Litchfield enquirer., 1847-12-23

: our own judgment we should entertain aRy Q plnlon on public question materially differ. , ent from his. Happy and proud are we 10 hnd
 that. on the subject ofthe causes and charact-
 CT ot thls war, his views are in full accord
 with those which We have found it our dnty from lime to time 10 present to our readeTs.--<
 Most fortunate fot our country do we consider l II hat he has been willing and able 10 come
 forward in the present emergency to instruct and counsel his fellow citizens However
 earnestly and honestly the Press may have
 done it's duty, however ably and fearIe ssiy dis | tInguished Siatesmenof the present day nay have exposed and denounced the new career upon which our country has entered as the sole aI dislurber of the peace of the world however
 bright and high the statesnIanship which the great Patriot ci the West has recently brought to bear upon the great question:, the address of l Mr Gallatin has sboNn that It was yet possible
 tor wise and able man 10 add the fagneof eren our own convictions hdwsees dscidaaapn 1 ihe subject. Most fortunate, we Fepeaty dc tEo
 consider this opporiune contribali5n to the
 common stock of knowledge ot one standing ia
 the foremost rank of intellectual greatnessy and
 yet apart from the passions of the day and a- bove them, one who, after a most distinguished career of public service, lstt popularity and 1 reputation unexhauste and qeitted high tIusts
 whiie they yet conrted his acceptance one9f
 the foremost men, in word, oi that illustrious
 era of our st st.tesmanship, which has now hafd- 1 iy survivor, one therefore almest in the last
 extremity oi age, and yet so fortunate as lo 1 have preserved, equally undimmed, its abi liies and it's honors. To the authority of such a, 1 name as that of Albert Galiaiin, his Address adds strength of reasoning which nothing in | the present day can meet. and that luminous | command ofall the great principles of Public and of National Law. in which he had scarce l iy an equal in his own times. and has now ne l superior The trusted coadjuter-and it may ] even. in Finance and in Diplomacy, be said to 1 have been--the instructor ot Jefferson. of Mad> ison and ot Monroe. we have here, as of one lisng from the dead, voice. passionless as 1t | is wise aud solemn the judgment of an en- | tique and genuine sage st Repuhiicansm--yea l of Democracs--upon the entire question of this l Presidential War.
 Armed and fortified with such document,it
 is with unwonied confidence that we proceed l once more to expose these hollow pfetences ! and iIisncere professions of the authors and a.
 biologists for the var with Mexico, which have heen controverted heretofore with no other ap, parent effect than to induce mere peTtenas cious repetition of thcm,
 Referring to his last annnal conmunicatioa
 to Congress- for particulars of his bill of arraign'
 ment, the President again recites alleged
 wrongs by Mexico.. through a long series of
 years,' &c, as being such as not only to con-
 stitute ample cause of war, but as would haye
 justified the United States before the whole world in resorting to this extreme remedy.-- This every one at all acquainted with histpsy
 know. to be gross exaggeration. The long ex. stence of claims for wrongs now alleged to ! have been so enormous is of self proof of the l fast that they were not at any time deemed hy | Congress to constitute sufficient cause of war l Most of them had beside been actually adjust.
 e. .by,a treaty betwseA ,helEo c. antrl.ssn l ico when the hostile demonstrations of our Adr | ministration suspended the payfnent of stipu. | lated indefnhtiss. As to what remained 0f | unadjusted claims, there was nothing until the occurrence of this war to prevent their peacet l able and even satisfactory adjustment. As to l the refusal by Mexico to receive our Minister l being, as the President intimates, sfficient cause oi war, it is sufficient answer~to l the President, that the army was order- | ed to march to the Rio Grahde-where ac' cording to the programme of the government | paper, thewar was to begn--two months beS | fore our Minister was finally refused to be rs' ceiyed by the government Of Mexico. . But let it be admitted for the sake of aTguS ment, and for that sake only, that according to
 the customs and laws of nations Tn less civilt5 zed, less moral and less enlightened ages than the present, we really had cause of war with Mexico 60 far as war between two Christian nations is ever just or necessarvi yet, war Wltn
 Mexico. distracted, weakened and impovished
 as she then was with intense factions and dis
 visions, was neither necessary. magnanmous
 nor honorable on eur part. Such war even for just objects. beidg unnecessary --the only ' inevitable effect indeed upon the claims tor q which it would be waged being to lasten them ? upon our own Treasury instead of Mexican -- | i could never rebound to the glory ot the copn< |. try, and much less compensate for the rivers oa
 blood and heaps Of treasure which have been
 already wasted in this war. But, to pass all this by, whether the existing !, war be just or unjust necessary or unnecessary , is nSt the question now at issue between the , President and the People. Wasthis war ths
 act oi the Sovereign People of the U. States,
 declared in their naine. in the only manner } known or acknowledged by the Constitutions by the Senate ard House of Represenlativesi ip Congress, 10 whom alone it belongs to deter- mine whether war at any time and under any circumstances. be just and necessary q. Or ! was it, whether a crime or mistake, the up- authorized act uf the President, to whom the ! Constitution had dsnied all pswer over ths i question of War This is the question, nor 6 can all the W re drawn sophistry and special a pleading of the Presidents Message of last e year, referred to in that which is now before | US, eceive single individual. be he whig of democrat, of common sense nf common m P formation, against ihe we'll known and well : authenticated facts in the case. Need we add 7 fthat whoever the President be, who, tramp l ling down tn. barriers which tha constitution : has erected: for the proteciiap of the general welfare, nd for the security of life liberty aud Il property of the citizen, of his own mere will ? and pleasure plunges the country into war . with or without cause--that man IS Despot, :, The Nation that quietly folds it's arms aud ! permits this to bs done with impunity, may
 delude itself with the fancy that Il lives undsf. written Lew and Con.iilation. but II IS ap idle dream. That Nation is a Nation ofslavss, and lives undsr DesPoi'sm. ... II To proceed however, 10 them in point.npea . 1 ihe reasseriion of which alone the President ! relies to justify himself heiore his own fellow [ citizens for his agency in this War.yiz: , that the Mexican Government finally uader ] wholly unjustifable pretexts involved tee tive , couHiries in war by invading the territory of Texas, st.ikingih the first blow and shedding tho blood. of our citizens on American soil. s.N0f os.e spord of Mis Is True! We, regret the ne' , cessiiy but the President imposes upon us the , obligation of renewing the dsmonsirat!sn ct