The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 30, July 1926 - April, 1927 Page: 77

Book Revieis and Notices

claims against Mexico; (2) depredations of American Indians
upon Mexican lives and property; (3) raids of filibusters from
the United States into Mexico; and (4) the boundary dispute.
Each of these subjects is discussed in a separate chapter; the
treatment is painstaking, detailed, and heavily documented. It
has not been generally known how critical was the situaiton when
James Gadsden was sent to Mexico in July, 1853. The principles
at issue, the negotiation of the Gadsden Treaty, and the struggle
for ratification of the treaty, constitute Dr. Rippy's greatest con-
tribution to the study of our relations with Mexico. The reader is
given a feeling of finality, something he does not feel after read-
ing the chapters on Porfirio Diaz.
"The Gadsden Treaty, though one of the most important land-
marks in the relations of the United States and Mexico, left un-
settled several questions which were destined to furnish ample
trouble" (p. 168). The question of claims and frontier disorders
afforded no opportunity for an abatement in ill feeling between
Anglo-Americans and Mexicans. In the face of a vigorous de-
mand for intervention, and the seizure of Mexican territory as
compensation for claims, President Pierce adhered to a policy of
moderation. But not so Buchanan. Conditions called for a
vigorous policy, and this he adopted. His administration was
particularly featured by the iniquitous McLane-Ocampo Treaty,
which, fortunately for Mexico, was killed by a conflict of interests
in the United States Senate.
Since the most rabid expansionists had hailed from the South,
we need not be surprised to read, "That these leaders [Confederate]
contemplated the ultimate absorption of a part or the whole of
Mexico hardly admits of doubt" (p. 230). In "The Mexican
Projects of the Confederates" we have a most interesting and
illuminating chapter on a hitherto little noticed subject; it pre-
sents a side of the struggle of the Confederacy which has been
all but neglected in the past.
The next chapter, "Seward and French Intervention," affords
equally fascinating reading, although here is a subject upon which
countless volumes have been written. Dr. Rippy is most enthu-
siastic in his admiration of Seward's diplomatic astuteness. From
his claim that Seward's Mexican policy "was founded upon expe-
diency and dictated by sound common sense" (p. 259), we do