The Arkansas banner., 1848-01-24
From the Wa1iagiea traioa. Ar. Clay Oathe Occupation of disputed T,rril,r

All tue official documents show that Me,co A. never put forward any particular and especial cl. to what is called by the wh,gs the .'dispuiod ,rr tory between the Nueces and the lower Rio t:rande All the territory of the State of fexasis at this mn. mcni, by claim of Mexico, dIspsied against tlr,, completed and legitimate as can be shown by sss people 10 the soil on which they dwell If the clam of Mexico to one part of ths territory is sronFpr and better than her claim to any other part of il. she has het thought fit 10 say so. She avoweHy went to war with us for the ,rhole of tt, and fg, one part of it just as mach as for aaesher
 This should be fully kept in mind, ia our jadr. ment the position taken by Mir. Clay and the lss. ing statesmen and journals of the whigpany, h n. laiion to the advance of army to the Rio tiraae But even admitting @becanss Congress, when | gave its consent to tho annexation of Texas assum ed for the federal government the power to deter, mine the ''pruper and rightfn western bounisry f that State-that the territory on the lower Rn Grande may in any peculiar sense be termed "dis. puted territory" still tho question remains as b the right and the duty of this government regard ts such territory. Asa Merico had refased 10 meguat, about t, and had masieFed troops upsa its fonssr. under perempiory orders 10 inrads aud aiiacR asr troops at Corpus Christ. This was tho case on lhe 18th of January, 1916, when the order directing Gen. Taylor 10 advance to the Rio Grande was s. sued from the War DepaI iment Mir Clny's vess to the occupation of "disputcd territory" under circumstances far less cogent than these are iaiy on record We copy the following forciblc presca; meui of them from the Richmond Enquirer
 "The United Statespurchased Louisiana ofFnrep in lsO3. At that time, and until 1919, Fiorda bF. longcd to Spain, who claimed that her dominion e,. tended west to the Rio Perdido, a stream running into the Gulf Of Mexico, about fifty miles east d Mobile B tween the country actually in the pOs. session and occupancy of Spain, and that actually the possession and occupancy of France, spac intervened of thirteen or fourteen leagues, wheh had never been n the exclusive possession of ei.u of these powers. Af'er the United States had Pai. chased Louisiana, dispute arose as to the boup- diary between opr possession and those of Spaia, and President Madison seized upon the country ssa of the Misstsppi river, and extended the jursde, ton of the United States to the Rio Perdio. whFs flowed through the intervening space, which haa neYer- been in the exclusive pnssossiess her 4 France Spain. For this act he was ssSaIled Congress by the Federal members, who deuoanca this act as a usurpation of the war-making pova. On the 25th of Dec. 1910, Mir. Clay replied 10 ihas dcnunciatlons, and went as far if not farther ia support of the seizure of the disputed terriiorl, than any advocate of the present war has ever gone Whether our title 10 the whole territory thus Sip was good under the cessIon of Louisiana had asl been settled by negotiation. It was disputed hy spain, as much as title to the country beyond the Nueccs was disputed by Mexico. If t be ua. constitutional in Mir, Polk to order our troops b the latter becaase it disputed, il not equally unconstitutional in Mr Madison to ssfss the iorme for naat was dispgied aisol True, an act of Con. gress had been passed authorizing port of eAiy and delivered in the territory disputed by Spain; sSi an act of Congress had extended our revenueiss' beyond the Nucccs. True, Congress had recogs' ed the boundary of the Orleans territory as emhr. cing West Fiorla; but Congress had recognised iAs limits of Texas as extending beyond tbc Nucees- But ibis is not all. Mir. Clay went further in lSi0 and said that we were right in sezing the dispsiei territory, iadcpeadent efany lille; for, says be I have no hesitation in saying, that if parent coua' try will not or cannot naIntan is authority ma colony adjacent to us. and there exist in il slst misrue and disorder. menacing our peace--and l. moreover, such colony, by passing into the haa's ot any other power, would become dange'ous 10 ihe integrity of the Union, and manfcstly tend ie tb' subversion of our laws--we have a righi, We bsFsa right, upon the eternal principle of f-PTeservaes to lay hold upon it.
 "This carries the constitutional power of srassi' ton to its fullest extent IL also settles ihe aala of tho annexation of Texas as far as Mexico is con cerned, even if ,he United States had, with Vinlea hands, laid hold on Texas"