Evansville weekly journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 184?-18??, 1848-06-15
From the louisville journal Of Tbursday.

DENTAL CANvAss.-The Presidential canvass
which now opens promises TO be more than
usually exciting. Recent events have worn q
deeper gulf than ever between the conflicting
parties, and have reused the public mind to
the deep and portenuous Importance of the
struggle. In other like contests, great enthu-
siasm and great excitement have been exhibit
ed, but in the present the chords of the popu-
lar heart will be swept with greater power and
will echo with louderand more startling tone
than ever before.
For many years the great question has been,
what set of men shall rule? Shall the country
be ruled by honest and able men, install
ed by pure and enlightened party; with an
eye single to the promotion of the common
good, or shall it be ruled BY selfish demagogues
with an eye single 10 their own aggrandise-
ment-by demagogues who rise 10 power BY
means of trickery, falsehood and hypocrisy,
and who in power are guided by no principle,
and seek no other end than the maintenance of
their ascendency? This for twenty years has
been at the bottom of the party divisions of this
country.
1t is true that important questions of policy
have constantly divided the country, but these
questions have not caused the great party di-
visions but have rather grown out of them In
the progress of great country like the United
States, many measure will from time to lime
become necessary for the promotion of the pub
lie good. These will be discovered and will
be supported by those who seek the public
good; and they will be opposed by the dema-
gogues with no other view than TO keep up
party division.
In the last twenty years that party which
prolessed TO be the party of progress, and boasts
of its energy and enterprise, has originated no
single positive measure but the annexa lion Of
the whole of Oregon, involving a war with
England; the annexation OF Texas; the war with
Mexico, the annexation Of the whole of Mexi-
co; and interpo>ition IN the affairs of Yucatan.
They have indeed reduced the measure of pro-
lection of American industry, and have locked
up the Government funds in iron chests
but these were negative measures, growing
out of their opposition 10 what the Wings pro-
posed.
The first measure was that of the annexation
of Texas, conceived i'll the Administration Of
Tyler and eagerly consummated under Polk.
But this long interval of inacton, or of simple,
logged. and tactious resistance TO whatever the
Wings proposed and the public good demand
ed, was followed under the Administration OF
Polk with train of baleful projects evincing
a satanic energy long restrained but now lei
loose upon the country. Van Buren's "let
alone policy" his dogma that the people ex-
pect too much OF government, and his maxim,
openly and unblnshingy proclaimed, that the
Government, meaning the ofhce-holders, must
take care of itself and the PEOPLE of themselves
had resulted in the total route of his party
When they came into power again under a
leader of their own choosing, the present in
cumbent, they thought it expedient to give
some sample of their boosted progress
and long, and bitterly, viii the country
rue it.
Their first measure was the annexation o
Texas, leading issue in the contest of 1874
when the Wings opposed to the uttermosl, pre-
dieting all the evils which have since proceed
ed from that pandora box.
Another issue of the canvass of'44 was the
occupation and holding OF the whole Of Oregon
up TO the line of "a 40. This abominablt
measure, which would have involved the coun
try in war with England for barren and
worthless strip of land, was pressed with the
greatest earnestness by Polk and his party, un-
Ill the eloquent, unremitting, and powerful
assaults OF the Wings detached a sufficient
number of the party; including all those of any
pretensious to character and craftsmanship
and saved the country from one of the mos
disastrous schemes ever plotted By upstart and
folly and audacious wickedness.
Close on the heels of the banked scheme o.
Oregon occupation came the war with Mexico
precIpitated by a rash, untimely, needless or
der OF, the Executive, which Congress had nc
| power to control because it was secret. This
war with its terrible loss in life and pecuniary
treasure, It's demon aliZing influences upon thost
at home its stain upon the national character
and the petty malignity displayed by the Ad
ministration toward those great captains whC
reaped the laurels and repaid in glory in some
degree the sacrifices and disgraces of wantor
war, against weak, defenceless power that 70
ten long years of disgrace had not been able Il
stir finger againsta handful of insurgents il
Texas-this war with all its blunders, corrup
tons, pecuiation, favoritism, jobs and con-
tracts, will be fruitful theme of Wing elo
quence, before which the Locofocos will recoi
as their leaders recoied in the Senate before
the artillery of Wing eoquence On the Oregon
debate.
Next in the shower or direful ills shaker
from the conlet-like train of Locofoco progress
was the annexation of Mexico. As the coun
try had been threatened with the "whole O
Oregon or none,' so it was threatened will
the annexation of the whole OF Mexico-not ar
unpeopled desert like Oregon. but vast ter
ritory peopled with many millions, of differen
hues, but all'the free, equal, and Independent
citizens of the Republic people who main
J tam the principles Of our declaration of indie
pendence. and who naturally feel the creates
hostility to this country; whom, therefore, We
could only hold by force, and who are so lgno
rant and degraded that ifannexed by their owl
free will, it would be fatal 10 this Republic
!, From this fatal annexation of the whole o
Mexico, the country will be saved by the per
severing efforts of the Wings, but it will prob
ably not escape without large annexation o
territory, which, though it contains compare
lively few inhabitants, will probably like The
annexation of Texas, produce finally the mos
deplofable consequences,
And now, seeing that they are about to lose
: all of Mexico but the small territories of New
! Mexico and California. the administration j,
stretching lis arms towards Yucatan, not with
out ferocious growlings over the bone of Cuba
The appetite for war and plumber cannot be al
layed by anything short Of huge deglutitioi
5 like the anaconda's, which swallows rabbit
while it runs, and only becomes gorged ant
motionless after swallowing bison. Gen
Cass is of opinion that Mexico might be swal
lowed without indigestion, and as Cuba will
: be taken in by waS of dessert. Of this nefari
GUS scheme of interposition in the affairs O
Yucatan, much is 10 be learned by the country
t,,d ,,noo IL xro shall iufroduca fwo xr;tuasso