REMONSTRANCE AGAINST THE WAR WITH MEXICO. 245

Sir, I scarcely understand the meaning of all this myself. If we are to vindicate our rights by battles, in bloody fields of war, let us do it. If that is not the plan, then let us call back our armies into our own territory, and propose a treaty with Mexico, based upon the proposition that money is better for her and land is better for us. Thus we can treat Mexico like an equal, and do honor to ourselves. But what is it you ask? You have taken from Mexico one-fourth of her territory, and you now propose to run a line comprehending about another third; and for what? What has Mexico got from you for parting with two-thirds of her domain ? She has given you ample redress for every injury of which you have complained. She has submitted to the award of your commissioners, and, up to the time of the rupture with Texas, faithfully paid it. And for all that she has lost, what requital do we, her strong, rich, robust neighbor, make? Do we send our missionaries there to point the way to Heaven? Or do we send schoolmasters to pour daylight into her dark places, to aid her infant strength to conquer freedom, and reap the fruit of the independence herself alone had won? No, no; none of this do we. But we send regiments, storm towns, and our colonels prate of liberty in the midst of the solitudes their ravages have made. They proclaim the empty forms of social compact, to a people bleeding and maimed with wounds received in defending their hearthstones against the invasion of these very men who shoot them down and then exhort them to be free. Oh, Mr. President, are you not the light of the earth, if not its salt?

What, Sir, is the territory which you propose to wrest from Mexico? It is consecrated to the heart of the Mexican by many a well-fought battle with his old Castilian master. His Bunker Hills, and Saratogas, and Yorktowns, are there! The Mexican can say: "There I bled for liberty, and shall I surrender that consecrated home of my affections to the Anglo-Saxon invaders? What do they want with it? They have Texas already. They have possessed themselves of the territory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande. What else do they want? To what shall I point my children as memorials of that independence which I bequeath to them, when those battle-fields shall have passed from my possession?

دو

Sir, had one come and demanded Bunker Hill of the people of Massachusetts, had England's lion ever showed himself there,—is there a man over thirteen and under ninety

who would not have been ready to meet him; is there a river on this continent that would not have run red with blood; is there a field but would have been piled high with the unburied bones of slaughtered Americans, before these consecrated battle-fields of liberty should have been wrested from us?

Ex. CLIX.-INJUSTICE OF THE WAR AGAINST MEXICO.

JOHN M. BERRIEN.*

SIR: there is a responsibility direct, immediate, which may not be disregarded, which we are compelled to recognize. He is recreant from all the duties of an American senator, of an American citizen, who will not obey its behests. It is our responsibility to our immediate constituents-to the American people. To them we must render an account of the origin of this war, of the manner in which it is conducted, of the purposes for which it is prosecuted. That people, Sir, are awake to these inquiries. The excitement of feeling produced by the first intelligence from the Rio Grande, has given place to reflection. In the fervor of that feeling, they did not stop to inquire into the indignity offered to Mexico by the occupation of a disputed territory-of a territory which we had ourselves admitted to be the subject of negotiation of the erection of a fort on the eastern bank of the Rio Grande, and the pointing of our cannon on the town of Matamoras. All this was forgotten in the excitement of the moment. ican blood had been shed, and it must be avenged. They are calmer now; that feeling has been appeased. Whatever indignity was offered by Mexican officers to American arms, has been washed out by Mexican blood, which flowed so copiously at Palo Alto, at Resaca de la Palma, and at Monterey. Great God! Is not this sufficient atonement to Christian men? Sir, the indignity has been expiated; and now the inquiries are, with what views is this war still prosecuted? With what object has our army been pushed into the heart of Mexico? What do you expect to gain, which it may consist with your honor, or even with your interest, to receive? For what practical purposes, for what

*U. S. Senator from Georgia.

Amer

CIVIL WAR DEPRECATED.

247

attainable objects, to what end, useful and honorable to the United States, is that army maintained there, and still urged onward, at such an expense of blood and treasure-loading us with a national debt, to be redeemed by a burdensome taxation, and involving a wanton sacrifice of the lives of our patriotic citizens who have flocked to the national standard? Will you go before the American people, gallant, generous, noble-minded as you know they are, and tell them the national honor has been redeemed, the shed blood of our people has been avenged by the gallantry of our army, and that now we are fighting to despoil a stricken foe of such portion of her territory as may indemnify us for the expense of vindicating our honor? Believe me, they will reject the appeal with scorn and indignation. The inquiries I have presented will be reiterated in your ears; not perhaps by politicians certainly not by party presses-assuredly not by those ardent spirits who, tired of the dull pursuits of civil life, seek military glory at whatever cost;-but they will be made by the patriotic yeomanry, by the merchant, the mechanic, the manufacturer, by men of all occupations-by the moral, religious, conservative portion of our countrymen, constituting in numbers a portion of the American people whose voice may not be disregarded. Mr. President, in the bustle of the public mart, in the quiet retirement of the domestic fireside, these inquiries and these reflections now press upon the minds of our countrymen with a force and intensity which I have no power to express, and I pray senators to receive, in the spirit in which it is offered, the warning which I give them, that they and that I must answer them.

