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Speech Of Mr. Corwin, Of Ohio, In Senate, Feb. 11, 1847

Speech Of Mr. Corwin, Of Ohio, In Senate, Feb. 11, 1847 image Speech Of Mr. Corwin, Of Ohio, In Senate, Feb. 11, 1847 image
Parent Issue
Day
3
Month
April
Year
1847
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Public Domain
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(Concluded.)propagated nmongsl men, of a nulion ta ing its people, cnlisling its young men and marching olT two thousund mil s to fight a peo[)le metely to be paid for it n money ? What is tliis hut lumling { market for blood, seliing the lives of cu young men, marching ihem in regime ni. tobe slaughtereil and pnid for, like oxen and brute beasts ? Sir, tbis is, when strip ped naked, that atrocious idea first pro mulgated in the President's message, ant iiow advocated here, of fighting on til we can get our imlemnity fur the past as well as the present slaughler. Wo have chastized mexico, nnd if it wero wortl uhile to do so, we have, I dare say, saiisfied the world that we can fight. Wlmtnow 1 Why, the mothers of America nre asked to send others of their sous lo blow out the brains of Mexicans because they refuse to pny the price of ihe first who feil there fighting for glor). And what if the second fall too ? The EJxecutive, tho parental reply is, " we shall have him paid for - we shall get full inindemnity." Sir, I have no patience with the flagitious notion of fighting for indemnity, and thïi unJer the equally absurd and hypooriticul pretenco of s-curing an honorable prace ! If you have accomplished the object of the war, (if indeed vou had an object whicli you dure avow.) cer.se to fight, and you will have péoce. Conqucr yvur insana love of false glory,aiid you will havo cconquered r. peace."Sir,if your commander-in-chief will not do this, I will eudeavor to compcl him, and, as I find no other means, I shall refuse supplies - without the rnoney o the peopl?, he cannot go further. He asks me for thot money ; l wish to bring your armies homo, to cease shedding blood for money. If he refuses, l will refuse supplies, and then I know .he must, he will cense his further sale of the lives of my coup.trymen. May we not, ought we not now to do ihis'J I can bear no reason why we shotfld not, except this, it is said that we are ín war, wrongfully it mav be, but, being in, the President is responsable, and we must give him the 'rnnnns i rnnuires. Iïe resnonsible ! Sir,we, we are responsible, if having the power to stop this plague wo refuse lo do so. When it shall be so - when the American Senate and the American House of Representan ves can stoop trom their high position, íind yield a dumb compliance with the behest of a President, who is for the time bcing commander of your army ; when tliey will open ihe treasury with one hand, and the veins of all the soldiers in the land with the other, merely because the President commands. then, sir, it mattcrsliüle how soonCromwell shall como into this hall and sny, "the Lord hath no further need of you here." When we fail to do the work, " whereunto we were sent," wc shall be, we ought to bo removed, and give place others who wiil. The fate of the barren fig tree will be ours - Qhrist cursed it nnd it withered. Mr. President, I dismiss this brnnch of the subject, and begthe indulgence of the Senate to somo refleclions or. thelar bilí now under considerador). I voted for a bilí somewhat like the presont at the lnst session, our army was then in the neighborhood of our line. 1 then hoped that the President did sincerely deaire a peace. Our army had not then penetrated far into Mexico, and I did hope that with the two millions then proposed we might get peace and avoid theTho President has said he doos not expcct to hold Mexican Writory by conquest. Wliy then conquer it ? Wh waste thousands of Uves and millions oi money fortifying towns and creatinggov vernments, f at the end of the war yo retiro f rom the graves of your soldici and the desolated country of your foos only to get money f rom Mexico (br th expense of all your toil and sacrifice? - Who ever heard, since Christianity waster, the shame, the crimo of an aggressivo, unprovoked war. But now you have overrun half of Mexico, you have exosperaied and irritated her people, you claim indëmnity for all expenses incurred in doing this miscl.ief, and boldly ask her to give up New Mexico and California and, as a bribe to her patriotism, seizing on her property, you offer three millions to pay the soldiers she has called out to repel your invasión, on condition that she wil] give up to you at leat one third of her whole