This avowal explained the extreme and apparently ludi- crous solicitude expressed by Mr. Polk for peace. The * App. to Cong. Globe, 1847, p. 125.
war being waged solely for territory, the more vigorously it was prosecuted, the sooner would Mexico be compelled to purchase peace bv making the desired cession. The dismemberment of another, not the defence of its own country, was the object of the American Government. Why such dismemberment was desired, will be seen in the sequel.
The object we have assigned for the war, does not explain why of two hundred and forty members of Con- gress, only sixteen were found who voted against a bill containing in its preamble an assertion unsupported by proof, and appropriating great suppHes ifor defence when no danger threatened.
FoAv, if any, of the Northern members had a direct interest in the conquest of California ; but all were inter- ested in the ascendency of one or the other of the two great political parties. Mr. Polk and his Cabinet were the leaders and representatives of the democratic party, and the dispensers of the vast patronage wuelded by the Federal Government. To vote against the war would have been, in the democratic members, an act of rebellion against their own party, and an exclusion of themselves for the futu)-e from all participation in the favors of the administration. It would, moreover, alienate the South- ern Democrats from their Northern brethren, and by the division thus occasioned would most probably, at the next elections, transfer the pohtical power of the nation,, with all its emoluments, into the hands of the rival party.
Not a solitary democratic vote in either House was given against the war.
The Whig party was placed under very different cir- cumstances. They were in the minority, and were striving to gain the seats occupied by the present incumbents.