stances prevented the completeness of the bargain. This
miscreant was president and dictator of Mexico in 1853-55, was banished
and returned several times, and was still plotting to recover his power
when he died, in his eighty-second year.

The capture of the capital of Mexico completed the victorious campaign.
The entrance into the city was made September 14, 1847, the American
flag raised over the palace, and General Scott, with a sweep of his
sword over his head, while his massive frame made a striking picture in
front of the palace, proclaimed the conquest of the country. All that
remained was to arrange the terms of peace.

TERMS OF PEACE.

In the following winter, American ambassadors met the Mexican congress
in session at Guadalupe Hidalgo, so named from the small town where it
was situated. There was a good deal of discussion over the terms; our
ambassadors insisting that Mexico should surrender the northern
provinces, which included the present States of California, Nevada,
Utah, and the Territories of Arizona and New Mexico and portions of
Colorado and Wyoming, as indemnity for the war. Mexico would not
consent, and matters drifted along until the 2d of February, 1848, when
the new Mexican government agreed to these terms. The treaty was
modified to a slight extent by the United States Senate, adopted on the
10th of March, ratified by the Mexican congress sitting at Queretaro,
May 30th, and proclaimed by President Polk on the 4th of July. Thus
ended our war with Mexico.

By the terms of the treaty, the United States was to pay Mexico
$15,000,000, and assume debts to the extent of $3,000,000 due to
American citizens from Mexico. These sums were in payment for the
immense territory ceded to us. This cession, the annexation of Texas,
and a purchase south of the Gila River in 1853, added almost a million
square miles to our possessions, nearly equaling the Louisiana purchase
and exceeding the whole area of the United States in 1783.

It may sound strange, but it is a fact, that the governing of the new
territory caused so much trouble that more than once it was seriously
proposed in Congress that Mexico should be asked to take it back again.
General Sherman was credited with the declaration that if the identity
of the man who caused the annexation of Texas could be established, he
ought to be court-martialed and shot. However, all this changed when the
vast capabilities and immeasurable worth of the new co