Ypsilanti sentinel. [volume] (Ypsilanti, Washtenaw Co., Mich.) 1843-1900, 1847-03-17
SPEECH OF MIR. CORWIN.
In the United States Senate on the llt inst ON
THE THREE MILLION BILL"
Specially Reported for the New York Tribune.
(Coacluded.)

pens that the Minister resident at your Cour
land it is pretty respectable Court, Mr.. Pres
Iident-we have something of King--not 70
life, it is true but quadrennial sort of mon
larch, who does very muchas pleases-the Min
lister resident at that Court of yours stated a
the time that this revolted Province of Texa
was claimed by Mexico, and that if you receiv
led it as one of the sovereign States of this Un
lion, right or wrong, it was impossible to reason
with his people about it-they would consider j
as an act of hostility. Did you consult the ma
tional feeling of Mexico then2
The President has now to deal with people
thus humbled, thus irritated. 1t was his duty
to concede much to MeXco,every thing but hi
country's honor or her rights. Was this done
Not at all. Mexico and her Minister were a
like spurned as weak and trivial things, whose
complaints you would not hear or heed: and
when she humby implored you not to take this
province declared that it might distrub the peace
subsistlng between as, you were still inexora-
Bile. During this time, she was forcing loans
from her citizens to pay the debt she owed your
fulfilling her treaties with you by painful. exac-
tons from her own people. She begged of you
to let Texas alone. If she were independent,
let her enjoy her independence. If free, let her
new born liberty. in defiance of Mexico, as
she alleged she would and could. Your stern
reply was, No!we wil,at your expense, strength
| en- our own arm, by uniting to ourselves that
which has been severed from you by our own
citizens: we will take Texas: we will throw
the shield of our constitution over her rights,
and the sword of our power shall CLEAN like that
at Eden, turning every way to guard her "a
gainst further attack.
Her Minister, his remonstrance failing, leaves
| you. He tells you that he cannot remain, be-
cause you had created by this act hostile re-
lations with his Government. At last you are
informed that Mexico will receive commits
sioner to treat of this Texan boundary if you
will condescend to negotiate. Instead of SEN
ding commissioner to treat of that, the then
only difficult question between the two Repub-
lies, you send full minister, and require that
he shall be received as such. If he could not
be styled Minister Plenipotentiary, and SO &C
credited, why then we must fight, and not ne
gotiate for boundary. The then Mexican Pres
ident, the representative OF some faction only,
was lettering to his fall. His Minister besought
Mr.. Slidel not to press his reception them
He was told that the excited feelings of the
Mexican people were such that he must delay
for time. To this petition what answer is
returned You shall receive me noiU; vol
shall receive me as though the most pacific re-
lations existed between the two Countries
Thus, and not otherwise, shall it be. Such was
the naughty imperious tone of Mr.. Slidell, and
he acted up only to the spirit of his instructions
Let any one peruse the correspondence l have
referred to,and he will see that have truly rep
resented it, spirit, be Its letter what it may
This is done under the instructions of Cabinet
here, who represented themselves in our public
documents as signing, painting for peace: as
desiring, above all things,to treat these distrac
ted, condemned Mexicans in such a way that
not the shadow of a complaint against us shall
be seen. From this correspondence 1t is per-
fectly clear that if Mr.. Slidell had been seat IN
the less ostentatious character of''comnlssioner'
to treat of the Texas boundary, that treaties
and not bullets would have adjusted the ques
ton. But this was not agreeable to the lofty
conceptions of the President. He preferred
vigorous war to the tame process of peaceful
adjustment. He now thrown down the pen of
the diplomat and grasps the sword of the warri-
or. Your army, with brave old "ROugh and
Ready at its head, is ordered to pass the Nue.
ces and advance to the east bank of the Rio
Grande. There, sir, between these two rivers
lies that slip of territory, that chapara thicket
interspersed with Mexican haciendas, out of
which this wasteful desolating war arose.
Was this territory beyond the river Nueces,in
the State of Texas
Now have said, but ] would not state any
dsputable fact, it is known to every MN who
has looked into this blect that revOlutiOna
ry government can claim no jurisdiction any
where when it has not defined and exercised its
power with the sword. 1t was utterly indlffer-
ent to Mexico and the world what Legislative
enactments Texas made. She EXTENDED her
7 evolutionary government and her revolutiona-
nv dominion not one inch beyond the extent to
which she had carried the power of Texas in Up
position to the power of Mexico. 1t is there
fore a mere question of fact; and how will it
be prefer ded that that country, lying between
the Nueces and the Del Norte, to which your
army was ordered, and of which it took pos
session, was subject to Texan law and not
Mexican law1 What did your General find
there? What did he write home! Do you
hear of any trial by jury on the east bank ofthe
Rio Grande-of Anglo-Saxons making cotton
there with their negroes No! You hear of
Mcxicans residing peacefully there, but fleeing
from their cotton-felds at the approach of your
army-no slaves, for it had been decree of the
Mexican Government, years ago, that no slaves
should exist there. If there were a Texas pop
1ation on the east bank of the Rio Grande,
vhy did not General Taylor hear something
Of those Texans hailing the advent the Amer
CG0 dTfnys COulIilS W PiO'SS1 1890 A'o'-- s-O
rayages of the Mexicans, and the more muir
1ero1s onslaaghts of the neighboring savages
Do you hear any thing of that /! No! On
the contrary the population fed at the approach
Of your army. In Gods name, | wish to know
if it has come % this, that when an American
army goes to protect American citizens on A
merican territory, they fee from it as if from the
most barbarous enemy! Yet such is the rldl-
culous assumntion of those who Dretend that,
on the east bank of the Rio Grande, where your
arms took possession. there were Texas popu-
lation, Texas power, Texas laws, and Ameri-
can United States power andlaw No, Mr..
President, when see that stated in an Exec
utive document, written bv the finger of Pres
ident of the United States, and when YOU read
in those documents with which your tables
groan, the veracious account of that noble old
General Taylor of his reception in that coun-
try, ard of those men, to use the language of
one of his officers, fleeing before the invaders: