force of volunteers had reported at Gen. Taylor's
headquarters to justify a further march into the
interior, but the move must be by land, and for
that there was far from adequate transportation.
Hiring Mexican packers to supplement the little
transportation on hand, he was able to add one
division of volunteers to the regulars of his com-
mand, and with a force of 6,625 men of all arms
he marched against Monterey, a fortified town of
great natural strength, garrisoned by 10,000 men
under Gen. Ampudia. On 19 Sept. he encamped
before the town, and on the 21st began the attack.
On the third day Gen. Ampudia proposed to sur-
render, commissioners were appointed, and terms
of capitulation agreed upon, by which the enemy
were to retire beyond a specified line, and the
United States forces were not to advance beyond
that line during the next eight weeks or until the
pleasure of the respective governments should be
known. By some strange misconception, the U. S.
government disapproved the arrangement, and
ordered that the armistice should be terminated,
by which we lost whatever had been gained in the
interests of peace by the generous terms of the
capitulation, and got nothing, for, during the short
time that remained unexpired, no provision had
been or could be made to enable Gen. Taylor to
advance into the heart of Mexico. Presuming that
such must be the purpose of the government, he
assiduously strove to collect the means for that
object. When his preparations were well-nigh per-
fected, Gen. Scott was sent to Mexico with orders
that enabled him at discretion to strip Gen. Taylor
of both troops and material of war, to be used on
another line of operations. The projected campaign
against the capital of Mexico was to be from Vera
Cruz, up the steppes, and against the fortifications
that had been built to resist any probable invasion,
instead of from Saltillo, across the plains to the
comparatively undefended capital. The difficulty
on tnis route was the waterless space to be crossed,
and against that Gen. Taylor had ingeniously pro-
vided. According to instructions, he went to Vic-
toria, Mexico, turned over his troops, except a
proper escort to return through a country of hos-
tiles to Monterey, and then went to Agua Nueva,
beyond Saltillo, wltere he was joined by Gen. John
E. Wool with his command from Chihuahua.
Gen. Santa-Anna saw the invitation offered by the withdrawal of Gen. Taylor's troops, and with a well-appointed army, 20,000 strong, marched with the assurance of easily recovering their lost terri- tory. Gen. Taylor fell back to the narrow pass in front of the hacienda of Buena Vista, and here stood on the defensive. His force was 5,400 of all arms ; but of these, only three batteries of artillery, one squadron of dragoons, one mounted company of Texans, and one regiment of Mississippi riflemen, had ever been under fire. Some skirmishing oc- curred on 22 Feb., and a general assault along the whole line was made on the morning of the 23d. The battle, with varying fortune, continued through- out the day; at evening the enemy retired, and during the night retreated by the route on which he had advanced, having suffered much by the casualties of battle, but still more by desertions. So Santa-Anna returned with but a remnant of the regular army of Mexico, on which reliance had been placed to repel invasion, and thenceforward peace was undisturbed in the valley of the Rio Grande. At that time Gen. Taylor's capacity was not justly estimated, his golden silence being often misunderstood. His reply to Sec. Marcy's strict- ures in regard to the capitulation of Monterey exhibited such vigor of thought and grace of ex- pression that many attributed it to a member of his staff who had a literary reputation. It was written by Gen. Taylor's own hand, in the open air, by his camp-fire at Victoria, Mexico. Many years of military routine had not dulled his desire for knowledge; he had extensively studied both ancient and modern history, especially the English. Unpretending, meditative, observant, and conclusive, he was best understood and most appreciated by those who had known him long and intimately. In a campaign he gathered information from all .who approached him, however sinister their motive might be. By comparison and elimi- nation he gained a knowledge that was often sur- ? rising as to the position and designs of the enemy, n battle he was vigilantly active, though quiet in bearing ; calm and considerate, though stern and inflexible ; but when the excitement of danger and strife had subsided, he had a father's tenderness and care for the wounded, and none more sincerely mourned for those who had bravely fallen in the line of their duty.
Before his nomination for the presidency Gen. Taylor had no political aspirations and looked forward to the time when he should retire from the army as the beginning of a farmer's life. He had planned for his retreat a stock-farm in the hills of Jefferson county, behind his cotton-plantation on the Mississippi river. In his case, as in some other notable instances, the fact of not desiring office rather increased than diminished popular confidence, so that unseeking he was sought. From early manhood he had served continually in the U. S. army. His duties had led him to consider the welfare of the country as one and indivisible, and his opinions were free from party or sectional intensity. Conscious of his want of knowledge of the machinery of the civil service, he formed his cabinet to supplement his own information. They were men well known to the public by the eminent civil stations they had occupied, and were only thus known to Gen. Taylor, who as president had literally no friends to reward and no enemies to punish. The cabinet was constituted as follows: John M. Clayton, of Delaware, secretary of state ; William M. Meredith, of Pennsylvania, secretary of the treasury ; George W. Crawford, of Georgia, secretary of war ; W. Ballard Preston, of Virginia, secretary of the navy ; Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, attorney-general; Alexander H. H. Stuart, of Virginia, secretary of the interior. All these had served in the U. S. senate or the house of representatives, and all were lawyers. Taylor was the popular hero of a foreign war which had been victoriously ended, bringing to the United States a large acquisition of territory with an alluring harvest of gold, but, all unheeded, bringing also a large addition to the elements of sectional contention. These were soon developed, and while the upper air was calm and the sun of prosperity shone brightly on the land, the attentive listener could hear the rumbling sound of approaching convulsion. President Taylor, with the keen watchfulness and intuitive perception that had characterized him as a commander in the field, easily saw and appreciated the danger; but before it had reached the stage for official action he died. His party and local relations, being a Whig and a southern planter, gave him the vantage-ground for the exercise of a restraining influence in the threatened contest. His views, matured under former responsibilities, were tersely given to confidential friends, and as none of his cabinet (except Attorney-General Stuart) survive, their consultations cannot be learned unless from preserved manu-
