Newspaper Page Text
ao enormous is of it?elf proof ot the fact that thc> j were not at any time deemed by Congress to con stitute a sufficient cause of war. iMost of themhad besides been actually adjusted by a treaty between the two countries, which was in the course of faith ful execution by Mexico when the hostile demon strations of our Administration suspended the pay ment of stipulated indemnities. As to what remain ed of unadjusted claims, there was nothing, until the occurrence of this war, to prevent their peacea ble and even satisfactory adjustment. As to the re fusal by Mexico to receive our Minister being, as the President intimates, a sufficient cause ot war, il is a sufficient answer to the President that the army was Ordered to march to the Rio Grande (where, according to the programme of the government pa per, the war was to begin) two months belore oui Minister was linally relused to be received by the Government of Mexico. But let it be admitted, for the sake of argument, and for that sake only, that, according to the cus toms and laws of nations in less civilized, less moral, and less enlightened ages than the present, we really had cause of war with Mexico, so far as war between two Christian Nations is ever just or necessary: yet, war with Mexico,distracted, weak ened, and impoverished as she had long been and then was, with intestine factions and divisions, was neither necessary, magnanimous, nor honorable on our part. Such a war, even for just objects, being unnecessary?the only inevitable effect indeed upon the claims for which it would be waged being to fasten them upon our own Treasury instead of the Mexican?could never redound to the glory ot the country, and much less compensate for the rivers ot blood and heaps of treasure which have been already wasted in this war. But, to pass all this by, whether the existing war be just or unjust, necessary or unnecessary, is not the question now at issue between the President and the People. Was this War the act of the Sovereign People of the United States, declared in their name, in the only manner known or ac knowledged by the Constitution?by the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress, to whom alone it belongs to determine whether War, at any time or under any circumstances, be just and lie cessary ? Or was it, whether a crime or a mis take, the unauthorized act ol the President, to whom the Constitution has denied all power over the question of War? This is the true question ; nor can all the wire-drawn sophistry and special plead ing of the President's Message ot last year, referred t0= in that which is now before us, deceive a sin gle individual, be he Whig or be he Democrat, of common sense or common information, against the well-known and well-authenticated facts in the case. Need we add, that, whoever the President be, who, trampling down the barriers which the Constitu tion has erected for the protection of the general welfare, and for the security of the life, liberty, and property of the citizen, ot his own mere will and pleasure plunges the country into a War, with or without cause?that man is a Despot! The Na tion that quietly folds its arms and permits this to be done with impunity, may delude itself with the fancy that it lives under a written Law and Consti tution, but it is an idle dream. That Nation is a Niuion of slaves, and lives under a Despotism. To proceed, however, to the main point, upon the re-assertion of which alone the President relies to justify himself before his own fellow-citizens for his agency in this War, viz. that the Mexican Gov ernment 44 finally, under wholly unjustifiable pre ? texts, involved the two countries in war, by inva * ding the territory of Texas, striking the first blow, ?and shedding the blood of onr citizens on Ameri < can soil." Xot one word of this is true. We regret the necessity, but the President imposes upon us the obligation, of renewing the demonstration ot the utter falsity of the whole of ft. Mexico did not involve the two countries in war : Mexico did not invade the territory of Texas : Mexico did not strike the first blow : Mexico did not shed the blood of our citizens on our own soil. This whole question, it will be seen, resolves itself into one of territorial boundary. _ Did, at the breaking out ot this war, the terri torv between the Nueces and the Rio Grande (Del Norte) belong to Mexico or to the United States It did not belong to the United States. I he Re public of Texas had no title to it. She had not even a respectable claim to it. She pretended to no such title when she called a Convention to form her Constitution ; for not a member was called to that Convention from any portion of the territory bounding on the Rio Grande. Nor when, in her Constitution, she apportioned the Representation in her Legislature among the several districts of her territory, did she enumerate any districts lying upon the Rio Grande as entitled to representation in the Texan General Assembly. The whole coun try on the Rio Grande, and indeed the whole coun try west of the Nueces, except the small settlement of San Patricio, was exclusively in possession o! the Mexicans, until the army of the United States marched into it, driving before it the Mexican civil officers and the peaceful inhabitants. Texas