The northern tribune. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1847-1855, 1848-01-12
Increase of the Army.

I.. our reauerS are aware tlldt Dlll Ids UGH
introduced into the Senate to increase the
army by the addition of ten new Regiments of
Regulars, amounting to ten thousand men,
and another bill to raise in addition 1000 vol
unteers. All these soldiers are demanded to
finish war which we were told when it COM
menced would be finished in three months
to conquer peace which was SAID to have
been conquered at Palo Alto, Monterey Bue-
ma Vista, Cerro Gordo, and lastly at Chapul-
tepec. We have now, according to Mr.. Crit
tenden, already an army of $4,000 men in
fornia-the President has the power, under
existing laws, to call out 900 more, and yet
the Administration demands $4,000 in addi-
ton, which if raised will increase the army to
$4,000 men. Thus does the Administration,
an Administration that laughed at Gen. Scott
because he said it would take $4,000 men to
Der of men we have stated, to finish the SUBJ
jugation Of that country, after its strongest
fortresses and its principal cities have been
taken-its armies time and again defeated
Surely those who have considered this war a
light matter, will now begin to think, when
such armies are necessary or said to be neces-
sary, when they calculate the enormous ex-
pense which will be necessary to support them,
that it is matter of some importance, and
that the guilt of its creation is by no means so
insignificant as they have been wont to mag
inc. An army of $4,000 men what an ex-
pense must they be on the taxpayers of the
land, for such must support them. Generals
Scott and Taylor both say it is impossible to
support the army by levying contributions on
the Mexicans, and in this they are supported
by the opinion of Mr.. Poinsett, who has as
good chance to form correct opinion on
this matter as any man living, and therefore if
the Mexicans cannot be made to support them,
the taxpayers of the United States, the bust
ness men, the farmers and mechanics of the
nation must do it. A part of what the farmer
has earned by tie sweat of his brow, of what
the mechanic has toiled hard and long for,
must be taken from them; their families must
be robbed of it, to pay the men necessary to
carry on the designs of our war loving, life
destroying. money wasting President. Nor is
this all-S6,000 men are to be withdrawn from
the quiet pursuits of life and in degree un-
fitted for ever engaging in them afterwards !;
$4,000 producers are to be made consumers,
and placed in situation in which it will be
impossible for them to increase the aggregate
of human happiness and comfort How much
might these men produce to feed the starving
millions of the world, were they to be en-
ployed in tilhng the vast prairies of the West
instead of desolating the plains of Mexico
Were they to be SO employed and the product
of their labor distributed among the poor of
our land there would not be tenement but
would be supplied with an abundance of the
necessaries of life. Happiness and comfort
would be ditfused through every part of our
land-the dark lanes of our cities would no
longer be the abodes of half starved wretches,
shiveging with cold and cursing the hour they
were born.
But, it will be argued that the men who
will enlist will be those who are useless at
home, and might as well be in Mexico as any
where else-'just fit to make food for pow
der" as we heard friend of the Administra-
ton say of the Maine Volunteers Admitting
shat such are the only men that will volunteer,
is the camp the place to which they should be
sent will they be likely to grow better and
more industrious there, and be better fitted to
fulfil the duties of good citizens, of husbands
and fathers when they come back than they
would had they remained where the various