The people of the United States have been placed by Providence in a
position never before enjoyed by any other nation. They are possessed of
a most extensive territory, with a very fertile soil, a variety of
climates and productions, and a capacity of sustaining a population
greater, in proportion to its extent, than any other territory of the
same size on the face of the globe.
By a concourse of various circumstances, they found themselves, at the
epoch of their independence, in the full enjoyment of religious, civil,
and political liberty, entirely free from any hereditary monopoly of
wealth or power. The people at large were in full and quiet possession
of all those natural rights, for which the people of other countries
have for a long time contended, and still do contend. They were, and you
still are the supreme sovereigns, acknowledged as such by all. For the
proper exercise of these uncontrolled powers and privileges, you are
responsible to posterity, to the world at large, and to the Almighty
Being who has poured on you such unparalleled blessings.
Your mission is, to improve the state of the world, to be the "Model
Republic," to show that men are capable of governing themselves, and
that this simple and natural form of government is that also which
confers most happiness on all, is productive of the greatest development
of the intellectual faculties, above all, that which is attended with
the highest standard of private and political virtue and morality.
Your forefathers, the founders of the Republic, imbued with a deep
feeling of their rights and duties, did not deviate from those
principles. The sound sense, the wisdom, the probity, the respect for
public faith, with which the internal concerns of the nation were
managed, made our institutions an object of general admiration. Here,
for the first time, was the experiment attempted with any prospect of
success, and on a large scale, of a Representative Democratic Republic.
If it failed, the last hope of the friends of mankind was lost or
indefinitely postponed; and the eyes of the world were turned towards
you. Whenever real, or pretended apprehensions of the imminent danger of
trusting the people at large with power, were expressed, the answer ever
was, "Look at America!"
In their external relations the United States, before this unfortunate
war, had, whilst sustaining their just rights, ever acted in strict
conformity with the dictates of justice, and displayed the utmost
moderation. They never had voluntarily injured any other nation. Every
acquisition of territory from Foreign Powers was honestly made, the
result of Treaties, not imposed, but freely assented to by the other
party. The preservation of peace was ever a primary object. The recourse
to arms was always in self defence. On its expediency there may have
been a difference of opinion; that, in the only two instances of
conflict with civilized nations which occurred during a period of sixty
three years, (1783 to 1846), the just rights of the United States had
been invaded by a long continued series of aggressions, is undeniable.
In the first instance, war was not declared; and there were only partial
hostilities between France and England. The Congress of the United
States, the only legitimate organ of the nation for that purpose, did,
in 1812, declare war against Great Britain. Independent of depredations
on our commerce, she had, for twenty years, carried on an actual war
against the United States. I say, actual war, since there is now but one
opinion on that subject; a renewal of the impressment of men sailing
under the protection of our flag would be tantamount to a declaration of
war. The partial opposition to the war of 1812, did not rest on a denial
of the aggressions of England and of the justice of our cause, but on
the fact that, with the exception of impressments, similar infractions
of our just rights had been committed by France, and on the most
erroneous belief, that the administration was partial to that country,
and insincere in their apparent efforts to restore peace.
At present, all these principles would seem to have been abandoned. The
most just, a purely defensive war, and no other is justifiable, is
necessarily attended with a train of great and unavoidable evils. What
shall we say of one, iniquitous in its origin, and provoked by
ourselves, of a war of aggression, which is now publicly avowed to be
one of intended conquest.
If persisted in, its necessary consequences will be, a permanent
increase of our military establishment and of executive patronage: its
general tendency, to make man hate man, to awaken his worst passions, to
accustom him to the taste of blood. It has already demoralized no
inconsiderable portion of the nation.
The general peace, which has been preserved between the great European
powers during the last thirty years, may not be ascribed to the purest
motives. Be these what they may, this long and unusual repose has been
most beneficial to the cause of humanity. Nothing can be more injurious
to it, more lamentable, more scandalous, than the war between two
adjacent republics of North America.
Your mission was, to be a model for all other governments and for all
other less favored nations, to adhere to the most elevated principles of
political morality, to apply all your faculties to the gradual
improvement of your own institutions and social state, and, by your
example, to exert a moral influence most beneficial to mankind at large.
Instead of this, an appeal has been made to your worst passions; to
cupidity, to the thirst of unjust aggrandizement by brutal force; to the
love of military fame and of false glory; and it has even been tried to
pervert the noblest feelings of your nature. The attempt is made to make
you abandon the lofty position which your fathers occupied, to
substitute for it the political morality and heathen patriotism of the
heroes and statesmen of antiquity.
* * * * *
I have said, that it was attempted to pervert even your virtues.
