JOHN J. CRITTENDEN.-JOHN M. BERRIEN. 69 contest but little honor can be won, and victory herself is almost despoiled of her triumph. If we should attempt by war to compel France to pay the money in question, none who know the two nations can doubt but the contest would be fierce, bloody, and obstinate. Suppose, however, that our success is such as finally to enable us to dictate terms to France, and to oblige her to pay the money. Imagine, Mr. President, that the little purse, the prize of war and carnage, is at last obtained. There it is, sir, stained with the blood of Americans, and of Frenchmen, their ancient friends. Could you, sir, behold or pocket that blood-stained purse without some emotions of pain and remorse? JOHN J. CRITTENDEN.* 52. THE MEXICAN WAR. SIR, there is a responsibility, direct, immediate, which may not be disregarded, which we are compelled to recognize. He is recreant from all the duties of an American senator, of an American citizen, who will not obey its behests. It is our responsibility to our immediate constituents-to the American people. To them we must render an account of the origin of this war, of the manner in which it is conducted, of the purposes for which it is prosecuted. That people, sir, are awake to these inquiries. The excitement of feeling, produced by the first intelligence from the Rio Grande, has given place to reflection. In the fervor of that feeling they did not stop to inquire into the indignity offered to Mexico, by the occupation of a disputed territory-(of a territory which we ourselves had admitted to be the subject of negotiation)—of the erection of a fort on the eastern bank of the Rio Grande, and the pointing of our cannon on the town of Matamoras. All this was forgotten in the excitement of the moment. American blood had been shed, and it must be avenged. They are calmer now. That feeling has been appeased. Whatever indignity was offered by Mexican officers to American arms, has been washed out by Mexican blood, which flowed so copiously at Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, and at Monterey. Great God! is not this sufficient atonement to Christian men? Sir, the indignity has been expiated; and now the inquiries are, with what views is this war * U. S. Senator from Kentucky. still prosecuted? With what object has our army been pushed into the heart of Mexico? What do you expect to gain, which it may consist with your honor, or even with your interest, to receive? For what practical purposes, for what attainable objects, to what end, useful and honorable to the United States, is that army maintained there, and still urged onward, at such an expense of blood and treasure,-loading us with a national debt, to be redeemed by a burdensome taxation, and involving a wanton sacrifice of the lives of our patriotic citizens, who have flocked to the national standard? Will you go before the American people, gallant, generous, noble-minded, as you know they are, and tell them the national honor has been redeemed, the shed blood of our people has been avenged by the gallantry of our army; and that now we are fighting to despoil a stricken foe of such portion of her territory as may indemnify us for the expense of vindicating our honor? Believe me, they will reject the appeal with scorn and indignation. The inquiries which I have presented will be reiterated in your ears-not perhaps by politicians-certainly not by party presses-assuredly not by those ardent spirits who, tired of the dull pursuits of civil life, seek military glory at whatever cost; but they will be made by the patriotic yeomanry, by the merchant, the mechanic, the manufacturer, by men of all occupations-by the moral, religious, conservative portion of our countrymen, constituting in numbers a proportion of the American people whose voice may not be disregarded. They will call upon you to consider that within two short years you found this people free, prosperous, and happy-with every department of industry flourishing, with an ample revenue, and at peace with the world-and they will point to the condition to which you have reduced us. Mr. President, in the bustle of the public mart, in the quiet retirement of the domestic fireside, these inquiries and these reflections now press upon the minds of our countrymen with a force and intensity which I have no power to express, and I pray senators to receive, in the spirit in which it is offered, the warning which I give them, that they, and that I must answer them. JOHN M. BERRIEN.* * U. S. Senator from Georgia. 53. THE UNION. THERE has been much said about the feeling of a portion of this Union as being ready to dissolve it. I am not to be terrified or controlled by any imputations of that kind. This Union has its uses, just according to the use that is made of it. It may be used as a great trust to effect the greatest ends that time ever committed to human institutions; and it is in the power of patriots and statesmen to make it subserve these ends. But when it shall be made a mere instrument of partial legislation, and to pander to the views and ends of hypocritical demagogues, it will cease to be an object of veneration, unless its worshippers shall be like those of Juggernaut, who regard it as a pious service to prostrate themselves and be crushed by the wheels of his car. I believe I am one of its real friends, and the charge of criminal design upon its duration comes with an ill grace from those who have adhered to selfish and unjust pur poses. Those who have introduced here the doctrines which we are called upon to question, have no right to measure the extent of my opposition. What that measure will be I do not know. I am willing to accede to any peaceful constitutional measure which will tend to preserve the Union itself; these means may be too long disregarded; there is a limit. I am astonished when I hear the language sometimes used by the representatives from the "old thirteen;" from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and New Jersey, making war upon their brethren of the southern sections of the Union, which seems to me but the policy that results in their own suicide. They give way to these wild fanatical suggestions of policy in disregard of those admonitions which should address themselves to them from their past history, as well as in view of their future destiny. They are waging a war against their interest, under the influence of feelings which were inculcated by their ancestors, and sowing the seeds of disunion. I have said what I designed to say at this time, but with it I would, if I dared, make a suggestion to the administration, which has now, in a measure, the control of the destinies of this country; and it would be, that they should not experiment upon the disaffection which exists in one portion of this Union. know, sir, it is deeper, far deeper than has ever been exhibited on this floor. I fear it has been too much disguised. And it is not confined to South Carolina, as some seem to consider. I Some would be glad to see her isolated from others, and thereby made an easier victim. The people of other southern states are speaking out, and if events are not arrested, there will be but one voice, and that voice will come from the mass of the people. The press and politicians cannot much longer delude them. What state may be the first to be involved in measures of resistance I know not. South Carolina has sometimes cried out as a sentinel. But there are others having greater interests at stake, and which will be put ultimately in great danger. They will look to their security and interests, and all will move as one man. It is for those who have the destinies of this nation in their hands to say how far they will respect the feelings of the South. ANDREW P. BUTLER.* 54. THE SOUTH AND THE UNION. THE honorable gentleman, sir, spoke with eloquent fervor of the deep and abiding attachment of the South to the blessed union of these states. I am not about to call in question the sincerity of his declaration. When the blessings, vast, numberless, unexampled, which, by the providence of God, that union has conferred upon the people of our country, are for one moment considered, no mind not utterly blinded to our best and dearest interests-no heart not utterly dead to the happiness of the human race, and the hopes of civil liberty itself, can be indifferent as to its preservation. What has it not done for human happiness and human advancement? From the lowest condition of anarchy, disorder, and weakness-of poverty and national degradation-it has raised us to an eminence of high and enviable prosperity and strength, of respect in the eyes of all nations, of regular government; and has established and built up all the institutions of social and civil life, for which I know not what history of the world furnishes a parallel. When did the light of heaven ever shine down upon more glorious and indubitable proofs of the efficiency and wisdom of human government than the condition of our country now displays? To all these, the South cannot be insensible-cannot but indulge patriotic pride, and feel attachments to the Union, not to be sundered for light and temporary causes, for imaginary griev * U. S. Senator from South Carolina. ances, for doubtful and contested theories of political economy. lt will not calmly see this Union rent in twain, to be followed by what no human sagacity can foresee. But, much as the South is attached to the Union, it is attached to liberty more. Liberty is the first object of all its efforts and aspirations. Is the honorable gentleman quite sanguine that liberty, even at the South, will long survive the dissolution of the Union? Does he hold the bond of fate? Can he cast its horoscope? I am not disposed to enter into invidious comparisons, nor to question the resources, the capacity, the ability of the South to maintain a separate government, and to occupy a high position among the nations of the world. It is not unbecoming, however, to suggest to those who are most ardent in their faith, to weigh well all the considerations-to calculate all the vicissitudes pertaining to a subject wo awfully momentous. If that disastrous event should occur, and an independent government be established at the South,-are all the rivalries, the passions, the ambition, the interests which agitate the bosoms of men, and shake societies and communities, as with an earthquake, to be smothered and annihilated? Are the hidden fires which heave empires from their deep foundations to be extinguished? Will no sources of discord remain-no clouds float in the clear vault over their heads? He has read the annals of our race, and studied the human character to little purpose, who indulges in reveries like these. How is it, even now? Is there entire unanimity of principle or purpose at the South? Do contiguous states, separated only by a narrow stream, entirely harmonize? In view of these things, what assurance can the gentleman have that, whatever befall the Union, liberty will still fix her chosen abode at the South? Is there any thing sc peculiar in its institutions, its principles, its policy, as to induce the fond belief that her last footsteps on earth will be found there? In after ages, if some zealous votary, groping among the fallen ruins and scattered fragments of her temples, to rescue some monument of her existence from the remorseless hand of time, shall explore the vestiges she has left, will he exclaim of the South, exclusively, in the language of the Roman poet, "hic illius arma-hic currus fuit?" Sir, it is "better to bear the ills we have" than to seek a remedy in the dark chaos of disunion. All history admonishes us of its deplorable results. Faction, commotion, discord, civil war,-how have they not written awful lessons, as inscriptions upon the tombstones of nations! Does it not become us, then, the South as well as the North, the East no less than the West, |