After the fall of the capital and the dispersal of the government of Mexico, it looked very much as if military occupation of the country for a long time might be necessary.  General Scott at once began the preparation of orders, regulations and laws in view of this contingency.  He contemplated making the country pay all the expenses of the occupation, without the army becoming a perceptible burden upon the people.  His plan was to levy a direct tax upon the separate states, and collect, at the ports left open to trade, a duty on all imports.  From the beginning of the war private property had not been taken, either for the use of the army or of individuals, without full compensation.  This policy was to be pursued.  There were not troops enough in the valley of Mexico to occupy many points, but now that there was no organized army of the enemy of any size, reinforcements could be got from the Rio Grande, and there were also new volunteers arriving from time to time, all by way of Vera Cruz.  Military possession was taken of Cuernavaca, fifty miles south of the City of Mexico; of Toluca, nearly as far west, and of Pachuca, a mining town of great importance, some sixty miles to the north-east.  Vera Cruz, Jalapa, Orizaba, and Puebla were already in our possession.

Meanwhile the Mexican government had departed in the person of Santa Anna, and it looked doubtful for a time whether the United States commissioner, Mr. Trist, would find anybody to negotiate with.  A temporary government, however, was soon established at Queretaro, and Trist began negotiations for a conclusion of the war.  Before terms were finally agreed upon he was ordered back to Washington, but General Scott prevailed upon him to remain, as an arrangement had been so nearly reached, and the administration must approve his acts if he succeeded in making such a treaty as had been contemplated in his instructions.  The treaty was finally signed the 2d of February, 1848, and accepted by the government at Washington.  It is that known as the “Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo,” and secured to the United States the Rio Grande as the boundary of Texas, and the whole territory then included in New Mexico and Upper California, for the sum of $15,000,000.

Soon after entering the city of Mexico, the opposition of Generals Pillow, Worth and Colonel Duncan to General Scott became very marked.  Scott claimed that they had demanded of the President his removal.  I do not know whether this is so or not, but I do know of their unconcealed hostility to their chief.  At last he placed them in arrest, and preferred charges against them of insubordination and disrespect.  This act brought on a crisis in the career of the general commanding.  He had asserted from the beginning that the administration was hostile to him; that it had failed in its promises of men and war material; that the President himself had shown duplicity if not treachery in the endeavor to procure the appointment