The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1848-03-24

Just it as they must if they adjust they would
Undoubtedly, sir, conquerng nation, IN Judging io
itself Judges under great weight of responsibility II is
the natural result OF It's position. That now our stua
ton; and that, in the measure we mete out to our
selves we shall commit such crying injustice as may
provoke the censure OF the world, draw upon US the
retrbutons OF Providence. -
repeat, sir, that we must take the affairs OF this
world as they are, and not would have them 10
be and am afraid. that public will long continue
be the tribunal for the ad ustment OF pubc disputes
probably until the advent OF that period which we know
will come, because He has said H. who Will make IL
come, but which yet far remote, when the quar-,
res OF nations we'll as OF individuals VIII cease, anu
the contests of life give way to universal benevolence.
But the honorable from Delaware visits win
peculiar Reproduction every proposition 10 acquire ndem-
nifty from Mexico. He says, desire to say, Tor one
that have been, and am not now willing to &C
quIre OF ground from Mexico, or any other ma
ION under Heaven by conquest or robbery" He says,
that honesty Is the best policy, and that an honoaoe
reputation a country is of value than land or
money" 81 hold" says the honorable senator, " that
any attempt on our part, merely because we happen 10
possess superior strength to compel weaker nation 10
cede al that we choose TO demand as indemnity,
whilst at the same time admit that we ask Tor more
than she us, is nothing else but robbery
Mr. President, hold to no such doctrine. The world
holds such doctrines and never has, and never Will
ill the governments of shall have fulfilled their
task or the nature of shall have eAtirey changed
Robbery, indeed 1t seems to me, sir say i with all
delerencet would be an utter perverslon OF terms to
designate acquisition by conquest for indemnity, as
robbery. An honorable senator from Vermont has de.
sgnated it by other epithets Tie calls 1t piracy and
plumber If this war is Iust-as Tor one, believe II 10
from being sufficient claim now: Our balance has
greatly augmented The most rigid casust cannot de-
ny that are fairly entitled to Just COMPENSATION
for the losses and expenses which we have encounter
ed from the obstinate injustice OF the Mexican gov
ernment and, as | have already shown, OF the extent
of this compensation must of necessity be the Judges
This doctrine perfectly reasonable in ITSELF is support
ei by the authorities on the law OF nations.
Rutherford says:
nation has right to be paid the expenses that II
makes in Just war These expenses are, indeed, SO
many additional damages for whatever the nation IS
occasioned by the fault of the enemy who wlhhods that
right"
Wheaton also says
cit lawful recapture things taken by the enemy,
their value seize much of his property
may be to deay the expenses OF the war and
to compensate for all damages uniusty sustained
Robbery indeed Pirates and plunderers, indeed Why
all the acquisitions since united in civil So
cety made by nation from another this new ehl-
cal nomenclature, become robberes The Assyran was
robber, and the Egyptian and the Grecian and
the Roman, in the ancient world and in the modern
robbers plenty nations For England and France
and Russia and Prussia and Austria, and every people
under Heaven have alternately lost and gained territorial
acquisition by and conquest; and have thus exposed
themselves to the harsh ephe which the honorable sen.
ator from Delaware would apply to his own country If
she claims the right agreeaby to the laws of ma
tons we'll aware that questions of ethics are not
to be decided by mathematical rules; nor is there any
arithmetic of morals, which make right out OF
twenty wrongs But iheusage of nations makes the law
of nations and the practice of all time shows that con-
quest gives rights, permanent and unquesuonable as
rights rived from any conventional arrangements pub
lie or private.
But sir the honorable senator from Delaware, in fur
Their illustration of his proposition has resortcd to an an
alogy, which seems utterly fail him in its app
cation to the subject before Anaogies always
rather dangerous weapons in argumentatve discussions
and have seldom seen one, which seems to me more SO,
than the very presented to prove that we are rob-
bers. " II man owes me a sum OF money" says the
honorable senator from Delaware, land meet him on
the highway, and insist, with pistol pointed to his
breast that he shall deliver to deed of his farm, al
the estimate which choose put upon it, think there
could not be much difference Of opinion to the nature
OF that transaction should like to know how my friend
from Maryland, who able lawyer would defend the
man guilty of such conduct Would be any palllation
justification of the conduct of an offender
II such that was due to
hesitate to the verdict in such case And what let
me ask, friend near [MR. WEBsTER] suggests,
what would be the value OF deed obtained under such
circumstances
Is it possible Mr. President, that the two distinguished
senator's from Delaware and Massachusetts, might al
most say the first among the first jursts in the landcan
believe that this government is to be driven from its po
siton and its purposes, and the American people from
their determ nation to be Unidentified by false analogy
like this! use the word false in its logical not in its
ethical sense Can it have escaped the penetration OF
those learned gentlemen, that the they suppose is
where both the parties the subjects Of municipal
law which extends equally its protection and penal
ties all who it allegiance The robber is VIC
ating the law, and not only gain nothing by his
crime, but exposes himself to severe punishment There
is common umpire between these men, to whom
their disputes, if they have any, must be referred and
which has power 10 enforce its arbitraments.
But the contest OF nations involves far different prln-
cples. Their very equality makes each the judge of its
own rights, and the assertor of its remedies Do the
honorable gentlemen push their analogy far
to contend that all treaties made between stronger and
weaker powers void for the very that victory
has declared for the one and that the other must submit
If this principle is to be ntepolaed into the law OF
nations, what would become of half the treaties in the
world and all the territorial changes they have made and
confirmed! The subject appears to plain to
defy illustrations and leave it with the simple remark,
that we have duties to ourselves, well as to Mexico
and that il we do to her other nations have always.
done under similar circumstances, shall do all that
the most jealous advocate of his counrys honor de-
mand.
Mr. President we are furnished with two other dis
suasve against the acquisition of Mexican terri
tory One relates 10 the present and the future and the
other to the past The former addressing itself to our
fears, belongs 10 what may be called the school of
tonal apprehension and the latter, addressing itself TO
OF shame may be called the school of national
humiliation. shall trouble the Senate with few re-
marks upon each
We warned of the dangerous consequences of in
creasing territorial extent heard all this, nearly
half century ago, when Louisiana acquired. The
fears cannot be stronger, stronger expressed
than they then. They again spread before
when Florida purchased. And still again. when
and suppose there few men within the limits of the
republic, who would desire the excelsior of either of
those acquisitions not of the two former Let
Judge the future by the past the only safe rule of udg
ment Our government has wonderful power of accom-
modang itself to the extension of the country Its