hav ing no title to the territory, the annexation of Texas to this Union could confer none upon the United States. Were a peace to be made to-morrow on the basis of leaving things as they were before the war, the territory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande would still constitute a part of the Mexican ?States of Tamaulipas, &r. This state of the fact is none of our first discov ering, much less of our imagining. We derive nearly all our information on the subject troin the highest Democratic authority. When the Treaty with Texas, by which she undertook to convey to the United States a western boundary to the Rio Grande, was depending in the Senate, Mr. Senator Bf.nton (high authority on the subject) indignantly denounced it as an attempted traud and outrage. " I wash my hands," said he, " of all attempts 4 to dismember the Mexican Republic, bi/ seizing 4 her dominions in New Mexico, Chihuahua, Coa * hiiila, and Tamaulipas. The treaty, in all that 4 relates to the boundary of the Rio Grande, is an 4 act of unparalleled outrage on Mexico. It is 4 the seizure of two thousand miles of her terri 4 ton/, without a word of explanation with her, and 4 by virtue of a treaty with Texas, to which she is 4 no party." Mr. Benton further declared that the claim set up by Texas by the Treaty, if maintained, would rut off" the capital and forty towns and villages of * New Mexico, now and always as fully under the 4 dominion of.Mexico as Quebec and all the towns ? of Canada are otonder the dominion of Great * Britain." Mr. B. closed hit) speech by ofleriug the follow ing resolution: Retejeed,the incorporation of the left bunk of the Rio del Norte into the American Union, by virtue of a treaty with Texan, comprehending, as the said incorporation would do, a portion ol' the Mexican department* of New Mexico," Chihua hua, Coahuila, and Tamaulipa*, would he un act oj direct aggression upon Mexico, for all the consequences of which the United State* would stUnd responsible. ' To the same effect, that great Democratic leader, I the Hon. Silas Wright, (whose late death has ; been so justly lamented by men of all parlies,) who 1 was present duHng the whole debate upon the Texas j Treaty and gave his vote against its ratification, I declared to his constituents, in a speech delivered at Watertown, as follows: 411 felt it my duty to vote against the ratification 4 of the treaty for the annexation. 1 believed that 4 the treaty, from the boundaries that must be im 4 plied from it, em I) raced a country to which Texas 4 hud no claim, over which she hud never asserted 4 jurisdiction, and which she had no right to cede." Hut, many years before the date of this debate, the records of the United States had borne testimony to the true boundary of Texas. In 1830 an Agent was dispatched by the President of the United States (lien. Jackson) to examine and report upon the condition of Texas, which had then established an independent Government; and in his report, dated in August of that year, he reported that 44 the 4 political limits of Texas proper, previous to the 4 last revolution, were the Nueces River on the 4 tvesl; along the Red River on the north ; the 4 Sabine on the east; and the Gulf of Mexico on 4 the south." At the time of the consummation of the act of annexation, Mr. Donelsox being the Charge d'Af faires of the United States to that young Republic, communicated freely with his Government as to the position of things in Texas. From his letters we extract the following passages, showing what was the fact as to the limits of the territory actually occupied by Texas, even at that time: 44 Corpus Christi is said to be as heallhy as Pensacola, a convenient place for supplies, and the most western j point now occupied h* Texas."?Letter to Secretary of State, June 30, 1845. 44 The occupation of the country between the Nueces and the Rio Grande, you are aware, is a disputed question. Texas holds Corpus Christi. Mexico holiis the Biiasos he Santtaoo."?Litter to Gen. Taylor, June 28, 1815. 44 The joint resolution of our Congress left the question an open one, and the preliminary proposition made by this Gov ernment, under the auspices of the British and French Gov ernments, as the basis of a definitive treaty with Mexico, left i the .question in the same .state. And although this Govern \ ment [the Government of Texas] has since indicated a point | on the Rio Grande for the occupation of our troops, I did not consider this circumstance as varying the question, since the President [of Texas] but a few weeks before issued a procla mation suspending hostilities between Texas and Mexico, the ! practical elTect of which was to leave the question precisely I as it stood when our joint resolution passed?Mexico in POSSESSION OF ONE POUTION MF THE TERJUTOIU, AND TeXAS ' of another." 44 The proclamation of a truce between the two nations, founded on propositions mutually acceptable to i them, leaving the question of boundary not only an open I one, but Mexico iv possession of the east hank of the i Rio Ghande, seemed to me inconsistent with the expectation | that in defence of the claim of Texas our troops should march i immediately to that river. What the Executive of Texas had determined not to fight for, but to settle by negotiation, to say the least of it, could as well be left to the United States on the same conditions." 