territory. Thia is the modest, I should say the monstrous prop. osilion now before us, as explained by the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, (Mr. SevierJ who reportcci the bijl. I cannot now give my assem to ihis. But, sir, I do not believe you will succeed. I arn not informed of yourpects ol success wiih this mensure of peace. The chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations teljs us that he has every reaáon to believe that pooce can be cbtuincd ií" wc grant this appropria tion. What reason have ou, Mr. Chairman, for that opinión? "Facts which I cannot di-iclose to you- correspondence which it would be improper to name here - facts which I know, but which you are not permiited to know, have satisfied the comrnitlee thatpeace may be purchased if you will but grant these three mil. lions of dollars." Now, Mr. President, í wish to know i f lam required to act upon such opinions of the chairman of Commütee on Foreign Relations, formed upon facls which he jefuses to disclose lo me ? No, l must know the facta before 1 can Ibrm rny judgement. But I am to take it for granted that there must bo some prospect of an end to this drendful war - for it is a dreadful war, being, as I believc in rny conscience it is, an unjust war. Is it possib!e that for three milHans you can purchase a peace with Mexico? IIow? üy the purchase oftorr.ia i Mr. President, I kriow not whal iacts the chairman oí Committee on Foreign Afíbirs may have had aceess to. I know not what secret agents have been whispering into the ears of the authorities of Mexico ; but of one thing í am ceriain, that by a cession of California and New Mexico you never can purehase a peace with her. You may rest provinces from Mexico by war- you may ho:d them by (he right of the strongesí - you may hold thom by the right öf the strongest - you may rob her, but a treaty of peace to that efTect vith the people of Mexico, legítimately nd freel y mude, you never will have I - íhank God thnt it is so, as well fur the ake oí' the M ex can people as ourselves, ■i-, unüke the Senator from Alabama, Mr. Híigby,) I do not valué ihe lile of a itizeti of the United States above the ves of ari hundred thousand Mexican ornen and chüdren - a cold sort oflanthropy in my judgmcnt. Fur the sake ót" Mexico then, as well as our own country, Í rejbice that it is an impo.ssibility Ihat you can obtain by treaty from her those territorios iindè'r the existing state of tïiings. I am somewhat at a loss to know on what plan óf operations gentlemen having charge of this war intond to proceed. We hear much said of the terror of your arms. The aöïighled Méxican, it s said, when you have drenched his country in blood, vvill sue for peace, and thus you will indeed "conquer peace." This is the heroic and savnge tor.e in which wc have heretofore been lectured by our friends on the other side of the chamber, and especially by tne Senator Trom Michigan, (Mr. Cíiss. ) But sudden'y the Chairman of the Cornmitlee on Foreign Relations comes to us with. the smooth phrase of diplomacy, made potent by the gentle suasion of gold. The chainnan of the Committeo on Military AíFairs calis for thirty millions of money and ten ihousand regular troops; these wo are assured shall "conquer peace," f the obstinate Ce't refusey to treat till we shall whip him in cnotlier field of blood. What a delightful sceno in the 19th century of the Christian era ! What an interest ing sight to see these two represenlives of war and peace moving in grand procession through the halls of the Montfizumas ! The Senator fromgan, (Mr. Cas,) red with the blood oí recent slaughter, the gory spear of Achules iu his hand, and the hoarse clarión of war in his mouth, blowing a blast " so ioud and deep" ihat the sleeping echoes of the lofty Cordilleras start from their caverns and return the sound, till every ear from Panama lo Santa Fe is deafened with tlie roar. By hisside, wiih " modest mein and downcast look," comes the Senator from Arkansas, f Mr. Sevier,) covered from head to foot with a gorgeous robo, gliítering ar.d embossod with threc millions of shiuing gold, putting to shame ( tho wealth of Ormus or of Ind." The olive of Minerva graces his brow, in hisright hand ia the delicate rebeck, frou which are breathed, in Lydian mensure notes "that teil of naught but love ant peace." l fear very inuch you wil] scarccly be able to exolain to the simple savage minds of the half-civilized Mexi cans the puzzling dualism of this scène, at once gorgeous and grotesque. Sir, l scarcely understand the meaning of all this myself. If we are to vindicate our rights by Lattles- in bloody fields oí war - Iet us do