" For some days past, a strife has existed between a portion of the officers of the Massachusetts Regiment on the one side, and nearly all the privates on the other.
That eternal disturber of order, John Barleycorn, * stirred up the muss.' The officers alleged that the privates drank to intoxication, became disorderly and unfit for duty ; and to put a stop to the evil, they advised closing the coflPee-houses. The privates, on the other hand, say they drank to no greater excess than did the officers in question. The war thus commenced raged fiercely with various success. At one time, we thought the men de- feated, from the number of prisoners we saw marched off ; but they managed to escape, and in turn swung up the leader of their enemies as high as Haman i. e., his effigy. The guards were dismissed from the postern, the defences put up to keep out the Mexicans, levelled to the earth, and the deuce played generally." Metamoras Flag.
** Major Abbott, by sundry acts, has made himself • *' Whatever," says the Proclamation calling for volunteers, " may be the difference of opinion as to the origin or necessity of the war, the constitutional authorities of the country have declared that war with a foreign country does exist. It is alike the dictate of patriotism and humanity, that every means honorable to ourselves and just to our enemy should be emplo}'ed to bring said war to a speedy and successful termination, and thus ahhreviate its calamities and save the sacrifice of human life and the wasting of public treasures. " The best comment we can make on the logic and morality of this gubernatorial dictum is to exhibit the character of the men who obeyed the dictates of patriotism and humanity, as officially explained t The author deems it just to say, that he has heard it asserted that many of these volunteers were foreigners.
216 REVIEW OF THE MEXICAN V.'AR odious among the Americans in this place. They hoot him Avhenever he passes them, and last night they went so far as to hang him in effigy. He had three privates whipped last mghC-^-Letter from Aletamoras, iV. 0. Bee.