Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1847-01-26
VOLUME 4, NUMBER 50.

tied Is the freedom Of speech and of the
press confined, in this country, to those
who libel the government and SANDER the
persons who, for the time being, admins
ter its affairs We'll may the gentleman
on the other side, w!o have commenced
this war Of words, wincc under the return
blow, and cry out that they wish to be
sheltered from the moral treason which
their words imply, 10y the plea of freedom
of speech. Take the freedom of speech.
gentlemen, in all its plentitude (; but do
not, pray you, whine like whipped span
iels, ifyou should have administered yen
dose fyour own drugs.
What spectacle does this Congress
present to the world During the last
session, Congress, with an unanimisy
rarely acquired, declared, by solemn
enactment, that war existed between this
Government and the republic cf Mexico,
brought on by the wholly unjustiGable
acts of Mexico. Fifty thousand vol'ln-
teers, with ter millions of dollars, were
placed at the disposal of the Executive,
with command to carry on and carry out
this war in manner that would teach
that infatuated people that, in future, they
must treat this Government with that JUS
tice and that decorum which we had
right to expect freRl all rations, aed es.
pecially from nation with whose insults
we had SO long forborne. And it will not
do for the gentlemen who voted fer this
war, to say that they voted for it for the
purpose of extricating General Taylor and
his glorious little army from the perilous
position which he was then supposed to
occupy. You knew, gentlemsn-we all
knew, that before the means that we cod
send to his aid could, by any possibility,
reach him, he would have e1tricated him.
self, as he most nobly did, or he was en-
tirely annihilated: No, gentleman; l fear
that many CT you voted for that war be-
cause you had before your eyes the utter
political extinctionsof those who opposed
the late war, and your souls trembIed at
the thought of like fate. It will not do
to tell the American people that you tho't
it would take fifty thousand men and ten
millions OF money TO extricate General
Taylor. No person will believe that.
And the conclusion irresisiiby is, that you
now desire meanly to sneak out of the
consequences Of your own act, and that
act, TOO, being, probably, the only one Of
your political lives of which you have rea-
son TO be proud.
Well, in pursuance of our command, &
with a devotion and skill rejecting the
highest honor upon the President, as well
as the officers and soldiers of our patriotic
army, oar victorious eagles have been
planted upon nearly ohe-half of the ene-
my's territory. carrying protection to the
iEoffensive citizen, and death to the armed
foe. Yet notwithstanding all this, in ebe-
dience to our imperative command, has
been done, and well done, what are NO
about-we who represent the same PEG.
pie whose rights and honor have been
thus gloriously indicated? What ara
we, who declared this war, now doing?
Here we are in the second week of this
short session, denouncing the PrvsideHs
for causing an uuholy. impious, and VIM
dietive war, and cayiling and carping at
the manner in which he has protected the
Mexican people who have yielded to the
resistless shock of cur victorious arms
Oh, shame The very ashes of our fa.
theirs cry out against us Are we, in.
deed, so 6egenerated that we are afraid
to meet the responsibility of our own acts,
and meanly attempt to throw the resPoa-
sibility on other shoulders
There was time, according to my
reading, vixen portion ofthis policy was
pursued by those who proceeded the gen
tlemans school of politics. The FEEDER
alists. IN 1912, opposed, denounced, and
vilified the Government, and those who
then administered it,in the same terms as
those used now. But what was their fate?
The virtuous Indignation of patriotic
people consigned them and their names
to the eternal infamy which their conduct
so justly merited. And yet their conduct
was honorable when compared to the con-
duct of those who voted for, and now OPP
posed the war, from IFS inception they
voted against its declaration; but you 70.
ted for this war-you yourselves voted TO
plunge your country into what you now
call an unholy war; one of infamy, and
oppose it, and strain every nerve to
convince the world that your own country
is wholly in the wrong. Suppose it were
possible for yeu to succeed, what then?
Why, you have disgraced your Goyen-
ment, and yourselves with it Is thist the
employment of patriots? But do gentle.
men believe what they say in relation TO
the ini ic ,n.s cf his war; submit that Il
lis impossible for any well informed man
honestly 10 take that view of the subject.
He must know better. The causes which
produced this war, and the justice of our
cause, have been so fully and powerfully
set forth by the President in his annual
message, that shall not be guilty of the
egregious folly oftIying to render it more