Devotedness to country, or patriotism, is a most essential virtue, since
the national existence of any society depends upon it. Unfortunately,
our most virtuous dispositions are perverted, not only by our vices and
selfishness, but also by their own excess. Even the most holy of our
attributes, the religious feeling, may be perverted from that cause, as
was but too lamentably exhibited in the persecutions, even unto death,
of those who were deemed heretics. It is not, therefore, astonishing,
that patriotism, carried to excess, should also be perverted. In the
entire devotedness to their country, the people, everywhere and at all
times, have been too apt to forget the duties imposed upon them by
justice towards other nations. It is against this natural propensity
that you should be specially on your guard. The blame does not attach to
those who, led by their patriotic feelings, though erroneous, flock
around the national standard. On the contrary, no men are more worthy of
admiration, better entitled to the thanks of their country, than those
who, after war has once taken place, actuated only by the purest
motives, daily and with the utmost self-devotedness, brave death and
stake their own lives in the conflict against the actual enemy. I must
confess, that I do not extend the same charity to those civilians, who
coolly and deliberately plunge the country into any unjust or
unnecessary war.
We should have but one conscience; and most happy would it be for
mankind, were statesmen and politicians only as honest, in their
management of the internal or external national concerns, as they are in
private life. The irreproachable private character of the President, and
of all the members of his administration, is known and respected. There
is not one of them who would not spurn with indignation the most remote
hint that, on similar pretences to those alleged for dismembering
Mexico, he might be capable of an attempt to appropriate to himself his
neighbor's farm.
In the total absence of any argument that can justify the war in which
we are now involved, resort has been had to a most extraordinary
assertion. It is said, that the people of the United States have an
hereditary, superiority of race over the Mexicans, which gives them the
right to subjugate and keep in bondage the inferior nation. This, it is
also alleged, will be the means of enlightening the degraded Mexicans,
of improving their social state, and of ultimately increasing the
happiness of the masses.
Is it compatible with the principle of Democracy, which rejects every
hereditary claim of individuals, to admit an hereditary superiority of
races? You very properly deny, that the son can, independent of his own
merit, derive any right or privilege whatever, from the merit or any
other social superiority of his father. Can you for a moment suppose,
that a very doubtful descent from men, who lived one thousand years ago,
has transmitted to you a superiority over your fellow-men? But the
Anglo-Saxons were inferior to the Goths, from whom the Spaniards claim
to be descended; and they were in no respect superior to the Franks and
to the Burgundians. It is not to their Anglo-Saxon descent, but to a
variety of causes, among which the subsequent mixture of Frenchified
Normans, Angevins and Gascons must not be forgotten, that the English
are indebted for their superior institutions. In the progressive
improvement of mankind, much more has been due to religious and
political institutions, than to races. Whenever the European nations,
which, from their language, are presumed to belong to the Latin or the
Sclavonian race, shall have conquered institutions similar to those of
England, there will be no trace left of the pretended superiority of one
of those races above the other. At this time, the claim is but a pretext
for covering and justifying unjust usurpation and unbounded ambition.
But admitting, with respect to Mexico, the superiority of race, this
confers no superiority of rights. Among ourselves, the most ignorant,
the most inferior, either in physical or mental faculties, is recognized
as having equal rights, and he has an equal vote with any one, however
superior to him in all those respects. This is founded on the immutable
principle that no one man is born with the right of governing another
man. He may, indeed, acquire a moral influence over others, and no other
is legitimate. The same principle will apply to nations. However
superior the Anglo-American race may be to that of Mexico, this gives
the Americans no right to infringe upon the rights of the inferior race.
The people of the United States may rightfully, and will, if they use
the proper means, exercise a most beneficial moral influence over the
Mexicans, and other less enlightened nations of America. Beyond this
they have no right to go.
The allegation that the subjugation of Mexico would be the means of
enlightening the Mexicans, of improving their social state, and of
increasing their happiness, is but the shallow attempt to disguise
unbounded cupidity and ambition. Truth never was or can be propagated by
fire, and sword, or by any other than purely moral means. By these, and
by these alone, the Christian religion was propagated, and enabled, in
less than three hundred years, to conquer idolatry. During the whole of
that period, Christianity was tainted by no other blood than that of its
martyrs.
The duties of the people of the United States towards other nations are
obvious. Never losing sight of the divine precept, "Do to others as you
would be done by," they have only to consult their own conscience. For
our benevolent Creator has implanted in the hearts of men the moral
sense of right and wrong, and that sympathy for other men, the
evidences of which are of daily occurrence.
It seems unnecessary to add anything respecting that false glory which,
from habit and the general tenor of our early education, we are taught
to admire. The task has already been repeatedly performed, in a far more
able and impressive manner, than anything I could say on the subject. It
is sufficient to say that, at this time, neither the dignity or honor of
the nation demand a further sacrifice of invaluable lives, or even of
money. The very reverse is the case. The true honor and dignity of the
nation are inseparable from justice. Pride and vanity alone demand the
sacrifice. Though so dearly purchased, the astonishing successes of the
American arms have at least put it in the power of the United States to
grant any terms of peace, without incurring the imputation of being
actuated by any but the most elevated motives. It would seem that the
most proud and vain must be satiated with glory, and that the most
reckless and bellicose should be sufficiently glutted with human gore.
A more truly glorious termination of the war, a more splendid spectacle,
an example more highly useful to mankind at large, cannot well be
conceived, than that of the victorious forces of the United States
voluntarily abandoning all their conquests, without requiring anything
else than that which was strictly due to our citizens.