Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1847-05-12
The War and the. Opposition.

greatest avidity upon every little circum
stance to excite the people against the gov
ernment, and to justify Mexico in the ag
gressions and insults she has offered 10 oul
countrymen, and in the barbarous treat
fnent Of our soldiers. They have done al
in their power to embarrass and cripple
the government in the prosecution of the
war and to give 'aid and comfort'' to the
enemy. Their Senators and Representa-.
tives in Congress have openly declared
their determination to withhold from the
Executive the means for prosecuting the
war, and for so doing nearly all the fed
eral presses Of the country have chantet
their praise. They have claimed that th'
moving of our army to the Rio Grand,
was the cause Of the war, while Mexico as
serts that the annexation Of Texas causet
il, and has ever contended that annexation
would be war. The war has been denounced
as the Presidents war; as Jim Polk.
war; as "a war ofaggression and conquest,
"a disgraceful war; "a war against God;
and all the other opprobrious epithets which
they could muster, have been called into
requisition to express their adherence Of
the contest in which we are engaged.
But while such has been the course of
nearly all the leaders of that party, we
have no doubt that there are many Of the
wings who discountenance and repudiate
such dishonorable and.traitorous conduct;
nor have we ever doubted that when the
federal leader found that the country would
not sustain them in their course, they would
deny that they had ever opposed the coun.
try, and claim, as they did after the war of
1912, that they were the men who sustain
ed the government in this contest; and that
they were the ones who periled their lives
and their fortunes in defence of their coun-
try. But who would ever have dreamed
that while the drum yet beat ':to arms"
they would attempt to deny that they were
the opposers Of this war, or that, .ssas par
ty," they have opposed it from the COM
mencemeht. Such, nevertheless, seems to
be the case in some sections, as the follow
Ing, from the Buffalo Morning Express, a
most violent federal sheet, will attest. We
do not know whether the Express has ev-
er taken grounds with its party against the
government and the war, but one thing is
very certain, that after witnessing the trea-
sonable course Of the leaders of the federal
party, almost without exception, knowing
that their Legislatures, State and county
Conventions, public speakers, and newspa-
pers have been most violent in denouncing
tit is willing to volunteer its services in
vain attempt to extricate its party from
the unenviable position which it has so ea.
gerly assumed.
"'MEx1cAN WHIGs. We have heard
Of impudence SO intense and profound as to
approach sublimity, but shamelesness of
this description is rarely exhibited. The
impadsnes Of The Loco Foco press in clarg-
ing the Wings, as party, with opposing
the war Nth Merico, may be thus charac-
terized, and justly too. After all the men
and means that have been raised for the
war from Whigs-when it is known that
TAYLOR, and SCOTT, and Wool, and
WoRTH, and three-fourths of the officers a.
mong the volunteers who have most distin.
guished themselves in all the battles in
Mexico are wings, it requires degree of
hardihood rarely witessed to charge the
Whig party with resisting the government
in pros ecuting the Dar, merely because A
FANATIC HERE AND THERE
RAISES A CLA.MOR on THE
SUBJECT."
Recently, since the brilliant victories
were achieved by our gallant army at Bue-
no Vista and Vera Cruz, similar attempts
are disernible in nearly every quarter of
the Federal camp-to appropriate the glory
and honcrs of this war to their own ancount,
Ind to drown the "clamor" which sfaaat-
ie here and there has raised, amid the al.
most deafning shouts of applause which
they raise for the brave defenders Of their
country, who they claim are three. .fouyil.s'
Of them Wings. Even now, you may
stand upon the corners of the streets and
near the late member of Of Congress from
his district who has opposed an appropria-
ion of any kind for carrying on this..war
rom its very commencement down to the
resent time, 'hurra for Gen. Taylor, the
zero Of Buena Vista!' and declaring that
q goes for Gen. Zachary Taylor for Pres
dent in '4s. What is it to these men ifl
uch men as Webster, Davis, Cilley, Cor
tin, Gidddings Tilden, Root, schenck, I
)elano-in fact, nearlys,he wbole.of the