National Intelligencer. (Washington [D.C.]), Vol. 47, No. 6867, Ed. 1 Saturday, December 26, 1846 Page: 3 of 4
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NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.
TO THE EDITORS.
Gentlemen : In looking over the references
of the several parts of the President’s Message to
the appropriate committees of Congress, I perceive
that two important matters named in the message
have been overlooked. These omissions have arisen,
I have no doubt, from inadvertence on the part of
members. I therefore take the liberty of calling
their attention to them. They are—
1. That part of the message which may be call-
ed the “ aid and comfort” part, in which the Pre-
sident, speaking of those who have represented the
war as unjust and unnecessary, says : “ A more
‘ effectual means could not have been devised to
‘ encourage the enemy and protract the war than to
‘ advocate and adhere to their cause, and thus give
‘ them ‘ aid and comfort.’ ”
2. The intrigue part, in which the President
says : “ When orders were issued to the command-
‘ er of our naval forces in the Gulf, on the 13th
‘ day of May last, the same day on which the ex-
‘ istence of the war was recognised by Congress, to
‘ place the coasts of Mexico under blockade, he was
‘ directed not to obstruct the passage of Santa Anna
‘ to Mexico, should he attempt to return.”
As these two parts of the message are germane
to each other, and are subjects for legal investiga-
tion, I suggest that they be referred to the Commit-
tee on the Judiciary, in each House, with instruc-
tions to inquire—
1. Whether the expression of an opinion against the jus-
tice and necessity of the war amounts in law to the act of
treason.
2. V hether the overt act of aiding and abetting Santa An-
na in his return to Mexico, for the purpose of taking command
of the Mexican army, then in actual hostility against the Uni-
ted States, does not amount in law to giving aid and comfort
to the enemy in time of war.
'# 3. To inquiie and report as to the degrees of offence be
tween those who voted fifiy thousand men and ten million of
dollars of money to conquer a peace by a fair fight with Mexi-
co, but who at the time of giving their vote expressed an opin-
ion against the justice and necessity of the war, and he who,
instead of using men and moneys thus given to him for hon-
orable warfare, employed the navy of the United States in
conducting the first military commander of Mexico back to the
head of her armies, thereby giving aid to her military power
and comfort to her disconsolate troops under their sore defeat
by General Taylor.
I know of but one parallel case of this kind of
aid and comfort to an enemy in time of war, and I
beg leave to direct the attention of the committee to
it. It may aid them in coming to a correct conclu-
sion in this important matter.
In a naval fight between the English and the
Dutch, the Englishman suddenly stopped firing, yet
kept his flag flying and his men all standing to their
guns. The Dutchman, seeing this, and not wishing
to waste his fire upon a non-resisting adversary,
also ceased firing, and hailed his foe, “ why he did
not either fight or strike.” The Englishman an-
swered that, as to striking his flag—never, as long
as there remained a plank beneath his feet; and, as
to firing his guns, he would cheerfully do so if his
adversary would have the generosity to supply him
with powder, his own magazine being exhausted ;
that if he would not comply with this request, the
fight must go on, and be determined hand to hand
by boarding, which would lead to a great loss of
life on both sides. The Dutchman, being a man of
feeling as well as valor, and believing that “ in any
‘ event it was certain that no change whatever in
‘ the circumstances of the English ship which would
‘ deprive her commander of the excuse of boarding
‘ could be for the worse,* so far as the Dutchman
£ was concerned, while it was highly probable that
‘ any change must be for the better,” agreed to com-
ply with the request of his gallant foe, provided he
would pay him a fair consideration for the article
furnished. The sum being agreed upon at some-
thing less than two million of dollars, I think, the
Dutchman directed his own boats to place the pow-
der safely on board the enemy’s ship. Thus pro-
vided with means to renew the fight, the English-
man soon taught the Dutchman that he had been
guilty of the folly of furnishing his adversary with
a club to beat his own brains out.
The only difference in the two cases is, that the
Mexicans stopped fighting, not for the want of pow-
der, but for the want of an efficient commander-in-
chief. We have most generously supplied that de-
ficiency, by placing Santa Anna at the head of her
armies ; and now, in the language of the President,
“ it remains to be seen whether his return may not
‘ yet prove to be favorable to a pacific adjustment
‘ of the existing difficulties, it being manifestly his
‘ interest not to persevere in the prosecution of a
‘ war commenced by Paredes to accomplish a pur-
‘ pose so absurd as the reconquest of Texas to the
‘ Sabine.”
* See President’s message, page 20.
“RAGGED SCHOOLS OF LONDON.”
The American Sunday School Union has published a smail
paper, containing a brief history of the “Ragged Schools” of
London, concerning which, it may be remembered, Mr.
Dickens and Mr. Douglass Jerrold, also, we believe, wrote so
feelingly and eloquently a short time ago. It appears from
this paper that these schools owe their existence to the
“Ragged School Union,” a body composed of Sunday School
teachers connected with various evangelical denominations.
The Union was formed in April, 1844, and so successful has
been its operations that, at the last report, twenty-six schools
were in operation in London, with two hundred and fifty
teachers, and an average attendance of two thousand five hun-
dred scholars. At Windsor and at Eppirrg similar schools
have been opened, and are progressing successfully.
