Page:Speech of Mr. Chas. Hudson, of Mass., on the Three Million Appropriation Bill - delivered in the House of Representatives of the U.S., Feb. 13, 1847 (IA speechofmrchashu00hudsrich).pdf/7



Hudson said:

Mr. : No man can contemplate the present state of our affairs without perceiving that we stand in an unnatural position. A conquering republic is a political solecism. With a form of government peculiarly adapted to peace, we find ourselves involved in war—a war of aggression and con quest. Not satisfied with a territory extending from sea to sea, and almost from the rivers to the ends of the earth, we are at this moment engaged in the unholy work of dismembering a sister republic. This position, I repeat, is an unnatural one. I shall not at this time go into the causes of this war; I have attempted that on a former occasion. I endeavored at that time to show that revolutionary Texas never extended beyond the immediate valley of the Nueces; that the whole valley of the Rio Grande west of the desert was in possession of Mexico; that she had military posts there; that she had custom houses east of the river, where our merchants and traders had long been in the habit of paying duties to the Mexican government; that Santa Fe had frequently been recognised by every department of our Government, as a Mexican city, and that we had a consul residing there at the commencement of hostilities; and that the Executive, knowing these facts, invaded that country, threatened Matamoras, and, by blockading the Rio Grande, cut off the supplies of the Mexican army stationed at Matamoras on the west side of the river, and thus commenced an aggressive war, without the authority of Congress. These positions have been distinctly taken, by myself and others, on this floor, in the very face of the President's friends, and they have been challenged to refute them. And what have they done? Just nothing. Some have attempted to meet these positions by reference to a treaty with Santa Anna, which never had an existence; others by refer ring to old pretended claims, which, if they ever had any validity, were long since relinquished by solemn treaty. The only real attempt at argument which I have heard, was made by the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. .) He has paraded the Texan statutes before the House to prove that Texas owned the country west to the Rio Grande.

Now, sir, I admit the existence of these statutes, but to what do they