[Sidenote:  Scott’s campaign. Eggleston, 284-286; McMaster, 327-328.]

[Sidenote:  He captures City of Mexico, 1847.]

335.  Scott’s Invasion of Mexico.—­The plan of Scott’s campaign was that he should land at Vera Cruz, march to the city of Mexico,—­two hundred miles away,—­capture that city, and force the Mexicans to make peace.  Everything fell out precisely as it was planned.  With the help of the navy Scott captured Vera Cruz.  He had only about one-quarter as many men as the Mexicans.  But he overthrew them at Cerro Gordo, where the road to the City of Mexico crosses the coast mountains (April, 1847).  With the greatest care and skill he pressed on and at length came within sight of the City of Mexico.  The capital of the Mexican Republic stood in the midst of marshes, and could be reached only over narrow causeways which joined it to the solid land.  August 20, 1847, Scott beat the Mexicans in three pitched battles, and on September 14 he entered the city with his army, now numbering only six thousand men fit for active service.

[Illustration:  THE BEAR FLAG.]

[Sidenote:  California.]

[Sidenote:  The “Bear Republic,” 1846.]

[Sidenote:  California seized by American soldiers.]

336.  Seizure of California.—­California was the name given to the Mexican possessions on the Pacific coast north of Mexico itself.  There were now many American settlers there, especially at Monterey.  Hearing of the outbreak of the Mexican War, they Set up a republic of their own.  Their flag had a figure of a grizzly bear painted on it, and hence their republic is often spoken of as the Bear Republic.  Commodore Stockton with a small fleet was on the Pacific coast.  He and John C. Fremont assisted the Bear Republicans until soldiers under Colonel Kearney reached them from the United States by way of Santa Fe.

[Illustration:  JOHN C. FREMONT.]

[Sidenote:  Mexican cessions, 1848.]

[Sidenote:  The Gadsden Purchase, 1853. McMaster, 334.]

337.  Treaty of Peace, 1848.—­The direct cause of the Mexican War was Mexico’s unwillingness to give up Texas without a struggle.  But the Mexicans had treated many Americans very unjustly and owed them large sums of money.  A treaty of peace was made in 1848.  Mexico agreed to abandon her claims to Texas, California, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado.  The United States agreed to withdraw its armies from Mexico, to pay Mexico fifteen million dollars, and to pay the claims of American citizens on Mexico.  These claims proved to amount to three and one-half million dollars, In the end, therefore, the United States paid eighteen and one-half million dollars for this enormous and exceedingly valuable addition to its territory.  When the time came to run the boundary line, the American and Mexican commissioners could not agree.  So the United States paid ten million dollars more and received an additional strip of land between the Rio Grande and the Colorado rivers.  This gave the United States its present southern boundary.  This agreement was made in 1853 by James Gadsden for the United States, and the land bought is usually called the Gadsden Purchase.