It is a beautiful exhibition of philanthropy, pure hearted,
zealous, and ennobling, which is presented in the hard and
ungracious task of those who are engaged, in the slums and
pest places of London, in the reclamation of the vicious,the
enlightenment of minds shut out from opportunities of know-
ledge, or examples of virtue and propriety ; and we are struck
with admiration of the conduct of those teachers who, having
adopted “ perseverance” as their motto, bore with threatened
and actual violence in the beginning of their labors.
The boys and girls taught in these schools are from the
worst parts of London, and of the most vicious and depraved
character, generally speaking. It would seem that their na-
ture must be actually changed before good thoughts could be
impressed upon them, but the pioneers in this enterprise wisely
reasoned that, as no good examples had been set to those
among whom they intended to labor, and that bad examples
abounded, it was time to set up an opposition, and, by dif-
fusing knowledge as far as practicable, to break down the in-
fluence of vice and immorality. They have done admirably,
and the reports show that a great amount of practical good
has been accomplished.
The immediate object of the American Sunday School
Union, in publishing this account of the operations of the
London schools, is to show to and impress upon the well-
disposed of our communities in large cities the necessity,
though in a far less degree than in London, which exists for
the establishment of similar schools on this side of the Atlantic.
And proper reference is made to recent ebullitions of violence
on the part of those who might be trained to better purposes,
and to forsake their evil courses. The recent occurrences in
some of the outer districts give impressiveness and directness
to this appeal, and none who know how contagious bad ex-
amples are, but will say that instant remedies are demanded
to arrest the growing and already frightful evil. If “ ragged
schools” established in our community can arrest the progress
of vice even in a slight degree, they should, by all means be
put in operation at once. — United States Gazette.
Austria.—It would appear by private letters from Vienna
that the incorporation of Gracow with Austria did not take
place without a strong opposition on the part of several mem-
bers of the Cabinet. Count Kollowrath, finding himself in a
minority on that important question, had tendered his resigna-
tion, with the firm determination to retire from public life.
That resolution had produced the greatest sansation at Vienna.
Russia.—A letter from Odessa states that the Emperor
Nicholas has given orders to assemble an army of 160,000
men in Wolhynia. Another account says that “ a large army
is being collected in Podolia, on the frontiers of Wallachia.
It is said that it is destined for Circassia, but it is known that
it is not. Its strength is said to be 150,000 men, and is
probably 80,000 men. The real object, it is thought, of this
formidable force, is, if the occasion presents itself, to invade
Wallachia.” 1
THE COTTON CROP OF 1846.
The communication of your Mississippi correspondent, in
the National Intelligencer of the 19th instant, requires a reply.
We allow that the crop is a short one, which, coupled with
the shoit crop of 1845, accounts for the material reduction in
the stock at Liverpool, and consequent great advance in price.
It is useless to go into details, but suffice it to say that we
have seen estimates of the crop from the most reliable sources
in the cotton-growing country, and there is nothing in them
indicating a crop of less than 1,800,000 bales. In the Gulf
States the crops are short, but in the Atlantic States they
aie full. Upon surveying the whole ground, we estimate
the total crop at 1,900,000 bales, but it may vary 50,000
bales, more or less.
“A” endorses the Liverpool journal, which estimates the
stock on hand at that place, on the 1st of January, 1847, at
200,000 bales. On the 1st December instant the stock in
Liverpool was 504,000 bales 5 during the residue of this
year they will import into Liverpool about 50,000 bales;
so, setting down the consumption of December at the average
rate, there will be in Liverpool, on the 1st January, a stock
of cotton of about 450,000 bales. The stock in Liverpool, on
the third week in October next, instead of being nothing, as
“A” endeavors to make it, may be less than 450,000 bales,
but there will be enough for all practical purposes.
“A” should look at things as they exist, not what he and
friends wish them ; and he should look at our receipts of cot-
ton, which, by the last New York Shipping List, show a de-
ficiency of only about 50,000 bales, as compared with the last
year; and he should look at the stock in this country, (at the
shipping ports,) which is nearly 100,000 bales more than at
the corresponding time last year ; and the fact that there are 100
ships up for Great Britain, instead of 77 for the same time last
year. These 100 ships will carry into Liverpool a good deal
of cotton, as well as other articles.
Prices are now remunerating to the planters, and we (who
do not intend to ship a bale of the crop) hope the planters, for
their own sane, will embrace them. We are now done
with the subject. jj
NOTE, BY THE EDITORS.
It would be more satisfactory to us, and doubtless
to those who have any particular interest in the ex-
tent of the Cotton Crops, or of any other Crops
which enter into the commerce of the country, if
for the future those who make public statements on
the subject would authenticate them with their
proper names.
WASHINGTON.
“ Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and
inseparable.”
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1846.
THE AMERICAN GIFT
yUST PUBLISHED, a second edition of “American
Historical and Literary Curiosities,” consisting of fac
similes of Original Documents relating to the events of the
Revolution, &c., with a variety of Reliques, Antiquities, and
modern Autographs. Edited by J. Jay Smith and John F.
Watson.
, Every page of these illustrations is a Lithographic Plate, in
the highest style of that art. The work forms one of the
most interesting and curious Parlor Table Books, and, there-
fore, the most suitable for a Christmas or New Year’s present
ever offered to the public. A second edition has been called
for in three weeks from the issue of the first.
PORTION OF THE CONTENTS.
The Pitcher Portrait of Washington ; his Visiting Cards,
Gold Medal, and Book Plate.
Letter from Washington before the Battle of Trenton.
Letter from Mrs. Washington.
Letter from the Committee of Secrecy, 1776.
Lives of John Adams and Judge Marshall, written by
themselves.
View ot Charles rhompson’s House; his Letter resigning
lus Commission. a ®
B. Franklin’s celebrated Letter to Strahan, and two pages
of Poor Richard’s Almanac. 1
Letter from Thomas Jefferson.
Letter from Lafayette.
Amusing Extracts from New England’s Prospect, 1639.
Speech and Prayer of Bishop White.
Bust and Letter of William Penn.
Letter from George Whitfield.
Letter from Benjamin West.
Letter from Benjamin West and from David Rittenhouse.
Letter from Robert Fulton.
Signatures of ail the Presidents and of Mrs. Madison.
Letter from Gen. Harrison.
Challenge of Baron Steuben to Gen. Lee.
The Grand Inquest of Philadelphia. Presentment for a
Ducking Stool, 1720.
Subscription for a Dancing Assembly in the Army in 1780,
signed by Gen. Washington, Baron De Kalb,-and the Staff,&c.
Letter from the Chevalier Paul Jones.
Colonial and Continental Money.
Profiles cut by Major Andre, and one of himself.
Poem by Major Andre.
The Ticket to the Merchianza, and a Picture painted by
Major Andre.
Picture of Fitch’s Steamboat, and a Letter from him.
Autographs of most of the modern Authors ot America.
1 his elegant work will be for sale during the Christmas and
New Year Holidays by the Booksellers generally. Published
by the NATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY,
dec 25— Penn, avenue, near the Capitol.
TTERY IMPORTANT TO THE PURCHASERS
Y OF FANCY GOODS FOR PRESENTS.—The
entire stock ot Fancy Goods at Guion’s Bazaar, corner of 4i
street and Pennsylvania avenue, will be offered till the 1st Jan-
uary at the New York importation prices. Persons doubting
the sincerity of the above notice can satisly themselves by call-
ing at the store and ascertaining the prices. The assortment
consists in part of -
Work Boxes and Dressing Cases, unsurpassed in style
and number
Papier mache Portfolios, Card Baskets, Work Boxes, and
Pap?terre ; beautiful Odor Boxes, richly inlaid
Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s beautiful Writing Desks and Pa-
peterre ; elegant Party Fans, of every style
Head Dresses ; porcelain patent Inkstands
Ivory, mother of pearl, shell, and silver Card Cases
Velvet and silk Bags; silk embroidered Money Purses
Gold Pencils ; Etui Cases
Gentlemen’s rosewood and leather portable Dressing Boxes
Elegant Louis XIY. porcelain Vases, for mantelpieces
Mechanical sell-moving Toys, French Games
Backgammon Boards, Chessmen, Dominoes
French Note Paper
A superior assortment of Rodgers’s Cutlery
Hair, cloth, and shaving Brushes
Perfumery, fresh, and of best quality only,
dec 22—7t [Union]
SALE OF LAWD—By virtue of a decree
JL of the Circuit Superior Court of Loudoun county, Va ,
pronounced at October term, 1846, in the case ot Dawson vs.
Dawson, I shall offer for sale at public auction, to the highest
bidder, on Monday, February 8th, 1847, the same being the
first day of the County Court of Loudoun, for February term,
in Leesburg, at 12 o’clock M., in front of the clerk’s office,’
the following Tracts and Lots of Land, to wit:
1. THE IRON ORE LOT, containing sixty acres, more or
less, situate in said county of Loudoun, near the Point of
Rocks, where the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the Balti-
more and Ohio Railroad meet, and about one-half mile from
the Potomac river. The larger part of this tract is under a
good fence, and in a fair state ot cultivation ; the balance is in
timber. Its particular value consists in the extensive mines
of iron ore, of a very superior quality, which pervade almost
the entire tract. These mines might be easily worked, and
are of great extent. Adjoining is the Furnace Tract, on the
Potomac river, where there is an extensive furnace now in op-
eration.
2. THE MOUNTAIN LOT OF WOODLAND, afford-
ing good rail timber, containing about fifteen and a quarter
acres, situate in the same county, about half a mile from the
iron ore lot, originally a part of the land of Samuel Clapham,
deceased, and described in the division thereof as “ Wood
Lot, No. 6.”
3. The lot or parcel called PEACH ISLAND, containing
about ten acres, situate in the Potomac river, nearly opposite
the Point of Rocks, between the upper part of Kanawha
island and the Virginia shore. This island is very rich and
productive, and in a high state of cultivation.
4. The undivided interest of the late Samuel Dawson in the
RAZOR TRACT, being seven-elevenths thereof. The whole
tract contains about one hundred and eighty-six acres, and lies
in said county of Loudoun, immediately on the main road
L ading from Leesburg to Noland’s Ferry, on the Potomac
river, about one mile and a half from the river, adjoining the
lands of B. Shreveand Gunnell Saunders. The greater part
of this tract is enclosed and in cultivation. There are wood
and timber enough for the use of the farm. The buildings are
inferior. The land, though highly susceptible of improve-
ment, has been rather neglected.
