AND GRANTED THE ARMISTICE. 



403 



if not with perfect confidence. It still left something to the con- 

 quered people which was not necessary or valuable to us. 



There are other matters, unquestionably, that weighed much in 

 the very responsible deliberations of General Scott. If our army 

 entered the city triumphantly, or took it by assault, the frail elements 

 of government still lingering at that period of disorganization, would 

 either fly or be utterly destroyed. All who were in power, in that 

 nation of jealous politicians and wily intriguers would be eager to 

 shun the last responsibility. If Santa Anna should be utterly beaten, 

 the disgrace would blot out the last traces of his remaining prestige. 

 If so fatal a disaster occurred, as subsequent events proved, the 

 Americans would be most unfortunately situated in relation to peace, 

 for there would be no government to negotiate with ! Santa Anna's 

 government was the only constitutional one that had existed in 

 Mexico for a long period, and with such a legalized national author- 

 ity peace must be concluded. It was not our duty to destroy a 

 government and then gather, the fragments to reconstruct another 

 with which we might treat. If a revolutionary, or provisional au- 

 thority existed, what prospect had we of enduring pacification? 

 What guaranty did we hold in a treaty celebrated with a military 

 despot, a temporary chief, or a sudden usurper, that such a treaty 

 could be maintained before the nation ? What constitutional or 

 legal right would an American general or commissioner have, to 

 enter into such a compact ? Was it not, therefore, Scott's duty to 

 act with such tender caution as not to endanger the fate of the only 

 man who might still keep himself at the head of his rallied people ? 



Besides these political considerations, there are others, of a mili- 

 tary character, that will commend themselves to the prudent and the 

 just. The unacclimated American army had marched from Puebla 

 to the valley of Mexico during the rainy season, in a tropical zone, 

 when the earth is saturated with water, and no one travels who can 

 avoid exposure. Our men were forced to undergo the hardships of 

 such a campaign, to make roads, to travel over broken ground, to 

 wade marshes, to bivouack on the damp soil with scarce a shelter 

 from the storm, to march day and night, and finally, without an 

 interval of repose, to fight two of the sharpest actions of the war. 

 The seven or eight thousand survivors of these actions, — many of 

 whom were new levies — demanded care and zealous husbanding 

 for future events. They were distant from the coast and cut off from 

 support or immediate succor. The enemy's present or prospective 

 weakness was not to be relied on. Wisdom required that what was 

 in the rear should be thought of as well as what was in advance. 



