to be exceedingly scandalized by the objections made to the war. General Twig^gs, in particular, was so regardless of decency as to give, at a public dinner in Mexico, the toast, " Honor to the citizen-soldier who steps forward to battle for his country. Shame to the knaves at home, who give aid and comfort to our enemies." A Colonel Wy«ikoop, wrote from Mexico : " We here can see no difference between the men, who, in 1776, succored the British, and those, who, in 1847 give arguments and sym- pathy to the Mexicans," Another Colonel of the name of Morgan, declared in a public speech : " All who will advocate the withholding of supplies, or withdrawing our armies, disguise their sentiments however they may, under whatever artful plea they choose, are traitors at HEART."' These various attempts to suppress the freedom of debate and discussion, only reiterate the lesson univer- sally taught by history, that war, in its spirit is hostile to civil liberty. Had the war been a popular one, had the masses been maddened by defeat, had they been thirsting for th§ blood of their enemies , the efforts of the Presi- dent and his partisans to direct their fury upon a feeble minority whom they were taught to regard as traitors, would not have been fruitless, and the American, like the French RepuWic, would have had her annals disgraced by a Reign of Terror.
But happily the iisscrtion of the President, that the war was i-egarded as unjust and unnecessary, and as one of aggression " by hut few,^' was of equal veracity with ' many other of his declarations. This assertion was made in his Message of December, 1846, at which time his party had a very large majority in the Hbuse of Repre- sentatives. The, next December, a new House of Repre- sentatives, elected in the interim, assembled ; and this new House, " fresh from the people," Resolved : " that the war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally begun by the President of the United States."
But although we have successfully maintained the liberty of speech and of the press, the sanction given by the war to executive usurpations , and the thirst for con- quest and glory, which it has stimulated, are destined to exert a durable and disastrous influence on the Republic.