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

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STATE OF AFFAIRS IN THE CITY.

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ble 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,^[1] 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.^[2]

↑ In the National Intelligencer of the 25th of October, 1847, there is a letter, dated on the 15th of the same month, signed "T", and extolling, in the highest terms, the patriotism of Olaguibel. The position of the writer — understood to be Mr. Waddy Thompson, formerly minister to Mexico — and his facilities for obtaining information, give great weight to his opinions; and, if these encomiums have reference to the ardent attachment of Olaguibel to a republican form of government, and his opposition to centralism, and the monarchical tendencies of the administrations of Santa Anna and Paredes, they are both deserved and appropriate. In time of war, however, with a foreign enemy, there is, or should be, a different kind of patriotism than mere party devotion; and there is no evidence, that the leading federalists of Mexico, Olaguibel not excepted, rendered a hearty support to Santa Anna in the prosecution of hostilities, or that they did not rejoice, when his defeat and overthrow removed another opponent from the political arena. While our sympathies as American citizens, must naturally go with the Mexican federalists, we cannot be blind to the fact, that their errors have aided to produce that state of turmoil and con fusion which has so long existed in the country, and to which, mainly, her difficulties with foreign powers may be attributed.
↑ Twenty-nine deserters were convicted and sentenced to death, by a

[1] In the National Intelligencer of the 25th of October, 1847, there is a letter, dated on the 15th of the same month, signed "T", and extolling, in the highest terms, the patriotism of Olaguibel. The position of the writer — understood to be Mr. Waddy Thompson, formerly minister to Mexico — and his facilities for obtaining information, give great weight to his opinions; and, if these encomiums have reference to the ardent attachment of Olaguibel to a republican form of government, and his opposition to centralism, and the monarchical tendencies of the administrations of Santa Anna and Paredes, they are both deserved and appropriate. In time of war, however, with a foreign enemy, there is, or should be, a different kind of patriotism than mere party devotion; and there is no evidence, that the leading federalists of Mexico, Olaguibel not excepted, rendered a hearty support to Santa Anna in the prosecution of hostilities, or that they did not rejoice, when his defeat and overthrow removed another opponent from the political arena. While our sympathies as American citizens, must naturally go with the Mexican federalists, we cannot be blind to the fact, that their errors have aided to produce that state of turmoil and con fusion which has so long existed in the country, and to which, mainly, her difficulties with foreign powers may be attributed.

[D451-2] Twenty-nine deserters were convicted and sentenced to death, by a

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