We Take Nothing By Conquest, Thank God!
OR
How One Drunk Hoosier Accidentally Annexed Mexico
“However helpless a nation may feel, there is necessarily a point beyond which she cannot be expected to go under any circumstances, in surrendering her territory as the price of peace.” -Nicholas Trist
On November 27, 1847 Nicholas Trist, Commissioner-Plenipotentiary to Mexico, received word of his replacement from President James K. Polk. He was to be relieved of his duties as negotiator of a peace treaty with Mexico to be replaced by former Senator Edward Allen Hannegan of Indiana. [1] The news could not have hit Nicholas Trist harder. Not only was he not to be reimbursed for his efforts [2] but he would be returning to Washington with the stigma of incompetence and insubordination. And furthermore, he had to suspend peace talks with the Mexicans, his only allowed duties to be the preparation for Hannegan's arrival. Interim President of Mexico Manuel de la Peña y Peña and the Mexican Congress were annoyed at this recent turn of events, as were the British representatives in Mexico City. Manuel Peña resigned as Interim President over the issue, to be replaced by Pedro Maria Anaya. [3] Trist wrote to the President that replacing him would be an act of brinksmanship, where the collapse of government in Mexico would be left to chance. His correspondence was ignored.
James K. Polk could not have chosen a worse replacement for Trist. Hannegan was an alcoholic, an unapologetic expansionist and worse, knew no Spanish himself. He brought a Creole from Louisiana to serve as his interpreter. He arrived in Veracruz in late December and made his way to Mexico City by early January. He showed up drunk, having annoyed the merchant-marines he had sailed with by drinking more than his grog ration and he spent his time traveling to Mexico City even more drunk, getting a taste for pulque on the very path that would one day be known as the “Pulque Trail”. [4] His arrival in Mexico City was a scandal followed by intrigue. He delivered a sealed letter asserting his authority to Nicholas Trist and another to General Winfield Scott- a letter that told of his dismissal and replacement by General Gideon Johnson Pillow. Scott was furious, having arrested Pillow for insubordination shortly prior to Hannegan's departure for Mexico. He was made to release Pillow and was relieved of command, returning to Washington later in the month.
The Mexican peace delegation was horrified by the selection of Hannegan. He often showed up drunk to their meetings and unlike Trist, whose Spanish was fluent and had a hint of Havana, he could speak only through the poor Spanish of his Creole interpreter. Beyond that, Hannegan had ignored all of the work Trist had put towards the negotiations, essentially starting the discussions anew. Trist had offered the least harsh terms he was allowed to which were almost too harsh for the Mexicans to accept. Hannegan began negotiations with the harshest terms, including as a demand much of the territory of the former Republic of the Rio Grande. [5] Negotiations came to a standstill and Anaya warned Hannegan that his authority as President was only getting more and more tenuous with each day that went by without progress.
The situation for the government in Mexico was dire. The Yucatan had practically declared independence and was in the midst of a three way civil war, Michoacon, Coahuila and Nuevo Leon were refusing contact with envoys from the government in Querétaro. Other provinces seemed soon to follow. But even then, order could have been maintained in Mexico, if not for the actions of Brigadier-General Sterling Price.
Price, Military Governor of New Mexico, had received reports of a planned Mexican attack from Chihuahua and into New Mexico. He moved his command to El Paso in preparation for a preemptive strike. He was told by his superior, Adjutant General Robert Jones not to act on this intelligence and to remain in El Paso for further orders. He disregarded this and marched on the city of Chihuahua on March 6, 1848. He was approached by envoys of General Angel Trias under flag of truce and told they had no intention of marching on New Mexico. He believed this to be a ruse by the Mexican force and continued his march, occupying the city of Chihuahua. He pursued Trias' forces south of the city, finally meeting them at a hardened position south of Chihuahua. There, at Santa Cruz de Rosales he laid in for a siege against a force three times his size. Little happened until he took the city by assault on March 16. A repositioning of his artillery led the Mexican force to believe a retreat was happening and he used their hasty response to outmaneuver them. Trias surrendered by sundown and General Price forced on him a treaty to end fighting in Chihuahua. Modeled on the Treaty of Cahuenga, which ended fighting in Alta California, the Treaty of Santa Cruz de Rosales was an informal military treaty that disarmed all Mexican forces in the state of Chihuahua and turned the state over to Price's authority. When word of this treaty reached Querétaro on March 30 1848, it was the last straw. [6]
Representatives from Chihuahua left the Congress, believing themselves to be betrayed by the American pretension of peace negotiations. They believed the Treaty of Santa Cruz de Rosales had the same intention as the Treaty of Cahuenga- a none too subtle interlude to annexation. Representatives from other states followed, leaving an already bare chamber all the more empty. They believed that the stalling of peace negotiations was intentional on the part of the Americans. Pedro Maria Anaya, disgraced and abandoned, resigned as President and famously declared, “There is no government in Mexico.”
[1] This is part of the POD. Upon being told by friends in the State Legislature that he will be replaced in the Senate by Indiana Governor John Whitcomb, he resigns early and seeks appointment as Commissioner-Plenipotentiary to Mexico from Polk, whose troubles with Trist were well known. IOTL, Polk never appointed a replacement and Trist refused to leave his job despite orders to the contrary- and that lead to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
[2] As IOTL, only here he doesn't at the least have a success
[3] He was replaced very shortly by Anaya for different reasons IOTL. And unlike IOTL, Trist doesn't manuever him back into the top seat.
[4] The OTL name for the rail line between Veracruz and Mexico City completed in the 1860s
[5] Polk and his Cabinet at one point considered demanding these territories and abandoned it after finally being delivered the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The demand here includes Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.
[6] Except for the informal treaty, this is pretty much as IOTL. Only difference is it happened after the peace treaty was ratified by Congress.