Ex. CLX.--CIVIL WAR DEPRECATED.*

Speech in Congress, Feb. 1850.

HENRY CLAY.

If there be any who want civil war-who want to see the blood of any portion of our countrymen spilt-I am not one

*From Mr. Clay's speech urging the passage of his "Compromise Bill," or series of resolutions intended to allay the irritation on the subject of slavery which was threatening to divide the Union. His main propositions were, that

of them. I wish to see war of no kind; but above all, I do not desire to see a civil war. When war begins, whether civil or foreign, no human foresight is competent to foresee when, or how, or where it is to terminate. But when a civil war shall be lighted up in the bosom of our own happy land, and armies are marching, and commanders are winning their victories, and fleets are in motion on our coasts-tell me if you can, tell me if any human being can tell, its duration? God alone knows where such a war will end.

I do not desire to see the lustre of one single star dimmed of that glorious confederacy which constitutes our political sun; still less do I wish to see it blotted out, and its light obliterated forever. Has not the State of South Carolina been one of the members of this Union in "days that tried men's souls?" Have not her ancestors fought by the side of our ancestors? Have we not, conjointly, won together many a glorious battle? If we had to go into a civil war with such a State, how would it terminate? Whenever it should have terminated, what would be her condition? If she should ever return to the Union, what would be the condition of her feelings and affections? What the state of her heart and of the heart of her people? She has been with us before, when our ancestors mingled in the throng of battle; and as I hope our posterity will mingle with hers, for ages and centuries to come, in the the united defence of liberty, and for the honor and glory of the Union, I do not wish to see her degraded or defaced as a member of this confederacy.

In conclusion, allow me to entreat and implore each individual member of this body to bring into the consideration of this measure which I have had the honor of proposing, the same love of country which, if I know myself, has actuated me, and the same desire of restoring harmony to the Union which has prompted this effort. If we can forget for a moment— but that would be asking too much of human nature—if we

California should be admitted into the Union without restrictions with respect to slavery; that no provision should be made by law for the exclusion of slavery from any of the territory recently acquired from Mexico; that it was inexpedient to abolish it in the District of Columbia, under existing circumstances; that Congress had no power to prohibit or obstruct, trade in slaves between the slaveholding States, though it might be prohibited within the District as far as concerned slaves brought from other places; and that more effectual provision ought to made by law for the restitution of fugitive slaves to their masters. After a long and stormy contest, bills were passed in accordance with these propositions, California having in the mean time adopted a State constitution excluding slavery from her limits.

IMPOSSIBILITY OF PEACEABLE SECESSION.

249

could suppress, for one moment, party feelings and party causes, and as I stand here before my God, I declare I have looked beyond these considerations, and regarded only the vast interests of this united people,-I should hope that under such feelings and with such dispositions, we may advantageously proceed to the consideration of this bill, and heal, before they are yet bleeding, the wounds of our distracted country.

Ex. CLXI.-IMPOSSIBILITY OF PEACEABLE SECESSION. Speech on Mr. Clay's resolutions, March 7th, 1850.

DANIEL WEBSTER.

PEACEABLE Secession! Sir, your eyes and mine are never destined to see that miracle. The dismemberment of this vast country without convulsions! The breaking up of the fountains of the great deep without ruffling the surface! Who is so foolish-I beg everybody's pardon-as to expect to see any such thing? Sir, he who sees the States now revolving in harmony around a common centre, and expects to see them quit their places and fly off without convulsion, may look the next hour to see the heavenly bodies rush from their spheres, and jostle against each other in the realms of space, without causing the crush of the universe. There can be no such thing as peaceable secession. It is an utter impossibility. Is the great Constitution under which we live, covering this whole country,-is it to be thawed and melted away by secession, as the snows on the mountain melt under the influence of a vernal sun, disappear almost unobserved, and run off? No, Sir! I will not state what might produce the disruption of the Union; but I see, as plainly as I see the sun in heaven, what that disruption itself must produce; I see that it must produce war, and such a war as I will not describe, in its twofold character.

Peaceable secession! The concurrent agreement of all the members of this great Republic to separate! Why, what would be the result? Where is the line to be drawn? What States are to secede? What is to remain American ? What am I to be? An American no longer? Heaven forbid ! Where is the flag of the Republic to remain ?