Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1847-12-02
WADDY THOMPSON

One OF the speakers at this meeting. we notice,
was the Hon. Waddy Thompson, our late Min
lister to Mexico, who Gas reported in Ike Charles
ton Courer) said &" it afforded him great pleasure
to express bis hearty concurrence in the eXpedi-
ency of the meeting, and generally, also, in the
preamble and resolutions just offered by his
friend, save the concluding one, in reference to
which he felt constrained tie express his dissent.
3" He was truly glad that, for the first time in
many long years, his sentiments were in conci-
dence with those of his district. True, he enter
tanned opinions on some points, variant from
those of the majority, and at one time, thought
of embodying them in distinct resolutions, but
he was willing to sacrafice that mode of their
expression to unanimity on the main topic of the
resolutions and object Of the meeting. He liked
not to be a prophet of evil but he had deep
and settled conviction CT the impocy of this
whole Mexican War. He prayed tcryently for
favorable results, but he was but a coward who
was willfully Blind to the signs ofthe times. He
would answer for it, such was the squandering
of treasure in this unhappy war, that $4,000
would not pay South Carolina's share of it
Were the war to close now, he verify believed
$4,000 600 would not cover its cost to the ma
ton, besides the priceless outpouring Of our
blood like water. 1t was with pride he regarded
the part borne in the contest by South Carolina
and he felt it to be monstrous, and his lndigna-
ton kindled at the thought, that even our SOL
ders: whose valor aud blood should add new ter
ritory to the Union, were to be denied an equal
participation in the benefits of conquest-the
privilege of settling on their bounty lands with
their own property and institutions.
"IIe would not WilfuIly misead the meeting;
but this conquest, this extension Of territory,
was not to enure to our benefit 1T was as false
in politics as in war, to count on the weakness
or want of frames of the enemy and he beliy-
ed fltal mistake had been committed in the
prosecution of the present war with an made
quatc force. lie believed the North would not
recedo from their position. Ten States, with
votes enough to control the popular branch of
Congress, and to elect President Of the United
States, had taken their arrogant and insulting
stand; and they were daily gaining strength
Last year, 800, coo foreigners landed on our
shores, net 900 of whom settled in the South.
the rest spreading over the North and West,
with imported sentiments hostile to our welfare
With Oregon and the expected accessions Of
Mexican territory added to the present nom
slaveholding States, the number of free States
would be ultimately numerous and strong enough
to amend the Constitution and overthrow the IN
sttution of the South. There acaS reuedg for
the cell, howeUer. 1t was, to acquire no more ter
rjtOry. We already had territory enough, va
cant territory, to swell hereafter with MYRIAD
population. Did he, like the seer Of old, stand
on the summit of Pisgah, and see new Canaan
"a land flowing with milk and honey, and stud
ded with gold mines, inviting the entrance of our
h Il "a
our children at war, and to cutting each others
throats. But he knew the territory in question
| to be no promised land-nay, to be comparatively
of little value--being at an average distance of
500 miles from the coast,rlsing almost Immediate
/ ly into PERCEPTIONS mountans-the Rio Grande,
too, being shallow, rocky, shoay river, like
our Saluda. Nor could it avail US anything in
the way Of indemnity for the expenses of the
war, for Spanish and Mexican grants would of
course be reserved in the treaty Of cesson, or
we would, in common honesty, be obliged to re-
spect them, The population, too, would be a
worthless and troublesome one; accustomed to
rebellion, and unaccustomed to work; some lOO,-
600 or 300, 600 Roman Catholic Indian voters;
some 5000, 900 or 10000, 600 people to keep
in order. Instead Of getting, as some imagined,
land without people, it would be Just the reverse
we would get people without land. Besides
all this. he would stake his life that no part of
the territory could or would be occupied by
Shareholders He would consent to be gibbeted,
or. if dead, that his bones should be dug up and
made manure of, if ever a slaveholding State
were formed out of any portion of it, We should
be satisfied with Texas, every part Of which will
make slayeholding territory, under the compact
of annexation, having the Rio Grade for its
boundary and reasonable margin where neces-
sary."