James Lincoln Collier - Hispanic America, Texas, and the Mexican War: 1835 - 1850

T HE D RAMA OF A MERICAN H ISTORY

HISPANIC AMERICA, TEXAS, and the MEXICAN WAR

18351850

Christopher Collier

James Lincoln Collier

ACKNOWLEDGMENT: The authors wish to thank Howard R. Lamar, Sterling Professor Emeritus of History and former President, Yale University, and Arnoldo DeLeon, C. J. "Red" Davidson Professor of History, Angelo State University, for their careful reading of the text of this volume of The Drama of American History and their thoughtful and useful comments. The work has been much improved by their notes. The authors are deeply in their debt but, of course, assume full responsibility for the substance of the work, including any errors.

Photo research by James Lincoln Collier.

COVER PHOTO: Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

PICTURE CREDITS: The photographs in this book are used by permission and through the courtesy of:

Chapter I: Corbis-Bettmann: Aztec ruins at Malinalco, ritual human sacrifice, Hernando Cortez, Cortez's arrival at Vera Cruz. National Museum of the American Indian: statue of an Aztec priest, Aztec drum. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress: Great Plains Indians on horseback.

Chapter II: Corbis-Bettmann: remains of a mission in New Mexico, Alamo Mission. National Museum of the American Indian: Navajo sarape poncho. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress: death of Davy Crockett.

Chapter III: Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress: covered wagons en route to Oregon, whaling. Joslyn Art Museum: wagoneer loading supplies, Fort Laramie.

Chapter IV: Corbis-Bettmann: the Mexican Eagle "plucked," President James K. Polk, call for volunteers, General Robert C. Wood with his staff, Zachary Taylor, attack on the Castle of Chapultepec.

Chapter V: Corbis-Bettmann: mission at Santa Barbara, mission church at Alcala. National Museum of the American Indian: Hupa basket, Karuk spoons. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress: view from the Platte River, Sutter's Mill,

Chapter VI: Corbis-Bettmann: Brigham Young, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress: gold seekers boarding ships, miners buying passage home, panning for gold, mining town.

1999 Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the copyright holders.

First ebook edition 2012 by AudioGO. All Rights Reserved.

Trade ISBN 978-1-62064-509-3

Library ISBN 978-0-7927-9560-5

HISPANIC AMERICA, TEXAS, and the MEXICAN WAR

18351850

C ONTENTS

P REFACE

OVER MANY YEARS of both teaching and writing for students at all levels, from grammar school to graduate school, it has been borne in on us that many, if not most, American history textbooks suffer from trying to include everything of any moment in the history of the nation. Students become lost in a swamp of factual information, and as a consequence lose track of how those facts fit together and why they are significant and relevant to the world today.

In this series, our effort has been to strip the vast amount of available detail down to a central core. Our aim is to draw in bold strokes, providing enough information, but no more than is necessary, to bring out the basic themes of the American story, and what they mean to us now. We believe that it is surely more important for students to grasp the underlying concepts and ideas that emerge from the movement of history, than to memorize an array of facts and figures.

The difference between this series and many standard texts lies in what has been left out. We are convinced that students will better remember the important themes if they are not buried under a heap of names, dates, and places.

In this sense, our primary goal is what might be called citizenship education. We think it is critically important for America as a nation and Americans as individuals to understand the origins and workings of the public institutions that are central to American society. We have asked ourselves again and again what is most important for citizens of our democracy to know so they can most effectively make the system work for them and the nation. For this reason, we have focused on political and institutional history, leaving social and cultural history less well developed.

This series is divided into volumes that move chronologically through the American story. Each is built around a single topic, such as the Pilgrims, the Constitutional Convention, or immigration. Each volume has been written so that it can stand alone, for students who wish to research a given topic. As a consequence, in many cases material from previous volumes is repeated, usually in abbreviated form, to set the topic in its historical context. That is to say, students of the Constitutional Convention must be given some idea of relations with England, and why the Revolution was fought, even though the material was covered in detail in a previous volume. Readers should find that each volume tells an entire story that can be read with or without reference to other volumes.

Despite our belief that it is of the first importance to outline sharply basic concepts and generalizations, we have not neglected the great dramas of American history. The stories that will hold the attention of students are here, and we believe they will help the concepts they illustrate to stick in their minds. We think, for example, that knowing of Abraham Baldwin's brave and dramatic decision to vote with the small states at the Constitutional Convention will bring alive the Connecticut Compromise, out of which grew the American Senate.

Each of these volumes has been read by esteemed specialists in its particular topic; we have benefited from their comments.

C HAPTER I: T HE C OMING OF THE E UROPEANS TO THE S OUTHWEST

THE SOUTHWESTERN SECTION of the United States, including the present states of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, California, and parts of Nevada and Utah, has a history that is somewhat different from the rest of the nation. Most of the rest of the nation was settled by English people and their descendants, beginning in Jamestown in 1607 and Plymouth in 1620. From these first tiny settlements, these English-speaking people with English ways pushed westward, at first slowly, and then in a rush, until they occupied most of the land from the Atlantic to the Pacific. (For the story of the first English settlers see The Paradox of Jamestown and Pilgrims and Puritans , the second and third volumes in this series.) People from other countries and ethnic groups did of course come to North Americaat first Irish and Germans, and then others from almost every national group elsewhere. Nonetheless, the English settled the area that later became the United States first, and American ways are still basically derived from the English ones that the first settlers brought with them, although of course they have been modified by the cultures of later arrivals.