Governor Mariano Chico, let only three months ater arriving rom Mexico, hand-

García Diego yMoreno, first bishopof the Diocese of TwoCalifornias

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ing the government back to Gutiérrez, certain Liberal Californios, tired o rule by non-Cal-ifornios, rose in revolt. Led by Juan Alvarado o Monterey and José Castro, Californios,Indians, and Anglo-American oreigners under Isaac Graham, attacked the governor’s resi-dence in Monterey. When his house was struck by a cannon ball, Gutiérrez decided he hadhad enough and retired to Mexico.

The rebels were triumphant. Juan Alvarado’s uncle, Mariano Vallejo, became comman-dante general, and Alvarado convinced the diputación to proclaim Caliornia an indepen-dent state, at least until centralism was overthrown in Mexico. But the south objected,opposed independence, and denounced the oreign inluence o Isaac Graham andhis cohorts. Leading an armed orce south, Alvarado brought the southernersover to his views; but, only a short time later, in a bid or power, Los Angeles joined San Diego in adopting the centralist constitution. Not to be outma-neuvered, Alvarado also adopted the centralist constitution, and, not longater, the Mexican government recognized him and Vallejo respectivelyas governor and commandante general o both Caliornias, alta y baja.

With the orces in the south cowed — at least or the time being —Alvarado and Vallejo turned their eyes east. They were uneasy aboutthe uture o Caliornia. Anglo-Americans were arriving overland, anAnglo-American expedition had surveyed the Sacramento and San

Jacinto Rivers, and the Swissman, John August Sutter, who had boughtRussian properties at Fort Ross, had established his own, nearly inde-pendent domain, which he called New Helvetia, on the Sacramento River.More soldiers, more Mexican colonists were needed in Caliornia, Vallejotold Mexico City. Mexico’s answer was Brig. General Manuel Micheltorena,who arrived as governor at Los Angeles in August 1842 with 300 troops.Marching thence to Monterey in October, the new governor heard the shockingnews that seemed to conirm Vallejo’s ears —

The American navy had captured the capital! Juan Bautista Alvarado

A View of MissionSan Diego

I

n 1835, Richard Henry Dana, an American,

visiting San Diego mission, described it as “a

number of irregular buildings, connected withone another, and disposed in the form of a hol-

low square, with a church at one end . . .” The

mission, however, was but a shadow of its for-

mer glory. “Just outside of the buildings, and

under the walls,” wrote Dana, “stood twenty or

thirty small huts, built of straw and of the

branches of trees grouped together, in which a

few Indians lived. Entering a gateway, we drove

into the open square, in which the stillness of

death reigned. We rode tw ice round the square,

in the hope of waking up someone.” Only one

friar remained at the mission, and he, said Dana,provided the party with “the most scrumptious

meal we had eaten since we left Boston.”

Bell tower of MissionSan Diego in 1936

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Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones, commander o the United States Paciic squad-ron, had received intelligence that Mexico and the United States were at war. Sailing or theCaliornia coast, Jones, in his lagship, the United States, with another ship o the squadron,the Cyane, entered Monterey bay on October 19 and demanded the surrender o the garrison.Juan Alvarado, who was still acting governor, agreed to the surrender, saying his small orceand decrepit artillery could not stand up to Jones’ 800 men and 80 cannon. However, the

ollowing day, realizing his mistake — the U.S. and Mexico were not at war — CommodoreJones returned Caliornia to the Mexican oicials. The Mexican lag, which had been low-ered, was again raised, and both sides ired salutes in each other’s honor.

Though the whole aair ended amicably, with iestas, dances, and courteous visits, theJones episode was ominous. It showed how easily a oreign power could seize the rich lando Caliornia.

Part II: The Draw of the West

He was a holy man and a miracle worker. He was said to be a prophet. Thoughinirm with severe rheumatism, Fray Magín Catalá tirelessly served Mission

Santa Clara de Assís, near San José — preaching, visiting the sick, living an aus-tere lie — just he had done since the 1790s. He predicted, it is said, the growth

o San Francisco (then a ew adobe dwellings called Buena Vista) into a great metropolis; itwas said he oretold the Gold Rush and the San Francisco earthquake o 1906. Seeing “or-eigners” — Anglo-Americans — coming into Caliornia, Fray Magín predicted they wouldbring disaster upon Indians and Californios alike by undermining the Catholic oundationso the Californio society. A noted historian o the Caliornia missions, Zephyrin Engelhardt,recorded the gist o Fray Magín’s words, culled rom those who heard him:

Another lag will come rom the East and the people that ollow it will speak an alto-

gether dierent language, and they will have a dierent religion . . . On account o their

sins the Caliornians will lose their lands and become poor, and many o their children’s

children will give up their own religion. The Indians wi ll be dispersed and will not knowwhat to do, and they will be like sheep running wild . . .

