THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE: THE WAR. WE should have been quite content to leave the subject of the Mexican war with our readers, just as it was presented and submitted to them in the July number of this journal-we mean, in all the particulars in which it was then discussed were it not that the President of the United States, under the sanction of his high office, and from his place of pride and power at the head of this great Republic, communicating with the National Legislature, under constitutional injunction, and with a registered oath upon him, has deemed it necessary to present to the country a new manifesto of this war-a manifesto of a character so extraordinary, so elaborately and cunningly wrought up, and so well calculated to mislead the popular mind, and to imbue it with false impressions of the plainest occurrences passing under our eye, and of the simplest facts of history-so well calculated, in fact, "to prepare the heart of this people for war," for this war, and for any war which the Executive may choose to undertake, no matter with what designs of political ambition, or with what lust of conquest and extended dominion, if only veiled under the commonest disguisesthat we feel called upon to go once more somewhat at length into the subject, and into an examination of this remarkable document. That the President should make an effort to defend the awkward and unenviable position in which this war has placed him, does not surprise us; but we confess we are amazed and confounded, considering the station he occupies, at the consummate boldness of some of the assumptions he makes, as necessary to give a sufficient breadth of foundation for his defence to rest upon. The President begins with adverting to the fact, that there is a sentiment abroad in the country unfavorable to the war. He flatters himself that such views are entertained by but few, though they have been extensively circulated. We do not know how far Mr. Polk has been allowed to become acquainted with the real state of public opinion on this subject. It not unfrequently happens that the ruler of a kingdom is nearly the last man in it to be well informed of what the people think of him and his government. We suppose he is a diligent reader of "The Union," and that there is a warm and genial atmosphere of flattery all around him, to keep him on comfortable terms with himself. Still, it seems he is not altogether unaware that an opinion prevails, at least in some quarters, that this war was brought on originally by his own fault, and, in part certainly, for objects unworthy of the nation, and utterly repugnant to its sense of justice and honor. If he knew how wide-spread and deep-seated this opinion is among all classes and parties; if he knew what a feeling of disgust and abhorrence this confident belief creates, and how extended and diffused it is, we know he would shrink back in stinctively, and withdraw his hand from the bloody work in which he is engaged, at the earliest moment at which the simplest objects of justice and safety could be secured. If the real sentiments of the American people could be embodied and presented before him, it would demand a higher courage than he possesses, however brave for enterprises of this nature, to stand up unabashed and unblanched before the terrible frown, and the calm but indignant rebuke, he would have to encounter. We fear that he is making the common mistake of infatuated rulers, by fancying that the moderate and suppressed tone in which the public voice has thus far uttered its decided dissent from his policy and measures, expresses only the natural weakness of an interested opposition from which it emanates, instead of indicating, as it really does, that natural repugnance which all patriotic minds feel when obliged to oppose and expose the conduct of their own government, especially in matters involving its relations with other powers. We are not, however, without some evidence that he is forced, at times at least, to view this matter in its true light. The very labor which he has thought it necessary to bestow on his defence, is some proof of his apprehensions lest the popular sentiment aginst him might be growing too formidable to be either agreeable or safe. And there is a sentence which we will quote-in the paragraph with which he introduces his defence, indicating pretty clearly that he was not without some uneasy impression that the whole force of the sentiment of the country against him had not been exhibited, and that if so, there was a reason for this moderation, creditable to the country, but by no means flattering to him, and which he must be prompt to avail himself of still further, and turn, if possible, to a still more profitable account. The President, as we have said, begins his manifesto by a reference to the unfavorable opinion entertained in the country in regard to the origin and character of the Mexican war; and he puts forth promptly, in this connection, an appeal, not to the patriotism of the people, but to a false and base sentiment, which he would fain have instructed to confound all distinction between an administration and the country, and between right and wrong, and persuaded to a servile, unreasoned and abject submission-a mere passive obedience-not to the divine authority of a country governed by constitution and laws, but to the arbitrary, and, it may be, destructive rule of a chief, elevated, no matter by what unlucky accident, to the seat of temporary power. He undertakes to characterize any apparent want of such submission to his personal course and policy in this war-any lack of this passive obedience-any difference of opinion with him in this matter to which one may dare to give utterance-as moral and legal treason! Here is what he says: been devised to encourage the enemy, and protract the war, than to advocate and adhere to their cause, and thus to give them aid and comfort."" "A more effectual means could not have 6 66 The President applies this language to those who have been so unfortunate as to hold and express opinions unfavorable to the war, and to his agency in bringing it about. This is, in his judgment, to advocate and adhere to the cause of