Supplemental Chapter

Reflections upon the Present Political and probable Future Relations of Texas, Mexico, and the United States. Annexation. Abolition. Southern Boundary.

It is not my purpose to enter into a detail of the present condition either of the government or people of Mexico. Prescott, Mayer, Kendall, and other late writers, whose opportunities have been far greater than mine, have so recently and so ably occupied this whole field, that were I to attempt it would but be to weary the public with an oft told, and, maybe, a worse told tale.

The late radical change in the government of Mexico from a seeming republicanism to an avowed military dictatorship;* her position to Texas, and that of Texas both to her and the United States of America, as well as to other nations, forces upon me some general remarks, which may not be out of place at this interesting juncture in the politics [383] of these several governments. From what I saw in a zigzag march of more than fifteen hundred miles through many of the Departments of Mexico, these reflections were convincing to my mind, and I offer them to the public as I received them.

We entered the northern boundary of Mexico at the 28th degree of north latitude, and meandered the magnificent Rio Bravo several hundred miles to its mouth; thence through Caidereta, Monterey, and Saltillo; thence across the Sierra Madre, via Mataguala, to San Luis Potosi; thence via Dolores, San Juan, Miguel à Grande, to the capital; thence via San Martin, La Puebla, and Perote, to Vera Cruz; and what do we behold? A geographical area capable of supporting three hundred and eighty millions of souls, with seven thousand five hundred miles of sea coast, and every variety of soil and climate, from the 15th to the 42d degree of north latitude, containing a mineral wealth unknown to any other portion of the globe, and a capability of agricultural product which has not yet entered into political estimate.

In this vast circumference of the most choice portion of God's earth, we find a population of seven millions of souls, scattered here and there, without the moral ability to appreciate the unequal boon. Of this seven millions of people, we find twelve out of each thirteen in a state of squalid misery, wretched ignorance, and want, rarely known, and never before paralleled in the history of the world where the elements [384] of competence were so abundant; we see a small fraction of the remaining thirteenth holding, in a most unjust and unwise proportion, benefits which should be more diffuse as the aggregate happiness of the whole is desirable; we see the bulk of this population, sparse and well located

* The reader will recollect that this was written (1844) during Santa Anna's dictatorship.