New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1853-08-17
WEDNESDAY MORNING, AUGUST Ii, 1858
i THE .NOTE.NE.NT OF TROOPS.
VILI THERE BE WAR?

From the garrisons at the North we hear OF
the successive movements OF troops, all having a
destination to our Western borders on the con-
fines Of Mexico, What these belligerent prepar-
ations may mean in a time of profound peace,
we are at a loss to discover. That there is a
cloud Of war in that quarter we may well sur
mise, or all this clamorous movement OF. troops
and rafting note Of preparation would not be.
There is probably more behind the curtain than
we on the outskirts are permitted to penetrate
A portion of the press, who it is presumed know
more of the secrets of the Administration than
we of the opposite faction, will have it that
there are pregnant reasons why our en-at-
arms and plumed chiefs should congregate on
the Mexican border. Not being enumerated,
we, of course, cannot speak advisedly, and must
take our cue from those who are section OF
the faithful will have it thutsthe troublesome
attitude of the Aboriginees and their dis
position to predatory excursions on the Mex
lean borders, coupled with our treaty stip-
ulations to keep check rein upon them and
to confine them within their limits require
bristling front of bayonets and slight
perfume of gunpowder. We have agreed to
from their inoursions, and we must do it.
Others surmise that an armed force is neces-
sary, in order to meet any untoward event arts
ing out of the late accession to supreme power
in Mexico of the willy and treaeherous Santa
Anna This sc Second Napoleon from adviees,
appears to have recruited his army to an i'm
mense extent, and is now rafting his cohorts
across the country to the banks of the Rio
Grande. What his designs are in doing this, no
one with certainty can foresee. 1t is certain
that he will not divulge them himself, except by
: means of some palpable demonstration in the
shape of march across the prescribed limits
Nothing can be expected of his good filth, and
all is to be feared from his treachery. His
whole course of life, from the massacre at San
Jaclnto TO his smuggled entry into Vera Cruz
during the last war, and from that time for
ward, has been full of the blacklist deceit and
double dealing in his intercourse with us Nor
does he pretend to disguise his bitter hatred to-
wards this country. Santa Anna worships but
one deity, and its personifcatiOn is his OWL
emolument He means something, certainly
by his belligerent preparations, and it may be-
come the Administration to be guarded in that
quarter
The embers of hatred that yet slumber in the
Mexican bosom, for the very eiiectual drubbina
which they got at our hands in the last quar-
rel, would require but little tanning to set
them in a blaze of war. They are an infatu-
ated people-ignorant, bigotcd, and controlled
by an artful priesthood--and no argument ii
required to convince them that they are more
A
believe now that they were not conquered, an'
that their want Of success was due more t
treachery and to untoward circumstances thai
to force Hence they would not be back war
in coming to hostilities
On the other hand we have Franklin Pierce
the representative of the Young American part
and the embodiment of g Manifest Destiny,
who, though opposed to fighting in person, ma
look upon it as very good game for the wiz
ming of glory, particularly when played b
means of victorious armies-himself keeping q
a distance, and, like Jobs war horse, :. snutiin
the battle afar off As an able coadjutor, j
has the Secretary at War, jefferson Davi
whose progressive predictions are most e2
pansiye in their aims, and who tancies the SINE
of gunpowder and is not afraid to sniff it in Ii
roar of battle.
These three together Franklin Pierc
spurred on by Young America, Davis to fi
by example his slumbering courage, and SAINT
Anna to provoke by obs:inacy and braYado-
and there is no telling when the pretensions
the two nations may be brought to the blood
arbitrament Of arms. Let us be patient an
wait