Fray Magín died in 1830 and so did not live to see the secularization o the missionsand the scattering o his beloved Indian lock. Perhaps he knew nothing o the steady pushwestward that characterized the restless young republic ar to the east. Since the purchase oLouisiana and the expedition o Lewis and Clark, Anglo-Americans, impatient o the civi-lized East, had been lowing into the Mississippi Valley and across that great river into thewide lands beyond. Many ound their way into Texas, but others thrust into the plains andthe Rocky Mountains. These latter were not settlers but hunters and trappers who searchedor the haunts o the beaver, whose pelts the East coveted or hats, gloves, and other clothing.

Mountainy MenThese “mountainy” men, as they were called, were a rough lot, or they had to be; the FarWest in those days was a dangerous place. Indian tribes, wild and ree, still wandered theplains, and earsome beasts, like the irascible grizzly bear, lurked in the woods. Clad inskins, the mountainy men lived like Indians, even taking Indian women to wie. The moun-tainy men sold urs to either General William Ashley’s Rocky Mountain Fur Company orthe company owned by the German immigrant, John Jacob Astor. In Canada and in the“Oregon Country” (covering the modern states o Oregon, Washington, and Idaho and the

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province o British Columbia), the British Hudson’s Bay Company employed trappers, whodeposited their urs at the company’s post o Vancouver on the Columbia River.

The mountainy men boasted not a ew colorul characters in their number. Oneo these was Hugh Glass. A amous hunter and Indian ighter, Glass nearly methis Maker near the orks o the Grand River in what is now South Dakotawhen a grizzly tore and lacerated his body “in a earul rate.” Let or dead in

a cabin with a ew provisions by his companions, William Fitzgerald andJim Bridger, Glass nevertheless managed to lit himsel rom his cot anddrag himsel outdoors to ind berries and water. Ater recuperating orten days, Glass went in pursuit o his aithless companions, walking andcrawling over 100 miles to Fort Kiowa on the Missouri River, where hearrived looking the very image o death. From Fort Kiowa, Glass went toFort Benton. There he ound Bridger, whom he orgave on account o hisyouth. Glass, however, was not about to pardon Fitzgerald (who had takenthe amous rile with which Glass had killed many Indians). HearingFitzgerald had entered the military, Glass pursued him to Fort Atkinsonon the Red River. En route, Arikara Indians attacked the Glass party, killingeveryone but Glass. At Fort Atkinson, Glass ound Bridger, and would have

killed his old companion had not others begged or his pardon. Glass sparedFitzgerald’s lie and, in return, received back his old rile.A grizzly nearly killed another mountain man, Jedediah Strong Smith, who was trap-

ping in the Rockies in the winter o 1823. Badly injured, Smith was being nursed back tohealth by his two companions when Indians attacked the party, killing all but Smith, whohad hid in the underbrush. With only his rile, knie, lint, and a Bible, Smith survived byeating the beaver he ound in traps and drinking water rom a stream. Once he killed a buckand survived o the meat until it turned rotten. Finally, when Smith was starved and neardeath, others o his trapper companions ound him.

Earlier that year, Jedediah Smith had joined General Ashley’s trapping expedition tothe Yellowstone. Pushing up the Missouri in a keel boat, Ashley’s expedition was orcedto turn back when ierce Arikara warriors attacked them. Deciding the Missouri was toodangerous a route, Ashley hit upon on a new system o collecting urs. He equipped packtrains with pots, tobacco, whiskey, coee, gunpowder, and other necessaries, which he soldto trappers. So provisioned, the trappers, who beore had worked in larger companies, wento into the mountains in bands o two or three to trap during the all, winter, and spring.In the summer the small parties gathered and met the pack trains at a speciied spot, calledthe rendezvous, where they recklessly spent allthe money they made rom urs and, generally,whooped it up.

Ater he recovered rom his injuries, JedediahSmith, along with Glass’ old nemesis, WilliamFitzgerald, received permission rom Ashley’s part-ner, Andrew Henry, to operate as ree trappers.Gathering a party o 18 men, Smith and Fitzgerald

trapped in the Wind River and Sweetwater regions,in what is now Wyoming. Hearing rom Indians othe many beaver in the Green River Valley, in whatis now eastern Utah, Fitzgerald set o south anddiscovered a wide pass that made a graded ascentthrough the Rockies. This was the amous “SouthPass” through which immigrant wagon trainswould in a ew years make their passage over themountains to the ertile lands o Oregon beyond.

