which provided that the Rio Grande from its mouth westward towards the Pacific, should be the boundary line between the two countries, thus giving in its entirety the splendid domain of Texas to the United States, as well as New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and California. In consideration of this vast acquisition of territory, the United States paid to Mexico, though the former had been the victor and therefore entitled to make terms the sum of fifteen million dollars. Those uninformed persons who consider the payment of twenty million dollars to Spain for the Philippine Islands, at the close of the war between the two countries, an anomaly in treaties between a victorious and a defeated country, have perhaps never heard of the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo, which gave to the United States a territory one-fourth as large as the then existing United States and for which it paid fifteen million dollars.

The conclusion of hostilities between the two countries has here been considered before its actual occurrence, since this work proposes to be a history of Kentucky rather than of the war with Mexico. But before that war had ended, the president had made a second call upon Kentucky for troops to the extent of two regiments. There was no more hesitancy in responding to this call than there had been to the first. Immediately two regiments were formed. The first one, numbered as the Third Kentucky Infantry, had for its field officers: Colonel, Manlius V. Thompson; lieutenant colonel, Thomas L. Crittenden, and major, John C. Breckinridge. The Fourth regiment was commanded by Colonel John S. ("Cerro Gordo") Williams, Lieutenant Colonel William Preston, and Major William T. Ward. These regiments, however, saw no active service, as peace was declared before they could reach the seat of war.

It may be of interest to note, in brief, the history of the above named officers. Lieutenant Colonel Thomas L, Crittenden, a son of Senator John J. Crittenden, later was a

major general in the regular army of the United States, winning his stars in the War Petween the States, in which great contest his brother, George B. Crittenden, was a major general in the Confederate army.

Major John C. Breckinridge was afterwards a member of congress from the Ashland district of Kentucky; vice president of the United States; senator from Kentucky; major general in the Confederate army and secretary of war in the cabinet of President Jefferson Davis.

Colonel John S. Williams of the Fourth Kentucky regiment (Cerro Gordo), as has been hitherto stated, became a brigadier general in the Confederate army, and senator from Kentucky in the United States senate.

Lieutenant Colonel William Preston, of the Fourth regiment, advanced $50,000 for the equipment and forwarding to the front of the First Kentucky Infantry and the First Kentucky Cavalry. After the war, he served in congress from the Louisville district; was minister of the United States at the court of Spain, and later, a major general in the Confederate army. At Shiloh, he held in his arms his dying brother-in-law, General Albert Sidney Johnston, another distinguished Kentuckian.

Major William T. Ward, of the Fourth Kentucky, was later a brigadier general of volunteers in the Federal army, a distinguished lawyer and an excellent citizen.

This brief recital, which covers only the field officers of the two regiments, indicates the character of the Kentuckians who answered their country's call. Among the line officers, and, indeed, among the private soldiers, there were many who in later years, rose to prominence and, in civil and in military positions, proved their high character and devotion to the state. Few of the living Kentuckians who had enlisted for the war with Mexico, failed to see service a few years later in either the Federal or Confederate army.

General Zachary Taylor, a grim old fighting man, had won such distinction in the war with Mexico, that the politicians at once turned their eyes towards him. The Whig party, from one cause or another, was waning and sought to recover its wasted strength by appealing to the popular sentiment of the people with a military hero. General Taylor, it was believed by the masses, had been unjustly treated in Mexico when the greater part of his regular army support had been taken from him for the attack on Vera Cruz, leaving him with a mere handful of raw volunteers with which to meet the twenty thousand trained troops of Santa Anna at Buena Vista. Notwithstanding this handicap, he had declined to accept the advice of the War Department and withdraw to Monterey, but had boldly marched to the front, where finding an advantageous position, he had sat down and, in effect, invited Santa Anna to call and get acquainted. The result has been stated herein. It is known of all men.

General Taylor, "Old Rough and Ready," was the idol of the people of the United States who had then and have now an intense admiration for the man who says but little and does much.

The Whig party, always able but not always victorious, saw its opportunity and when its national convention met June 8, 1848, in Philadelphia, it recognized that the psychological moment for a victory had arrived, and with

a foresight not always seen in national conventions, it nominated for president General Zachary Taylor, a Kentuckian, but then a resident of Louisiana, and for vice president, Millard Fillmore, of New York. It is extremely doubtful if General Taylor, at the time of his nomination, owed allegiance to either the Whig or the Democratic party. He was then and for most of his years had been a soldier seeing his duty and doing it, as a true soldier always does, and giving little heed to the petty and pestilent divisions of party politics. He accepted the nomination as he would have accepted an order from the war department to proceed to make war upon any enemy threatening the country.