44 The question was whether, under the circumstances, we should take a position to make war for this claim, in the face of an acknowledgment on the part oj this Government thut it could be settled by negotiation. I at once decided that we should take no such position, but should regard only us with in the limits of our protection that portion of territory ac ti*aelt possessed it v Texas, and which she did not con sider as subject to negotiation."?Letter to Mr. Buchanan, j July 11, 1813. 44 Yoiir purpose will be the defence of Texas, if she is in j vaded by Mexico, and you will he in position at Corpus \ Christi, San Antonio, and other points on the Nueces, i ready to act according to circumstances."?To Gin. Tuulor, 1 July 7, 1845. These extracts taken together establish, upon the evidence of our Government itself, through its Di plomatic Representative in Texas, that Mexico was " in possession of the territory west of the Nucces (except the county of Patricio) and Texas of the territory east of the Nueces, with the addition of Patricio; that Mexico w^s admitted by our own Envoy to be in possession of the east bank of Rio (irande, and that Corpus Christi was the most i western point then occupied by Texas. These admissions from a source so well-informed, so free from bias in favor of any interest but that of the United States, (including Texas,) are fatal to every pretension of territorial right oil the part of Texas | between the Rio Grande and the Nuecfes, the small county of Patricio perhaps excepted. All that remains, therefore, to sustain the preten i sion of our Administration tiiat the boundary of I Texas extended to the Rio Grande, and that by her annexation the Rio Grande became the boundary of ( the United States, is the act of the Legislature of Texas declaring its boundary to extend to the Rio I Grande. If that act could be considered of any efl'ect whatever, it- would at most leave ground for controversy and negotiation, as was assumed by Mr. Donelson. Hut that a<M itself was a mere nullity. To that efl'ect we have the opinion of Senator Woodbury, (now an Associate Judge of the Su preme Court of the United States,) in his Speech in favor of ratifying the Treaty of Annexation : 44 Texas, by a mere law" said he, ^ could ac 44 t/uire no title but what she conquered from Mex 44 ico, and actually governed. Hence, though her 44 law iucludes more than the ancient Texas, she 44 could hold anil convey only that, or, at the utter 44 most, only what she exercised char jurisdiction \ 44 oi'pr.". Texas never had exercised jurisdiction of any sort over .any territory on the Rio Grande, and could not therefore by possibility convey to the United States any title to it. To the saino effect we have the authority of Mr. | Gat.latin, which saves us and our readers the trou 1 ble of searching further on the subject : 44 The Republic of Texas did, by an act of De j 44 cember, 1886, declare the Rio del Norte to be its ' 44 boundary. It will not be seriouslv contended 44 that a nation has a right, by a law of its own, to 44 determine what is or shali be the boundary bc 44 tween it and another country. The act was no 44 thing more than the expression of the tvishes or ! 44 pretensions of the Government. Jis regards | 44 right, the act of Texas is a perfect nullity." It is thus conclusively demonstrated that the ter ritory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande ( never had passed out of the possession or right of Mexico, and was in no sense 44 American soil," or territory of the United States. The fact is, more | over, too notorious to need to be here dwelt upon, that the array of the United States, when it neared the Kio Grande, chased the Mexican custom-officers out of their houses, and, when it encamped on the hank of the river, found itself in the midst of a Mexican population, and occupying the corn and qotton-tields which they had iled from in dismay. The tlag of the United States was planted by our army, as in defiance, under the guns ol a Mexican fort, and at the same time the vessels of our Navy blockaded the mouth of the Kio Grande?a river running, from its source to the ocean, alto gether between Mexican banks, without a 1 exan settlement of any sort within a hundred miles oi it. Nay, Gen, Taylor himself, after literally obeying the Executive orders by occupying a position oppo site Matamoros, thus reported to the War Depart ment (under date of April 6, 1810,) his pro ceedings : ? On our side a battery for four eighteen-pound 4 ers will be completed, and the guns placed in bat 4 tery to-day. These guns bear directly upon the 4 public square of Matamoros, unit within good 4 range Jor demolishing the town. Their object . 