d
men to take California. But Commodore John Drake Sloat had been sent to
the Pacific with a squadron of the navy to prevent the seizure of
Monterey by the English. And to make certainty more certain, Consul
Thomas O. Larkin at Monterey had been instructed, about the time of
Slidell's appointment to Mexico, to be in readiness for any emergency.
Before Kearny could cross the mountains, Larkin and Sloat had taken
possession of California, almost unresisted.

In September, 1846, General Taylor won a brilliant victory at Monterey,
twenty miles south of the Rio Grande, and his forces were being
augmented every day for the march overland to the City of Mexico. Whig
politicians hailed at once the new general as their candidate for the
Presidency in 1848. Naturally the Administration did not care to aid
their opponents in their political plans, and its leaders cast about for
a Democratic general. None was to be found; and Thomas H. Benton,
willing that Jackson's plan for his elevation to the Presidency should
be fulfilled, asked Polk to make him commander-in-chief of all the
forces operating in Mexico. Benton had never had any military
experience, and Polk was relieved to find that such an appointment would
not be confirmed by the Senate. General Winfield Scott, already
quarreling with the Secretary of War, and hence out of favor with the
Administration, was the only alternative. Scott was also a candidate for
the Whig nomination for the Presidency. After much hesitation most of
the troops of Taylor were placed under the command of Scott and
reinforced with still others, and all set sail for Vera Cruz, then as
now the great port of Mexico. The city fell on March 29, 1847, and the
march to the City of Mexico was about to begin.

Meanwhile, Santa Anna had been made commander of all the Mexican armies,
and he, learning of Taylor's weak and isolated position south of
Monterey, hastened with twenty thousand soldiers to surround and capture
him. Taylor moved forward and met the enemy at Buena Vista, after
receiving some raw recruits, on February 23, 1847, and completely routed
him, thus adding to the laurels he had already won and convincing the
country that he had been badly treated by the authorities in
Washington.

Scott began the march to the Mexican capital on April 8. He met resolute
resistance at Cerro Gordo, where on April 17 and 18 a large army of the
enemy was attacked and defeated. At this point Nicholas Trist, envoy
f