Evansville weekly journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 184?-18??, 1848-03-02
from the Louisville Journal, of Thursday
THE TREATY OF PEACE

terday, Mr.. Polk sent the proposition of a trea-
ty of peace received from the Mexican Gov
ernmenL to the Senate, on Tuesday, for consid-
Grafton. This is the course he pursued in re-
lation 10 the treaty proposed by the British
Government for the adjustment of the Oregon
question. We hope the result in the present
instance may be as honorable and advantage
Gus to our country as it was in the former.
The intelligence is that Mr.. Polk has sent the
terms of peace proposed BY Mexico to the SEN
ate for advice. If he be instructed by that
body to negotiate a treaty on the proposed ba-
sis, he will do so. In reference to the Oregon
treaty, he slated, on submitting ii to the SEN
ate, that he was opposed to the compromise it
provided for. Notwithstanding the majority Of
that body was composed of his friends, yet an
overwhelming majority Of the members, differ
ing from the President as TO the wisdom of the
compromise, advised its acceptance, and Ii was
accepted to the great relief and delight of al
most every man in the nation. We do not
know whether Mr.. Polk, on sending the terms
proposed by Mexico to the Senate recommend
ed them or expressed an opinion unfavorable to
them, or whether he seat them unaccompanied
with remarks for the approval or rejection Of
that body.
A majority Of the members of the Senate are
Locofocos, and many of them have declared
themselves in favor of depredating on the pos
sessions of Mexico to a greater extent than the
proposed cession of territory. Senator Rusk
declared a few days ago that he would never
vote for a treaty of peace which should estab-
lish the boundary between the two countries
north of Sierra Madre. Ii he is true to that de-
claration, he will advise the rejection of the
terms now offered by Mexico. Other Senators
such as Houston, FOote, Sewer, &C., have been
less explicit in their declarations, but have as
sumed the doctrines of the smanifesI destiny
portion OF the Locofoco party as worthy of
adoption. The Wings will, we presume, vote
i'll favor of accepting the terms, and we cannot
doubt that enough Locofocos will unite with
them to secure a considerable majority in the
Senate.
The question is not on the ratification of a
treaty, but whether a certain project of a trea-
ty ought to be accepted by our Government.
TO ratify a treaty a vote of two-thirds of all the
Senators voting is necessary; whereas a bare
majority is adequate to advise the Executive
under the circumstances. If a majority op
pose the terms, the people, a vast majority
OF whom would doubtless hail peace on the
terms with excessive Joy, will hold them TO a
rigid responsibility. Ii any considerable por-
ton of the Senators deliberately advise the re-
lection of the terms, declaring themselves in
favor OF prosecuting the war, in the hope of
forcing better terms from Mexico, all such
Senators will certainly fall under a weight of
odium which will crush their political aspira-
Etions for ever. To advise the rejection of the
terms is to advise a continuance of the warts
to advise further bloodshed and slaughter-is
to advise a further generalization of public
sentiments to advise the accumulation OF a
public debt which will sit like a dreadful in
cubus on the energies of the nation through
many coming years-is to advise a course of
policy that will inevitably produce financial
embarrassment and ruin which must involve
in one common distress and gloom every inter-
est In the country-is to advise a persistence
on the part of our Government in d line of con-
duct disgraceful to the national character and
p~erilous to our glorious Union. Under such
circumstances, any Senator who shall dare to
oppose the manifest interests of the country
and the demands of public sentiment, by
voting for the rejection of the terms proposed
by Mexico, will necessarily subject himself to
the lightnings of public indignation and the
lasting scorn and contempt of all good men.
Mexico has offered us terms of peace! Now,
what must be thought of the endless rant and
scurrillity of the Acknowledgements and Lo-
coloco editors, who have declared that the
course pursued by the Wings of the United
States rendered the continuance of the war in
eritable? 1t has been vehemently asservated
ten thousand times by all the various large and
little Locofocos of the land that the Mexican
authorities would never consent to make peace
so long as the Wings opposed a vigorous prose-
cution of the war-that the Mexicans conf
IDENTIFY belle we'd that the Wings would come
into power and grant them peace and remune-
rate them for all the expenses of tie war.
What must be thought OF the shrewdness and
sagaCity of those men; now that the fact that
Mexico has offered terms more favorable than
any one dreamed she would offer, stares them
in the facP2 Vain and idle infinitely worse
than vain and idle, have been the rdbid vitu-
p%eratlon and abuse which have been heaped
on the Wings by the war party. TIL high and
honorable and magnanilnous course pursued By
the Wings towards the Mexicans has had a
most happy influence on the minds of the
Mexican authorities, and the offer of terms is
the glad result. AS long as Locofoco MAORI
ties controlled the policy of the Government,
threatening the Mexicans with humiliation,
and their territory with absorption, the Mex
lean Government evinced a stubborn deter.ni-
nation to resist our Government to the end at
all hazards; but the wings having succeeded by
their ~resolute opposition to the war i'll secur-
ing a majority in the House of Representatives
and being resolved on checking the wild and
wicked and w~asteful policy of the Administra-
ton. a change has come over the feelings of
the Mexicans and they now come forward and
ask for a peace on the basis of a treaty that
MI. Ok III VAIN sought 10 eXtOrt lnPlr reluct-
ant consent to in September last. Henceforth
let the mouths of the L~ocofoco slanderers be
dumb, and let their tongues cease to malign
the true friends of the glory and honor of the
nation.
If, contrary to our expectations. the Locofo-
co majority IN the Senate reject the proffered
terms OF peace, it will then be manifest that,
they are resolved not TO stop short in their ca
reer, until they have seized on all of Mexico,
and annexed it to our country. This being
shown, the duty of the Wing majority in the
House of Representatives TO refuse supplies Of
men and money for the farther prosecution of
the war becomes clear; for if the Locofocos, in
the face of their continued protestations in ia
vor of an honorable peace, reject the offer of
sncn a peace, the Wings ought forthwith D. to use
the power entrusted TO them by the people TO
save the country from dishonor and disgrace.
Now that the terms offered by Mexico are
under consideration in the S'nate, the country
will await the progress of deliberations of that
body with intense anxiety. If those delibera-
tons result as an immense majority of the peo-
pie desire, a thrill of joy will pervade the hearts
Of all trle ma tri0fS thr0uuout tho TTo;oo III