John Jacob Astor

Map of the West by Jedediah Smith

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The Green River Valley proved a rich hunting ground, so rich that, by 1825, Ashley hadmade his ortune and sold his ur trading company to Smith and his partner, WilliamSublette. While Sublette concerned himsel with ur trading, Smith was more interested inexploration. In the summer o 1826, with 18 men and 50 horses, Smith set out to see i hecould ind a route through the Rockies to Caliornia. Smith wrote in his journal:

In taking the charge o our western Expedition, I ollowed the bent o my strongresources o wealth and bring to light those wonders which I readily imagined a country

so extensive might contain. I must coness that I had at that time a ull share o that

ambition (and perhaps oolish ambition) which is common in a greater or less degree to

all the active world. I wanted to be the irst to view a country on which the eyes o a white

man had never gazed and to ollow the course o rivers that run through a new land.

Departing rom the Great Salt Lake southwestward, Smith’s company ollowed the SevierRiver in the Wasatch Range and then crossed the Escalante Desert. They passed throughthe country o the Ute Indians and into the wastelands where the primitive Piute dwelt.Reaching the clis overhanging the Colorado, the party ollowed the river until they reachedthe settlements o the Mojave tribe. An agricultural olk, the Mojave raised wheat, squash,

corn, beans, and melons.The Mojave told Smith that the Spanish settlements o Caliornia (which they re-quently raided) lay to the east but ten days distant. However, crossing into the desolateMojave Desert, Smith soon ound that the Indians had deceived him. He returned to theColorado and so intimidated the Mojaves that they allowed him two Indian guides — run-aways rom San Gabriel Mission — who willingly accompanied him. Smith and his partyollowed the dry Mojave River bed eastward and southward and then crossed the SanBernardino Mountains at El Cajon Pass. “I was approaching,” wrote Smith, “a countryinhabited by the Spaniards, a people o dierent religion rom mine and possessing a ull

share o bigotry and disregard o theright o a Protestant that has at timesstained the Catholic Religion. . . . Theymight perhaps consider me a spyimprison me persecute me or the sakeo religion or detain me in prison to theruin o my business.”

Arriving at San Gabriel Mission,however, Smith learned that his earswere unounded. Cordially greeted byFray José Bernardo Sanchez, the partywas shown every kindness, thoughtheir Indian guides were locked up andlogged as runaways. Smith, a teetotal-ling Protestant, was somewhat shocked atthe “wine in abundance” at the mission,

which “made our athers quite merry.”But Smith soon learned that, accord-ing to Mexican law, his party had to bedetained. In early December, GovernorEcheandía summoned him to San Diegoand told Smith to leave the country bythe same way he came.

But Smith was determined to ind aroute through the Sierra Nevada. When

Map of the westwardexpansion

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he had gotten ar enough away rom the Spanishsettlements, he turned west instead o east, andcrossed the Sierra Nevada at Tehachapi Pass, mak-ing the steep descent into the San Joaquin Valley,whence he continued northward, trapping. In May1827, Smith turned west, and leaving behind certain

members o his party, crossed the Sierra Nevada andpassed into the “desolate waste” that is now Nevada.I it had not been or the kindness o the tribes hemet on the way, Smith and his party would not havesurvived the scorching desert. In July he arrived atthe rendezvous at Bear Lake.

Smith had promised to retrieve the men he hadlet behind in Caliornia; so only a ew weeks aterthe arrival at Bear Lake, he set out on anotherexpedition. At the Colorado, the Mojave, who hadbeen told by Echeandía to guard the approach toCaliornia, ell on Smith’s party, killing ten o his

men. Traversing the Mojave Desert and the San Bernardino Mountains to San Gabriel, Smithcontinued westward through the region that is today covered by sprawling Los Angeles andits suburbs and then turned north, crossing the mountains by the Cañon de Las Uvas, anddescended into the San Joaquin Valley. He pushed ever northward through Caliornia’s greatCentral Valley. Needing supplies, he crossed the Coast Ranges to Monterey, where govern-ment oicials did not detain him because American ships in port posted bond or him.Ater inding the men he had let behind on the irst expedition, Smith continued northinto Oregon, where he wintered at British Fort Vancouver. In the spring, he and his menollowed the Columbia eastward, then continued up the Snake River. At last they met someo Sublette’s men at what is now Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Yankees West

Jedediah Smith may have been the irst Anglo-American to cross into Caliornia west-ward, over land. Other Anglo-Americans, however, had come to Caliornia beoreSmith’s explorations in 1826 and 1827 — but by sea. Some o these Yankees settledin Caliornia, and though ew in number, became inluential by conductingthe business end o things in the territory. A ew married into prominentCalifornio amilies. Abel Stearns, a hide and liquor smuggler, married thebeautiul daughter o a southern Caliornia rancho owner and ended upbecoming the richest man in the region around Los Angeles. As in Texas,a oreigner could remain in Caliornia i he swore allegiance to theMexican government and became Catholic. Abel Stearns did both.

