2D SESS. DEBATES OF CONGRESS Three Million Loan. [FEBRUARY, 1847. measure, the trade of the northern Pacific. | part we are willing to meet, as we ought, by In Europe, one of the social evils is concen- Information received by the President, during the last session of Congress, induced him to believe, that if an appropriation for this purpose were made, the difficulties between the two countries might soon be terminated by an amicable arrangement. A proposition for that purpose was submitted to us in secret session, debated and approved by this Senate. It was then introduced into the Legislature with open doors, passed the House of Representatives, and came to us. Here it was discussed until the stroke of the clock, when the hand on the dialplate, pointed to 12, struck its funeral knell. In his Message at the commencement of this Congress, the President renewed his suggestion, and the whole matter is now before us. Such is its history. It is now objected to, as an immoral proposi- will thus be secured, and the poor We are at war with Mexico, brought on by Now, sir, there is no such proposition, as I her injustice. Before peace is established, we have a right to require a reasonable indemnity, understand it, nor any thing like it. The obeither pecuniary or territorial, or both, for the ject of the President has been distinctly stated injuries we have sustained. Such a compensa- by himself. It is to have the money ready, tion is just in itself, and in strict accordance and if a satisfactory treaty is signed and ratiwith the usages of nations. One memorable fied, then to make a payment into the treasury proof of this has passed in our own times. of Mexico, which will be disposed of by the When the allies entered Paris, after the over- Government of that country, agreeably to its throw of Napoleon, they compelled the French own laws. The propositions, both at the last Government to pay them an indemnity of session of Congress and at this, were identical. 1,500,000,000 francs, equal to $300,000,000. In The difference in the phraseology of the approthe condition of Mexico, there is no disposition priation has been satisfactorily explained by in this country to ask of her an unreasonable the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Resacrifice. On the contrary, the wish is every-lations, and seems to me of very little consewhere prevalent, and I am sure the Govern- quence. Be that as it may, it is not a subject ment participates in it, that we should demand less than we are entitled to. No one proposes a rigid standard, by which the indemnity shall be measured. But there are certain territorial acquisitions, which are important to us, and whose cession cannot injure Mexico, as she never can hold them permanently. We are willing, after settling the indemnity satisfactorily, to pay for the excess in money. The Senator from South Carolina has stated the proposition very distinctly, "any excess on our which can produce of itself any practical difficulty. For if there is any member of the Senate, who is willing to vote for the appropriation in the form in which it was presented last year, and is unwilling to vote for it in this, the Committee on Foreign Relations will cheerfully assent to the substitution of the latter for the former. "The principle is wrong," says the honorable Senator from Maryland. But, in my view, the principle of this appropriation, and of the other appropriation, is precisely the same. And yet, the honorable Senator from Maryland voted for the former, while he reprobates the present, and a number of Senators on the other side of the chamber voted the last session in the same manner. If the proposition was bribery or unprincipled then, it seems to me it must be so now. Expediency may change with time, but right and wrong undergo no change. As to the idea that such an arrangement is something like bribery, it seems to me it will not bear the slightest investigation. A strange kind of bribery this! The appropriation called for was preceded by a Message from the President to the Senate in secret session. It was then received in both Houses, and the doors thrown open. It was discussed fully, not to say warmly, and was finally lost by the lapse of time. In secret session thirty-three Senators voted for it. It again takes a prominent place in the President's Message at the commencement of the present session of Congress. It has been before us between two and three months, and has been borne upon the wings of the wind to the remotest portions of our country. It entered Mexico long ago, and has been proclaimed upon every house-top in town and country. It is known to every citizen of that republic, who knows any thing of political affairs, whether the blood in his veins is Cas- | tilian, or Moorish, or Aztec. It has passed to Europe, and received the condemnations of many of its journals. Had it been approved there, I should doubt its policy or its justice. And for aught I know, it is travelling along the canals of the Celestial Empire. I repeat, a strange kind of bribery this! That is an offence which does its work in secret. This is a proposition made by one nation to another, in the face of the world. It is not to enable Mexico to carry on the war, as an honorable Senator seems to suppose, for it is not to be paid till the war is over. Mr. MOREHEAD inquired if the honorable Senator considered the present proposition as confining the President, in the disbursement of the money, to the purposes to be specified in the treaty, as the resolution of the last session did? Mr. CASS said that his understanding of the proposition was, that the money was not to be paid, until a treaty was agreed upon. The payment was not to precede the treaty, but to follow it. Mr. WEBSTER, (rising.) Will the honorable Senator allow me Mr. Cass. I will hear you with pleasure, but I cannot answer any more questions. I have said that no money is to be paid until a treaty is