2D SESS.] DEBATES OF CONGRESS. Three Million Loan. [FEBRUARY, 1847. is to be dissolved; and this glorious and mighty | desired his own; but he desired still more that republic, now the pride and admiration of the nothing of the kind should take place, believing world, will be broken into withered and scat- it was wholly unnecessary, and might put to tered fragments; and all by suicidal_hands. hazard the appropriation itself. And all, I again repeat, for what? Because Mexico is unable to pay except by a cession of territory which we will force from her at the point of the bayonet, or failing in that, will buy a peace. Mr. MOREHEAD rose to address the Senate, but as the hour was late, he gave way for a. motion to go into executive session. MONDAY, February 8. Three Million Loan. The Senate proceeded to the consideration of the special order, being the bill making further appropriation to bring the war with Mexico to a speedy and honorable conclusion; the question pending being the amendment of Mr. Cass, to substitute for the amendment of Mr. BERRIEN, the following: "And it is hereby declared to be the true intent and meaning of Congress, in making this appropriation, that as, by the act of the republic of Mexico, a state of war exists between that Government and the United States, agreeably to the declaration made by act of Congress on the 13th of May last, therefore the interest and honor of this country require that the said war should be vigorously prosecuted to a successful issue; and that a reasonable indemnity should be obtained from Mexico for the wrongs she has committed towards the Government and citizens of the United States. "And it is further declared that the nature and extent of such indemnities are proper subjects in the first instance for Executive consideration, when negotiations for peace may be opened between this country and Mexico, subject to the action of the Senate on the question of ratification." Mr. Cass remarked that he did not rise to make that speech-the speech the honorable Senator from Maryland had so much pressed him to make. His honorable friend had paid him a good many compliments; some of them were righthanded, but some of them, Mr. C. feared, were rather lefthanded. Were it not for the confidence he had in the good faith and judgment of the honorable Senator, his modesty would have suggested there was some little humor in what had been said with such outward gravity. However, he was bound to beMr. C. said the honlieve he deserved it all. orable Senator had adjured him with unusual solemnity to make a speech-to explain the amendment he had offered-adjured him by the highest moral and political considerations -by his duty to himself, to the Senate, to the country, to the world, and to posterity. He could hardly escape from such invocations. Still he would not make a speech, at any rate at that moment. His resolution appeared to him so plain as to need no explanation. He who runs may read it. Its bearing lay upon the very surface, and could only be misunderstood by talking it into a state of mystery. Mr. C. said he could not flatter himself that the world knew or cared much about him-an Mr. MOREHEAD said the bill proposed to apignorance in which posterity would equally partake. Whether he spoke or not, was a mat-propriate the sum of three millions, to be apter of the smallest possible consequence to any body but to him. But (he said) he rose for a more serious object, and that was to put himself and his amendment right in the opinion of the Senator from Maryland. That honorable Senator had wholly misunderstood him. He seemed to suppose the amendment was designed to entrap some Senator who might be desirous of voting for the appropriation, but who could not vote for the declaration that No such unMexico commenced the war. worthy purpose gave birth to his proposition. So far from it, he himself should vote against it on the final question, should it supersede the amendment of the Senator from Georgia. Mr. C. said he desired the naked appropriation, without any restriction as to its application, and he did not design to encumber it with any thing which would impede its passage. He was anxious for a cession of land, and he believed if the matter were left to the President, that a cession would be obtained satisfactory to the American people. In introducing his proposition, he was merely desirous to express his views on the subject as contradistinguished from those of the Senator from Georgia. If a rider must be attached to the appropriation, he plied, under the direction of the President of the United States, to defray such extraordinary expenditures as might be necessary to bring the war to a speedy and honorable conclusion. What these extraordinary expenditures were, the bill did not state, and no information on this point had been given by the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, or by any of the friends of the Administration. Of one thing we must be assured, that this appropriation was beyond all the sums ordinarily necessary for the prosecution of a war, and that it was to be expended for the purpose of bringing the war to a conclusion. Among the various modes by which the war might be terminated, might be named its vigorous and successful prosecution, by the combined efforts of our army and navy, by blockading ports, capturing the enemy's vessels, subduing towns, taking possession of provinces, and overrunning territories. But all these objects might be accomplished by the application of the ordinary expenditures. There might be extraordinary events, growing out of the victories and triumphs of our army; there might be some enterprises in keeping with the former glory of our navy; but these might be met by the or FEBRUARY, 1847.] Three Million Loan. [29TH