But the number o Anglo-Americans in Caliornia was bound toincrease ollowing Smith’s explorations. On the trail Jedediah Smith hadblazed through the Sierra Nevada, ur trappers now began to come over-

land to Caliornia to hunt the abundant beaver in her rivers and streams.Dirty and unruly, the trappers were unwelcome to the Mexican authorities,who jailed them — i and when they could catch them.

Far less dirty and unruly was the Swissman, John August Sutter, who in1834 had let his homeland — and his wie and ive children — to escape hisdebts. When Sutter arrived in Caliornia in 1839, he became an ally o GovernorAlvarado, who gave him a large tract o land on the Sacramento River. There Sutter builta “ort” where, as a Mexican oicial, he was to guard the inland settlements against theinroads o unruly Americans, Indians, and other undesirables. But instead, Sutter became

Cañon de Las Uvas

(Tejon Pass), about1868

John August Sutter

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a riend to the emigrant parties oAnglo-Americans that, in the 1840s,were lowing across the continent in everincreasing numbers, into Caliornia.

Anglo-American interest also ocus-ed on the Oregon Country arther north.

The Oregon Country had, since 1818,been held jointly by the United Statesand Great Britain; beore 1832, trapperso both the Rocky Mountain Fur and theHudson’s Bay Companies had been hunt-ing beaver in the rivers and streams othis region. In 1834, American Protestantmissionaries, Jason Lee and his com-panions, settled in the rich WillametteValley near modern Salem. There they joined with ormer employees o theHudson’s Bay Company and began rais-

ing wheat and cattle. On July 5, 1843, atChampoeg, they drew up a compact orgoverning their small colony.

“Oregon Fever” struck white set-tlers in Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, andKentucky when they learned o therich lands to be had in the Willamette

Valley. Gathering at Independence, Missouri, wagon trains o pioneers began the long, over-land trek westward across what became known as the Oregon Trail. They generally gatheredin May, pushed on to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, and then ollowed the course o the RiverPlatte to the Rockies. Thanks to the trapper William Fitzgerald, the pioneers crossed theRockies through the easy gradient o South Pass; then traversing the Wyoming basin, theyskirted the Gros Ventre and Teton ranges, ollowing the westward lowing rivers. When atlast they reached the Snake River, many built rats to loat their wagons to the Columbia.

The journey to Oregon was long, ull o dangers rom Indians, the elements, starvation,and disease. Many a wagon, separated rom the main train, took the wrong path and waslost. I all went well, settlers who let Independence in May could reach the WillametteValley by November. Despite the dangers, however, 5,000 emigrants arrived in Oregonbetween the years 1842 and 1845.

A strange religious group also contributed to the Anglo-American settlement o theWest. In 1830, a book appeared, purporting to be a revelation o Jesus Christ to the nativeso North America. It was called the Book of Mormon, and its promoter, Joseph Smith,claimed to have received it in the orm o golden tablets rom an angel on a hilltop in NewYork state. Smith said he could translate the ancient characters on the tablets by the aide ospecial glasses the angel had given him. The tablets, Smith said, conveyed a revelation o the

restored gospel, lost or centuries; and, he averred, he was the prophet o a restored church,called the Church o Jesus Christ o Latter Day Saints.

The Latter Day Saints, or the “Mormons,” were not welcome in New York, and so theymoved on to Kirtland, Ohio, then to Missouri, and then, in 1839, to Nauvoo, Illinois. InNauvoo, Smith received a “revelation” that God wanted to reestablish polygamy. Whetheror this or or the promise that good Mormon men would one day become gods, the LatterDay Saints won converts in both the northern states and in England. Their swit growth,however, and their peculiar religious practices earned them the keen dislike o their neigh-bors, and in 1844 a group o “gentiles” (as non-Mormons were called) attacked Nauvoo and

Map of emigrant trailsinto California andOregon

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killed Joseph Smith. Brigham Young, who took on the o ice o prophet (and ive o Smith’s25 widows), organized groups called “Avenging Angels” and or two years waged bitter waron the “gentiles.”

