Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-12-24
Presidents Message.

On our first page will be found as much OF
the message as we can find room for. What
we have given, though but a small part of the
whole, will serve to give those who have pa
thence to read it a pretty correct idea Of its
character. Folks former messages were
about the strongest specimens Of impudent
and malicious falsehood upon record. The
only possible means Of surprising them in
this respect was TO add to the quantity. This
has been done in the late message-it is lon
ger than the preceding ones.
The assertion Of the message Of '46, that
Mexico commenced the war, is repeated again
and again, in the one before US. We are told
that people in the habit of lying, sometimes
get to believing their own falsehoods. This
is evidently not the case with Polk. He for
gets himself occasionally, and plainly init
mates that he knows himself to be lying. If
Mexico was the aggressor, and by striking
the first blow, and shedding the blood of Gus
citizens on our own soil, compelled us-as
the President declares she did-"to Vindicate
the matte nal honor and interests by prosecut-
ing the wal with vigor until we could obtain
a just and honorable peace" what is the sense
or meaning of his declaration, that TO mako
peace without wrestling from Mexico a vast
portion of her territory, would be to wage q
war, bearing all its expenses, with out ary
definite purpose or object" How stands the
case:
a. Considerations of self-defence and
national honor compelled us to prosecute the
war.
(2.) If WI don't rob Mexico Of some Of some
of her Provinces, then we have gone to war
for nothing.
Now here is a ~palpable contradiction, un-
less we suppose that there is no such thing
in the nation as honor Upon such a sup
position, of course to fight for the national
honor would be, as Polk seems TO assert, to
fight for nothing. But to place such a con-
s%truction upon his language would be to sup
pose him to tell a truth, a thing which he has
carefully guarded against all through his mes
sage.
Who believes that Mexico commenced the
war? Not ]. X. Polk-not any one who has
observed the signs of the times. Those who
are leading the nation on, in its career OF in
fanny and crime, do not expect intelligent per-
sons to believe these falsehoods. They are
intended only to entrap fools, who get Moth
ing but the contempt Of those whose tools
they are, as the reward of their creduliiy and
folly.
There are a few things in the message
which need further comment, but we have
not room at present to enter upon an exami-
nation Of them.
The following extracts from an article in
the Massachusetts Review, by Theodore Par
ker, are to the point:
"But what is the real cause which lay at
the bottom of the national design, produced
7 annexation, and made and prosecutes the wal
for the partition of MeXico2 There is a pow
, er behind the constitution, but greater than
the constitution itself, rising above and pro-
g iecting beyond it; yes, greater than Congress
-overshadowing the unalienable rights"
of man we mean the institution of domestic
slavery. Despotic monarchs of the old world
S are too liberal and enlightened TO allow it any
d longer in their domain. 1t is cleared off from
Il the soil of Western Europe. The Bey Of
Tunis ~solemnly says TO the world, 1T is {
very cruel thing, and our heart shIinks from
it," 1--WE have abolished mans slavery in
all our dominions." "All slaves that shall
Is touch our territory shall become Free" Ever
Mexico, weak, semi-b arbarous Mexico, viii
have no slaves on her soil. Dut in Demo
cratic America it has found an asylum,
er home. The egg was laid surreptitiously il
II the nest of the American Eagle, who now
loves its CHASTITY and hideous disclosure bet
ter than all her Legitimate brood, whose food
is that young cormorant devours apace, deflinl
a. what is not destroyed. The American Ea
gle broods over this Harry with fond delight
caressing it with beak and wing. For tina
a. she plumbers the living and tears the dead
Is slain for the ~insatiate crew.
,e The constitution of the United States, ii
spirit and letter, defends slavery; the law
% are on its side. There is not a state in tn
y Union which daIes say with that NOLAN
~ medan prince-"All slaves that touch gu
i. territory shall become Free" Neither politi