Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/111

Rh de Bexar, and march due west towards Chihuahua; subject, however, to the orders of the ofﬁcer in command of the third division, which was to constitute the main body of the army, and assuming the Rio Grande as the base line of its operations, to overrun and occupy the provinces of Coahuila, New Leon, and Tamaulipas. If found to be practicable, a movement in the direction of the city of Mexico was designed to be made from this quarter; but, if otherwise, two projects were in contemplation — a march from Tampico on San Luis Potosi, and the capture of Vera Cruz — to be followed by an advance movement towards the Mexican capital; one or both of which were to be adopted, as circumstances might render expedient. In order to secure the possession of California, without weakening the column under General Kearny, a regiment of volunteers, with a small body of regular soldiers, were to be sent round by sea.

An examination of the map will show the nature and the propriety of these different movements. The idea of making a permanent conquest of any portion of the republic of Mexico, for the sake of territorial aggrandizement alone, was disavowed by the administration, and would have been as foreign to the purposes for which our government was formed, as it was abhorrent to the wishes of the American people. But it was foreseen, at the outset, that the prosecution of the war, if successful, would be followed by the acquisition of some part of the domain of Mexico. She was confessedly bankrupt; her mines, her revenues, her lands, indeed all her most valuable resources, were pledged for the security of other obligations; and she possessed no means of satisfying the claims of the American citizens, and those which would necessarily grow out of a state