Democratic banner., 1847-02-15

leral character were given. Yet they are
not paid, and inability is not even pleaded.
Debts contracted upon our citizensb BY force,
their justice acknowledged to the Govern
ment, and payment withheld without even
pailiating the insult with an apology. Is
there no cause of war in all this? Go ask
the pages of history that record the glorious
deeds of our ancestors, who laid the foun-
dation of this republic upon slighter
grounds
Another cause noticed by The gentleman,
and disposed ofwith equal levity, was the
refusal of Mexico to settle the boundary
line between us The gentleman seems to
suppose that a sufficient offset was to be
found for her dogged and insulting conduct,
IN what he waspleased to term purchasing
a quarrel is the annexation ofTexas. He did
not design repelling the ge~ntleman's charge
against Lis own country of purchasing a
quarrel, by going into a vindication of the
rights of Texas to dispose of herself dis
Ip:te the arrogant pretenSions of Mexico.
He was disposed to regard questions as
sometimes settled and no longer open for
discussion, and if ever there was such a
Question, he thought it was one. 1t had
been most fully discussed, aniudicated BY
both Governments, and ratified BY the peo-
iple OF each country that had any legitimate
interest in it; and Texas was now, under
that declsion, a part of the Confederac;
and could only he gotten out by a resort TO
the Infamous doctrine of disunion. That
NexIco had no right to complain, though
she arrogantly did so, Is a question equally
well settled. Then the eentleman's charge
simply mounts to this, that if we, in our
intercourse with foreign States, equally as
independent as Mexico, and with govern
ments more stable, presume to form COM
mercial or territorial alliances without con-
sultlng her. and she in her arrogance takes
exception to it, we are purchasing a quar-
rel. He had no fancy for purchasing quar-
rels with any nation, but whenever it came
to this, that we had to shape our foreign
intercourse by the will of that wild disor-
deere ! anarchy, or take a quarrel on our
hands, in the mans of patriotism let US have
the quarrel.
Respecting too much her arrogant pre-
tensions towards Texas, and anxious to con-
%cIilate her good will, we had already made
concessions TO Mexico, which we could not,
at the hazard oil Irrational honor, AVE made
to a mere respectable Power. She cut offal
national intercourse and recalled her Minis
ter from our court. Yet our Government,
anxious to heal all difficulties and appease
her, sent them a Minister with full powers
ito treat OH the matters of difficulty, and he
was refused a reception. Application af-
ter application followed from our Govern
ment for an amicable adjustment, and were
all treated with the same naughty disdain
and contempt. And, finally, to cap the eli
max other outrages, she attacked our troops
npon the territory of Texas, and forced on
open hostillities. And yet we are told by
gentlemen on the other side that we forced
on the war; and terms, which he would not
repeat had been applied to that portion of
the message which SO ably maintained the
contrary. There could be no dispute about
the facts as to where the first blood was shed
or as to how the battle begun; the whole
dispute was as to the title of the territory
on which it was fought. Texas, one of ths
States of the ~Confederacy, claimed it; Mex
ico claimed it, and stubbornly refused to
settle by treaty, where the boundary line
really was. Then the best position which
the gentlemen can assume upon this state Of
facts is, that it wasdisputed territory; and, for
The sake ofthe argument, he would conccdo
it. If, then, the territory was in dispute,
and Mexico was refusing to adjust amicably
that dispute, and maintaining an unfriendly
pos. ton towards us, he submitted to gentle
men whether we had not as much right there
with our army as Mexico? and, being there
by force of that right, and the attack com
ing from her, whether she was not the ag-
gressor in bringing on open WARP But he
cared not who struck the first blow: when
war was rendered inevitable, it was credit
able to the gallantry Of our troops to be
prompt in the fight. Every act Of Mexico
rendered the shedding of blood inevitable;
and this was no place to palliate the deed,
or blot the crime from her history.
But gentlemen again and again assert,
that this is the Presidents war, and that it
is a war of usurpation; and the President
himself is denounced as OIL usurper. 1t
was difficult to tell what gentlemen meant
by such wholesale assertions; but if they
meant to assert that this war was brought
on by the President, and maintained by him
for lis own ACKNOWLEDGEMENT in contradis-
.~tinction to the people, he could only say that
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