Terms of sale : one third of the purchase money to be paid
in eash ; the residue in two equal annual instalments, bearing
interest from the day of sale, to be secured by bonds, with
good personal security, and also by a retention of the title of
or a deed of trust on the premises sold.
^ee 25—cptds CHAS. GASSAWAY, Commissioner.
UqHIJLDREN’S BOOKS FOR 1847, for Youth of
\j all ages, this day opened by F. TAYLOR, many of
them with numerous beautiful engravings__Little Lessons for
Little Learners ; Clever Stories, by Mrs. Sherwood ; Child’s
own Story Book ; Travels and Adventures of Bob the Squir-
rel ; Life and Perambulations of a Mouse ; New Rhymes for
the Nursery ; The Book of Nursery Rhymes, Tales, and Fa-
bles ; Tales of the Genii; Robinson Crusoe, with two hundred
engravings; The Rose, or Affection’s Gift tor 1847, a juvenile
souvenir ; Jack the Sailor Boy, by Mrs. Sherwood ; Duty, by
Mrs. Sherwood ; Think before you act, by Mrs. Sherwood ;
The Youth’s Historical Gift, with forty engravings; Classic
Tales; New Stories for Boys; Stories for Corinne ; Stories
and Poems, by Mrs. Gilman.
*** And new and ornamental editions of many of the older
books of Miss Edgeworth, Mrs. Sherwood, Marv Howitt
Mrs. Barbauld, &c. > j >
*#* Colored Toy Books, both English and American, in
great variety French Juvenile Books, a small collection,
just imported from Paris, by
dec 25 f. TAYLOR.
THE LUST OF DOMINION.
We said, the other day, that, as between the
United States and Mexico, it is of little impor-
tance how the existing war began: that, being
in the War, we must manfully fight it out until it
shall please the Father of Mercies to inspire both
nations at once with a spirit of humanity and
peace ; but that, as between the People of the United
States and their public servants, it is of consequence,
and of great consequence, to know not only how
and why the war was begun, but also for what ul-
terior objects it is to be further prosecuted.
We showed, at the same time, by reference to
recent acts of high officers of Government under
the directions of the President, and to semi-official
intimations in the government paper of older date,
that the idea of a conquest of the “ mines of Mex-
ico” and “the valleys of California”—of dictating
terms to Mexico in “ the halls of Montezuma”'—
has been familiar to the mind of this Administra-
tion, as well before the forces of the United States
were marched into its territories, or its seaports in-
vested by our fleets, as since.* We referred to
the boast in the government paper of the “ acqui-
sition” of Mexican provinces by conquest, and to
the yet more recent recommendation to Congress,
in the Annual Message of the President, to pro-
vide for the security of these important con-
quests by appropriations of money for the con-
struction of fortifications, and for paying the ex-
penses necessarily incident to the maintenance of
our possession and authority over them ; such ap-
propriations having no reference to mere military
possession, the expenses of which are defrayed of
course out of the military fund.
That it is the opinion of the President that the
fact of conquest annexes foreign provinces to the
United States, might be further inferred from his con-
gratulations, in the Message, upon the acquisition of
military possession of five Mexican provinces, “ a
‘territory,” he says, “larger in extent than that
‘ embraced in the original thirteen States of the
‘ Union, inhabited by a considerable population,” &c.
For, if the President does not conceive these territo-
ries to be already “ annexed” to the United States—
to “ belong to the United States,” as one of our
Military Commanders says ; to be “ a part of the
United States,” as the other says—what is the
meaning of the following passage in the very first
paragraph of his Annual Message to Congress ?
“ Since your last session no afflicting dispensa-
‘ tion has visited our country,” &c. “ The pro-
‘ gress of our country in her career of greatness,
‘ not only in the vast extension of our territo-
‘ rial limits and the rapid increase of our popula-
‘ tion, but in resources and wealth, and in the happy
‘ condition of our people, is without example in the
‘ history of nations.”
By “ the vast extension of our territorial limits,”
he does not mean that extension of them which was
effected by the annexation of Texas, because not
only was that “extension” before the last session
of Congress, instead of “ since,” but at the opening
of that session it was announced and then made by
the President a special occasion of felicitation to
himself and to Congress. This “ vast extension’’
can only allude, then, to the conquests referred to
in the succeeding part of the Message, to which, in
the language of certain expositors of the President’s
views, it is his purpose to “ hold on.”
These passages of the President’s Message, it
must be admitted, go far to sustain the inferences,
from facts already known to the country, that the
acquisition of Mexican territories, if not originally
a main object of the war, has become so in the
course of its progress, and it may be apprehended
will be found to be a serious difficulty in the way
when the terms of a pacification come to be can-
vassed between the two Governments.
It is very certain, at all events, that if, con-
trary to appearances, the President of the United
States and his constitutional advisers at no time en-
tertained a design to retain possession, after the end
of the war, of the Territories of New Mexico, New
Leon, Coahuila, Tamaulipas, and the Californias,
(named in the Message,) and any other provinces
that may be yet occupied by our military forces,
such views are entertained by others, and, perhaps,
by the mass of those who approve of the conduct
of the Executive in bringing on this war.