ratified. Mr. WEBSTER. I was merely going to remark, that this is the very turning point. Mr. Cass. I will sit down and hear the honorable Senator, but he must not ask me any questions. If he does, I shall not answer them, till I have concluded my remarks. Mr. WEBSTER resumed his seat. Mr. C. continued: [29TH CONG. The whole proposition results from the peculiar condition of Mexico. Her Government is ephemeral. Its members are born in the morning and die in the evening. Administrations succeed one another like the scenes of a theatre, rather than the events of life, and still less of events in the life of a nation. The rulers do not dare to do justice in such a case as this. It might cost them their places, to which they hold on as tenaciously as though their tenure were a secure one. There is a strong excitement in that country against us. Nothing shows this more distinctly, than the scene which lately passed there, when their President swore that the nation would never yield one inch of its territory, nor make peace with the invader, till his foot was off the soil. A dangerous resolution to be thus publicly proclaimed, and one more easily proclaimed than kept. The sublime and the ridiculous may so easily touch, that nations should be chary of such exhibitions which may belong to the domain of the one or of the other, as subsequent circumstances stamp their character. Whatever judgment, however, history may pronounce upon this ceremony in Mexico, it is significant enough of the disposition of the people towards us. Hence the difficulty of the Government is increased, and hence the necessity of their strengthening themselves. Their revenues are drying up. They are always in debt in all their departments, civil and military. By a prompt payment into their treasury upon a ratification of a treaty, the Government will be enabled to satisfy the most pressing demands, and thus to do an act of justice at home which will counteract any ill effects of an act of justice abroad. And this is the very point of the whole matter. We may thus tempt them to do right, while so many other strong circumstances tempt them to do wrong. As to the application of this money, after it reaches the treasury of Mexico, it is no question of ours, any more than was the application of the consideration money paid to France and Spain for the purchase of Louisiana and of Florida. We cannot follow it, and it must take its fate with the other resources of the country. It has one advantage, however, and that is its publicity. If the silver or gold were carried by wagons to the palace of the Government, the transaction could have no more publicity than it has now. And this throws upon the authorities a much graver responsibility, than do the ordinary payments, and one less likely to be abused. If all this is bribery, I am fully prepared to take my share in the guilt of it. If it is bribery, let the honest Governments of Europe make the most of it. As to the comparison, instituted by the honorable Senator from Maryland, between this act and an attempt of the Mexican Government to bribe General Taylor, it certainly gives me very little trouble. We have nothing to do 2D SESS.] DEBATES OF CONGRESS. Three Million Loan. [FEBRUARY, 1847. with Santa Anna, as the General of an army. | by nomadic tribes, and affording subsistence We deal with the Government of Mexico. The and shelter to the beasts of the earth. If you assume such a boundary, you necessarily place very authority that makes the treaty is the authority to which the payment is to be made. yourself upon the defensive. You must estabIf General Taylor were the American Govern-lish troops along it, and these must be scattered, ment, and had power to cede away a portion occupying different positions. Your enemy of the American territory, the analogy would thus acts in masses, while you act in detachthen exist in fact, as it now exists but in fancy.ments. If he attack you, and succeed, you are And this obvious consideration answers all the objections presented by the Senator, when he expresses such an apprehension, that the money would slip from our fingers, before we secured a consideration. Not a dollar is to be paid, till the treaty is ratified, and the country thus made ours. Passing now, sir, from the consideration of this subject to the course before us, I would observe, that there are but three plans of operation by which we can escape from the difficulties of our position. The first, is an abandonment of the war, and an inglorious return to our own country. The second, is the establishment of a line over such a portion of the enemy's territory as we think proper, and holding the country on this side of it without any further military operations. The third, is a vigorous prosecution of the war, agreeably to the public expectation, and the experience of the world. As to the first, sir, I do not place it in the category of things possible, but only in the category of things proposed, and I cast it from me with contempt. The second, sir, is a very different proposition; supported by high names, civil and military, and was yesterday presented to us, with great power of argument and beauty of illustration, by the distinguished Senator from South Carolina. I shall state as succinctly as I can, the reasons which induce me to consider this as an inexpedient, not to say an impossible, proposition. A plan of operations, seeking to hold a portion of a country, properly guarded by fortresses, and furnished with the necessary lines of communication, and seeking to do this, without publicly announcing the nature of the plan, and the determination to adhere to it, is one thing. An attempt to occupy another portion of country, open, unfortified, with no natural boundaries, and penetrable in all directions, and publicly proclaiming this system as an invariable one, not to be departed from, is another, and quite a different thing. From the Gulf of Mexico, following the boundaries