The whole ultimate authority of the government, under the Constitution, is in the hands of the people-this is our system. And yet we have a doctrine here which withdraws from the people all authority, and gives the whole power, present and ultimate, over to the government, or the existing administration, and that, too, when the measure in question happens to be the most important and stupendous in which the country can be involved. And not only is all positive and direct authority withdrawn from the people in such a case, but the very first element of their power is taken away; they may not even canvass or discuss the measure. Yet this is the President's doctrine, if he means anything; this seems to be the democratic doctrine of the day. But this is not the whole of it, nor the worst of it. We have been supposing the case of a war, regularly declared by Congress, the proper constitutional authority. But suppose a war undertaken by the Executive alone, without the authority of Congress -and such is demonstrably the very war we have on hand-what shall be said of this doctrine of passive obedience as applied to such a war? Now, indeed, as we thus consider it, the doctrine shines out, and shows us the kind of stuff it is made of. The Executive makes a war; the army is in the field, in the face of the enemy; battle ensues, and blood, and carnage, and all the horrors attendant on the shock of bristling hosts in deadly encounter; and all this takes place before Congress is consulted on the subject; though, at last, Congress is asked to recognize the war, and make the necessary provision for carrying it on with vigor and effect. What now is Congress to do? The President declares and proclaims that the war is just and necessary on our part, and our only fault is that we had not begun it long before; and at any rate, we are in it now, and that, in fact, the enemy began it, "by shedding the blood of American citizens on American soil." The President puts the case thus before Congress, and, at the same time, Congress knows full well that there is not one word or shadow of truth in the declaration that the enemy had commenced hostilities, by shedding the blood of American citi zens on American soil;" but that in the face face of open day, and witnessed by all men, the Executive himself had commenced hostilities by invading the proper soil, and the ancient homes and hearths of a foreign people, with whom, till that

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moment, we were at peace. ask again, is Congress now to do? What does this notable doctrine of the Executive, which we are considering, teach? Why, that the only duty of Congress is the duty of passive obedience. If Congress, or any unlucky member of that body, hesitates, stops to inquire, and finally ventures to assert, on indubitable proof, that this is an Executive war, precipitated and begun by him, without necessity and without apology, this is treason-this is treason! this is "advocating and adhering to the cause of the enemy, and giving him aid and comfort!" It matters not that Congress proceeds with the true spirit of patriotism-a sentiment which dwells in every generous bosom, along with the sentiment which makes a man honor his father and his mother, and leads him to provide for his own household-it matters not that Congress proceeds to make ample and prompt provision to succor our brave army in the field, to defend the country at all points against, the public enemy; and to prosecute the war, now made necessary, perhaps, post facto, to its conclusion in an honorable peace. This is not enough. There must be a spontaneous and unbroken echo from the halls of the national legislature to the President's manifesto-just as ready, loud and unbroken, as if that manifesto contained nothing but the truth; and the lightest whisper of dissent is to be proclaimed as treason to the United States. At the least, if there be any, who cannot, in their consciences, join in the shout for the President's war, they must humbly acquiesce and be silent.

Here, then, clearly is a case, according to this doctrine, in which Congress is not at liberty to canvass or debate a measure proposed by the President, or to hold and alter any opinions upon it, but such as he shall furnish it with; and that measure, too, one of war-the most momentous on which Congress can ever be called to deliberate and one, as it happens, explicitly and exclusively committed to its decision by the Constitution! Congress has nothing to do, but furnish men and money, just as the President demands, and as long as he demands. And what sort of a government does this make of our Constitutional Republic? What but the government of one man? In the nature of things, the Executive has the direction of the war as long as it exists; and Congress has no power, by the Constitution, directly, to make

peace. This is to be done by treaty; and the treaty-making power is, in the first instance, in the hands of the President. The control which Congress, and the people through their representatives in Congress, might be supposed by the oldfashioned republicans, to have over the progress of a war-and especially an Executive war-once begun, is mainly in the right to withhold the supplies necessary for its prosecution, when, in their deliberate judgment, it is time to make peace. But Congress could not well take so decisive a step as this without allowing their reasons to go to the public. Indeed, such a measure itself would bear its own reasons stamped upon it. And this, by the President's doctrine, would be "to adhere to the cause of the enemy, and thus give them aid and comfort." This would be treason! Congress might, too, deem it necessary to vindicate the Constitution of the country by calling the President to a solemn account for plunging the nation into an unnecessary war, by his own authority, and in contempt of the proper authority of that body. An impeachment might be instituted and prosecuted against him. And here, too, would be treason. The House of Representatives, prosecuting Articles of Impeachment, the gravamen of which would be, that an existing war was precipitated and begun by the deliberate act of the President, and that without any good cause, and for unjustifiable objects; and the Senate, entertaining such an impeachment; both would be guilty of adhering to the cause of the enemy, and thus giving him aid and comfort." And this would be treason! And just as it would be with these bodies, so it might be with the people themselves. Finding the President slow to make peace, in the case of an Executive war, or any other war, when peace ought to be made, and Congress itself, perhaps, subservient to his will and interests in the matter, the people, tired of the war, or believing it to have been unnecessary and iniquitous from the beginning, rise in the majesty of their strength, and with their own Constitutional weapon-the ballot-make an onslaught upon the Administration, drive them from power and fill their places with better men, and peacemakers. And here, too, is treason! This would be "to advocate and adhere to the cause of the enemy, and thus give him aid and comfort," which is treason: and so we should have the people in a body committing treason against the United States in the

common and legitimate use of their own ballot!

