They are not in themselves generally very valuable, except in certain narrow tracts, that minister to the "auri sacra fames," the accursed hunger for gold. We have compelled many thousands of people in those regions to come under our government, which is far from practising on the doctrine of civil and religious liberty, and basing government on the consent of the governed. We had established military institutions over these countries, and dissolved the allegiance of the inhabitants to Mexico, and annexed them to the United States, before a treaty of peace, the only proper tribunal, had decided where they should belong. We have inflicted a cureless wound upon the self-respect of Mexico, by dismembering with a violent hand her provinces, and destroying the integrity of the national domains. We have made an implacable enemy where we needed a fast friend. And so far as we have unjustly, by might and not by right, acquired possession of parts of Tamaulipas, Chihuahua, Coahuila, and all of New Mexico and Upper California, we must sooner or later suffer the most condign punishment for the gigantic wrong. As surely as there is a God reigning in heaven, or a Providence taking note of human conduct, the day cannot be far remote, when we shall be overtaken by the penalty of the law we have broken. Yes, our punishment has already begun. The ministers of Infinite Justice are upon us. Every interest of our beloved country, social, pecuniary, political, domestic, and moral has felt the shock of this war. The eagle eye of Liberty has drooped in sadness at the triumphs of oppression. And the Religion, whose interdict is, “Thou shalt not covet any thing that is thy neighbors," veils her holy face in abhorrence at the apostasy of her professed children.

But finally, it is alleged that the new possessions are rich in the precious metals. