November 23. - Mr. Buchanan still preferred his own draft, and so did Mr. Walker, the latter avowing as a reason that he was for taking the whole of Mexico, if necessary, and he thought the construction placed upon Mr. Buchanan's draft by a large majority of the people would be that it looked to that object. I replied that I was not prepared to go to that extent, and furthermore, that I did not desire that anything I said in the message should be so obscure as to give rise to doubt or discussion as to what my true meaning was; that I had in my last message declared that I did not contemplate the conquest of Mexico, and that in another part of this paper I had said the same thing. . . . February 21 [1848]. — I announced to the Cabinet that under all the circumstances of the case I would submit it to the Senate for ratification, with a recommendation to strike out the tenth article. I assigned my reasons for this decision. They were, briefly, that the treaty conformed on the main question of limits and boundary to the instructions given Mr. Trist in April last, and that though if the treaty was now to be made I should demand more territory, perhaps, to make the Sierra Madre the line, yet it was doubtful whether this could be ever obtained by the consent of Mexico. I looked to the consequences of its rejection. A majority of one branch of Congress is opposed to my Administration; they have falsely charged that the war was brought on and is continued by me with a view to the conquest of Mexico, and if I were now to reject a treaty made upon my own terms, as authorized in April last, with the unanimous approbation of the Cabinet, the probability is that Congress would not grant either men or money to prosecute the war. Should this be the result, the army now in Mexico would be constantly wasting and diminishing in numbers, and I might at last be compelled to withdraw them, and then lose the two provinces of New Mexico and Upper California, which were ceded to the U. S. by this treaty. Should the opponents of my Administration succeed in carrying the next. Presidential election, the great probability is that the country would lose all the advantages secured by this treaty. I adverted to the immense value of Upper California, and concluded by saying that if I were now to reject my own terms as offered in April last I did not see how it was possible for my Administration to be sustained. Transcript of Polk's Diary, prepared for George Bancroft, in the Lenox Library, New York. CHAPTER III-WILMOT PROVISO AND COMPROMISE 15. The Doughface's Creed (1848) BY JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL The Mexican War opened the eyes of the North to southern intentions, and the opposition to the war found perhaps its most influential expression in Lowell's stinging satire under the name of "The Biglow Papers." Famous as poet, critic, and diplomatist, Lowell did his greatest service for his country when he wrote these verses in the Yankee dialect. - For Lowell, see E. E. Hale, Jr., James Russell Lowell, 124128. — Bibliography as in No. 11 above. I du believe in special ways O' prayin' an' convartin'; The bread comes back in many days, I du believe hard coin the stuff To make hard money out on; An' gives a good-sized junk to all, I don't care how hard money is, Ez long ez mine 's paid punctooal. I du believe with all my soul In the gret Press's freedom, To pint the people to the goal An' in the traces lead 'em; Palsied the arm thet forges yokes At my fat contracts squintin', An' withered be the nose thet pokes Inter the gov'ment printin'! I du believe thet I should give Fer it's by him I move an' live, Frum him my bread an' cheese air; I du believe thet all o' me Doth bear his souperscription, I du believe in prayer an' praise This lays all thought o' sin to rest, – I du believe in bein' this My preudunt course is steadied,— I scent wich pays the best, an' then Go into it baldheaded. I du believe thet holdin' slaves I could n't ax with no face, I du believe wutever trash 'll keep the people in blindness,— Thet we the Mexicuns can thrash Right inter brotherly kindness, Thet bombshells, grape, an' powder 'n' ball Air good-will's strongest magnets, Thet peace, to make it stick at all, In short, I firmly du believe Fer it's a thing thet I perceive To hev a solid vally; This heth my faithful shepherd ben, In pasturs sweet heth led me, To feed ez they hev fed me. [James Russell Lowell], The Biglow Papers, [First Series] (Cambridge, 1848), No. vi., 75-80. 16. Defence of the Proviso (1847) BY REPRESENTATIVE DAVID WILMOT Wilmot was a Northern Democrat, content to allow the South some of her demands, but unwilling to have any responsibility for more slave territory. His famous proviso, first introduced in 1846, was the bugle-call which aroused the North to the intention of the South to increase the slave states beyond Texas, and thus to extend slavery. Lincoln once boasted that he had voted for the principle of the Wilmot Proviso forty-two times in the two years of his service in the House. - Bibliography: Channing and Hart, Guide, § 196. STR IR, it will be recollected by all present, that, at the last session of Congress, an amendment was moved by me to a bill of the same character as this, in the form of a proviso, by which slavery should be excluded from any territory that might subsequently be acquired by the United States from the republic of Mexico. Sir, on that occasion, that proviso was sustained by a very decided majority of this House. Nay, sir, more, it was sustained, if I mistake not, by a majority of the Republican party on this floor. I am prepared, I think, to show that the entire South were then willing to acquiesce in what appeared to be, and, in so far as the action of this House was concerned, what was the legislative will and declaration of the Union on this subject. It passed this House. Sir, there were no threats of disunion sounded in our ears. It passed here and went to the Senate, |