The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1847-12-18
PREsIDENT's MESSAGE.
COMMENTS BY THE w. y. TRIB U.NE.

)
"War to exist by the act of the Republic OF
Mexico" with only tioO negative votes in thu
Senate and fourteen in the House, by wha
terms can we characterize his deliberate as
sertion which shall be consistent with the re
spect due the Office he unfortunately holds
Let John Jones or Dick Smith step into I
court of Justice however reluctantly, and there
make such a statement, and the Law would
send him to edifice more substantial and
less elegant than that occupied by James X
| Polk. Such il the difference between making
such assertions from high places and from low
We, too, are restrainedby respect to station
from characterizing the Presidents statement
as il deserves but we will once more take the
trouble, with the Journals of Congress open
before us, to expose its essential and fragrant
dishonesty.
On the 9Th of January, 1916, Mr. HARRISON
of Ga. reported to the House a bill mo. l45)
"uuthorizng the President to accept the ser
! vices of Volunteers and for other purposes,
! in view of possible collision with Mexico
which bill was read twice and sent to the Com
mttee of the Whole and lay there.
On the 1lth of May following, Message
from the President announced to Congress
the startling facts that our Army having been
pushed to the Rio Grande had there encoun-
tered a superior Mexican force, and was (as
supposed)in position of great peril There
upon the House proceeded to take up the Vol
unteer bill No. l45 as aforesaid, which was
and the House with railroad speed, by means
ofrepcated applications of the Previous Cues
ton; and when at its latest stage, Mr. Brink
erhoff of Ohio moved to strike out the entire
first section of the bill thus matured and insert
4 new first section, beginning.
"Whereas, by tho act Of Tie Republic Of -Mert-
co, n state of War exists between that Govern
mcnt and the United States
There was no chlnce to resist or to remons'
trate-the Previous Question forbade-Cnd this
anne dment was forced upon the bill by vote
of One Hundred and Tioenty Three Yeas to Sig
tn Seren Nays-ncarly party division. Mr.
Brnkerhof' (Loco) at once moved the Previ-
Jus Question for the third time, and Mr.. Gar
rett Davis of Ky. (WhigO was stopped as out
of order in assigning his reasons for wishing to
be excused from voting for the bill because of
its lying preamble. Thus driven to the wall
most of the Wings (ncluding Mr. Davis) vo-
ted for the bill, having voted against the nser.
ton of the preamble and exhausted all their
means of opposing il. So the bill passed by
ia Yeas to Ia Nays-the Wing Yeas being
given not for the preamble,as everybody knew,
but for sending prompt relief to our beleagur-
ed little Army IN spite ofthe preamble, which
they had denounced and opposed.
The bill so passed went ofcourse (neXt day.
to the Senate and was Immediately taken un-
der consideration. Messrs. Clayton, Crtten-
den and others tried hard to have it amended
so MS to limit the Military operations thereby
C1=ntry; but all such propositions were voted
down by a compact Administration majority
Mr.. Huntington of Conn. (Senate journal,
page 2SS) moved to amend the bill by striking
ont the preamble to The same, as follows
"Whcrcas, by the act of the Republic of Mex.
leo, state of War exists between that Repub-
lie and the United States" This amendment
was voted down follows
Yeas-M essrs Archer, Barrow, Berri"n,
Calhoun r. Clay ton, J. NJ. Clayton, Corwin,
Crittenden, Davis, Dayton, Evans, Hunting
ton, .hcDgBie, Mangum, Morehead, Simmons,
Upham, Woodbridgc--lS.
NAYS 2S-An Loco Focos except the two
Johnsons and Jarnagin of Tenn.
Here you see that, instead oftwo only there
were cightccp votes directly against that lying
pre- lmblc, being the South Carolina Senators
and all the Wings present but three; although
only two refused TO vote for the bill at its final
They did their best to strike out the
preamble as false; but they still believed them |
selves bound TO vote for supporting our little |
Army involved in pcris, notwithstanding the |
preamble.
Such are the recorded, never disputed facts.
Yet Mr. Polk, knowing that many persons
would read his Message who were ignorant
of these facts and would never see them fairly |
presented has chosen to make his statement
that his lying preamble "was passed with |
great unnnimity by Congress, there being but
two negative votes in the Senate and but
fourteen IN the House OF representatives.. J
Surely no petty larceny lawyer, defending a
pickpocketin the Court of Sessions, ever sto o p
d To a more despicablc trick than this of the |
President of the United States.
Having thus patiently exposed the most
material fiction in Mr. Folks apology for his
War, it surely cannot be necessary that we
should follow him through his whole web of !
and sophistry. He does not
even appear TO have convinced himself that
the spoliation of our citizens by Mexico
had nything TO do with the origin ofthis War,
he pushes them forward on every oc- |
casion, fhe wished it believed that they, |
and not the Anne Ration of Texas, had involv- |
ed the two countries in mutual slaughter. Nor
does he believe one word that he asserts about
Mexico "invudng the territory of the State
of Texas, and shedding the blood of our citl-
zens on our own soil" The dispatches and
letters of his own officers uniformly attest that
they were in .Moricdn territory when they APP
proach he'd the Rio Graude-that it's people were
Mexican, its authorities Mexican, Its instincts,
ceilings, chosen form of Government were
Mcxicanj and that, upon making his appear
ance in that Rio Grande Valley, Gen. Taylor
was metby an earnest and cogent protest from
the Alcalde or chief civil functionary of the
country east of the Rio Grande against its in
vasion by our troops, stating that the People
of that region were MeXicans and wished to be
left under the protection of the Government
of their fathers choice and theirs In short
Mr. Polk s array of preteXts for this war, al
ter the searching reviews of Messrs. Gullatin,
Giddings and others, ore evidences of sheer
audacity and reckless hardihood rather than of
ability or conviction.
But we turn from the past to the future
The War is to be prosecuted, if the President
is gratified; until what remains of Mexico shall
consent to surrender all New Me xico all Cali
fornia, Sonora, &c. as far south as north lat
80 deg, or more than half of what was former
ly the Mexican Republic. Unless the South
ern half ofthat Republic will consent to sur