Weekly national intelligencer., 1848-08-05
THE CAMPAIGN, No. ".
THE MEXICAN Wharf.-The LUST OF CONQUEST.
THE oNE-MAN POWER

We come now to the MEXICAN WAR, that mea
sure, or rather that series of measures of the pre-
sent Administration which has been selected by tn
Baltimore Convention for special eulogy and felci
tation, in resolution which the Democratic Can
didate fer the Presidency might well approve, ant
adhere to, as he has done, having been himself ar
and part of the whole Of that which it so highly
applauds. The resolution Of the Convention OF
this subject afirms that the was just and neces
sary on our part; that it was provoked on the par
of Mexico by years Of insult and injury and was
commenced by her army crossing the Rio Grands
and invading cur sister State of Texas. When the
resolutions Of the Convention were passed, the
Treaty Of Peace with Mexico was yet in suspense;
of which suspense the Convention avaled itself to
resolve that, whilst the ratification of tie Treaty
remained in doubt, it was The duty Of the country
TO sustain the Administration in every measure neces-
sary for the vigorous prosecution Of the war, nto
we suppose, /" the gials of the enemy's country
that being the declared purpose of the President
should Congress give him the means; in which
purpose he was so zeaously seconded and sustain
ed in the Senate by Gen. CAss, that, if he did not
succeed in getting into the vtals' of the enemy,
it was through no scrnple or backwardness of the
General
Among the new party issues which enter into
the present canvass, we could imagine none to be
combated with more cheerful and hearty will than
those which the Convention has thus presented to
US, viz. the constit,ttio1alify of war made with
out the assent of Congress the necessity of a war
upon ground of disputed boundary, the only plau-
sible pretence for the wary which the President had
been instructed by Congress to consider subject
of negotiation the justice Of war, itself wholly
unnecessary, upon weak neighbor who was all
the while demonstrating, deprecatng and protesting
against war; the lust Of conquest, of annexation,
of robbery by right of the strongest, which was the
stimulant to the war; the false and contradictory
pretences upon which it was undertaken first, and
afterwards prosecuted; and the successive usurpa-
fons of power by the President which have mark
ed the progress of the war, from the beginning to
the end fit. Where else might we look in modern
history for such compound Of all that is unlawful
vicious, and odous, as is the history of this war;
After the very full discussion OF the subject in our
own columns, and the many able and luminous expo
stons of the origin, objects, and merits of that War
which have been made by our most eminent and
able citizens, it is no part of our purpose now to
repeat the story of its chronology and its events.
They are all familiar to our readers. Thank God
the war is over and there is no need now to reca-
pitulae its foies, its falses and its crimes against
humanity and the laws, as we have heretofore done
when endeavoring to arouse the public mind to the
of putting stop to it. We need not, for
example, inform our readers that the War was begun
by the Presidents marching army into terri
tory to which we had not color of title; territory
by our own law to be debatable ground
and so recognised not only by the law but by our
Diplomatic Agents, from the Secretary Of State,
IN his correspondence with Mr.. SLIDELL, down to
Mr.. DoNELsoN, in his correspondence with Gen.
TAYLOR: That, therefore, the assertion upon which
he Intervention of Congress was sought and obtain
ed by the President, and which has so often been
repeated in papers bearing the signature OF the Ex-
ecutive, that "American blood had been shed upon
American soil,'' was mere fgment Of the imagi- |
nation, and had no truth in it. That, after the first
shock Of arms at the Rio del Norte, in which the
enemy was driven with defeat and rout from our
pretended boundary, there was neither necessity nor
justification, for any avowed purpose, for the nva-
sion of Mexico with fire and sword which ensued !:
That the object of that invasion, as it was Of the
orders issued twelve months before to our naval
Commanders and the Commanders Of our land ex-
pedtons on the Northwest Coast and Territory, |
and Of the Mission Of Mr.. SLrDELL, was TO wrest
by force Of arms from Mexico certain territories
which the President had set his heart upon obtain
or wherefore, understood to this day by
nobody but himself, unless possibly his official ad
visers That, entertaining these designs, whether
his plans embraced at first the conquest of all Mex
leo, only the acquisition of the Provinces which
it has unhappily sadded US with, the President did,
before there could have been any pretence Of Mexi
can invasion to repel and Of American blood to be
avenged privily, and without the consent, or even
the suspicion Of Congress, enter into negotiation
with Santa Anna, the exiled chief Of Mexico, the
only object Of which could but have been to in
duce him to betray his country and the effect of
which was TO place him at the head Of the Mexican
armies, with consequences known to every one
The consequences well known readers TO have
been the renvgoraon Of the military power Of Mexico to
such extent that armies Of surprising force were brought
into the field, which nothing but the great Geneashp Of our
Commanders and the irresistible aanry of the mass M the