War is, indeed, a temporary calamity; but without war, national wrongs would become permanent evils. Without war, moral blessings would be made subservient to the animal passions. Ultimate victory is ever on the side of right.*

In what way could the evils of Mexico be reached, unless by the strong hand of war? How could she be made to feel that Providence exempted no nation from the penalties of its crimes, except by war? How could we reach her cities, her

with images, consecrated burners, &c., have perambulated all the streets and squares of the city to propitiate the divine Being, and to avert the direful calamity with which this city is visited."

There are certain diseases of the body which may be termed cumulative diseases, whose causes are both near and remote. The cholera may be said to be one of them. The causes are to be found in man's ignorance of his physical laws, and in the consequent abuse of them. What is not made manifest in the individual, is visited upon the race. What is not seen as an effect in a day, will be made apparent in a generation, or in a century. The same may be said with regard to national evils.

Instead of addressing prayers to Deity how to escape from the cholera, let the Russians, and all others, pray to be saved from the causes which produce it, and which may come upon their descendants. Let them pray for knowledge of themselves, and of the conditions of health. To pray to be saved from the consequences of causes already existing or past, is equivalent to asking to be exempted from the protection of God's providence.

*Civilization finds war, like all other elements of humanity, necessarily existing. It does not create the principle, but it controls and modifies its action. Horror after horror is swept away; the captive ceases to be sent to the stake or the caldron; slavery becomes an improvement substituted for murder; the enslaved captives are treated with more and more kindness, until servitude ceases altogether, and prisoners of war are recognized as men and brothers. The onward course of civilization is at least, in this respect, distinctly marked; we can see the direction of its progress; an intelligent and moral public opinion is steadily establishing its empire instead of brute force, and forming a tribunal to decide the disputes of nations, as peacefully as those of individuals. Taylor's Natural History of Society.

people, and that army* of settled impostors, that has preyed upon her very vitals during her existence as a Republic, except by war? How could her miserable population be educated and elevated to the privileges of freedom and justice, and be protected from the rule of tyrants and wicked men, except by war? +

--

Could we send them missionaries to teach them religion, – who would tolerate them, who would hear them? Could we send teachers to instruct their children, and the ignorant, what parent in that country would give his assent, what priest would yield to such a power ? Could we send books, and tracts, giving knowledge and inculcating duty,-they would be rejected as dangerous where ignorance is safety. Could

* "That which is in all respects the greatest nuisance, and the most insuperable barrier to the prosperity and progress of Mexico, is the army. They will tell you there, that it amounts to 40,000 men; but they have never had half that number. I have no doubt that the accounts at the department of war exhibit nearly the number stated, but a large proportion of them are men of straw, fictitious names fraudulently inserted for the benefit of the officers who pay them.

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They have more than two hundred generals, most of them without commands.". Thompson's Recollections.

The manner of collecting an army, in Mexico, is thus stated by the same able author.

"The soldiers of the Mexican army are generally collected by sending out recruiting detachments into the mountains, where they hunt the Indians in their dens and caverns, and bring them in chains to Mexico. There is scarcely a day that droves of these miserable and more than half naked wretches are not seen thus chained together and marching through the streets to the barracks, where they are scoured and then dressed in a uniform made of linen cloth or of serge, and are occasionally drilled, which drilling consists mainly in teaching them to march in column through the streets."

"The clergy and the army cannot be tried for crime, or be made to pay a debt by the common courts of the country; but the former are tried by the ecclesiastical, and the latter by a military court."See Speech of Hon. Mr. Ficklin, delivered in the House of Representatives, March, 1848.

we protect the traveller in that country from murder and robbery, by a government passport? Could we defend the rights of our citizens by a recital of our treaty stipulations? Could we avenge national insults by national protests? Could we redress national wrongs by national remonstrance ?

The crimes of men are visited upon their heads. Society demands it, and the laws provide the way and the means. The criminals can be found and taken. They can be subjected to trial, to sentence, and to punishment. All this is practicable. But it is not so with nations. A nation cannot be summoned to court. A nation cannot be sent for by the police. It cannot be imprisoned for safety. It cannot be tried by a jury, sentenced by a court, and punished according to law. A nation cannot be called to an account for its wickedness, or be subjected to punishment, except by war. And in this terrible calamity, it is made to suffer, and to render justice.

