The Whig Legislature of Massachusetts emphatically rebuked the course pursued by some of the Whig repre- sentatives from that State in Congress, by adopting a resolution declaring : " That such a war of conquest, so hateful in its objects, so wanton, unjust, and unconstitu- tional in its origin and character, must be regarded as a war against freedom, against humanity, against justice, against the Union, and against the free States ; and that a regard for the true interests and highest honor of the country, not less than the impulses of Christian duty, should arouse all good citizens to join in efforts to arrest this war, and in every just way aiding the country to retire from the position of aggression which it now occu- pies towards a weak, distracted neighbor and sister Re- public."
That only sixteen members out of two hundred and forty should have voted against the war, while a very large minority admitted its injustice, and the falsehood of the assertion that it had been commenced by ^lexico, is a melancholy proof that moral courage and independence were not characteristics of the American Congress of 1846. And yet these quahties invariably attract confidence, esteem, and influence, even from those against whom they are exercised. " I admire," said one of the leaders of the war party, " I admire the sincerity, I reverence the consistency of the immortM fourteen (in the House of Representatives) who voted against the declaration of war. Their judgment was convinced that the war was wrong, and they voted as their judgment dictated, They violated the laws neither of God nor of man. But he who denounces the war as unjust, and yet votes for it, violates God's holy law and every principle of ethics.'* Let the names of these honest, consistent men, who feared God more than man, and looked rather to the Day of Judgment than to the day of election, be borne upon the aflfectionate remembrance of the Christian community. They were :