Carroll free press. [volume] (Carrollton [Ohio]) 1834-1861, 1847-12-24

o Congress- Tor particulars Of his bill OF arraign.
. meut. the President again reciies alleged wrongs
n bv Mexico. through "a long series Of years.
}. &c., as being such as not only TO constitute am
nle cause of war. but as would have justified the
United States before the whole world in resor-
+, bng TO this extreme remedy. This every one,
III at az acquainted with history, knows TO be gross
. Iexangaralion. The long existence Of claims
+. for wrongs now alleged to have been so onor-
$ NOUS, is Of itself proof Of the fact that they
were not at any time deemed by Congress TO
i. constitute suTicieHt cause of war. Most Of
. them had besides been actually adjusted by a
treaty between the two countries, which was in
the course OF faithful execution by Mexico when
the hostile demonstrations Of our administration
suspended the payment Of stipulated indcmnl-
ties. As TO what remained Of unadjustod claims,
there was nothing, until the occurrence of this
} war, to prevent their peaceable and even salts
factory adjustment. As TO the refusal by McXi-
co to receive our Minister being, as the President
intimates, a sufficient cause Of war, il is a suii-
/. cient answer to the President that the army was
ordered 10 march to the Rio Grande (where. ac-
cording to the programme of the government
paper, the lcar ,rdS to begin) two months before
our Minister was fnaly y refused To be received
by the Government of Mexico.
But let it be admitted for the sake Of argu-
ment, and for that sake only, that, according to
the customs and laws of nations in less civilized,
less moral, and less enlightened ages than the
present, we really had cause of war with MeXi-
co. so far as war between two Christian Nations
is ever just or necessary: yet, war with Mexico,
|, distracted; weakened and impoverished as she
t had long been and then was, with intestine fac.
lions and divisions, was neither necessary, mag
. unanimous, nor honorable on our part. Such a
+ war even for just objects, being unnecessary
f the only inevitable eiItctindccd upon the claims
f for which il would be waged being to faSten them
upon our own Treasury instead Of the Mexican
. could never rebound to the glory of the
D country, and much less compensate for the riv-
crs Of blood and heaps of treasure which have
been already wasted in this war.
, But, to pass all this by. whether the existing
!. war be just or UNJUST necessary or unnecessary,
, is not the question now al issue between the Pre-.
! Sident and the People. Was this War the act
Of the Sovereign People of the United States,
. declared in their name, in the only manner
2 known or acknowledged by the Constitution
by the Senate and House of Representatives in
3 Congress, to whom alone it belongs to determine
whether War, at any Time or under any crcum-
stances, be just or necessary! Or was il, whe.
r thcr crime or mistake, the Unauthorized act
/ of the President TO whom the Constitution has
| denied all power over the question of War!-
, This is the true question; nor can all the wire
I drawn sophislry and sp cial pleading of the
Presidents Message Of last year, referred to in
that which is now before us, deceive a single in
dlvldua, be he Wing or be he Democrat, of
common sense or common information, against
the Well-knOwn and Northumberland facts in
the case. Need we add, that, whoever the Pres.
ldcnt be, who, lrampIing down the barriers
which the Constitution has erected for the pro-
tecuon of tho general welfare, and for the sccu-
rity of the life, liberty, and property of the CHI.
zen, OF his own mere will aad pleasure plunges
the country into War, with or without cause
that man is Despot! The Nation that ou-
etly folds its arms aud permits this to be done
with impunily, may delude itself with the fancy
that it lives nnder written Law and Constitu.
, tjon, but it is an idle dream. That Nation is a
Nation Of Slaves, and lives under Despotism.
Toproco2d, however, to the main point, up
! on the rc-as5eron Of which alone tho President
relies to justify himself before his own fellow
clIizons for his agency in this war, viz, that the
Mexican Government, "faally, under wholly
unjustable prctcXts, involved the Two countries
r in war, by inyadingthc territory of Texas, sri-
king the first blow, and shedding the blood Of
our citizens on American soil" Not one ac0rd
r Of This is true. We regret the necessity, but
the President imposes upon US the obligation, of
renewing the demonstration of the utter lalsitv
Of the whole of it. Mexico did not involve the
two countries in war: Mexico did not invade the
territory of Texas: Mexico did not strike the
first blow Mexico did not shed the blood of our
cnzlns on our own soil,
This whole question, it will be seen, resolves
itself into one of territorial boundary.
Did, at the breaking out Of this war, the terri
tory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande
'(Dcl Norto) belong TO Mexico or the United
States?
:, If it did not belong to the United States. The
Republic Of Texas had no title to it, She had
not even a respectable claim to it. She preren-
ded to no such title when she called a Convcn.
ton to form her Constitution; for not member
was called to that Convention from any portion
OF the territory bounding on the Rio Grande.--
Nor when, IN her Constitution, she appointed
the Representation in her Legislature among
the several districts Of her territory, did she en-.
umcrate any districts lying upon the Rio Grando
as entitled TO representation in the Texan Gen.
eral Assembly. The whole county on the Rio
Grandc, and indeed the whole country west of.
the NuccoS, except the small settlement of San
Patricio was exclusively in possession of the
Mexcans, until the army of the United States
marched into it, driving before it the Mexican ci.
VII officers and the peaceful inhabitants, Tex.
as hovlngno title to the territory, the annexation
OF Texas TO this Union could confer none upon
the United States Were peace to be made
tomorrow on the basis ofleaving things as they
were before the war, the territory between the
Nueces and the Rio Grande would still consti.
tute 4 part Of the Mexican States of Tamaulipas,
&c.
This state Of the fact is none of our first dis.
covering, much Of ON imagining. We de-
:. q