4 CANNOT UE MISTAKEN BY THE ENEMY." The Enemy ! W hat enemy ? Does not this language prove that the brave old General under stood very well what he was sent there for ? War did not exist until he had planted a battery of guns bearing directly upon the public square ol Mata moros, the object of which, as he very truly reports to Mr. Marcy, could not be mistaken ! Atul by this invasion of Mexican territory, under peremptory orders from Washington to the C oin manding General, was the war begun by the Presi dent of the United States, without the knowledge of Congress, though then in session. Nor then nor since has there been a drop of American (United States) blood shed by Mexico on American soil : nor then uor since has a Mexican soldier or armed man set his foot upon American soil, (Texas proper included.) The foundation of the President's first, second, and last War Manifestoes against Mexico being thus withdrawn from under them, what is there left to sustain any part of the recommendations, in the Message before us, of a further and more vindictive prosecution of the war ! ? *But to proceed : The ground upon which the President placed the War, when, having got into it, he was obliged to call upon Congress to sustain him in it, is, as we have shown, so far from being ' solid or true, that it is directly the reverse. So far from Mexico having invaded the United States, our President invaded .Mexico ; and, so far from the war having 44 existed " by the act of Mexico, it : existed?so far as it is possible for the United I States to be at war without the consent ol the war making power?by the act ol Mr. Polk alone. Nor, in our opinion, did it exist without premeditation. It had been contemplated as possible, at least, from the moment of his coming to the Presidency. The ' government paper, as we have already remarked, i had not been in existence more than a week before, ' in that mirror of the Presidential sentiment, the inva sion, and even the conquest of Mexico, were lore , shadowed?we may say predicted?in the*event of Mexico venturing to exercise any authority on the cast bank of the Kio Grande. As early as June, 1845 [mark the date]?the Commander of the Naval force of the United States in the Pacific was directed to look out for a war with Mexico, and, on receipt of the news of it, to possess himself of the port of San Francisco, on the coast of California, and such other ports as his force would permit. He had | been so instructed even earlier than this : for the i letter to him begins : 44 Your attention is still par j ticularly directed," &c. to the contingency of war. i Congress was to meet in the December following. Early in November, the Message of the President to Congress being in a state of preparation, al ' ready contained, as we had every reason to be lieve, a recommendation of hostilities against Mex ico, in some form or other, on the ground of unsat isfied claims of our citizens, of unpaid indemnity inonev, and other alleged grievances. On the Dili of November, however, just three weeks before the session began, information having been received from our Consul at Mexico that the Mexican Gov-j eminent was willing to receive a Commissioner to negotiate concerning the Texas boundary, the Mes j sage was perforce changed. The body ol the in I dictment against that Government was indeed re I tained, as the reader will perceive if he will take I the trouble to refer to the Message itself; the re ' commendation of reprisals, or of war in some form, being the only thing omitted.* A Minister Pleni potentiary was sent instead of a Commissioner? our Government refusing to treat on the boundary question without mixing it up with matters with ! which it had no sort of connexion?and the cor I **The evidence which satisfied our mind of the facts here referred to may interest some readers. We will therelore briefly state it. In the Journal of Commerce, whose sorrea pondent was at that time certainly in confidential communi cation with person* familiar with the movements of the Uov ernment, we found, and copied into the National Intelligencer, ! the following Letter : 44 Wasiunktox, October 30, (H45.) 44 I am happv to learn that the Executive has determined not ; to send a special agent to Mexico, to demand payment of in i demr.itie*. ?' But I am glad to state, for the information of Mexican claimant?, ar.d for the information of all those who entertain a just sen*e of our national rights and dignity, that the course ! of thp Executive on this subject will l>e one that will fully meet their expectations, anil be far mare effective than the feelde and fnrmal one that I hare referred to, and which ha* been abandoned. ' ?' What this course is to be I will not undertake to state : -'Ut I refer all who m#y he interested in the matter to the Presi dent's Annual Mettage, which will be forthcoming in al?out four weeks. 44 The ground now taken by the Execut ve probably is, that Mexico has so fur violated the treaty herself that we ark *n soi.vr.n from ant adhkhkrcii to it. She has taken the re sponsibility of breaking off ail diplomatic intercourse, recalline her own Minister and dismissing ours. I do not see how this Government could approach her in any way, except the wa? tiik Frirch took." Upon the disclosure, in this Letter, of the intention of the President to recommend to Congress to take 44 the way the French took" in regaid to our differences with Mexico, we made such comments as to scandalous a proposition as the bombatdment and blockade of Veta Cruz, or any measure ol a like character, upon the plea of unsatisfied claims of the United Slates, seemed to us to deserve. Whereupon, Out upon us coines the 44 Union," with a column or two of the grossest vituperation of the National Intelligencer as opposing j the Government, first in its desire to got up a war