Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1847-03-04
nor do Christian men, Mr.. President, fight

dell writes home that If some military DEM
onstraton should be made, perhaps he would
be received as John Sidell, Minister Plen-
ipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary" Mr..
Slldell lnvokes the military power of the u
nited States and says, Make warIike dem
onstration on these men, and perhaps shall
be accredited and received" The Presi-
dent and Secretary accordingly send your
army to the confines of Mexico. There lies
the little piece of territory out of which, Mr..
President, all this war has arisen Now l
said that l would not state any disputable
fact 1t is known to every man who has
looked into this subject, that revolutiona-
ny government can claim no jurisdiction any
where when it has not defined and excrcis-
ed its power with the sword. TWAS utterly
Indifferent to Mexico aud the world, what
legislative enactments Texas made. She
extended her revolutionary government and
her revolutionary dominion not one inch be-
yond the extent to which she had carried the
power of Texas in opposition to the power
of Mexico.
1t is therefore mere question of fact
and how will it be pretended that that coun-
try lying between the Nueces and the Del
Norte, to which your army was ordered and
Texas and not Mexicol What did Gen. Tay-
lor write home? Do you hear of trial by iu-
ry on the east bank of the Rio Grande-of
Anglo-Saxons making cotton there with their
negroes! No! You hear of Mexicans re-
siding peacefully there; but fleeing from
their cotton-feds at the approach of your
army-no slaves there, for it had been a de-
cree of the Mexican government, years ago,
that no slaves should exist there. If there
were Texas population on the east bank of
the Rio Grande, why did not General Tay-
lor hear something of those Texans hailing
the advent of the American army coming to
protect them from the ravages of the Mexi-
cans and the more murderous onslaughts of
the neighboring savages?
Do you hear anything of that No On
the contrary, the population fled from their
homes at the approach of your army. In
Gods name, l wish to know if it has come
to this, that when an American Army goes
to protect American citizens on American
territory, they flee from it as if from the
most barbarous enemy! Yet such is the RI
diculous assumption of those who pretend
that on the east bank of the Rio Grande,
where your arms took possession, there were
Texan population-Texan power-Texan
laws and American United States power and
law! No, Mr.. President-when l see that
stated in an Executive document-wrtten
by the finger of President of the United
States-and when you read in those docu-
ments, with which your tables groan, the We
racious account of that noble old General
Taylor, of his reception in that country, and
of those men-to use the language of one
of his otficers-feeing before their invaders;
when You compare these two documents to-
gether, is it not biting sarcasm upon the
sincerity of public men-a bitter satire up
on the gravity of all public officers?
Great God Mr.. President, is it possible
that the American people give couutenance
to this atrocious falsehood that you were a.
f bout to interpoate into the history of this
country, and write it down as fact, when
the whole world, and everybody, and you
yourselves, acting, as it may be, on that very
falsehood, know that what is stated there is
not true?
Mr.. President, there is absent to-day
Senator from the other side of the House
whose presence would afford me, as it al
ways does-but particularly on this occasion
"a most singular gratiicution. | allude to
the Senator from Missouri who sits farthest
from me (Mr. Benton.) l remember, Mr..
President, he arose in this body and per-
formed great act of justice to himself and
his country-of justice to mankind, for all
men are interested in the truths of history
when he declared it to be his purpose, for
the sake of the truth of history to set right
some gentlemen on the other side of the
House, in respect to the territory of Oregon,
which then threatened to disturb the peace
of this Republic with the kingdom of Great
Britain. l wish it had pleased him to have
performed the same good offices on this oc-
casion.
wish it had been so, if he could have
found it consonant with his duty to his coun-
try, that now while engaged with an enemy
whom we have no reason to fear as being
ever able to check our progress or disturb
our internal peace, for the sake of Justice
as then he did for the sake of Justice and
the interest and peace of those two coun-
tries, England and America, he had come
forward to settle the truth of history in re-
spect to the territorial boundary of Texas
which our President said was the Rio Bravo
the Rio del Norte," as it is sometimes
called express this wish for no purpose
of haunting the Senator from Missouri, or
leading him to believe that l would draw
his name into the discussion for any other
than the most sacred purpose which can
animate the human bosom-that of having
truth established, for l really believe that
is not true which the Senator from Michi-
gan stated yesterday, that the worst said in
the Senate is, that much might be said on
both sides A laugh.) l cannot view it
in that way. Much may be said, much talk
NAV be had on both sides Of any question,
but that this is disputable matter about
which man could apply his mind for an
hour, and still be in doubt, is to me an in
scrutabe mystery.
l wish to invoke the authority of the Sem
ator from Missouri When about toreceve
Texas into the United States, he offered a
resolution to this effect -
Here the honorable Senator read the res
olution offered by Mr.. Benton, pending the
resolution for the annexation of Texas
Now what did that meant Did the Sem
ator from Missouri believe that he was right
when he made that statement? Did he be-
lieve that it was true that the right bank of
the Rio del Norte did belong to Mexico,