it. If that is not the plan, why then let us cali back our nrmies ir,to'our own territoj-y,and propose a iretty wiih Mexico, based upon the proposition that money is bet-er for her and land is better for us. Thus we can treat Mexico like an equal, and do honor lo ourselves. Butwhat isit you ask? You have taken from Mexico one-fourth of her territory, and you now propose to runa linecomprehending abuut nnother third, and for what? Iask, Mr. President, for what? What has Mexico got from you for parting with two-thirds of her domain? Slie has given you ampie redress for every injury of which you have comphiined. - She has submitted to the award of your commissioners, and up to the time of therepiure with Texas failhfully paid t. - And fox all that she bas lost,(not through or by you, but wbich loss has 6een your gain J what requital do we, her strong, rich, robust neighbor, make? Do we send our missionaries therc"to point tho way to Heaven f " Or do we send tho school masters to pour daylight into her dark places, to aid herinfant strength to conquer freedom, and reap the fruit of the indcpendence herself alone had won? No, no, rione of these do we. But we send regiments, storm towns, and our colonels prate ofliberfy ín the midst of the solitudes their ravages have made. - They proclaim the einpty formsof social compact to a people bleeding and maimed with wounds received in defenJing their hearthstones against the invasión of theso very men whoshoot them down, and then. exhort them lo be Tree. Your chaplainj of the navy throw asido the New Tes tament and seize a bilí of righls. The Rev. Don Waker Colton, I see abandons the sermón on the mount, and lakes himself to Blackstone and Kent ; and is elected ajustice ofthepeace! He takes military possession ofsome town in California, aud instead of teaching tlie plan of the atonement and the way of salvation to the poor Celt, he presents Colt's pistol to his ear, and calis on him to take "trial by jury and habeas corpus," or nine bullets in the head. Oh! .Mr. President, are you not the lightsof the earth, if not its salt? You who are indeed opening the eyes of the blind in Mexico with a most emphatic and exoteric power. Sir, ifall thiswere not asad,mournful trulh, il would be the very "ne plus ultrn" of the ridiculous. Buf, sir, let us see what, as the chairman of the Commitlee on Foreign Relations explains it, we are to get by the combined process of conqncst and treaty, What is the territory, Mr. President, wiiich you propose to wrest from Mexico? It is consecrated loihe heartof tlie Mexican by many a well-fought battlc with his old Castilian masler. Elis Bunker Mills, and Saratogns, and Yorktowns are there. The Mexican can snv. "Theie lbied for liborty ! and shall I surrcndur that consecrated home of my afïections to the Anglo-Saxon invaders? Wlmtdo they want wilh it? They have Texas airead}'. They have possessed themselves of the Territory between the Nueces nd Rio Grande. What else do they want? To what shall I point my children as memorials of that independence which I bequeathed to them when those batt'lefields shnll havo passed from my possession?" Sir, had one coaie and demanded Bunker Hill of the peo[)leof Massaehuselts, lnd Englnnd's lion ever showed himself thcre, is ihare a rnan over tliirteen and under ninety who wou ld not have been ready to meet hini ? Is there a river on this coniincnt that would not have run and with blood? Is there a field but would have been piled high with the unburied bones vof blaughtcrcd Americans before ihese consecrated battle-fields of liberty should have been wresled from u? But this sume American goes into a sister Republic, and says to poor weak Mexico, "Give up your territory ; you are unworthy to posscss it; I have got one half already; all I ask of you is to give up the other! England might as well, in the circumstances 1 have described,have come and demanded of us, "Give up the Atlantic slope; give up this trifling territory from the Allegany mountains to the sea; itisonly Trom Maine toSt. Mary's - only about one-third of your Republic, and the least interesting portion of it." What would be the response? They would say, We must give this up to John Buil. Why? "He wants room." The Senatori from Michigan says he inust hnve ibis. - i VVhy, my worthy Chmtian brother, I on what principio ofjustice? "I want room!" Sir, look nt t!is pretence of want of room, wjih iwenty millions ofpeoplc. you have about one thousand millions of acres of land, inviling settlemcnls by every conceivablo argument, bringing them down to a quarter ofa dollar ar acre, and allowing every man to squat where he pleaes. Dut the Senator