Sarcasms and reproaches, which it was impossible to elude or to answer, were showered upon the Whig members without stint by their opponents. The following is a sample of the rebukes they received : Mr. Brocken- borough of Florida thus exposed the false and unhappy position in which the Whigs had placed themselves by their unscrupulous calculations of expediency—"The very term ' unjust war' involves rapine and bloodshed, robbery and murder. Every step is infamous, a crime for which the country should shroud itself in fnourning. But you rejoice and gloiy in it. You send forth the poor soldier, for whom you affect such sympathy, and tell him to slay—but it is murder : to fall fighting valiantly—but it is a felon's death. You bid the American mother send forth her child at her country's call, to stain himself with crime—to return a robber, red and reeking with innocent blood. You call your soldiers heroes, and write on their monuments 'rapine, murder,' You vote SAvords and thanks, and medals and land, and money and pensions, for what you say is crime ; and crime so black that indi- viduals committing it, witJiout your sanction, receive only ignominy, a prison, or a halter.
" We (democrats) believe, before God and the world, that the war is just on our part. If we err, we err after full deliberation and argument, with the best judgment Heaven has vouchsafed to us, in the belief that we are discharging a patriotic duty redounding to the honor and character of our country. If there is any infamy—^any crime, it is not ours. Gentlemen claim it all. We have no intention of wickedness. We act tlirougliout as we profess. But i/oit declare war and denounce it as infamous, but vote all supplies, and urge its vigorous prosecution. You preach that it is murder, and boast how many Whigs there are in it—hoAV many friends, how many constituents you have in it, who volunteered to go. " You charge that it is a crime, and complain that more Democrats than Whigs have been appointed to carry on the villainy, and speak of the chief man in the gang (General Taylor) for the Presidency. You vote monuments to the dead—trophies, thanks, emoluments,