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I SPEECH 
 
 HON. F. P. STANTON, OF TENNESSEE, 
 
 IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MARCH 14, 1848. 
 
 On the Message of the President "transmitting Doc- 
 uments in relation to the return of Santa Anna 
 and Paredes to Mexico, and refusing to furnish 
 the Instructions given Mr. Slidell, as requested 
 by a Resolution of the House of the 4th of Janu- 
 ary, 1848. 
 
 Mr. STANTON said : Mr. Speaker, if it were 
 my purpose to reply to the argument of the gentle- 
 man from Mississippi, who has just taken his seat, 
 the character and extent of the subjects introduced 
 by him would give me an unlimited field for the 
 ■discussion of every question connected with the 
 Mexican war. But I do not rise now to answer 
 particularly the speech of that gentleman. Nor 
 do I propose to direct my remarks exclusively to 
 the message of the President, now under consid- 
 eration, in which he states the most satisfactory 
 reasons for refusing information called for by a 
 resolution of this House. My purpose is to give 
 my views generally upon the present condition of 
 affairs as connected with the existing war, and to 
 show the responsibility which justly attaches to 
 the conduct and bearing of the two political parties 
 which control the destinies of this country. In 
 doing this, however, it will come properly within 
 the scope of my remarks incidentally to defend the 
 position assumed by the President, from the severe 
 assaults which have been made upon it by the 
 gentleman from Mississippi, [Mr. Tompkins,] and 
 others, who have taken part in this debate. 
 
 The treaty which is now known to have been 
 submitted to the Senate of the United States, and 
 ratified, with some modifications, by tjjat body, 
 is yet to be submitted to the Mexican Congress for 
 its ratification. We are by no means sure that its 
 action will be favorable. We cannot, therefore, 
 properly consider things in the same light in which 
 we should view them, if the existence of peace 
 were absolutely certain. Consequently, every ques- 
 tion which would have been legitimately the sub- 
 ject of consideration before the arrival of the 
 treaty, may still, with great propriety, enter into 
 our present discussions. 
 
 The gentleman from Mississippi, [Mr. Tomp- 
 kins,] in reviewing the message now on your table, 
 has taken occasion to brand the President with the 
 charge of a gross usurpation of power in the com- 
 mencement of the existing war. There is nothing 
 novel in this grave imputation. It is only another 
 edition of what we have heard a thousand times 
 asserted on this floor, and as often endeavored to 
 be sustained by^every variety of argument which 
 the minds of ingenious gentlemen could invent. 
 To prove this charge against the President, amount- 
 ing to little less than actual treason, seems, from 
 their arguments, to be the leading motive of gen- 
 
 Printed at the Congresaional Globe Office. 
 
 tlemen in endeavoring to force from the President 
 a premature disclosure of the secret correspondence 
 of the State Department with our minister in Mex- 
 ico. Of the constitutionality of the President's 
 course in refusing the information, there can be no 
 question. There is no clause in the Constitution 
 requiring him to respond to the calls of either 
 House of Congress. It is his duty to consult the 
 Senate in matters of foreign negotiation, and it is 
 obviously proper for him to give to his Senatoria 
 advisers every item of information which wil 
 enable them to act understandingly. There are 
 cases, however, in which he may, and the Presi- 
 dent often does, withhold many facts from them. 
 When the House of Representatives, which does 
 not occupy the same confidential and advisory 
 relation to the President, calls upon him for infor- 
 mation, it is his solemn duty to consider whether 
 the communication can be safely made with due 
 regard to the true interests of the country. In de- 
 termining this question, he acts jupon his own 
 responsibility and at his own periL But it is in all 
 cases a question of expediency Alone. /There is no 
 constitutional or legal obligation depriving him of 
 all discretion in a matter oftentimes so grave and. 
 important in its bearing upon the public weal. 1 
 shall endeavor to show, Mr. Speaker, that, under 
 present circumstances — our country engaged in a 
 foreign war, and parties at home bitterly divided 
 upon all the questions connected with it — there are 
 the strongest possible grounds of expediency, pal- 
 pable to us who do not know the nature of the 
 correspondence sought to be made public, render- 
 ing it a matter of imperious necessity that our 
 secret negotiations should not be exposed to the 
 eye of the world. 
 
 The very arguments adduced by the honorable 
 gentlemen who attack the principles of this mes- 
 sage, would of themselves convince me of the per- 
 fect propriety of the President's course, even if he 
 were not fortified by the authority of Washington,, 
 and others who have worthily occupied the seat 
 which was sanctified by *' the Father of his Coun- 
 try. " It is asserted that the President is the author 
 of this war, and that the information called for is 
 necessary to enable the gentlemen who make the 
 accusation, successfully to brand him as its author, 
 and to throw all its responsibility on his shoulders- 
 This, sir, is the patriotic spirit m which this novel 
 doctrine is urged at the present crisis ! I wish to 
 inquire whether this spirit ought to be gratified. 
 And, in order to do this properly, I will advert 
 briefly to the history of this war, especially in its 
 relation to the conduct of those who now com- 
 plain of the President for refusing the infarmation 
 sought. 
 
Whatever may have been the circumstances 
 attending the commencement of the war, whatever 
 may have been its true cause, and whoever may 
 be responsible for its origin, there is one fact which 
 cannot be disputed — there is one great proposition 
 which admits of nodiscussion. Itisthis: that from 
 the 13th May, 1846, the war became our country's 
 war, solemnly sanctioned by every department of 
 the Government, and by every legal and constitu- 
 tional form known to the fundamental laws of the 
 land. This law of the 13th May, 1846, declared 
 that the war was commenced " by the act of Mexi- 
 co.'" I believe that solemn declaration to have been 
 strictly true. But, true or not true, the acts of the 
 President up to that time, whatever they may have 
 been, were not only justified, but sanctioned, adopt- 
 ed, and made the actsof the American Government. 
 By every high requisite of legislation, and by the 
 constitutional action and concurrence of every de- 
 partment of the Government, the existing war was 
 acknowledged, approved, and assumed, and all the 
 power of the United States was authorized to be 
 exerted in its prosecution. Tell me not, gentlemen 
 on the other side of this Chamber, tell me not of 
 your objections to the preamble of that act; tell me 
 not that you and your party associates of the other 
 House voted for it only to relieve Gen. Taylor from 
 his dangerous position. Let this be so, and still it 
 does not affect my position in the least. Say, if 
 you will, it was all done by the Democrats — that 
 you objected to the preamble, and they forced you 
 -to take the bill as it was. Still, it was none the less 
 the country's war. The Government, by a con- 
 stitutional majority of the representatives of the 
 people and of the States, was none the less fully 
 and absolutely committed. It is in respect to a 
 war thus comr^enced, and thus assumed by every 
 department of this Government, proceeding by 
 every solemn legal and constitutional mode, that 
 such declarations as we have listened to from the 
 gentleman from Mississippi and others were sent 
 forth to the enemy and to the world. 
 