The nomination of General Taylor was as wormwood and gall to General Scott, who was soldier and politician too, and who went to his honored grave with the feeling that Republics are ungrateful. He had rendered soldierly service to his country for all the years of his manhood and the reward to which he deemed himself entitled was the presidency. He had triumphed in Mexico, as had General Taylor, but being superior to the latter in command, his imperious spirit could ill brook the selection of his subordinate for the highest honors in the gift of the people. Later, he was to have tendered him a like nomination, only to see the great honor of the presidency given to another of his subordinates in Mexico, a mere brigadier general of volunteers,

while he was a major general in the United States army. One can readily find sympathy for the old veteran while, at the same time, recognizing his unfitness for the presidency. The Democratic national convention nominated Lewis Cass, of Michigan, for president, and General William O. Butler, of Kentucky, for vice president. General Butler had been a major general of volunteers in the Mexican war, serving under the command of General Taylor, and had been wounded while gallantly leading his troups at the battle of Monterey. He was a gentleman of much ability and would have honored the high position for which he was nominated, no doubt, in the belief that he could control a certain portion of the vote of those who had served in Mexico, and without any especial reference to his fitness for the position. National conventions sometimes make strange nominations. For instance, there was Sewell of Maine, named for vice president on the ticket with Mr. Bryan in 1896. All that anyone in the convention seemed to know about Mr. Sewell was that he was a wealthy man and would probably make an interesting contribution to the campaign fund. Politics not only makes strange bedfellows but also strange nominations, but this reflection in no wise refers to the naming of General Wm. O. Butler for the vice presidency in 1848. He was entirely competent, an able man.

It is known to everyone that the Whig ticket was elected and that General Taylor, succeeded to the presidency, as the last man ever elected president by that party. In Kentucky, the vote for Taylor was 67,486; for Cass, 49,865. General Taylor was inaugurated March 4, 1849, and died July 9, 1850, after having served but a few days more than sixteen months, and was, of course, succeeded by Vice President Millard Fillmore.

In his history, Smith says: "The father of General Zachary Taylor, one of the most emi

His

nent and worthy of the sons of Kentucky, was Colonel Richard Taylor of Virginia, a gallant officer in the Continental army throughout the Revolutionary war (one of ten brothers in the same service). In 1785 he removed with his family to Kentucky and settled in Jefferson county, and for years distinguished himself by his services in defense of the border against the Indians. Zachary Taylor was nine months old at the date of this removal. He grew to manhood amid the din of Indian warfare and received such education as the country afforded. In 1808, he was appointed a first lieutenant in the regular army and soon after joined the command of General Wilkinson at New Orleans. In the war with England, in 1812-15, he served with distinguished gallantry and success. most noted achievement here was the successful defense of Fort Harrison against the formidable investment and assaults of a greatly superior body of Indians, aided by their white allies from Canada. He bore the rank of major at the close of the war. He was promoted to the rank of colonel in 1832, and rendered most effective service in the Black Hawk war which broke out at that time. Afterwards, in the war against the Seminole tribes of Florida, which became so noted for its long continuance and the great trouble and expense the Indians gave the government from the Everglade swamps of that country, the leading military operations were under the command of Colonel Taylor. His subsequent achievements in the Mexican war and his elevation to the presidency of the United States left nothing more for human ambition and fame to be sought or desired."

The Black Hawk war in 1832, in which General Taylor rendered soldierly service to his country, possesses a singular interest for Kentucky. Among the Illinois volunteers serving in that war was a lean, lank Kentuckian who was captain of a company. Twenty

eight years later this modest captain was elected president of the United States and, as Abraham Lincoln took his high place in the history of the world. A younger Kentuckian was in the same war as his comrade, a graduate of West Point and a lieutenant in the reg

GEN. ZACHARY TAYLOR'S MONUMENT, LOUISVILLE

ular army. He married the daughter of General Taylor, left the army and was afterwards a colonel of volunteers in the war with Mexico; a United States senator from Mississippi, secretary of war in the cabinet of President Pierce, again a United States senator, and when his former comrade, Abraham Lincoln,

Vol. 1-18.

was president of the United States, Jefferson Davis was president of the Confederate states. There seems to be no station to which the youth of this great country may not aspire, as the fortunes of these two great Kentuckians seem to prove.

The people of Kentucky seeming desirous of a change in their organic law, the Constitution of 1799 had apparently outlived its usefulness, while certain of its provisions, acceptable enough at the time of its adoption, were no longer approved by the people. The question of calling a convention being submitted to the popular voice, there were cast in favor of the calling of a constitutional convention 101,828 votes as against 39,792 in opposition. In obedience to this popular sentiment, the general assembly called a convention to meet in Frankfort October 1, 1849, "to change the constitution of the state." The contest for delegates to this convention was a spirited one, especially as regarded the question of the gradual emancipation of the slaves, or the immediate abolishment of slavery. Those in favor of either of these propositions held meetings throughout the state and resolved to bring out candidates wherever there was any possibility of their election. As was shown in a previous chapter, any question involving the emancipation of the slaves caused excitement to rise to a high pitch and in this campaign there was no lack of feeling. Cassius M. Clay, who has been referred to as the chief apostle of emancipation, was a candidate for delegate to the convention, but was not elected. The general result showed that but few of those favoring emancipation were successful in their candidacy, and whatever the new organic system might be, there was no fear that under its provisions there could ever be any interference with the system of slavery. As a matter of fact, when the new constitution was completed, it was found that its framers, to guard against any interference with slavery, had inserted such provisions as