oreign to his nature. He was
incapable of pretence, and his simplicity was inspired by that
disdain of all meanness which had been his characteristic from a
child. His brain was disturbed by no wild visions; no intemperate
ambition confused his sense of right and wrong. "The essence of his
mind," as has been said of another of like mould, "was clearness,
healthy purity, incompatibility with fraud in any of its forms." It
was his instinct to be true and straightforward as it was Napoleon's
to be false and subtle. And, if, as a youth, he showed no trace of
marked intellectual power; if his instructors saw no sign of
masterful resolution and a genius for command, it was because at West
Point, as elsewhere, his great qualities lay dormant, awaiting the
emergency that should call them forth.

CHAPTER 1.2. MEXICO. 1846-47.

1846.

On June 30, 1846, Jackson received the brevet rank of second
lieutenant of artillery. He was fortunate from the very outset of his
military career. The officers of the United States army, thanks to
the thorough education and Spartan discipline of West Point, were
fine soldiers; but their scope was limited. On the western frontier,
far beyond the confines of civilisation, stood a long line of forts,
often hundreds of miles apart, garrisoned by a few troops of cavalry
or companies of infantry. It is true that there was little chance of
soldierly capacity rusting in these solitary posts. From the borders
of Canada to the banks of the Rio Grande swarmed thousands of savage
warriors, ever watchful for an opportunity to pay back with bloody
interest the aggression of the whites. Murder, robbery, and massacre
followed each other in rapid succession, and the troops were allowed
few intervals of rest. But the warfare was inglorious--a mere series
of petty incidents, the punishment of a raid, or the crushing of an
isolated revolt. The scanty butcher's bills of the so-called battles
made small appeal to the popular imagination, and the deeds of the
soldiers in the western wilderness, gallant as they might be, aroused
less interest in the States than the conflicts of the police with the
New York mob. But although pursuits which carried the adversaries
half across the continent, forays which were of longer duration than
a European war, and fights against overwhelming odds, where no
quarter was asked or given, kept the American officers constantly
employed, their training was hardly sufficient for the needs