 But you, who voted for the first act recognizing 
 the war, may justify yourselves as you can. So 
 large a force — ten millions of money and fifty thou- 
 sand men — was scarcely necessary to relieve Gen- 
 eral Taylor; and the terms of tlie bill itself indicate 
 but too clearly that such was but an unimportant 
 part of its purpose. But your conduct at the sub- 
 sequent session of Congress leaves you no escape. 
 No flimsy excuse of a similar kind will save you 
 from your full share of responsibility for the war 
 measures of that session. What was then the 
 condition of things ? Our victorious army was 
 then in the heart of t'^e enemy's country, waging 
 .a war of invasion with great success. The Presi- 
 (dent's message gave us a very clear and satisfac- 
 rtory statement of the results, which, up to that 
 .time, had been accomplished, and of the objects to 
 ,be accomplished by tiie further prosecution of the 
 .war. With all these statements before your eyes, 
 yc-u assisted in supplying men and money. You 
 charged the President v/ith views of conquest; 
 yoLi denounced his policy in strong terms; yet you 
 voted the supplies. I will read from the Presi- 
 dent's message to show how fully we were in- 
 formed of all that had been done, and all that was 
 proposed to be accomplished. The Executive 
 said: 
 
 <' I ecngratulate you on the success which has thus attend- 
 ed our uulitary and naval operations. In les3 than seven 
 
 months after Mexico commenced hostilities,* at a time de- 
 lected by herself, we have taken possession of many of her 
 principal ports, driven back and pursued her invadingarmy^ 
 and acquired military possession of tlie Mexican provinces 
 of New Mexico, Nevv Leon, Coaliuila,Tamaulipas, and the 
 Californias, a territory larger in extent than that emhraeed 
 in the original thirteen States of the Union, iniiabited by a 
 consideralde population, and much of it more than a thou- 
 sand miles from tlie points at which we had to collect our 
 forces and commence our movements. By the blockad*, 
 the import and export trade of the enemy lias been cut off" 
 
 So much as to the result of our operations, and 
 the extent of our conquests up to that time. 1 will 
 now read some short extracts explanatory of the 
 objects for which he demanded the means of still 
 further prosecuting the war. He said: 
 
 "The war has not been waged with a view to conquest; 
 but, having been commenced by Mexico, it has been carried 
 into the enemy's country, and will be vigorously prosecuted 
 there, with a view to obtain an honorable peace, and tliere- 
 by secure ample indemnity for the expenses of the war, as 
 well as to our much-injured citizens, who hold large pecu- 
 niary demands against Mexico." * * * * 
 
 " it may be proper to provide for the security of these im- 
 portant conquests, by making an adequate appropriation for 
 the purpose of erecting fortifications, and defraying the ex- 
 penses necessarily incident to the maintenance of our pos- 
 session and authority over them." * * * * 
 
 "Among our just causes of complaint against Mexico, 
 arising out of her refusal to treat for peace, as well before as 
 since the war so unjustly commenced on her part, are, the 
 extraordinary expenditures in which we have been involved. 
 Justice to our own people will make it proper that Mexico 
 should be held responsible for these expenditures." 
 
 I repeat, sir, that with these facts before their 
 eyes — with a full knowledge of the extent of the 
 conquests already made, and the purposes design- 
 ed by the Administration, the members of the Op- 
 position on this f^oor very generally voted for the 
 bills introduced in accordance with the Presiden- 
 tial recommendation. But, sir, these expositions 
 by the President, clear and unequivocal as they 
 v/ere, did not constitute the whole of the informa- 
 tion then before that Congress. General Scott had 
 gone to take command of the army in Mexico, and 
 it was Vv'ell known that an important opetation was 
 about to be undertaken — nothing less than the re- 
 duction of Vera Cruz and its almost impregnable 
 castle, and thus to open a way to the very capital of 
 Mexico itself. Gentlemen did not hesitate to refer 
 to these palpable demonstrations, and to denounce 
 the policy of the Administration as tending to con- 
 quests the rnost extensive as well as the most un- 
 just. And yet, strange to say, most of those very 
 gentlemen voted for the men and money demanded 
 by the President to carry out the very policy 
 plainly exhibited in the message, and to accom- 
 plish the magnificent military projects, the prepara- 
 tions for which were apparent to the whole world. I 
 have before me the vote on one of the leading acts 
 of the last session, known as " the ten-regiment 
 bill." The vote is 35 to 170— less than one-fifth 
 of the whole House voting against it; and many 
 of them, doubtless, because they preferred some 
 other mode of raising the force proposed. Among 
 the majority, I find the name of every Whig from 
 the State of Tennessee. I may, therefore, say, 
 without any inaccuracy, that the great mass of that 
 party in this House endorsed the policy of the 
 President, and assisted him, by their votes at least, 
 in carrying it out. It might be inferred from this, 
 sir, that they had spoken and otherwise acted 
 consistently with their votes at that session. But 
 unfortunately this was not the case. Look over 
 the debates of that session of Congress, and what a 
 picture is presented to the eye of the patriot ! 
 
