Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/561

Rh science; attacking them, with inferior numbers, in the open field, or assailing them when posted behind fortifications constructed with superior skill, yet ever achieving the same result — a brilliant and glorious victory. We have shown that, in an emergency, every citizen may become a soldier; — that, at all times, a powerful opponent, in a defensive war, we would be absolutely invincible; — that the military school at West Point has diffused a large amount of valuable information through the land; and that, while we have officers, whose clear and matchless combinations, and sound and accurate judgments, entitle them to take rank with the Marlboroughs, the Ruperts, and the Fredericks of the past, and the noblest captains of the present age, — we have, also, a citizen soldiery, prompt to obey their country's call, and ready to brave the dangers of war, and the vicissitudes of an unfriendly climate — disregarding, alike, the bolts of their antagonists, and the invisible shafts of man's great enemy.