But we will leave this doctrine of passive obedience-heretofore advocated only as a part of the necessary calling of demagogues, and so far comparatively innocent, but now finding a place in the Annual Message of a President to Congress -we will leave this doctrine to the sober reflections of our readers, and to the reprobation of the people. Not in our day has a doctrine been seriously broached so utterly subversive of public liberty, if it indeed could be seriously countenanced by the country. We rejoice to believe it will prove impotent and harmless, on account of its own inherent grossness and absurdity.

The President finds a cheap consolation for the general unpopularity of the war, in believing that the alacrity with which the volunteers have obeyed the call of their country, affords proof of " their deep conviction that our cause is just." We suppose, really, that it is next to impossible for a mere politician to understand, exactly, what an unalloyed sentiment of patriotism should mean; or how an act of sacrifice and duty should be performed under the influence of such a sentiment, without any mixture of the narrower and grosser feeling of polemic politics, or of party, to help it along. We believe if a vote could be taken to-day among the 20,000 volunteers called into the public service, or the survivors of them, on the question of the origin and necessity of this war, that Mr. Polk would find he had small cause for confidence on account of their opinions. Among the officers in the field, from the commanding general down, it is well understood that the war is very generally condemned. All this, however, is matter of small importance. Certainly it is true that, in neither arm of our military force, regular or volunteer, have our countrymen allowed their convictions in regard to the causes and origin of this war, however unfavorable to the Administration, to interfere with their sense of duty to their country. Many of them we know, multitudes we believe, have gone to the field, and into the front of battleperishing, not a few of them, on its "perilous edge"--who have never doubted, more than we now doubt, that the war was begun by the fault of the President, and has wanted from the beginning the sanctions which can alone make a war creditable to any Christian nation. But an enlisted soldier fights his battles, as in

duty bound, under orders; he does not make the war, nor is he responsible for it. The volunteer rushes to the field to fight for his country, as the son flies to defend his parent in the moment of peril; neither stops to ask how the quarrel began, or who is to blame for it. If, possibly, a little of the unadulterated spirit of war, so natural to brave hearts all the world over -a savor of the genuine disposition for a fight, after a long "piping time of peace" has come in to deepen somewhat the glow of patriotism in the hearts of the gallant men who have fought, and mean to fight, the necessary battles of this war, there would be nothing very remarkable in such a state of things. At any rate we believe most men will think ours quite as rational a way of accounting for the promptness of our volunteers in taking the field, and quite as creditable to thein, as that which the President has fallen upon. We have no desire, however, to deprive him of one crumb of the satisfaction he seems to feel on the occasion of his notable discovery; only we really think it would be quite as creditable to him, if he could be made to understand that, whether in the army or out of the army, all the duties of good citizens in reference to the existing war, may be as fully and faithfully performed, and no doubt will be, as thus far they have been, by the people of this country, of all classes and conditions, as if they believed that Mexico took the first step in the war, instead of the Executive, or as if they were, one and all, the unscrupulous supporters and defenders both of the war and of his administration.

What it is that the duty of patriotism demands in a case like the present may be safely left to the American people to determine for themselves, without any special admonition from those who have set this ball in motion. The love of country is pervading and universal. Our people are not likely to exalt Mexico in their affections above the United States; or prefer her interests to the interests of their own country. Since we are in the war, no matter how begun, or with what intent on the part of the Executive, we must get out of it the best way we can; and it would seem that there is no other way, at least under the lead of this Administration, but to fight our way out of it. As long as we have war, we must support the war-we must support the Administration in the necessary prosecution of the war. Congress must give

the Executive the necessary supplies of men and money; though, certainly, it does not follow that the Executive must necessarily have all the men and money he may ask for. Congress ought to satisfy itself, in our judgment, that the conduct of the war is to be adapted to the proper and necessary objects to be secured on our side, in prosecuting it. We know very well that the Executive is responsible for the conduct of the war, and must be left to plan his own campaigns; but it does not follow that he must be left to go on with a war forever in his own way, and for his own objects of spoliation or conquest. Against such objects, if they appear, Congress ought to be prompt to interpose the check which the Constitution has certainly given it. And if Congress will not interpose, or cannot, then nothing remains but for the people, at the earliest practicable moment, to take the remedy into their own hands. As being ourselves of the number of the people, and speaking, as we may flatter ourselves we do, in no very limited extent, their opinions, in uttering our own, we do not hesitate now, as we have not heretofore hesitated, to express our utter distrust of the President in regard to the objects, some of them at least, at which he is aiming in this war. And we are not afraid to speak, and to speak very freely, just what we think of the whole matter; and if Mexico should chance to hear what we say, we believe little harm would be done. We hold her for our enemy, as she is the enemy of our country. In times past, she had inflicted injuries on American citizens, or those for whom she is responsible had done so; and when this war commenced they had not been redressed. We now want satisfaction for these injuries. Texas, too, is ours, and Mexico must relinquish her pretensions to it. We cannot now renounce this acquisition; and we must have that country with its ancient and true boundary, and that boundary extended, if necessary, so as to embrace all persons in permanent settlements, who were at the time the proper subjects of the Texan Republic. Beyond this, this country had no claims on Mexico when this war was commenced, whatever claims it may acquire by the obstinacy of that power in maintaining the war. These objects attained, the war ought to ceasc. We have no right to another foot of territory in any part of the Mexican empire. We do not want