Page:The War with Mexico, Vol 1.djvu/256

Rh made it for their interest to do so, and in addition the circumstances gave him countless hostages for their fidelity. Scott advised him to employ a large force of secret agents in a systematic way. But this was not done, and his information continued to be meagre.

Another subject of prime importance was, of course, the means of transportation. Taylor had, as we have seen, a large outfit of wagons, but not enough of them for the expedition in view. A train of pack-mules was the natural supplement. Those animals were almost universally employed in Mexico; the country abounded in them; and it was the General's obvious duty to use the facilities within his reach. At Washington the practice of the region was understood, and it could only be inferred that good wagon roads did not exist. Besides, Taylor intimated that he expected to follow the usual system, and indeed he was not aware until August that army wagons could be used where he intended to go There is no reason to doubt that by the rst of that month fully 3000 pack — mules could have been at his command. Under such circumstances, to suppose the war department would expend a million dollars or so in the manufacture of wagons, without having a requisition from the army or even definite information as to Taylor's plans, went beyond reason. But the'matter was overlooked at the front; and finally, gathering barely 1700 of those animals Taylor complained loudly, though he himself recognized that the fate of the administration depended upon the success of the war, that departmental neglect had inexcusably delayed and crippled his advance.

Still, the General decided to move, for he knew the public demanded action; and he wished — as he said — to sustain the government. Indeed, he now declared it necessary to go forward immediately, "be the consequences what they may." "I must attempt something," he wrote privately. The government, however, had not requested him to support the administration or to incur such a risk; and Taylor — who stood conspicuous now in the Whig party, and suspected that "Polk, Marcy and Co." were aiming to discredit and ruin him — can scarcely have felt a passionate desire to sustain them. In short, as may be inferred from his correspondence, he understood that he himself was the person chiefly blamed by the