CHAPTER XXVI

MEXICAN DOMINATION—AMERICAN CONQUEST

IN 1811 New Mexico was represented in the Spanish Córtes by Pedro Bautista Pino. The inhabitants of the province seem to have been very loyal to Ferdinand VII, as they sent him a gift of nine thousand dollars when their representative went to Spain. However, they displayed little patriotism during the War of Independence, siding neither with the revolutionists nor with the Spanish government. Nevertheless, the news of Iturbide's entry into Mexico was received with great enthusiasm, and at Santa Fé the last Spanish governor, Facundo Melgares, addressed the people and exclaimed: "New Mexicans, this is the occasion for showing the heroic patriotism that inflames you; let your sentiments of liberty and gratitude be published abroad, and let us show tyrants, that although we live at the very extremity of North America we love the holy religion of our fathers; that we cherish and protect the desired union between Spaniards of both hemispheres; and that, with the last drop of blood, we will sustain the sacred independence of the Mexican empire."

The last years of the Spanish domination were of little importance, except that the cession of Louisiana to the United States, in 1803, turned the attention of the Americans to the western country and brought about the famous expedition of Lewis and Clark and that of Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike. The latter, after having come, in November, 1806, to the great peak in Colorado which bears his name, reached, in January, 1807, a large river, which he thought was the Red

river, and he built a fort there and raised the flag of the United States. It was the Rio Grande, however, and Pike was taken to Santa Fé by order of the New Mexican authorities. He was well treated by Governor Alencaster, at Santa Fé, and by General Salcedo, at Chihuahua, and was finally sent back to the United States, reaching Natchitoches in July. In 1815 Auguste P. Chouteau and Julius de Mun organized a party to trade with the Indians on the Upper Arkansas, and in 1817 they were arrested with twenty-four of their companions, their goods were confiscated and themselves taken to Santa Fé. They were liberated after two days, but their property was not restored to them.

Writing of the end of the Spanish domination in 1822, Bancroft says that "the government and administration of justice were still essentially military. There were no ayuntamientos or other municipal bodies, no courts, no taxes, no treasuries or municipal funds. Each of the eight alcaldes attended to all the local matters in his own alcaldia, being responsible to the governor, from whose decision the only appeal was to the audiencia of Guadalajara. An audiencia at Chihuahua was deemed an urgent necessity. The governor, with a salary of four thousand dollars, had no legal adviser or notary, but was aided by two lieutenants and two alfereces. The alcaldes were vecinos, who got no pay. A lieutenant of the governor in his military capacity ruled at El Paso for a salary of two thousand dollars. The regular military force supported by the royal treasury was one hundred and twenty-one men, forming the presidial or veteran company of Santa Fé."

While New Mexico was part of the Mexican republic the chief magistrate was called until 1837, jefe politico, and later, gobernador. One of the Provincias Internas until January, 1824, New Mexico, joined to Chihuahua and Durango, formed part of the Estado Interno del Norte. In July, 1824, it took the name of territory, El Paso being separated from it and attached to Chihuahua. In 1836 it became a department of the Mexican Republic.

In August, 1837, a revolution broke out, and Governor Albino Perez was killed by the insurgents. They took possession of Santa Fé and elected as governor José Gonzales, a pueblo Indian of Taos. Manuel Armijo, however, who had been jefe politico in 1827, pronounced against Gonzales, who was defeated in battle near La Cañada, on January 27, 1838, and shot. Armijo was confirmed in the position of governor which he had assumed, and it was during his administration that the unfortunate Santa Fé expedition of the Texans, already related, took place in 1841, under General Hugh McLeod. We have also mentioned in our narrative of the history of Texas what was the fate in 1843 of Colonel Snively and his men, who lay in wait on the Arkansas for the caravan from Missouri to Santa Fé.

The Santa Fé trade may be said to have really begun at the time Mexico achieved her independence from Spain in 1821, and Captains Glenn Becknell and Stephen Cooper are mentioned among the earliest traders. The Mexican authorities did not oppose the traffic, and large caravans started yearly from Franklin, Missouri, and later (1831) from Independence. The Arkansas river was then the boundary line between the United States and Mexico, and was about midway of the route of eight hundred miles, which was in an almost direct line from Missouri to San Miguel del Vado, and thence northwest to Santa Fé. The caravans set out in May, arrived in July, and started in August on the return journey. There were at first pack-animals, then wagons drawn by horses and mules, and later by mules or oxen. The trade was very profitable, although the traders were exposed to attacks from the Indians. The caravan of 1842 left Missouri in May with sixty-two wagons, eight hundred mules, and one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in goods.

New Mexico, during the Spanish and Mexican dominations, had not progressed rapidly in wealth and in population, or in educational matters. For four weeks, in 1835, the Crepúsculo was issued by Padre Antonio José Martinez. It was the first newspaper before the American occupation.

Indeed, New Mexico seemed to have been awaiting the arrival of the Americans for the development of its material and intellectual resources.

In preceding pages we have narrated the campaigns of Generals Taylor and Scott in Mexico, and have mentioned the occupation of New Mexico by General Kearny. We shall now relate briefly this important event. In June, 1846, an army was organized at Leavenworth for a western campaign, to be under the command of Colonel Stephen W. Kearny. The advance division numbered about seventeen hundred men and comprised three hundred United States dragoons, under Major Edwin V. Sumner, a regiment of mounted Missouri volunteers, under Colonel Alexander W. Doniphan, and five additional companies of volunteers. The second division of the army numbered about eighteen hundred men, among whom was a Mormon battalion.

The army set out in June, and in August encamped near Bent's fort on the Arkansas. Captain Cook was sent to Santa Fé with twelve men on a kind of embassy, and was accompanied by James Magoffin, an Irish Kentuckian, who had long been in the Santa Fé trade. He had been presented to the president and secretary of state by Senator Benton, and had said that he might persuade the officials at Santa Fé not to resist the occupation of the territory by the Americans. Captain Cook saw Governor Armijo, who sent him back to Kearny with a commissioner, and according to Benton, Magoffin succeeded in persuading the governor and Archuleta, the second in command, not to defend the Apache Cañon, through which the American army had to pass on its march to Santa Fé. Armijo, however, advanced toward Apache Cañon with about two thousand men, but he soon retreated to the south and left the way open for Kearny. The latter, who had received his commission as brigadier-general, passed through the cañon on August 18th, and the same day, at six o'clock in the afternoon, he entered Santa Fé without any opposition and caused the flag of the United States to be raised and saluted with thirteen guns.