In the spring or early summer of 1846, during the time of US-Mexican War, Charles Bent visited Colonel Stephen W. Kearny, leader of the Army of the West at Forth Leavenworth, Kansas. Together with a large contingent of his army, Kearny gathered at Bent's Fort by the end of June in preparation to march on Santa Fe on behalf of the Government of the United States to take possession of New Mexico that belonged to the Republic of Mexico. Padre Martinez, the priest of Taos, had been a Mexican nationalist. He had been ordained a priest in Durango, Mexico a year after Mexican Independence, and considered Padre Miguel Hidalgo (Father of Mexican Independence) a hero and mentor. At the same time, he considered George Washington as another of his hero-mentors. Padre Martinez appreciated the ideals spelled out in the American Constitution and Bill of Rights. Although Padre Martinez had resisted U.S. encroachment into New Mexico since the early 1840s, he eventually came to believe that New Mexico would be better off under the flag of the United States. Before coming into Santa Fe, Kearny was aware that Padre Martinez was the main religious and political leader in northern New Mexico and throughout the whole region. Kearny, ironically, dispatched Captain Bent with a dozen soldiers to escort Padre Martinez and his brothers from Taos to Santa Fe in order to pledge allegiance to the American Flag. Because of their convictions, and in order to attempt avoiding bloodshed in the civil transfer of power, they willingly complied, thus becoming the first inhabitants of New Mexico to become citizens of the United States. Moreover, Colonel Kearny asked Padre Martinez to borrow his Ramage printing press on which the Padre had published New Mexico's first book, a newspaper, as well as religious and educational materials. The Padre lent the press to the Colonel soon-to-be promoted to Brigadier General, and Kearny used it to publish his Code of Laws.