Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-12-17
What are we Fighting for?

Iidl diC We TISulllS lUl'
For now more than eighteen months our
armies have been whipping the Mexicans
and over-running their country. According
to the President, we commenced fighting TO
repel invasion. That repealed, we continued
to fight to recover some w or three mill
lions Of debts due from the government of
Mexico to citizens of this government. Next
we fought to "conquer d peace" At length
we have fought the life all out Of our vic
tim. The whole Mexican nation lies pros
trate at our feet, and still we fight. Still
new soldiers are being enlisted, and still
reign blood and carnage, in Mexico.
Why is thisl What do our government
seek? Revenge for past injuries! And have
they not drunk of revenge TO their fill! Have
they not slaked their thirst for vengeance in
the very hearts blood of the Mexican Repub-
lie! Seek they military gloryl And have
they not g%arnered all that that nation affords?
Can the robbery and Slaughter of defence
less men, women and children, add further
to the glory of our nationl Do the govern
ment seek indemnity for the expenses of the
war! Have they not disabled Mexico, so
that she can offer no indemnify And will
not her disability increase with every mo-
lhtHl > continuance VI lNG wal. seek we
territory! In the name of Heaven, why not
then take all we wantl The Mexicans can
offer no resistance. If we are resolved to
extend Texas to the Rio Grande, why, then
take it-extend our laws over it, and if need
be put our army there to defend it,. The
same of California and New Mexico. Ifthe
ad administration are determined to have them,
why don't they take them, and let the rest Of
Mexico alonel
We wish some apologist for this war
would tell US and the country the precise OBJ
jet for which it is TO be still further prosecu-
ted. Already it has cost the nation more
men and more money than the last war with
Great Britain. Already has il involved US
in a debt which a century will not wipe out
And still, if we may believe what we heal
and see around us, we are no nearer any Wis
ible end than when we first began. So ia
as the wisest man can see, without an entire
change of policy there is no prospect of it.
coming to an end. If the government were
sincere in their desire for peace, they would
have had it long ago. The late negotiation
might have closed the war, and would have
done so, had our commissioner not insisted
on the cession OF territory, which however
valuable 10 Mexico, can never be other than
a curse to US. There is not a rod of Mexi-
can territory, except Upper California, which
ought ever to be annexed 10 this county,
And that the Mexican commissioners offered
to cede to our government in the late negoti-
alton. But California was not adapted to
the purposes of slavery, and the offer was
rejected. The war having been commenced
and waged thus far for the purpose of open
ing new fields for that accused institution,
the administration are evidently determined
that no peace shall be made which will not
accrue TO its benefit.
For this, then, it is that we are hghting!-
Not for the honor Of the counlry-not for
glory, nor avenge the wrongs we have suf-
fered at the hands Of the people or government
of Mexico, are we fighting. Not 10 conquer
a peace. Nor are we fighting, as our fathers
fought, for freedom and the rights of man.
Instead we are ralIying under the black flag
of slavery. Our barbarous neighbor has con-
secrated her entire soil to universal liberty.
1t is the fundamental law of that poor ill-ta-
ted republic, that a man is a man everywhere
and not a chatlel. To annul that law we are
carrying death and slaughter, fire and rapine,
through all her borders. To abolish freedom
and free labor, and plant, instead, chains and
slavery upon the free green hills and valleys
of Mexico, do we sacrifice thousands of men
anu VI ilOlECJ' VIC uSh3 " ~
honest men, patriotic men of all parties &c
consider carefully and prayerfully, if this be
not so! Does the honor, glory or welfare o
the country demand a further and indefinite
prosecution of the present warl Do the in
terests of the people require itl Does any
interest in the country require it, save tn,
great interest Of human slavery! We pause
for a reply.
And yet, infamous as are the objects anc
purposes of the war, no dog may wag hi.
tongue against it. The president has made
it,. Congress have endorsed it, and the PEG
pie are slaves. To speak Of it as a grea
wrong against Mexico and fraught with un.
told dangers to our country, is to be a traitor,
and to deserve a traitors doom. In the name
of all that is free on earth and just in Hea.
ven, how long shall the free laboring millions
of this boosted land OF freedom be led like
sheep to the slaughter, and shrink from open
ing their mouths against a conspiracy to rob
them of their hirthright, and make them chew
ers of wood and drawers OF water to the lou'
lest despotism that curses the world! How
long will we consent TO sea our fellow-men
shipped like cofled slaves to do work over
which the demons of the pit can alone re-
%joicel How long ere the Tree, christian men
of our republic, aye, and the women too,
shall arouse to their danger, and demand, In
the name of God, Humanity and their coun-
try, that the sword of slavery be sheathed,
aud sheathed %forever1 As ale who ruleth
in Heaven and among the Inhabitants OF the
earth is just, and will not let his justice
sleep forever, this nation must repent and re-