Since we lately discoursed of the folly and the
madness of “ Wars of Conquest,” we^have met with
an exhibition of the Lust of Dominion which
goes to the fullest extent of our worst conception of
it. This we find, too, in a paper which represents
the Mercantile interest of our country, in the bo-
som of which we should expect to find rectitude,
conscientiousness, a spirit of justice, a sense of what
is due to the comity of nations, and of what each
nation owes to its own character, which would re-
ceive such demonstrations with unmitigated disgust
and abhorrence. The Editors of the Journal of
Commerce, in whose columns this exhibition is
made, do, indeed, say that they “ do not concur in
all the doctrines” of the communication to which
we refer. But this is not the way in which they,
who have heretofore (tacitly if not in terms) encour-
aged the Administration to make war upon Mexi-
co—for reasons which were no doubt sufficient to
their minds—ought to have introduced to their read-
ers such an article as that from which we make the
following extract:
“ With California on the west, New Mexico and Chihua-
hua in the centre, and the country bordering both sides of the
* We are reminded here of an intimation of the government
paper which corroborates the impression made by other publi-
cations in the same paper that thoughts of conquest were in-
dulged in by persons about the President, if not by that high
functionary himself, long before the march of our army to the
Rio Grande.
It was on the 25th of August, 1815, that the government
paper, under the head of “Preparations,” announcing that
“the Executive is sending troops into Texas, and collecting
a squadron in the Gulf and along the coast of the Pacific,” and
speculating upon the probabilities of a hostile collision between
the troops of the Uni tad States and the forces of Mexico, de-
clared that “ if Mexico retains any post which she may oc-
‘ cupy on the east of the Rio Grande, we will not disturb her
( soldiers or her post." The editor then goes on to say that,
“ If an invading army should trouble us in the least, the occasion
* would be the signal for marching into the enemy’s country
‘ and achieving a second “ Conquest of Mexico.” It was
five months after these intimations that the soldiers of Mexico
were “disturbed,” and her “posts” on the east of the Rio
Grande broken up by the march of our army upon them, to
take “post” itself on the Rio Grande; the first act in the
suggested “ Conquest of Mexico.”
Rio Grande, extending from Us sources to the Gulf of Mexico
our territories would spread out in one broad square belt from
one ocean to the other, giving us nearly as much coast on the
Pacific as we possess on the Atlantic; which, settled by a
dense free white population, reaching from our most Southern
boundary with Mexico to the 49th degree of latitude, would
become a vast acquisition to the resources of the Republic.
“ Talk of retrocession ? It is impossible. The permanent
possession of the Bay of San Francisco alone is worth the ex
penses of a five years’ war.
“ With our bounds thus extended—with rich mines to be
developed—with a grazing and grain-growing country to sup
ply the cotton and sugar growers of Texas and the Gulf ports
on the one side, and the Sandwich Islands and the ports of
China on the other—with steam packets making regular trips
to India, between our ports in the Pacific and India, and
railroad or canal connecting them with steam-packets on the
Atlantic—the United States would soon have the control and
controlling power of the world. With navy yards and naval
armaments on the Pacific, on a scale fully commensurate with
our naval equipments on the Atlantic, which must in time be
greatly augmented, (for our theatre will embrace the trade
and commerce of two great oceans,) we shall become the
greatest naval Power of the world.
“ What a glorious destiny is opening up for the future pro-
gress of our country ! How truly vast will be the ‘ area of
freedom !’—or, in other words, constitutional representation !
civil and religious freedom ! The march of Anglo-Saxon in-
stitutions is irresistibly onward.”
Yes, here we have it. An “area of freedom”
to be extended by conquest! Constitutional repre-
sentation to be established by trampling in the dust
our own Constitution ! Civil and religious freedom
to be extended by overturning the altars of Sister
Republics ! And then the temptations held out to
us to run this career of conquest—to accomplish this
“ glorious destiny !” Ay, the temptations ! What
are they ? The rich mines and the fertile lands,
the convenient seaports of Mexico, and, by their
means, the dominion of the world ! These are the
objects for which we are invited on one hand to
prosecute and protract this war; this wealth and these
resources we are asked to appropriate to ourselves
by conquest, by the right of the strongest, in disregard
of all morality as well as all law. And these con-
quests this writer declares that it would be “ impos
sible” for us to give up in the event of peace, because
the acquisition of a single harbor which belongs to
Mexico is “ worth the expenses of a five years’
war !” Yes, one of our neighbor’s possessions is esti
mated at the value of two hundred millions of dol-
lars, and, therefore, the war being at an end, we
must never restore it to its owner !*
Such are the humanitj'-, the legality, the morality,
of the school which, infatuated, demented, by
the wild notion of a “Manifest Destiny”—an on-
ward march of “ Anglo-Saxon institutions”—in-
vades at once the forum and the press, and pro-
claims doctrines the putting of which in practice
has brought too many unfortunate individuals to the
penitentiary and the gallows, and would not fail to
cover with irredeemable dishonor any nation that
made them a rule of action.
Of a yet more remarkable because more authori-
tative, and of a yet more pernicious because ele-
vated character, are the feelings and purposes
avowed in another publication, concerning this
Mexican war, which has just met our eye. The
position lately held, the influence still wielded, by
him from whom it comes, give dignity and gravity
to the declaration, no matter how exceptionable in
itself; for it comes from a man of high mark, and
is uttered in presence of another, upon an occasion
meant to do all honor and pleasure to him in par-
ticular. On such occasions, men even the most
inoonoidovato ooltlom tvoaok movo norroltioc : OII tlxe
contrary, they seek to say what is known to be
likely to give the highest popular pleasure.
The document to which we allude is what styles
itself “ a sentiment,” but is, in reality, a political
exposition, brief but comprehensive, addressed by
the late President of Texas, Anson Jones, to a
public dinner to which he had been invited (but
was unable to attend) at Galveston, given to Sena-
tor Sam. Houston, on the eve of his departure to
attend the present session of Congress. It is print-
ed as follows, in the Galveston Civilian of the 5th
instant:
(Sentiment.)—“The War with Mexico : Its ultimate
necessity has been growing more and more apparent for the
last twenty years. It could not have been averted much lon-
ger by human means. It is a war between the two principal
and widely different races on this continent, as well as be-
tween antagonistic principles and circumstances, and one or
the other must in the very nature of things be predominant.
On the one side are semi-barbarism, superstition, ignorance,
and social disorder, all tending to despotism ; on the other,
social order, civilization, intelligence, civil and religious liber-
ty in full perfection. What friend of freedom and good gov-
ernment in the world would not wish the latter to be triumph-
ant ? It is doubtless for the interests of both countries that it
should be. May our rulers prosecute the war with all possi-
ble efficiency and vigor as the best means of securing this de-
sirable result, and as the only means of bringing it to a speedy
and a glorious termination. We need another San Jacinto !’’
These, then, may be safely assumed to be the
views which are popular in Texas, where the origin,
causes, and motives of this war, whether as theirs
or ours, are probably better understood than any
where else, except by those who have been admit-
ted into them. They are the views of one but a
little while ago holding in his hands the fate of
Texas and all the secret counsels of this Govern-
ment in regard to these subjects ; and the occasion,
the reference to the battle of San Jacinto, with other
remembered things, make it apparent that they are
also the views of the distinguished person compli-
mented by the dinner; who, it can scarcely be
doubted, is as completely privy to all the plans of
this Administration in regard to Mexico, and has
as large an influence over those plans, as any one
whatever can be supposed to have.
And now, what are the propositions set forth in
this comprehensive sentiment, that expands into a
history, a dissertation, and the exposition of a whole
public policy under which we are never to stop,
until all different races, all adverse creeds, all forms
of Government not just harmonious with our own,
and even all “ circumstances” that suit not our
* Having so freely expressed our detestation of the idea of
a War begun or continued, under whatever plea, with the reaj
intent to strip our neighbors of their possessions, their mines,
their ports, or their provinces, under the claim of having
conquered them, it is perhaps due to candor to state that we
should not object to the obtaining, upon a pacification with
Mexico, as much territory as will extend our boundary, on the
western line of Texas, to some neutral ground, nor to the ac-
quiring a port upon the Pacific, which Mexico could well spare,
and which is no doubt highly desirable for the purposes of our
large and growing commercial interest on the shores and wa-
ters of that sea. But we should feel it as a deep reproach to
the magnanimous and generous spirit of this nation to exact
such cessions from the weakness of Mexico, or as the price of
renewing a Peace which ought never to have been broken. If
obtained, we trust that they will be upon such terms of fair-
ness and even liberality as shall leave no room for imputation
either on the justice or the chivalry of this Nation.
sovereign pleasure, are swept from this continent,
by our incessant wars, “ not to be averted by any
human means ?”
Historically, Ex-President Jones avers that the
causes of this war have existed—no, we beg par-
don—have been “ apparent” for twenty years.
As he explains them (the causes) into race, religion,
government, and circumstances, they have existed
at least as far back as the settlement at Jamestown,
under the brave Captain John Smith, in the year of
grace 1607. Nay, the same “ causes” must have
existed ever since men separated into different
races, held different creeds, lived under different
political inventions, and were placed by the God of
Nature under different “ circumstances.” And as
the same causes will exist all over the rest of the
globe, even when we shall, with irresistible and
righteous arms, have swept diversity and circum-
stance from this continent, it is clear that we shall
have ample “ cause” to fall upon the remainder of
the earth, and hew it and carve it into a conformity
of the sword !
Clearly, then, the reasons for this war have al-
ways existed, and President Jones’s “ twenty years”
is meant only to express the era since which those
“ causes ” became so “ apparent” that they began
to be acted on. This period (twenty years) is not
a new one; our Government asserted it once be-
fore, in its instructions to Mr. Shannon, who ac-
cordingly said as much to Mexico. It (the period)
carries us back beyond the earliest date of any of
the alleged spoliations by Mexico that we wot of;
Texas had then hardly a hundred or two of Ameri-
can colonists in it; and the Constitution of 1824,
the abrogation of which is the excuse for revolt,
had not been touched until some eight years later.