of the provinces now in our possession, to the Pacific Ocean, is but little short of two thousand miles. Far the greater portion of it is open, and much of it unnoccupied. Instead of any lines of communication, natural or artificial, where it must necessarily be crossed, it may be crossed anywhere. It is a mere paper line-a descriptive one. For hundreds of miles on each side of a great part of the line, the country is the same; roamed over rather than possessed destroyed. If he attack you, and is discom- Here, sir, is a line across the continent from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of California; and this line is to be so protected by five regi FEBRUARY, 1847.] Three Million Loan, ments, three fortresses, and a few small vessels, as to be impervious to the rancheros and other light troops of Mexico-the best and most indefatigable horsemen, perhaps, in the world. I have enumerated, in these means of defence, a few small vessels, because they form part of the projet of the honorable Senator. How they are to be employed in defending any part of the line, as I do not understand, I will not attempt to explain. If the soldiers were stationed equidistant upon this boundary, they would probably be a mile apart. It seems to me, sir-and I say it with all respect-that we might as well attempt to blockade the coast of Europe by stationing a ship in the middle of the Atlantic. As to the Rio Grande, it is no defensive line at all. Rivers, when best guarded, are found to afford very insufficient protection. But in the great country south and west of us, yet in a state of nature, or slowly emerging from it, streams are entitled to very little consideration in defensive operations. Who is there, that has passed his life in the West, and has not crossed them a hundred times by swimming, in canoes, upon logs, upon rafts, and upon horses? Is it to be supposed, that an active Mexican, accustomed to the woods from his infancy, would hesitate to dash into a stream, and cross it, almost as readily as if it were unbroken ground? But long defensive lines, even when skilfully constructed and carefully guarded, are but feeble barriers against courage and enterprise. How long did the Roman wall keep the North Britons out of England? How long did the Grecian wall of the Lower Empire keep the Turks out of Constantinople, and the horsetails of their Pashas from the cathedral of Saint Sophia? And the Chinese wall-an immense labor of man-that, too, opened to the Tartars, and enabled the chief of roving bands to ascend the oldest throne in the world. The best wall a country can have is the breasts of its citizens, free, prosperous, and united. But, sir, there is another consideration, not to be overlooked. How could you keep your own citizens on this side of your imaginary line? The honorable Senator tells us, their spirit of adventure can hardly be restrained in time of peace, and that there is always danger they will push into the Mexican provinces. But in time of war-even of a new kind of war like this-they would feel that the enemy's country was open to them, and their incursions would keep up a continued state of hostilities. [29TH CONG. guished Senator would prohibit it. While I claim for myself and yield to others the most unlimited range of discussion; and while I do not call in question the truth of the sentiment, uttered during the last war, that a public man has a right to speak to his country, though he may be overheard by the enemy, still there are discretionary limits, which it seems to me it were better not to pass. Every word that is spoken here, is heard upon the plateau of Mexico. Legislative discussions, with open doors, are, in this age of progress, discussions before the world. As we watch the indications of public opinion in Mexico, and seek them in the journals of the day, the same universal messengers carry back to that country all we are saying, and doing, and proposing. Far be it from me to question the conduct, or the motives of any honorable Senator. I believe that every member of this body is actuated by as pure intentions as I am myself. But I suggest, is it prudent to say here, that it is uncertain whether we shall be able to reach the city of Mexico during this campaign, and that if we do not, she will be encouraged, and we discouraged; she fortified, and we irresolute? Is it prudent to say, that there are doubts, whether we can raise the means for another, more costly, and at a greater distance? To say that the spirit of volunteering is gone? To say, that for a third campaign, there will be no longer resources in treasury notes? Exhausted, perhaps more than exhausted, by this single campaign? To ask, if we can borrow? If we can lay taxes? What taxes, &c.? To ask, if we can collect them in certain States, that are embarrassed; and to answer, No! To inquire, if there will be sufficient unanimity and zeal in the prosecution of the war, to warrant the belief, that Congress would grant the necessary supplies? These are irksome inquiries to me, Mr. Presi dent, and I shall not pursue them. If all this is so, we are already unfaithful to the trust transmitted to us, purchased by the exertion and blood of our fathers, and left as a precious legacy for those who are to come after us. The lofty position of the distinguished Senator from South Carolina, his reputation-a European one, in fact-his great services, and his pure character, give extraordinary weight to all the sentiments he utters; and the deeper, therefore, is my regret. If these apprehensions are well founded, there is another point of application for the epigrammatic remark of a French statesman, speaking of us in the earlier periods of our history, who said, "If such is the youth of that republic, what will be its old age?"