The northern tribune. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1847-1855, 1847-12-04

SPEECH OF MIR. CLAY.
At the Mass Meeting in Lexington, XIV.
on Saturday, Nov. l3, l847.
CONTINUED
Do we want, for our own happiness or great
ness the addition of Mexico to the EXISTING
Union OF our Statess If our population was
too dense for our territory, and there was diff
ficulty in obtaining honorably the means Of
subsistence, there might be some excuse for an
attempt to enlarge Our dominions But we
have no such apology. We have already in
our glorious country, vast and almost bound
less territory. Beginning at the north, in the
frozen regions of the British Provinces, it
stretches thousands of miles along the coasts
OF the Atlantic Ocean and the Mexican Gulf,
until it almost reaches the Tropics. 1t ex-
tends to the Pacific Ocean, borders on those
great inland seas, the Lakes, which separate
US from the possessions of Great Britain, and
1t embraces the great father of rivers, from its
uppermost source to the Balize, and the still
longer Missouri, from its mouth to the gorges
OF the Rocky Mountains. Itcomprehends the
greatest variety of the richest soils, capable of
almost all the productions of the earth, ex-
cept tea and coffee and the spices, and it in
cludes every variety of climate which the
heart could wish or desire. We have more
than ten thousand millions of acres of waste
and unsettled lands, enough for the subsist-
ence OF ten or twenty times our present popu-
lation. Ought we not to be satisfied with such
country Ought we not to be profoundly
thankful to the Gi>er of all good things for
such vast and bountiful lands Is it not the
height of ingratItude to Him to seek, by war
and conquest, INDUCING in spirit of rapacity,
to acquire other lands, the homes and habita-
lions of large portion of His common child
REM If we pursue the object of such con-
quest, besides mortgaging the revenue and re-
sources OF this country for ages to come, in the
form OF an onerous national debt, we should
have greatly to augment that debt by an as
sumption OF the sixty or seventy millions of
the national debt of Mexico.
For take 1t that nothing is more certain
than that, if we obtain voluntarily or by con-
quest, foreign nation, we acquire it with all
the membranes attached to it. In my hum.
BILE opinion, we are now bound, in honor and
morality, to pay the just debt of Texas. And
we should be equally bound, by the same OBJ
legations, to pay the debt of Mexico, if it were
annexed to the United States.
Of all the possessions which appertain to
man, in his collective or individual condition.
none should be preserved and cherished, with
more sedulous and unremitting care, than that
of an unsullied character. 1t is impossible to
estimate it too highly, in society, when attach.
ed to an individual, nor can it be exaggerated
or too greatly magnifed in nation. Those
who lose or are Indifferent to it become Just
objects of scorn and contempt. Of all the
abominable transactions, which sully the pages
of history, none exceed in enormity that of
the dismemberment and partition of Poland
by the three great Continental Powers Of Rus
sia Austria and Prussia.
Ages may pass away, and centuries roll
round, but as long as human records endure
all mankind will unite in execrating the rapa-
cious and destable deed. That was accom-
plished by overwhelming force, and the unfor.
tunate existence of fatal dissensions and d.
visions in the bosom of Poland. Let us avoid
atfixing to our name and national character
similar. II not worse, stigma. l am afraid that
we do not now stand well in the opinion of
other parts of christendom. Reputation has
brought upon us much reproach. All the ma
tions, apprehend, look upon us, in the pros
ecution OF the present war, as being actuated
by spirit OF rapacity, and an inordinate de-
sire for territorial ACKNOWLEDGMENT. Let us not
forfeit altogether their good opinions. Let us
coihihaiio IHelr applause Dv noole eAeIclse Vi
forbearance and justice. In the elevated sta
ton which we hold, we can safely afford to
practice the Godlike virtues of moderation
and magnanimity. The long series of glorious
trumphs achieved by our gallant commanders
and their brave armies, unattended by single
reverse, justify US, without the least danger of
furnishing the national honor, in disinterested
ly holding out the olive branch of peace.
We do not want the mines, the mountains,
the morasses, and the sterile lands of Mexico
To her the loss of them would be humiliating
and be perpetual source of regret and morti-
fcation. To us they might prove fatal &C.