The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1901-11-19
RECALLS A LIKE CASE

over greatly supegior army were fol.
lowed quickly by others no less giori.
Gus to the American arms ana brlli-
ant to General Taylor
Ampudia. a great Mexican general.
occupied Monterey with 10000 vetsr.
an troops. General Taylor remained
at Matamoras until he had Increased
his command to about 5000 when he
moved against Ampudia and on the
9th began the attack which resulted
oil the gath in the surrender Of the
city with General Ampudia and his
entire army of veterans.
Quickly followed the fall of sattillo
and other Mexican strongholds. These
successes following so rapidly upon the
heels of each other had made General
Taylor the Idol hero of American hero
worshippers, and his name and fame
was upon everyone's lips. and his
praises we're sung in the drawing
rooms. in the novels, on the steam
boats plying the great rivers and ev-
erywhere throughout the land and not
only this, but hic name was beginning
to be coupled with that OF the presi
dencN which seriously alarmed the
Polk administration and the Demo
cratic leaders for In politics Taylor
was known to be pronounced whig.
and something must be done and done
quickly to bring about a reaction of
public sentiment. or at least to divert
this growing sentiment to somebody
or something else. It was well known
in military circles that General Santa
Anna was concentrating a powerful
army of more than 2t,OO0 men at San
Luis Potosi with the avowed purpose
to regain the valley of the Rio Grande.
Taylor lay at Monterey with his little
army determined to hold the valley at
all hazards. Without previous notice
he was suddenly deprived of a large
portion of his already too small force
on the plea of reinforcing General
Scott for the expedition against Vera
Cruz, leaving him barely 5000 troops,
only 500 of which were regulars.
This reduction Of Tayior's small
army excited any amount of adve Sc
critioism and justly so in the face Of
the military part that Santa Anna was
preparing to march upon him with
q, 900 troops the flower of the Mexi-
can army Men with less military
backbone than cold Zach" would have
turned tail and fed to the Rio Grande
and across it, but "Old Rough and
Ready as his soldiers affectionately
called him, was made of sterner stuff
and instead of running he boldly
marched out with his $500 volunteers
and 500 regulars and at Buena Vista
(Beautiful View on the 22d day Of
February, 1S47, met Santa Anna with
his 21,OOO troops and completely rout-
ed them after one of the most terrific
engagements fought during the Mexi-
can war. fbis great victory utterly
destroyed the power Of the Mexicans
in the valley of the Rio Grande and
during the remainder Of the war they
made no further effort to regain con
troll of it.
General Taylor had won this great
victory over the enemy against the ex-
pectations of military men, if not
against the hopes of the Washington
administration, and the glory and re-
nown was his, and the American peo-
pie, ever generous to their military
heroes, were fast settling to the deter
mination to make MIN president The
Democratic leaders and especially the
Washington people, began to realize
this. II was hoped that General Scott,
although Whig like Taylor. might
with the covert aid OF the administra-
tion, by a succession of brilliant
achievements att act public sentiment
to himself and thereby lessen the cry
for General Taylor, but the people
would not have it that way and al
though he took city after city and.
finally in a succession of victories
planted the victorious American ban
ner upon the walls OF the Montezumas,
General Taylor remained the idol Of
the American people, BY some intui-
tion they seemed to understand that
it was the purpose Of the administra-
ton TO belittle his military achieve
ments, not because he was not entitled
to all the glory of his military exploits
or because he was not a great and
( successful soldier. but because he was
a Whig. as Admiral schley Is Demo
crat, and herein lies the parallel Gen
eral Taylor became the logical candi-
date of the people, and the Whig party
quickly saw the drift OF public senti-