The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1848-03-31
The Court of Inquiry.

|
| 6ing to our own feelings but we are inclined to
think beneficial to the country, II III the matters
connected with the Mexican war less were discov
cradle which required apology-less that must meet
with general censure. With war just as
| ever waged by nation, crowned with deeds as
| glorious as ever heroes achieved or admirng mil
lions appauded the Administration has contrived
to make the unpopular. With an overwhelm-
| ing majority in Congress at the beginning OF the
WARMTH party in opposition, pursuing course.
which, If let alone, must inevitably have led to IFS
own dismemberment and annihilation-the Admin
istration has nevertheless found means to destroy
| its majority and TO give this opposition prepon-
| derang influence in the popular branch OF the
National Legislature. With loud proteslations ola
determination to prosecute the contest until we had
obtained g indemnity for the past and security for
| the FUTURE the same Administration has been APP
parently glad enough 70 patch up peace with
| feeble government, in which all the indemnity Is
stipulated for the enemy, and from which there is
not the shadow of hope for security to ourselves
These results so little to be expected, must have
| had an adequate catlse-and this cause we can
only find in the course of the President and his adj
visers. Mr.. Polk is not the man for the crisis, and
| those bv whom he has surrounded himself, too
| generally partake of his weakness. II from the
time this war began, he had made use of the means
under his control to make it big and short one,
| if he had determined to 6 conquer peace instead
of wasting his time to beg one, the whole thing
would before this have been settled. If he had
distlaned the attempt TO conciiae factions if he
had not shifted his to suit the popular camor
| of the hour if he had not imagined that and
conquest might take place on philanthropc princi-
plies, and made, from the very start war upon
the people and institutions Of Mexico, and appealed
for his Justification from the captious criticisms and
noisy condemnation of demagogues to the sound
common sense, and bold and generous sympathies
of the American people-the war would have been
| finished with glory TO our arms and advantage to
our neress,-and he the President, would have
been at this day the most deservedly popular man
| in the Republic But the course pursued has been
a very different from this, and the Administra
tration and the country reaplng its bitter con
sequences.
OF piece with the rest of the s. great Mexican
blnnder for by that name forced to des G.
nate the whole series of operations, except the mere
fighting, which followed the passage of the Rio
Grande, lis the s. Court of Inquiry now sitting i'll
Mexico, the detailed proceedings of which, so far as
received, Were published in our paper of yesterday.
From what gather from these proceedings,
and from other sources, the officers of the army
afflicted with species of insanity which we had
hoped would be confined to few small politicians
at home, who have been laboring under it for the
last year. This madness manifests itself in affect
ing the patient with singular delusion that every
successful General must be President, or at least
candidate for the Presidency. The prevalence of
this epidemic has been most disastrous in its effects
1t causes grave, sage and bearded men to quarrel
like school girls, as to which is most deserving of
appreciation and like school girls under the COM
bned action of vanity and jealousy, to Islander, ira
duce, and undermine each other 1t is this species
of fantasy that has made Worth change his politics.
break up the friendships of thirty years, intrigue
against, irreparabIy injure, and with liberated ma
Lightly, rejoice over the evil he has wrought to
who has been his protector and benefactor since he
entered the army. This has made Pillow puff him
self like another Bobadi has caused him to lose
all the respect which he might have deserved for
undoubted bravery, and to draw upon himself the
ridicule and contempt which follow the exposure of
trickery, talsehood and fraud. And General Scott
himself is not altogether free from the mental hal
ucination with which his subordinaes are affected
and it is source of the deepest regret to those who
admire his splendid military genius, and properly
appreciate the real elevation of his character to
witness the many foes into which childish am
bton and an overweening love of praise have led
him. To this moral epidemic among the officers of
army, may be ascribed all their quarrels and
misundersandings-this is at the foundation of the
charges which have led to the present Court of
Inquiry
Aware of the true state of the case as the head
of the War Department must have been, il would
seem that the worst policy possible was adopted in
giving the order for : Court of Inquiry" Such
a course could by no possibility have lessened it
could only have had the effect to increase and
continue the ill feeling. Such was its natural.
such has been its actual result. If the charges
made against the general officers of the army were
of serious nature, and made on responsible author
lty, they should have been Immediately recalled
and trled-one and abby a proper court martial
But instead of that, when the Commander-iIl-C Chief
himself prefers charges against three of his subor-
inates, and asks for court martial and one of the
subordlnates brings counter charges against him.
the request of the latter appears only to be needed
LIE leader OF the army IS suspended iii his command
and kept IN state of partial disgrace in the pres
ehce OF the enemy which he has conquered, while
court OF Inquiry whose deliberations and
Will amount to nothing. are sitting il,
'front.' OF the Toe for no other effective purpose than
% give the MeXlcans "a knowledge of our discorts
md weakness, bring the officers of the army upon
whose union and harmony the very existence of
'llr force depends, in hostile collision. and TO pro-
note the spread of i'll feeling and INSTRUMENTATION
through every division of the troops.
The enemy's country and the time of war, is
pr MI lime. for pprinr of
arce like this for farce it is, however seriously ii
nay have been intended, and however serious may
,e its unlocked for consequences What can be
more ridiculous than the display of Gen. Worth
n refusing to prosecute the charges which lie had
brought against the COMMANDMENTS Chief. The lu-
licrous strongly predominates in the conduct of
he g Hero Of Monterey that we should be tempt
ID to laugh, did not remember, that these
charges led to the suspension of his superior, and