3 
 
 I have nothing to do with the motives of honor- 
 able gentlemen who took f)art in those proceed- 
 ings. I deal with fixcts alone — facts which I am 
 certain will not be dispiited, because they are re- 
 corded in the debates of Congress and in the jour- 
 nals of the covnitry,and have become a part of the 
 authentic history of the period. It is true that 
 •many gentlemen on the other side of tliis Hall were 
 voting men and money; but at the same time they 
 were denouncing the war as wrong and unjust on 
 our part; these denunciations reached the enemy, 
 inspired him with hope, and gave energy and ob- 
 stinacy to his resistance. There was not a word 
 Tittered in this House, and reverijerating among 
 these marble columns and through these lofiy 
 arches, that was not instant!}' wafted to the hills 
 and valleys of Mexico, and made to resound 
 through the length and breadth of that hostile land, 
 encouraging the hearts of the people, and nerving 
 their arms for the struggle. I do not intend to 
 charge these gentlemen with treason, actual or 
 constructive. They have the right here to say 
 what they please — to give free and unqualified 
 utterance to their opinions and feelings, whatever 
 they may be. This is the freedom of speech which, 
 like the freedom of the press, is one of the most 
 valuable and cherished privileges of the American 
 people. But, sir, while the use of this privilege is 
 unrestricted, and propei-ly so, it is always exer- 
 cised under the gravest responsibility for its abuse. 
 When I speak of responsibility, I mean responsi-. 
 bility to the people — to that public sentiment of 
 this country which weighs tlie actions and the 
 words of public men, and holds their authors to a 
 solemn account for the consequences of what they 
 say and do. The words used by the President — 
 *' giving aid and comfort to the enemy" — have 
 been the occasion for loud reproaches and denun- 
 ciations against that officer. I do not intend to 
 adopt these words, since they seem to be so un- 
 palatable to the taste of those gentlemen who take 
 them to themselves. But, if the House will per- 
 mit me, I will endeavor to look coolly and calmly 
 back upon the doings and sayings of gentlemen in 
 this House particularly, and show the character of 
 their acts, and the consequences necessarily and 
 Jegiiimately resulting from them. I desire to deal 
 fairly with the subject, and I challenge the scrutiny 
 of gentlemen to facts v;hich 1 state, and the infer- 
 ences I <lraw from them. 
 
 I beijin, Mr. Speaker, by asserting the fact, as 
 xtraordinary and astounding as it is undeniable, 
 that, from the remote origin of this war down to 
 the present moment, gentlemen on the other side 
 of this House, with few exceptions, have either 
 passed in silence or boldly approved what Mexico 
 has done, and have uniformly denounced in the 
 strongest terms the policy of their own Govern- 
 ment. Speech after speech, in oneincessantstream, 
 has been poured into the public ear, bitterly con- 
 demning a war which I have shown to have been 
 sanctioned and assumed, in every legal form, by 
 every department of the Government. Gentlemen 
 have ranged the whole field of argument — they 
 have sifted all the acts of the Executive — they have 
 criticised all its diplomatic and military correspond- 
 ence — and they seem to have had eyes only for the 
 fancied errors of their own Government, and none 
 for the real crimes of the enemy. 
 
 When the cloud of war first became visible — 
 when it was no larger than a man's hand — the dec- 
 
 larations were rife and loudly uttered, that Mexico 
 had been aggrieved in the annexation of Texas; 
 that she had just ground of complaint; in short, 
 that we had committed a hostile act, and necessa- 
 rily taken the Mexican war upon our own shoul- 
 ders. Such were the greetings of those gentlemen 
 1 to the Mexican Government. Did they tend to 
 pacify the enemy? Did they tend to bring about 
 an honorable adjustment of all difficulties between 
 the contending parties? Far from it. Mexico 
 took the word from the lips of our statesmen. She 
 witlidrew her minister from Washington; and that 
 functionary, as he departed, flung in our face an 
 insulting threat of war. Have we ever heard any 
 gentleman of the opposite party speak in terms of 
 indignation, or even of weak disapproval, in refer- 
 ence to this important part of the great drama? 
 No, sir ! This transaction seems to be overlooked 
 and forgotten; and all the denunciations of the 
 gentlemen are reserved for their own country. 
 
 The Executive sought to reopen negotiations 
 with Mexico, and that Government, through Mr. 
 Black, pledged itself to receive our minister. One 
 was accordingly sent, with full power to adjust all 
 questions. How was he received? The corre- 
 spondence is before the world, and it exhibits the 
 most contemptible quibbling on the part of Mexico 
 that ever disgraced a civilized government. And 
 how have these transactions been treated here by 
 gentlemen in the Opposition? Have they fourxd 
 anything to blame in the conduct of Mexico? 
 Nothino; whatever. On the contrary, they have 
 adopted that miserable quibble by which Mexico 
 insisted that we should have sent a commissioner 
 instead of a minister plenipotentiary. They have 
 questioned the integrity and sincerity of their own 
 Executive, when manifestly striving, to obtain 
 peace; while they have excused, palliated, and 
 defended the conduct of Mexico, while she was 
 boldly rejecting the only means of amicable ad- 
 justment. In quoting the correspondence on this 
 subject, these gentlemen have microscopic eyes for 
 every sentence of a conciliatory character written 
 by t e Mexican authorities, while they are utterly 
 blind to their insulting denunciations and bold 
 threats of war. The former are quoted and re- 
 quoted, and sent to the people in all shapes and 
 forms through their thousand printed speeches, 
 while the latter are absolutely overlooked, omit- 
 ted, and thus entirely suppressed. 
 
