Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-07-16
English View of the Mexican War.

The following article was published in the
London Spectator several months since
The truths it contains are no less true now.
though some Of them are now more a matter
Of history than of prophecy.
What Can be Dime for Uerico PIT is hirh
time that we in England should take into Sc
rlous consideration the question, What can
be done to save the miserable and impotent
Republic Of Mexico from extinction as an in
dependent nation! Apart from all the prob
Iematlcal evil consequences of its absorption
INTO the United States-and they are momcn-
tous-the fate of Mexico has an immediate
practical importance for all classes OF men in
this country, being inseparably identified
with that OF a vast amount Of British capital.
EXpunge Mexico from the list of nations,
and with the same blow you put out the fires
on thousands CT English hearihs. Already
we have suffered enough by the waste ard
decay of the wealth we have invested in that
country the humiliation of what remains
would scatter bankruptcy among our mer-
chants, paraiyze our industry, disorder all the
functions Of our national life, and spread star
walton among our working classes. And this
is the conclusion to which events are tend
ing in a rapid and accommodating flood. that
must inevitably bear down all such timsy
barriers as Santa Annals countrymen can set
up against it.
That the United States are bent on seizing
the whole Mexican territory is a fact they
scarcely condescend TO disguise. The man
ner in which they intend TO effect their pur-
pose is also apparent it is the same as that
by which they have already secured Texas
the same %piratical system as that by which
thou h,l bar,,, h, Noee,c- ,b,r,c,1yo, n -,
~isiana, before they had the opportunity of &C.
curing it in the more Legitimate way Of pur-
chase. The present petty warfare they are
waging on the frontier is but an episode in
the great plot. General Taylor's force is but
the precursor of the real army of INVASION
the squatter and backwoodsman, men in
whom it is a hereditary and invincible instinct
always to depart from before the approach of
civilization, to avoid every spot where law
has become established, and never TO feel
themselves thoroughly at home except on de-
batable ground. BY men like these, coming
by twos and threes, then by scores and hun
dreds, and finally in multitudes, like carrion
birds to the quarry, the Northern provinces
of the Republic will be overrun; and thence
the process will be continued until the whole
territory is filled and mastered by these I'M
pTincipled and desperately energetic immi-
grants. Already many OF the provinces have
shown a willing alacrity to meet the destiny
they %foresee; not from any affection they
bear to their encroaching ~neighbors, but be-
cause they are weary of anarchy, hopeless of
relief from their own wretched nominal Go
vernments, and eager TO accede TO the bles-
sings Of law and order from any Power strong
enough TO secure them.
Mexico must be tranquilized, and her
strength consolidated by good and stable 90.
vprnment, or she is lost. This has long been
felt by her allies and they have even sug-
gested and indirectly urged the adoption of
the means that seemed to them most likely
to bring about the desired result. The pro-
posed panacea was the conversion Of the Re-
public into a Monarchy, the sceptre Of which
should be swayed by some European Royal
cadet. 1t is needless to discuss the abstract
merits of this plan, since it is a mere fgment
Of political speculation, at present beyond the
scope of any practical discussion.
There is but one sure way tosave Mexico,
and that is, to transfer fresh, healthy blood
into her languid veins; to ~colonize a portion
of her magnificent territory with a people
worthy to occupy and able to defend it. If
Mexico were to mingle a portion of the An
glo Saxon element with their population, she
might venture to cope with the moiety of that
indomitable race that now threatens her eX-
%istence. In our paper, last week, on the pro-
ject of cutting a ship-canal through the great
American l~sthmus, we pointed out the admi-
rable opportunity now offered for peopling
the lsthmus of Tehuantepec, and realizing
the incalculable natural advantages of one Of
the most eligible commercial sites on the face
of the globe. That majestic region, teeming
with boundless wealth, washed by two
oceans, traversed through half its breadth by
a navigable river, which offers at its mouth
the finest harbor in the Gulf of Mexico, may
now be secured by Englishmen. Will they
refuse to accept a region which was selected
by the sagacious mind of the great conqueroT
Cortes to constitute his own private domain
If so, the French will be delighted to grasp
the prize we disdain.