from Michigan says we will bo two hundred millions in a few y ca ra, and we want room. [fl wcre a Mexiean I would teil 'you, "Have you not room in your own counIry tobury your deac] men? Ifyou como into mine we will greet you wiili bloody hands; and welcoine you io huspitable graves." Why, snys the chairman of this Committeu ofForeign, Relalionsit ís tliemost reasonable thing in the world ! We ought to have the Bay of San Fiancisr.o. YVhy? Because it is the best harbor on the Pacific! It hs bee'i my fortune, Mr. President, to have praciised a gooddeal in criminal courts in ihe course of my life, hut I never yet heard athief, arraignod for stealing a horse, plead that it was the best horse that hi could find ín the country! We want California. - What for? VVhy, says the Senator fromMichigan, we will have it; and the Senator frota South Carolina, wilh a vej-y místale en view, I think, of policy, sayy you can ño t keep our people iVom going there. I do not desire to prevent thetn. Let them go and seek their happiness ín whatever cojnlry or clime t pleases them. - All I ask of them s, not to require ihis Government to prolect them with that banner consecrated to war waged for principies - elernal and enduring truth. Sir, it is not meet that our oíd flag should throw iis protecting folds over expeditions for lucre or for land. But you still say you want room for your people This has been the plea of every robber-chief from Nimrod to the present hour. I daré say, when Tamerlane descended from bis th roñe built ofseventy thousand human skulls, and marched bis ferocious battalions to further slaughter, I daré say he said, " I want room." Bajazet was another gentleman of kindred tastes and wants with us Anglo-Saxons - hu " wanted room." Aexander, too, ihe mighty " Macedonian madman," when hcdered with his Greelrs lo the plains of India, and fought a bloody battle on the very ground where recently Engiand and the Sihks engnged in the strife for " roum," was no doubt in quest of some California. Many a Monteroy hnd he lo storm to get t; room." Sir, he mado quite as much of thatsort of hislory as you ever wil). - Mr. President, do you remcniber the lasi chapter in tlint history ? It is soon read. Oh, I wish we could but understand its moral. Ammon's son, (so was Alexander named,) after all his victories, dicd drunk in Babyion ! Tho vast ënfpiré h'é conquered to " get room," bocame the prey of the generáis he had trained ; it was disparted, torn to pieces-, and soended. Sir, tbere is a very significant appendi.x ; it isthis : The descendantsof the Greek, of' Alexander's Grecks, are noW governed by a descendant of Attila. - Mr. President, wlüle we are ighting forroom, let us ponder deeply this appendix. I was sómewhat amazed the other d.iv to hear the Senator froni Michigan declare thnt Europe had somevh:it ibrgotten us till these battles had waked them up. I suppose the Senator fcels grateful to the President, lor "waking up " Europe. - Does the President, who Ls, I hope, read in civic as well as military lore, remrmber the snying of one who had pondered upon h story long, long, too, upon man, Iiis nature and irue desiiny ? Mcntcsquieu did not think highly of this way of M waking up." " Happy," says he, "is that nation whose annals are tiresome." The Senator froni Michigan has i J[fërént view of this. He thinks lh;it a nation is not distinguishcd uiitil it is distinguished in war. He foars that the blumbering faculties of Europe have not been able to ascertain that there are twenty millions of Anglo-Saxons hére"; making railroads and canal?, and speeding all the arts of peace to the utmost accompli&hmcnt of the most refined civiüzalion ! They do not know it ! And wl:at is the wonderful expedient which this Democratie tnethod of making hislory would adopt in order to make us known ?- Storming cities, desolating peace ful happy homes, shooting men - aye, sir, such is war - and shooting women, too. Si.r, I have read, in some account of your battle of Montcrey, of alovely Mcvican girl, who, wiih the benevolencc of an angel in her bosom, and the robust courage of a -nero in her heart, was busily engaged during the bloody conilict, amid the crash of falling houses, thegroans cíthe dying, and the wild shriek of battle, n carrymg water to slake Ibe burniiïg thirst of ïhc wounded of either host. While bending over a woum'etk American soldier, a cannon buil slruck her and blew her to otóms. Sir, I du nol charge tny brave generous hearted countrymen who fuught that fight wiih tlu. No, no ; we who send them - we who know that scènes likc this, which might send lears óf sorrow "down Pluto's rron cheek," a:e tl. o