 The Mexican Government insists, that instead 
 of a minister plenipotentiary, we ought to have 
 sent a commissioner, with power to treat of the 
 Texas question alone. What do the Opposition 
 here say to this? Do they make the obvious re- 
 ply, that the minister has power to treat of this 
 as well as all other questions, and that he was 
 ready to listen to propositions of any sort they 
 might choose to present? Not a word of the kind ! 
 They side with the Mexican diplomatists. They 
 adopt the Mexican view of the subject. They 
 seem to admit, by their course of argument, that 
 the American Government ought to have yieltled 
 to this demand, and excluded the great question 
 of indemnity for Mexican spoliations from the 
 negotiations about to be entered upon. They go 
 further than this. They say, in effect, that our 
 minister ought not to have had the power to treat 
 of indemnity — that Mexican perversity and obsti- 
 nacy should have been so far humored, that we 
 ought, in advance, to have stipulated and pro- 
 
claimed that our minister was not to be allowed to 
 set up any claim for our long-suifering-, plundered 
 citizens. The world knows that "these shifts 
 of the Mexican Government were but hollow pre- 
 texts and shallow subterfuges. Yet gentlemen here 
 gravely sustain them. The fault, in their judg- 
 ment, is all on our side. I have not heard one of 
 them allude to these facts as any palliation, as any 
 plausible excuse or reasonable provocation, for the 
 conduct of our own Government. Mexico, in the 
 eyes of these gentlemen, seems to be right in every- 
 thing, while we are always wrong. The Mexi- 
 cans object to the character of one of the attaches 
 of the legation. The gentleman from Mississippi 
 [Mr. ToMPKiNsJ insists that we should submit to 
 her dictation in this particular. The Government 
 of Herrera, no doubt honestly disposed to peace, 
 was trembling in the first breath of the popular 
 hurricane which soon precipitated the war, and it 
 was palpable to all eyes that no administration 
 there could safely engage in negotiations for peace. 
 Yet the Opposition here will neither see nor admit 
 the force of this fact. Determined to throw the 
 whole burden of wrong upon their own country, 
 they openly or tacitly endorse all the equivocations 
 and pretences, all the absurd claims and extrava- 
 gant demands, of a wicked and infatuated enemy. 
 These are the gentlemen, sir, who now denounce 
 the President for not exposing to their view and 
 that of the world the secret and confidential cor- 
 respondence of the Government with its own min- 
 ister, and that, too, while the war is still unended 
 and negotiations incomplete ! Is it to be wondered , 
 sir, that under these circumstances, when the in- 
 formation sought might be used for the benefit of 
 the common enemy, the President, in the exer- 
 cise of a wise and patriotic discretion, refused to 
 make the exposure, even upon the call of this 
 House.' 
 
 But, sir, I turn to another portion of the history 
 of this war. I look to the fatal and decisive oc- 
 currences on the Rio Bravo. And how have these 
 been treated by the Opposition here? We might 
 justly expect to behold a different picture; but un- 
 fortunately the colors are unchanged, even by the 
 blood of American citizens who fell at Palo Alto 
 and Resaca. Mexico had repeatedly threatened 
 war, in the proclamations of her Executives, 
 through the mouths of her ministers, in the orders 
 of her generals, in all forms and shapes which the 
 warning could assume, avowing her intention to 
 reconquer Texas. That was the declared object 
 of all her movements. But gentlemen on the other 
 side seemed to have no ears for these loud and re- 
 peated declarations. No; the trump of war was 
 ringing through the mountains and valleys of Mex- 
 ico. But you were deaf to these notes of prepara- 
 tion. Mexican generals were calling their forces 
 to thefieli; they were marshalling their armies ; 
 and finally they begun to march them down upon 
 the devoted people of Texas. You were blind to 
 these movements; you were silent amidst them all. 
 I remember well when an honorable gentleman 
 from Pennsylvania, [Mr. C. J. Ingersoll,] during 
 the first session of the last Congress, told us that 
 while these things were transpiring before the eyes 
 of the world, he had written a private letter to the 
 President, pointing out these warlike preparations, 
 and advising him, instead of waiting for the inva- 
 sion, to cross the Rio Bravo, attack the Mexicans 
 on their march, and scatter them before they were 
 
 ready to strike a blow against Texas.* There was^ 
 good sense in this advice. But you had no eyes 
 for the military movements of Mexico. You could 
 see nothing but the movement of our own army 
 from Corpus Christi to the Rio Bravo. Not a word> 
 to my knowledge, ever escaped your lips against 
 