CONG. dinary appropriations. Another mode of ter- This war with Mexico was about to subject minating the war might be by means of nego- the Constitution of the United States to a still tiation. To effect this, the President might ask severer trial than those it had heretofore exfor the appointinent of a commission, to which perienced. They were now occupying a new he (Mr. M.) did not doubt that the Senate attitude in view of their constitutional powers, would hasten to give its approbation, for the and in view also of the course which expediency purpose of opening a negotiation. But the required. Hitherto the wars in which they expenses of such a commission would be pro- had been engaged were wars for human liberty, vided for by the ordinary course of appropria- or in defence of violated rights. Now there tion. There might, however, be other objects was pending a war of conquest. What were than those he had enumerated, other means to the obligations resting upon the Government be employed, other influences to be brought of the United States in view of such a state of into action, to be applied without reference to things? Should they, in imitation of the Govthe legislative authority, but exclusively by the ernments of Europe, prosecute a war for conPresident. The bill says, that this sum of three quest to the dismemberment of a neighboring millions shall be expended under the direction nation? Did the genius of our constitution of the President. According to the language permit the adoption of such a course? He of the bill, he is to be governed, in its expendi- thought that the great American doctrine was ture, only by his personal will and uncontrolled a doctrine peculiarly applicable to the support pleasure. It is to be expended, therefore, in and protection of our domestic institutions, some mode of which the people can have no totally distinct from any purpose of acquiring knowledge, and in which the legislative branch foreign territory by conquest. But now it can exercise no advisory power. The bill con- seemed, in view of the attitude in which we fers on the President an unprecedented and were placed, in a war which had been brought enormous power; a measure not only unexam-on, as they were told by their friends on the pled in our history, but in opposition to the spirit of our institutions. other side, by Mexico, and merely recognized by us, that a war of this character was to be We are engaged in a war with a powerless prosecuted with vigor and energy, for the purenemy; an enemy so weak and powerless, that, pose of acquiring territory, and of setting up at the commencement of the conflict, it was our own civil institutions within the territory deemed only necessary to send the few troops thus acquired; thus extending, as it was said, we had into the field to insure a compliance the limits of freedom by the prosecution of this with our demands; and now we are called on war of conquest. Without inquiring into the to sanction an extraordinary expenditure of fact, whether the war was commenced by three millious to bring the war to a close. The Mexico or not, it would have been but the excontest is not to be terminated by the prowess ercise of a proper discretion on the part of the of our arms, but by the application of money; President if he had hesitated before removing and the bill proposes to grant this money to the army from Corpus Christi. It would have the President, to be expended at the will of the been a fair subject of inquiry (it seemed to him) President, and without any other restriction on the part of the President, how far it would than a provision that he shall account for it be expedient and proper to direct such a movehereafter. If, after getting us into a war with ment; how far it would be construed into an that weak and powerless foe, we are willing to act of hostility towards the republic of Mexico? place these three millions in the hands of the He differed with the President as to the proPresident, how much more would be required priety even of this incipient movement But, of us if we were engaged in a war with either not to detain the Senate with any protracted of the most powerful nations in the world- argument upon this point, he would proceed to France or Great Britain, or both of them? the next important act of the President in reWould fifty-would a hundred millions be suf-lation to this war, in permitting Santa Anna to ficient in such a case? If it would, it would furnish no justification of the appropriation we are at this time required to make, when we have a President without any military talents or skill-he said this without intending any disrespect without those qualities which would be a security for its wise application. The occasion, the juncture, the position in which we stand, all admonish us of the dangerous tendency of such a course. Here, if we pass this bill, will be a precedent, which will be entitled hereafter to consideration and discussion, which may be wielded to pernicious influences, which, in our Government of checks and balances, cannot be too vigilantly guarded against. re-enter Mexico; and he would venture to assert that there was no event in the history of the prosecution of war anywhere, so novel and unprecedented as this. The President attempted, in his Message at the opening of this session, to give them his views at large upon this subject, and to assign the reasons which had actuated him in permitting Santa Anna to pass the blockading squadron. These reasons were before them; and, in view of the subsequent events which had happened, and in view of the elevated position which Santa Anna now occupied, of the dangerous nature of that position in relation to the army of the United States, and of the opportunity which he possessed to injure us, he