invariable, inevitable attendants on war - wc. are nccountable for this ; and ibis- this is the way wc areto be made kjnqwn lu Éurope. This, this is to bc the ündying renown of free Repubiican America : "She bas stormed a city - killed many of its inhabitants of botli sexes - sho hns room Í " S'o it will rond. Sir. if tfiis wore our our on]y history, then :nay Goil of bis nriercy grnnt that its volume may speedily con;e to a cloc ! Why isit, sir, that cof the United States, a [jeoplè of yestcrday, coniparcd wiiii older natioiis of the vvorld, should be wngiug war for territory, for ';room?" Look at your country, etending frorn the Alleghany moüntains to the Paciiic ocean, cnpnble itself of sustuining in comfort a larger popylation than will bein the wliole Union for onc hundred years to come. Over this vast expanse oftenit.jry your populution is now so sparse that I believö we provided ut tlie last session a regiment of mounted men toguard ihe mail from the frontierof Missouri to the mouth of ihe Columbia ; and yet yon persist in the riiliculous asserlion, " I want room. " One woulií imagine, from the frequent reiterntlon of the complaint, tliat von had a bursting, teerning population, whose energy was paralyzed, whose en'erpriïe was crushed, for want of space. Why should we be so weak or wicked as to offer this idlenpology for ravnging a neighboring Republic ? - It will imnoso on no one at home or abroad.Do we not know, Mr. President, tha t is a law, never to be repealed, that Talsehood shall be short-lived ? VVas t not ordained of oíd that truth only shall nbidc forever ? VVhaiever we may sav to-dnv, or whatever ve mny write inour books, the stern tribunal of history will review h all, detect falsehood, and bring s to judgment before that posterity which shal] bless or curse us, as we may act noio, wisely or orherwiso. We may hide in the grave (vvhich awnifs us all) in vairi ; we may hope, like the foolisli biru that hides its head in the sand in the voin belief that its body is not seen, yet even thcre this prepostcrous excuse of want of "room " shall be laid bnrc, and the quickcoining fulure will decide that it was a hypocritical pretence, undc-r which we souglu to conceal the avarice which proaipted us to covet and to seize by ibrce hal which was not ours. Mr. President, lliis uneasy desire toaugment our territury lias depravotl the moral senso and blighted the otherwise keen sagacity of our people. What Ras been ihe fate of uil nntions who baveacted upon the idea that tliey must ad va nee? Our young orators t:heris)i this notion with a fervid, hut falally mistaken zèoL They eall it by the mysterious name of "desliny." ilOur destiny," they say, is onward, and henee they argtie, wiili ready sophistry, the propriely of seizing upon any territory nnu any people that may lay iu the way of our ;' fated " advanee. EeeenlJy these Progressives have grown classieal ; some assiduous student of nntiquities has helped them tu a jalron saint. They have wandered back into (he desolated Pantheon, and lhere,amongst the Poly thei-lic relies of that " pale mother of dead einpires, " they have found a god whoin theae Romans, ceniuriesgono by, baptized " Terminus.7' Sir, I have heartl nincli and roadsomewliat of th ï-s gemleman Tcnninus. Alexander, of whom I have spoken, was n devotce of this divinily. Wc have sten theendofhim and kis empire. It vas snid to be an attributcof this gold that lic must alwcnjs advanee, and never recode. So both ropublican 'ind imperial liotne believed. Ii was, as they s.iid, their de?tiny. Andfora whlíií did seomto be even so. Uoman Tcrniinus did advance. Under the e.tgles of Rome he was carried frofn hishoineon tlie Tiber totlie fai tiu-t-t East, on one bami, and ;o tlie lar West, amongst the then barbaruus tribes of western Europe, on the otl.er. But at lenglh the time carne when retributivo jtistice had become a " destiny. " The despised Gaul calis out to the contemed Goth, and Attila, with his Huns, answers back the battle-shout to boili. Tho "blueeyed nations of the North," in succe-sion, or united, pour forth their countless hosts of warriors upon Rome and Rome's ahvays advancing god Terminus. And now the battle-axe of the barbarían strikes down the cönquering eagle of Rome.- Terminus at last recedes, slowly at Rrst,but fúiolly he isdriven to Rome, and f rom Romo tu Byzantium. W hoever would know the further fate of ihis H ornan deiiy, so rcccnily taken undor the palronage of American Denicracy, may liiid ampie grntificalion of íiis curiositv in the luniiiious p.