uneducated even in the pleasant
discipline of militia trainings, do not view matters in the same light
as military men whose knowledge of detail, and of the responsibilities
of real service, make them unwilling to engage in war, or even to
threaten hostilities, without the amplest preparation to perform all
they promise. Without such true and earnest discipline warlike array is
but a military cheat.

It is vain to predict what might have been the result had the advice of
the gallant and prudent Gaines been adopted; yet it cannot be doubted
that a well equipped body of twenty-five or thirty thousand men would
have marched to the city of Mexico and dictated peace at the cost of one
fourth the blood and treasure that were subsequently expended. A
lingering policy of hesitation together with the acknowledged
inefficiency of Mexico, may palliate the errors of our cabinet; but wise
politicians will not henceforth fail to be impressed with the necessity
of military preparation which this conflict has taught us.

A war which was originally supposed to be one exclusively of defence,
was suddenly changed to an aggressive conflict, and is, perhaps, an
additional excuse for our unpreparedness. Most of the events in this
narrative derive peculiar interest from the fact that it is the first
and only offensive war into which we have been forced. With every known
principle of defence we had been long acquainted; for, in the school of
Washington, we acquired a sound, practical knowledge, which subsequent
experience, under the most perfect system of self-government, enabled us
to improve. But it is to be hoped that many years will elapse before our
volunteers will be again called from their peaceful duties to take part
in an aggressive war, and especially against a government whose theory
of rule is the same as our own.

NOTE.--General Gaines, who commanded the western division,
was censured by the War department for having made a
requisition on the governor of Louisiana for State troops
to be sent to the army in Texas under Taylor's command, at
the moment of apprehended danger described in this chapter.
General Taylor, for more than a year previous to September,
1845, commanded one of the brigades of Gaines's division,
and the latter never knew _by authority_ that the former had
been disconnected from him, except upon temporary service,
until advised by the secretary of war