 * I mean now to take higher ground; and with great def- 
 erence submit a constitutional position, which requires no 
 more for its establishment than that the territory between 
 the Nueces and the Bravo was at least disputed ground ; that 
 we claimed it ; and that the President, in ordering General 
 Taylor to the neighborhood of Matamoros, knew that, if not 
 our indisputable territory, at any rate, our negotiations for 
 many years— ever since the purciiase of Louisiana — and our 
 recent legislation, considered it as ours. Tliat fact cannot 
 be denied. Granting, for argument's sake, that Mexico claim- 
 ed it too, and considered it hers, I contend that it was the 
 President's constitutional right and duty to prevent Mexico 
 from expelling Texas from the territory in dispute. Having 
 examined the subject when General Taylor was first ordered 
 there, I took the liberty of advising Mr. Polk that his right 
 and policy were, not to await Mexican forces on this side of 
 the Bravo, but to order our commander to cross that river, 
 meet, and crush the invaders on their own soil. When they 
 passed the Rubicon, we should have crossed the Bravo. The 
 second clause of the tenth section of the first article of the 
 Constitution of the United Slates provides, that no State 
 "shall engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such 
 imminent danger as will not admit of dclay.'^ That was 
 precisely the predicament of the State of Texas. And her 
 ciinstituted authorities, instead of engaging in war single- 
 handed, called ou the President for protection. General 
 Arista, with some two thousand troops, was at Matamoros. 
 General Ampudia, with some two thousand more, was on his 
 way thither, avowedly to join Arista, and together connnit 
 hostilities. War was declared at the Mexican ca()ital. I think 
 it cannot be denied that the State of Texas, by the Consti- 
 tution of the United States, was authorized to " engage in 
 war" with Mexico — a war of self-defence. If so, was not 
 the President, called on by that State for protection against 
 Mexican invasion, authorized, as Texas certainly was, to 
 repel the invader? The two acts of Congress on this sub- 
 ject, of May 2, 1792, and made perpetual by that of February 
 2S, 1795, are explicit, "that whenever the United States shall 
 'be in imminent danger of invasion from any foreign nation, 
 'it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to 
 ' call forth such number of the militia as he mav judge neces- 
 'saryto repel such invasion." The distinction is broadly 
 drawn by the Constitution, and these laws which carry it 
 out, between actual and imminent danger of invasion. The 
 Executive is as much authorized to act in the case of danger 
 as in that of actuality; and the state power to " engage in 
 war" is, in like manner, marked by this distinction. The 
 President's is an extreme power, no doubt, to be most care- 
 fully exercised. President Polk is a prudent man, and was 
 alive to the dread responsibility of his situation. It was 
 much easier for me to advise than for him to do what I ad- 
 vised over the Bravo. But I submit, far in advance of the 
 question of boundary with which it has been attempted ta 
 bind him, that, in the exercise of a sound and fair discretion, 
 looking to all the circumstances, he would have been jus- 
 tified in ordering General Taylor to cross the boundary,^ 
 whether acknowledged or disputed, anticipate the threat- 
 ened attack, carry the war into the enemy's country, and, 
 by prevention, put a stop to it. He thought otherwise, and 
 I do not presume to censure him. Still I believe, that if 
 Geneial Taylor, with his some three thousand troops, had 
 been ordered to attack General Arista, with some two thou- 
 sand, at Mitamiros, and had demolished him before General 
 Ampudia joined with two thousand more, who, in the event 
 of Arista's overthrow, might then have been crashed too, by 
 this anticipation of the imminent danger, it would all have 
 vanished, and there would probably have been no more 
 tr (ubie vvitli Mexico. Will it be contended, as I ventured 
 to illustrate my argument to the President, that if Mexico had 
 a naval squadron equal to ours there, and it was seen sail- 
 ing down to attack ours, colors flying, guns loaded, and alt 
 cleared fur action, that ours must lie at anchor till assailed, 
 and not, till some hundreds of our people had been slaugh- 
 tered, return the blow.' It cannot be that such an absurdity 
 is law. The military principle, that a connnander, having 
 reason to apprehend that he is about to be attJickcd, is safest 
 by anticipating the assault and becoming the assailant, is 
 true, even in the controversy of debate. It is universal wis- 
 dom, and as such, ingrafted on our Constitution and laws. — 
 [Extract from the speech of Mr. C. J. Jni;en<o/Z, in. the Housi 
 of Representatives^ delivered idth January, 1847. 
 
5 
 
 this open preparation of hostile armies, made with 
 the avowed purpose of entering our country and 
 taking possession of it up to the Sabine. All the 
 thunders of your denunciation are reserved for the 
 defensive military movements of your own Govern- 
 ment. Incessant and unmeasured have been your 
 curses upon the head of the Executive, for the peace- 
 ful march of our army to the vicinity of Matamoros. 
 
 And how has it been, sir, in reference to the 
 disputed territory, as it has been called, between 
 the Nueces and the Bravo? Scarcely a voice has 
 been heard on that side of the House to maintain 
 our right to the territory in question. But Mexi- 
 can claims have always found among those gentle- 
 men ready and eloquent defenders. The most 
 flagrant and unjust conduct of that Government 
 has been excused with all the zeal and ingenuity 
 of an advocate pleading for his client. Yet Mex- 
 ico herself has never, to my knowledge, placed the 
 existing controversy between us upon the ground 
 of our invasion of that disputed territory. From 
 the beginning she has insisted upon her title to the 
 whole of Texas, and she has never ceased to urge 
 her claim to that extent. An honorable gentleman 
 from Massachusetts [Mr. Ashmun] suggested the 
 other day, while a gentleman from Connecticut 
 [Mr. Truman Smith] was addressing the House, 
 that the fifteen or twenty millions stipulated in the 
 recent treaty to be paid to Mexico was partly in 
 consideration of her surrender of Texas. It is 
 true, sir, that she has never abandoned that absurd 
 claim. Gentlemen here have placed in her mouth 
 the argument drawn from the disputed territory; 
 they have given her a position of apparent strength 
 which she did not herself pretend to assume. 
 They have made for her a stronger and belter de- 
 fence than she ever attempted to make for herself, 
 at least until after she had received the suggestion 
 from them. 
 
 Every kind of sophistry has been put in requi- 
 sition to enforce the condemnation of our own 
 country. Witness the argument of an honorable 
 gentleman from Florida, who addressed the House 
 the other day. He referred to the Oregon question, 
 and contrasted the course of the President in that 
 affair with his conduct in this Mexican difficulty. 
 The President, said he, could invade the disputed 
 territory when Mexico was concerned, but dared 
 not do so when England was our antagonist. By 
 this argument, it is clearly implied that the two 
 cases are parallel. But how are they in truth? 
 England was peaceable; Mexico was threatening 
 war. England had not broken off diplomatic rela- 
 tions; Mexico had. The British minister was in 
 this city maintaining friendly and courteous inter- 
 course with our Government; and our minister was 
 quietly residin2: in London, and peaceably negotia- 
 tinij with the British Cabinet. Mexico had insult- 
 ingly rejected our diplomatic agents, refused even 
 to listen to any terms of peace, and commenced 
 open preparations for war. And yet gentlemen 
 argue as if the cases were parallel, and as if the 
 conduct of the President ought to have been the 
 same in both. Sir, there mii^ht be some palliation 
 for tlie use of false arguments to susti\in the honor 
 of the country; but when such sophistry as this 
 is used, for the purpose of placing our own Gov- 
 ernment in the wrong, and thus staining its honor, 
 I know not upon what principle gentlemen can 
 hope to excuse themselves before the peaple who^e 
 servants they are. 
 
 I appeal to gentlemen on all sides — to all who 
 have witnessed the debates from the beginning, 
 whether such has not been the character of the 
 arguments uniformly presented on that side of the 
 House. Every coloring has been given to the facts 
 which could present the United States before the 
 world as acting a part the most wantonly unjust 
 and oppressive; while, to say the least, the most 
 forbearing silence has been maintained towards the 
 misconduct of Mexico. 
 
