Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1846-12-26

by our incessant wars, "not to be averted by any
human means -
Historically, Ex-President JONES AYERS that the
causes of this war have exised-no, we beg par
don-have been apparent for twenty years.
AS he explains them (the causes into race, religion,
government, and circumstances, they have existed
at least far back the settlement at jamestown,
under the brave Captain John Smith, in the year OF
grace 1907 Nay, the same causes" must have
existed ever since men separated into different
races held different creeds, lived under different
political inventions, and were placed by the God of
Nature under different circumstances" And as
the will exist all over the rest of the
globe, even when we shall, with irresistible and
righteous arms, have swept diversity and circum-
stance from this continent, il is clear that shall
have ample cause" to fall upon the remainder Of
the earth, and hew il and carve il into conformity
Of the sword
Clearly, then, the reasons for this war have al
ways existed, and President Jones's twenty years"
is meant only to express the since which those
causes /" became so "apparent" that they began
to be acted on. This period (wenty years. is not
new one our Government asserted it once be-
cordingly said as much to Mexico 1t (the period)
carries us back beyond the earliest date Of any of
the alleged spoliations by Mexico that we wot Of;
Texas had then hardly hundred or two Of Ameri-
can coonists in it; and the Constitution Of 1924,
the abrogation of which is the excuse for revolt,
had not been touched until some eight years later.
9" No human MEANS" it seems, g could have
averted this war;" Clearly not; since the Mexi-
cans could not cease to be Mexicans nor the Catholic
though doing their best, make just such a Gov
eminent as ours and, indeed had all these changes
been feasible, still there stood the antagonistc
circumstances of rich gold and silver mines and
fine country-things which are probably meant,
in this theory of just and necessary and Chris
tian war; by that convenient word, circumstances.
But mark the next great and humane truth estab-
lished for the philosophy Of History IF lit seems)
two different races, no matter how far separated or
how thnly peopled, are on the same continent, one
or the other must from the very nature Of things, be
predominant that is to say, the stronger one
must, in just resentment of the national injury infct
ed it by the others daring to be itself and to be
,ceak, fall upon it, battle it in carnage and tears,
waste it. subjugate il. and finally abolish its blood
its language faith, and " circumstances " in general
Charming ideas these (are they not y Of the new
principles arrived at by the march of mind" the
" progress :" What a convenience would such
principles as these have been to the Sultan when he
butchered the Greeks-to Attila, "the scourge Of
God" when he wrapped half Europe in flame and
drunken slaughter Why after all, Tamerlane and
Genghis Khan, whose track Of conquering havoc
was broader and longer than almost any other that
ever blackened the earth for centuries, were very
enlightened princes, quite in advance OF their times,
which (un-illumned that they were) absurdly de-
nounced as inhuman barbarsm just such causes OF
war as those avowed in the /" sentiment" above
recited.
1t would be distrusting the intelligence of our
readers to dwell further upon the particulars Of this
" sentiment" We come at once 10 the exhoration
with which it closes, to make i'll Mexico one grand
closing field of San Jacinto-a browning carnage,
that shall leave in Mexico no more of Mexicans
than did San Jacinto leave of them in Texas-that
is to say, only carcasses and captives! =
These, then, as interpreted to us from the people
whose cause we have assumed-as avowed by their
last, in presence and in honor of him who was in
effect their first, President-these are the causes,
these the motives, and these the purposes for which
we are waging war! In the name of Liberty,
under the title Of" Progress" and with the promise
of Glory, these principles, at which Russian des-
potism would blush, from which Meheme Ali him.
self would recoil, are announced to us Hear, oh
LAND OF WASHINGTON Listen, we Children of
the Pilgrims, of Roger Williams, and Of William
| Penn Ye for whom, in Carolina, the virtuous
John Locke drew up philosophic laws, and We
whom the humane and generous Oglethorpe found
ed beyond, hearken Sages and Heroes Of the Re-
volution, 10! the contamination of your labors,
the Freedom Of which you setup the mighty frame I
It is come to such point that the people who have
stood in your presence, and whose fathers followed
you TO ustrious and yet innocent are no,o
engaged in a cause and inclined TO a career i'm
which men hesitate not to proclaim to them, for adj
miration and execution, such maxms and ideas as
these
But, suppose the object ofthis oar, as stated by
either of the authorities which we have quoted, to
have been accomplished, and all Mexico 10 have
been overrun and conquered. Then comes new
curse
| People so inferior that you could-in spite Of
distance, and deserts, and Businesses, and all that
/ fights against nsaders-overwhelm them upon their
own hearths, is, after eternal rancors have been