American Republican and Baltimore daily clipper. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1844-1846, 1846-03-18

| influence eff the war will naturally be to oblit-
crate the line of distinction between the State
and General Governments. We shall hear no
more about State rights, but the Government
will become in effect a consolidated republic.
| BY our very success, it will give military inn
pulse to the national mind which can never be
overcome. The ambition of the nation will
seek conquest after conquest, and will soon be-
come possessed by spirit totally inconsistent
with the forms and genius Of our Government,
and this will lead, by a straight and easy road,
to that gulf Of all republics--a military despot-
ism. Then we shall have to provide for three
or four successful generals, who will soon be
competing for tho Presidency. Before the
generation which waged the war shall have
passed away they will witness a contest be-
tween hostile generals. He who conquered
! Mexico, and he who conquered Canada, will
each insist upon his right to the seat Of power,
and they will end their struggle by the sword.
| Freedom thus lost, Institutions thus undermin-
ed and overturned, never can be recovered
The national ruin will be rretrievable.
Iappeal then to gentlemen near me-to my
friends, whose separation from us on this ques-
ton deeply regret-and say to them, is it
for you, who are Democrats par excellence
for you, who are the enemies of paper money,
and the sworn destroyers of all banks and all
artificial classes in society-is it for you to
vote for measure of such very equivocal sue
| cess?
But have still higher reasons. | am oppo-
sed to war as friend to human Improvement,
to human civilization, to human progress and
advancement Never in the history of the
world has there occurred a period so remarka-
BILE as the peace which followed the battle of
Waterloo for the great advances made in
4 bp Of han n nd AT in Ua-
rious forms. The chemical and mechanical
powers have been investigated and applied to
advance the comforts of human life in degree
far beyond all that was ever known or hoped
before, Civilization has been spreading its in
fluence far and wide, and the general progress
of human society has outstripped all that had
been previously witnessed. The invention of
man has seized upon and subjugated two great
agencies of the natural world which never be-
fore were made the servants of man; refer to
steam and electricity, under which, of course,
! include magnetism in all its phenomena
Steam has been controlled and aVailed of for
all the purposes of human intercourse, and by
its resstess energies has brought nations toge-
Their whom nature had seemed to separate by
insurmountable barriers. II / as shortened the
passage across the Atlantic more than one-half,
while the rapidity of travelling on land has
been three times greater than ever was known
before. Within the same period man has chain
ed the very lightning Of heaven, and brought
il down and made 1t administer 10 the trans
; mission Of human thought, insomuch that il
may with truth DO said that our ideas are not
only transmilted!wth the rapidty of lightning,
but by lightning itself Magic wires are stretch
ing themselves in all directions over the globe,
and when their mystic meshes shall at length
have been perfected, our globe itself will be en-
. lowed with a senstiveness which will render
it impossible to touch it on any one point and
} the touch not be felt from one end of the world
to the other. All this progress, all this growth
OF human happiness, all this spread of human
light and knowledge, will be arrested by war.
: Aud shall we incur result like that for Ore
gon? And this work is as yet but commenced;
it is but the breaking of the dawn ofthe worlds
, great jubilee. 1t promises day of more re-
tnement, more intellectual brightness, more
: moral elevation, and consequently of more hui
+ man felicity, than the world has ever seen from
its creation.
Now the United States and England are two
nations to be pre-eminently instrumental in
/ bringing about this happy change, because
r consider them as being the most advanced in
the scale of human improvement, and most in
circumstances tu further this amelioraton, be-
cause they have the control Of the greatest and
: most extensive commerce at present in exis-
I tence. We have been thus distinguished by
! Providence for great and noble purpose,
. and trust we shall fulfil our high destiny.
! Again, am opposed to war, because hold
= that it is now TO be determined whether two
} such nations as these shall exist for the future
= as friends or enemies A declaration OF war Of
: one of them against the other must be pregnant
= with miscres, not only to themselves, but to
, the world around them.
= Another reason is, that mighty means are
f now put into the hands Of both to cement and
Q secure perpetual peace, by breaking down the
4 barriers of commerce and uniting them more
d closely in an intercourse mutually beneficial.
a If this shall be accomplished other nations will,
= one after another, follow the fair example, and
d state of general prosperity, heretofore I'M
d known, will gradually unite and bless the ma
+ tons of the world.
n And far more than that. An intercourse
: like this points to that inspiring day which
d philosophers have hoped for, which poets have
. seen in the bright visions of fancy and which
l. prophecy has seen in holy vision-when men
It shall learn war no more. Who can contem-
1t plate state of the world like this, and not
n feel his heart exult at the prospect And who
Is can doubt that in the hand of an omnipotent
% Providence, a free and unrestricted commerce
shall prove one of the greatest agents in bring
/ ing it about.
8 Finally, am against war because peace
peace is pre-eminently our policy. There arc
l. nations i'll the world who may resort to wal
n for the settlement of their differences, and still
i grow great; but that nation is not ours. Pro-
- violence has cast our happy inheritance where
n Its frontier extends for twenty three degrees
il latitude along the Atlantic coast 1t has Civ.
De en- US land which, in natural advantages
is perhaps unequalled by any other. Album
I'd dant in all resources; excellent in climate; fer
re tile and exhuberant III soil; capable of sustain