to proceed to Huejutla, accompanied by an escort of 126 men, in order to communicate with General Garey, and effect the restoration of the prisoners.
Colonel De Russey left Tampico on the 8th of July with his command, consisting of one company of the 3rd artillery, Captain Wyse, with a field-piece; a company of dragoons, under Captain Boyd and Lieutenant Taneyhill; a detachment of Louisiana volunteers, under Captains Mace and Seguine; and a small party of Tampico rangers, a volunteer company organized by Colonel Gates for the defence of the post. Passing up the river Panuco, in steamers, about sixty miles, and then marching by land through Asulwama, the alcalde of which was made acquainted with the friendly purpose of the expedition, and cheerfully furnished the command with supplies, Colonel De Russey arrived at Tantayuka, twenty-five miles from Huejutla, on the 11th instant. The alcalde of this town was also informed of the object of his mission; and on the morning of the 12th he continued his march. So far he had been unable to find a military officer who might accompany him to the head-quarters of General Carey and, although he anticipated that preparations for {{hws|de|
they feared and dreaded. In a speech delivered in the Senate, on the 4th of January, 1848, Mr. Calhoun made use of the following bold and striking figure: — “Mexico is to us as a dead body, and this is the only way [the defensive policy] that We can cut the cord which binds us to the corpse.” Had the distinguished senator but enlarged a little upon his idea, and inquired how Mexico became reduced to that situation, would he not have refuted his own argument? She was, indeed, prostrate and lifeless, — but why? Because she was in the grasp of a giant! — The defensive policy would have released her from that grasp, and restored her towns and cities, her base of supplies, and all her most valuable internal resources, — thus inviting a bloody and vindictive warfare, to continue as long as a single man could be found to echo “the wild guerilla’s curse” among the gorges of the Sierra Madre.
