the City of Capture of Mexico,

September

14, 1847

army of 20,000 men and the direct approach to the city was strongly guarded. Scott decided, therefore, to make a detour to the south and approach the city from that direction. After inflicting heavy losses on the Mexicans in hard-fought battles at Contreras and Churubusco, Scott consented to a truce, hoping that the Mexicans would come to terms and avoid an assault on the city. As it was evident that the Mexicans were merely playing for time, operations were resumed on the 8th of September and on the 13th Chapultepec, a natural fortress of great strength mounted by batteries and strongly manned, was carried by assault. The Americans were now at the gates of the city, and on the following day it was surrendered, Santa Anna having withdrawn during the night.

General Scott had become greatly provoked with Trist, who had been sent along with the expedition to negotiate terms of peace at the earliest practicable moment, and The treaty he complained to the president that peace nego- of Guadatiations were interfering with military operations. lupe Hidalgo, An order was finally sent for Trist's recall, but February 2, when it arrived he was satisfied that the Mexicans 1848 were at last willing to come to terms and he continued the negotiations, which resulted in the signing of the treaty of peace at the little town of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848. Trist was finally arrested and sent back to the United States, but his treaty was submitted by the president to the Senate and ratified.

The Texas boundary was fixed at the Rio Grande, and New Mexico and California were ceded to the United States in return for a payment of $15,000,000. The United States also agreed to assume the claims of its citizens against Mexico. The unparalleled success of the American arms had led to a demand for the annexation of the whole of Mexico, but Polk adhered strictly to his original purpose. Rarely has a vic

torious nation displayed such moderation. Polk was not influenced by the foolish clamor against hauling down the flag which half a century later influenced McKinley in his decision concerning the Philippines. The war had been well fought. Grant, who took part in the operations against Mexico, said years afterwards that he regarded the strategy and tactics of Scott as faultless. Besides Grant, many others who became leaders in the Civil War received their training under Scott and Taylor, among them Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis, Joseph E. Johnston, George H. Thomas, George B. McClellan, H. W. Halleck, and George G. Meade.

The new westward movement

With the annexation of Texas and California, the westward movement received a new stimulus. The discovery of gold in California early in 1848, about the time that the treaty was signed, caused a rush of settlers and adventurers from all parts of America and Europe to that region. In two years the population of California had grown to 100,000. In order to get there the gold-hunter and the settler had to take the long and difficult sea voyage around the Horn, or risk the terrors of yellow fever in crossing the isthmus, or encounter the hardships and dangers of a six months' journey across the continent.

Negotiations for an isthmian canal

The acquisition of California at once drew the attention of the government to the future importance of the interoceanic canal routes, and steps were immediately taken to secure permanent rights of way. In 1846 a treaty was signed with New Granada, the present Colombia, by which the United States acquired a right of way across the isthmus of Panama by any mode of communication then in existence or that might be subsequently developed. In 1850 the United States and England signed the much discussed Clayton-Bulwer treaty, by the terms of which England surrendered certain rights which

she had acquired in Central America and the United States agreed that any canal that might be built through Nicaragua or at any other point connecting the two oceans should be under the joint control of the two powers.

and progress.

The Middle West was now expanding and filling up with people at a rapid rate. Several causes combined to make the forties and the fifties an era of development The buildIn the first place railroads were ing of rapidly taking the place of canals as means of railroads transportation, thus spreading the population more evenly over the country and enabling it to leave the rivers and waterways. The first steam locomotive used in this country. was invented by Peter Cooper in 1830 and made its first trip from Baltimore to Ellicott City, Maryland. This was the beginning of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. was completed from Charleston, South Carolina, to Augusta, Georgia. In 1832 a little road was built from Albany to Schenectady, which was the beginning of the New York Central.

In 1843 a line

By 1840 it was possible to travel by rail from New York to Wilmington, North Carolina. Pittsburg was reached by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1852, and Wheeling by the Baltimore and Ohio in 1853. In 1854 the Charleston and Savannah Railroad was completed to Chattanooga, and in 1858 it was continued to Memphis. During the fifties the Illinois Central and other western roads were built with the aid of land grants, and by 1860 the Middle West was well provided with railroads. During the thirties and forties the canal was the principal means of transportation, but during the fifties the railroad mileage was extended from about 5000 to over 25,000. With the railroad came also the telegraph, invented by Morse in 1844. Within ten or fifteen years all the principal cities were connected by telegraphic communication.

