A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year Part 40

[Sidenote: Buena Vista]

General Winfield Scott reached the harbor of Vera Cruz in January, and a.s.sumed command of all the American forces. He took with him the best officers and troops on the field of action, and left Taylor with only 5,200 men, most of whom were volunteers. Santa Anna, who had gathered 12,000 men eager to be led against the Americans, was approaching Saltillo. Leaving Monterey on January 31, Taylor reached Saltillo on February 2, and pa.s.sed on to Aqua Nueva, twenty miles south of Saltillo, where he remained three weeks. Thence he fell back to a mountain gorge opposite Buena Vista. On February 22, his troops and those of Santa Anna were within sight of each other. Under a flag of truce, Santa Anna demanded Taylor's surrender, which was refused. The famous battleground, taking its name from the estate of Buena Vista, is a rugged valley from two to five miles wide, between rocky walls a thousand feet high. The slopes on either side are cut by deep ravines. Taylor placed his forces in groups on the crests of the bluffs, at the base of the eastern mountain, and in the southern edge of the plateau.

The Mexican troops attempted to flank his position, but were driven off.

The Mexican cavalry were sent to Taylor's rear to intercept the American retreat, but they were beaten back after a fierce hand-to-hand fight, led by Taylor himself. Santa Anna made his first attack in three columns. Two of these combined and turned the American left. The third, thrown against the American right, was forced to retreat, the Americans having formed a new front. Again the Mexicans sought to gain Taylor's rear, but with two regiments supported by artillery and dragoons, the American commander drove them back, firing into their heavy ma.s.s.

[Sidenote: Taylor's order to Bragg]

[Sidenote: Conflicting claims of victory]

At one point in the engagement, an Indiana regiment, through a mistaken order, gave way, thereby placing the American army in peril. But the Mississippians and the Kentuckians threw themselves forward; the Indiana troops rallied, and the Mexicans were repulsed. General Taylor, standing near Captain Bragg's battery, saw signs of wavering in the enemy's line.

"Give them a little more grape, Captain Bragg," he exclaimed--a command which was repeated all over the United States during the political campaign two years later. The Mexican column broke, and Taylor drove it up the slope of the eastern mountain. By means of a false flag of truce the endangered wing, however, escaped. Santa Anna, forming his whole force into one column, advanced. The Americans fell back, holding only the northwest corner of the plateau. When morning broke, the enemy had disappeared. The Mexican loss was 2,000, that of the Americans 746. Henry Clay, a son of the Kentucky statesman, as he lay wounded, was despatched by a Mexican vacquero. Colonel Jefferson Davis commanded with distinction a regiment of Mississippi riflemen. Buena Vista was Taylor's last battle. Its fame was heralded throughout America. Both sides claimed the victory. The Mexicans chanted Te Deums. In the United States the poet Kifer sang:

From the Rio Grande's waters to the icy lakes of Maine, Let us all exult! for we have met the enemy again.

Beneath their stern old mountains we have met them in their pride, And rolled from Buena Vista back the battle's b.l.o.o.d.y tide; Where the enemy came surging swift, like the Mississippi's flood, And the reaper, Death, with strong arms swung his sickle red with blood.

After the battle of Buena Vista, General Taylor returned to the United States, his task finished. The exploit shed such l.u.s.tre on his name that he was soon regarded as the fittest candidate for the Presidency.

[Sidenote: San Juan d'Ulloa captured]

[Sidenote: Battle of Cerro Gordo]

[Sidenote: American advance into Mexico]

In March, Scott's army of 12,000 landed at Vera Cruz. After four days'

bombardment by land and water, the city and castle of San Juan d'Ulloa surrendered. General Worth was left in command at Vera Cruz, and Scott started on his march to the City of Mexico, two hundred miles away. Santa Anna, with the flower of his army, awaited him in the strong position of Cerro Gordo, fifty miles northwest. General Twiggs turned the Mexican left flank. On the following morning, April 18, the Americans attacked in three columns. Pellow advanced against the Mexican right, where three hills at an angle in the road were crowned with batteries. Shields' division, climbing by a pa.s.s, fell upon Santa Anna's right and rear. Twiggs and Worth, bearing to the right, covered the El Telegrafo Hill, and attacked the height of Cerro Gordo, where Santa Anna commanded in person. Carrying this position, they turned its guns on the retreating Mexicans. Caught between the columns of Pellow, Twiggs and Worth, Santa Anna's forces surrendered.

