Who is Nicholas Trist?

Nicholas Trist was a distinguished looking American who negotiated the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which ended the Mexican American War and gave the United States 500,000 square miles of land at the cost of $15 million.  Why then was he arrested by the United States on March 17, 1848 on orders from President Polk?

The answer is a political one...it begins with Trist arriving in Mexico with authority to negotiate the peace treaty with Mexico along certain lines outlined by the President.  By the time the treaty was actually signed on February 2, 1848, Trist had long since been called back to Washington by his government.

Trist was a vain, stiff-necked sort of guy from Virginia who had a habit of ignoring orders.  He chose to ignore these orders as well..  Mexico was refusing to even negotiate at the time and Polk wanted to take a harder line, Trist wanted to appease Mexico.

Back in Washington, an "All Mexico Movement" had started with the idea of gaining all of Mexico. It was made up of antislavery advocates and extreme Manifest Destiny enthusiasts and actually became known as the Destinarians.  Polk was upset with them, upset with Trist's insubordination and said, "if the present opportunity be not seized at once, all chance of making a treaty will be lost...possibly forever."

One politician is noted as saying about Trist after the treaty was signed, "the treaty was negotiated by an unauthorized agent, with an unacknowledged government, submitted to a dissatisfied Senate."
On March 17th, Trist was put under arrest by US soldiers in Mexico City.  It was not the end of peace problems with Mexico.

Next time...Anti-slavery Limbo
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Today in Pioneer History:  On April 8, 1846, General Zachery Taylor defeats a superior Mexican force at the Battle of Palo Alto, north of the Rio Grade before the war is even declared.

Mexico Miscalulates!

President Polk knew that Mexico wanted war, and he also knew many in Congress didn't, so he made moves to insure that Mexico would strike first, insuring his support in Congress. 

First he sent General Zachery Taylor with 4000 men into the disputed area between the Nueces  and Rio Grande Rivers.  He had the American consul in Monterey arouse the American Californians in the patriotic love of liberty and independence.  Polk also advised U.S. Pacific fleet commander, John D. Sloan to possess and blockade California ports as he saw fit.  Meanwhile, Captain John Charles Fremont who was on a supposedly scientific mission, moved into California armed with 60 men. 

Mexican officials felt that their army was more than a match for the American forces and that the United States was too divided in their opinion of war to be effective.  These proved fatal miscalculations! 

On April 25, 1846, Mexican troops moved into the disputed Texas border and opened fire on Taylor's forces.  This gave Polk what he wanted and in his war message to Congress, he said, "Mexico has invaded our territory and shed American blood on American soil."  Congress agreed and war was declared.

There were dissenting opinions, however, as the South was eager for war which many antislavery forces thought proved that they didn't want to extend democracy as much as they wanted to extend "slavocracy" all the way to the Pacific Coast.  Nevertheless, we were at war with Mexico and time and other forces would solve the slavery question in the West.

Next time...The Conquest of California
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On This Day in Pioneer History:  "On April 13, 1866, Butch Cassidy, the last of the great western train-robbers, is born in Beaver, Utah Territory.Born Robert Leroy Parker, he was the son of Mormon parents who had answered Brigham Young’s call for young couples to help build communities of Latter Day Saints on the Utah frontier.

Pioneer Pieces: California Needs an Incentive

How to lure people to this new territory along the Pacific coast - especially in the wake of folks like Daniel Webster who saw no good or profit in anything outside the eastern United States?

Enter John Sutter and James Marshall, partners in that now famous mill at Coloma.  Marshall thought he saw a glint of gold in the sand one day in January 1848 and picked up the small nugget to change the course of US history forever.

Between January 1848 and the fall of 1848, the locals from San Jose and San Francisco enjoyed their own friendly gold digging picnic.  There was no violence, few disputes about claims, and just an overall good time was had by all.

Then the news of the discovery of gold reached the East coast in the fall of 1848...President Polk who was a avid believer in the possibiliries of the West all along - was very vocal about his I-told-you-sos to the Websters of the East.  He talked about the abundance of gold in California for anybody willing to make the trip - which turned out to be every able American who was fast enough to pack a carpetbag before their neighbor got the idea.  The canals, rivers and trails were soon overflowing with pioneers who couldn't get to California fast enough.

Next time - By River West