Improvements in agricultural implements kept pace with

improvements in the means of transportation. The iron plow, with detachable parts which could be renewed when

Development of western agriculture

broken or worn out, came into general use; threshing machines of various kinds supplanted the older methods of separating the grain from the straw and chaff; and finally the reaper brought about the greatest change that had ever taken place in agricultural methods. The first successful reaper was invented by Cyrus Hall McCormick, of Rockbridge County, Virginia, in 1831. Scores of reaping machines had been invented in this country and abroad, but none of them proved successful. Young McCormick, who had assisted his father in the construction of an unsuccessful reaper at the forge on his farm, finally invented the type of machine which is now used the world over. In 1834 he took out his first patent, but it was several years before the machine was perfected. In 1844 he made a trip through the West and was quick to grasp the immense possibilities of the reaper on the vast prairies of that region. He moved at once to Cincinnati and later to Chicago and began the manufacture of reapers on a large scale. The reaper, while useful everywhere, was an inestimable boon to the West, for it enabled the farmers to put in vast crops of grain on the prairies which it would have been impossible, where labor was scarce, to gather in by means of the old cradle. The reaper was one of the greatest factors in the rapid development of the West.

In the forties foreign immigration began to assume large proportions. In 1842 over 100,000 foreigners came to our Foreign im- shores and in 1854 the number exceeded 400,000. migration This movement was due primarily to the famine in Ireland and the revolutions in Germany, but it was accelerated by the rapid extension of the American frontier. Some of the immigrants remained in the Eastern States, where they took the place of the native-born Americans who were moving to the West. This was especially true of the Irish. The

Germans, on the other hand, preferred going directly to the frontier and they played an important part in the development of some of the Western States. Between 1830 and 1850 six new States were admitted to the Union; Arkansas in 1836, Michigan in 1837, Florida and Texas in 1845, Iowa in 1846, and Wisconsin in 1848.

TOPICAL REFERENCES

1. Tyler's Break with the Whigs: Wilson, Division and Reunion, pp. 133-139; Garrison, Westward Extension, Chaps. III, IV; McMaster, Vol. VI, pp. 601–637; Schouler, Vol. IV, pp. 367–395; Roosevelt, Thomas Hart Benton, Chap. XI.

2. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty: Garrison, Chap. V; McMaster, Vol. VII, pp. 271-284; Schouler, Vol. IV, pp. 396-404; Foster, Century of American Diplomacy, pp. 282–298; J. S. Reeves, American Diplomacy under Tyler and Polk, Chaps. I, II.

3. Texas and Oregon: Wilson, pp. 141–148; Garrison, Chaps. VI-XI; Stanwood, History of the Presidency, Chap. XVII; McElroy, Winning of the Far West, Chaps. III, IV; McMaster, Vol. VII, pp. 286-367, 391-420; Schouler, Vol. IV, pp. 457–491; Reeves, Chaps. VII-X; Justin H. Smith, Annexation of Texas.

4. Causes of the Mexican War: Garrison, Chaps. XIII, XIV; McElroy, Chap. V; McMaster, Vol. VII, pp. 432-439; Schouler, Vol. IV, pp. 495-527; Reeves, Chap. XII; G. Hunt, John C. Calhoun, Chaps. XVII, XVIII; President Polk's War Message of May 11, 1846, in Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Vol. IV, pp. 437-443. 5. Military Operations: Garrison, Chap. XV; McElroy, Chaps. VI, VIII, IX-XI; McMaster, Vol. VII, pp. 440-461, 506–509; Schouler, Vol. IV, pp. 535–550, Vol. V, pp. 1–61.

6. The Occupation of California: McElroy, Chap. VII; McMaster, Vol. VII, pp. 462-472, 585-614; Schouler, Vol. IV, pp. 528535; Reeves, Chap. XI; E. D. Adams, British Interests and Activities in Texas, Chap. XI.

7. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: McElroy, Chap. XII; McMaster, Vol. VII, pp. 509-525; J. B. Moore, American Diplomacy, pp. 234-236; Reeves, Chap. XIII.

8. Transportation and Western Development: McMaster, Vol. VII, pp. 190-220; E. L. Bogart, Economic History of the United States, Part III; K. Coman, Industrial History of the United States, Chap. VIII; Callender, Economic History, Chap. VIII.