Weekly national intelligencer., 1847-12-18

teen will have to be invaded, conquered, and occu-
pied by as many separate expeditions Each of
these must as soon as 1t has got possession of the
particular State-capita at which it had struck, fix
itself there, as local army of occupation, which
must remain there, to bridle-aye, and to govern
the entire department But, as the presence Of
few thousand troops Of an enemy in Philadelphia,
or at Annapolis, or in Richmond would not reduce
Columbia or Carlisle Pittsburg, Baltimore or
Frederick or Cumberland, Charlottesville or Lynch
burg or Staunton, to submission, so in the Mexican
States That of Mexico (area 30, ,4S2 square mes)
has population Of million, and several conside-
rabe towns besides the capital to be garrisoned
Puebla (the State, area l8,44l square miles) has
nearly an equal population and chief town of
$4,000 souls Guanajuato (area 6,225 square mies)
has town OF $4,000 souls, and general popula-
ton Of 100000; Michoacan (area 24,I66 square
miles, has collective population of 3s5,0OO, its
capital, Valladolid, l6,5OO; Jasco has, on an area
OF 1889 square miles, population of 100000,
and a capital, Guadalajara, of 10000; Zacatecas
has an area of 1850 square miles, and popula-
ton of 230,29S Oaaca, an area of 32,697 square
miles, and a population of 100000, with capital
| of $4,000. These examples may give some gene
raj idea of the populations and surfaces over which
these separate corps of occupation will have to act.
Now, to hold single town, though it should be the
capital, in each State would (as we have already
Intimately be of little effect towards reducing TO
submission half-barbarous State, whose remoter
districts, often defended by the widest mountains,
and made by national hate doubly untamable, arms
cannot reach nor any thing but extreme length of
possession bring under your sway.
In short, each State must, besides garrison in
its capital and lines Of stations connecting the force
there with their supplies, have detached corps fixed
at variety of points, where large population ex-
lists, to be by degrees awed into servitude. Ger
tainy you may, with single corps, seize each
State capital and chase away its Government but
what will that avail No more than it did to the
\ subiugaton of Virginia, when the deesabe Arnold
and his>army of deserters drove the Government
under Mr. Jefferson from Richmond to Charlottes-
vile. What will putting their Government to flight
signify to State fred with hatred of US, through
its whole revengeiul population What care they
for their feeble authorities their plague in peace
and no help in war! No: annihilate those au-
thortes if you will you are, in them, fighting but
i
mosty-still remains, too widely scattered to be
reached, too rancorous to be reconciled.
| And now, upon the Presidents present plan of
| conquest what must all this compel 1t is only
by attempting conquest in detail, by trying to sub
due and hold each separate Mexican State, that any
thing can be hoped And what does this plan inevi-
taby imply? Nothing short ofpouring upon Mexico
some twelve or fifteen armed divisions, each from
three to five, six or eight thousand strong and, by
maintaining an intimate and irresistible possession
Of all her territory, to weary out resistance, until
not merely submission (which would otherwise
cease the moment you Withdrew your forces) shall
come, but a permanent willingness TO wear youl
chains. Need we say that this is but scheme fo
fastening our dominion upon Mexico, by fastenn1e
upon o1rSelUeS a great and perpetual Standing
.3rmy2
HAVE WE IT NOT ALREADY, the people all uncon
scous, amidst the din of successful arms and the
talk of subjected empire-sounds that have ever
bewched the unthinking. not less under popular
Governments than under desposms For in both
alike the fatal glory of extended dominion has
captyated the giddy multitude, quite as sure TO be
pleased with the fancied addition to its own sway
and greatness, as with the less direct honor of its
masters. Our politicians greatly mistake, when
they suppose that it is peculiar "Anglo-Saxon
or American passion which renders the worst part
of our people ravenous Of the possessions of our
neighbors. No. the real impulse is a far more
universal one-the appetite of dominion, the vanity
of military renown; which has made popular
the Chief or the King who led on his citizens or
his subjects to victorious enterprises against the
peace and the freedom Of other nations, no matter
at how sure a sacrifice of their own.
The people, then, blinded by this unreflectng
passion TO the plain Fact we ask again, Hare zoe
not already that acknowledged baae Of public
freedom, a large Standmg .2rmy, the mere phan-
tom of which has so often heretofore, when evoked
by conjuring demagogues, filled the popular bosom
with-supernatural terrors We HAVE 1T, as it is
f easy to show and the President and has Minis
terS are demanding a large and permanent addi
tion 10 IT.: yet neither fact seems, as yet to have
excited the slightest public alarm
What is the present Army of the United States
What as to permanency Of service9 What as to
numbers
1t consists of Regular troops, enlisted for five
wears or for the war and Of Volunteers nearly al