Page:Notes of the Mexican war 1846-47-48.djvu/494

488 "Think of it that I am a prisoner in the very capital which I and my gallant little army had won. I am now in the attitude of a criminal on trial in a hostile capital captured by the genius and the gallantry of our little army.

Monday, February 21, 1848.—This morning we were ordered to get percussion cap muskets, our former ones being old Harper's Ferry flint muskets. What this is for and what it means we are all anxious to know; probably getting ready to march on towards the enemy; time will tell. Probably it is on account of a rumor that the clergy and nearly all the members of the holy Catholic Church are not in favor of relinquishing any of the Mexican territory. So the peace prospect does not look so well, and the removal of Gen. Scott makes them still more stubborn and headstrong.

The religious element of this country is having a strong tendency to maintain the fast-rooted bigotry of their spiritual power. Their religion, linked to their moneyed influence, has already enabled them to overturn all the efforts of the liberal-minded, progressive party, or the peace and order party, who have, however, nobly clung to the task of overthrowing this curse upon their body politic. In 1833, the combinations of the progressionists had somewhat trammelled the priests and clergy, but they, by bloody revolutions, upset the presidents, who followed each other in quick succession, and were enabled through the aid of Gen. Santa Anna, whom they had won over to their party, to shake themselves almost entirely free from any state influence. By this the bishops held sole control over all ecclesiastical property, becoming the great bankers of this country, effecting loans, taking mortgages upon all kinds of property, and acting in all respects like immense commercial and moneyed corporations.

Tuesday, February 22, 1848.—This being the birth-day of Gen. George Washington, the father of our country, so the best of wines and liquors will be freely drank, and talk about old times and the Twenty-second we spent at home and how we spent the present one; also about the soldier's life in time