an example of God's mercy, almost without a parallel. There was nothing that could save the nation but justice. The manner in which this justice has been administered by the government of the United States is an example worthy to be studied, and emulated by all the nations of the earth. Its effects upon other nations of great power, will more than compensate for all the sufferings of the war. They will be led to reconsider the rights of their dependents, and more fully to provide for their wants.

What Mexico may gain by the war, is nationality. If she improves her lessons of experience, they will yield her wisdom and give her strength. She has been paid a sum of money for that which has yielded her nothing in the past, and which promised her nothing in the future. If her people would hold her remaining territory, let them study the conditions by which alone they can hope to succeed; and, if they manifest a desire to do right, and persevere, they need have no fear of failure.*

The gain to the government of the United States, is the preservation of its own integrity. It has been true to the great cause of liberty, justice, and humanity. It has been true to republican principles; true in the midst of temptation ; — true to itself, wherein are centred the hopes, the strength of all republics throughout the world. It has taught the great lesson, in fearful letters of blood, that republics are not to be exempted

"There is only one cure," says Macaulay, "for the evils which newly-acquired freedom produces, and that cure is freedom! When a prisoner leaves his cell, he cannot bear the light of day; he is unable to discriminate colors, or recognize faces; but the remedy is not to remand him into his dungeon, but to accustom him to the rays of the sun. The blaze of truth and liberty may at first dazzle and bewilder nations, which have become half blind in the house of bondage; but let them gaze on, and they will soon be able to bear it. In a few years men learn to reason; the extreme violence of opinion subsides; hostile theories correct each other; the scattered elements of truth cease to conflict, and begin to coalesce; at length, a system of justice and order is educed out of the chaos."

from national calamities, if they permit national evils and national wrongs; that national greatness consists in national goodness; that national strength is to be found in the virtue and intelligence of the people.

In the language of an eloquent senator,* « National character is national power; and the purer, the more elevated, the more spotless the character, the greater the power. I trust, therefore, in God, that I am right in the opinion that this war is upon our part just and honorable.

"Mexico is answerable for all these sad and sickening results. The war is just, because she commenced it. It does exist by her act; and, so help me God, but for that conviction, as I reverence truth and detest falsehood, I would never have voted for the act of the thirteenth of May, 1846."

By the stipulations of the treaty of peace, the gain to our country is gain to the cause of freedom. † Our government receives no treasure, our people receive no wealth. Not one man of our twenty millions of people has the individual benefit of a single farthing extorted from Mexico by the conquests when achieved.

It is true, the ceded territory will doubtless prove of great consequence to the future inhabitants of this country; but the privileges secured are purely national, not individual, and they give power to a nation that is able and willing to protect them, and the universal cause of right in all coming time. The gain is not for the good of this country alone, it is a gain to humanity. It is not for the American, but for the race. This continent is to be the vast asylum of the world, for man to inhabit, in his weakness or strength, and to receive protection and encouragement.

The conquests of our army are not like those of the early ages of the world, where confiscation of property, and where liberty, were the forfeitures of defeat. We sought power that justice might be done, and protection given. Our government asks nothing from its people, but faithfulness to themselves, to + See Appendix B B.

* Hon. Reverdy Johnson.

their rights, and to their institutions. Their moral condition characterizes their institutions; it gives them birth, it gives them being. The people are made their own protectors, their own guides, their own masters. The government of the United States is but a manifestation of their wishes, an imbodiment of their power.

It is asked, with apparent sincerity, by some, "What right have we to invade Mexico? What right have we to reduce a nation already too feeble to support itself, already too miserable for existence, and to dictate terms for settlement of expenditures which have given us the power to lay her prostrate at our feet?"

By what right have we the power to do any thing? By what right is the soil of our land divided among its people? By what right does the citizen ask to be protected from wrong? By what right do freemen claim liberty of thought and conscience? By what right do we ask to be protected in our cornforts, pleasures, and homes? By what right do we demand institutions of freedom and of knowledge?

BY THE RIGHTS OF JUSTICE AND HUMANITY. By the rights developed in God's providence, and which may be extended to all people, when all people shall know the laws and understand them, by which men, and governments, and nations may live, flourish, and be happy.

If man will but study the destiny of man and of nations, he will see a harmony of constitution pervading the circles of society, and extending from a family to a nation, and from a nation to the world. There is a cause which would lift up the individual to the performance of the duties of social life; there is another that would elevate the citizen for the good of his country; there is another that seeks to give strength and character to a nation, and still another that gives compacts and laws to nations, the greatest, the widest cause of all. The rights of nations are to be exercised for the good of nations. The universal good of nations consists in justice and integrity. In the name of this sacred cause, the cause of GOD, the prog

ress of man, the freedom of mind and body throughout the whole earth, this war was prosecuted by the government of the United States, in its wisdom, as an act of Justice.

It is a passage of great truth, in one of the speeches of Governor Cass, that "All wars are to be deprecated, as well by the statesman as by the philanthropist. They are great evils, but there are greater evils than these, and submission to injustice is among them. The nation which should refuse to defend its rights and its honor, would soon have neither to defend.”

PARTY VIEWS AND PARTY PRINCIPLES.

THE present condition of political parties in this country, is a subject of singular interest to the citizen and to the observer. The elements which constitute the causes of difference, and the difference of principle, of profession and of action, are so diversified and opposite in character, that it is a matter of no small difficulty for the candid mind to decide what course of influence is safest and best; to discriminate between the transient and permanent, to draw a just line of distinction between the honest and dishonest pretensions of political leaders.

In no country, perhaps, are the rights of the citizen, and the nature of government, so much discussed as in this, not only by the well-informed, but by the ignorant; and yet there seems to be but little practical knowledge developed and systematized.

There is, indeed, a diffusive expression of opinion, and an apparent maturity of judgment, but a little attention to the views of many of those who claim to be the light of the people, must convince any one that they are not only selfish, but that they really have no philosophical basis of their own.

The modern politician is too superficial to be a discerning leader, and too much the creature of circumstance to be a safe adviser. This is true, in some degree, of all parties. He sees but a part of the whole, and judges the whole without regard to the parts. He appeals too much to local interests and prejudices; and if he cannot gain his ends by an open and frank avowal of his principles, he is too ready to employ indirect and unworthy means for their accomplishment. His