The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1846-09-18
MISCELLANEOUS.
To The Hon. Muddy Thompson, late EnUOy ETTaOrd
mary and Minister PlsRipOisniiary 10 .hsTieO
No

No. y
Skipping over 800 years, will now say some
thing about another worthy who has figured large
on the same theatre on which Corttz played sue
fantastic tricks before high heaven This is SAINT
Ana. DO not recoect that you call him your flavor
lie hero" or a hero Of any kind, but you express
pretty favorable opinion of him upon the whole
much more than he deserves IN my o. non, tor, il
my judgment, he 10 not much better in any respec
than Coriez and a. AN Unreasonable distance benin,
him in courage and capacity, notwithstanding hi
finely formed head and face, indicative of talent
frmness and beneyolence, }" according 10 "a distin
guished American statesman'-high authority abon
political or financial question without doubt; bu
no better than yours or mine, any body Else, res
PecuDg Santa Ana's head and face, unless he 10
physognomist and phrenoogist and that does no
appear.
Yog consider Santa Ana to be patriot, and wisl
10 see him stihe head Of the government, thougI
you say that he is ayaricous, and admit that he j,
addicted TO population and bribery, " you may be
lieve halfthst you have heard. You may safely be
lieve that half and the other half too. Ii is of bu
little consequence who is al the head Of the Mex
can government under the present system. linus
be either military despot, or the tool of military
faetioni and Santa Ana, bad as he is, may be per
haps not much worse than the man who would b.
If he were not. Paroles is perhaps one among the
best Of a bad class--the military men of Mexico
That he is patriot, though, cannot believe ever
upon your authority, which | grant to be high
do not understand how any man can be patrol
who is The punderer Of his country; and that he ia
you do not deny. No pecuator, no receiver OF
brides can be devoted to the public veal. At less
such was the old .fashioned doctrine among US IL
other days. Whether il can be said iernpOra mnian.
iur or not, do not pretend to decide. hope i
cannot be.
This patriot, among other accomplishments, pos
sesses that Of being adept in (risuD isnsais) III,
noble and glorious science of-e0ck fighting Ii j.
the first time reeolect ever to have seen greatness
PATRIOTISM and cock-hghtng in JUNCTION and iuxls-
position. We have heard good deal Of Julius
Cesar, Washington, Napoleon, and other heroes
but nothing Of their coekhghtng; and, in my hun
Die judgment, there never was great man who wa
eoek-hghter, for the very plain reason that greS
mind could not let itself down to such pitifu
Pary amusement, saying nothing Of its cruelty
But Of ths-jdm salts.
Santa Ana told you that General Jackson wa
satisfied with his explanations ofthe at the
Alamo, and Of Fannng's command" and grievr
to think myself authorized by your silence, in draw
ing the inference that you, TOO were, in some de-
gree, satisfied, as far as regards his (Santa Anal
own Justification. am not, nor can persuade my
self that General Jackson was, until it comes from
higher authority than the culprit himself If there
Is any higher, have not heard Of it, and il the old
Roman ever expressed any satisfaction, it was
without doubt, qualified with IF--U all the
the perpetraor Of the enormty said in his exculpn
You do not say in your "Recoections," and | an
sorry that you do not, for upon that point, above
all Others you ought to have expressed an opinion
1t seems TO You do call il an ''unmtigated muir
der, true, but do not fix the murder Santa Ana
quite clearly enough. You say that "the massacre
OF Fannlng's men Is not without illustrIous exam.
ples"-to wit, the slaughter of the Turks at Jafa
by Bonaparie, and of our own countrymen by tn,
British indians at the river Rasin. The slaughte,
OF the Turks was what you would call an "unne
cessary cruelty !" and wholly without defence; but
think It pretty certain that there capitula-
uon, STIMULATING on the part Of the Turks that Their
lEes should be saved. The want OF tins, though
could not justify the wholesale murder Of them
The massacre at the river Raisin was fully as afro
cious as that Of Fanning's detachment The British
ot1cers pretended that they could not prevent it
an allegation long ago proven to be false, and if any
man doubts, let him read Ingersoll's History of the
War Of 1912, and he will doubt no longer. To
these 'iliustrious examples" you might have added
another OF recent occurrence-the smoking TO death
In cave, OF 5OO Arabs men, women and children /
by French colonel, and all the reparaon that has
been Offered 10 outraged humanity is, that French
Inlnister-h. Quiz, believe-said in the Cham
Der OF Deputies that the government regretted The oe
eurrsnee!
IL may be, that according to the laws Of wal,
which, respecting such cases the storming of the
fort at the Alamo, are extremely rigorous, thai
massacre may be susceptible Of some paation, and
but little either In the case of Tanning, though the
slaughter was what you pronounce il to be, "un-
mltigated murder,n and Santa Ana the murderer
cannot bat be little surprised, though that you
should give the sanction of your silence to Santa
Anas statement Of facts mad yertently must sup
pose He does not deny the capitulation, but al.
leges necessity as justification for the slaughter
that the prisoners near five hundred in number
and had secret arms, whilst the Mexican guard was
but three hundred strong. Can you believe thisi
Is II credIble' Never, in my opinien, did cornered
vllany attempt to escape by fouler falsehood
Would hve hundred Americans, with arms, OF
without them, suffer themselves to be bu,chered
In cold blood by three hundred Mexicansi and thew
loo, the timld, miserable creatures you represent
them to bes Impossible! Had these been the rela.
tive numbers very different account of that affair
would have been rendered, be assured. The Amer
lcahs would have taken their muskets from them
and beaten their brains out with the but ends
Santa Ana, admit, is not without some merit
ne might be worse than he is; and you were very
successful in prevailing upon him to spare the lives
81 your captive countrymen in his power. With
respect TO that matter, he behaved upon the whole,
very well, though cannot help thinking that you
owed your success as much to his fears as to his
good feelings; he preferred your friendship your
hostility The former might be of service to him,
your work shows it to have been; the latter might
nave been injurious, no doubt it would; and ~
putting the prisoners death could have been of no
possible benefit to him, he wisely resolved to be
governed by his interest, which to be mercifuI
rather than by his instinct, which led him to shed
blood. ! am willing to admit, though, that he may
not be 80 atrociousy cruel and hard-hearted, but
that he may be capable of doing just and generous
action when he is to gain by it, or even when it
may be matter of perfect Indifference
Here should close my remarks, having nothing
more to say about Cortez or Santa Ana; but there
are a few other passages in your "RecolIectons"
that particularly attracted my attention. A word
about them. ... .. #.a
General Miller, the British consul general for the
Sandwich Islands, said to you that be was "sur
priced that any standing army should be kept up in
the United States" To this your reply was, that
you Thought so, too; and that it somewhat re-
that the most creditabe achievements OF
American arms had been in battles where the larger
part Of the troops engaged were militia"
l am not at all surprised that an Engshman
should express the opinion that we need no stand
ing army, but am, somewhat, that an American
statesman and dipomatist should concur in that
opinion. 1t would suit the English extremely we'll
If we would abolish both army and navy, for the
British government has, some time since, most be-
novoIenuy manifested willingness to act as consta-
BILE general of the seas adopting and enforcing such
repulationa might beat suit her. and. doubt