for Iifly fvur forty on the Oregon question, and now again having the , assurance to say a word against war with Mexico ; but not denying a syllable of the fact communicated to the Public by the Washington Correspondent of the Journal of Commerce. , [This was six months before the war actually did break out without the agency of Congress.] We did not doubt then, and do not now doubt, that the correspondent aforesaid ha<! , either s*en the draft of so much of the President's intended Message aa concerned Mexico, or had it so divulged to him j iu to allow him to speak of its forthcoming contents with sub i stantial if not verbal accuracy. respondence between our Minister and the Mexi can authorities was still going on when the army of General Ia\lor was, as if lor the purpose ol precipitating events, marched from Corpus Christi to the RioGrande. About the same time, as we know from the President's Message of last year, he was himself in secret negotiation with the exiled Military ( hieftain, Santa Anna, for what precise purpose can only be inferred from the fact, that the day alter the war was declared to exist, directions were gh en to out vessels ol war to allow him to pass into Mexico. All these concurring circum stances show that war was premeditated by the President. I hat^ the war might have been then averted by Mexico s agreeing to surrender to the United States California and a boundary on the Kio.Grande, we do not doubt; nor do we doubt that the Presi de t and his Cabinet have been willing, ever since t le war bi gan, to end it whenever Mexico would agree to surrender to their demand all of her territory that they have set their hearts on : and that this is what the J resident means when he speaks of ? conquering a peace." Kut we have still less doubt that the original obje< t ol this war, and the sole true cause and motive ol it, was Congest, or, in other words, t te coercion of Mexico to surrender territory which Mr. Polk ainbitioned the eclat of "annexing" to the United States. Mr. Secretary Bancroft, in a letter ol instructions to Commodore Sloat, (then commanding in the Pacific,) on the 12th of July, 1846 two months after the war was legalized by Congress?very frankly disclosed this fact. " The 'object of the United States," said he, " is, under 'lta rl8ht* "" ? belligerent nation, to possess it ? self entirely of Upper California." And, further, said Mr. Bancroft, " The object of the United ' States has reference to ultimate peace with Mex ' teo ; [ultimate, observe ; possession of her covet 4 ed territory, being the jumultimate object ;j?and ' ii, at the peace, the basis of the uti possidetis 'shall be established, the Government expects, ' through your forces, to be found in actial pos ' session of Upper California." 1 lie President declared to Congress, it is true, in his Message of last year, that this war with Mexico had not been waged in a spirit of conquest. Would any one suppose, with these instructions to our Naval Commander, and corresponding instruc tions to our Military Commanders, that he under stood the import of this disclaimer ? No one can at least misunderstand the purport of his present Message, breathing, as it does, nothing but war, a Conqueror's peace, or the alternative of the annihi lation of Mexico. Nor does the President seem to understand him self in another respect any better than he did when he disclaimed any purpose of conquest in the pro secution of the war with Mexico. In setting forth, for instance, in the beginning of this Message, his own love of Peace and strenuous efforts to preserve for us its blessings, we must look on him as exhibiting a very signal example of self i delusion. No man's pacific merits could well be less. His course, thus, far, in his high office, on the contrary, realized to the full, in almost every instance, what we said of it a year ago ; namely, that, having seen that wars were popular in this.country and felt that he himself was not too popular, heJiad thought to himself, ?1 will be a War-President, and that will make me popular and render all my opponents and competitors odious." Accordingly, his very Inaugural had a full-blown quarrel with' England in it: his first Annual Message announced that he had done nearly all he could to brinsr that quarrel to a focus; meantime he had secretly ta ken steps for another with Mexico, by way ot making sure of a war somewhere. So that, no sooner had the interposition of the Senate foiled him in his original war-plan,?than, by a diligent improvement of his time, he had another fight readv to substitute for that which had been refused him. Grown more wary this time, he took care not to be foiled by any body's discretion ; and, though Con gress was sitting for five months before he had brought every thing to bear, contrived, to have a war completely in a blaze, and our succorless army placed in what (their prowess unknown) seemed an almost hopeless predicament, before the country or Congress knew one word of what he was about. Such are the general and the larger facts, as to that merit of loving peace which the President ap propriates to himself. If we look closer and scan the particulars of things, we must not only say that President Polk is not possessed of that virtue of a ruler which he claims, and?we regret that Ve must