and you might as well attempt to stop the wind. Let the work once begin, and he (Mr.
Wise) did not know that this House woidd hold him very long.
*' Give me five millions of dollars, and I would under- take to do it myself. Although I don't know how to set a single squadron in the field, I could find men to do it ; and, with five millions of dollars to begin with, I would under- take to pay every American claimant the full amount of his demand with interest, yea, fourfold. / would place Culifornia where all the powers of Great Britain, would never be able to reach it. Slavery should pour itself ABROAD WITHOUT RESTRAINT, AND FIND NO LIMIT BUT THE Southern Ocean. The Camanches should no longer hold the richest mines of Mexico ; but every golden image which had received the profanation of a false worship should soon be melted down, not into Spanish milled dollars indeed, but into good American eagles. Yes, there should more hard money flow into the United States than any exchequer or sub-treasury could ever circulate. I would cause as much gold to cross the Rio del Norte as the mules of Mexico could carry ; aye, and make a better use of it than any lazy, bigoted priesthood under Heaven, I am not quarrelling with the particular religion of these priests ; but I say, that any priesthood that has accumulated and sequestered such immense stores of wealth, ought to dis- gorge, and, it is a benefit to mankind, to scatter their wealth abroad where it can do good. Texas had pro- claimed a blockade against all the coast of Mexico ; and though she had no fleet to enforce it, she would be able to make it good by hewing her way to the Mexican capital. Nor could all the vaunted power of England stop the chivalry of the West, till they had planted the Texan star on the walls of the city of Montezuma. No- thing could keep these booted loafers from rushing on till they kicked the Spanish priests out of the temples they profaned. War was a curse ; but it had its blessings too. He would vote for this mission as the means of preserving peace ; but, if it must lead to war, he would vote it the wore willingly."