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besides been actually adjusted by treaty between
the two countries, which in the course of faith
ful execution by Mexico when the hostile demon
STATIONS of our Administration suspended the pay
ment of stipulated ndemntes. AS to what remain
ed of unadjusted claims, there was nothing, until
the occurrence Of this war; to prevent their peacea-
BILE and even satisfactory adjustment. As TO the re-
fusal by Mexico TO receive our Minister being, as
the President intimates sufficient cause of war, il
is sufficient answer to the President that the army
was ordered to march to the Rio Grande (where,
according to the programme OF the government pa
per, the war aoas 10 Begin two months before our
Minister was finally refused to be received by the
Government of Mexico.


But let it be admitted, for the sake of argument,
and for that sake only, that, according to the GUS
toms and laws OF nations in less civilized, less
moral, and less enlightened ages than the present,
we really had cause of war with Mexico so far as
war between two Christian Nations is ever just or
necessary vet, war with Mexico, distracted, weak
,ened and impoverished as she had long been and
then was with intestine factions and divisions, was
neither necessary, magnanimous nor honorable on
our part. Such war, even for just objects, being
unnecessary-the only inevitable effect indeed upon
the claims for which it would be waged being to
fasten them upon our own Treasury instead OF the
Mexican-could never rebound to the glory OF the
country and much less compensate for the rivers OF
blood and heaps Of treasure which have been already
wasted in this war.


But, to pass all this by, whether the existing war
be Just or UNJUST necessary unnecessary, is not
the question now at issue between the President


Al: e a.
Sovereign People of the United States, declared in
their name, in the only manner known or ac-
knowledged by the Consttuton-by the Senate and
House of Representatives in Congress, to whom
alone it belongs to determine whether War, at any
time or under any circumstances, be just and ne
cessary Or was it, whether crime mis-
take the unauthorized act of the President to whom
the Constitution has denied all power over the
question of War? This is the true question; nor
can all the wredrawn sophistry and special plead
ing of the Presidents Message oflast year, referred
to in that which is~now before us, deceive sin
gle individual, be he Whig or be he Democrat, of
common sense or common information, against the
well-known and well-authentcaed facts in the
Need we add, that, whoever the President be, who,
trampng down the barriers which the Constiul-
tion has erected for the protection of the general
welfare and for the security of the lfe liberty, and
property Of the citizen, Of his own mere will and
pleasure plunges the country into War, with or
without cause-that man is Despot The Ma
ton that quietly folds its arms and permits this to
be done with impunity, may delude itself with the
fancy that it lives under written Law and Consti-
tuition, but it is an idle dream. That Nation is a
Nation of slaves and lives under Despotism.


To proceed, however to the main point upon
the re-asserion of which alone the President relies
to Justify himself before his fellow-citizens for
his agency in this War, viz. that the Mexican Gov
ernment /" finally, under wholly unjustifable pre-
texts, involved the two countries in war, by inva-
ding the territory of Texas, striking the first blow,
and shedding the blood of our citizens on Ameri-
can soil" Not one ,cord of this Is true. We
regret the necessity, but the President imposes upon
us the obligation, of renewing the demonstration of
the utter falsty of the whole of 1t. Mexico did
NOT involve the two countries in war: Mexico did
NOT invade the territory of Texas: Mexico did not
strike the first blow Mexico did not shed the blood
of our citizens on our own soil


This whole question, il will be seen, resolves
itself into one Of territorial boundary.


Did, at the breaking out of this war, the terri
tory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande (Del
Norte) belong to Mexico or to the United States


1t did not belong to the United States. The Re-
public of Texas had no title TO it. She had not
even respectable claim to it. She pretended to
no such title when she called Convention to form
her Constitution for not member was called to
that Convention from any portion Of the territory
bounding on the Rio Grande Nor when, in her
Constitution, she apportioned the Representation
in her Legislature among the several districts of
her territory, did she enumerate any districts lying
upon the Rio Grande as entitled to representation
in the Texan General Assembly The whole coun-
try on the Rio Grande, and indeed the whole coun-
try west of the Nueces except the small settlement
Of San Patricio, was exclusively in possession of
the Mexicans, until the army of the United States
marched into it, driving before it the Mexican civil
officers and the peaceful inhabitants. Texas hav-
ing title TO the territory, the annexation of Texas
TO this Union could confer none upon the United
States. Were peace to be made tomorrow on
the basis of leaving things they before the
war, the territory between the Nueces and the Rio
Grande would still constitute part Of the Mexican