would leave it to the 2D SESS.] DEBATES OF CONGRESS. Three Million Loan. [FEBRUARY, 1847. people of the United States to judge in what | one end of this extended continent to the other -a response, the tones of which will be calculated to shake the foundations on which our institutions rest. Sir, are we prepared to encounter hazards like these? There were other great interests involved: interests to which allusion had been made by The question of which I am speaking now, the Senator from Georgia and the Senator from Maryland; interests growing out of these ac- and which I almost dread to discuss, agitated quisitions of territory by the dismemberment the councils of our fathers; and there is, resultof Mexico. Besides the principle that was at ing from the policy pursued by them, an exstake, besides the incompatibility of doctrines ample which seems to me worthy of praise-an of this kind with the interests of the Govern- example of compromise and conciliation, avoidment of the United States, there were yet un- ing extremes on either side. I call, therefore, known and unseen evils that would result from upon our friends on the other side so to leave such a policy, which it became their duty to this question as to promote the sound policy avoid as far as practicable. Let us not push of the Government; as to heal up the wounds the territorial limits of this Government to which dissension has already made; to quiet such an extent as to bring upon us a collision the apprehensions of the public mind, and to of interests and feelings which will shake the follow the example of the illustrious fathers of very foundations of the Government. What the republic, in announcing that the object of sort of policy is it that will lead us into the this Administration is not to add territory to pursuit of territorial acquisition at the expense the Union by dismembering another nation; of our own domestic peace and concord? that it is not their object to pursue a policy What sort of policy is that which will lead us that will shake the public sentiment of this on step by step in the pursuit of conquest, country to a dangerous extent. They owe it while at home there is such formidable opposi- to themselves and to the country to place the tion to a policy of this sort as to endanger the policy of the present Government upon this very institutions of the Government? What- ground. Sir, it appears to me that it is the ever may be the views of the Executive or of interest of this Executive to quiet the feeling American statesmen in regard to this policy, it that now exists in this country upon this subseems to me to be a subject which requires theject, instead of asking money for the purpose of acquiring territory, which will excite and As you have anutmost deliberation. exasperate that feeling. nounced to the country that the war was not commenced for conquest, you should also announce that it is not to end by conquest. Have we not land enough to satisfy any American citizen? Or is there such a pressing necessity to have more, that we will endanger all that is dear to us in the pursuit of this policy? It would, he thought, be a poor return for the achievement of a legislative victory on the part of his friends on the other side of the chamber-it would be a poor consolation to the people of this country, after having carried our arms to the Pacific, if the acquisition of territory, which would be the result of that proceeding, should have the effect of creating internal discord, and destroying the institutions of this country. There was a question involved in this consideration which overshadowed them like a cloud. The great question of slavery, as the conscript fathers of the Republic well knew when the Government was first established, would become the more dangerous the more it was agitated. Why, then, should they pursue a policy that would lead to such agitation? What was the state of things now, as exhibited in the popular Was it not plainly branch of the legislature? to be perceived that there was a majority there that could carry measures which it would be the interest of this country to reject? Should they not, while they had it in their power, avoid a policy which would occasion the agitation of this question? He thought they should announce such a determination at once, from both sides of this chamber, so that the public mind might be set at rest. But, announce to the people of this country that you are about to add one-third of the territory of Mexico to your already extended limits, and one-tenth of her population, and put to them the question as to their approval of your policy, and it will be met by a response which will be felt from Sir, there is another branch of this subject to which I will briefly advert. Suppose the President should purchase Upper California and New Mexico; suppose he applies the money to be given to him by this bill in such a way as to secure to us those territories, and presents to the Senate a treaty with the republic of Mexico to that effect; do gentlemen suppose that it is a matter of certainty that the Senate will accede to it? Where, then, is the propriety of urging a measure that can end in no good? Is there any certainty, I ask, that a treaty negotiated upon this basis can ever receive the sanction of the Senate? In view of the great divisions which distract this country, a majority of two-thirds on a question like this is very difficult to be obtained. Suppose, then, a treaty negotiated on this basis should be presented to the Senate and rejected: what, then, You will indicate is the attitude which you will occupy before this nation and the world? to Europe, that while the President has announced that the war at its beginning was not for conquest, you announce that both the beginning and