The American troops thus gained the national road to the capital of Mexico.

They had made 3,000 prisoners and taken forty-three cannon, with $22,000 in silver and immense munitions of war. They lost, at Cerro Gordo, 481 killed and wounded; the Mexican loss was 2,000. Jalapa was occupied on April 19, and on the 22d the American flag waved above the Castle of Perote, fifty miles beyond. Puebla, containing 80,000 inhabitants, was occupied without opposition on May 15. On account of the sufferings of the men in the hot climate, General Scott rested at Puebla for several months.

[Sidenote: Doniphan's exploit]

The authority of the United States was established on the Pacific Coast, after a final defeat of the Mexicans at San Gabriel. Colonel Doniphan of Kearney's command, having been left in charge in New Mexico, compelled the Navajo Indians to enter into a treaty of peace, after which he set out with 1,000 Missourians to join General Wool. At Bracto, a Mexican commander with a superior force sent a black flag demanding his surrender. On refusal of this summons notice was given that no quarter should be granted. The Mexicans then advanced firing; the Americans lying down to escape the bullets. Cheering, the Mexicans ran forward, when suddenly Doniphan's command rose and fired, killing more than 200 Mexicans. The rest turned and fled. Near the capital of Chihuahua, Doniphan, after a sharp encounter, dispersed 4,000 Mexicans. The Stars and Stripes were raised above the citadel. In May, Doniphan rejoined Wool at Saltillo. Then followed a long lull in the Mexican campaign.

[Sidenote: Slavery controversy revived]

The question concerning the power of the American Congress to legislate on slavery again came up in connection with the bill for the establishment of the Oregon Territorial government. In February Calhoun had introduced his new slavery resolution, declaring the Territories to be the common property of all the States, and denying the right and power of Congress to prohibit slavery in any Territory. Thus began the agitation which led to the abrogation of the Missouri Compromise. By the terms of an amendment offered for the extension of the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean, slavery was to be excluded from all future territory in the West. This amendment was lost, but the bill pa.s.sed with another, incorporating the anti-slavery clause of the ordinance of 1787. Calhoun declared that the exclusion of slavery from any Territory was a subversion of the Union, and proclaimed "the separation of the Northern and Southern States complete."

[Sidenote: John Franklin's career]

[Sidenote: Long overland journey]

[Sidenote: The Northwest Pa.s.sage]

In British North America a new era of home rule began after the Earl of Elgin took his oath as Governor-General of Canada in January. The imperial government abandoned all control over the customs of Canada. The building of the first great Canadian railroad was begun on the main line of the Grand Trunk system. Discouraging reports from the extreme northern regions of America at last confirmed the impression that Sir John Franklin, with the other members of his expedition, had perished in the Arctic regions. A romantic naval career was thus brought to a close. Born in 1786, John Franklin entered the British navy at the age of fourteen as a midshipman, and soon saw his first active service at the battle of Copenhagen in 1801.

In the following year he was taken on his first trip of exploration to Australia by his cousin, Captain Flinders of the "Investigator." In 1818 he was a member of an expedition sent out by the British Government to attempt a pa.s.sage to India by crossing the Polar Sea. His bold seamanship during this voyage brought him into such prominence that during the next year he was appointed by the Admiralty to command an expedition to travel overland from Hudson's Bay to the Arctic Ocean. During the course of this expedition he and his companions walked 5,560 miles and endured many hardships, of which Franklin wrote a thrilling narrative on his return to England in 1822. He then married Eleanor Porden, the author of the heroic poem "Coeur de Lion." In 1825 he was appointed to the command of another overland Arctic expedition. When the day of his departure arrived, his wife was dying of consumption. Lying at the point of death as she was, she would not let him delay his voyage, and gave him for a parting gift a silk flag to hoist when he reached the Polar Sea. On the day after Franklin left England she died. When he returned again he was knighted and showered with honors by various scientific societies of England and France. After serving as Governor of Van Diemen's Land, Sir John, in 1845, was appointed an admiral, and then another Arctic expedition to discover the Northwest Pa.s.sage was organized. He sailed from Sheerness on May 26, 1845, and was last seen by a whaler in Baffin's Bay. Many years later a record was found on the northwest sh.o.r.e of King William's Land, announcing that Sir John Franklin died in the spring of 1847, and that the survivors of his expedition had attempted to make their way back on the ice to the American continent. To Sir John Franklin belongs the honor of the first discovery of the northwest pa.s.sage leading from Lancaster Sound to Behring Strait.