say it?has shown, and every where in this Mes sage shows himself, utterly indifferent to the car nage and calamities of war. Of little less than stone, indeed, must his heart be, who can look, without the strongest commiser ation, upon the spectacle of a nation reduced to the extremity of distress in which Mexico, known from the first to be incapable of resisting us. now stands. Not one spark of compassion can his breast ever have known, who, after inflicting upon a wretched people, destitute of any resource against us but their hereditary obstinacy, all the slaughter and humilia tion which we have every where inflicted upon Mexico, can coolly resolve in his heart that this is not enough; not blood enough, not tears enough ; not sufficient ravage, not satisfactory disaster, not national wo and degradation duly deep ; for that tbe victim-people, though covered with blood and prostrate in the dust, at ill, with desperate though feeble hands, fights, though vainly, for its hearths and a'tars?that therefore, as Mexico does not yield, we must now begin to strike her " in her vital parts and, besides seizing, for ours perpe tually, territories the utmost that even Rapacity has dared avow tor our aim, most pacifically and peace- i lovingly exhorts us to go on ravaging the rest of Mexico until the nation yields or is destroyed ! W hy. the very savage of the court-yard, in other times?that most brutal of mankind, the bully of .he haihwick, who chewed up aii ear or nose, or -cooped out with thumb a prostrate adversary's eje -was humane, was generous, in comparison with this ; for he, when he fought, never fought the weak, but rather his match : nor, when his rival champion lay gasping and helpless under him,game to the last and ready to die sooner than utter the craven word "enough," would he have ever thought of proceeding to mutilate the vanquished, by wav of forcing him to confess himself conquered, and then, moreover, have helped himself to whatever he could find in the maimed man's pockets. No: even in his hardened heart, there would be a manly pity, because there was courage : if he did not at once raise up his enemy with respect, he at least would not begin " to strike at his vitul parts and well for him, too, that he would not; for the very crowd of a court green, coarse as it then was, was yet undebauched of every right sentiment by party politics, and would not have suffered in the bully what it now endures in the President. .So much for the mercies and the compunctions of him who proposes, for the lucre of five misera ble millions of indemnities, which he himself ac knowledges Mexico could not raise the means ol paying, to butcher or enslave a whole empire of Republics ! Hut this is not all: how stood the fact of our very right to ask for those indemnities, alter having helped ourselves to Texas, for the lib erty of peacefully annexing whic h it is well known that we stood ready, under the Tyler administra tion, at any time to have given more than the amount of the indemnities as a price ? Even in the moment of Annexation, the Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Affairs in the House of Rep resentatives, speaking as the organ of the Execu tive in the House, said, to quiet the last opposition, that he had the liberty of assuring the House that it was ascertained that the injured feelings of Mexi ' eo could be healed with money. Such was the in 1 timation then held out; and there is every reason to believe that authorized but unofficial offers of at least the amount of the indemnities had been more than once made to Mexico for her rights over Tex&s. Finally, however, in the mere confidence of im punity, we took it without a price : but at least, by a last reserve of shame or of pity, upon the remon strance and the unanswerable showing of Mr. Ben j ton that we were about to take much more than Texas, (which had never possessed any thing be j yond the Nueces,; Congress relented, and by its Resolution of Annexation ordered the Executive to I adjust by friendly negotiation the proper boundary between Texas and Mexico. j And, now, once more for the peace-lovingness of | this our President. His duty stood assigned him. j He knew that we had taken what we had of.en of j fered to buy; he knew that if, in honor and faith, ' the indemnities were not cancelled by our seizure i of Texas, at least that now an injury to Mexico had 1 been committed. But he knew that, feeble as she i was, she dared not accept that war ; and at once, ^ with a pitilessness the most singular, not content i though we had just ravished from her a vast and I rich territory, nor touched by the lorlornness ot a 1 nation utterly unable to revenge such treatment fur ! ther than by the impotent resentment of withdraw ing her Ambassador from our Court, he sends Gen. Taylor forward, to seize, in addition to all that she had been stripped of, even the petty and barren slip, the mere selvage of sand, the desert space between the Nueces and Rio Grande, which Congress had plainly meant to spare. For this worthless object, and under circumstances so vehemently invoking forbearance and mercy, has Mr. Polk illegally and ; unconstitutionally involved us in this cruel war, every step in which is plainly, according to the pro gress of his plans, to lead us further and further