Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1852-09-30

measuring the range of the "enemy's fre.n
and was able to faint ga few yards" from
it. But this movement at Chapultepec
was to be made after dark, and in the
darkness he might make a mistake and
get within the range of those "guns of
Chapultepec," to which he so feelincly
alludes. He determined, therefore, not
to be confused with the darkness, as to
the proper time and distance from the
guns for his fit of sickness to come on
Accordingly, he says, previous to this"
(the darkness) "I left the field in cons.
guence Of Severe andtsposition." He Ger.
tainly had "severe indisposition" to fight
whenever there was anything of that kind
to do. Give him an armistice to MANAGE
and he would work at it three DAYS re-
joicingly, but bring him within sight of "a
battery of twenty-five guns, as at Churu-
busco, and he tainted or direct him 10
move, after dark, under the guns of Cha
pultepec, and, although he had been in
good health for twenty-five days, "previ-
Gus to the moment of darkness "ser
we're indisposition" came on, and he left
the field And he took good care in this
case to keep his bed all day on the 18Th,
the day Of the stOJming Of Chapuhepec.-
He was determined not to be "picked up"
again, as he had been at Churubusco; he
seemed resolved that this spell of sickness,
got up so opportunely "previous to dark
ness" on the evening of the 18th, should
outlast any possible chance of Mexican
enterprise in the way of fighting.
! During the 18th, the day of Chapulte-
pee, General Pierce says he kept his bed,
but he seems to have sat up all night,
watching the embers of the fight dying out
As soon as the last glimpse of chance
for any more fighting that day went out,
General Pierce, with reckless energy, re-
parts himself really for duty at day-break
on the morning 9fthe 14h -!
The battery at Churubusco, and the l.
dea of facing the guns at Chapultepec had
the effect on Gen. Pierce that the panther
pit had upon Quintus, in Titus Androni-
Gus. He says:
Il am surprised with uncoIih fear.
A chilling sweat o'erruns my trembling joints,
| My heart suspects more than my eye can see"
1t may look very irreverent in Us, but
we cannot think that General Pierce, at
Churubusco, lying a few yards from the
severest fire of the enemy" and in his
bed all day at Chapultee, must have felt
as Falstaff did while rejecting on his con-
venient fall, under the blows of Douglass,
and his resurrection after the fight was
over. We can almcst hear General Pierce
breathing the very words of his prototype:
-"Sblood twas time to counterfeit, or
that hot termagant Scott had paid me
Scot and lot too Counterfeit! lie, /
am no counterfeit. To die is to be
counterfeit of a man who hath not the
| life of a man; but to counterfeit dying,
when man thereby liyeth, Is to be no
counterfeit, but the true and perfect lm-
age Of life indeed"
We hand this matter over to the friends
of Gen Pierce to point out one orror, if
they can, in our quotations from General
Pierces official reports, or, failing to de-
tcct an error, to show whether we have
omitted a solitary statement of Mexican
events connected with General Pierce's
military career in the field of battle. If
his friends can do neither, let them close
their mouths about his military deeds,
lest they make themselves the laughing
stock of Christendom Men who can ad-
mire equally the Generalship Of Jack
son and of Franklin Pierce should not
be trusted in the streets without q keep
er.