AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 15 



In 1846 came the American war and invasion, when the United 

 States, with " one fell swoop," as it were, took from Mexico consider- 

 ably more than one half of all its territory 923,835 square miles out 

 of a former total of 1,690,317. It is true that payment was tendered 

 and accepted for about one thirty-fourth part (the Gadsden purchase) 

 of what was taken, but appropriation and acceptance of payment were 

 alike compulsory. For this war the judgment of all impartial history 

 will undoubtedly be that there was no justification or good reason on 

 the part of the United States. It may be that what happened was an 

 inevitable outcome of the law of the survival of the fittest, as exempli- 

 fied among nations ; and that the contrasts as seen to-day between the 

 life, energy, and fierce development of much of that part of Old Mexi- 

 co that became American California, Texas, and Colorado and the 

 stagnant, poverty-stricken condition of the contiguous territory 

 Chihuahua, Sonora, Coahuila that remained Mexican, are a proof of 

 the truth of the proverb that " the tools rightfully belong to those 

 who can use them." But, nevertheless, when one stands beside the 

 monument erected at the foot of Chapultepec, to the memory of the 

 young cadets of the Mexican Military School mere boys who, in 

 opposing the assault of the American columns, were faithful unto death 

 to their flag and their country, and notes the sternly simple inscription, 

 " Who fell in the North American invasion " ; and when we also recall 

 the comparative advantages of the contending forces the Americans 

 audacious, inspirited with continuous successes, equipped with an 

 abundance of the most improved material of war, commanded by most 

 skilled officers, and backed with an overflowing treasury ; the Mexi- 

 cans poorly clothed, poorly fed, poorly armed, unpaid, and generally 

 led by uneducated and often incompetent commanders ; and remem- 

 ber the real valor with which, under such circumstances, the latter, 

 who had received so little from their country, resisted the invasion 

 and conquest of that country ; and that in no battles of modern times 

 have the losses been as great comparatively as were sustained by the 

 Mexican forces there is certainly not much of pleasure or satisfaction 

 that a sober-minded, justice-loving citizen of the United States can or 

 ought to find in this part of his country's history. And, if we are the 

 great, magnanimous, and Christian nation that we claim to be, no time 

 ought to be lost in proving to history and the world our right to the 

 claim, by providing, by act of Congress, that all those cannon which 



eminent with every new administration. The year 1848 is noted in Mexican annals as 

 the first time when the presidency was transferred without violence and under the law 

 General Arista peaceably succeeding General Herrera. But Arista was deposed and ban- 

 ished in the next two years, and in the next three months there were four presidents of the 

 republic. Of the original and great leaders in the war of independence namely, Hi- 

 dalgo, Morelos, and Matamoros all were shot. The same fate befell both of the emper- 

 ors, and also two of the more noted presidents Guerrero and Miramon. Of the other 

 presidents, nearly all at one time or other were formally banished or compelled to flee 

 from the state in order to escape death or imprisonment. 



