The daily national Whig. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1847-1849, 1847-12-10
From the National Intenigeneer.l
nm. War,--Conauest its Object and Aim'

,iereDi ,.aon 70 possess itself entirely 81 Ugger az,
Torriia-Secreiary OF the Navy to comhioaoie '' ''
ne War hasyi raged nth riee % Conquest
presidents Message Congress, December 8 lSio A H.
~ Pyesiem 1oresees no CONTINUOUSLY ~ rhieh ~
U,fed States sl frer surrender or ha XIV 10 &c CONNIE
sion Of the Calfornids Secretary OF 'he Nay "
dore Stockton January IL, lsi7
Whilst our whole country was yet elmer uhsu ms,
oions or could not bring itself 10 believe, thai ih'
resen, Administration was coyerty taking measures
10 bring on War with Mexico our readers are wei
aware that we not only early denounced that desgn
but pointed directly TO the personal m Ear
had suggested II, the supposed popular passion ioi
territorial ACKNOWLEDGMENT which gave II hopes o
support and, as necessary consequence, the uili-
mate object (Conquesp for which, however dissent
bled, the war was begun and would be prosecuted.
We early declared what we knew TO be the counseis
entertained about the Court, and the philosophy Qor
il had taken that form) upon which the Executive
and lis advisers proposed 10 act That philosophy,
we knew and asserted, had embodied itself In re-
pular formulary of axioms nearly as follows;
First That Mr. Polk came to the Presidency not through
caeoas pSgS'h s S S e sn merely os y,
because il did not know what else to do.
Second That for The % parity NO, s s M wns
9%rd That ordinary measures and especially those
which he and the party pledged could effect nothing
would effect less than nohiug, towards this most nds
FJrh THAI, however, war party is always popular in
Fy6G That was therefore, the true policy of The Exec
uive involve the country in which would, by III
victories over weak and its territorial acquisitions over
wide country, give him. as is author popularity power
splendid and vast addition the exhausted stores OF official
influence and patronage and place the Opposition w Is
Of resisting the War Of becoming eectits instruments
by sustaining it,
In spite 1--WE repeat) of every previous conception
of what men, whether violent or senseless, could
dare attempt in this country so jealous of It's free
dom and watchfu of its interests, such were pre-
cisely the conjectnres which we had formed mad
vance of any known movement towards Inc MO
Grande, and full month before that message OF
lSi5, in which the Executive-hidng from the coun,
Try what was meditaed and assembling what had
been already begun-deberately labored TO prepare,
by the most hostile views of our relations with Mex
leo, justification in the popular passions which
would shield, when they could no longer BE- con,
ceaed, his previous steps Of war; however Illegal and
presumptuous. Such We say were our reluctant
but clear convictions of the line Of action which had
been settled at the palace. Many indications had
betrayed ii to us and, shaping conclusions from
these, we had reduced them TO Just the fornuary
above stated and had even repeated them TO friends
in conversation when of sudden we found that our
propositions were, almost in terms, In the mouths Of
those adherents to pow who never, any more than
an echo have any voice or opinion of their own, and
are but the reverberatiOn of authority. We knew al
once, Of course that we had hit not only the pur-
poses but the very thoughts of the Administration;
and not only its thoughts, but almost the forms OF
speech in which 1t was conveying It's conclusions TO
its more confidential followers.
We need hardly remind the Public how bitterly,
when we first made It, the charge of either intended
War or expected Conquest was denied for the Pre-
sident as most lbelous Of him, by that irregular
member Of his Administration and Cabinet (ns he
really ISL the Editor of the government paper. AS
little is needfu that We should bid the country
collect how, in the face of every subsequent disco-
sure, these denias have been repeated. Nor, leas,
of ALL is II now necessary that weo should state how
entirely by the whole progress Of events and revea-
lions, all that we originally suspected so reluctantly
and all that when we ut eugth denounced 1t, was
contradicted so angry and contumcliously has been
confirmed in every particular
mis- Administration whose utmost reach of pol
Icy is an imposture, whose forte seems to be secre
tiveness-appears, in its warike genius, to imagine
that the arts which originally awaited 1t in an cleo
non-arts which have already failed 1t, except in
single State-can render it. TO the end, glorious ir
arms 1t clearly persuaded itself that long distant
expensive obstinate war, presently to grow as inhu
man as originally it needless and Illegal is 10 b.