Waging war on one’s neighbors, however, does not make or easy cohabitation, and so in1846 Brigham Young led his ollowers on a journey west to the “promised land.” In July 1847,the pioneer band o saints reached the basin o the Great Salt Lake — a orbidding desert

region, sandy, with alkali deposits dotting the landscape. Young chose this region, which henamed Deseret, because it was then part o Mexico — and he igured no other whites wouldwant to settle it. Under Young’s autocratic command, the Mormons built irrigation canalsto bring water rom the surrounding mountains and established a system o small arms.Young, who accumulated a large ortune rom all this, orbade speculation in land and madelaws repressing all “heresy” and “schism.” He also provided or oreign and domestic mis-sions and helped inance transatlantic and transcontinental immigration to Deseret. By theend o 1848, about 5,000 Mormons had settled in Deseret.

Manifest Destiny and the Road to War

In May 1836, John C. Calhoun said: “there [are] powerul reasons why Texas should be parto this Union.” The southern states, he said, “owning a slave population, were deeply inter-ested in preventing that country rom having the power to annoy them.” With other south-erners, Calhoun eared an independent Texas could not maintain the institution o slaveryby itsel; and i Great Britain should annex Texas, slavery would end there. No ugitive slaveagreement, as the South had with the North, would exist with an independent Texas; and islavery were abolished in Texas, slaves in the states could easily escape there. Some southern-ers, too, thought admitting Texas would provide, as one Senator McDuie said beore hiscolleagues on May 23, 1844, “a saety valve to let o the superabundant slave populationrom among us.” Texas annexation, McDuie continued, would “at the same time improvetheir [the slaves’] condition; they will be more happy, and we shall be more secure. But i youpen them up within our present limits, what becomes o the ree negroes, and what will betheir condition?”

Southerners had another reason to avor Texas’ annexation. As in 1820, Calhoun andother southerners eared the political dominance o the North. To date, there were 13slave and 13 ree states; but with Florida remaining the only potential slave state, and with

Westerward the Courseof Empire Takes Its Way,by Emanuel Leutze.This painting, whichhangs in the U.S. Capitolin Washington, D.C.,expresses the spirit ofManifest Destiny.

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lame duck: an elected official or

group o officials whose term ooffice will soon end or who con-tinue in office afer the election,but beore the inauguration, o asuccessor

joint resolution: a legislativemeasure that, like a bill, requiresa majority vote o both the Houseand the Senate beore it can havethe orce o law. A joint resolu-tion requires also the approvalo the president, except when itproposes a constitutional amend-ment; in that case, the resolutionrequires a two-thirds majorityin both houses o Congress andratification by three-ourths othe states. Joint resolutions differrom bills in that they are usuallydrafed to address a temporaryproblem — such as a presidentialrequest or a limited use o mili-tary orce.

Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, all ree ter-ritories, waiting in the wings or statehood,Southerners eared to lose their power in theSenate as they already had in the House. Texas,they thought, could be divided into severalslave states and so provide their section the

representation it needed to maintain its powerin the national councils.

The growing number o antislavery “abo-litionists” in the North, o course, disagreed.They wanted to keep Texas out o the union.Indeed, many thought the whole Texas revo-lution had been a plot by slaveholders or theextension o slave territory. In November 1837,the Vermont legislature protested the admis-sion o any states that allowed domestic slavery.President Martin Van Buren, however, had adierent reason or opposing the annexation o

Texas; he was engaged in delicate negotiationswith Mexico at the time, and Mexico was very sensitive about the issue.. The annexationissue was brought beore Congress in 1838 and was deeated ater a three-week anti-annex-ation speech by Senator John Quincy Adams.

Sam Houston, president o the Republic o Texas, was eager or annexation into theUnited States; but i he could not get it, he would settle or protection and aid rom eitherFrance or Great Britain. Texas’ inances were worse o than Mexico’s. Moreover, the inan-cial panic o 1837 that hit the states had brought more debt-ridden small planters into Texas,increasing its Anglo-American population to 50,000.

The inancial panic, which began in 1837 and lasted to 1841, had important politicaleects. Because he was president when the panic hit, Martin Van Buren wasblamed or it. His opponent in the election o 1840, nominated by the Whig party(a coalition o conservative Republicans and remnants o the Federalist Party),was William Henry Harrison, the Hero o Tippecanoe. Harrison and his vice-presidential candidate, John Tyler, an old-ashioned Virginia Republican, ranon no platorm; instead, the Whigs paraded “Old Tippecanoe’s” military record.“Tippecanoe and Tyler, too!” they cried. When a Democratic journalist sneeredthat “Old Tip” would preer to retire to his log cabin i he had $2,000 and a barrel ohard cider, the Whigs took up the sneer an

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