Charles Hudson

“ Why, to put three millions of dollars into the hands of the President, that he may buy a peace with Mexico; that he may bribe Santa Anna and some of his rival chiefs to give us a peace, so that we may safely bring our army within our own borders. This, then, is the glory to which some gentlemen aspire!—this the deathless renown they would procure for our arms! Away with this senseless declamation about the honor of our country and the glory of our flag. If our Democratic friends are so jealous of our country's honor, let them pass in review the conduct of their own President. ”

“ When Congress declare war, that becomes the law of the land—a law which is not repealable by Congress like other statutes. I know, sir, that this position is substantially true; I am aware that when war is made, it can only be completely terminated by a treaty of peace, and that in this treaty, the President has the initiative. But this very fact shows the necessity of our acting with great caution, both in declaring war, and in granting means for its prosecution. The very fact that war increases Executive power, should teach us not to surrender to him powers not granted by the Constitution. ”

“ They would rise as one man, and reak their vengeance upon our flying forces.
I am fully aware that the idea of defeat hardly enters into the calculation of those who are warmly devoted to this war. They speak of the prowess of this nation, as though we could successfully meet the world in arms. I am not insensible of our power in a war of defence-fighting for our own soil and institutions, our homes and altars, we should be invincible. But when we engage in a war of conquest, prosecuted far from our own country, and in the heart of the enemy's, the case is entirely different. ”

“ Every step we advance takes us farther from our supplies, and renders our position more dangerous. And while all these causes are impediments in our way, and expose us to new dangers, they operate in favor of our enemy. This very invasion has given union to their councils, stability to their Government, and desperation to their troop?. While our troops are dragging their lives out in a foreign war, these despised Mexicans are lighting for their own country—the land of their birth—for their homes, their firesides, and, above all, for their religion. ”

“ I must exercise my own judgment, and fallow my own sense of duty, I admit that there is a vast difference between a state of peace and a state of war; but I have yet to learn that we must bring to the Constitution of our country any rule of interpretation in war that would not be sound in time of peace. Congress is the law-making power at all times—in war no less than in peace. There are strong reasons why Congress should be more watchful of their prerogative in war than in peace. War, from the necessity of the case, increases Executive patronage, and greatly augments Executive power. ”

“ We are called upon, not by the dictates of pure patriotism, but by the promptings of a vile ambition, to prosecute this war. We are asked to clothe the President with power to entice the young men of the country from the habits of industry, and from the pursuits of peace, that their bones may bleach upon the sickly plains, or amid the mountain passes of Mexico. ”

“ If your force is large, they will cut off your supplies and starve you into submission; if your force is small, they will cut you off in detail.
What prospect, then, have we for success in this foreign war of conquest in which we are now engaged? What has been our success thus far? We have conquered in every battle; we have gained three victories; we have marched far into the country, and, to all human appearances, we are far ther from a peace than we were when the first gun was fired. ”

“ 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 ”

“ The right of withholding supplies is an essential ingredient in a free Government. It is a popular right—the people's best security. Upon them must fall all the burdens of the war; and their voice should be heard in relation to its prosecution. This doctrine lies at the foundation of our institutions. It is sacred to all freemen, and formidable to tyrants only.
I have endeavored, Mr. Chairman, and I think, successfully, to show that Congress has the Constitutional right to withhold supplies from the Administration in time of war. I admit that withholding supplies is rather an extreme measure. ”

“ If we attempt to encroach upon the Executive, we violate our organic law; and we are guilty of a similar violation, if we tamely submit to the encroachments of the Executive upon the prerogatives of Congress. In relation to war, it is the prerogative of the President, as commander-in-chief, to direct the military movements; but the framers of the Constitution have wisely vested in Congress the whole subject of supplies, whether it be of money or of men. "Congress shall have power to raise and support armies," is the language of the Constitution itself. ”

“ The practice hence is so far from affecting British subjects alone, that, under the pretext of searching for these, thousands of American citizens, under the safeguard of national law, and of their national flag, have been torn from their country, and every thing dear to them; have been dragged on board ships of war of a foreign nation, and exposed, under the severities of their discipline, to be exiled to the most distant and deadly climes, to risk their lives in the battles of their oppressors, and to be the melancholy instruments of taking away those of their own brethren. ”

“ I am not among those who believe that war is never justifiable. Great as the evil is, war may justly be resorted to in self-defence or self-preservation. But why point to the war of 1812? If the present war with Mexico can be justified on its merits, why bring the war of 1812 to its aid? The fact is, that the flatterers of the President, who attempt to sustain this war, are conscious of their inability to justify it on its merits, and hence they attempt to associate it with the war of 1812. ”

“ If we think the President is prosecuting a war for an improper object, or an unholy end, it is not only our right, but our duty, to restrain him; and this can only be done by withholding from him the means of carrying it on. And, by so doing, we violate no law. If any expense has been incurred by authority of law, the faith of the nation is pledged, and Congress have no moral right to withhold the appropriation. But. when they are called upon to make new grants of men and money, they have the right to exercise their own judgment, and to grantor withhold, as they may think proper. ”

