[32] has seized, with pilfering rapacity, the defenceless province of California. It is by virtue of this Act, that General Kearney has marched upon and captured Santa Fe. It is by virtue of this Act, that General Taylor has perpetrated the massacre at Monterey. It is by virtue of this Act, that desolation has been carried into a thousand homes,—that mothers, sisters, daughters and wives have been plunged in the comfortless despair of bloody bereavement, while the uncoffined bodies of sons, brothers and husbands are consigned to premature graves. Lastly, it is by virtue of this Act, that the army of the United States has been converted into a legalized band of brigands, marauders, and banditti, in violation of the sanctions of civilization, justice and humanity. The American soldiers, who have died ignobly in the streets of a foreign city, in the attack upon a Bishop's palace, in contest with Christian fellow-men, who were defending fire-sides and altars, may claim the epitaph of Simonides: ‘Go, tell at Sparta, that we died here in obedience to her laws.’ It was in obedience to this Act of Congress that they laid down their lives in a barbarous war. Second. This Act gives the sanction of Congress to an unjust war. War is barbarous and brutal; but this is unjust. It grows out of aggression on our part, and is continued by aggression. The statement of facts already made is sufficient to substantiate this point. Third. It declares that war exists ‘by the act of the Republic of Mexico.’ This statement of brazen falsehood is inserted in the front of the Act. But it is now admitted by most, if not all of the Whigs, who unhappily voted for it, that it is not founded in fact. It is a National lie. Fourth. It provides for the prosecution of the war ‘to a speedy and successful termination,’ that is, for the successful prosecution of an unjust war. Surely no rule can be more firmly founded in morals, than that we should seek the establishment of right. Never strive for the triumph of wrong. Fifth. The war has its origin in a series of measures to extend and perpetuate Slavery. A wise and humane legislator should have discerned its source, and derived therefrom fresh impulses to oppose it. Sixth. The war is dishonorable and cowardly, as being the attack of a rich, powerful, numerous and united Republic, upon a weak and defenceless neighbor, distracted by civil feuds. Every consideration of true honor, manliness and Christian duty, prompted gentleness and forbearance towards our unfortunate Sister. Such, Sir, is the Act of Congress, which received your sanction. It
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