into ; *4the bowels of the land." Yet, in the face of all this, P/esident Polk can talk smoothly of his love of Peace, the 44 liberality" of the terms jie has held out through Mr. Trist, and especially the generosity with which, wherever the sword goes to crimson the fields of Mexico, the olive-branch forthwith waves, as fast as its com panion smites! j "No conqueror that I ever heard of," says Ed mund Burke,41 has ever profesned to make a cruel, * hard, and insolent use of his conquest. No ! The 4 man of the most declared pride scarcely dares to 4 trust his own heart with this dreadful secret of 4 ambition. But it will appear in its time. And no 4 man who professes to reduce another to the inso 4 lent mercy of a foreign arm ever had any sort of !4 good will towards him. The profession of kiiul 4 ness, with that sword in his hand and that demand 4 of surrender, is one of the most provoking acts 4 of his hostility." Can the President so little conceive how mere a 1 mockery of peace and fraternity is this invading a country with declarations of love, this sweeping oil its provinces with a besom made of olive-branches, as to expect that Mexico will not be fired with a double resentment by the imperious and.degrading form of negotiation to which lie would have her submit ? If he does expect it, then is he a stranger not only to all the natural and becoming passions of men defending their country, its honor, and its independence, but to all the examples o( history and all the suggestions of prudence. War has never thus been made, except by conquerors the j most arrogant and merciless. The rule of the Ro- J mans, not less wise than magnanimous, was never to negotiate after a defeat. Can the President intend that we are to treat in the face of disaster, should it ever come ? Dare he declare that the pretended 44 olive-branch would not then be instantly withdrawn ! hat, then, is the inevitable effect but to require that they whom we are invading, destroying, and dismembering, should, at every calamitous'and bloody defeat, come forward to embrace terms necessarily made harder and more humiliating by utter discomfiture?the rout and dispersion of their armies, or the capture of their forces and cities 01 negotiation under such circumstances, the Vf t'ictis of Brennus and his Gauls, the 44 Wo to the Conquered!" is the no torious a fid inevitable law. The sword stands ever ready, in all such cases, to be cast into the scale of ransom : and none but a nation of cravens and fools ever resigns itself to making terms al such a mo ment. On the contrary, every brave and every patriotic heart f>nlv summons up, at such an instant, a more unconquerable courage; and the resolution 44 Never to despair of the Republic" becomes the only thought which the citizen will consent to entertain. I,eft almost at our mercy as she is. bv factions which not even the extremity of public distress seems able to quiet: her Government and her armies in the hands of those who appear equally inefficient lor cither peace or war ; her troops every where driven from the field or lying slaughtered ; her ports, her capital, and several of her larg?- pro vinces in our hands ; her treasury as empty as was our ow^i in the gloomiest day of our Revolutionary struggle?still, in the pertinacity of her refusals to | treat, Mexico has shown some gleams of that old ; Numantine spirit which preferred death to surren der : that Iberian obstinacy which the Moor could never quell, nor even the irresistible armies ot Na poleon tame. Whether she has caught it from her race, or whether the growing fierceness of a univer sal national hate such as always springs up in a ! country overrun by invaders inspires it, we should respect it. It is honorable ; it will be found formi dable. Such a spirit, once fairly awakened, has ever proved invincible ; and so we shall find it to our cost, il, by prolonged and cruel warfare, such a" ' "'"'dent Polk would have, we stir it up through out Mexico. Meantime, we say, without hesita tion, that she has, in one instance at least, manifest e a faitliluiness ol nationality which goes far to re eein .ill the disgraces of her arms. We speak 0 her answer* with (Jen. Scott and his glorious little army at the gates of her capital, to Mr. 1 rist s demand of the cession of New Mexico. That answer was in the following terms : I hat this proportion, under the recognbed light of Mex ico to deliberate, should he modi.ied ; and that, in the preten tion* of the United State- and the character of hi- negotia tion,, its Commissioner leaven no other choice to Mexico than the Ioaa of honor ; and it in that which shut* the door to all i possibility of making peace. ?? To restore this great benefit to the nation, the Govern ment agreed to cede Texas and a part of Upper California, as far as the frontier of Oregon, on the terms which were stated in the instructions; but not even with the reservation that Congress should approve it would the Government consent to cede more?especially not New Mexico, whose inhabitant* have manifested their desire to make a part of the Mexican ' family with more enthusiasm than any other part of the. Republic. " These meritorious Mexicans, abandoned to their fate dur ing some administrations, often without protection even to pre serve them from the