CHAPTER I PRELIMINARY DISCUSSION FROM that Treaty of Paris in 1783 whereby our Independence was formally acknowledged by Great Britain, to that other Treaty of Paris in 1898 which terminated the War with Spain, the territory of the United States, with one notable exception, was increased by the peaceful method of negotiation and purchase. Viewing the series of operations which began with the colonization of Texas and closed with the Gadsden Purchase as a single transaction, this one exception to the usual mode of procedure which I call the Conquest of the Southwest-added the largest single increment to the original territory, not even excepting the Louisiana Purchase. The whole proceeding may be described as the story of the spoliation of a weaker power by a stronger, and is the one serious blot upon our national history. The conduct of the United States was wholly indefensible in a large part of the operations about to be discussed, and no truly patriotic citizen can think of it without an abiding sense of shame. Nor can our mortification be diminished by our recognition of the fact that in many particulars the conduct of Mexico during the period was an affront to civilization. There are three methods of accounting for the Conquest of the Southwest, which is the general name under which I include all of the various acts hereafter to be described. Each of these methods pointedly ignores the others. After much study and a careful consideration of the evidence, I have come to the conclusion that each is in large measure correct. Briefly stated, one cause for the conquest was the desire on the part of the slave-holding states to add new territory to the Union out of which other slave-holding states could be constituted |