"
While at the time of Jameson's raid the women and children in
danger of massacre from the Boers were as many as there are
snakes in Ireland, at the time of Walker's raid the women and
children were in danger from the Indians, who as enemies, as
Walker soon discovered, were as cruel and as greatly to be feared
as he had described them.
But it was not to save women and children that Walker sought to
conquer the State of Sonora. At the time of his expedition the great
question of slavery was acute; and if in the States next to be
admitted to the Union slavery was to be prohibited, the time had
come, so it seemed to this statesman of twenty-eight years, when
the South must extend her boundaries, and for her slaves find an
outlet in fresh territory. Sonora already joined Arizona. By
conquest her territory could easily be extended to meet Texas. As a
matter of fact, strategically the spot selected by William Walker
for the purpose for which he desired it was almost perfect.
Throughout his brief career one must remember that the spring of
all his acts was this dream of an empire where slavery would be
recognized. His mother was a slave-holder. In Tennessee he had
been born and bred surrounded by slaves. His youth and manhood
had been spent in Nashville and New Orleans. He believed as
honestly, as fanatically in the right to hold slaves as did his father
in the faith of the Covenanters.
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