Journal of the Southwest

Too Far North . . . Too Far South by Odie B. FaulkReview by: Ronnie C. TylerArizona and the West, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Spring, 1968), pp. 70-71Published by: Journal of the SouthwestStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40167299 .

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70 ARIZONA and the WEST

Nueva Galicia, perhaps most of all the latter. For Panuco, Guzman emerges as a forceful, rather typical Spanish administrator, given like almost all others to

favoring his followers in the distribution of encomiendas and other plums, and

energetic in defending his authority. As far as the records go, his role in the slave trade was typical of the day; he continued a practice already begun. Interestingly enough, Chipman comes to the conclusion that Zumarraga's charge of the number of Indians shipped to the West Indians is probably accurate, and so gives tangential support to the probable accuracy of Zumarraga's far more serious charges of maladministration in Mexico itself. Perhaps most enlightening of all is Chipman's uncovering of Guzman's life upon his return to Spain. Contrary to a number of historians, he was under no more than a mild cloud, and lived as a member of the

royal court for more than twenty years until his death in 1558. While Guzman is the central theme of the study, the history of Panuco

from the first Spanish exploration to the end of the sixteenth century is a well-

developed secondary theme. A relatively unknown corner of Mexican history has been illuminated in an unusually solidly based and most handsomely printed book.

Woodrow Borah

The reviewer is Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley, and an expert on early Mexico.

TOO FAR NORTH . . . TOO FAR SOUTH. By Odie B. Faulk. Los

Angeles: Westernlore Press, 1967. 186 pp. $7.50.

Article V of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848 provided for a new boundary between the United States and Mexico, to be marked by a joint com- mission made up of officials of both nations. Using the latest information, the negotiators made the treaty as explicit as possible. Surveying the line should have been a routine job. But the Disturnell treaty map contained many inaccuracies, and the desire of expansionist-minded Democrats and Southerners for a transcon- tinental railroad rendered compromises impossible. In addition to requiring excel- lent engineers and scientists, the situation clearly demanded able diplomats to settle disputes regarding the treaty. Unfortunately, insists Odie F. Faulk, Research Historian at the Arizona Pioneers' Historical Society, only "bureaucratic func- tionaries and political appointees" were assigned the task. Not until seven years had passed, more than three-quarters of a million dollars had been spent, and the United States had purchased additional Mexican territory, was the boundary finally marked.

Politics dictated far too many decisions for both governments. Democrat John B. Weller, the U.S. commissioner, had already begun the survey, but Whig President Zachary Taylor awarded the post to John Russell Bartlett, a prominent bibliophile and an amateur ethnologist, as a spoil of victory. The naive Bartlett

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REVIEWS 71

promptly compromised away the Mesilla Strip, which many, including his chief

surveyor, believed the only possible railroad route through the Rocky Mountains. The aroused expansionists quickly demanded that the United States repudiate the agreement, which soon became known as the Bartlett-Conde compromise. Politics, however, demanded that all Bartlett's acts - even those rejected by all the ranking scientists on the survey - be upheld. This dispute split the U.S. com- mission almost beyond the point of cooperation. A political appointee himself, General Pedro Garcia Conde, the Mexican commissioner, received very little

money for the survey and had to use much of his personal fortune, or the work on the Mexican side of the boundary would have ceased.

The resolution of the Bartlett-Conde compromise proved to be most beneficial to the Southwest. To settle the dispute, to quiet the expansionists who thought that the area was vital for a transcontinental railroad, and to satisfy a Mexican

government desperately needing cash, the two nations negotiated the Gadsden Purchase of 1853. Not everyone will agree with Faulk that, "The one lasting tragedy of this affair is that the United States did not purchase more territory from Mexico while it had the chance," least of all Mexican scholars who contend that Garcia Conde's position was correct (p. 165). Washington politicos appar- ently did not profit from the blunders made during the survey, but, concludes

Faulk, the Southwest should "be grateful for what it did gain in this prolonged comedy of errors" (p. 166).

Faulk narrates the events clearly and concisely, although frequently biogra- phical sketches interrupt the thought. He does not allow himself to become

entangled in the intricacies of the actual work of the commission, dwelling instead on the overall aspects. The political chicanery in Washington, the personal con- flicts among the survey members, the achievements of the commission, particularly of Major William H. Emory - all are excellently summarized. Significantly, almost no manuscript sources - such as the Emory or Bartlett papers, records of the Topographical Engineers, or the Department of the Interior - are cited.

Perhaps a thorough study of the Mexican commission and politics would further

enlighten the events leading to the Gadsden Purchase. Did the United States miss a superb opportunity to secure a port on the Gulf of California? How near was Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna to selling more of northern Mexico? Seem-

ingly, further investigation into Mexican materials - both primary and sec-

ondary - is needed. Ronnie C. Tyler

The reviewer, a member of the history faculty at Austin College, Sherman, Texas, has

published several articles on Southwestern topics.

STEPHEN HARRIMAN LONG, 1784-1864. By Richard G. Wood. Glendale: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1967. 292 pp. $10.00.

Stephen H. Long ranks alongside of Lewis and Clark, Zebulon Montgomery Pike, and John Charles Fremont as one of the great explorers of the American

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