THE XXIXth Congress is one that will not soon be forgotten-one, of which the acts and the omissions to act will, for the evil it has done or suffered, be memorable in the annals of the republic. Commencing with a new Presidenthimself probably never having dreamed of attaining the high eminence, until, so unexpectedly to the people of the United States, of all parties, he was named as a sort of tertium quid by the collection of office-seeking politicians who controlled the Baltimore Convention-it exhibited, when, early in December, 1845, it was first organized, a large majority in both Houses of the same party as the new President. The issues upon which the Presidential election had been decided-of the annexation of Texas at all hazards—of the repeal of the Tariff, and a return to comparative free trade, and to the barbarian policy of a hard-money currency-were those which the XXIXth Congress seemed, by the very circumstances under which it was constituted, pledged to carry out. The message of the President at the commencement of the first session of Congress, left no doubt of his views as to Texas, and if obscure as to the Tariff, it was an obscurity that only portended mischief. Another element of trouble, moreover, which had suddenly been swelled into proportions of immediate and pressing urgency and danger-that concerning the boundary of Oregon-was developed in this message, startling the thinking portion of the country, which now fully real No. V. ized the rashness of the language in President Polk's inaugural address concerning that territory. The claim to 54-40, and "the whole or none" cry raised by administration partisans in Congress and the public journals, at the very moment and in the same breath that admitted a common occupancy heretofore within the limits claimed as unquestionable, and therefore, by necessary implication, some doubt as to the clear right--placed for awhile the peace of the country in a state of great peril, and all its commercial interests in one of prejudicial uncertainty. In the Senate an old man like General Cass-to whom age has failed to bring wisdom or moderation, and who, dreaming only of how he should compass the Presidency, seemed to look upon country and duty as entirely subordinate to the gratification of that passion--a passion which seems for all whom it possesses "the insane root that takes the judgment prisoner" at once mounted the war-horse, talked of a rupture with Great Britain as inevitable, and was anxious, with other not wiser nor more disinterested men, "to prepare the hearts of the people for war." Mr. Hannegan, Mr. Allen, and others, took the same course; and in the House of Representatives, the brawlers-they merit no other name-who talked flippantly and contemptuously of the power of Great Britain, and absurdly and presumptuously of the power of the United States, were neither few nor backward; and for some weeks the question of war between the United States and Great Britain-a sort of civil war, as between men of the same blood and language, and in all other respects a war which every consideration for the peace of the world, for our own welfare, and for that-allimportant to our own-of the very nation with which it was sought to embroil us, forbade hung in trembling balance. Happily, the moderation of British councils, and that of some eminent men of the Southern wing of the dominant party, were successful in averting this great danger. It is to the enduring honor of John C. Calhoun that he boldly opposed this war movement-an honor we would by no means willingly depreciate by the suggestion, which nevertheless it is essential to the truth of history to make, that the course he took was clearly that called for by the peculiar institutions and interests of the Southern slaveholding States. of the last session-in the course of which it was stated, that upon the application of the Convention and Congress of Texas, the President had ordered a portion of the army of the United States "to take a position between the Nueces and the Del Norte"-had passed without exciting the degree of attention which nevertheless it was so well calculated to awaken. But the march of events was as rapid as the most urgent advocates for war could desire; and they who, foiled in their efforts to involve us in hostilities with Great Britain, and smarting under the epigrams to which their big words and little actions in relation to "the whole of Oregon or none," so justly subjected them, had thrown themselves upon the forlorn hope of a Mexican war, in order to reinstate themselves if possible with the country-these men, so belligerent in council, so ready with their words, when the cause demands acts and arms, had urged on Gen. Taylor, against his military judgment, until his camp on the Rio Grande overlooked one of the chief com flag flouted in defiance that of a nation with which we were still at peace. The unavoidable, and as the circumstances indicate, the desired and intended, consequence ensued. Tame, distracted, and enfeebled by civil broils and intestine feuds as Mexico had become, she had not lost all sense of national dignity, all regard for the appearances of national power, and accordingly she prepared to repel the invader of the soil she claimed as her own, and over which no other had ever exercised dominion. By the aid of Mr. Calhoun's wing of the democracy that wing which in the Baltimore Convention had actually nominated, and by its strenuous efforts had mainly caused the election of, Mr. Polk-mercial cities of Eastern Mexico, and his the patriotic and conservative Whigs in Congress found themselves in a position to check the mad career of Presidential demagoguism. The Senate especially manifested the most earnest opposition to any course that seemed to invite hostilities with England respecting the possession of some thousands or tens of thousands, more or less, of barren acres on the distant shore of the Pacific; and finally, sound public opinion, co-operating at once with the firmness of the wisest men in Congress, and with the praiseworthy moderation of the British cabinet, which did not suffer itself to be irritated by the vaunting