remarkable that not one Demo- crat in two successive Congresses, found his conscience burthened with the momentous question, whether the Mexican war was or was not unjust ! Probably not two of these gentlemen entertained precisely the same opinion on the great truths of scripture, yet not a solitary indivi- dual of the party saw aught but verities in Mr. Polk's messages ! When we remember the diversities of the human mind, and the complicated and contradictory tes- timony in relation to the origin of the war, and the wide difference of opinion respecting it, throughout the nation, the unanimous, unfaltering faith of these gentlemen is a moral phenomenon. Their faith, however, was counted to them, if not for righteousness, at least for obedience, and opened to many of them a vista to future office and power. Under such circumstances, their support of the war cannot be taken as irresistible proof of their patriotism. Nor is the evidence of the patriotism of their opponents af- forded by their vote for an acknowledged falsehood, and their grant of men and money to wage a war admitted to be iniquitous, of a more conclusive character. The Demo- crats, according to the orthodox rule, showed their faith by their works, while the unbelieving Whigs rested their justification on their works alone. Denying the necessity, expediency, and justice of the war, as well as the wisdom and integrity of Mr. Polk, they surren- dered to him the army and navy, with an additional force of 50,000 men, and ail the money he desired, to carry fire and sword into Mexico, and to dismember that Re- public. To have done all this with a single desire to benefit their own countjy, would have been at least a very questionable benevolence, and a very ambiguous patriotism.
Mr. Clay, the distinguished and beloved leader of the Whig party, in a pubhc speech delivered in Kentucky, declared that the preamble to the war bill, " falsely attributed the commencement of the war to the act of Mexico." He then added—" I have no doubt of the pa- triotic motives of those who, after struoro-lino; to divest the bill of that flagrant error, found themselves constrained to vote for it ; but I must s-a.j, that no