“ No human means,” it seems, “ could have
averted this war.” Clearly not; since the Mexi-
cans could not cease to be Mexicans,.nor the Catholic
religion become the Protestant, nor the people,
though doing their best, make just such a Gov-
ernment as ours ; and, indeed, had all these changes
been feasible, still there stood the “ antagonistic
circumstances ” of rich gold and silver mines and
a fine country—things which are probabTy meant,
in this theory of a just and necessary and Chris-
tian war, by that convenient word, “ circumstances.”
But, mark the nsxt great and humane truth estab-
lished for the philosophy of History: “ If (it seems)
two different races, no matter how far separated or
how thinly peopled, are on the same continent, one
or the other must, from the very nature of things, be
predominant;” that is to say, the stronger one
must, in just resentment of the national injury inflict-
ed on it by the other’s daring to be itself and to be
weak, fall upon it, b%the it in carnage and tears,
waste it, subjugate it, and finally abolish its blood,
its language, faith, and “ circumstances ” in general.
Charming ideas these (are they not ?) of the new
principles arrived at by the “ march of mind,” the
progress ?” What a convenience would such
principles as these have been to the Sultan when he
butchered the Greeks—to Attila, “ the scourge of
God,” when he wrapped half Europe in flame and
drunken slaughter ! Why, after all, Tamerlane and
Genghis Khan, whose track of conquering havoc
was broader and longer than almost any other that
ever blackened the earth for centuries, were very
enlightened princes, quite in advance of their times,
which (un-illumined that they were) absurdly de-
nounced as inhuman barbarism just such causes of
war as—thngp—oonwfid in tha “ gpnfimpnl_IL-p.Koi7a .
recited.
It would be distrusting the intelligence of our
readers to dwell further upon the particulars of this
“ sentiment.” We come at once to the exhortation
with which it closes, to make in Mexico one grand
closing field of San Jacinto—a crowning carnage,
that shall leave in Mexico no more of Mexicans
than did San Jacinto leave of them in Texas—that
is to say, only carcasses and captives ! *
These, then, as interpreted to us from the people
whose cause we have assumed—as avowed by their
last, in presence and in honor of him who was in
effect their first, President—these are the causes,
these the motives, and these the purposes for which
we are waging war! In the name of Liberty,
under the title of “ Progress,” and with the promise
of Glory, these principles, at which Russian des-
potism would blush, from which Mehemet Ali him-
self would recoil, are announced to us ! Hear, oh
Land of Washington- Listen, ye Children of
the Pilgrims, of Roger Williams, and of William
Penn! Ye for whom, in Carolina, the virtuous
John Locke drew up philosophic laws, and ye
whom the humane and generous Oglethorpe found-
ed beyond, hearken ! Sages and Heroes of the Re-
volution, lo! the consummation of your labors,
the Freedom of which you setup the mighty frame ?
It is come to such a point that the people who have
stood in your presence, and whose fathers followed
you to acts so illustrious and yet so innocent, are now
engaged in a cause and inclined to a career in
which men hesitate not to proclaim to them, for ad-
miration and execution, such maxims and ideas as
these !
But, suppose the object of this war, as stated by
either of the authorities which we have quoted, to
have been accomplished, and all Mexico to have
been overrun and conquered. Then comes
curse!
A People so inferior that you could—-in spite of
distance, and deserts, and fastnesses, and all that
fights against invaders—overwhelm them upon their
own hearths, is, after eternal rancors have been
sown by the cruelties of war between the victors
and the vanquished, reduced to submission. That
submission must be at once abject and revengeful.
These conquered provinces, spreading over half a
continent, must, in spite of all that our Military or
Naval legislators can ordain or promise, be held by
the sword. We have to do with a race not merely
strangers to our law, but turbulent under their own;
untamed by even their natural authorities ; unsteady
to even the changes of government which them-
selves have made; degenerate, if you will, but
proud ; fierce, though undisciplined, and, when once
roused to hate, as fell in a war of assassination as
they may have been unfortunate in legitimate com-
bat. For a while, this race may accept laws
a new
■Sanguinary as this part of the “ Sentiment ” may appear to
our readers, as it does to us, it is not without precedent and
pattern nearer home—even in our government paper. In the
same number of “ the Union ” already quoted, (that of Au-
gust 25, 1845,) and immediately following its threat of a
second “Conquest of Mexico,” is to be found the following
sentence :
“ Let the trumpet once sound, and the troops already in
the field will be joined by thousands of young and adventurous
spirits, who will march to a contest with the butchers of the
‘ Alamo ’ as to a holyday spout, and revenge upon them
the massacres of olden times."
which they do not Understand, and authorities which
they detest; but it will be only a forced and a
feigned submission, not a peace. For what peace
shall we have made with them but such as is steep-
ed in humiliation ? And what peace will they re-
turn, but such hate as is laid up in Spanish bosoms
only to make it deadlier, and, meantime, until the
hour of revenge, soothes its unslaked animosity
with studying how the conqueror may least reap
good from his conquest ?
