AMERICAN CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT - THE SERVICE OF COLONEL DONIPHAN,ALEXANDER IN THE MEXICAN-WAR

As an American volunteer colonel during the Mexican-American War (1846 -1848), Alexander W. Doniphan played a leading role in the earliest ex periences of the U.S. military government. Serving as an officer in th e U.S. expedition that captured Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1846, Donipha n was ordered to write a constitution and set of laws for the New Mexi co Territory. Furthermore, Doniphan had to deal with the ethnically di verse population of the conquered lands. He negotiated a treaty with t he Navajo tribe in hopes of establishing peaceful relations between th e tribe and the United States. Other officers, both regulars and volun teers, later performed similar duties in the captured territory of Cal ifornia. Comprehensive works on military government point to Doniphan' s actions as helping to set the example for U.S. military governments in other captured territories after the war with Spain in 1898 and int o the twentieth century. Moreover, Doniphan was also involved in an in cident that served as an important example of the difficulties of nine teenth century civil-military relations during wartime. Believing that he would need privately owned supplies while his expedition operated in enemy territory, Doniphan ordered goods to be commandeered for Iris soldiers' use. The owner of the supplies sued for compensation and hi s case proceeded all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court rule d that Doniphan and his subordinates had acted improperly in confiscat ing the supplies, thus forcing. military officers to be aware that the y could not take arbitrary actions even in the face of enemy armed for ces in enemy territory.