Weekly national intelligencer., 1848-07-22

shining patriot what were his ideas Of the supreme
duty and necessity, in public counsels, Of the
Largest liberty = of speech, under whatever con-
Juncture Of that pretended need Of silence that
would beray, not save; silence Of ruin. not
rescue silence useless when things are WELL but
which, when they are in jeopardy, would only be
abandoning your safety or yonr freedom to the in
capacity or the wickedness of those who have
brought you to extremity.
| But, besides these high examples, CHATHAM, has
in this matter, given us some precepfs worthy TO be
cited. AT the time when the loss Of Burgovne's 8
army was every day expected in England the Min
isterial party moved one Of the usual compliment
tary addresses to the throne. Upon this, Lord
CHATHAM said how far he could GO MY courtly
complaisance will carry me no further / will
not join in congratulation on misfortune and dis
grace" &c. !. This, my lords, is perlous and
| tremendous moment. II not time for adulaton
: The smoOthness of fattery cannot now avail
cannot save US, in this rugged and awful crisis.
1t is now necessary to instruct the Throne in the
language of truth. We must dspel the delusion
and the darkness which envelope it, and display,
in its full danger and true coors, the ruin that is
brought to our doors. This, my lords, is our
duty; il is the proper function Of this noble as
semby, sitting, as we do, upon our honors in this
House, the hereditary council Of the Crown.
And Uho is the Minister, achere is the Minister,
that has dared to suggest to the throne the con-
trary, unconstitutional language this day delivered
from it? The accustomed language from the
throne has been application to Parliament for adj
vice. and reliance on its constitutional advice and
assistance; as it is the right of Parliament to give,
so il is the duty of the Crown to ask it, And
once again, IN the same speech /" But, my lords,
the time demands the language of truth we must
not now apply the fiatering JUNCTION of servile
compliance or blind submission. In Just and
necessary war, to maintain the rights or honor Of
my country, would strip the shirt from my back
to support it; but, in such war as this-unjust
in its principles, impracticable in its means, and
'ruinous in its cOnsequences--I would not contri-
butte single effort single shilling. do not
II call for vengeance the heads of those who have
4 been guilty: only recommend to them. to make
= their retreat. Let them walk off; and let them
make haste, or they may be assured that speedy
and condign punishment will overtake them
Enough, however, of authority, and especially of
such ilusrious ones, against people that are none
What need of authority against doctrines that never
kept any honest company--were never heard of or
seen, except in the society Of tyrants and slaves,
As to thought, they have no reach, no ingenuity,
and do not rise to the dignity of despotism.
Such notions were never heard of until that mys-
terious iniquity, the Mexican war, was ready to
be brought upon us, with facts before it that
will bear no probing, a conduct an it that will
endure discussion, results from it that dare not
face public examination. We grant the theory's
present necessity for, all that is desperate of any
other defence but he that attempts to sustain il for
any other purpose is only worthy to be lecturer in
he No.l TEX -.
ccl systems without property, domestic life without
marriage, and creeds withouta Creator.
Certainly there was time when they who wrote
wisely against princes were, by way of confuta-
tlon cast into dungeons where, indeed. being de-
MED pen and ink and even light they and their
moral treasons' gave no further trouble it being
difficult 10 out-reason jails and gibbets. To that
time, if they could-to its dreary ignorance and
submission-your moral-treason men would glad
ly. amidst all the intelligence and the spirit of the
nineteenth century, bring us back. They and their
opinions look if they had crept out Of the Inqui-
ston, or come from the darkest and 6ercest period
of religious persecution, when, under the claim of
infalbiliiy, religion was taught by the faggot.
Whatever wilful neutrality-suspicious. itself secret
ly infde all the while--then broached, for its own
supremacy, of most slavish in faith, this doctrine
would now, by new stretch, compel in civil af.
fairs. which at least all that old bigory did not in
wade. Surely our ancestral English" the LAM
guage Of men ever famous and foremost in the
achievements Of liberty''--is not yet degenerate
enough from all understanding and spirit to furnish
terms in which to express such serviley exotic no.
tons; and hence the outandish name of Moral
Treason"
The only pretence (as we have seen) for this
loyal silence is an existing war; the assumption
being the double one, first, that there being war,
no matter for what cause or by whose act, nation
is pledged only to prosecute it for victory 10 sue
cess, no matter what the consequences and, Sc
condiy, that it must do this, because war puts
nation in such danger binds the citizen to forget
every thing else. To show how futile and how
false is the first assumption, we have only to con-
slider the consequence-that if war creates this
duty of the citizen on one side, it must equally
create it on the other; so that the only maxim on
either side being that uery wise and just one our
country, right or wrong" and the only object Uic-
tory. there could be end to any war but the ex.
termination Of one or other Of the parties to it. As
to the second assumption, it is equally shallow
war seldom implies any extreme public danger,
except 10 one side for the parties are not often
equally matched. In this Mexican contest the
only danger for as lay in success--the fatal sue
cess of trampng on the weak and Incorporating
with us countries that 1t would ruin our Govern
mant TO hold slaves and equally ruin to admit as
equals. Danger from the enemy, there was none