Lane entered Puebla unmolested. Santa Anna returned to Huamantla on the 10th.
After the fall of the capital, Scott republished on the 17th of September, with important additions, his orders of February 19th, declaring martial law.[1] The next day he prescribed the distribution and quartering of the troops in the city.[2] The collection of customs or duties at the gates of the city by the civil authorities was to be continued till modified by the civil and military governor, to which office General John A. Quitman had been appointed.[3] At first it was hoped that harmony would be maintained between the Mexican civil authorities and the foreign military rulers; but as it turned out, there were almost daily causes of dissatisfaction.[4] The most serious difficulty was about providing quarters for the troops. Angry correspondence followed, and the ayuntamiento was deposed. A municipal assembly was then chosen under the auspices of the conqueror, and given powers to effect reforms, provided they met with his sanction.[5] These men, who had thus lent themselves to
- ↑ By the 15th art. of his regulations the city with its religious buildings, inhabitants, and property were placed under the special guard of the faith and honor of the U. S. army — an injunction that was not fully carried out, at least as respected the treatment of the inhabitants. As a consideration for the protection thus tendered, a tax was levied on the city of $150,000, payable in weekly instalments of $37,500 each. The ayuntamiento was charged with its collection and payment, to effect which it raised a loan at 15 per cent. Apunt. Hist. Guerra, 363; Roa Bárcena, Recuerdos, 511-13.
- ↑ No private property was to be occupied without the owner's consent, or special orders from general headquarters. U. S. Govt Doc., Cong. 30, Ses. 1, Sen. Ex. 1, p. 389-90.
- ↑ The Mexican civil authorities were of course subject to the governor. Ripley's War with Mex., ii. 533-4; Mayer's Mex. Aztec., i. 420-1; Bustamante, Mem. Hist. Mex., MS., viii. 1-35.
- ↑ The Mexicans complained that the U. S. military authorities inflicted the penalty of flogging on the lower class of population for slight offences, and were answered that it was in accordance with military law and usage. There was no safety for life or property, the city being at the mercy of robbers, traitorous counter-guerrillas, and drunken volunteers. The ayuntamiento remonstrated without obtaining satisfaction. Roa Bárcena, Recuerdos, 543; Apunt. Hist. Guerra, 366; El Razonador, Nov. 6, 1847. Ripley acknowledges. that the discipline among the troops had after a while become much relaxed, and vice was rampant. A fruitful cause of outrages was the vices openly permitted by the governor and general-in-chief. War with Mex., ii. 569.
- ↑ The members were most of them persons of no standing. The president, Francisco Suarez Iriarte, was, however, a man of ability, had been a minister of state, and was at this time a deputy to the national congress. They carried