-jgesof Gibhon'á "Decline and Fall." Such will find ïhat Rome thought, asyou now tliink, thnt it was her destiny to conquer provinces aiid 'uatioiif, and rio doult she sometimos sad as vou say, "I will conquer a peace. J Anc where now is she. the Mistress of the World ? The spider lyeayes. his web in lier palaces, the ol sings his watch-song in her towers. Teutonic power imjw lords it over theservile remnam, ihe miserable memento of oíd and once omnipotent Rome. SaJ, very suJ, are the lessons which time has wrilten for us. - Through and iirihem all 1 see nothing but tho inflexible executiou oif thui ok lay which ordaiüsaa eternnl tliaí cardinal rule, " fhou shaii notcovetthy ncighbor's gouds, nor any thing which is his." Siuce I havelately heard so inuch abom the dbsmemberrpeht of Mexico, I havo looked l)ack to see how in the coursc of evente, which somc cal! "Proyidence,5 it hrs fared with other natious who engagod 'm this work of dismemberment. I see that in the latter half of the ninetcenth century three powerful nations-, Russia, Austria and P russia, united in the dismemberment of Poland. They said, too, as you say, '; it is our destiny." They vvante'j "ruom". Doubiless each of these tliought with his sha re of Poland,his power was too strong ever lo feai invasión, er even insult. One had his California, another his New Mexico, and the third his Vera Cruz. Did they remain untouclied and incapable of harm ? Alas! no - fa.r, very far from it. Retributivo justico must fulfil its deliny too. A very few years pass off, and we hear of a new man, a Corsican lieutenan the self-named " armed soldier of De mocracy," Napoleon. He ravages Aus tria, covers her land with Llood, drive the Northern Cscsar from his capital, anc sleeps in his paloce. Austria may now remeniber how her power trampled on Poland. Did sho not pay dear, ver dear, for her California ? But has Prus sia no atonement lo make ? You .ee this same Napoleon, the blind instrumentrrovHience, at work. there. The thun ders of hiscannou at Jena proclaim ihe work of retribution for Poland's wrongs and the successors of the Great Frederick, the drill sergeant of Europe, aro seen fiying across the eandy plain that surrounds llieir capital, right glad f they may encapo caplivily or death. Bui how fares itwitli the Autocrat of Russia ? - Is he secure in liis sharo of ihe spoils of Poland'? No. Suddenly we see, sir, six hu nel red thousand armed men marching to Moscovv. Does lus Vera Cruz protect him now ? Far froin it. Blood, slnughter, desolntion spread ubroad over the land, and finally the conflagratinn of the old commercial metropolis of Russia closes tlio rctribution she must pny for hershare i the dismemberment of her weak and mpotent neighbor. Mr. President, a niind more prone n look for the judgïeuts of Jrleaven in the doings of men iau luiue, cannot fail in this to see the rovidence of God. When ] fosco w Urnéd il seemed as if tlie world was lighteci tij) ihrtt iho ii.iiions might behold the scetie. As thnt mighty son of fire gathered and heaved and rolled upwards, and yol higher, til! its lames licked the stars and iircd the whole lieavens, it did scem us though tlie God of the Natious was wiitin in characlejfiof flame on the front of lus throue that doom that f.tlls upon the slrong nation who tramóles ín scorn bpón the weak. And wh.it fortune awaits him. tlie ájipoirited esecutor of this work, wheti t was ail done ? He, too, conceived the ïiotion that liis destinv poihied onward to universal dominion. Francowas loo sntoli. Europc, lie tíiought, should bow down befare him. But, as soon os tltiá idea tóok po.sesion of his .soul, hë too, Lócame póverle.s. His Terminus must receje too. Rfghl there, sviiile he wiínessed the humiliatíóri, and doubtless méáftated the suhjug:ition of Rustía. He vyho hólcts tlie winds n hs fiát gnthereJ tlio shows of ílie noitli and blew thera u)on bis s. hundrud thousand men. Tliey fléd', tíiey froze, tliey pers'iud ' And ii'vthë mighty N.'ipoleon, wlio had resolved on universa! dontinion, too, is summoned lo answer íbr ibe violntion uf tnat ancient leu-, 1; thou sftalt notcovetanv thing wiiicb is thy neighbor'ü." How is llie cnigïily fallen ! lie. beneatb whooe proud footctep Europe trembled, lie is nowan e.xile at Elba, and now fina!! y a prisoner on tbe rock of St. Helena, and there on a barren island, in an uufrequpntwl sea, in the cráter of' an extinguislicd vocano, there is the deaihbed of the mighty conqueror ! All his annexations have come to that ! His last Hout ii now come, and he, the man of) desíiñy ; he who'had rocked the world 1 as vvitli the throes of an earthouake, is - now poweriess- btill ; even as tliebeggar so he diocJ. On the wings of a tempes. I that raged with un wonted fu ry, p to the i throne ofthc only