talk in Congress, nor to mistake big words for real threats, brought about an accommodation of the Oregon controversy, satisfactory and honorable to both countries, and only discreditable to the loud boasting, hard swearing, and grasp ing but baffled war faction at Washington, of which President Polk and Senator Cass were the head-and the brains. Scarcely, however, had the country begun to breathe at ease again, when the accursed annexation of Texas-consummated at the last moment of the inglorious rule of Mr. Tyler-began to produce its legitimate consequences. The long, specious, but most disingenuous manifesto against Mexico contained in the President's message at the opening Her commander admonished General Taylor to retire, on pain of immediate hostilities. Gen. T.'s orders would not permit him to retire; and the consequence was an attack and actual war. The first blow was indeed struck by Mexico, but not until we had gone to seek it-gone where, according to the very resolution of Congress which authorized annexation, we had no right to go into the disputed territory, reserved expressly for future negotiation. American blood being shed upon what was falsely called American ground, the President, on the 11th May, 1846, sent a special message to Congress detailing the state of affairs with Mexico, and, founding himself on the capture of Captain Hardee's squadron of dragoons after killing and wounding some sixteen of them, and the menaces of Arista, declared that war existed by the act of Mexico, and calling for men and money to carry it on. Unhappily, as we cannot but think, the honorable solicitude of the nation about General Taylor and his small army, thrown far into the enemy's country, beyond the reach of support or prompt reinforcement, inadequately supplied and provided, and surrounded by a force greatly superior in numbers and powerful in cavalry-in which arm General Taylor was deficient-led Congress into a prompt, inconsiderate, and most unfortunate compliance with the demand of the President, in the most obnoxious form in which it was presented by his organs in the House of Representatives. The vote for 50,000 volunteers and ten millions of dollars was all but unanimous. The resolutions asking for these means were preceded by a lying preamble which imputed the war to the act of Mexico. The resolution, preamble and all was eagerly swallowed so much more solicitous seemed even the Whigs about personal popularity, which might be jeoparded by what would be represented as an abandonment of the cause of a gallant but beleaguered army, in refusing or delaying to vote for this bill, than for the cause of truth or of right. But fourteen votes in the House of Representatives, and only two in the Senate, were recorded against what Mr. Calhoun branded as the false suggestions of this preamble; and of these votes Mr. Calhoun with his accustomed manliness gave one. This first false step, irrevocable in its character, has been paralyzing in its consequences, as was seen at every stage of the last session, whenever any discussion respecting the war arose. To the allegation-true as truth itself which was again and again made on the floor of both Houses, that this is an Executive war, a war of aggression, a war unnecessary, and wantonly provoked by the President-the one answer was always ready: You voted last May that the war was the act of Mexico, and because it was such you gave the largest discretionary power to the President to carry it on. Having thus obtained control of the Treasury, of the Army and of an immense volunteer force-and with the proof that Congress was at his back-the President proceeded to carry out the other measures of the Baltimore programmethe more zealously in that he had so widely departed from that requisition of it, which called for the whole of Oregon. The Tariff was destroyed, with all its proved and prolific sources of revenue, to substitute therefor a new system-and at a moment when even such financiers as now control the Treasury could not but have foreseen that the aid of bank-note circulation and redeemable paper and Treasury notes would be indispensable for successfully carrying on the war-the Sub-Treasury law was re-enacted, forbidding the use of all paper, exacting specie for all dues to the government, and forbidding government officers to pay in anything but specie. Party triumphed over common sense and the general interest, and as the first session of Congress closed, these bills were both passed and became laws. As if in utter contempt of the interests of the people whose votes had made him President-and of their understanding tooMr. Polk vetoed the beneficent bill passed by large votes in both Houses, for improv ing the harbors of the great lakes, and the rivers which are their natural outlets, alleging both unconstitutionality, and, where the appropriations might not be unconstitutional, the greater need of the money for war purposes. He who saw no unconstitutionality in ordering, as he did, of his own mere will and pleasure, the army of the United States into a foreign territory, as Texas still was when General Taylor crossed the Nueces with his forces, with a view to carry on a war with a nation against which Congress had not authorized war-found or feigned constitutional objections to measures obviously and undeniably conducive to the general welfare, and of great and certain benefit and productiveness to the whole country, as well as to the particular portions more immediately interested in these improvements. And the scrupulous President represented a few hundred thousand dollarsto be expended to promote the arts of peace, the growth of navigation and commerce, the preservation of human life and the security of property-as an injurious diversion of the means of the country from the bloody game of war-a game in which even the winners must, in some degree, always be losers-and in which human liberty, not less than human life, the arts of peace, the sanctity of laws, the moral sentiment, not less than the material interests, must always suffer great deterioration. The first session, therefore, of the XXIXth Congress ended disastrously for |