the close of the war has been exclusively for conquest. There is the positive fact presented to the view of the world. There FEBRUARY, 1847.] Three Million Loan Bill-Wilmot Proviso. is the result. Negotiation concluded, and a treaty presented to the Senate and rejected, and what will you have gained? Increased divisions, excitement, and disorder throughout the land; dangerous agitation, every thing, sir, which the mind can conceive or the eye look upon, threatening the disturbance of the peace and quiet of the people of this country. the whole nation. Mr. CALHOUN moved that the subject be informally passed over. HOUSE OF REPRENTATIVES. MONDAY, February 8. Three Million Loan Bill-Wilmot Proviso. The House resolved itself into Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, (Mr. NORRIS in the chair,) and took up for consideration the bill appropriating three millions of dollars to bring the war with Mexico to a speedy and honorable termination. [29TH CONG. that will meet their approval; and my word for it, he will not find a dissenting voice. There is no party in this country willing to throw obstructions in the way of beneficial measures-measures for the advancement of the interests and the glory of this contry. I know how apt we are to look upon the Representatives in these halls as opposed to each Again: suppose you make a treaty upon this other upon all questions submitted to them, basis, and it is confirmed by the Senate: what because they represent different portions of the do you gain? You have additional territory; country, and, to some extent, different interwhat do you propose to do with it? I suppose ests; but, upon a question like this, it will be there is not a citizen of this country who, if found that they represent but one people, havthe question were put to him, would not saying a common object to promote the good of that you have territory enough already. But you acquire additional territory. What else do you acquire? You will have acquired a large number of the population of Mexico, an ignorant, a fanatic, a disorderly people-a population having none of the elements of character in common with the people of this country-a population sprung from a different origin, having none of the blood of the Anglo-Saxons running in their veins a people differing from you in origin, in character, in feelings, and in principles-having nothing in common with you. What are you to do with them? Are you to govern them as you do your slaves in those States which now tolerate the institution of slavery? Are you to treat them as serfs belonging to the land which you acquire, as attached to the soil? Or will you put them on a level with the people of this country? Will you give them the privileges which your people enjoy, and enable them to regulate and control the destinies of the Government? Will you elevate them to the character of citizens of the United States, though it is now universally believed that the people of Mexico are entirely destitute of the capacity of self-government? Sir, if they are to constitute a portion of your population-if they are to become free citizens side by side with us-it may be that, in displaying those elements of character which render them now the most unstable, unsettled, inefficient population on the face of the globe, you may have the same difficulty in governing them that the authorities in Mexico have. I will acknowledge the energy and power of this Government, but at the same time remember their remoteness from the centre of action; remember the responsibility that you would incur, owing to their distance from the seat of power. You may pass your laws, but you may not be able to control the people and to enforce their obedience. Sir, in every aspect in which I can view this subject, it does seem to me that it becomes us to pause before adopting a policy like this. Let the President, in his confidential relations with the two Houses, ask us, if he chooses, to receive a Message from him disclosing his policy; let him put this grant of three millions upon a known and recognized basis; let the country be satisfied that the appropriation is intended to accomplish a great national object The bill having been read Mr. C. J. INGERSOLL, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, went into a speech at large in explanation and support of the bill, in which he stated, in substance, that the money was wanted to buy New Mexico and California. He then went into some remarks on the proviso which he understood his colleague (Mr. WILMOT) was going to offer to the bill, which he strenuously opposed. Mr. WILMOT then obtained the floor, and offered as an amendment, a proviso restricting the addition to the United States of any slave territory; and then yielded the floor to Mr. BOYD, who moved that the committee rise to receive in the House the report of the Committee of Conference on the army bill. The committee thereupon rose and reported progress. The House, on motion of Mr. Brodhead, returned into Committee of the Whole, (Mr. NORRIS again in the chair,) and resumed the consideration of the three million bill with Mr. WILMOT's proviso; and the question being on the adoption of the proviso Mr. WILMOT having the floor, refused to surrender it, and addressed the committee substantially as follows: I suppose, Mr. Chairman, it will be proper for me to notify the committee that I intend to move to amend the bill by the additional section which has been read, without now designating any particular part of the bill in which I intend it should come. And my anxiety in this matter is not to deprive the gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. DROMGOOLE,) or anybody else of the opportunity to move any amend 2D SESS.] DEBATES OF CONGRESS. Three Million Loan Bill-Wilmot