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“The War with Paraguay”
How the People at Home Supposed the War Would End.
How the War Did End.
This Harper's Weekly cartoon by John McLenan covers an episode in
American military history which gained much press at the time, but is
mainly forgotten today: the U.S. military expedition to Paraguay
in 1858-1859.During the 1850s, Carlos Antonio Lopez, dictator of the small,
landlocked, South American country of Paraguay, was a thorn in the side
of the United States government. In 1853, Lopez refused to ratify
a commercial and navigational treaty with the United States, and began
confiscating the property of American citizens resident in
Paraguay. Because of a dispute with Britain, Lopez closed
Paraguayan waters to foreign warships. In February 1855,
Paraguayan soldiers fired upon an American ship engaged in a scientific
survey of the Parana River, killing one American crew
member.
Nearly three years after the incident, and with a second scientific
expedition in preparation, President James Buchanan
decided that a show of force was necessary to bring about a redress of
the situation. In his first annual message to Congress of December
1857, Buchanan requested funding for a military expedition to
Paraguay. With a Congressional allocation of $10,000, a naval squadron of
19 vessels, 200 guns, and 2500 sailors and marines under the command of Commodore
William B. Shubrick
embarked for Paraguay in the early winter of 1858. It was the largest military expedition in
the peacetime history of the United States to that date. Harper's
Weekly emphasized the importance of the mission's demand that American
citizens in Paraguay be granted the same rights and protections that Paraguayan citizens in the United States were accorded.
After landing at Montevideo, Uruguay, the American force began the
1000-mile journey up the Parana River to the Paraguayan capital of
Asuncion. This was one of the major news stories in Harper's Weekly
during the spring of 1859. The newspaper provided illustrations,
portraits, maps, letters from participants, and reports from a special
correspondent. The situation was dramatized by the news that the
2500 Americans were preparing to face 15,000 of the best troops in South
America. For more information, the journal directed its readers to
a book on the region which had been published recently by the
newspaper's parent company, Harper &
Brothers.
The April 2 issue of Harper's Weekly announced that a peaceful
settlement was probable, and the lead editorial of April 16 confirmed
that the matter had been resolved amicably through the good offices of
the Argentine president, General Justo Jose de Urquiza. Lopez, the
Paraguayan dictator, formally apologized for the shooting incident of
1855, compensated the family and employer of the slain sailor, and
signed a treaty of commerce and navigation with the United States.
Cartoonist McLenan contrasts how the expedition to Paraguay was expected
to end--with a military victory for the United States--and how it
actually did end--with a peaceful resolution and cordial celebration.
Robert C. Kennedy
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