Sketches of the campaign in northern Mexico : in eighteen hundred forty-six and seven / by an officer of the First Regiment of Ohio volunteers.

88 THE INFLUENCE OF THE PRIESTHOOD.
States had interpreted the character of the enemy aright,
they yet greatly over-estimated the influence of the people of
the republic! of Mexico, if they supposed that their wishes
would be in the least regarded by the central government.
Arms and religion govern Mexico. The soldier and the priest
control her destinies. The priesthood-perhaps foreseeing
disastrous results for their church, in the conquest of their
country by the free-thinking Yankees-promptly brought to
the aid of the Dictator all their potent, pecuniary, and spiritual resources. Though quite shrewd enough to know that it
but little concerned our government whether Christian, Jew,
Turk, or Infidel possessed the land, yet these holy gentlemen,
our President and Congress, with perfect unanimity, and will be prosecuted with
vigor and energy against your army and rulers; but those of the Mexican people
who remain neutral will not be molested.
" our government is in the hands of tyrants and usurpers. They have abolished
your State governments, they have overthrown your federal constitution, they have
deprived you of the right of suffrage, destroyed the liberty of the press, despoiled
you of your arms, and reduced you to a state of absolute dependence upon the power
of a military dictator. Your army and rulers extort from the people, by grievous
taxation, by forced loans and military seizures, the very money which sustains the
usurpers in power. Being disarmed, you are left defenseless, an easy prey to the
savage Camanches, who not only destroy your lives and property, but drive into a
captivity, more horrible than death itself, your wives and children. It is your military rulers who have reduced you to this deplorable condition. It is these tyrants
and their corrupt and cruel satellites, gorged with the people's treasure, by whom
you are thus oppressed and impoverished; some of whom have boldly advocated a
monarchical government, and would place an European prince on the throne of
Mexico. We come to obtain reparation for repeated wrongs and injuries; we come
to obtain indemnity for the past, and security for the future; we come to overthrow
the tyrants who have destroyed your liberties; but we come to make no war upon
the people of Mexico, nor upon any form of free government they may choose to
select for themselves. It is our wish to see you liberated from despots, to drive back
the savage Camanches, to prevent the renewal of their assaults, and to compel them
to restore to you, from captivity, your long-lost wives and children. Your religion,
your altars and churches, the property of your churches and citizens, the emblems
of your faith and its ministers, shall be protected, and remain inviolate. Hundreds
of our army, and hundreds of thousands of our people, are members of the Catholic
church. In every State, and in nearly every city and village of our Union, Catholic