Richmond daily Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1842-1861, 1846-06-30
Country Collectors for the WING In
VIRGINIA.
Sc WING Views Of the War. ),

Saturday night last undertakes a labored review
of the speech recently delivered by MIR. Webster
in the Senate, on Mexican affairs. Upon a SIM
gle feature Of this article only do we deem it ne
cessary to offer word or two of comment The
solid masonry Of Mr.. Websters reasoning cannot
be shaken by the feeble assaults of the writer
of the leading articles i'm the Executive organ
who can only become formidable assailant when
the vigor Of his pen shall bear some proportion
TO it's venom. Ii is our purpose. therefore, not
To indicate the proprcty Of Mr.. Websters posi-
tion, or TO sustain the course of argument by
which he has been led to assume it, but to show
that the "vews" Of the Wings, in regard to the
Mexican war; have been misunderstood or mis-
represented by tho Executive Paper. IL we per-
init our opponents to 'define position" for us,
by ascribing to us opinions and sentiments that
we have never expressed, it will be in vain TO
combat the deductions which they will proceed,
with characteristic selfcomplacency, TO draw
from their unfairly assumed premises. They can
very easily, indeed, demonstrate that we are gull
ty Of modified" or even Of actual treason, if
we silently permit them to put into mouths
s'views" which we have never taken of the sub
lect in controversy. This the Washington Union
has DONE by stating ''three distinct and substan-
tive propositions which it declares the Wing
party have "quite generally adopted" These
three propositions are:
"lst That is unjust and unnecessary, and
commenced by executive government without
OF law and in violation Of the constitution.
sd That the war; bad it is ought be prosecuted
with vigor for the purpose of securing peace.
.'And Sd. That in this view, ought stop the
and prefer negotiation"
These propositions are just accurate enough TO
give them an air Of plausblity, while they are so
stated as to give them an erroneous and injurious
impression.
The Wings declare that Mexico has given to
the u. States Just cause Of war, by long course
of aggression upon the property and persons of
our citizens, and by her refusal failure to make
PREPARATION for those injuries, after she had
admitted their preparation. And if Congress
had declared war against her, either for the pur-
pose of furnishing her for those outrages, OF Of
obtaining an adequate indemnity therefor, the
Justice of the war as well as its consttutionality,
would have been cheerfully conceded by the uni
ted voice not only of own citizens, but of the
civilized world But did the present war originate
in those long standing grievances, was it decla-
red by Congress? No one will be bold enough
TO deny that its origin is, the contrary, to be
traced directly and exclusively TO the occupation
of the territory beyond the 'great Desert" which
Mr.. Ingerso, the Chairman of the Committee of
Foreign Relations by which the resolution for the
annexation of Texas to the Union was reported
mt the last session of Congress, declared was the
natural and legitimate boundary between Mexi-
co and Texas,-the line which should forever Sc
parate the Mauritanian and the Anglo-Sa1on ra-
ces. That territory, at all events, was in disputes
2. L., koya h. IaO 70 H. oI,,t.c 20
annexation found it, until the controversy in re-
gard to the boundary had been settled by negoti-
aiion-Or if Mexico should have obstnately re-
fused to consent to the resumption Of diplomatic
intercourse for that purpose, until Congress, the
only branch Of the government authorized to de-
clare war, had deemed it proper to exercise that
power. The ground taken by the Wings, there
FORE is, that while we might long ago, with en-.
tire Justice, have declared war against Mexico,
THE PRESIDENT, from whom this power is ex-
pressy and wisely withheld, had no more right to
adopt line Of policy which must inevitably lead
TO that result than he had to issue that declara-
ton upon his own responsibility. The Wings,
therefore, believe that the is, IN its origin,
both unconstitutional and unnecessary but blows
having been struck and the existence Of the war
recognized by Congress, they no longer regard
its prosecution as unjust, and consequently with
out hesitation, they vote men and money to the
full extent demanded by the Administration, and
repair themselves TO the field Of action with quite
rs much alacrity, and fight when there quite as
valiantly as their political opponents. We shall
undertake, nj a suitable time, TO show the Justice
of this "view." At present we have neither
leisure nor space for the task, even if it be not
moro advisable, from other conside rations, to de-
fer Il until the public mind shall be better prepa-
red than II is now, while the war exists, to give
n calm and unpreJudicod consideration to the facts
aud arguments bearing upon the poiut. All that we
shall now say in relation to il is that the disputed
territory, which was held exclusively by Mexican
citizens, and garrisoned at several points by Mex
lean troops, ought not TO have been taken posses.
sion Of, by our "Army Of OccuPation"--but ought
40 have been lef, the disputed territory
on the borders Of Maine and in Oregon
was TO be settled, if practicable, by diplomatic
arrangemeBt-or, If that should prove too slow a
process, in consequence Of the refusal Of Mexico
o. assent to it, pacific adjustment by such other
means as Congress, the war-making power, might
have determined.
Hence there is no Inconsistency" as the iogi.
can Of the Union asserts, in the course Of the
Whigs--in first asserting that War might have
been avorted had the President confined himself
90 the legitimate exercise Of the powers confined
upon him by tho Constitution, but uniting never.
thcless, that It exists, in is energetic prose-
cution. IT, indeed IL were true that he who be.
levos war TO be "unnecessary," must therefore, II
he would be consistent, oppose the measures ne
ces'ay fof rs successful prosecution. there would
no longer be any meaning in the celebrated max.
i'm Of Decatur - Our counffv aluavs rfu nj buf /
our country, right or wrong" The duty Of every |
citizen is 10 oppose such acts OF his own Govern.
ment AZ in his opinion wrong in themselves
bH nevertheless, II they result in war, to support
- BY all the means in his power, in its vigorous
and successful prosecution. IT, the Union
says, thero u in this course an exquisite incon