Review: Bernard DeVoto, The Year of Decision 1846, Published 1943

Bernard DeVoto's Year of Decision 1846 is a classic work that provides a clinic on how to write a complex narrative history. He skillfully interweaves many story lines of the American conquest and initial settlement of the far west. Although considered a "popular" history, this work is thoroughly researched and provides much insight into its period. DeVoto was a part-time academic who failed in acquiring a full-time professorship at Harvard. His loss is our gain, since he devoted much of his time to writing fascinating books on the American west. 

Manifest Destiny by John Gast (1872)

The main thread of the book is the eighteen month period from early 1846 to September 1847 when General Winfield Scott's army captured Mexico City. This timeframe was the culmination of Manifest Destiny. As newspaper editor John L. O'Sullivan famously wrote in 1845 in reference to American claims on the Oregon Territory:

And that claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us.

DeVoto magnificently chronicles how the far west became American in his multifaceted work. He follows events by focusing on the actions of four board groups: the pioneers traveling to California, New Mexico and Oregon; the campaigns of the US Army during the Mexican-American War; political events in Washington D.C.; the attitudes of Boston intellectual types such as Henry David Thoreau. 

A significant part of the pioneer story is told through the eyes of historian Francis Parkman who spent the spring and summer on The Oregon Trail. The highlight of the settlers' story is his close following of the Donner Party. Since their story has been well documented, it does provide a detailed account on what it was like to cross the plains in a covered wagon. Contrary to current Political Correct "truth," these are the people who built America:

"I told them," Mary Graves said, "I would go too, for to go back and hear the cries of hunger from my little brothers and sisters was more than I could stand. I would go as far as I could, let the consequences be what they may."

Mary Ann Graves, twenty years old, born in Illinois of parents who had emigrated there from Vermont. An undistinguished item in the year's migration, one dot of Manifest Destiny, who had set out to find the West with her parents, five sisters, two brothers, and a brother-in-law. A person of no moment making the western traverse. The children of her children in California today are also commoners of the Democracy ... There is nothing remarkable about Mary Ann Graves, except that mankind can be staunch. "I would go as far as I could." (pp. 386-7)

She just barely made it:

Before long, four Americans [from Sutter's Fort] were hurrying back to find the six survivors whom [William] Eddy had described, and were able to find them by following his bloody footprints. The Forlorn Hope had reached the succor of their own kind, seven of the fifteen who had started out, thirty-seven days after the beginning of the effort for which they had laid in six days' rations of two mouthfuls a day. (p. 411)

Unfortunately, the Donner Party is most well-known for the cannibalism required by some members to survive the ordeal. What's largely forgotten is the epic heroism of William Eddy, William Stanton, Tamson Donner, James Reed, the delightful twelve-year-old Virginia Reed along with many others. 

Donner Party Memorial: Donner Lake California

The Mexican-American War must be one of the most lied about events in American history. DeVoto provides a lucid account of its causes and course. He doesn't sugar coat the story. For example, he makes clear his low opinion for both John Charles Fremont and General Zachary Taylor. On the other hand, he makes clear that General Winfield Scott and colonels Stephen Watts Kearny and Alexander Doniphan are among the most gifted leaders the US Army has every possessed. 

This work was originally published in 1943, which is the edition I'm using. Consequently, DeVoto is not filled with the anti-American self-loathing that animates more recent offerings on this topic. For example, he explains why the recently created state of Mexico had no valid claim to the disputed territories. He had enough objectivity and good sense to understand the Mexico was not the victim. In fact, the stupid and arrogant Mexican elite actually thought they would win a war with the United States. They were wrong and have been whining and plotting ever since 1848. 

Moreover, it is a fundamental mistake to think of Mexico, in this period, or for many years before, as a republic or even a government. It must be understood as a late stage in the breakdown of the Spanish Empire. Throughout that time it was never able to establish a stability, whether social or political. Abortive, discordant movements of revolution or counter-revolution followed one another in a meaningless succession, and each one ran down in chaos from which no governing class ever rose, or even a political party, but only some gangs. Sometimes the gangs were captained by intelligent and capable men, sometimes for a while they stood for the merchants, the clergy, the landowners, or various programs of reform, but they all came in the end to simple plunder. (pp. 12-13)  

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. 

The author appears ambivalent about the figure of President James K. Polk. But, he acknowledges that he was one of the most successful presidents in American history. He deftly examines Polk's skillful handling of both Congress and the British in the acquisition of the Oregon Territory up to the 49th parallel. He also chronicles Polk's long running feuds with his senior generals who were far more political than would be acceptable in the twentieth century. 

It may appear to some readers that DeVoto spends too much time on the utopian community of Brook Farm in Massachusetts. But, these Boston Brahman dreamers provide an important thematic point for the story. It is no accident that the attitudes of these secular puritans sound very familiar.

The literary will accept no hybrid of brute and angel; they desire Utopia and will not settle for the human race. They love people but hate the mob. On George Ripley's word, and he was the founder of Brook Farm, mankind is dwarfed and brutish. In that common despair ended all that Association had to say. (p. 33)

The demented descendants of these collectivist Brahmans are more focused with their hate. The make clear their contempt for the United State and the American people - most especially white Americans. For example, in academic history it's standard practice to always write "Manifest Destiny" within sneer quotes. The actual building and existence of the American west deeply offends or triggers them. This is why there are now two large and influential groups working hard to erase America's southern border. First, there is the hostile government of Mexico City that has never accepted the settlement of 1846. Second, there are the traitors within who control the media, academia, the deep state and much else. By means of demographic reconquista, they seek to reverse the decision of 1846. 

General Winfield Scott, Washington D.C. Soon to be removed?