“ Suppose, in the case before us, that Mexico should declare to us, and to the world, that she was disposed to treat with us on the most favorable terms-terms perfectly satisfactory to nine-tenths of our people— and that the President, mad with ambition, should spurn the offer, and declare that he would not desist from a vigorous prosecution of the war, until he had exterminated the whole race, and possessed their entire country; is there a man on this floor who would Dot feel himself called upon to arrest this mad scheme of Executive barbarity? ”

“ We have called out some twenty-five thousand volunteers, and have employed our regular army, and (to say nothing of our naval disasters,) what have we gained? We have had victories without advantages. We have taught the Mexicans that they cannot compete with us in the open field, and they have taught us that we are not a match for them in guerilla warfare. We have been teaching them the art of war; we have made them acquainted with our tactics; we have shown them where their weakness and where their strength lies, and they appear to be profiting by the lesson. ”

“ Our ports blockaded, our soil trampled by the foot of the foe, and wet with the blood of our own citizens; the blaze of the cabin in the wilderness, arid of the Capitol in this city, all conspired to wake the patriotism of our citizens, and called upon them to avenge the wrongs of their country, and to protect their homes, and defend their wives and their children. ”

“ If we must give the President whatever he asks, simply because we are engaged in war, it would be an easy thing for some modern Caesar, or second Napoleon, to raise himself to supreme command in this nation. ”

“ The sentiment is deep rooted; it is a strong religious conviction that slavery is a curse, and is at war with the best interests of our country and of humanity. A great moral revolution has commenced, and such revolutions can never go backward. They have seen this Administration breaking through the barriers of the Constitution to sustain and extend slavery, and the people in the free Slates have resolved that the evil shall extend no farther. ”

“ Is our country invaded, or even in danger of invasion? Nothing like it. We are spreading all the horrors of war in a foreign country; we are taking the advantage of the weakness and poverty, of the distraction and disorders of a sister republic, to overrun her territory, that we may filch from her a portion of her possessions. ”

“ This department of the Government is never so dangerous to our liberties as when clad in armor. It is then, more especially, that the people's Representatives should take an independent stand, and bring into exercise all those checks and balances, which our patriot fathers have wisely provided for in the Constitution.
Nothing can be more alarming nothing more dangerous to our liberties than the views which some gentlemen appear to entertain on this subject. ”

“ But those who entertain the opposite opinion—who regard the war as unnecessary and unjust—who believe that the dismemberment of Mexico would be an outrage, and bringing territory into the Union by conquest will endanger its existence—must, as it seems to me, see no reason why they should not take measures to arrest this evil and avert this calamity. I can judge only for myself ”

“ I am firmly of the opinion, from what I have heard myself, and learned from others, that if the gentlemen on this floor would forget their party ties, and summon moral courage sufficient to enable them to follow their own judgment, we could pass a resolution this day, recommending to the President to recall our military force from the soil of Mexico. But, Mr. Chairman, we have fallen upon evil times. The ties of party are stronger, I fear, than the love of country . Many, very many, advocate the prosecution of the war, when, at the same time, they condemn and loathe it. ”

“ British cruisers have been in the practice also of violating the rights and peace of our coasts. They hover over and harass our entering and departing commerce. To the most insulting pretensions they have added the most lawless proceedings in our very harbors, and have wantonly spilt American blood within the sanctuary of our territorial jurisdiction. ”

“ Every one who has paid any attention to the progress of our institutions, must have witnessed the constant increase of Executive prerogative and power. The veto power has now become an ordinary power in the hands of the President, and no Chief Magistrate has ever been guilty of a greater abuse of it than the present incumbent of the White House. This abuse of the veto power justly merits the rebuke of Congress. But his conduct in relation to this war is still more reprehensible. ”

“ Mexico has a population. of ten or eleven millions, being about half that of ours; and this population is spread over a territory one-third larger than that of the United States. A nation which acts upon the defensive, has always an advantage over the invaders. Nature has also guarded Mexico at almost every point. If we attack her from the Gulf, we have to encounter all the perils of a dangerous sea and a pestilential shore. If we attempt to penetrate into her country, we meet with her arid plains and dangerous mountain passes—bulwarks prepared by Nature for her defence. ”

“ The attempt to dismember our Union, and overthrow our excellent Constitution, by a secret mission, the object of which was to foment discontent, and ex cite insurrection against the constituted authorities and laws of the nation, as lately disclosed by the agent employed in it, affords full proof that there is no bound to the hostility of the British government towards the United States; no act, however unjustifiable, which it would not commit to accomplish their ruin. ”

“ If the President was deaf to the voice of remonstrance, every member would feel himself impelled, by a sense of duty, by the dictates of humanity, by his constitutional obligations, to refuse to the Executive the means of prosecuting such a war. ”

“ The thirty millions we are asked to appropriate for the army, does not take effect till the first of July next, and extends to July, 1848. It is entirely prospective, and has reference to the prosecution of the war seventeen months hence. By withholding this appropriation, or, by reducing it one-half, we should not injure those gallant men now in the field. We should simply prevent the Executive from sending thousands of others to that land of pestilence and death. As far as men and money should be necessary to bring off our army in safety, I would cheerfully grant them. ”