_ Sir, it will have no old age. Some of the remarks of the honorable Senator I regretted to hear: those which cast doubts upon the power of this country to pros- The eyes of Europe are upon us. Nothing ecute this war to an honorable conclusion-worse can happen to us than to stop inglorisuch a conclusion, indeed, as alone will be satis-ously. That is our last resource. We have, factory to the American people. I am not then, but to prosecute this war, as other wars going, Mr. President, to subject these views to are prosecuted by other nations. We have but any severity of investigation. I should do it to discard dangerous experiments, and to hold with reluctance in any case, and I could not do it on to the experience of the world. We must in this. My unfeigned respect for the distin-breast ourselves to the shock. We must con It has been my unalterable purpose, since the declaration of the existence of war by Congress, to commencement of hostilities by Mexico, and the prosecute the war in which the country was unavoidably involved with the utmost energy, with a view to its "speedy and successful termination " by an honorable peace. exert a preponderating influence over their respective countries. I have no right to give an authoritative opinion, respecting the expediency of a demonstration upon the capital. Still, I do not hesitate to say, that I think it would be a wise and probably decisive measure. It would disperse the Government, and weaken, Accordingly, all the operations of our naval and if not break, its hold upon public opinion. It military forces have been directed with this view. would divert the revenues from them to us. While the sword has been held in one hand, and And, in addition to this resource, I agree fully our military movements pressed forward into the with the honorable Senator from Missouri in enemy's country, and its coasts invested by our opinion, that we should call contributions to navy, the tender of an honorable peace has been our aid, in defraying our military expenses. It constantly presented to Mexico in the other. is a legitimate means of support for hostile made by this Government have not been acHitherto, the overtures of peace which have been armies. It belongs to the present age, and not cepted by Mexico. With a view to avoid a proexclusively to the past. During all the wars in tracted war, which hesitancy and delay on our part Europe in our time, almost the first thing the would be so well calculated to produce, I informcommander of a foreign army does, on enter-ed you, in my annual message of the 8th Deceming an enemy's town, is to convene the magistrates, and make requisitions upon them for bread, meat, wine, forage, and such other supplies as are wanted. And this, too, under threat of military execution. And the process has been found effectual, and the practice universal. ber last, that the war would "continue to be prosecuted with vigor, as the best means of securing peace," and recommended to your early and favorable consideration the measures proposed by the Secretary of War, in his report accompanying that message. In my message of the 4th January last, these and other measures, deemed to be essential to the and the attainment of a just and honorable peace, "speedy and successful termination" of the war, were recommended to your early and favorable consideration. The worst state of things which could exist in a war with such a power as Mexico, would be a course of indecision and inactivity on our part. Being charged by the constitution and the laws with the conduct of the war, I have availed myself of all the means at my command to prosecute it with energy and vigor. But it is said, Mr. President, that the Mexicans will fight till the last extremity. It may be so. There are many desperate deeds recorded in history, and obstinacy is a prominent trait in the Spanish character, and belongs to all the affiliated people of that stock. But men do not fight for the mere purpose of being killed. We do not enter Mexico to conquer her-only to conquer a peace. We do not assail her independence. We do not seek her permanent subjugation. We only ask her to do us justice. It seems to me, then, that this is not one of tional military force, and for other purposes," and those cases, sometimes prominent in the history which authorizes the raising of ten additional regiof nations, where the public energy is aroused ments to the regular army, to serve during the war, to a fit of desperation, and by which means and to be disbanded at its termination, which was victories are achieved against all previous cal-presented to me on the 11th instant, and approved culations. Without government, without trade, without resources, sowing, but not to reap, or reaping but not to enjoy, and with all the evils of hostile occupation, I cannot but think, that the Mexican people may be conquered-to justice. SATURDAY, February 13. Further War Measures. The Presiding Officer laid before the Senate the following Message from the President of the United States: To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States. Congress, by the act of the 13th of May last, declared, that "by the act of the republic of Mexico, VOL. XVI.-5 The act "to raise for a limited time an addi on that day, will constitute an important part of our military force. These regiments will be raised and moved to the seat of war with the least practicable delay. It will be perceived that this act makes no provision for the organization into brigades and divisions of the increased force which it authorizes, nor for the appointment of general officers to command it. It will be proper that authority be given by law to make such organization, and to appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, such number of major-generals and brigadier-generals as the efficiency of the service may demand. The number of officers of these grades now in service are not more than are required for their respective commands; but further legislative action during your present session will, in my judgment, be required, and to which it is my duty respectfully to invite your attention. |