ay 23d for Puebla. He arrived there on
the 28th, and was met and escorted into the city by a number of
officers. Along the streets of the city through which he passed the
balconies were filled with Mexican ladies and the avenues crowded with
men. The populace cheered him heartily and escorted him to the palace.
The soldiers, volunteers and regulars, gave him the heartiest welcome,
showing that he had the respect and confidence of the army, and the
demonstrations of the Mexicans evidenced that they regarded him as a
humane and Christian conqueror.

In this connection it is well to produce the address of General Scott
to the Mexican people after the battle of Cerro Gordo:

[Illustration: Route From
VERA CRUZ TO MEXICO]

"MEXICANS! The late events of the war and the measures
adopted in consequence by our Government make it my duty to address
you, in order to lay before you truths of which you are ignorant,
because they have been criminally concealed from you. I do not ask
you to believe me simply on my word--though he who has not been
found false has a claim to be believed--but to judge for yourselves
of these truths from facts within the view and scrutiny of you all.
Whatever may have been the origin of this war, which the United
States was forced to undertake by insurmountable causes, we regard
it as an evil. War is ever such to both belligerents, and the reason
and justice of the case, if not known on both sides, are in dispute
and claimed by each. You have proof of this truth as well as we, for
in Mexico, as in the United States, there have existed and do exist
two opposite parties, one desiring peace and the other war.
Governments have, however, sacred duties to perform from which they
can not swerve; and these duties frequently impose, from national
considerations, a silence and reserve that displeases at all times
the majority of those who, from views purely personal or private,
are formed in opposition, to which Governments can pay little
attention, expecting the nation to repose in them the confidence due
to a magistracy of its own selection--considerations of high policy
and of continental American interests precipitated even in spite of
circumspection of the Cabinet at Washington. This Cabinet, ardently
desiring to terminate all differences with Mexico, spared no effort
compatible with honor and dignity. It cherished the most flattering
hopes of attaini