ammunition, plenty of food, ample and well-served ambulances, were quicker and more forceful in their movements, and were more obedient; and the officers had more confidence in one another. They were also cooler and more intelligent, and had greater reserves of will-power, and the men felt more confidence in their superiors.
23. Meade, Letters, i, 98, 101. Metrop. Mag., Dec., 1907 (Hamilton, July 29, 1846). 139Campbell to Martin, July 29; (nine tenths) to D. Campbell, Aug. 9. Polk, Diary, Apr. 1, 1847. 224Larnard to Hitchcock, June 13. Ho. 60; 30, 1, p. 283. 224Bliss to Hitchcock, June 7. Schouler, U. S., v, 248. Weed, Autobiography, 571-2. Albany Evening Journal, June 18. Scott, Mems., ii, 389.
Larnard, an excellent officer, wrote to Hitchcock that Taylor did not give an order to the artillery on May 8 nor a material order to any one, and that he was no more responsible for winning the two battles than a rock rolling down a hill for crushing what is before it. This was intended, no doubt, to be taken with a grain of salt. The editor of Niles' Register said: Owing to an error in estimating the capacities of the enemy, the army under Gen. Taylor made a narrow escape from almost utter annihilation (July 18, p. 309); and, considering the ardor of the Mexicans as well as the embarrassment caused by the American wagons, one must believe that had the General carried out the plan which he seems to have formed, the results would have been unfortunate. See Semmes, Service, 70. Meade (Letters, i, 99) remarked that Taylor's neglect of precautions probably helped induce the Mexicans to fight. This was not true, for Arista's orders were express; but, even had it been so, one could not excuse a general for really (not seemingly, as a ruse) neglecting precautions and preparations demanded by the circumstances. "Boldness is the acme of wisdom" in war, the German general staff has said (Donat, Russo-Japanese War, 255); but the distinction between boldness and rashness is real and vital. No doubt graduates of West Point felt a prejudice against men of antecedents like Taylor's, but they showed in the course of the war a willingness to recognize merit. The popular enthusiasm over Taylor's "'victories" was the greater because he had been supposed to be in extreme peril.
24. 52J. Parrott, June 4. Bankhead, nos. 71, 90, 1846. 285Vega to Paredes, Apr. 3. 76Tornel to Arista, May 27. The London Times, Feb. 24, 1847, quoted the Journal des Débats as saying in effect that the Mexican War prevented the establishment of a monarchy in Mexico. Paredes had no doubt been encouraged by the reports of Mejía regarding the state of things at Corpus Christi, and very likely these reports helped decide him to reject Slidell.
IX. THE UNITED STATES MEETS THE CRISIS
1. Our policy did not permit us to accept a European arbitrator, and an arbitrator from Central or South America would not have been thought impartial.
2. Polk's Message was based upon the view that the left bank of the Rio Grande belonged to the United States (p. 139), and this was said by some to be inconsistent with the idea (involved in the resolutions annexing Texas and in Slidell's mission) that the boundary was an open question. But Polk's language amounted only to an assertion of the American claim; and a claim, however just, may be a subject of negotiation. His expres-