The Lancaster gazette. (Lancaster, Ohio) 1846-1852, 1847-12-31

Mexico for her rights over Texas.
Finally, however, in the mere conf
dence of impunity, we took It without
price: but at least, by a last reserve of
shame or pity, upon the remonstrance
and the unanswerablo showing Of Mr..
BENToN that we were about 10 take much
more than Texas, (which had never pos
sessed any thing beyond the Nueces,)
Congress relented. and by its Resolution
of Annexation ordered the Executive to
adjust By friendly negotiations the proper
boundary between Texas and Mexico.
And, now, once more for the peace
lovingness Of this our President His
duty stood assigned him. He knew that
we had taken what we had often offered
TO bug; he knew that if. in honor and
faith, the indemnities were not cancelled
by our seizure of Texas, at least that
now an injury to Mexico had been com
mitted. But he knew that, feeble as she
was, she dared not accept that war; and
at once, with pitilessness the most sin
gular, not content though we had just
ravished from her vast and rich terrific
ry,nor touched by the forlornness of ma
ton utterly unable to revenge such treat
ment further than by the impotent resent
ment Of Withdrawing her Ambassador
from our Court, he sends Gen. TAYLOR
forward, TO seize, in addition to all that
she had been stripped of, even the petty
and barren slip, the mere selvage Of sand,
the desert space between the Nueces
and the Rio Grande, which Congress had
plainly meantto spare. For this worth
less object, and under circumstances so
vehemently invoking forbearance and
mercy, has Mr.. Polk illegally and uncon.
Stitutionaily involved us in this cruel war,
every step in which is plainly, according
to the progress of his plans, TO lead US
further into "the bowels of the land"
Yet, in the face of all this, President
Polk can talk smoothly Of his love of
Peace, the "liberalty" Of the terms he
has held out through Mr.. TRIsT, and es-
peciallythe generosity with which, wher,
ever the sword goes to crimson the fields
of Mexico, the branch forthwith
waves, as fast as its companion smitesl
mo conquerer that ever heard Of"
says Edmund Burke, "has ever professed
10 make cruel, hard and insolent use
'of his conquest. No! The man of The
most declared pride scarcely dares TO
trust his own heart with this dreadful Sc
'cret of ambition. But it will appear in
its time. And no man who processes to
reduce another to the insolent mercy of
"a foreign arm ever had any sort of good
will towards him. The profession Of
kindness, with that sword in his hand and
that demand of surrender. is one of the
most provoking acts of his hostility"
Can the President so little conceive
how mere mockery Of peace and f.aler.
nifty is this invading country with dec.
arations of love, this sweeping off its
provinces with bosom of olive bran
ches. as 10 expect that Mexico will not
be fred with u double resentment by the
imperious and degrading form of nogo-
tiation To which he would have her sub
mit2 lfhe does expect it, then is he
stranger not only to all the natural and
becoming passions ofmen defending their
country, its honor, and its independence,
but 10 all tho examples of history and all
the suggestions of prudence. War has
never thus been made, except by con
querors the most arrogant and merciless.
The rule of the Romans, not less wise
than magnanimous, was neUer to ncgo-
tate after a defeat.
Can the President intend that zoe are
to treat in the face of disaster, should it
ever comet Dare he declare that the
pretended branch" would not then
be instantly withdrawn What, then, is
the inevitable effect but to require that
they whom we are invading, destroying,
and dismembering, should at every ca
amitous and bloody defeat, come forward
to embrace terms necessarily made har.
der and more humilating by utter dis
com6ture-tho rout and dispersion of
their armies, or the capture of their for
ces and citiesl OF negotiation under
such circumstances, the vG UictiS of Brc-
nus and his Gauls, the "Wo to the Con-
quered' is the notorious and inevitable
law. The sword stands ever ready, in
all such cases, to be cast into the scale of
ransomi and none but anation of craycns
and fools ever resigns itself to making
terms at such moment. On the con-
trary, every brave and every patriotic
heart only summons up, at such aninstant,
more unconquerable courage; aud the
resolution Never to despair Of the Re-
public" becomes the only thought which
the citizen will consent to entertain.
Left almost at our mercy as she is, by
factions which not even the extremity of
public distress seems able to quiet: her
Government and her armies in the hands
ofthose who appear equally inefficient
for either peace or war; her troops every
where driven from the field or lying
slaughtered; her ports, her capital, and
several of her large provinces in our
hands; her treasury as empty as was our
own in the gloomiest day of our Revolu-
tionary struggle-still, in the pertiuacity
of her refusals to treat, Mexico has shown
some CLEANS of that old Numantino spr-
it which preferred death to surrender;
that Iberian obstinacy which the Moor
could never qnell, nor even the irresista-
ble armies ofNapoleon tame. Whether
she has caught it from her race, or wheth- i