and says, that soon after his "arrival on the Rio Grande the evil of desertion made its appearance, and increased to an alarming extent;" and that verbal orders were given to the pickets to hail those who were swimming the river, and if they did not return, to shoot them on the spot.

The Matamoras Flag states that five Mexican guerillas were hanged Dec. 19, 1847, in the main plaza of Saltillo for the murder of three discharged Mississippians at Rinconada Pass; and that an American named Neazum was hanged a few days previously, for having murdered a Mexican in the streets of the city.

The Chicago Tribune records the death of Lieut. James M. Stewart, of Niles, Michigan, who was hanged in Mexico for having been enraged at a superior officer who struck him, and having run him through with his sword. It goes on to remark, that "an interesting family, consisting of a wife and several young children, are thus deprived of husband, father, and protector. This This is another of the legitimate fruits of bloody, infamous, brutal, forever-to-be-detested war."

Isaac Kirk, a free man of color, according to Gen. Scott's Reports of April, 1847, was hung at Vera Cruz for “ committing or attempting to commit a rape" upon a Mexican woman; and in an Address to the Mexican people, he appeals and says, "is this not a proof of good faith and energetic discipline?"

Two young Mexicans of rank and refinement were executed Nov. 24, 1847, in the city of Jalapa.

The Vera Cruz Indicator has the following account of the affair:

"Gen. Patterson, while in Jalapa, governed with a rigid hand. The Mexicans complain bitterly of the recent execution, under his directions, of two young officers, Ambrosio Alcalde and Antonio Garcia, who were taken at Jalconumco with a party of guerillas, some time since, and who were alleged to have broken their parole. This the two officers

and their friends denied, but the evidence was too strong against them to permit their escape.

"When the sentence was published, the whole city rose to beg for the lives of the young men, and deputations were sent to Gen. Patterson from the council, from the resident foreigners, from the clergy, regular and secular, from the ladies of the principal families, and the ladies of the convents, beseeching him to spare the lives of the unhappy youths, but without avail. They were hanged in the Plazuela de San Jose at noon of the 24th ultimo. Their bodies were delivered over to their friends, and after lying in state a few hours, were buried with the highest honors that public grief could devise. The whole city put on mourning, solemn processions lined every street, and the miserere was chanted in the churches. A gloom was thrown over the city which is not yet dissipated."

The Arco Iris, says that "Gen. Patterson's division left Jalapa on the 25th ult. Before his departure, he hanged, on the 23d, two American teamsters, for having killed a Mexican boy twelve years old."

Reynolds, an American soldier of the 8th Regiment of Infantry, was hanged at Jalapa on Dec. 29, 1847, for the murder of some Mexican women.

The National Intelligencer recorded the execution at Saltillo on Dec. 28, 1847, of Victor Galbraith, a bugler in Capt. Miers' company of volunteer cavalry, who was shot for threatening the captain's life.

But the most cruel and sanguinary scene that was probably ever enacted in war under the form of its Draconic code of laws, occurred at the villages of San Angel and Mixcoac in the valley of Mexico. On the 9th of September, 1847, 16 deserters were hanged at San Angel, and on the 10th, 4 were hanged at Mixcoac. But as if these victims were not enough to glut the cruel spirit of war, on the 13th, 30 more were hanged at Mixcoac, making in all 50 victims of capital

punishment in four days. Without crediting the Mexican account that they were noosed by the neck and drawn up, and that they died by inches by being strangled with their own weight, their agony lasting more than an hour; it is nevertheless an unquestioned fact, that, in the last case of execution, the poor wretches, in order to slake the thirst of vengeance, and "to associate with the glory of their regiments the gloom of their tribunals," were pinioned, ropes put around their necks, and each man placed under a gallows, and there made to wait nearly two hours, with death staring them in the face, until, according to the declaration and promise of the presiding officer, a colonel, whose name shall not pass our pen, the neighboring heights of Chapultepec, then assaulted by the American troops, were carried; and that when the American flag was planted on that fortress, thirty men were instantly launched into eternity! We ask why have not the official reports of these transactions been published, with the other numerous documents of the war, if they are not too black and odious to bear the light of day, and the free judgment of a people, professing to be governed by the humane spirit of Christianity?

The rest of this battalion of San Patricio,* under the command of Reilly, who were captured when desperately fighting at Contreras and Churubusco against the Americans, were severely punished; some by being "whipped with fifty lashes each, the letter D. for deserter being branded with a red hot iron upon the cheek, and then condemned to wear an iron yoke weighing eight pounds, with three prongs, each one foot in length around the neck; to be confined at hard labor

* Nativity of the Deserters.The New York Police Gazette contains "the names and places of nativity of the deserters recently recaptured by our army, from which we are sorry to learn that a large portion were Americans. They are classed as follows: Americans 54, Irishmen 34, Germans 17, Scotch 4, and one each from England, Nova Scotia, France and Poland."

in charge of the guard during the time the army should remain in Mexico, and then to have their heads shaved, and to be drummed out of the service;" and others were flogged with 200 lashes each, after being compelled to dig the graves of their companions, who were executed.

Several others, both officers and soldiers, by the names of Hare, Dutton, Madson, Wragg, Stewart, Wall, and others, were convicted at Mexico of burglary and murder, after the city was occupied by Scott, and sentenced to be hanged, but they were afterwards respited, or wholly pardoned.

Ruxton, in his "Adventures in Mexico," p. 230, says, in reference to the revolution in New Mexico, Jan., 1847, that "the troops marched out of Santa Fé, attacked their pueblo, and leveled it to the ground, killing many hundreds of its defenders, and taking many prisoners, most of whom were hanged." Another account states, that "fifteen Mexicans were executed as conspirators.”

One man was executed at the town of Santa Cruz on Monterey Bay, in California.

We record then in all, 82 Americans and Mexicans, who were shot or hanged by the martial law, by the Americans, and we probably have not ascertained all,

an amount of capital punishment, small indeed by the side of the wholesale slaughter of the battle-field, but worthy of being considered by those who are strenuous advocates of the repeal of the death-penalty, for it is, as we have said, a greater number than would suffer thus in the ordinary course of criminal justice in ten years in the United States.

14*

CHAPTER XIV.

ILLEGALITIES.

"Laws are silent in war."- CICERO.

Ir has already been strongly intimated, if not declared in so many words, that the laws of nations, and the constitution and laws of our own country, have been repeatedly and flagrantly broken in the war with Mexico. But in order to set this subject in a more vivid light, we propose to devote this chapter, if not the most important, at least one of the most curious, in the history of the day, to the various illegalities which have been committed. Other portions of this review will sufficiently demonstrate the opposition of the war to every principle of liberty and Christianity, but it will be the aim of these few pages to elucidate its equal antagonism to the laws of man, and to show that when even a civilized people burst through the enclosures of truth and right, they manifest in many respects the same reckless disregard of human statutes and constitutions, as is thought to belong to earlier stages of society.

The con

Numerous unlawful acts preceded the war. quest of Mexican territory by citizens of the United States, with the connivance, if not the aid, of the national and State government, was contrary to the law of nations. The seizure of Monterey, in California, Oct. 19, 1842, by Commodore Jones, was a lawless act, disavowed indeed by the Government, but the perpetrator was never punished. The annexation of Texas, by a joint resolution, was contrary to