Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1845-06-21

QUESTION has been let loose and made the central
principle Of action Nor shall zoe prove an excep-
ton to the rule. For let this principle fire the
West-let il prepare the people of the West TO an
swer the bugles blast summoning them TO the field
with the watchword !" Ho for the Halls Of the
Montezumas and the Mines Of Mexico--for Cali
iornia and the Pacific - and its spirit would
sweep with the fury OF the hurricane through our
valley, leaving its track marked, sooner later by
desolation and death. We dread il. II seems, as
we look upon it, and sounds, as we hear it. whiIe
moving steadily ON, and slowly marshang its force
as the very plague-spot and death-knell Of home
and hopes-of our freedom.
Let not the editor OF the Union, because OF the still
life he has led in Virginia, think we indulge in ex-
cess OF speech in referring TO the energy Of the
West None Of us realize its extent. We know
what il has done, but we know not whatit may do
lhe second child born in Cincinnati lives, and has
not seen the middle age Of life; yet now the city
has near eighty thousand inhabitants The old pi
oneer who settled here when Ohio was wide viii
derness, walks among us hearty and strong, il his
locks be whitened with the winter Of green old
age; yet he moves amid tlrong of fuo millions
Of souls, and beholds improvements which the ell
der States OF the world do not possess And the
first child born of American parents west of the
Allegheny mountains, who knew Washington as a
surveyor on the banks Of the Kanawha, when the
cAccptlOnS.
in possession of the savage yet alive, and scarce
numbers her four-score years and ten; yet In her
day she has witnessed the growth Of an empire
the peopling Of the mighty valley between the base
Of the Blue Ridge and the Rocky Mountains
And, above all, let him not suppose overrate
the danger of centralizing and unfolding this
gy with love Of conquest, Of sef-aggrandizement.
If he does, he will cry peace when there is no
peace. And this, experimentation experence--msy
teach him, and all Of us. Look at Georgia. Who
would have supposed--what patriot would have adj
mitted--that land lottery scheme, with judcious
reports set afoat the right time about gold regions
in the Indian country, could have induced the Iegs
lature to plan, and the people to sanction, and the
courts to uphold legalized plumber of the property
of the Cherokees-a property recognised and held
sacred by solemn treaties with Government, from
Washingion's day to the very hour it was foullyl
seized Each male inhabitant of Georgia had,
through the lottery, piece of land secured to him
in that country, and the temptation could not be
sisted The Cherokees were made outcass before
the fell spirit of acquisition, and the home of the
Indian was usurped by the white man. Look. too,
at the West Mississippi, Arkansas, Illinois, Indi-
ana, are for WARRIOR with Mexico for war
with Great Britain, because the honor of the coun
nv demands it," Yet they stand branded with the
infamy of REPUTATION The love of excitement
Of adventure, of plumber; bold recklessness OF
spirit, and determination to follow out whatever
impulse may be uppermost; thirst for acquisi-
tion--what but these causes chiefly, could make
these States trample under foot their honesty,
and clamor for human blood! Can there be any
doubt OH this point! If so, look once more at the
far West, when the cry was " Freedom for Texas
Mexico, her mines and her churches - and see how
there focked around the standard-bearer of that
cause, on our Uery SOIL thousands Of our youth, and
how Texan independence won-not by home
force, but by American arms.
No, no We neither exaggerate the energy of
the West nor the dangers which beset the West
from wrong application Of that energy. Proven
ton is our only safe means of cure, and prayer
should be, deliver us from temptation. For, we re-
peat again. once start the ball. once fire the public
mind once whet the common appetite for plumber
and for conquest, and we shall have-not Texas
alone-not Mexico in addition--but California, and
whatever else strong may grasp, until 1t be
shorn or shattered, as it must be III the end, by
over-tasked, unnatural, corrupt effort. We crave
peace, then, if peace may be honorably had. We
crave the spirit Of peace and cultivation of the
arts of peace, the fixed feeling aud living princi-
pie of the nation. For the sake of the West; for
its steady growth and its true happiness; for the sake
of the Union and its stability for the sake of hui
man progress, we crave all this; and we would
have the Official at Washington, and the leading
press both Sides and the people every where say
nothing, do nothing, uphold no man and sustain no
policy, which would enkindle unnecessarily war
spirit, stimulate improperly the desire for acquisi-
son, or feed in any way, or for any end, thirst
Of adventure, of excitement, of conquest.