the enemy; this is to give the enemy "aid and comfort." "Treason against the United States," says the Constitution, "shall consist....in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort." And this great statute of treason Mr. Polk does not scruple to quote against those who have ventured, or shall venture, to utter a word against his war. This, too, is official. It comes before us in a grave state paper, in which, by the requirement of the Constitution, he is to give to Congress information of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." He officially informs Congress how, in his judgment, treason has been committed against the United States. He puts an official interpretation on this important clause of the Constitution, and delivers his solemn judgment to Congress, that those who represent this war as in its inception unjust and unnecessary, thereby bring themselves within the purview of this clause, are to be regarded as adhering to our enemies, giving them "aid and comfort," and guilty, therefore, of treason against the United States. There is one other judicial opinion, and only one that we know of, in our time, to which this might form a fit companion and counterpart. It was that which Gen. Jackson expressed when he advised that the members of the Hartford Convention might be hanged under the second section of the rules and articles of war. But as the President does not follow up this im 66 portant information thus given to Congress, under the Constitution-the expression of this executive opinion concerning the law of treason, and its applicability to the guilty opponents of his administration and his war-with the recommendation of any measures" to be adopted by Congress for carrying his views into practical operation, we may conclude, perhaps, that the opinion itself is held rather speculatively than judicially, and was inserted in the President's Message rather than thrown into the columns of the "Union"-where it much more appropriately belonged-for the sake of the wider circulation, and the more imposing effect, that might thus be given to it. However this may be, we hold the expression of a sentiment like this, in such a place, to be no way creditable to the President, or to the country. If we could suppose him serious in uttering such a sentiment, we should hold him capable, if he had the power, or could acquire it, of suppressing, by force, all freedom of opinion, of speech, of the press, and of debate. We should hold him capable of establishing a tyranny of the worst order, a tyranny which locks up the minds of men from all free inquiry, and shuts them up together in the country, as in one great prison-house, from which all light is excluded, except such as is permitted to struggle doubtfully down to them from official sources, and through barred and grated avenues. But whether, in his heart, he entertains such a belief or not, still, considering what a formal expression he has given to it, and the place in which it is found, at least we see in it a deliberate purpose, if he cannot wholly suppress free discussion in regard to this war, yet to give it some check, and above all, by this abuse of the popular mind, to rouse, if possible, and as far as possible, a blind popular prejudice in the country, to vent its undiscriminating rage against any and all who may happen to have opinions of their own, and to express them, about the manner in which this war was begun, and the leading designs of the administration in bringing it on, and in its prosecution. On this subject, we would have the President understand, that this very common and cheap mode of defending the administration and the war, and which is so much in vogue with his newspapers and partisans all over the country, derives no additional force or dignity by being VOL. V.-NO. I. 1* thus elevated to a place in his annual Message to Congress. It is not made sublime by this elevation; and if it be not ridiculous, it is only because it is too odious to become so. And we would have. the President understand also, that this is a war with Mexico in 1846, and not a war with England in 1812; that this is not a war for "free trade and sailors' rights; that it is not " a second war for independence." He mistakes altogether the circumstances under which the imputation of treason, legal or moral, can be made with any effect against those who do not happen to agree with the Executive in regard to the justice or necessity of undertaking a war. There is no Mexican party in this country-there is no faction which prefers Mexico and Mexican interests to the soil, the home and the interests of their own country; nor can the people, not even the weakest of them, be persuaded to believe any such absurdity-not even when the President himself descends to make the imputation. But what kind of doctrine is this which teaches that no citizen is at liberty to raise his voice against any war in which the country may chance to be engaged, or against anything about the war, or even to whisper a word of disapproval: and that to do so, is to take sides with the enemy-is "to advocate and adhere to their cause, and thus give them aid and comfort?" Is this an American doctrine-is it a constitutional doctrine? Who makes a war in this country? How is the country placed in a state of war? Why, if it is engaged in solemn war at all as the Constitution contemplates, it is placed in that state by an act of Congress. Congress legislates on the subject, and legislates the country into the war; and Congress is a representative body, and its constituency is the people. We are accustomed to call this the people's government; and the people are accustomed to think that it is their right, and a very sacred right, belonging to them, to canvass freely every act and measure of the government. If Congress makes a tariff which does not suit them, they condemn it; if Congress makes a sub-treasury which does not suit them, they condemn it; and why, if Congress makes a war which does not suit them, shall they not condemn it? If an administration does not suit the people, they take the liberty to displace it, and elect a new one that may please them better. This is deemed the right and prerogative of the people. |