Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1847-09-29
FROM THE BALTIMORE AMERICAN.
ORIGIN OF THE WAR WITH MEXICO

cess OF ZEAL to make any question as to the propr-
ety Oh the Presidents course i'm the beoDninU of
the war with Mexico. On this subject Democracy
reckons 1t virtue to shut both eyes; and hayipy
mus blinded itself, /, insists that others, Also shall
| refuse to see.
There are some who need no artificial appliances
70 make themselves MISUNDERSTANDING procyites
that way; there are others who seem 10 Labor afior
s'uitihcation as though it we desirable attain
''eh' 10 these latter, reason brings too many re-
sponsloilltles; Il is a troublesome gift Proceeding
upon the principle that ignorance is bliss, it is not
'neir iaut 1t they do not become superativey hap
Ply.
But upon this question Of the origin of the Mexi-
can war The tranquilized nerves Of the orthodox.
iulled by opiates, are occasionally Jared by the
spasodic starts OF refractory patients not vet sooth
ed into quescence. Mr.. BRowNsoN who giyes a
great deal Of careful supervision to the party with
out getting any thanks for his pains, and who like
a turbulent wasp in the hive, is continually annoy
ing the whole tribe Of drones aud drilled operatives
thus speaks on the subject referred to
The act of Mexico in crossing the Rio Grande
and engaging our troops on territory which she had
possessed and still claimed as hers, but which we
asserted mad, by recent act against which she had
| protested, become ours--the act which the Presi-
dent choose TO inform Congress and the world was
war-may or may not have been lust cause for
declaring war against her. but it assuredly was not
CO. She may have been decidedly i'm the wrong:
she may have had no valid title to the territory of
which the President had just taken military occu
patton that territory may have been rghtfully ours
ana IL may have been the duty of the President to
occupy and defend it-but it cannot be denied that
she had once possessed it; that it was still part
vi one ol her States or provinces that she still
cialned IL, and had continued TO exercise ursdic-
lon over 1t till driven from it by our army of occu
patton, that she invaded with on ,r,,o5 croo =
invasion 1t can be called, not as territory belonging
10 us, Out rs territory belonging TO her; and that
she attacked our troops, not Tor the reason that thew
Were ours but for the reason as she hed--and she
mad as good right to Judge in her own case as we
mad In ours-that they We're intruders, trespassers
on fer SOIL. The motive of her act was not war a
gaInst the United States but the emulsion of in |
lruders from her own territory
NO sophsiry can make her act war-certainlv |
not without concedlng that our act in taking militia
~ possession oil that territory also war and if |
!hat was war, then the war, if it existed at ALL ex
listed by our act and not by hers, for her act was
consequent upon ours. The most that the President
was al liberty to say, without condemninp his own |
government, was, that there had been collision of
the forces Of the two republics on territory claim.
ed by each; but this collision he had no righl 10
Term war, Tor every body knows that il takes some
thlng more than collision of their respective forces
on disputed territory to constitute a war between
TWO civilized nations In no possible point of view
was the announcement of the President that war
existed between The two republics, and existed by |
lhe ACT OF Mexico, correct Ii did not exist at ali.
or II 1t did, 1t existed not by the act of Mexico but
by our act In either case, the official announcement
was false, and cannot be defended
me President may have been governed by pa
triotIc motives; he may have felt that prompt and
energetic action was required he may have be-
heVed That In great emergencies the chief magis
M n x-nrttI
weak, distracted State, should rise superior to mere
technical forms, and the nicetes of truth and honor
but 1t strikes us that he would have done better
proved himself even more patriotic and sufficiently
prompt and energetic, if he had confined himself tn
the ordinary rules Of morality, and the well defined
principles OF International law BY aspiring to rise
ABOVE these, and TO appear original, he has placed
MS country IN false position and debarred himself
Whatever the Just causes of war Mexico may have /
given us, from pleading one Of them in justification
Of the actual war
we must be permitted to regret that he did not /
reflect beforehand, that il he placed the defence of
the war on the ground that it already existed, and
existed by the act OF Mexico herself and OH that !
ground demanded OF Congress the means of prose-
cutlng 1t. he would, IN case that ground proved 10
DE untenaole, as he must have known it would |
nave nothing whatever TO allege in It's or his own
JustIhcatIon. He should have been LAWYER enough /
10 nave known that he could not plead anew, having .
failed on his first ISSUE 1t is often hazardous in
our pleadngs to plead what is not true, and in do
ING so ~ the present case, the President has not |
only offended morality, which he NAV regard as a
small matter but has even committed a blunder.
The course the President should have pursued is |
plain and obvious On learning the state of thipos
on the frontier, the critical condition of our army Of
occupation, he should have demanded of Congress
the reniorcements and supplies necessary to re-
lieve IT, and secure the purpose for which it was a
vowedly sent to the Rio Grande, and if he believed
1t proper or necessary, TO have in addition laid be-
fore Congress full and truthful statement of our
relations with Mexico, including all the unadiusted
complaints, past and present. we had AGAINST her.
accompanied by the recommendation of declare
ton Of war; he would then have kept within the
limits OF his duty, proved himself plain consttu-
tIonal President, and left the responsibility of war
or no'war to Congress, the only war-making power
known to our laws Congress, after mature DELHI
Grafton, might or might not have declared war
most likely would not, but whether so or not the
responsibility would have rested with it. and no
blame would have attached to the President