power that controlled -biin whilo he lived, went the fiery soul of ; that wonderful warrior, another witness 10 the existence oí ihat eterna] decree that they who do not rule n righeousness shall perish frem ihe enrth. He hasfound 'room' at last. And France, too, she has found "room." Her " eagle " now no Iongcr screams along the bnnksof tho Danube, the Po, and the Borythenes. They have returncd home, to their old eyrie, bet ween the Alps, the Rhine, and' Pyrenees. So shnll it be with yours. You may carry thein to the loftiest peaks of tho Cordilleras ; they may wave with insolent triumph in the halls of the Montezumas; the armed men of Mexico may qunil before them ; but the weakest hand ín Mexico, uplifted in prayer to the God of Jimice, may cali down against you a power in the prefence of which the iron heartsof your warriors shall be turned into ashes. Mr. Presidenf, if the history of our race has eslablished any truth, it is but a confirmaron of what is wrilten, "the way of the transgressor is hard." Inordinate ambition, wantoning in power, and spuming the humblti maxims of juatice, ha", ever has, and ever shall end in ruin. Strengtli cannot always tramplo upon weakness- the humblo shall be exalted- the bowed downshall be lified up. It is my fáith in the law of strict justice and the practico of ita precepts that nations alone can be saved. All the annals of the human race, sacred and profane, are wrilten over with this grent truth in characfer-s of living light. it is my fear, my fixed belief, that in this invasión, this var with Mexico, we have forgotfen thisviial trutli. XV hy is it ïhat we havo been drarni into this whirlpool of war ? How clearand sfrong was the light that shone upon Ihe patli of duty a year ago ! Tho last disturbing question with England was settled- our power extended its peaceíu! sway from the Atlantic to the Pacific; from the Alleghanies welooked out upon Europe, and from the tops of the Stony Mountains we could descry the shores of Asia, a rich commerce with all the nations of Europe pouring wealth and abundante into our lap on the Atlantic side, whilo an unoccupied com merce of three hundred millions of Asiatics waited on tho Pacific for our enterprise to come and po.sess it. One hundred millions of dollars will be wasted n this limitless war. Had this money of the people been expended in makh)L araiiroau rom your IVorthern Lakes to the Pacific ; ns one of your citizens has begged of you in vain, you would have made a highway for the world bctween Asia and Europe. Your capital then would bc within thirty or Ibrty days' travel of any and exery point on the map of the civiüzed world. Through this gret artery of trade you would have carried thro' the hemt Of your own country the teas of China and tho spices of India to tho markels of En'lnnd and France. Why, wl.y, Mr, President, dU we abandon tho' eniorprises of pence, and leïako oursclves to the barbarous achievements of war ? Why did wc " forëaké this fair and ferlile fieldto baiten on the moor ? " But, Mr. President, if further acquisition of lorritory is to be the rosult either of conquest or treaty, then 1 scarcely know wliich should be preferred- oternál war with Mexico, or the hazards of internal commotiion at home, wliich last I fear may come if another provinco is to be added to our terr itory. There is onc topic counected with this subject which I tremblo when I approach, aid y et I cannct forbear to uotice it. It meets you in every step you tuke, it threatens you which wny soevor you go in the proseculion of this war. í alinde to tho questioii of slaverv. PpposiHon to is further exioiiMon, it must be obviousto every one, is a deoply rooted determination with men of all parties in what we ci!I Ihe non-slaveholding States. New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, three of the most poworfu), havo ulready sent their legislative restrictions here- so it will be, I doubt not, in all tho rest. It is vain now to speculate about the reasons for this. Gentlemen of the Souih may cali it prejüdice, passion, hypocrisy, fanatacism. 1 shall not disputo with them now on that point. The great facl that it is so, and nol otherwise, is what it concerns us to knovv. You nor I cannot alter or change this opinión if we would. Theo people only snv, we will not, cannot consent that you shall carry slavery wheie it does not already exist. They do not eek to disturb you in that institution, as it pxists in your Stales. Enjoy it if you will, and as you will. This is tbeir language, their determination. How is it in the South ?-

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Subjects
Signal of Liberty
Old News