It is probable that the government of the United States expected at first to conclude the war after one or two battles by Taylor on the east side of the Rio Grande. But if the Mexicans were outmatched by the troops which marched against them, they showed themselves determined in their refusal to treat for peace after repeated defeats. Mexico was so filled with factions, and one Mexican government was so soon turned out by another, that no government felt itself strong enough to take the responsibility of making a humiliating peace. The war had been begun for the purpose of securing Texas, and of enforcing the claim of Texas to the territory east of the Rio Grande. But many of the American people at that time were eager for more territory, and the object of the war was changed. Soon after the war was declared. Colonel Kearny was sent to conquer the thinly settled northern portion of Mexico and Upper California. New Mexico was surrendered to the United States without resistance in August, 1846. A civil government, subject to the United States, was immediately established there.

In California matters were hurried up by the presence of an adventurous lieutenant, John C. Fremont, who was at the head of an exploring party. Under his lead the few American settlers there established an independent government. The United States ships of war on the coast seized the California ports, and the whole country was thus annexed to the United States. It now became the main object with the United States to close the war in such a way as not to surrender the great territory thus acquired.

When it became evident that General Taylor's victories in northern Mexico only wounded the vanity of the Mexicans without subduing them, it was resolved to land a force at Vera Cruz and march into the interior. It was thought that the Mexicans would readily make peace when their capital was threatened.

General Scott, at that time commander-in-chief of the American armies, took charge of this expedition. He landed on the 9th of March, 1847, and immediately laid siege to Vera Cruz. The city surrendered on the 27th of the same month.

Marching into the interior, General Scott found the Mexican general, Santa Anna, opposing him at a strongly fortified position. On the 18th and 19th of April, 1847, Scott fought the Battle of Cerro Gordo [ther'-ro gor'-do], completely defeating and dispersing the Mexican army. But the more the Mexicans were defeated, the more unwilling were they to make peace with an invading army.

One of the most difficult undertakings that ever fell to the lot of an army now became necessary. The American army of ten thousand soldiers had advanced into the very heart of Mexico. It had to subsist on the country, and to attack the Mexicans, now rallying in great numbers, in Strongly fortified positions.

Arrived in the region of the capital, General Scott fought and won the Battle of Contreras [con-tray'-ras] on August 20, 1847, and the Battle of Churubusco [choo-rooboos'- co] on the same day. After this battle there was an armistice, but attempts at negotiation failed, and on the 8th of September Scott defeated the Mexicans at Molino del Rey [mo-lee'-no del ray]. On the morning of September 13th the American troops carried the fortress of Chapultepec [chah-poolta- pec'] by storm, going over the works with scaling ladders and fighting a hand-to-hand battle within the castle walls. The city of Mexico was attacked at the same time, and the next day it was evacuated by the Mexicans and occupied by General Scott.

Although the Mexicans had lost every considerable battle from the beginning of the war to the conquest of the capital, their national pride made them very loath to make peace. In February, 1848, nearly five months after the capture of the capital, a peace was signed, by which all the territory of New Mexico, as then constituted, and Upper California became United States territory. Our government, however, agreed to pay fifteen million dollars to Mexico, and to pay the claims of our own citizens against Mexico,

There has always been a difference of opinion in the United States about the Mexican-American War. Even at the present time opinions are divided as to whether it might not have been wisely avoided. It cost us the lives of thousands of brave soldiers who fell in fighting on a foreign soil, or perished by the heat of the climate and the diseases of the country, and it caused much misery to innocent people in Mexico. No doubt, the ignorance and prejudice prevailing in Mexico at that time, and the frequent overthrow of one government and the setting up of another, made it difficult to treat with that country without war.

'The territory acquired from Mexico, first and last, was larger than the United States at the close of the Revolutionary War. It comprised all the territory now included in Texas, California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, the greater part of Colorado, and a part of Wyoming.

When the Mexican-American War broke out, we were engaged in a dispute with England about our claim to the country on the Pacific Ocean to the north of California. This had been settled in 1846 in such a way as to give us what is now the State of Oregon and the Territory of Washington. Our claim to this country was chiefly founded on the discoveries made there by a Boston sea captain in 1792, and by an expedition sent out by President Jefferson in 1804.

After the admission of Missouri in 1821, no new States were taken into the Union for fifteen years. Arkansas was admitted as a slave State in 1836, and was balanced by Michigan, which came in as a free State in the following year. Two States in the extreme South were admitted in 1845 — Florida, which we had acquired from Spain, and Texas, which had been a part of Mexico and then an independent republic. But in 1846 Iowa was admitted, and in 1848 the extreme northern State of Wisconsin. In 1848 Congress admitted California, the first State on the Pacific coast, which was then like a new world to Americans.