In a word, if any terms of submission be made
with us by Mexico, it is doubtful, at least, whether
any will be kept. We may wrest province after
province from her; we may even strike, as now
seems the design, at her capital: surely we, whose
great towns were, during the Revolution, almost
constantly in the hands of the enemy, should know
that over-running a country only implies, for the
greater part, a rush of its whole population to arms,
a redoubled national fury, and a war of desola-
tion. The possession of Vienna, or Moscow, or
Madrid, was no conquest of the States whose cen-
tre they were; and, as for Mexico, it has often and
often yielded to domestic revolutions, that were
scarcely heard of beyond its walls. As a country,
New Spain is too wide, too broken, too full of na-
tural defences, too little connected, too discordant,
for its fate to be seriously affected by an invader’s
reaching its capital. And this, from the very con-
dition and character of the people and Government,
might always have been foretold of it: that to pene-
trate, and in appearance to master a large extent of
its territories, is easy enough ; but to hold them qui-
etly afterwards, impossible.
We have shown in what temper to receive, and
in what capacity to understand, our laws and sway
those Mexican regions will be, which we may, for
a time, reduce to submission. Govern them, we
will soon find that we cannot, except just so far as
our sword reaches. How much Mexican soil have
we really subdued ? As much as our troops stand
upon. In New Mexico, our real conquest is the
town of Santa Fe ; in California, Monterey and a
few like points ; in Chihuahua, just the place where
Gen. Wool’s cantonments are ; in New Leon, Mon-
terey and the forts around it. As for the route
over which our forces have advanced, and by which
they communicate with their supplies, it is clearly
debatable ground.
How, then, are our supposed conquests to be
brought within a settled and a legal authority ?
Only by the presence all over the country of troops
enough to hold the inhabitants in awe, and be a
perpetual armed posse coniitatus. Mexican law
must be administered by their native officers, whom
you can never trust until all wish or hope of ven-
geance or revolt has died away. But five hundred
years did not efface, among the Greeks, the recol-
lection of ancient independence and the resentment of
Turkish injuries : near seven centuries have not
sufficed to pacify Ireland : Italy herself, so long the
effeminate victim of foreign sway, still clings to the
dream of Roman glory, and shakes with plans of
rebellion the Austrian domination. The Mexicans
are not more helpless than the Greeks, more assail-
able than the Irish, so unwarlike or so divided as
the Italians, nor we stronger than the English or
more relentless than the Austrians and the Turks,
to break a conquered people’s spirit to servitude.
We say, then, that our laws and our authorities
must at once be substituted for the Mexican ; and
that thay muai Lo ctlmirtiatcrcd By the bayonet.
The force which has acquired must maintain our do-
minion ; and its severe exercise, rendered necessary
by national hate, will prolong and deepen it. What
is this but the history of all conquests ? And why
should ours, if resisted like all others, follow some'
new law ?
Such is that curse, that calamity, worse than any
thing that failure can possibly bring, which the
most complete success must entail upon us. But
even this is but a part. We have shown that the
sort of government which has been already so
strangely and so inadequately erected in what of
Mexico we hold, must not only be continued there,
but rendered far more intimate and present where
there is much population. Revolt, encouraged by
the distance of our troops from succor, and foment-
ed from the unsubdued parts of Mexico, will burst
out. Wherever we are weak or unguarded, a Sici-
lian Vesper may be sounded, and our people be
massacred at the dead of night. To check all this,
forces must be spread all over our new acquisitions.
The people, hating our yoke, must be tamed into
bondage ; and our Executive, the supreme command-
er of the armies through which all government is
dispensed to our Spanish provinces, becomes omni-
potent there, and thus grows the sole beneficiary of
the entire conquest! Nor will he be slow to turn
back upon ourselves the sweeping powers with
which we have invested him over others. An army
constantly entertained abroad to make or to keep
conquests, soon ceases to look to any thing but the
imperial will and the imperial favor of him who di-
rects it; and realms reduced to vassalage turn sure
instruments of despotism, of backward conquest,
finding vengeance for their own^loss of freedom in
assisting the Chief Magistrate to subdue those who
enabled him to subdue them. It was with the
legions employed in conquering Africa and the East
until they had lost all attachment but to the person
of their commander, that Marius and Sylla return-
ed to be dictators and executioners in Rome; and
with a like army, grown veteran under his victo-
rious banner in Gaul, Germany, and Britain, Julius
CjEsar marched back to Italy and assumed the im-
perial purple. Had the French Republic never
made the expedition to Egypt nor overrun Italy,
Napoleon could never have seized upon supreme
power. It is thus that the designs of nations against
the peace and liberty ef others are visited upon
themselves.
When speaking in Parliament of the attempt of
the Ministry to strip the inhabitants of these colo-
nies, by force of arms, of their rights as British
subjects, well was it repeated by Lord Chatham,
and well had it been said by our Declaration of In-
dependence, that to suffer the King to make slaves
in America was a long step towards making him
absolute in Britain. The like is true in all coun-
tries and in all cases. Not only are the rulers who
are capable of designing to deprive a neighboring
people of freedom capable of the same design against
their own, but in the surest road to its accomplish-
ment. Nay, the free people that will, whether for
party, or vanity, or lust of power, or avidity of ter-
ritory, lend its bodies, its treasure, and its violated
constitutional forms to such a plan, is already ripe for
the loss of its own liberty. For, where the genuine
sentiment of freedom exists, the breast in which it
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National Intelligencer. (Washington [D.C.]), Vol. 47, No. 6867, Ed. 1 Saturday, December 26, 1846, newspaper, December 26, 1846; Washington, District of Columbia. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1024871/m1/3/: accessed July 11, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .