American Republican and Baltimore daily clipper. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1844-1846, 1846-03-13

England is as feeble as an unborn infant. And
by way of stating a fact, which genius only
was equal to, he went ON TO describe to US this
infant as Proposing in the lap of the past -
Much laughter
Then the Senator from Illinois asked US what
there is about war with England to frighten
us? Could it be her navy Give us but twelve
months notice, (and this we shall have by the
treaty. and we should have a larger navy than
England ever had. Thank God for that! And
then, suppose that if all the other European
Powers should unite their naval power with
that OF England, give US two years notice, and
we will create navy greater than the whole.
But how is this navy Of ours TO be obtaineC?-
BY converting our New York liners into fri
gates No doubt the Senator believed this
statement to be perfectly correct; and he went
so far as to tell us that there was not one Of
those vessels but would be full match for a
British frgate! And as for steamers, though
we had none quite so large as those lately built
in England, yet we could make ours go TWEEN
ty-seven miles an hour, which, suppose, would
be very great advantage, either in running
after an enemy, or running away from him.
A laugh 1t is strange that Senators here,
with all their opportunities to know the true
condition Of things, and our actual relation to
the power Of other nations, can utter, gravely,
from their place in this chamber, things which
seem so monstrous to all common sense. I'm
less the President holds himself under an i'm
piled obligation to settle the existing dispute,
and the Senate shall think so too, it might now
become necessary to "to prepare the hearts of
the nation for war" Without any intention
to speak with disparagement of the opinions of
these gentlemen, | cannot but remark that
what consider better opinion has been ex-
pressed by the Senator from Michigan, MIR.
Cass,) and the Senator from New York, Mr..
Dix,) when they told US that England never
was prepared to strike heavier blow than at
this moment, and that there is no nation on the
globe whose power is greater, or whom it would
be more dangerous to encounter. But, says
the Senator from Illinois, let the war come;
she can do US no great harm; we may lose
few merchant ships, and think he said few
sloops of war, but they would be easily repla-
ced. No doubt the Senator really thinks the
fact to be so. ''No great harm!' Has he ia
ken into his estimate the oceans Of blood that
will be split the agonies Of the battlefield? the
shrieks of the dying the still more terrific
shreks of widows and orphans the deprecia-
ton of the public morals? the arrest of civiliza-
ton? the outrages on humanity? Will the Sc
nator say that these are no great evils, and that
these things can ''easily be repaced?" The
Senator from New York who last spoke Mr..
Dickinson told US, however, that there were
women enough to bind up our wounds Ay,
but there are no women who can bring back
the dead. No touch Of a weeping wife will
avail to bring back he husband from the grave.
| And no power short of the divine influx OF
Christianity, and that exercised through long
series of years, can bring back to the commu
nifty the weakened and waning sense of moral
obligation. No valor can bring back to their
original prosperity and brightness our desola-
ted coasts, our ravaged cities, and, above all,
place us, where God intended we should be,
really and truly at peace with our tellow-men.
am bold to say-and say it in no spirit Of
depreciation of the valor of my countrymen-l
say it with u full convict on-that they are
equal to any emergency-let war come upon
US because we have refused our own terms, Of
! fered by us over aud over again, and the re-
sponsibility of those who shall bring it upon us
will be not only heavy enough to sink navy,
but will cause them to live, as long as God
shall suffer them to live in this world, in state
of self-reproach and mental agony altogether
indescrbable. fancy know how those Sen
ators would feel when widowed wife shall
approach one of them, and, looking him re-
proachfully in the face, shall say, "You are the
cause Of all this wretchedness; u false sense of
national honor goaded you on, till you have
brought upon US all this misery. There lies
my husband, a blackened corse; and here am l.
with my orphan children, the most wretched
of women; and all for nothing! for, after all
Oregon is lost" And the Senator from Hi
nois will pardon me for saying that he would
! hang his head in unmitgated regret and shame;
he would call the mountains to fall on him; ne
would give the wealth of the world, if he had
it, to bring back that general peace and happi.
ness which, but for him, might have continued
long to bless his native land.
The age we live in dcnounces war-that sa-
wage beastly mode of settling either territorial
or individual controversies. As has been re.
Gently said by one now on the verge of the
grave, and whose whole life has been devoted
to the cause Of benevolence, "War is fit only
for wild beasts, and is beneath the reason and
the dignity of man." And as has been beau
tifully said by one of Engand's proudest sons
"The drying up of sing le tear conters more
honest fame than shedding seas of gore."-
The spirit of the age denounces such savage
J barbarity. That spirit which led two power
full governments to make an amicable and no.
, norable arrangement Of a dispute, once SO
threatening, in regard to our northeastern
boundary-a settlement which the Senator
from Ohio thought proper to stigmatize as dis
honorable to the nation--if there were nothing
else in the life of the American negotiator who
participated in that happy result-if he had
not before, and often, both in the forum and in
J the public councils of this nation, filled the
measure of human renown--this alone has won
for him reputation for penetrating sagacity,
for matchless intellectual power, for sterling
} patriotism, such as has rarely been equaled,
, never surpassed, by any statesman, dead OF
, living. | beg pardon for speaking thus in the
presence in which stand: am defending the
l nation, not the negotiator.
5 The Senate will pardon me for saying that