Its false pride is rebuked; its trusts are reduced; its neglected engagements are detailed for redemption; its outrages are made the subject of notoriety throughout all nations, -as examples to be detested and shunned; its own government becomes the subject of public admonition before the civilized world.

If the calamities of war are terrible to be borne, it must be considered that they are remedies for evils, which, if continued, would destroy society, and that they are but the lessons which nations teach nations, of a nation's good, of a nation's shame, or of a nation's glory.

The remedies of Providence are directed by fundamental laws. They are made in magnitude and character to correspond with the nature and extent of the evils which they are designed to correct.

Who shall complain that the tempest is too great! that the whirlwind is too rapid! that the earthquake is too terrible! that the volcano is too fearful! that the lightning is too dangerous, and the thunder too startling! or that pestilence and famine are too destructive!

Why should men look for great effects from small causes ?

Why should men look for great reforms, without regard to means adapted to the nature and extent of the work to be done? Governments are surrounded by impenetrable walls

of national error, pride, and prejudice, -more durable than granite, less yielding than steel, and no power can reach them or their people until these walls are broken, and no power can break them but war.

As individuals are made responsible to the laws of society, in which they live, so nations are held responsible to nations for a just observance of those great laws, which, for a common good, all civilized nations acknowledge.* As a people improve a country, so nations cover the earth to improve and subdue it. They are either faithful or false to their trusts. If faithful, they prosper; and their prosperity is an element in the progress of the world. If false, adversity is their lot, and their evils are extended to every nation. In some degree, the interests of one nation become the interests of all nations. All have a common interest, and this all are ready to protect.

As sovereignties acknowledge no superior, each nation claims to judge of its own rights. As these rights are respected, intercourse becomes useful and profitable. As they are disregarded or violated, they become the subjects of negotiation, or causes of war. When negotiation fails, war becomes the alternative. In this position, Mexico placed herself in relation to the United States. It became the right of this country to insist upon that measure of justice which she is ever ready to accord to others, and which all nations, just to themselves, are bound to observe. War was not the choice of our government, it became the alternative. It will be remembered that Mexico barely escaped a war with us in 1837. In a message to Congress of that year, President Jackson used the following language:

"Having in vain urged upon the government of Mexico the justice of those claims, and my indispensable obligation to

* See Appendix Z.

insist that there should be no further delay in the acknowledgment, if not in the redress, of the injuries complained of, my duty requires that the whole subject should be presented, as it now is, for the action of Congress, whose exclusive right it is to decide on the further measures to be employed. The length of time since some of these injuries have been committed, the repeated and unavailing applications for redress, the wanton character of some of the outrages upon the property and persons of our citizens, upon the officers and flag of the United States, independent of the recent insult to this government and people by the late extraordinary Mexican minister, WOULD JUSTIFY, IN THE EYES OF ALL NATIONS, IMMEDIATE WAR. That remedy, however, should not be used by just and generous nations, confiding in their strength, for injuries committed, if it can be honorably avoided; and it has occurred to me, that, considering the present embarrassed condition of that country, we should act with both wisdom and moderation, by giving Mexico one more opportunity to atone for the past, before we take redress into our own hands. To avoid all misconception on the part of Mexico, as well as to protect our own national character from reproach, this opportunity should be given with the avowed design and full preparation to take immediate satisfaction, if it should not be obtained on a repetition of a demand for it. To this end, I recommend that an act be passed, authorizing reprisals, and the use of the naval force of the United States, by the executive, against Mexico, to enforce them, in the event of a refusal of the Mexican government to come to an amicable adjustment of the matters in controversy between us, upon another demand thereof, made from on board one of our vessels of war on the coast of Mexico."

This message was sent to Congress on the 8th February, 1837, and on the 19th day of February, the committee on foreign relations in the Senate, of which Mr. Clay was one, made-unanimously-a report, which was accepted unani