Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1848-03-30

time OF anneXdtion, our own Govern
ment offered TO adjus, all matters o
boundary in liberal and friendly Spi
rlt. This Offer was renewed ant! {
minister sent 10 Mexico, With The ap.
probation of that government, full,
empowered to settle all questions grow
ing out of the annexation nf Texas
But so hostile We're he Mexican PEG
pie to amy friendly arrangement, that
our minister was inSuItingly re- jrct+d
an'! the administration of Herrera
which had agreed to receive him, was
hurled from power. The revolution
lists, headed by PdredeS, made the ar
rival of MIR. SlideIl and the probability
of all amicabIe settlement of all diff
culties, the chlefif not the only ground
of their revolutionary acts. This reit-
! Grated refusal to treat, was known to
the government at Washington, and
; fully justified the President in ordering
oar troops, ia accordance with Gen.
Taylol's previous recommendations, to
leave their encampment at Corpus
Christi and take up position at or
near the Rio Grande. The plain and
well settled principles of international
law would have sustained the course
pursued, under the circumstances we
have been considering. But the cause
Of our country rests on higher grounds.
Mexico never preferred any claim
to the territory between the Nueces and
the Bravo as separate and distinct from
the State Of Texas. She never con-
scented to relinquiSh her pretended title
to one rood of soil Beyond the borders
of Louisiana, but threatened to send
her troops. flushed with victory, TO the
banks of the Sabine, and wlest from us
soverei On State Of this confederacy.
, Under this statement Of facts, this Con-
vention cannot perceive any reasonable
grounds for doubling that our Govern
ment has acted, not only with business
but forbearance, ard thinks it must be
clear that on the refusal to adjust the
boundaries of Texas by friendly ar
rangement, it would have been an act
, of fragrant injustice TO the people of
that State, and a stain upon our nation
al honor, to yield up the boundary OF
the Rio del Norte. Negotiation had
been twice offered and :wice rejected;
and had the territory beyond the Nue.
ces alone, been in dispute, there was
nothing that could be -esorted to but
force.
AS if to exhaust every pretext for
their opposition to just and rightful
war, the Wing party at1irms that the
war-making power has been wrested
from Congress and the Constitution
tralnpled under foot. This, they say.
has been done by the e:der Of the Pres
iden,, without the knowledge of Con-
gress while that body was in session,
directing Gen. Taylor to march 10 the
Rio Grande, and seize upon territory
belonging to Mexico, or IN dispute be-
tween that Republic and our own
Although the Federal Legislature was
in session when the order was issued,
yet all the conclusions which our OPP
ponents have deduced from it, are at
once destroyed, by The mere statement
that Corpus Christi is situated in the
SO called disputed territory, and that
the President, in his annual message of
December, 1915, informed Congress
that he had ordered Gen. Taylor 10
take position in the country between
the Nueces and the Rio Grande, and
protect Texas from invasion; and he
communicated an order from the Sec
rotary Of War, directing that the Rio
Grande should be regarded as our
boundary. Neither to this order, nor
to the recognition Of the boundary of
the Rio Grande, and the occupation of
Corpus Christi for many months, was
any objection made. These facts seem
to conclude the question; but there are
others which should not be left out of
view. 1t has already been shown that
the territory did not belong to Mexico,
and that she did no: dispute our title to
it, more than to the residue of the
State of Texas. But admitting the
case 10 be- different, it will not be an
arduous task to justify the course pur-
sued by the Executive. Texas had
been admitted into the Union, and
while we utterly disclaim the idea that
this measure constituted any gust cause
Of war on the part of Mexico, because
he, attempt to conquer Texas had been
long since defeated, yet, followed as IT
was by the withdrawal of Gen. Al
monte, the Mexican Minister, and the
rejection of Mr.. Sidell, the Minister
of The United States, it placed the two
nations virtually at wat; and ronse-
quently, it was not only the right, but
the duty Of the President, under the
Constitution, to order our troops TO
take up any position, whether on Mex
lean or American soil, that might be
necessary TO protect Texas from inya-
sion. There can be 70 question that
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