The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1847-01-14

The Mexican news which was received
on Tuesday evening. and published IN the
Herald yesterday, created great sensation in this
city. 1t caused apprehension that our brave
army may be overwhelmed with numbers before
succour could reach them, or before General
Taylor could concentrate the different commands,
and show front at all proportonate to the ue-
mendous army which it was stated Santa Anna
was advancing with towards Saltillo, and which
was set down at thirty thousand men.
We cannot say that this news took US by sur
prise. We expected some disaster from the
nature of things; and we have, since the
beginning of the session, impressed upon
Congress the necessity of taking measures
to avert it, but to no purpose. The urgent calls
Of the Executive for men and money have been
disregarded, the peoples delegates assumed the
character of political gladlators, and converted
the capitol into arena for displaying their
proves in overreaching each other; and all this'
too, while our armies were threatened with annl-
hilation. What excuse will the wing and lew
lecofoco members of Congress have, II, as 1t Is
stated, Santa Anna has placed seventeen thou
sand men between Generals Taylor ana worm,
with the view OF preventing junction OF the
forces under their command, and succeeds in
defeating them separately by the overwhelming
force of numbers? Suppose the Mexicans should,
perchance, defeat detachment OF our troops,
and massacre them as the fiends once did the
Texans at Alamo? Could these members ever
look their constituents again in the face or longer
retain their seats as representatives of the people!
Political juggling and presidential intriguing
have always been a curse in our national coun-
ellis, but never to greater extent than during
the present session, and never at more nappro-
members calling for information whereon to
found impeachments against the President while
the enemy was concentrating his forces, and our
army were anguishing for want Of supplies
We have heard speeches in Congress that were
calculated as much to give "aid and comfort to
the enemy, inasmuch as it inspired him with the
false idea that the war was unpopular in the
United States, as if direct assis. ance had been
given him in the shape of money munitions Of
war. The effect, at all events, was the same and
we have no douo, that the tone of some of these
speeches, and the general course of the wings
and few locofocos in Congress, have had
an effect on the Mexican Congress, and
may have influenced that body in rejecting
our overtures OF peace. If SO, then those
members have heavy responsibility upon
them. And mark that if our soldiers in Mexico
q
reverse, which can be traced to the neglect of
those members to sustain the Executive, their
names will be execrated from one end of the
country to the other, and the WING party political
ly damned for overland Justly.
Is not the country engaged in foreign war,
and were not supplies OF men and money neces-
sary to carry it on successfully Certainly and
ifmembers of Congress prove recreant to their
raising their hand to prevent it, do they not rich
y merit execration, or worse
EUROPEAN OFFICERS AND AMERICAN MARKS
MEN.-As it is well known that in all the wars in
which our South American republican neigh
bors have been engaged, large number of Eu-
ropean officers have held commissions, it is now
subject Of general remark that, as yet, we have
not heard OF any one of them being in the employ
of Mexico, or as taking part in any way in the
war existing between that nation and the United
States. This is certainly strange, when we con-
slider the number OF foreign adventnrers that en-
listed under the South American flags but we
think it admits of a solution, which will strike
every person who gives the subject any consdera-
ton, as correct, and that is, the well-known cha
racter Of our American marksmen, and their pre-
dilecuon for cracking at everything wearing epau-
lettes.
During the revolutionary war and the war
OF 1912, the American marksmen, and espe-
cially the Kentucky rihemen, created sad havoc
among the British. They were represented by
the enemy as particularly discriminating as to the
persons against whom they would discharge their
leaden compliments, for they would rarely lose
charge on private soldier if an epaulette was in
sight They committed so much havoc in this
way that 1t was no uncommon thing for British
company to change its command three or four diff.
ferent times in the course OF a single engagement;
and any person acquainted with military matters
can readily imagine the effect that the loss of Off
GERS has on troops We can account for the fact
therefore, that no European officers command the
armies OF Mexico, by the reputation which our
citizens have acquired as marksmen, in the two
wars which we have had with Great Britain, and
their well known recklessness of their own lives
This is a characteristic peculiar to the Ameri-
can people, and will remain so as long as our free
institutions remain with us. In the nations of the
old world, heavy tax is imposed on all species
Of fire arms, which, to great extent, is equiva-
lent to a prohibition of their The citizens of
those countries must, therefore, be unacquanted
with the use ofthese weapons, at least majority
of them; while in the United States the contrary
is directly the case. Here our citizens are as
much privileged to possess and use gun as they
to possess and use the implements of their
trades and occupations. Indeed, it is rare thing
TO find young man in the country who cannot
hit his mark at 80 yards in two out OF three Shots
and who cannot kill bird on the wing
is looked upon as being deficient in education
In the event of war breaking out between the
United States and any other couLtry, these
men, who in reality constitute the bone and sincw
of the country, the foremost to volunteer; and
the confidence with which their Workmanship
inspires them, and the fire of patriotism which
burns in their breasts, it does in the breast of
every American, make them the most formidable