The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1847-12-25
st. JOhnsbury, Vt, December rs, l847,

versary, and yet farther waste of the blood
and treasure ofhs own country.
Before he take captive our senses by the
seductive indictments, in which his Message
abounds, 10 u yet wider course ofrash nmb-
ton and suicidal ACKNOWLEDGMENT, let us stop
for n moment TO consider upon what grounds
he places and justifies the career Of cruelty
and conquest in which he has already en-
barked our country. We are glad that tho
President has, IL his Message, prefaced his
recommendations as to the future with sum
mary statement of the causes of complaint
heretofore alleged by him as being of prior
date to the waT,together with his understand
ing of how the war began. A single par
agraph includes the whole story; and, as we
propose TO examine it with some purticulari-
~, we here repubish il;
at is sufficient on the present occasion 10
say, that the wnnton violation of the rights Of
person and property Of our citizens committed
by Mexico, her repeated acts Of bad faith
through long series of years, and her disre-
gard ofsolemn treaties STIMULATING for indom-
nifty TO our injured citizens, not only constitu-
ted ample causes of war on our part, but were
Of such an aggravated character as would
have justified us before the whole world in re-
sorting to this extreme remedy. With an
anxious desire to avoid n rupture between the
two countries, we forbore for years to assert
our GEAR FlgnlS ny lOfce, ana continued 20 seek
redress for the wrongs we had suffered by am
cabe negotiation, in the hope that Mexico
might yield to pacific counscs and the de-
mands of Justice. In this hope we were dis.
appointed. Our minister of peace sent TO Mex
leo was insuItingly rejected. The Mexican
Government refused even 20 hear the terms
of adjustment which he was authorized to pro.
poscj and finally, under wholly unJustiiable
prctcXts, involved the two countries in war,
by invading the territory the State ofTexas,
striking the first blow, and shedding the blood
of our citizens on our own soil
In undertaking again to review these aver
mcnts 10y the executive, now that they are IL
gain offered in his justification, aud in sup
port Of that war nd iaterIteci0nem against Mex
leo which he recommends 10 Congress, we
are well aware that no force can be added Ia
tue reasoning. nor any strength 10 the coucu-
sions ofthat admirable tract from the pen of
the venerable, patriotic, and learned ALBERT
GALLArIN, in relation to the Mexican War,
which we have lately had the satisfaction Of
spreading before our readers. To his author
ity upon any question of public law or ma
tiona obligation, we,at least who have known
him from the days Of his great public servi-
ces in the Public Councils, first rs a leader
of the Republican party in Congress; next ms
Member ofthe Cabinet of President JET
FERsoN during all of his administration, and
of thar of Mr. MADISON until he was called 10
represent his country abroad as the associate
of ADAMS, CLAY and BAYARD in the great
Negotiation which ended in the Peace Of
Ghent-we, whose first essays i'm our pres
cnt vocation may be said To have been guild
ed by his hand and by thnt ofhis ever honor
ed friend and official superior Mr. MADISON,
are bound by every sentiment ofrespect and
gratitude to pay Difference so profound
that it would be with the greatest distrust of
our own judgment we should entertain any
opinion on public question materially differ
cnt from his. To the authority of such II
name ms that of ALBERT GALLATIN, his recent
Address adds strength ofrensoning which
nothing in the present day can meet, and
that luminous command ofalI the great prin-
ciples OF Public and of National Law, in
which he had scarcely un equal in his own
times, and has now no superior. The trust
cd coadjutor--and it may even, in Finance
and in Diplomacy, be said to have been--the
instructor of JEFFERSON, OfMADIsoN, aud of
MoNRoE, we have herc,ns of one rising from
the dead n voice, passionless as it is wise and
solemn, the judgment of an antique and gen
uine sage of cpublicanism-yen, of Democ-
racy-upon the entire question this Pres
identiul War.
Armed and fortified with such document,
it is with unwoned confidence that we pro-
coed once more TO expose those hollow pre-
fences and insincere professions of the uu-
thors aud apologists for the War with MeXi-
co, which have been controvered heretofore
with no other apparent effect than to induce
a moro pertinacious repetition of them
Referring TO his last annual communication
TO Congress for particulars Of his bill of ar
raignmcnt, the President again rccites ulleg-
cd wrongs by Mexico through "a long Sc
ri, n, r. hpi,
10 constitute ample cause ofwar, but us would
have justified the United Suites before the
whole world in resortng to this extreme rem
edy. This every one, AT all acquainted with
history, knows to he gross cXaggcration.
The long existence of claims for wrongs now
alleged 10 have been so enormous is of itself
proof Of the fact that they were not at any
time deemed by Congress to constitute sui
ticient cause of war. Most of them had be-
side been actually adjusted by n treaty be-
tween the two countries, which was in the
course offaithful execution by Mexico when
the hostile demonstrations ot'nur Adminstra-
ton suspended the payment orstipulatcd in
IDENTITIES. As to what remained of mIad-
lusted claims, there was nothing, until the oc-
cnrrcnce ofthis war, TO prevent their peace
able and even satisfactory adjustment AS
to the refusal by Mexico to receive our Min
lister being, as the President intiuatcs, sui-
ticicnt cause of war, it is sufficient answer
to the President that the army was ordered to
march TO the Rio Grande (where, according
TO the programme oClhe government paper,
The 'oGr 'OrS TO begin) two months before our
Minister was finally refused 10 be received
by the Government of Mexico.
But let it be admitted, for the sake ofargu-
ment and for that sake only, that, according
to the customs and laws of nations in less
civilized. less moral and lpSs ppliohfpnnd
ges than the present, we really had cause of
war with Mexico, so far as war between two
Christian Nations is ever just or necessary,
vet war with Mexicn distrnclnd 1unnkeneA