incursions of the savages, have been the most truly patriotic of Mexicans, because, forgotting their do mestic complaints, they have remembered nothing but their desire to be of the Mexican family; and many, exposing and sacrificing themselves to the vengeance of the invaders, have, rebelled against them ; and when their plans were discovered or disconcerted, and their conspiracies frustrated, have again conspired ; and would any Government sell such Mexicans as a herd of cattle ? Never ! Let the nationality of the rest of the Republic perish for them ! Let us perish together!" Here is a sentiment and here a conduct that are worthy of the most magnanimous Republic. They | say plainly, " Slaughter us ; it is in your power: 'overrun us; for you can: but not even to ' save a part of our country will we ever consent 4 to sell or give to you brave citizens who hate you ' and love Mexico. And it is these New Mexicans, thus faithlul to their Government and thus repaid by its affection and fidelity, that President Polk ] intends to drag into our Union, whether they will or not, by way ot' making them into a kind of hu man indemnity, a corporeal capital, an animated scrip, out ot which are to be repaid the old losses ol certain of our citizens ! A great sympathy with love of country must our President have, and mar vellously precise notions about the right of a pro vince, a^ood deal more populous than was Texas in 1837, to choose under what Government it shall live ! But we have filled our vacant spacer ! and exhausted our allotted time. Whatever more ; we have to say on this Mexican War we must re 1 serve until some occasion shall arise to call Tor its utterance. THE OPENING OF THE SESSION. There was, at the opening of both Houses of I Congress on Monday, quite a full attendance of j Members. In the Senate the Vice President took the ! Chair. In the House of Representatives, on the third | trial to elect a Speaker, the lion. Robert C. Winthrop, ot Massachusetts, received a majority of votes, and was conducted to the Chair, whence he | acknowledged, in highly appropriate terms, his sen 1 sibility to the confidence reposed in him by his j fellow-members. Mr. Wixtiirop received the votes of nearly every Whig member present. Other Whig meni bcrs of distinguished standing and ability had been , spoken of for this dignified office, who would have filled it worthily and with honor. But the choice of the party having fallen on Mr. Winthrop, no gentleman can feel disparaged by the preference. His experience, abilities, dignity, and unblemished ! personal character well become the high trust con fided to him, and furnish an abundant guaranty for i the able and faithful discharge of the arduous and 1 responsible duties of the Chair. The Democratic members appear not to have* j united on any member of that party for the office of Speaker, but to have voted according to their indi [ vidual personal preferences. Subsequently to Monday, the House completed its organization by the election of? Nathan Sargent, Esq., formerly connected with the Philadelphia press, and heretofore run bv the Whigs a& their candidate for Congress in one of the Philadelphia districts, to the office of Ser geant-at-Arms. Robert E. Hornor, also a Member of the Edi torial fraternity, (from New Jersey,) to the office of Doorkeeper; and : John M. Johnson, the former incumbent, to the [ office of Postmaster. Finances of Ohio.?According to the Message | of Governor Hkbii, just communicated to the Le gislature of Ohio, the finances of that State are in a J nourishing condition. The treasury receipts for the last year, from all sources, was 92,314 075 ? and the disbursements, including the interest on public debl, were 31,904,255. The balance appli I cable to the payment of temporary and funded debts of the State was 9109,820. Domestic bonds to tht* amount of 9119,883 73 had been redeemed during the year from trust funds, leaving a balance of the same funds applicable to the same purpose of *118,804 25. The expenses of the State Govern ment and benevolent institutions were 9210,250 42. He recommends an increase of sinking fund from 920,000 to 9200,000 per annum. The following Officers of the Army arrived at New Orleans on the 1st instant, in company with Gen. Taylor : Major J. H. Lato*^ Aid-de-camp; Captain It. S. Gar jtktt, do.; Colonel W. G. Belknap, t . S. A.; Major G. Porter, tth Artillery ; Major W. VV. S. Btiss, Assistant Adjutant General; and Lieutenant C. L. Wtticaa, 3d Artillery. Hon. (?. W. Daroan was on Monday last elected. Chancellor by the Legislature of South Carolina, in place of the late Chancellor Harper. A Whio Victory;?The Whigs of Savannah (Georgia) on Monday last re-elected Dr. II. K. Bi rkovohs to the mayoralty of that city bv the handsome majority of 239 votes over E. J.'Har dkn, his Democratic competitor. The present ma jority is an increase of 97 over the vote of last year. A Whig Board of Aldermen was also elected by nearly the same vote. Tin Mkmriiis Bank.?We learn from the Memphis pa pers that an injunction was laid on the Memphis Bank of Tennessee on the 26th ultimo, at the instance of Mr. Evan Rogers, of Philadelphia, who owns or controls a lar^e num ber of it* share*. Under thia process the bank, it ia suppo??d will go into liquidation and be finally wound up. *