Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/363

Rh The pages of history have not recorded a more stirring event than the war between the United States and Mexico.

Benjamin Franklin wisely said, "There never was a bad peace nor a good war," and taking up these sentiments after the lapse of a century, Hubert Howe Bancroft says: "If the injustice of all war was never before established, it was made clear by the contest between the two republics of North America. The saddest lesson to learn by citizens of the United States is, that the war they waged against their neighbor is a signal example of the employment of might against right, or force, to compel the surrender by Mexico of a portion of her territory and, therefore, a blot on her national honor." "The United States," he continues, "had an opportunity of displaying magnanimity to a weaker neighbor, aiding her in the experiment of developing republican institutions, instead of playing the part of bully."



In a severely caustic spirit he continues: "The United States could have secured peace by ceasing to assail the Mexicans, who were fighting only in self-defense; but the much desired peace they resolved so to secure by war that a bargain, which was nothing better than a barefaced robbery, should be secured. It was not magnanimity but policy which prompted Polk and his fellows to pay Mexico about twenty million dollars when she was at the conqueror's mercy. It gave among the nations, howsoever Almighty God regarded it, some shadow of right to stolen property.*** The total strength of the army