 Again, sir, it is argued that our Government 
 committed a great outrage in marching the army 
 into the disputed territory. But General Taylor 
 found the enemy's forces there, who had evidently 
 been sent in anticipation of the conflict, and as the 
 advance guard of the Mexican army. Yet gentle- 
 men have never denounced Mexico for invading 
 the disputed territory. They freely acknowledge 
 for her the existence of rights in the disputed terri- 
 tory, which they will not allow to their own coun- 
 try. No voice was heard to condemn this hostile 
 movement on the part of the enemy; but every spe- 
 cies of violent repi'ehension is exhausted to blacken 
 the character of a counteracting measure, on the 
 part of the commander-in-chief of our army. 
 
 And what has been the course of argument pur- 
 sued by these gentlemen in reference to the bound- 
 ary line ? To them, sir, it imports nothing that 
 Santa Anna acknowledged the Rio Bravo to be the 
 boundary by the treaty of San Jacinto, in which 
 important advantages were yielded to Mexico and 
 accepted by her, while she refused to perform her 
 part of the bargain. It is nothing to them that 
 Mexican genera's, in their negotiaUons upon the 
 bloody field, have stipulated to withdraw their 
 forces beyond the Bravo as the boundary of Texas. 
 It is nothing that Mexican leaders, in their procla- 
 mations, have solemnly declared that all the inhab- 
 itants of Texas, within one league of the Bravo, 
 were to be treated as enemies. It is nothing that 
 Texas has uniformly maintained her jurisdiction 
 on the Lower Bravo, organizing counties, estab- 
 lishing land offices, collection districts, and post- 
 roads, and traversing the territory with a well-ap- 
 pointed regiment of unresisted soldiers. All these 
 important acts are nothing; nor is it of any avail, 
 in their eyes, that Texas, by her act of 1836, 
 declared the Bravo to be her boundary, and was 
 admitted as a sovereign State of this Union with 
 that declaration fully known to us, and anxious to 
 be maintained by her. I quote a passage from the 
 late speech of Mr, Calhouv, as high authority 
 upon this question of boundary, sustaining the fact 
 that Texas has maintained her jurisdiction over 
 this territory. He says: 
 
 '• From the Passo del Norte to the mouth of the river, a 
 distance of a few hundred miles, a single fact will show 
 what little force will be necessary to its defence. It was a 
 frontier between Texas and Mexico, when the former had 
 but an incon-iderable population — not more than a hundred 
 and fifiy thousand at the utmost, at any time— with no 
 stnndi nil army, and but very few irregular troops; yet, for 
 several years" she maintained this line without any, except 
 slisht occasional intrusion from Mexico, and that, too, when 
 Mexico was far more consolidated in her power, and when 
 revoluiions were not so frequent, and her money resources 
 were far greater than at present. If, then, Texas alone, 
 under such circumstances, could defend that frontier for so 
 long a p Miod, can any man believe that now, when she is 
 barked by the whole of the United States, now that Mexico 
 is exhausted, defeated, and prostrated— I repeat can any 
 man believe that it would involve as great a sacrifice to us 
 of men and money to defend that frontier as did the last 
 campaign ? 
 
 Mr. Calhoun is no supporter of the Administration 
 
6 
 
 in this war, yet he cannot dispute the Texan claim 
 to this territory. But why need 1 quote anything 
 to convince gentlemen who seem determined to see 
 nothing which is calculated to relieve the Admin- 
 istration from blame? They say the resolutions 
 of annexation left the boundary question open, 
 therefore the President had no right to assume the 
 Bravo as the line. In vain we insist that the Ex- 
 ecutive was bound to know no other line until a 
 new one was established by the treaty-making 
 power of this Government, in conjunction witli 
 that of Mexico. Congress had no power to declare 
 what was the line of Texas. No other power on 
 earth could do so but the sovereign State of Texas 
 herself, unless Mexico and the United States should 
 establish it by treaty. But Mexico refused to treat. 
 She disdained to enter into negotiations about a 
 paltry strip of land, when she claimed an empire. 
 What could the President do ? Must he adopt the 
 line claimed by Mexico? Then he would have 
 retreated to the Sabine. He had no alternative, 
 when Mexico refused to negotiate, but to assume 
 the line v/hich the sovereign State of Texas claimed 
 when she entered this Confederacy. But all this 
 is of no consequence to the honorable gentlemen 
 on the otlier side. They can see no shadow of 
 right in Texas to the territory claimed by her, and 
 nothing in the circumstances of the whole case to 
 palliate the conduct of their own Government. It 
 IS utterly incomprehensible to me, that gentlemen, 
 with all the facts before them, can find nothing in 
 all the conduct of Mexico to reprehend. Why is 
 it so ? Is it that party spirit has obtained complete 
 mastery in the minds of the Opposition? Has it 
 come to this, that gentlemen care not how much 
 they blacken the reputation of their own Govern- 
 ment in the eyes of the world, provided they can 
 break down the Administration which conducts 
 it? 
 
 We might well suppose, sir, that this was the 
 end of the chapter. But not so. I well remember 
 when, in the last Congress, a distinguished gen- 
 tleman from Virginia, not now, I am sorry to say, 
 rejoicing in the distinctive appellation of " the lone 
 star" which he then bore, made a labored effort 
 hereto prove thatMexico had been guilty of no spo- 
 liations on the property of our citizens, or, at most, 
 to a very inconsiderable extent — an extent far less 
 than we were disposed to claim. Yet the fact was 
 known to the world; it had been, to some extent, 
 acknowledged by Mexico herself, and it was never, 
 to my knowledge, disputed, until this gentleman 
 arose in the American Congress to prove that 
 Mexico had done us little harm and deserved no 
 chastisenient at our hands. But this is not the 
 last link in that unbroken chain of denunciation of 
 our own Government, which has extended from 
 the beginning of this difficulty down to the present 
 hour, and which I fear will not cease till the Ides 
 of November shall have passed. No occasion has 
 ever been lost to those honorable gentlemen, for 
 the presentation and dissemination of arguments 
 of this kind in derogation of the justice of our 
 cause. But the last and most extraordinary stage 
 of this proceeding — the very acme and crowning 
 point of all its madness — has been reached only 
 during the present session of Congress. 
 
