Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1848-02-26
OUT o IT'S pss'fR TRACK,


any purpose, being himself of sound mind, can
doubt that the protraction of the existing war, as
proposed in high quarters, by a prosecution OF II
into the yals Of the enemy's country must still
further divert the Government from its true ends,
and, finally, bring about its dissolution and downs
fall as certainly as it will the subjugaton of
Mexico. The sober sense of the country is, we
think beginning to realize this terrible truth, and
10 recoil from the policy avowed by the Executive,
and supposed by those whose judgment is pervert-
ed by party rage, or whose motives are IN some
way or 6her interested, of further prosecution Of
war which, the more it is successful, will but en-
tail upon our own country the greater amount Of
moral and political evil. We can hardly persuade
| ourselves indeed, that those who frantcally deal
damnaten upon all who do not yoke themselves to
the car OF conquest do not all see in the same light
as we do the faseness Of the position in which the
rash counses of the Executive hayeplaced the coun
trv That all do not we are sure, however, because in
other things many Of them have shown themselves
TO be possessed of both judgment and patriotism;
and we therefore only the more deplore their mis-
directed aims and their misguided zeal. 1t gives
us proportionate qualification to find that not few
of those who assisted to place this Administration
in power have discovered their error, and if they
refrain from openly denouncing it, have found it to
be their duty, as patriot citizens, anxious for the
salvation Of the Republic, to do all that they now
can, in the way Of honest admonition and remon-
STRANGE, to induce the Government to turn from
the error Gifts course.
Out of several evidences which lie before us of
this favorable change in public opinion in the South
and the West more particularly, select for pre-
sent publication the following, from journal dis
tinguished (among those which in general do not
accord with this paper in its views for depth of
thought and soundness of judgment:
FROM rHK CHARLESTON EVENING NEWS OF FEBRUARY l6.
WAR-THE CoNsTTuTIoN.-The debates in
Congress and the war speeches in popular meetings
render doubtful whether he is citizen of re-
public whose institutions have been framed in the
spirit of peace, and not amidst the din of arms and
the conflicts of parties. The progress of armies,
the history of campaigns, war budgets, territorial
PARTITION rights of conquest, the great
pies Of rhetoric within and without the walls of
Congress. Could the tranquil spirits who laid the
foundations OF our Government revisit the scene of
their august labors what would they conclude but
that our statesmen had become bellicose, and our
present of orators had nourished their fires at
sources which had kindled in their imaginations
nothing but images of war in short, that the
pubcs of the new world and the monarchies of the
old had changed postions-conquest, dismember-
men appropriation, being no longer canyassed there
in diplomatic circles and congresses of crowned
heads but that these themes were entertained and
discussed in republican councils and convocations
The conclusion would be irresistible that we had
become oblivlous OF the real sources of our power
and the true conditions of our greatness. Inter-
preting fairly, then, the language employed in
cent Congressional Debates, we stand justified in
saying that we seem about 10 cast behind us the i'm
portant truths that the foundations OF our Govern
ment were laid in principles Of peace; that Juror
| ganc law is, in ITSELF bond of peace; that its
/ checks and balances have been so framed and ad
justed to work with due effect in none but peace
ful periods and, finally, that the constitution went
into operation under the shadow of names borne by
those who, in its formation and early administra-
tion discarded all military associations and predi-
Lotions by such men as Washington, Hamilton,
and Knox.
If SUCH then, is the spirit and character of that
form OF political organization called the Constitution
OF the United States, in what part of it can we look
for the sources of military domination Uhere
does IL speak of conquest, of provincial rule, of
dominion other than that founded on moral in,9u-
ences, intellectual progress, on civilization ef-
feced by the arts of peace In what clause or pro-
vision do we find, even by implication, the author
| y or warrant for achieUing The ends Of american
improvement By the agency Of brute force If
cannot discover these things in the theory of the
constitution, 10 look for them in the practice
under it, from its establishment to the present time
During half century our history records only
three years of war before the Mexican contest
This exceptional period in our annals was not,
either in its origin progress, characterized by ag-
gressve hostility. II was strictly war Of defence
a conflict for national right and honor. From the
organization OF our Government we have quadru-
pied our population. Has onr acquisition Of num-
bers arisen from the transfer of captured to,cns
and rtHdges? We have extended our boundaries
SO as to include territory large enough to constitute
Kingdoms. Hare zee done This Jy inrasion and
i Sn'?I"gation? We have planted civilized commu-
niues where forests once stood, and naught was
heard but the echo of the howl Of the savage.
Rave we achieved these trumphs by physical force
OF oy virtue Of republican tendencies by other
arms 'hah those which win the prizes of an honor
aoie national ambition! Gould we, as republican
people, have performed our lofty mission by agen-
cies originating in violence by on aggressive poll
ey d"ame spirit Of aggrdndizemeHf Impossible.
HE MISSISSIPPI BoSbs.--A call was recently
made on the members OF the Mississippi Legisla-