enforce the cession of Mexican territory, to acquire
territory for new States to be added to this Union. We know, every
intelligent man knows, that there is no stronger desire in the breast of
a Mexican citizen than to retain the territory which belongs to the
republic. We know that the Mexican people will part with it, if part
they must, with regret, with pangs of sorrow. That we know; we know it
is all forced; and therefore, because we know it must be forced, because
we know that (whether the government, which we consider our creature, do
or do not agree to it) the Mexican people will never accede to the terms
of this treaty but through the impulse of absolute necessity, and the
impression made upon them by absolute and irresistible force, therefore
we purpose to overwhelm them with another army. We purpose to raise
another army of ten thousand regulars and twenty thousand volunteers,
and to pour them in and upon the Mexican people.

Now, Sir, I should be happy to agree, notwithstanding all this tocsin,
and all this cry of all the Semproniuses in the land, that _their_
"voices are still for war,"--I should be happy to agree, and
substantially I do agree, to the opinion of the Senator from South
Carolina. I think I have myself uttered the sentiment, within a
fortnight, to the same effect, that, after all, _the war with Mexico is
substantially over_, that there can be no more fighting. In the present
state of things, my opinion is that the people of this country will not
sustain the war. They will not go for its heavy expenses; they will not
find any gratification in putting the bayonet to the throats of the
Mexican people. For my part, I hope the ten regiment bill will never
become a law. Three weeks ago I should have entertained that hope with
the utmost confidence; events instruct me to abate my confidence. I
still _hope_ it will not pass.

And here, I dare say, I shall be called by some a "Mexican Whig." The
man who can stand up here and say that he hopes that what the
administration projects, and the further prosecution of the war with
Mexico requires, may not be carried into effect, must be an enemy to his
country, or what gentlemen have considered the same thing, an enemy to
the President of the United States, and to his administration and his
party. He is a Mexican. Sir, I think very badly of the Mexican
character, high and low, out and out; but names do not terrify me.
Besides, if I have suffered in this resp