Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/451

Rh to employ, "in the annihilating of an invading army." Circulars were sent by General Herrera, as military commandant of the city of Mexico, on the 7th of September, to the clergy, exhorting them to incite the people to resistance; Olaguibel, the governor of the state, also appealed to his fellow-citizens, to rally around the standard of their country in this emergency; and the alcaldes and magistrates employed the strong power of the law, to reinforce the army, and compel non-combatants to work in the trenches. The conviction and execution of a number of the deserters taken on the 20th of August, furnished a powerful argument to excite that fiercest and most vindictive of all passions — religious prejudice — among the populace; who were told that these men had been persecuted, solely because they were Roman Catholics, like themselves.