Evansville weekly journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 184?-18??, 1848-01-07

nEThe following resolutions were submit
ted TO the House of Representatives, by Mr..
Lincol1, of Illinois on the 22d ult. They will
attract attention from the fact that they stick
to the spot in Mexico, where the first blood
in the war was shed, with the tightness that
characterized the tabled shirt of the tabled Mes
sus! Evidently there is music in that very
tall Mr.. Lincoln.
Whereas, the President of the United States,
in his message of May 18th, 1916, has declared,
that the Mexican government not only refused
to receive him (the envoy ofthe United States)
or listen to his propositions; but after a long
continued series of menaces, have at last IN
vaded OUR TERRITORY, and shed the blood of
our fellow-cltizens on OUR OWN SOIL.
And again, in his message of December S,
1916, :'we had ample cause of war against
Mexico long before the breaking out of hostili-
ties. But even then We forbore to take redress
in our own hands, until Mexico herself became
the aggressor by invading OUR SOIL. in hostile
array, and shedding the blood of our citizens
And yet again in his message of December
Z, lS47, that "the Mexican government refus-
ed even to hear the terms of adjustment which
he (our minister of peace) was authorized to
piOpOoc, anu, uIldlif, uLuci WnOly ullJuSllud-
BILE p~retexts, involved the two countries in
war, by invading the territory of the State of
Texas, striking the first blow, and shedding
the blood of our citizens on our own soil.
And whereas this House is DESTROYS to OBJ
tain a full knowledge of all the facts which go
to establish whether the particular spot on
which the blood of our citizens was SO shed
was or was not at that time our oWn soil
Therefore,
Resolued By the House of Representatives,
That the President of the United States is res
p%ectfully requested to inform this House
1st. Whether the spot on which the blood
of our citizens was shed, as in his messages de-
clared, was or was not within the territory OF
Spain-at least after the treaty of 1919, until
the Mexican revolution.
I'd. Whether that spot is or is not within
the territory which was wrested from Spain by
the revolutionary government of Mexico.
Sd Whether that spot is or is not within a
settlement of people, which settlement has ex-
listed ever since long before the Texas revolu-
ton, and until its inhabitants fled before the
approach of the United States army.
4th. Whether that settlement is or is not
isolated from any and all other settlements by
the Gulf and the Rio Grande on the south and
west, and by wide uninhabited regions on the
north and East.
9th. Whether the people OF that settlement,
or a majority of them, or any of them, have
ever submitted themselves to the government
or laws of Texas, or of the United States, by
consent or ~compulsion, either by accepting of
fee, or voting at elections, or paying tax, or
serving on %juries, or having process served up
on them, or in any other way.
9th. Whether the people of that settlement
did or did not flee from the approach of the U.
States army, leaving unprotected their homes
and their growing crops, before the blood was
shed, as in the messages stated; and whether
the first blood so shed, was or was not shed
within the enclosure of one of the people who
had thus fled from it.
9TH. Whether our citizens, whose blood was
shed as in his messages declared, were, or were
not, at that time armed officers and soldiers,
sent into that settlement by the military or
ders of the President through the Secretary of
War.
9Th. Whether the military force of the Uni
ted States was or was not so sent into that set
Element, after General Taylor had more than
once intimated to the War Department, that,
in his opinion, no such movement was neces-
sary to the defence or protection to Texas.