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

CONTRASTED WITH T'IE MEXICAN ARMY. 91
kinds of their property. A state of things so favorable to
their interests may induce them to wish the continuance of
hostilities." But General Taylor never availed himself of
this authority to levy contributions, and we continued to pay
liberal prices for everything obtained from the enemy.
How differently would the dissolute and brutal soldiery of
Mexico have conducted themselves in an enemy's country!
How differently, indeed, did they often act in their own. We
have the authority of their historians for asserting that their
marches through their native provinces were sometimes
marked by the worst excesses and crimes; that, "they left
behind them, by their unbridled license, an imprint of horror
in the towns through which they passed; seizing upon vineyards, sacking shops, and even murdering poor poulterers to
take away their fowls." So disgusted was an intelligent
Mexican whom I knew, with the arrogance and extortion of
his own troops, that he did not hesitate to admit frankly, that
he preferred the presence of the American army to his own;
since from the former he was sure of obtaining a fair compensation for his property. To a standing army, and an established national church, does Mexico owe most of her troubles
and her poverty. Her government, existing only by the coilsent of the army, is in turn compelled to sustain that army
at all hazards and sacrifices. It is now well understood that
the recognition of the independence of Texas had been deferred, and the war with that state nominally prolonged by
the various military rulers of Mexico, merely as a pretext for
the exaction of supplies, which were afterward squandered in
the maintenance of their ill-gotten and much-abused power.