Carroll free press. [volume] (Carrollton [Ohio]) 1834-1861, 1847-09-03
THE TESTIMONY OF A "DEMOCRAT''
AGAINST THE WAR WITH MEXICO.

last month, July, 1910 the editor appears TO
have concusively proved that the warwilh Mcxi.
co is 'uncaIled for, impolnc, and UNJUST" Mr.
Brownson is known 10 WELD powerful pen; he
has been for many years considered as no mean
champion of "Democracy;" insuppou Of which
he Obtained considerable celebrity while editor
of the "Democratc Review" lie is sill the
political friend of the President, and an adherenl
Of the party by whom he was elected. Ii was,
certainly not to be expected that such
a man, in such position, would 50 completely
demollsh every argument advanced by Mr.. Polk
and his friends in support of the present war, as
Mr.. Brownson has done. He has thus, volunta.
rily, rendered a service to truth, for which the
"Democrals" will never forgive him. But we
will allow him 10 speak for hImselG
"For ourselves, we have regarded the Mexican
war from the first as uncaled for, impUlnc, and
unjust. We have examined the documents pub
lished by order Of the government; We have read
the official defence Of the war in the last annual
Message of the President TO Congress, and with
every disposition TO find our own government in
The right but we are bound to say, that our orr
gna impressions have been strengthened rather
than weakened. The President, undoubtedly, Y,
makes il clear that we had many just causes of
complaint against Mexico, which at the time of
their occurrence might have justified replisals,
perhaps even war,--but he cannot plead these
in Justification Of the present war; for they were
not the ground on which we prolcssed to engage
in it. The official announcement of the PreSi
dent TO Congress was that war already existed
between the two republics, By the act of MericO
Lor ,.,bn e IL
grievances in adjusting the terms Of peace, we
can make no use of them in defending the war.
We can plead in its defence only the fact on
which we grounded it, namely, war exists by the
act of Mexico herself But unhappily, at the
time of the official announcement, war did not
eriSt between the two republics at all, for neither
republic had declared war against the oher.-
There has been a collision Of their forces, but
this was not war, as the President would proba-
bly, have conceded, had he known or recoIlected
the distinction between war and hoslilites. BY
placing the war on the ground that it existed by
the act of Mexico, and that ground being false,
he has left it wholly indeGcnsibe, whatever the
old grievances we may have to aIlege against
Mexico.
"Theact of Mexico in crossingthe Rio Grande,
and engaging our troops on territory which she
had possessed and still claimed ashers, but which
we asserted had, by recent acI against which
she had protested. become ours,-lho act which
the President choose to inform Congress and the
world was war--may or may not have been a
just cause for declaring war against her, but il as
suredIy was not war itself. We have no nteG-
ton to Justify Mexico. She may have been de-
cdedIy in The wrong she may have had novalid
lille TO the territory of which the President had
Just taken military occupation; that territory may
have been righlGully ours, and il may have been
The duty of the President 10 occupy and defend
il;-but it cannot be denied that she had once
possessed il; that it was still part of one of her
states or provinces that she still claimed it, and
had continued to exercise jurisdiction over it, I'LL
driven from it by our army of occupation; that
she invaded it with an armed torce il invasion II
can be called not as territory that belonged to
us, but as territory belonging 10 her; and that she
attacked our troops, not for the reason that they
were ours, but for the reason, she held, and
she had as good right TO be Judge in her own
case as we had in ours,-they were intruderS,
and trespassers on her soil. The motive of her
act was not war against the United States, but
the expulsion Of inlruders from her own terrlo-
ry.
No sophisry can make her act war-ceuanly
not without conccding that our ACT in taking mill
tary possession OF that territory was also war;
aud if that was war, then tho war it il existed at
all, existed by our act not by hers for her act was
consequent upon ours. The most that the Presl-
dent was al liberty to say, without condemlng his
al thn ha1 al
Ilson of the forces of the Two republics on ter
rory claimed by each; but this collision he had
no right TO term war, for every body knows that
it takes something more than Il collision of their
forces on disputed territory 10 con-
stule war between Two civilized nations. In
no possible point of view was the announcement
of The President thut war existed between the
two republics, and existed by the act of Mexico,
correct. 1t did not exist at ALL or if il did, il
existed not by the act Of Mexico, but by our act.
In either case, the official announcement was
false, and cannot be defended.
"The President may have been governed by
patriotic motives; he may have felt that prompt
and energetic action was required; he may have
believed that in great emergencies The chief mag
istrate of II powerful republic, having TO deal
with weak and distracted state, should rise Su-
perior to mere technical forms, and the nicetes
of truth and honor; but it Strikesus that he would
have done better, proved himself even more
patriotic, and sufficiently prompt and energetic,
if he had confined himself TO the ordinary rules
of morality, and the we'll defined principles OF
law. By aspiring 10 rise above
these, and 10 appear original, he has placed his
in false position, and debarred himself,
whatever the just causes of war Mexico may
have given US, from pleading one of them in
the actual war. We must be per-
miued TO regret that he did not reflect before
hand, that, it he placed the defence Of the war
on the ground that il already existed, aud existed
by the act of Mexico herself, aud on that ground
demanded OF Congress the means Of prosecuting
II, be would, in case that ground proved 10 BE- uu'
Icnablc, as he must have known il would, have
nOIhinu WhntpVer IN nllpge in lis nr his own ms.