Republic of Mexico had made war against the United States. "f This bill declaring that war exists by the act of Mexico, placed the army and navy at the disposal of the President, pro- vided for the employment of fifty thousand volunteers, and appropriated ten millions of dollars for the prosecution of the war. Thus was a system of human butchery ' commenced without argument, without examination, with- * Speech of Mr. Pendleton of Virginia, 22d Feb. 1847. See App. to Cong. Globe, 20th Cong., 2 Sess., p 112.
t See speech, 24th Feb., 1847. Cong. Globe, 27th Feb. 1847. The preamble of an act of the Mexican Congress raising supplies, thus repudiates the idea that the war was commenced by the Republic f " The Mexican nation finds itself in a state of war with the United States of America."
r 14* ^162 Rr:\iEw of the Mexican war.
out listening to one word of the evidence offered, and without even the pretence of a desire to avoid or delay the awful calamity.
V/hatever opinion may be entertained of the lawfulness of defensive war, the moral sense of mankind, irrespec- tive of religious creeds, condemns as most iniquitous an offensive and ao-orressive one. Such a war differs from murder and robbery onl}^ in the stupendous enormity and extent of the ciirae. The vast military power and resources confided to the President, were to be employed not in enforcing rights, not in obtaining redress for inju- ries. Congress disclaimed, by their acts and the preamble of their bill, all idea of commencing hostilities. A motion to declare war was rejected by an overwhelming majority.
It was deemed expedient to declare, that it already existed hy the act of Mexico, thus representing to the nation and the world, that the war was on our side purely a defen- sive one, undertaken to repel an invading enemy.