The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1914-05-01

state of Texas, and give each family
half acre of land! Well, Texas came
into the Union as a slave state, OF
course: then came chickering's with
Mexico as to the boundary between
the two countries, and chickering's led
to fighting: and the shareholders who
then controlled the national govern
ment were not adverse to it, tor 1t
might result in including more terri
tory at the southwest, which could be
made into slave-holding communities,
with new states, with more senators
to perpetuate their control in the oCn-
gerss.
When the war broke out the two
leading generals of the regular army
were Wings, Zachary Taylor and
Winfield Scott, the former was in
command in Texas. He was great
fighter of the bulldog type, who
would not know when beaten, but
keep on fighting and wear out his OPP
ponent and secure final victory; and
he was a good officer, alert and vigil
LIANT, and became known by the nick
name of "old rought and ready" He
won some brilliant victories along the
Texas Mexican border and his popu-
larity was so great that the Demo-
cratic administration was worried
over it, and began curtailing his OPP
portunities and planned for cam
paign in another direction, and sent
an expedition to Vera Cruz. and the
ranking general was another Wing,
Winfield Scott, no other approaching
hi min rank having any such reputa-
ton as a soldier. The Democratic
administration was puzzled as to what
it should do. To let Taylor or Scott
go on and win victories would almost
surely make him the candidate of the
Wing party with every chance of his
election to the presidency, as after
wards came about with Taylor. They
tried to stem the current Dy appoint
ing big number of prominent poll
ticians from various states, Demo
cratic states preferably, to major and
brigadier generalships from private
life; mo Wing need apply" even if a
member of the regular army, or a
West Point graduate. Thus Albert
Sidney Johnston was passed over, al
though he proved one of the ablest
officers of the Confederate army af-
forwards, and a great mass of civil
lians were injected into the army in
Mexico. But Scott was already so
distinguished, and Virginian, that
President Tyler and his advisers did
not dare pass him by, and had to send
him to Vera Cruz, which he reduced
quickly, and with a mere handful of
men, started for the capital city of
Mexico. Robert E. Lee was his chief
of staff, and Scott was able to take
along enough West Point graduates
to soon lick into shape" his volun-
teers, and keep his civilian generals
from fatal laundering. 1t is interest
ing to note that both Lee and Grant
were in SCOTS army; the Virginian,
aristocratic Lee, polished and court
ly, won deserved honors, but had
every opportunity opened to him by
his fellow-state Commander Scott,
while Grant, common farmers son
from the pioneer state of Ohio, had
no favor shown him, but made a good
record always.
One of the most curious facts about
the efforts of Tyler and his admins
was lhS ~ SupGICGQe
both Taylor and Scott by appointing
some one Lieutenant General, which
grade did not then exist in our ar
my; it would not do to put a purely
civilian politician in such a position.
and send him to Mexico as general
in-chief; in casting about for some
one to fill the bill they pitched on
Senator Benton of Missouri, who had
held commission as a colonel in the
War of 1925 although he saw no
lighting. 1t was believed he would
do for the emergency. The measure
actually passed the House of Repre-
sentatives, where one member blurted
out frankly that Benton was a Demo-
GRAFT, while the two highest generals
IN the service, Scott and Taylor, were
Wings, and their friends had aspira-
tionS for them for the presidency;
which was pretty frank avowal that
it was a Democratic war, and they
desired only those of that party to
prott by it. But the bill was smoth-
cred in the senate, where Benton's
associates knew that his inhrmities