[Sidenote: O'Connell's last speech]

[Sidenote: Death of O'Connell]

On February 8, Daniel O'Connell, the great Irish Parliamentary leader, made his last speech in the English House of Commons. The question on which he spoke was a proposed bill for the relief of famine in Ireland: "I am afraid," he said, in the course of this address, "that the English people are not sufficiently impressed with the horrors of the situation in Ireland. I do not think they understand the acc.u.mulated miseries which my people are suffering. It has been estimated that 5,000 adults and 10,000 children have already died from famine, and that one-fourth of the whole population must perish unless something is done." Failing in health himself, O'Connell went to Italy. At Rome, Pope Pius IX. prepared a magnificent reception for him. Before he could reach the Eternal City, O'Connell died in his seventy-second year. Lacordaire, who but shortly before this had p.r.o.nounced his greatest of funeral orations over the bier of General Drouot, thus spoke of O'Connell: "Honor, glory and eternal grat.i.tude for the man who gave to his country the boon of liberty of conscience. Where is a man in the Church since the time of Constantine who has at one stroke enfranchised six millions of souls?" When the body of O'Connell was buried at Glasnevin, it was followed to the grave by fifty thousand mourners, among whom Orangemen and Ribbonmen walked side by side.

In England, O'Connell's death was regarded with a feeling akin to relief.

There his persistent demands of "justice for Ireland" had come to be regarded with derision, bringing him the nickname of "Big Beggarman."

[Sidenote: Death of Thomas Chalmers]

[Sidenote: "Vanity Fair"]

[Sidenote: "Jane Eyre"]

[Sidenote: Jenny Lind]

Another spirit that won religious renown in England pa.s.sed away with Thomas Chalmers, the great Scotch divine. As a teacher of theology at Edinburgh he wrote no less than twenty-five volumes, the most famous of which is his "Evidences of the Christian Revelations," a reprint of his article on "Christianity" contributed to the "Encyclopedia Britannica." In other respects it was a notable year for English letters. Charles d.i.c.kens had just published his famous stories "Dombey and Son" and "The Haunted Man."

The success of these novels was surpa.s.sed by that of Thackeray's "Vanity Fair." Three writers now made their appearance. Anthony Trollope brought out his "MacDermotts of Ballycoran"; Emily Bronte published her first novel, "Wuthering Heights," while her sister, Charlotte Bronte, at the same time achieved an immense success with her story of "Jane Eyre." These successes were more than rivalled by that of Jenny Lind, the great soprano singer, who made her first appearance in London during this season. Another event for intellectual England was the sale at auction of Shakespeare's house at Stratford. It was acquired by a united committee of Shakespeare lovers for the sum of 3,000.

[Sidenote: Jewish disabilities reconfirmed]

The oft-mooted question of the civil disabilities of the Jews in England was brought up again by the election of Baron Rothschild as a member of Parliament for London, together with Lord John Russell. The Premier, whose name was already identified with the cause of civil and religious liberty, made another strong effort to obtain the recognition of his colleague's claim to his seat. He was supported in this not only by most of the Whigs in the House of Commons, but also by three such prominent men of the opposition as Lord Bentinck, Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli, himself of Jewish lineage. As heretofore, this proposed reform was accepted by the Commons only to be rejected by the Lords, now installed in their new House of Peers. Otherwise, Lord Russell's Ministry followed largely in the footsteps of their immediate predecessors. Palmerston pursued his wonted vigorous foreign policy.

[Sidenote: Don Pacifico affair]

[Sidenote: British retaliation]

[Sidenote: Palmerston obdurate]

It had been customary in Greek towns to celebrate Easter by burning an effigy of Judas Iscariot. This year the police of Athens were ordered to prevent this performance, and the mob, disappointed of their favorite amus.e.m.e.nt, ascribed the new orders to the influence of the Jews. The house of one Don Pacifico, a Portuguese Jew of Gibraltar, happened to stand near the spot where the Judas was annually burned. Don Pacifico was known to be a Jew, and the anger of the mob was wreaked upon him accordingly. On April 4, his house was sacked. Don Pacifico made a claim against the Greek Government for compensation. He estimated his losses, direct and indirect, at nearly 32,000. Another claim was made at the same time by another British subject, Finlay, the historian of Greece. The Greek Government, which was all but bankrupt, was dilatory in settling these claims. A British fleet was ordered to the Piraeus. It seized all the Greek vessels belonging to the government and to private merchants that were found within those waters. The Greek Government appealed to France and Russia as Powers joined with England in the treaty to protect the independence of Greece.

