The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1847-12-25

snge announced that he Ind done nearly a
! he could TO bring that quarrel 10 II iocu'
meantime he had secretly taken steps for nm
other with Mexico, by way of making sure o
n war somewhere. So that, no sooner ha
! The interposiion of the Senate ioilcd him il
his Original war plan, than, by a diligent i'm
provement of his tine, he had another fgll
rendy TO substitute for that which had bee
refused him. Grown more wary this lime
he took care not TO be foied by any body
discretion; and, though Congress was Sitting
for five months before he had brought every
thing 10 bear, con,rived 10 have war com
pletely in blaze, and our succorless arm.
placed in what (their prowess unknown
seemed an almost hopeless predicament, be
fore the country or Congress knew one wore
Of what ho was about.
Such are the general and the larger facts
MS to that merit ofloying peace which tho
President nppropriatcs to himself five lool
closer aud scan the particulars of things, we
must not only say that, President Polk is no
possessed ofthut virtue ola ruler which Ie
claims, und-we regret we must say it-hns
shown, aud every whore in this Message
shows himself utterly indifferent 10 the
carnage and calainities Of war.
Oflittle less than stone, indeed, must his
heart be, who can look, without the strongest
commiseralion, upon the speciaclcs ola ma
lion reduced 10 the extremity of distress IN
which, Mexico, known from the first 10 be
incapable of resisting us, now stands. Not
one spark Of compassion eau his breast ever
have known, who, a(ter in6icting upon II
wretched people, destitute Of any resource
against us but their hereditary obstinucy, all
the slaughter and humiliation which we have
everywhere inflicted upon Mexico, can coolly
resolve in his heart that Illis is not enough;not
blood enough, not tears enough; not sufficient
revenge, not satisfactory disaster, not nation
al woe * degradation duly deep; for that the
victim people, though covered with blood
and PROSTATE in the dust, still, with desper-
ate though feeble hands. fights, though vninIy,
for its hearthS and altnrs-that therefore, us
Mexico does mol Weid, we must now begin to
strike her sin her vital parts" and, beside
Selling, for ours perpetunlly, territories the
utmost that even Rapacity has dared avow
for our aim, most paciticaly and peacc-lov,
iugly eXhOrls us to 90 on ravaging the rest OF
Mexico until the nation yields or is destroy ed.
Why, the very savage of the courtyard, III
other timcs-ihat most brutal Of mankind,
The baliwick, who chcwed up an err or nose,
or scoped out with thumb PROSTATE ndver-
sary's eye-was humane. WAS generous, in
with this; for he, when he fought,
never fought the weak, but rather his match:
nor, when his rival champion lay gasping
and helpless under him, game 10 the last and
ready TO die sooner rhnn utter the craven
word 'enough," would he have ever thought
1fproceedng TO mutilate the yanquishcd. by
way of forcing him TO confess himself con-
Iuered, and then moreover. have helped
himself TO whatever he could find in the
MANNED mans pockets. No: even in ms
hardened heart, there would be manly pity,
because there was courage: II he did not at
lnce raise up his enemy with respect, he at
eust would not begin 'to strike at his vital
jar;s;" and well for him, too, that lie would
1ot, for the very crowd Of n court green,
,oarse as il then was, was yet undebauched
ofevery right sentiment by party politics, and
would NOT have suffered in the bully what u
now eHdurcs in the President.
So much for the mcrcies and the compunc-
ions ofhin who proposes, for the lucre OF i've
miserable millions of indcmnities, which he
Observation-Disclosures Mexico could not raise
Inc means of paying, TO butcher or ensuVc
whole empire of Republics! But this is not
III: how stood the fact Of our very right 10
ask for those indemnitics, after having helped
ourselves TO Texas, for the liberty ofpcace-
fully auueXing which is well known that we
stood ready, under the Tyler administration,
ut any time 10 have given more than the
Ol lIG lIIuGltIliillSS 10 u I'llSt' i~'N'
in the moment Of Annexation, the Chairman
Of the Committee of Foreign Affairs in the
House of Representatives, speaking as the
organ of the Executive in the House, said. 10
quiet the last opposition, that he had the lib
erty of assuring the House that il was as
certained that the injured feelings of Mexico
could he healed ,ouh money. Such was the
intimaton then held out; and there is every
reason to believe that authorized but unoffi-
cial offers of at least the amount of the in
IDENTITIES had been more than once made 10
Mexico for her rights over Texas.
Finally, however, in the mere confidence
ofimpunity, we took it without price: but
at least, by a last reserve of shame or of pity;
upon the remonstrance and the unanswera-
bic showing of Mr. BENTON that we were
about to take much more than Texas, (Which
had never possessed anything beyond the
Nueces, Congress reiented, and by its Reso-
luton of Annexation ordered the Executive
to adjust By. friendly negotiation the proper
boundary between Texas and Mexico.
And now, once more for the peace-lov-
ingness of this our President. His duty
stood assigned him. He knew that we had
taken what we had often offered to blIE he
knew that if, in honor and faith, the indemnI-
ties were not cancled by our seizure ofTeXas
at least that now an injury TO Mexico had
been committed. But lie knew that feeble
as she was, she dared not accept that war
and at once, with ptilessness the most sin
gular,not content though we had just ravishec
from her vast and rich territory, nor touched
by the forlornness of u nation utterly unable
to revenge such treatment farther than by thu
impotcnt resentment of Withdrawing he
Ambassador from our Court, he sends Gen
TAYLOR forward, to seize, in addition 10 al
that she had been striped Of, even the petit.
and barren slip, the mere selvage of sand
the desert space between the Neuces and Ri
Grande, which Congress had plainly mean
to spare. For this worthless object, and un
der circumstances so vehemently invokin