Weekly national intelligencer., 1847-06-05

trust, somewhat instrumental in defeating that stu
pendous folly, of which no man who Processes any
respect for the memory of Gen. Jackson ought ever
been source of present joy, as it will be of life
long happiness to u.s. to know that we are identified
with the body of the Nation, in disapprobation of
the hectoring and bullying tone of the Union .
and its party during the Oregon dispute, so ud-
crousy conrasted With their subsequent grauations
and glorifcalions at having obtained by Treaty pre-
clsely the line which we pointed out to them as
that which comported equally with the public honor
and the public interest. With regard to the Texas
Annexation it is equally pride to have opposed
that, until, in defiance of all that we could do it
came 10 be consummated and we are now more
than ever confirmed in our antipahy to that unhap-
py measure, when we find the country, as conse-
quence, engaged in this Mexican War, SO glorious
to our arms, so disgracefultto our policy, and so
dishonorDg to those who have involved us in it,
The "Union" will perceive that it is right in its
inference-right for once-that we do not mean to
!" deny the facts in regard to our course upon the
Mexican war; DC. any more than it is our prac-
ce todeny facts in any case. AS to the Unions
doctrine Of moral treason," long before the Mexi-
can War-was dreamed of, we were going to saw,
hut happily remember in time that the march to the
Rio Grande, the shedding of blood, the war, the
invasion, the second conquest of Mexico and
all, were dreamed Of by the Editor of the govern
ment paper in almost the first nap he took in his
editorial chalr-but very soon after the Mexican
War was dreamed of, and before the President had
taken the initial step towards it, we treated the 60
vernment paper and its moral treason doctrine
in terms which are particularly suitable at this
moment, when practical application is attempted
TO be given to 1t, that we cannot do better than
to transcribe it, as we now do, from the National
lntelligencer of the 18th of May, ls45 requesting
the Administration and its organ to receive it as our
reply to any thing that they have to say now, or
may have to say hereafter, on the subject of this
amiable, tolerant, and uery Republican doctrine of
theirs:
PROM THE NATIONAL ISrELLIGENcER OF MAY II, ls45
TREASON (thank Heaven y is defined by the
Constitution, or, under the rule of such men as
those who profess and sustain the doctrines of the
Democratic Review the Office Of execuoner for the
offence OF treason might be made one of the most
lucrative in the Government. Treason against the
= sst only in levyng against them, or in adher-
ing to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort
Yes, thank Heaven again Treason Is defined
by the Constitution and when the makers of that
: Constitution so defined il, well they knew what
they were about They knew what crimes against
: liberty ambitious Democrats or ignorant dema-
gogues would be too prone to perpetrate under the
pretence OF furnishing crime; they knew, and they
gave 1t as reason for opposing to this peculiar
danger the barrier of the definition of treason that
- newfangled and artificial treasons have been the
''great engines by which violent factions, the nau-
Z raj offspring of free governments, have usually
. ''wreaked their alternate malignty on each other
: What wisdom, and what forecast guided all the
deliberations and all the actions of that band Of
sages who framed the Constitution! With what
a prophetlc eye they looked into the future, how
powerfully attests this Infamous pretension of the
organ of 'the Democracy to brand all difference
OF opinion from 1t as traitorous and anti-Ame-
rican 7
- Moral treason truly! Did we ever think TO
live to hear this abomnable heresy in free gov
ernment again broached Twice before in our
history has its horrid croak been heard erst dur
ing the quasi war of 1898, and last in the epoch
: of 1912, when-though in the midst of the ex-
cltement OF raging war-even then il fairly
hooted out of the House Of Representatives the
author OF 1t flying before the storm which he him
: self had raised. In free government, the term
.'Treason can have no application whatever, as
we have shown, except during war ; even then
can It have any rational application to the frees
use Of speech Or printing. If such epithet as
- Moral Treason could ever apply, when could it
: apply with more propriety than to those Demo-
cratic Reviewers and their chorus of echoes, pro-
claiming deadly war against the most sacred prin-
cipes OF the Constitution-those which protect the
freedom OF speech or of the press These are
principles which none but an anti Republican, or
zealot intoxicated with the fumes of power, would
ever think of openly assaing."
Thirdly. In the course of some remarks upon
the liability Of paper managed by many hands
to mislead the Public, we said, the other day, as
quoted by the Union" in its last number, what
follows
We have no sort of doubt further, that he
never published any thing concerning the Oregon
dispute which the Cabinet did not al the time ap-
prove that there was, in word, perfect under
standing between them on that point"
Our meaning might have been more distinctly
expressed, we admit than it is in this quotation,
which it has pleased the government editor 10 re-
present as "conceding the whole point in dispute"
We must, we find, be more explicit. What we
meant to say was, that, though the government
paper made representations Of a contradictory ma
ture, and statements well calculated TO misead the
public mind, it did so with "a perfect understand
ing with the Cabinet, whose object it may have