The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1916-03-24
VETERAN TELLS
MEMORIES OF
MEXICO IN '46

New York. March 24--With mem
| Dries OF the days when the United
States marched army into Mexico
in~1846, hurry Nelson, one of the
founders of the Republican party and
one-time friend of Abraham Lincoln,
draws an interesting com parison be-
tween the developments of the Mexi-
can situation in 1S46, and now. He
is Sc years old and when the Mexican
war broke out he was boy of IS.
living in Fulton, N. Y.
Mr.. Nelson spends his declining
years at the f1reside of his daughter
and son-in-Ia.w, Mr.. and Mrs. Wallace
F'airbank, at Cold Spring Harbor, L.
l. Three rosy-ch eeked, happy grand
children brighten the evening of his
life-~ He is still as eagerly interested
in the trend of political events, how
ever, as in the days he accompanied
Lincoln on the trip when he debated
with Douglas.
President Wilson's Mexican policies
do not appeal to~hin, for he considers
them halfway measures.
either we ought to have nothing
to do with Mexico" he declared COT
we ought to, go in and esta blish law
and order throughout the whole coun-
try. We ought to find a good leader
in Mexico, set him up, recognize him,
and then establish a protectorate as we
did in Cuba and the Philippines.
fT fear that hunting Villa will pre-
cipitate more trouble. The Mexicans
have hated US since the Mexican war.
when we took away California, New
Mexico. Arizona and added to Texas.
I believe that they have a good right
to hate us, for we certainly did give
them a, good beating at PaIo Alto and
Monterey.
WAR with Mexico might cost many
lives, but our. dread of war is not to be
ron ed in IN a Yr171'x
got to be willing to- furnish the might
to do the right. In 1916 the people
didn't want the war. They were re-
luctant toy enter it, but war was de-
clared because we knew that it was
the only right course for US to pur-
sue. There was much feeling in the
United States at that time, much
greater than there is at present.
when the news that war had been
declared against Mexico first reached
the little border town of Fulton, where
lived, they had the band out, and
with their rifles. We had mass
meetings and speeches on the street
corners. In those days pretty nearly
every boy was a good rifle sf1 OF. Every
farmers boy, of course learned to
shoot a rife. The guns were all
muzz1e leaders in those days, though.
why do you suppose the feeling
Mr.. Nelson was ased.
1.-THE poor people were more loyal
to the government then. in a vague
way; but It would he difficult for me
to say exactly how. Perhaps it was
because we did not have as mixed
and the revolution and war
of 1912 were not so faR<aw !
There was craze after the Mexi- |
can war for military Presidents, but it |
doesn't appear now as if the present |
trou BILE in Mexico would make Presi-
dents of the military commanders"
What do you think Presi dent Lin |
ro1n would have done under the pres |
ent circumstances, Mr.. Nelson?'' asked |
his queStioner.
He'd have sent army there long |
ago to organize a stable government. |
He would have been nauseated with |
the murders and outrages upon Amer
leans that have been going on there
for the last few years, and he wouldn't
have stood it for a. minute