carried through as Ii was begun by the most trans
parent trickery Certainly, in the field it is permit,
led to deceive an enemy but the President is not
the position in which alone stratagem is warmth
BILE or can avail-that is to say, face to face with III
foe. Mexico he cannot delude by his pretences
the eyes Of the world at large they only scandaliz
ms: they take effect, them only on those brave me
who fight his BATTLES, and on his felow-ciiizens a
home who are to bear the final burdens of his war
Now why deceive, or how expect long to deceive
thesel
II Is only in that lame parody of Machiavelsn
which rulers compose when they would be craft,
and schenng without the ability required to sustain
such policy, that any reason can be found for sys
tenn so obstinate and absurd II war could b
conducted, like an intrigue, without any visible &c
ton If armies could be marched and manpuvre
without public orders, like emissaries froI
the Post Office or the trainbands OF Custom-houses
could coHquests be made and consolidated in til
dark, all this might though not very respectable, b
al least adrot At first, sinister counsels may hid
themselves in the slightest of bosoms tina
can conceive no others; but when they are such a
must be acted out in day and in the eye worc
facts betray every thing pretences are soon but =
many known cheats; and a persistence in them onl
serves after time to widen and deepen the odiur
Of what they were meant to cover. The "Veie
Prophet of Khorasan' is the only warrior that W
have ever heard Of, who was able TO butcher and
slave whole regions without showing his face; an
even OF his true hideousness men must have hu
some glimpse, before ut last stripped Of all disguis
he stood confessed before them, in the whole horrc
Of his countenance.
While, them such system of proracted dssiml
lation was futile and false as TO It's immediate obje,
Of continuing TO deceive men, 1t was equally vlciot
in another direction: by imposing upon the Pres
dent necessity OF striving to keep up appearance,
palsied him in action, fettered him in negotiation
and encountered his movements
But, II secretiveness be the main talent the Az
ministration, we can hardly say the same ofits r.
cognised organ to which we ourselves stand reac
10 avow our obligations Of knowledge. If we ha,
understood, at all times the subject of this MaSca
war, we owe II almost entirely to :" the Unon.n
was "the Union that first betrayed to us the ia
that zee iesre 70 hare tear ,rin Merieo beginnir
nth bioodshed on he Rio Grdnde: 10 1t we were
holden for the discovery that he trar ras to be rag
for conquest Not entirely frank at FIRST il did n
tell US ho0 much conquest to hare but 500
making us amends, II opened Its bosom and let
see that noe mere 10 amer all are could get. So
every fresh step in the progress Of this auspicio
and well conducted business in the clear mirror
the Union we could always see the shadow Of ea'
approaching device, whether against the enen
whom we are killing purely for their own improy
ment, or against our own victorious Geperals
way of averting what both President ard Cover
menf Editor have always held in ho)J horror--t
danger Of popular patnation for "a military chic
tain"
s-NNN~~----S"~-
ArrEyfF OF ApvERTisise--A + oRruSE.-4The Da
ton Journal states the following case In July 1874
the Swedish Minister at Washington, addressed
note of enquiry to the Secretary Of State, advisn
him that Torsten Saivesen Ersager, Norwegia
had inherited considerable property in his nati'
country, and he wished to ascertain If this man w
still in Montgomery county Ohio where he W
supposed to have resided in l643. The request WI
sent to the Postmaster at Dayton. No person by Il
name given could be heard of. The postmaster a
yertised the matter in the Journal In less ths
twenty days, Billy Dardson revealed himself as q