 What was the state of things at the opening of 
 this session? Our gallant army, by the bravest 
 deeds on the records of the world, had cut its way 
 to the city of Mexico itself. The enemy was in- 
 
 deed prostrate, but was still hostile and breathing 
 vengeance. Under these circumstances, the Presi- 
 dent called upon us to appropriate money and au- 
 thorize the raising of men, in order to carry the war 
 still further and to compel Mexico to accept terms 
 of honorable peace. But what has been the course 
 of the Opposition ? Have they adopted the sug- 
 gestions of the President? No! The same argu- 
 ments and the same denunciations of our own 
 country and its Government have been continued, 
 for the purpose, no doubt, of operating on the 
 Presidential election. Instead of voting the men 
 and money demanded, they paused to inquire into 
 the origin of the war, and to denounce it as utterly 
 unjust in its commencement, and, in its prosecu- 
 tion , looking to conquest alone. These gentlemen 
 proposed nothing — they did nothing. They made 
 no movement to grant men and money for the 
 further prosecution of the war; nor, on the other 
 hand, did they propose to withdraw the army, or 
 to occupy a defensive line. In short, they seemed 
 disposed to do nothing to end the war, either by 
 striking the enemy or abandoning the contest. 
 Their policy has been to talk, and not to act. All 
 their efforts seem to be directed to one point only — 
 to throw the responsibility of the war on their own 
 country, and to brand its origin with disgrace. 
 And in pursuing this apparent design, what a spec- 
 tacle has been here presented to the world ! An 
 American House of Representatives, after being 
 engaged for nearly two years in a war prosecuted 
 under all constitutional and legal forms of authori- 
 ty, and prosecuted, too, by the aid of many of 
 these gentlemen voting for war measures after 
 many glorious battles had been fought, and after 
 innumerable towns and cities, and one-third of the 
 enemy's territory had been taken, — this House of 
 Representatives, the guardian of the people's wel- 
 fare and of the sacred honor of the country, sol- 
 emnly declares, by the vote of a majority, that 
 "the war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally 
 commenced by the President!" 
 
 Mr. Speaker, the facts to which I have adverted 
 cannot be denied. We may differ as to the con- 
 sequences of these acts and the inferences to be 
 justly drawn from them, but I apprehend that no 
 one can refuse to acknowledge that such has been 
 the course of the Opposition, from the commence- 
 ment of this struggle. I will not use the words 
 which have been so often quoted and commented 
 on in this House, and say, that by this course, 
 gentlemen have given " aid and comfort to the 
 enemy." Should I do so, I should expect to be 
 overwhelmed in that flood of denunciation which 
 [ has been poured upon the author of this phrase. 
 I wish to say nothmg offensive to the feelings of 
 t gentlemen on this floor. But, sir, no one can com- 
 plain of me for stating that the speeches and argu- 
 ments of gentlemen here have been echoed through- 
 out Mexico, They have been greedily caught up 
 by the Mexican newspapers; they have been free- 
 ly scattered amona: the armies of the enemy; they 
 have reached the Mexican people everysvhere, and 
 have simk deep into their hearts. And now, with- 
 out the use of any opprobrious terms, I ask of 
 I honorable gentlemen, in all candor and honesty, if 
 I these things could, by any possibility, ffiil to have 
 ! a serious influence upon the Mexican Government 
 , and people.^ — if they could fail to give ihem hope 
 land courage, obstinacy and perseverance? 1 ask 
 if they could fail to deepen their hatred against 
 
us, and to fix their determination in opposition to 
 an advantageous peace? 
 
 Diirino: the last session of Cono:ress, General 
 Scott had left the United States for Mexico, and it 
 was known to all that his object was the conquest 
 of Vera Cruz. Gentlemen in the Opposition here 
 voted men and money to aid in that enterprise. 
 Now, suppose, while our gallant army and navy 
 lay before Vera Cruz, bombarding that city ; 
 while the very heavens were blazing with our shells 
 and rockets, and our balls were fi\lling like a de- 
 structive hail-storm upon that devoted city; sup- 
 pose, by some invisible agency, you could have 
 entered a dwelling — its walls, perhaps, perforated 
 by ball after ball, and the family thrown into the 
 utmost confusion and terror — and laid upon the 
 table these declarations of the American Congress; 
 suppose you could have read to them the words 
 of a distinguished Senator, "meet them with 
 bloody hands and hospitable graves;" suppose at 
 that moment you could have informed them that a 
 majority of this House had solemnly voted that the 
 war was " unnecessarily and unconstitutionally 
 commenced by the President;" what would have 
 been the effect of this information ? The very chil- 
 dren would have forgotten their fears, and would 
 have exclaimed, in the inspiration of the moment, 
 "Courage, my countrymen ! Let these walls crum- 
 ble ! — let this fair city fall ! — let it be consumed ! — 
 let it be razed to its very foundations! — let us per- 
 ish I — but let us never surrender to the northern 
 tyrant, who tramples upon the Constitution of his 
 own country, in order to destroy the liberties of 
 ours!" The fearful shell by their side, with its 
 fuse burnt to the socket, would have been forgot- 
 ten, and its destructive effect there would have 
 served only to spread wider and deeper the fell 
 purpose of revenge. It is true, you did not furnish 
 the enemy with ammunition to be used on the field 
 of battle; but you did furnish them with argu- 
 ments to be used in the councils of negotiation. 
 You did indeed vote to supply our army with the 
 sword and the gun; but, at the same time, you have 
 done everything in your power to blunt the edge 
 of our sword, and to take from our victories the 
 moral force they were ciiculated to exert, leaving 
 only their carnage and devastation, to rankle and 
 fester in the liearts of the enemy. 
 
