justice and wisdom of his conduct; besides that singularly candid
paragraph in his late message in which he tells us that Congress with
great unanimity had declared that "by the act of the Republic of Mexico,
a state of war exists between that government and the United States,"
when the same journals that informed him of this also informed him that
when that declaration stood disconnected from the question of supplies
sixty-seven in the House, and not fourteen merely, voted against it;
besides this open attempt to prove by telling the truth what he could not
prove by telling the whole truth-demanding of all who will not submit to
be misrepresented, in justice to themselves, to speak out, besides all
this, one of my colleagues [Mr. Richardson] at a very early day in the
session brought in a set of resolutions expressly indorsing the original
justice of the war on the part of the President. Upon these resolutions
when they shall be put on their passage I shall be compelled to vote; so
that I cannot be silent if I would. Seeing this, I went about preparing
myself to give the vote understandingly when it should come. I carefully
examined the President's message, to ascertain what he himself had said
and proved upon the point. The result of this examination was to make the
impression that, taking for true all the President states as facts, he
falls far short of proving his justification; and that the President
would have gone further with his proof if it had not been for the small
matter that the truth would not permit him. Under the impression thus
made I gave the vote before mentioned. I propose now to give concisely
the process of the examination I made, and how I reached the conclusion I
did. The President, in his first war message of May, 1846, declares that
the soil was ours on which hostilities were commenced by Mexico, and he
repeats that declaration almost in the same language in each successive
annual message, thus showing that he deems that point a highly essential
one. In the importance of that point I entirely agree with the President.
To my judgment it is the very point upon which he should be justified, or