CONDITION OF THE ARMY AT THE PEACE. 



121 



Simeon Ramirez. Perdigon accuses Simeon Ramirez and Terras 

 nimself. Alvarez accuses Don Manuel Andrade, and Andrade in 

 turn accuses him. Alcorta accuses the Andrade of the hussars, 

 while he accuses Alcorta ; — and in fine, we have before us the 

 letters and despatches of the whole of them — we have before us 

 their actions and skirmishes, from the battle of San Jacinto up to 

 the ignominious capture of Gaona and Torrejon by the Poblano rob- 

 ber, Dominguez." 



We have quoted these passages, to prove, by Mexican authority, 

 that our remarks upon the army are not made in a captious spirit 

 or with a desire to undervalue its officers ungenerously. 



Bad as had been the organization and conduct of the army, they 

 were not, of course, improved by the results of the war. The 

 morale and the materiel were both destroyed, so that when our 

 troops withdrew during the summer of 1848, little more than a 

 skeleton of the regiments remained to preserve order. This was, 

 indeed, one of the greatest sources of dread to orderly Mexicans, 

 for they feared that when all foreign restraint was suddenly re- 

 moved, the country would be given up to anarchy. Without men 

 and without means, the government justly apprehended the uprising 

 of the mob, nor were there demagogues wanting to excite the evil 

 passions of the masses by an outcry against the treaty. At the 

 head of this disgraceful movement was General Paredes, who had 

 returned from exile, but had not been trusted by the government 

 during the conflict. The payment of the first instalment of the sum 

 agreed upon in the treaty, however, enabled the authorities to main- 

 tain tranquillity, and as soon as comparative order was enforced by 

 a new administration, the army was reorganized under a law 

 passed on the 4th of November, 1848. By this act, the military 

 establishment was greatly reduced, even on paper, and, in 1849, 

 not more than five thousand two hundred, rank and file, were in 

 actual service. 



If there were, in reality, no need of an army in Mexico to oppose 

 a foreign enemy, or, to preserve domestic peace, one would still be 

 required to secure the Northern Frontier against the incursions of 

 Indians. From the earliest periods, the Spaniards were vexed by 

 their savage assaults, and, since the establishment of independence, 

 the Mexicans have every year seen their people and property car- 

 ried off by the robber tribes, whilst their villages, ranchos and 

 haciendas were totally destroyed or partially ravaged. 



Mexican engineers have calculated that the new boundary line, 

 following the course of the Rio Grande and the Gila and including 

 p 



