The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1848-04-08

! IoagfRgs about it, At this moment il is abso
| luteIy more retired and shut out from commu
nication with the civilized world, than tho
Sandwich Islands or other islands of the PACING
| Sea- In secluson or remoteness New MeTicf
may press hard ON the character and condition
ofTypee. And its people are infinitely less
elevated, in morals and in condition, than the
people of the Sandwich Islands. We hac
much better have Senators from Oahu. Fai
less intelligent are they than the better class
of our Indian neighbors Commend me to the
characteristic the Choctnws if you please,
speak of the Pawnees--ofth the Snakes--the Flat
feet anything but the Diggin Indians, and
will be satisfied not to take Ony people Of
New Mexico. Have they any notion OF our
institutions,-or of dny free institutions r
Have they any notions Unpopular government
Not the slightest Not the slightest on earth
When the question is asked-what will be their
Consttuton,-it is farcical to talk of such a
people making Constitution for themselves.
They do not know the meaning of the term
they do not know its import. They know
nothing at all about it and can tell you, Sir,
that when they are made Territory and are
to be made State, such Constitution as the
Executive power of this government may think
lit to send them, will be sent and will be adop-
ted. The Constitution of our fetto'o citizens
of New Mexico, will be framed in the city of
Washington
Now what says in regard to all Me xco, Col
Hardin, that most lamentcd and distinguished
officer, honoraby known a member of the
other House, and who has fallen CALAMITY
fighting in the service of his country Here
is his description
THE aohotc country IS 7niSeraJiy aoaterod.-
Large districts hare no loatcr at all The
streams are SmaU and at great distance apart.
One day we marched on the road from Mon
clova to Pnrras Mirty.fee miles aoithout aoatcr
"a pretty severe days march for infantry.
"Grass is very scarce, and indeed there is
none at all in many regions for miles square.
Its place is supplied with prickly pear and
thorny bushes, There is not one acre in two
hundred, more probably not one in five hun
dred, of all the land we have seen in Mexico,
which can ever be cultivated the greater por-
ton of it is the most desolate region | could
ever have imagined The pure granite hills
OF New England are paradise TO it, for they
are without the thorny briars and venomous
reptiles which infcst the barbed barrenness of
Mexico. The good land and cultivated spots
III Mexico are but dots on the map. Were ii
not that it takes so very little to support
Mexican, and that the land which is cultivated
yields ITS produce with little labor, it would be
surprising how its Sparse population is sus-
famed All the towns we have visited, with
perhaps the exception of Parras, are depopu-
lating, as is also the whole country.
he people are on par with their land
One in 300 or 500 is rich, and lives like ma
bob the rest are poems, or servants sold for
debt, who work for their masters, and are as
subservient as the slaves of the South, and
look like Indians, and indeed, are not more
capable of selfgovernment. One man, ia
cobus Sanchez, owns three fourths of AL the
land our column has passed over in MeXco.-
We are told we have seen the best part of
Northern Mexico; if so, the whole ofitis not
worth much. ..s
&C came to Mexico in favor of getting or
IlEinU pnOuub oft IN tba nf the
war. now doubt whether all Northern Mex
leo is worth the expenses ofour column of 5000
men. The expenses of the war must be .enor
mous;we have paid large prices for every thing,
much beyond the usual prices ofthe country"
There it 49, That's all North Mexico and
New Mexico is not the better part oft.
Sir, there is n recent traveller, not unfriend-
ly to the United States, if we may judge from
his work, for he commends every where -
think an Englishman, named Ruxton. II
gives an account of the morals and the man
ners of the population of New Mexico And,
Mr. President and Senators, l shall take leave
to introduce you to these soon TO he your res
pected teLiO1c citizens of New Mexico -
at is remarkable that, although existing
from the earliest times of the colonization of
New Mexico, period of two centuries, in a
state of continual hostility with the numerous
savage tribes of Indians who surround their
territory, and in constant insec uritv oflife and
property from their attacks being also far re-
moved from the enervating influences of large
cities, and, in their isolated situation entirely
dependent upon their own resources, the in
habltants are totally destitute ofthose qualities
which, for the above reasons, we might nat
urally have expected to distinguish them, are
as deficient in energy of character 81 physical
courage, as they are in all the moral and in
tellectual qualities. In their social state but
one degree removed from the verest savages,
they might take lesson even from those in
morality and the conventional decences of
life. Imposing no restraint on their passions,
a shameless and universal concubnage exists,
and a total disregard ofmorals to which it would
be impossible to find parallel in any country
calling itself civilized want of honorable
principle, and consummate duplicity and
treachery, characterize all their dealings
Liars by nature, they are treacherous and faith
less to their friends, cowardly and cringng to
their enemies cruel, all towards are they
unite savage ferocity with their want of ami
NAL courage; as an example of which, their
recent massacre of Gov. Bent and other A.
mcrcans, may be giyen-one of hundred in
stances"
These, Sir, are soon to be our beloved coun-
| trymen!
| Mr. President--for good many years, have
struggled in opposition to everything which, l
! thought tended to strengthen the arm of Ex-
ecutive power. l think it is growing more
and more formidable every day. And think
that by yielding to it in this, as in other instan-
ces, we give it strength which it will be diff
cult hereafter to resist. think that it is moth
ing less than the fear of Executive power,
which induces us to acquesce in the acquisi-
ton of territory,-fear, fear, and nothing else
In the little part which l have acted in cub.
lie life, it has been my purpose to preserve the
People ofthe United States, that the Consti-
tuition destined to make tt err, -o,e ,sooIo