France and Russia both made bitter complaint of not having been consulted in the first instance by the British Government, nor was their feeling softened by Lord Palmerston's peremptory reply that it was all a question between England and Greece. It was on this occasion that Palmerston made the famous speech harking back to the sentiment expressed in the old Roman boast "Civis Roma.n.u.s Sum."

[Sidenote: Troubles in China]

[Sidenote: Bogue forts recaptured]

[Sidenote: A Chinese protest]

Next, new troubles arose with China. During the previous year riots broke out in Canton, by reason of a superst.i.tious belief that a weather-vane on top of the flagstaff over the American Consulate interfered with the spirits of the air. A Chinaman was shot during the riots. The British had to interfere on behalf of the threatened Americans. The outraged feelings of the Chinese populace were allayed by a conciliatory declaration of Emperor Taouk-w.a.n.g, to the effect that the Christian religion could be commended as a faith for inculcating the principles of virtue. At the same time he sent a special commissioner, Ke-Ying, "amicably to regulate the commerce with foreign merchants at Canton." Trouble again broke out in March, when a small English hunting and fishing party violated the agreement confining them to the foreign concession at Canton. They were pelted with stones by the natives. Sir John Davis denounced this incident as international outrage, and, in disregard of the accepted treaty provisions, proclaimed "that he would exact and acquire from the Chinese Government that British subjects should be as free from molestation and insult in China as they would be in England." On April 1, all the available forces at Hong Kong were summoned to Canton. Three steamships, bearing two regiments of soldiers, convoyed by a British man-of-war, attacked the Bogue forts. The Chinese, acting under orders from Ke-Ying, made no resistance. A British landing force seized the batteries and spiked the guns. Next, the forts opposite Canton were captured without a blow. Without a shot fired, Canton, on April 3, lay at the mercy of the British guns. Ke-Ying accepted the British ultimatum that the whole city of Canton should be opened to Englishmen two years from date. The agreement was closed with this significant statement on behalf of the Chinese Emperor: "If mutual good-will is to be maintained between the Chinese and foreigners, the common feelings of mankind, as well as the just principles of heaven, must be considered and conformed with."

[Sidenote: Nicaragua coerced]

[Sidenote: Threatened intervention in Portugal]

A new phase in Great Britain's boundary dispute with Nicaragua was reached by a British squadron's abrupt seizure of the harbor of San Juan del Norte, Nicaragua's only seaport on the Atlantic coast. In regard to the demands made for the free navigation of the La Plata River, the Argentine Republic at last came to terms. The joint squadrons of England and France thereupon raised their blockade of Buenos Ayres. At London a conference of English and French statesmen, to which Spain was likewise admitted, had come to an agreement to interfere on behalf of Queen Maria II., in Portugal. When this was made known, Bandiera, one of the chief partisans of Dom Pedro, announced his submission. Nonetheless, Pedro's followers persevered, and on June 26 the Junta at Oporto had to capitulate to Pedro's army.

[Sidenote: German Parliamentary essays]

[Sidenote: Schleswig-Holstein issue]

In Germany, in the meanwhile, the agitation for Parliamentary government steadily gained ground. In Bavaria, where King Louis's open liaison with the dancer Lola Montez had turned his subjects against him, the deputies of the Landtag exerted their power to abolish the crown lotteries by a unanimous vote. In Prussia, King Frederick William IV. at last issued his long-promised summons for a united provincial Diet. A semblance of representative government was established. It was at this time that Frederick William became Elector of Hesse-Ca.s.sel. The agitation for a representative government grew. On September 12, the Liberals held a meeting at Orthenburg. Within a month the Const.i.tutional party met at Heppenheim, in Hesse. At length a united Prussian Parliament, called the Landtag, was convoked at Berlin. The first question to claim the attention of this Parliament was that of Schleswig-Holstein. The gauntlet recently flung down to the German population of Schleswig and Holstein, by King Christian VIII. of Denmark, was picked up not only by the anti-Danish Holsteiners, but by the whole German nation as well. Little Schleswig, with its 160 square miles and 400,000 inhabitants, was claimed by every German as German borderland. King Christian at this time was failing in health.

His condition had been aggravated by the recent great fire at Copenhagen, which, amid other costly properties, destroyed invaluable records of Icelandic literature, including more than 2,000 unpublished ma.n.u.scripts.