Today in History:

639 Series I Volume L-I Serial 105 - Pacific Part I

Page 639 Chapter LXII. CORRESPONDENCE-UNION AND CONFEDERATE.

cause. To supress a fact is equal to uttering a falsehood. Both are deficient in brains for the posts which they fill, if their opinions and predilections were not obnoxious to the vast majority of the voting population of this Territory. The sequel will show that I do not under-estimate public intelligence or the virtuous instincts of the people of New Mexico. Had a Republican governor been appointed for this Territory last May (instead of old Rencher, who is fit, perhaps, to govern Buncombe or Currituck Counties, in North Carolina) and sent to Sant Fe the robbing of Government trains, the burning and surrendering of military posts, and the disgraceful surrender of old Lynde, superannuated and unfit for service, of a U. S. force of 750 men to 350 Arizona cut-throats would never have occurred. It seems to me it was a great oversight in not sending to the Rio Grande from California three months ago some 10,000 or 12,000 troops, infantry and cavalry, to crush out the Texas and Arizona rebels. I fear it is too late now. I fear very much that the Confederate forces under the lead of General A. S. Johnston (formerly commanding officer in Utah and California), Colonel John R. Baylor, Major Armistead, Major Waller, Colonel Ford, and Colonel Thomas J. Mastin (a young, bold, chivalrous, and talented, but mistaken, Mississippian, the friend and pet of Jeff. Davis) will form a junction at La Mesilla before the arrival of troops from California and Kansas, capture Fort Craig (as they did Fillmore), Albuquerque, and Santa Fe, and thus get a permanent foothold in New Mexico, as they now have in Arizona. I very much fear this. Should such be the case, the Union cause will be terribly menaced, if not absolutely lost, on the Pacific side. Sir, in war there must be resolution, energy, will, iron will, and nerve to push things to their very utmost. Old fogy generals and governors have played the deuce with this region. They have permitted the demoralization of the army and the people, the spread of faro and monte banks, the reign of lynch law and filibusterism, vice and crime to run riot, and virtue, liberty, and intelligence to be overslaughed. There must be a change, a radical change, or the country is undone. Last winter a distinguished citizen of Pennsylvania (ex-Governor Davis R. Porter) and General Duff Green, of Washington City, obtained from the Territorial Legislature of New Mexico the passage of an act granting them and their associates the exclusive right of way or privilege for a period of five years to run or build railroads through this Territory. And why? They were doubtless looking ahead for connecting Memphis and New Orleans with Guaymas on the California Gulf, via Fort Smith, the Southern Overland Mail Route, to El Paso on the Rio Grande, thence through Chihuahua and Sonora (Mexico) to the terminus. In this project they were seconded by Don Angel Frias, ex-Governor of Chihuahua, and Governor Ignacio Pesqueira, of Sonora, besides English, French, Mexican, and American capitalists to back them. The secession movement has thrown this project in the background, perhaps will destroy it altogether. The scheme was a feasible one, and there were men at the head of it who would have carried it out. The valley of the Rio Grande at the present time is an isolated region, but eventually it will be to the American Union (should it continue perpetual, one, and indissoluble), what the Rhine is to France and Germany. It will be settled by the cultivators of the grape and luscious fruits, sugar cane, and fleecy flocks, and the vine-clad hills will resound with the merry music of cottagers and vintagers, making the air vocal with stirring tunes, like Bingen on the Rhine and other songs. Then there is near by, say in the State of Chihuahua, rich silver mines, which, when properly developed by science and machinery and the vigorous arms of American labor, will yield annually almost as much silver as there is now gold


Page 639 Chapter LXII. CORRESPONDENCE-UNION AND CONFEDERATE.