 The gentleman from Mississippi, in his speech 
 this morning, has reiterated the charge of a bargain 
 between the President and Santa Anna. I have 
 never for a moment believed in the truth of the 
 charge, because the President tells us it is not true. 
 But, sir, since gentlemen will have it so, let us 
 admit that such a bargain was made while Santa 
 Anna was in the West Indies. In pursuance of 
 this alleged understanding, Santa Anna is permit- 
 ted to return to Mexico, and is soon invested with 
 supreme power. Mr. Polk calls upon Santa Anna 
 to fulfill his engagement and make the advantageous 
 treaty he had promised. How do you suppose the 
 Mexican General would have replied ? " What !" 
 he would have exclaimed, " Do you have the au- 
 dacity to urge thefulfillment of the bargain i made 
 in Havana.^ Why, sir, I was grossly deceived. 
 When I made that bargain, 1 thought your war 
 was just. Your Congress voted almost unanimous- 
 ly that Mexico had begun it, and I saw little at 
 that time to contradict.4,his assertion. But now, 
 sir, your legislators — men in high places — tell me 
 that you, yourself, are the author of this war. 
 
 Your Senators tell me to meet you ' with bloody 
 hands and hospitable graves;' and even the House 
 of Representatives, when it meets again, will vote 
 that you have 'unnecessarily and unconstitution- 
 ally' made this war. And do you expect me to 
 keep faith with such a traitor ? Never! away! I 
 j have drawn the sword and thrown away the scab- 
 1 bard, and you shall never have peace while a drop 
 I of blood flows in my veins!" Unfortunately, Mr. 
 Speaker, there would be but two much force in 
 [ this supposed reply of the Mexican President — 
 a force drawn legitimately from the admissions, 
 I assertions, and arguments of American statesmen 
 { in this House and the Senate. 
 I It is after all this, that gentlemen denounce the 
 President for not giving them still furtlier means 
 j to carry on their notable game of opposition — for 
 j not opening to their eyes the archives of the State 
 Department and exposing to the view of the world 
 the correspondence of our Government with its 
 minister, when in the capital of the enemy! Sir, 
 these gentlemen are not content with charging cor- 
 { ruption and tyranny upon their government, but 
 I they are desirous of ruthlessly cutting into the 
 I very vitals of the country in order to see whether 
 they cannot discover the corruption and disease, 
 regardless of the danger of the wound. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I have now but little mere to say. 
 I have only to notice that mode of argument which, 
 from the plainest indications here, is to be the 
 I sequel, and the fit sequel too, to all that I have now 
 attempted to describe. Some of these honorable 
 I gentlemen will assert here, and before the people, 
 i that the President, in the late treaty, has not ac- 
 '' complished his boasted object — has not obtained 
 1 either indemnity for the past or security for the 
 I future; in short, that the treaty is by no means ad- 
 I vantao^eous to the country, except as the means of 
 escaping from a very odious war. But, sir, there 
 ! will be a thousand voices raised to maintain the 
 ] truth — a thousand tongues and pens employed to 
 j expose and denounce the false. The facts which 
 I have this day stated shall be heard throughout 
 { the country, to the utmost borders of the land. 
 j Thf se will show the people where rests the respon- 
 sibility for any failure in this adjustment to secure 
 the honor and just interests of our Government. 
 For everything wrong in this treaty, gentlemen of 
 the Opposition will be held largely responsible; 
 f )r anything right or good in it, they will be enti- 
 tled to no credit whatever; because their speeches 
 and conduct have tended as far as possible to pre- 
 vent it. What could the President do? Impelled 
 by one force and restrained by another, what could 
 he do but follow the law of the composition and 
 resolution of forces, and go between the two ? He 
 had asked for the prompt supply of men and mo- 
 ney to enable him the more effectually to subdue 
 the enemy and force him into the terms demanded. 
 Three months had passed, and nothing import- 
 ant had been done — nothing but the fulinination 
 of incessant denunciation against the Executive. 
 Humbled and broken as Alexico has been, does 
 any man believe that the transcictions in this Hall 
 have had no influence upon the terms of this 
 treaty? Do gentlemen suppose they will not op- 
 erate upon the Mexican Congress in their action, 
 when it shall be presented to tliem for ratification? 
 We cannot doubt it — they have, to some extent, 
 controlled the conditions of peace. Had the sug-- 
 gestions of the President at the commencement of 
 
8 
 
 tlie session been complied with — ^liad the infor- 
 rnation gone forth throughout Mexico, that the 
 American Congress had promptly voted men and 
 money, and that we were hastening on reinforce- 
 ments to push the war yet further, who can doubt 
 that we might have dictated our own terms ? But 
 far different from this have been the reports ema- 
 nating from this Capitol, and far different has been 
 their influence upon the terms of this treaty. 
 
 I was in favor of the ratification of the treaty, 
 Mr. Speaker; not because it was such as might 
 have been procured if Congress had done what I 
 believed to be its duty, but because, against the 
 determined opposition of a powerful party at home, 
 I believed it to be the best there was any prospect 
 of obtaining. The responsibility for any failure, 
 the credit due for anything accomplished — these 
 must be determined by the award of the sovereign 
 people. To them I am perfectly willing to submit 
 the whole question. 
 
 At the same time, sir, T am not insensible to the 
 importance of the vast acquisitions we shall have 
 made if this treaty shall be finally consummated. 
 For a comparatively paltry consideration we ob- 
 
 tain a magnificent territory^ — an empire in itself— 
 as great in extent as the original thirteen States of 
 this Union, when they first arose and broke the 
 bonds of the mightiest Power on this globe. We 
 obtain more than six hundred thousand square 
 miles — more than four hundred millions of acres — 
 the sovereignty over which would of itself be to 
 us invaluable, even if there should not be one acre 
 of public land. We get the means of an easy and 
 practicable communication to the Pacific, with some 
 of the most magnificent harbors in the world. 
 This is not the occasion, sir, to speak of the ad- 
 vantages of the war which has been forced upon 
 us by the enemy, or of the terms of peace which 
 we have been compelled to accept by the Opposi- 
 tion at home. I am satisfied with every part of 
 this great chapter in the history of our country, 
 except that part of it which I have now attempted 
 to depict. Under all the circumstances, with all 
 disadvantages to encounter, I am firmly convinced 
 that posterity will look back upon it as reflecting 
 glory upon the present Administration, and as 
 constituting one of the brightest periods in the life 
 of our beloved country. 
 

 
 
 
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