The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1858-01-24

render her strong and capable of sustaining all those re-
ations which might exist between her and other NATIONS
He held that there mysterious connehon peI"eoh
the fate of this country and that OF Mexico and That her
independence and respeotabiy, and eapabiity OF man
tanning all those relations almost as essential 10 US
as they were Mexico He held that Mexico was to us
forbidden fruit and that if should consume the fruit
IL would be almost tantamount to the political death Of
own institutions
1t was not Mexico alone, however, which he held
10 be forbidden fruit to One year after the
preston of the admirable sentiments we have just
quoted, our government was invited to send mil
iary force into Yucatan and to take permanent pos
session Of that country. This was while desperate
struggle going on between the white and Indian
races, the white authorities of the country making
The appeal for our assistance and interference.
The measure urged on the strong ground that,
if our government should not respond to the invita-
ton, some one of the European governments would
do So Great Britain especially and the question
presented was, not merely whether would EN-
brace this admirable opportunity of extending our
institutions into the central departments of the
tnent in pursuance of destiny and for the intrinsic
advantages of the measure but whether we should
not do so with view to preventing Great Britain
from obtaining possession of that country in violation
and defiance of the Monroe doctrine.
Mr.. Calhoun threw himself in opposition to this
measure in spite of all these considerations for
sons which, however may dissent from them, sui-
GENTLY Indicate the strength of his desire to avoid
violent or premature acquisition of those regions of
country by our confederacy Promising dissent
from his Interpretation of the Monroe doctrine, we
quote from the abstract given by the Globe of his
marks on the Presidents Yucatan message Of May,
l848:
"Mr Calhoun rose, and referred to the ground on
which the message of the President had placed the prop
oson now before the Senate prevent Yucatan from
becoming the colony of foreign power and to prevent
also the devastation of the country and the destruction
of the white inhabitants. He 1.-THE PRESIDENT had placed
proposed interference the ground of Mr. Monroe
declaration &c. &C., &C. Against all these points he
had after deep reflection made up his mind to record his
vote
o o
"He commended that the of Yucatan could not be
brought within the range of that declaration.
He glanced at the causes which led to declaration
Mr. Monroe @ o He denied that there was
any such principle in the declaration assumed by
the message of the President his views to be
ceved the true construction and they to be carried
out should be kept in constant state of There
arc cases in which he would be willing to interfere He
instanced the of Cuba So long that island
manned in the hands OF peaCcul natlOn ike Span we
ought to be content But he would consent to let
Cuba go the hands of any other European power be-
cause the transfer would be prejudcal to interests
In the of Texas he favored annexation. because
he clearly in his opinion that there might be in
reference the part of England which would involve
us in triple WARMTH England, with Texas, and Mex
co
"He had been asked if he would resist England in
she should attempt to relieve Yucatan, and should
take possession. He prepared to that he
would not-and this for irresistible reasons &c. &c. The
possession of her would not strengthen the facilities of
England To niure U.S. @ In the event
of our interference with Yucatan who fix the cost
the limitation of the war We might defeat the In
dans they would retire. and render it necessary that
we should pursue 1t would be repetition of the Semi
mole war @ He was opposed to it,
also because it involved violation of treaty with
Mexico"
We think the extracts we have here presented af-
ford a complete view of the policy which advo-
Gated by Mr.. Calhoun the subject of extending
our institutions southwark. We have produced
them for the benefit of the lustrious example, not
as entirely endorsing and coinciding with them in
every particular, but in the hope that they may
serve to temper the rashness and impetuosty which
rule so many of tho spirits of his section of the
Union at the present hour.