Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1848-01-01
THE PRESIDENTS MEssaGE-No. !

are likely to be OF advantage TO the mass OF
| the People Of any country having shown that, in
their inevitable results, the most successful Con-
quests always dangerous to the people in whose
name they achieved, and frequently more delete
rous the liberties Of the conquering nation than Of
that which is conquered, we intend, in this Num-
ber to bring to close all that have at present
to say upon SO much of the late Message of the
President to Congress relates to the Mexican
War. We shall begin by briefly recurring 10
THE ORIGIN OF THIS WAR.
When we look back to the history of the War
with Mexico, the conclusion is irresistible that it
originated in settled purpose on the part Of the
Executive to acquire for the United States the
possession Of several Provinces of Mexico and
that this purpose has been followed out by a
series Of deliberate acts by the same authority, all
having the same object Aside from the successive
revelations by the government paper, to which we
have heretofore REFERRED amounting to the strongest
possible circumstantal proof, this view Of the mat
ter is sustained by documents which the Executive
has itself from time to time laid before Congress.
In the opening of his first Annual Message, many
Of our readers will well remember, the President
informed Congress and the Nation that, by the an
nexaton Of Texas, " the jurisdiction Of the United
States which, at the formation of the Federal Con-
stitution was bounded by the St. Mary's on the
Atlantic, had passed the Capes of Florida, and
been peacefully EXTENDED TO THE Dill NoRTE,"
This unfounded assumption, if in one sense it is
most unhappily mot true now, was not less untrue
in the other sense, when, by thus ostenatiousy as
sertng it, the President took the initial IN the con-
fict with Mexico in which our county has been
since involved. This declaration was the root of
the War, which sprung up less than six months
thereafter
In the same Message the President informed
Congress that the ground of certain claims of our
citizens upon Mexico, which before the annexation
of Texas were in the course of amicable adusment
and payment he would then have recommended
. INTERIOR MEASURES Of redress for wrongs and in
ures SO long borne,'' if il had not been that Next
co had shown willingness to receive Minister
(which Minister, it afterwards appeared, from the
published correspondence with the Mexican author
tiles, was to have been Commissioner TO treat of
the question of Texas and the Boundary merely.)
Instead of such Commissioner, the President in
poteyaiary to settle all difference between the two
countries, claims included, as he could not think of
conserving to settle the Texas dispute by itself
That Minister was instructed, the Message said, to
bring the negotiation with which he was charged to
the. earliest possible conclusion; and, until that
"result" should be known, the President forbore,
he said, to recommend to Congress the "ulterior
measures" against Mexico which he had intended.
The instructions TO our Minister to Mexico, as to
the objects Of that mission, though very material
part Of the history of this unhappy war; have hither-
TO been withheld from Congress and the People !;
but the substance of them was sufficiently disclosed
in the Message, and through the official gazette TO
alarm the pride of the Government of Mexico, and
to obstruct the reception of Minister sent to de-
mand concessions of territory from it, and to init
mate war as the alternative. If any doubt remain
ed Of the hostile temper of our Administration, the
published correspondence between the Mexican
Government and the Minister whom the President
had sent to Mexico would dsspate it. 'sThe
question" said our Minister to the Mexican Minis
ter Of Foreign Relations, has now reached point
where Words must giUe place 10 acts - adding
that he was consoed by the reflection that no
honorable efforts 10 aUert The calamities of ,car
have been spared by his Government" This in
tmation was in reply to letter of March IL, ls46
in the course Of which the Mexican Minister, aware
OF the orders to army to march the Rio Grande
and to our navy TO rendezvous at or near its mouth
says that the responsibility of war, should it come
would rest upon the United States, who were I" pro-
posing peace al the very moment when they are
causing their 'squadrons and their troops to adj
vance upon the ports and the frontiers of Mexico,
exacing humiliation impossible to be submitted
TO, in order to find preext, if no reason can be
found, which may occasion the breaking out of
hostilities. House Doc. lst .Sess. 29h Con.
No. 1916.
That the United States, by the annexation of
Texas, had acquired title or sovereignty west Of
the boundary of Texas as it existed al the time Of
her Revolution, has been shown beyond the posi-
bllity Of contradiction. The title claimed by the Pre-
sident upon the strength of the declaraory act of the
Texan Legislature not even plausible, and derived
no strength from the affirmation by the Presiden, in
his Message that the jurisdiction of the United States
had been extended TO the Rio Grande. Yet that
afhrmaton--even more Of a nullity, if such thing
were possible than the act of the Teyan Cnnoro..