sparseness of the population, especially since the Americans had to keep together. For this reason, though some of the enemy expected us to rouse the nation by undertaking to enforce such a policy, the wiser Mexicans did not look for it. On the ground that places would be occupied alternately by the contending armies, the British chargé at Washington deplored the order to exact contributions; but the course of the war preserved the Mexicans from this misfortune in a way he did not anticipate.
22. Ho. 60; 30, 1, pp. 1048, 1062, 1081, 1085 (Scott), 1050, 1063, 1066 (gen. orders). J. Parrott to Marcy (note 21). 256Id. to Id., Dec. 28, 1847, private. 60Butler to Marcy, Mar. 7, 1848. 69Wool to Marcy, Jan. 24, 1848. Sen. 14; 30, 1, pp. 11, 138. 63Marcy to Gates, Mar. 7, 1848; to Davenport, May 2, 1848. 65Scott, gen. orders 358, 376, 395 (1817); 15, 31 (1848). Scott, Mems., ui, 553, 582. Grant, Mems., i, 170-1. 61McDowell to Hunter, Feb. 20; Mar. 5, 1848. Rodriguez, Breve Reseña, 1849, 5. 69Scott to commander at Jalapa, Jan. 6, 1848. 61McDowell to Monclova ayunt., Mar. 5, 1848. 80Actg. treas., Méx. state, Feb. 29, 1848. 60Taylor to Marcy, Nov. 20, 1847. 60Butler to Marcy, Mar. 2, 7, 1848. 92Mex. ayunt., session of Sept. 16, 1847. 92Quitman, proclam., Sept. 22. 92Veramendi to ayunt., Sept. 24. 65Wool, orders 157, Dec., 1847. Delta, Dec. 19, 1847 ("Mustang"). 6 Memoir on Mex. finances. Sen. 19; 30, 1, pp. 2-4 (Scott). Moreno, Canón, 380. 69Wool to Taylor, Mar. 7, 1847. 61McDowell to Webb, Apr. 15, 1848. 358Williams to father, Dec. 27, 1847.
Besides the $150,000, Scott collected some $70,000 (about $12,000 captured at Cerro Gordo, nearly $50,000 for captured tobacco, and smaller amounts for licenses, etc.). Polk was accused of inconsistency for holding that Mexico could pay us no indemnity except in territory and yet expecting to draw large revenues from that country (Amer. Review, Jan., 1848, p.*2). The reply is threefold: 1, in the latter case he assumed that Mexico was to be deprived by military force of the revenues normally used by a nation; 2, even if a Mexican government might have had the physical power to raise a cash indemnity for us, it could not actually have obtained the money from the people for that purpose, as our own armies were expected to do by force; and, 3, Polk's expectations were not realized. Polk was also charged with encroaching upon the prerogatives of the House both in taxing the Mexicans and in spending the proceeds. Webster and Calhoun concurred in this view (Cong. Globe, 30, 1, 495-6). But if Gen. Taylor had a right — as all admitted — to impress a Mexican donkey into the service of his army, Polk had a right to do all that he did in this regard. The authority of the commander-in-chief in the enemy's country, waging war according to the Constitution, was quite broad enough to cover it. See Cong. Globe, 30, 1, app., 423-4.
The estimated possible revenues were as follows: import duties, $12,000,000; duties on goods passing to the interior, $2,400,000; direct taxes on real estate, professions, trades, etc., $3,000,000; duties on the production of gold and silver, $600,000; melting and assay dues, $50,000; export duties on coined gold and silver, $1,000,000; revenue from the monopolies, $3,525,000 (61Memoir). Transit dues on animals and goods, including the duties at city gates (alcabalas), were to be discontinued. For a short time in 1847 Perry allowed logwood to be exported under a 10 per cent duty. It seemed impracticable to seize the mines, for the miners would probably have fled on the approach of American troops.
Scott resolved not to take the ordinary state and city revenues, because
