Wabash express. [volume] (Terre-Haute, Vigo Co[unty], Ind.) 1841-186?, 1860-05-30
Position of the Wing Party on the
Mexican War-Extract from Lin
coin Speech in Congress July
9th. 1848,

But as General Taylor is, par excel.
lence, the hero of the Mexican war
and as you Democrats say we Wings
have always opposed the war, you
think it must be very embarrassing for
US to 60 for General Taylor. The de-
claration that we have always opposed
the war is true or false, according as
one may understand the term "oppos-
ing the war" If to say "the war was
unnecessary and unconsLitutionally
commenced by the President" be OPP
posing the war, then the Wings have
very generally opposed it. Whenev.
er they have spoken at all. they have
said this; and they have said it on
what has appeared good reason to
them. The marching of an army into
the midst of a peaceful Mexican settle
ment, frightening the inhabitants away
leaving their growing crops, and 9TH
er property to destruction, to you may
appear perfectly amiable, peaceful,
unprovoking procedure; but it does
not appear so to US. So to call such
an act, to us appears no other than a
naked, impudent absurdity, and we
speak of it accordingly. But if, when
the war had begun, and had become
the cause of the country, the giving of
our money and our blood, in common
with yours, was support of the war,
then it is not true that we have always
opposed the war. With few individ-
ual exceptions, you have constantly
had our Votes here for the necessary
supplies. And, more than this, YOU
have had the services. the blood, and
the lives of our political bretheren in
every trial and on every field. The
beardless boy, and the mature man
the humble and the distinguished, you
have had them, and in battle they have
endured, and fought, and fell with you.
Clay and Webster each gave son,
never to be returned. From the State
of my own residence, besides other
worthy but less known Wing names,
we sent Marshall, Morrison, Bakeran
they all fought, and one fell,
and in the fall of that one, we lost our
best Wing man. Nor were the Wings
few in number, or laggard in the day |
Of danger. In that fearful, bloody, |
breathless struggle at Beuna Vista,
where each mans hard task was to |
beat back FIVE foes or die himself, of |
the five high officers who persisted,
four were Wings.
In speaking of this, 1 mean no obi
Gus comparison between the lion
hearted Wings and Democrats who
fought there. On other occasions,
and among the lower officers and pri-
Yates on that occasion, doubt not the
was different. Iwish to do
Justice to all. l think of all those
brave men as Americans, in whose
proud fame, as an American, L too
have share. Many of them. Wings |
and Democrats, are my constituents
and personal friends; and / thank them
-one and all, for the high imperishable |
honor they have conferred on our COM
mon State.
But the distinction between the
cause of the President in beginning
the war, and the cause of the country
after it was begun, is a distinction
which you cannot perceive. To you,
the President, and the contry, seem to
be all one. You are interested to see
no distinction between them; and |
venture to suggest that possibly your
interest blinds you little. We see
the distinction, as we think, clearly
enough; and our friends who have
fought in the war have no difficulty in
seeing it also. What those who have
fallen would say, were they aeve and
here, OF course we can never know
but with those who have returned
there is no difficulty. Col. Haskell
and Major Gaines, members here,
both fought in the Mexican iwar
and one of them underwent extraordi
nary perils and hardships still they,
like other Wings here, vote on the re-
cord that the war was unnecessary,
and unconstitutionally commenced by /
the President. And even General
TAYLOR himself, the noblest Roman of 1
them all, has declared that, as citi
zen, and particularly as soldier, it is
sufficient for him to know that his |
country is at war with a foreign ma
ton, to do all in his power to bring it
to a speedy and honorable termination,
by the most vigorous and energetic
operations, without ENDURING about
its justice, or anything else connected
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