The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1849-01-18

dency-the enormous acquisition OF territory effected
within these four years by annexation, by treaty.
by war, Texas, Oregon, California, and ew Mexico
exultngy measured and almost weighed in the ball
ance. They contain many square miles and many
acres and are equal to such and such couhires but
the English imagination will not revel with much
gusto these vanops measurements, il may be sufficient
to state that The United States comprehend terrific
~ almost large all Europe. The President expa-
taes with delight the climate. the soil, and other
natural advantages of the newly acquired regions Their
rivers, their habors, their ycnites and bearings are
reviewed But 10 topic he returns again and again
The Mines rather the fields of gold and quicksilver in
California inexhausbe fund OF agreeable discus
sion and aliusion Paragraph after paragraph glitters
with gold and groans with bullion The four thousand
gold hunters wildly scrapiDg the sands and filling their
laps with solid wealth. the greedy haste with which
whole deseu their ships for this Lotus Shore and
all the other circumstances OF real FL Dorado, de-
scribed with goatng ecslacy mint Is forthwith TO be
established the western coast which Is to deluge Asia
and Polynesia with the gltterng tokens OF the fortunate
republic.
There was need of many mines to gid the Mexican
war; and to pay It's expenses Those acquisitions have
cost the Union twenty-five millions OF our money II,
in the of twenty years, the principal and the in
erest be repaid by the dust collected from the rivers of
California, the Union may deem itself most fortunate
Mr. Polk, however, disdans 10 measure the only by
results He points to the energy the military skill the
administrative capacity. the martial spirit the indomila-
been speedily brought TO its desired consummaton un.
der circumstances OF unparalleled difficulty Ii is demon
sraed that the Union, at moments warning, may under
take several thousand miles from home, with forces
competent 10 any OCCASION conduct that with prompt
and unity OF purpose and endure without burden, all
the necessary expenses standing army in the European
of that word, is found to be unnecessary. Two
million citizens, accustomed TO arms many OF them prac-
sed in the rifle and hardened the seventies of the for
est, ambitious for distinction, supply never failing fund
of volunteers. The army of republic consists not of
privates, but of knights Its very staple heroic What
crowns, however, both the glory, the grace and the
ability of this conquest is that all the States, all parties
and all professions equally contributed their quota to
the field, thus proving that Texas and New Mexico be.
long not more TO this or that State than to all, and
hibng also pledge to the world Of that terrible una.
nimity with which the Union will future occasions
prosecute its Quarrels or its ends.
1t is one of the virtues the vices OF a republican
presidency of the ancient consulshp that the
tive chief saddles his the banefu response
bilites of his With him the beginning is the
whole He celebrates triumph, and lays down his
Office. 1t remains for another to carry out the design
The Union doubled so to speak, in four years; and ia
king old populations and semi barbarous tribes into its
bosom, has not few difficulties TO solve. The question
Of slavery is opened again, at least in an abstract form
WnS beppe no paeca as
there will in fact, be no slavery in the greater part of
the new territory and that the questions OF govern
will moi follow him into this domestic ground, will
alude to any mine of future quarrels in this united
family of States 1t certainly is for the advantage of
all nations that they should remain the "happy fam
ly they They give us food and the materials for
clothing, and take off hands the produce of in
dustry That civil war which wise have predicted
would impede the operation OF these services But while
pass over domestic and conectura difficulties, it is
impossible to forget that the same who is closing
tabernacle to the Pacific, and almost the ishmus of
Panama, who boasts that byis measures he has saved
the and the credit Of his country from
sve initiation and deadly collapse, is nevertheless re-
jected by the people he has served, finds himself
appointed, and SUCCESSOR holding other views installed
in his room Such fact condemns either the man or
the nation One of them must be wrong. Mr.. Polk, by
his silence the subject of his successor, tacy
acknowledges a sense OF injustice.
From the London Spectator, of Dec 49,
Beyond the Atlantic James K Polk has sent in his last
message-a huge volume, which combines the character
sc. OF the parliamentary blue book the historical essay
and the travellers guide book The striking point
in the document is its voucher for the wonderful and
apocryphal stories of mineral riches in California. How
alarmed Jefferson and Washington would be to see their
Of by n
like those OF enervated Peru or despotc Russia
From the London Sun, of Dec %.
Whatever the Americans may think OF the riches to
covered in California, they would act more wisely in
observing the admirable results flowing from the approx
imaton OF their commercial system to the principles Of
free trade than in pursuing the visionary specuiaons of
and more seductive FL Dorado The recent ex-
posion Of the Phlosophc bubble of NJ CADET should act
timely warning TO the dreamers OF the United States
Icaria has melted away from the pares of Texas as the
mirage melts from the ardity Of the wilderness Ac-
cordng to M CADET lcara flowed with cream and honey
while according to those who have adventured in search
of this beautiful "land of PROMISE" the whole account
nas the phantom Of
are pebbles, the diamonds mere flint the harvest
mere crops of poisonous weeds the vintage stagnant
pools reekng with stale exhaations And is after the
perusa of the exposure recently published respecting the
delights OF lcara that repeat with fresh enthu.
siasm, that noble ejaculation of Alfred Tennyson-
g Better fifty years of Europe
Thap a cycle of CathayW
With this revealed extravaganza confronting them
amidst the forests OF Texas will the people of the United
States abandon themselves bndy to the fascinating
allurements of the wealth said be stored in the soil OF
California!
From the bold and legibe statistics given by President
m mQce is II hat ,oo
ments arising the State and the comforts simulta.
neousy enjoyed by the population. consequence of the
adoption OF reduced and amended tariff have exceed
ed even the most sanguine anticpatons Here, then,
IS solid bottom upon which TO build up the financial
hopes of the Union. But with California il is impos-
sibe not to perceive that everything vet is merely
visionary. Even the most moderate estimates of the
mineral riches buried in those newly acquired terrific.
res bear the stamp of the preposerous exaggera
ton. Among these not the least remarkable is the Off
cla despatch forwarded to Washington by COL Mason,
the officer in command at Monterey-a despatch which
has reached this country with the last intelligence
ed from the United States, and which is published in
e1enso by ourselves in another portion of this evenings
impression. The document signed by the commanding
officer at Monterey would have made the mouth OF Elves
water lie talks OF the most precious products of the
earth az Astounding like dirt His deneation of the
hundred men washing for gold in the American fork,
called the Mormon dggmgs, reminds one OF the masnl-
cent accounts furnished by Ome of the treasures in the
palace of Moorshedabad. Every circumstance in the
process OF publication is fingered over with the inensest
rehsh-the men working in the boiling heat of the
tropicssifting the auvia depostes OF the stream per-
fOrated tin pans, the willow baskpts uoven by the