Proviso. ment to the bill they may wish, but I am embarrassed by these rules of the House, (with which I am little acquainted,) and my object is, the opportunity to be heard upon this question fairly, and not to be deprived, by any parliamentary restrictions, of the opportunity of vindicating this amendment, and vindicating the position which I occupy before the House and the country. Sir, it will be recollected by all present, that at the last session of this Congress, an amendment was moved to a bill of a similar character by me, in the form of a proviso, by which slavery should be forever excluded from any territory that might be subsequently acquired by the United States from the republic of Mexico. Sir, permit me to say, that upon that occasion that proviso was sustained by a very decided majority of this House. Nay, sir, more; it was sustained, if I mistake not, by a majority of the republican party on this floor. And I am prepared to show, I think, that the entire South were then willing to acquiesce in what appeared to be, and, so far as the action of this House is concerned, in what was the legislation, will, and declaration of this Union on the subject. It passed in this House. Sir, there were no threats of disunion sounded in our ears. It passed here, and it went to the Senate, and it was the judgment of the public, and of many men well informed, that had it not been defeated there for the want of time, it would have passed that body and become the established law of the land. [FEBRUARY, 1847. Mr. SIMS, of South Carolina (Mr. W. yielding) said he recollected, when the question was under discussion here, near the close of the last session, that he had made remarks sustaining the propriety of the two-million appropriation; but in the course of these remarks, he deprecated, as untimely and mischievous, the proposition which was likely to come from the gentleman from Pennsylvania; and the entire South, so far as he recollected, (he knew that he did, at least,) when the proviso was voted upon, voted against it; and he voted against his declared sentiments in reference to the appropriation; so unwilling was he to give any countenance to such a proviso. Mr. WILMOT (resuming.) I was aware that the proviso met with no favor from the South. I did not mean to declare that it did; and if I did not mean to say that the the gentleman so understood me, he misunderstood me. South was favorable in any way to the proviso which I offered. They resisted it, manfully, boldly resisted it. But, sir, it was passed. And there was then no cry that the Union was to be severed in consequence. No, sir. But I fear that the hesitation and the warning of Northern men on this question has induced the South to assume a bolder attitude. Why, sir, in God's name, should the Union be dissolved for this? What do we ask in this matter? We ask but sheer justice and right. It was a question of compromise. I would go as far as any man in this House for compromise. Were it a question of concession and compromise, I might Sir, the friends of this Administration, of perhaps say to the North, Concede again, as whom I am one, did not then charge upon me, you have done before; yield all; bow to the did not throw the whole burden upon me, nor South, as you have done on all previous occaupon those who acted with me, of having, by sions-yield this also. But it is a question of the introduction and support of that proviso at naked and abstract right; and, in the eloquent an untimely period of the question, defeated a language of my colleague from the Erie district, measure especially necessary for the establish- (Mr. THOMPSON,) sooner shall they draw this ment of peace between this country and Mex-right shoulder from its socket, than I will yield ico. The "Union," sir, the whole Democratic one jot or tittle of the ground on which I upon the unparpress in the land, charged this What, then, do we ask? Sir, we ask the liamentary conduct of a Senator from Massachusetts. He was charged with having defeated neutrality of this Government on this question this great measure, by the Administration of slavery. I have stood up at home, and press, and the "Organ" of the Administration; fought single-handed-no, I was not singleshowing that the Administration and the Pres-handed, because my party was with me-but I ident were entirely willing to accept of this have stood at home, and fought, time and again, appropriation under the restrictions imposed against the Abolitionists of the North. I have denounced them publicly, upon all occasions, I have met by the proviso which I offered. when it was proper to do so. them in their own meetings, and assailed them. And, sir, the efforts that may be made, here or elsewhere, to give an abolition complexion to this movement, cannot, so far as my district and my people are concerned, have the least effect. And efforts made to give me the character of an abolitionist, will fall harmless when they reach my constituency. They know me upon this question distinctly. I stand by every compromise of the constitution. I adhere to its letter and its spirit. And I would never invade one single right of the South. So far from it am I, that I stand ready, at all times Yes! no anathemas were fulminated against me then. I was not then denounced as an abolitionist by the correspondents of the 66 Union," as have been since, and from which charge I intend to vindicate myself. And I say to its respectable editor, for whom I have high respect and regard, that I am no more an abolitionist than he is a Hartford-Convention Federalist; and of that, no man who knows his history or his character will charge him. I am as far from the one as he is from the other. I assert, then, that the South was prepared to acquiesce in this restriction. stand. |