and he must bear the responsibility of doing what the constitution forbids him to do, - of making war without the intervention of Congress. In effect, therefore, he has trampled the constitution under his feet, set a dangerous precedent, and, by the official publication of a palpable falsehood, sullied the national honor. It is with no pleasure that we speak thus of the chief magistrate of the Union, for whose elevation to his high and responsible office we ourselves voted. But whatever may be our attachment to party, or the respect we hold to be due from all good citizens to the civil magistrate, we cannot see the constitution violated, and the national honor sacrificed, whether by friend or foe, from good motives or bad, without entering, feeble though it be, our stern and indignant protest. The humiliation is deep and painful, and would be insupportable, were it not for the earnest patriotism of the people which the war has called forth, and the brilliant achievements of our brave troops in Mexico. These relieve the gloom, and make us still proud to call ourselves an American citizen.*

a

We are far from regarding Congress, in echoing the false statement of the President, as free from blame. It ought to have seen and corrected the executive — mistake. Yet it is not surprising that it took the President at his word. The late Congress had some able members, and it adopted some judicious measures; but we express only the common sentiment of all parties, when we say it was far from covering itself with glory, and that it is to be hoped another Congress like it will not meet again very soon. Various motives, no doubt, governed the members. Many, no doubt, ignorant of the distinction between war and hostilities, really believed the President, and therefore' regarded the suggestion that war did not exist, and exist by the act of Mexico, as proceeding either from a want of patriotism, or from a factious opposition to the administration. Some, perhaps, felt that they were bound by their party obligations to support executive measures, whether right or wrong ; others felt that the declaration of the President, whether true or false, would shield them; others still, perhaps, acquiesced, lest their patriotism should be questioned, and their opposition be set down to faction ; 'and, finally, a number, very likely, believing war to be inevitable, and not undesirable, held that it mattered little on what pretence it was made, providing it was made and prosecuted with vigor. These could see no good likely to result from the deliberations of Congress. The issue presented, the actual state of the army, were adapted to mislead many, and left no time to deliberate, to take a calm survey of the momentous question, and correct first impressions. All was hurry and confusion. The danger was imminent, and permitted no delay. The administration and its confidential friends would suffer po division of the question, and through the influence of committees forced members either to vote the war or bear the odium of refusing to vote the reinforcements and supplies necessary to the safety of the army. Those who had scruples could obtain no division and no delay, and the greater part of the members of both Houses yielded to the executive. It

But passing over this, we have yet to be convinced, whatever were the just causes of complaint we had against Mexico, that the war was called for. We are willing to admit that we had suffered grievous wrongs from Mexico, and that we had shown exemplary forbearance, and treated her with great generosity; but she had shown a willingness to treat with us, and the greater part, if not all, of the old offences we had had to complain of she had acknowledged, and they had been settled in a convention of the two republics. True, she had not, in all cases, fulfilled her engagements; but she had manifested no unwillingness to fulfil them, and no one doubts that she would have fulfilled them, had it not been for her unsettled and distracted internal state. The more recent difficulties growing out of the affair of Texas demanded great delicacy and forbearance on our part. She felt herself wronged and humbled by the annexation of Texas to the Union, and, however blameworthy we may choose to regard her conduct, we are sure, if the cases had been reversed, we should have behaved at least no better than she did. She protested, as was her undoubted right, against the annexation of Texas; but she committed no act of violence against us, so long as we confined our army of occupation to territory over which Texas had actually exercised jurisdiction. We might well have forborne to press our claims further, and it would have been no derogation of our national dignity to have refrained from pushing our claims at once to their farthest limits against a weak, humbled, and distracted, albeit gasconading, neighbour. It would have been wise and just to give her time to cool, time for her wounds to begin to heal, and to reconcile herself to her humiliating loss. especially since she had been stripped of the province of Texas through her misfortune, not her fault.

The necessity of sending our troops from Corpus Christi to the Rio Grande, to occupy a position within territory claimed indeed by Texas, but which it is well known continued to be subject to Mexican laws, and to form a portion of one of the undoubted states or provinces of the Mexican republic, was not at all urgent. That the position taken up by General Taylor, under orders of the President, was in terri

is to be regretted they did; but, however censurable they were, their wrong does not relieve the President, nor can their votes under protest be pleaded by his friends in mitigation of his conduct; because it was by his act that they were led, almost compelled, to do what they did.

tory which had never been in the actual possession of Texas, and which had continued since as before Texan independence subject to Mexican authority, it is worse than idle to question. Whether we had a right to claim under Texas beyond what Texas held in actual subjection to her laws may be disputed ; but even admitting that we had a valid title to all of Mexico to which Texas saw proper to set up a claim, there can be no doubt that a little patience would have enabled us to adjust peaceably the question of boundary between the two republics. But if worst had come to worst, we might at any time have fixed upon the boundary we intended to maintain, and confined ourselves simply to its defence. The real cause of the war, disguise it as we may, was the act of the President in ordering the troops under General Taylor to the Rio Grande, an act done on his sole responsibility, while Congress was in session, and without necessity or reason of state ; for, so long as we were the stronger party, there was no danger of our losing our title by delaying to vindicate it, and there was no other conceivable reason for urging its immediate vindication. The vindication could have been safely, prudently delayed. The act, therefore, which brought on the war was an unnecessary act, and therefore the war itself was uncalled for. *

* It is contended, in opposition to us, that the removal of our troops to the territory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande was not the immediate cause of the war, - 1. Because Mexico has never made that act a special ground of complaint; and, 2. Because that territory was as much a part of the State of Texas as that to the east of the Nueces. These replies are both disingenuous. That the actual jurisdiction in some instances and to some extent crossed the Nueces, we believe to be true ; for Corpus Christi itself, on the map we have consulted, is to the west of that river; but that it extended to the Rio Grande, or even far to the west of the Nueces, is not true. Texas may have declared that the whole of the territory between the two rivers was included within one of her Congressional districts, for that was easy enough to do; but there is no one bold enough to say that she opened her polls and received votes for her Congressmen from the citizens of Tamaulipas, in the vicinity of what is now Fort Brown, or even in the vicinity of Point Isabel. The laws of Texas were never acknowledged or regularly enforced in that section. That Texas set up a claim to the Rio Grande, we concede; but that she actually exercised jurisdiction to the Rio Grande, or far to the west of the Nueces, is what we deny, and the government, so far as we have seen, has offered no evidence to the contrary.

The second reply is more disingenuous still. Mexico sets up a claim to the whole of Texas to the Sabine, and that claim she refuses to relinquish. While she continues her claim to the whole, she can make no distinction as to a part. She could not plead our occupation of the territory in quesNEW SERIES. VOL. I. NO. III.

47

The war, furthermore, was impolitic. If unsuccessful, it could not fail to disgrace us ; if successful, it could hardly fail to weaken Mexico, already too weak for our interest. The true policy of this country is, not to destroy, absorb, or weaken Mexico, but to preserve her nationality and independence, and to strengthen her. It is a great evil to a nation to have only weak neighbours, and worse than madness for us to seek to be the only power on the North American continent. Solitude is no more the normal state for a nation than for an individual, and in the case of either, without special grace, is hurtful. If the nation has only weak neighbours, it will be constantly tempted to the practice of injustice; and if no neighbours, it will be torn by intestine divisions, and sink into anarchy or despotism.

But especially was this war impolitic in consequence of the slave question, already threatening the Union, and with difficulty restrained within constitutional limits. The war, if successful, can hardly fail in extorting from Mexico a portion of her territory, and that territory to some extent not unsuitable to a slave population. Its annexation to the Union must bring on, in all its fierceness, the contest between the Free States and the Slave States, a contest in which both have much to lose, and neither any thing to gain. The Free States are resolved not to pour out their blood and treasure to extend what they regard as a detestable system, and, if new territory is acquired, they cannot, as we have seen, avoid doing so, without trampling on the constitution, which we are afraid, if forced to the alternative, they will not hesitate to do. The administration should have foreseen this, and avoided the war, if possible, for

this reason, if for no other; for, if the Antislavery party find it

; self strong enough to prevent the extension of slavery in defiance of the constitution, it will not stop there. It will no longer respect constitutional barriers; but will take up the question of

. slavery in the States, and immediate emancipation or civil war will be the alternative, - both bad, and one hardly more to be deprecated than the other. If no foreign element be introduced to give additional force to the excitement already so fearful, the friends of the constitution may be able, at least for a time, to keep it from any direct interference with slavery where it is; but introduce such an element, let there be a colorable pretext for asserting that the Free States are called upon, not merely to let slavery alone, but to aid in extending it, and there is no longer among us any power to control the consequences. The present administration should have considered this, and have studiously avoided every occasion of fanning the excitement. It has, we are sorry to say, not done so. It has gained no friends by its policy at the North, and it has done its best to ruin the South.

In the present posture of affairs, and in view of the probable results of the war, there is only one constitutional course to be pursued, and that is for both the friends and the enemies of the slave system to unite in resisting the further extension of the territory of the Union. This is politic and constitutional. Mexico must not be dismembered, nor a foot of her territory permanently annexed to the Union. Let this be the settled policy of both parties. Let not the South think of converting the North to her views of slavery, nor the North attempt to check the progress of slavery by trampling on the constitution. It is too late in the day to attempt the former, and it is always out of season to dream of the latter. But both may unite in resisting any extension of the present territory of the Union, and, in doing so, remove all additional pretext' for excitement. The territory of the Union is large enough, and he is as poor a patriot as he is a statesman who would seek to extend its bounds. The insane rage of a portion of our people for annexation, and the influence demagogues acquire for nefarious purposes by appealing to it, must be checked, or our national honor is gone, our national sense of justice obliterated, and our free institutions become our reproach. A firm

A and successful resistance of the attempt likely to be made to extend the territory of the Union, by cessions extorted from Mexico, will have this salutary effect, and we trust it will be made.