Weekly national intelligencer., 1847-12-11
SATURDAY, DECEMBER II, ls47.
THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.

III this cly, anu generally ELSEWHERE, "cio Pu' ~
possession Of the Annual Message Of the President
of the United States to both Houses OF Congress.
! Until to-day we have purposely forborne from COM
ment upon it, from an unaffected desire not to in
terlere with their free digestion OF its contents.
That opportunity having been fairly afforded, we
now proceed to state with plainness, but we hope
without offence to any wel-disposed reader, our
views upon its leading topics and first because it
is first in the Message, and uppermost in every
mans mind, upon so much of the document re-
lates to-
THE WAR WITH MEXICO.
| When, on the 18th day of May of last year, the
passage OF the Act of Congress, recognising the
existence of War with Mexico, was announced to
the readers of the National Intelgencer, it was ac-
companied by the expression of belief that by the
largest portion of its readers the information would
be received with alarm-alarm justly excited by
the wilfuness and recklessness with which the
Nation had been plunged into foreign war, which,
as the People were in particular prepared for they
were in no way forewarned Of. For ourselves, we
were not taken wholly by surprise by the news.
In the craftsmanship of the Executive, whatever
confidence we were disposed to place had been
shaken by the almost daily demonstrations by its
official organ during the first year Of its existence.
We had watched its successive developments, gra-
dually disclosing a settled purpose to make war
upon Mexico, in the event of not succeeding in in
tmidating her into prompt submission to the de-
mands which the President intended to make upon
her. That organ (the government paper was hardly
week old before its readers were transported, in
Imagination, to the :" Halls Of Montezuma,' which
were to be occupied by the United States as the
crowning act Of Ga second conquest of Mexico"
The tocsin being sounded, volunteers were to flock
from the West to the scene of action, and to carry
every thing before them. The government paper
taught US, also, ho,0 the war was to be brought on
by which this conquest was to be effected 1t fore
saw, by many MONTHS the march of our Army
from Corpus Christi (where, every one knows,
Mexico never intended to disturb itl to the Rio
Grande; foresaw that the Mexicans might cross the
Rio Grande, and that, if they did, blood would be
shed, and "war must ensue.' When, therefore the
prediction was realized-when the catastrophe ar
rived however it shocked, team scarcely be said to
have surprised US OF the facility and preciptancy
with which the purposes of the Executive came to
be sustained by the Legislative authority, cannot
say the same We were both surprised and alarmed
to find how easily, on the impulse of the moment,
blindfold and gagged, Congress could be driven
to lend its countenance to those purposes. Blind
fold and gagged we repeat. Nor is the expression
too strong for, before the news Of the dangerous
position OF our Army was communicated by the
Executive TO Congress, committees Of both Houses
had been got together Ton the Sabbath) and measures
1, al
next day, on receiving the Presidents Message of
form, without waiting to have the papers accompa-
nying read over, for the information of Members
were forced through the House Of Representatives
Nor even TO a body excited as the House was
by the stirring from the Rio Grande, did
the ruling party in the House venture to propose
the false and obnoxious Preamble Of the Bill until
after all deliberation and debate had been precuded
on question as momentous certainly as ever came
before Congress. Had there been nothing else
alarming in this Declaration of War with Mexico,
the despotism thus exercised over the minority of
the Representative body repeated on the following
day in the Senatorial body, (theretofore exempt
from such sharp practice, of itself sufficient to
appal the hearts Of those accustomed, as we have
been, to regard the rights Of mnortes as not less
sacred than those of majorities, and, among them
the right Of proposing amendments to or remonsra-
ting against any proposition coming before them.
The minority in each House was thus subjected
by most arbitrary and malignant exercise of party
power without being allowed a moment for deli
beraton, to the alternative Of voting for bill with
preamble, the falsehood Of which they saw and de-
tested, or of refusing to vote for enacments (sup.
plies Of men and money! TO which, all lavish as
they were, there would, perhaps, but for the Pre-
ambe, not have been dissentient voice.
Whatever alarm we and our readers felt at this
beginning, has certainly been fully justified by the
progress of events Even that precipitation in the
action Of Congress-that preamble, affirming two
distinct falsehoods-hat tyranny by which vote
was extorted from the two Houses, have been con-
tnually appealed to by the Executive organs
evidence of the unanmity of the national will in
appreciation OF the In the Message before US
that appeal is. repeated, accompanied with state
ment, in terms, that the declaration that the War
exists by the act Of Mexico was passed with
great unanimity' in Congress though it must be
known to the Executive that but a small majority
in either House Of Congress approved that declara-
ton, many members declaring their repugnance to
IL some their utter abhorrence of it, Votes taken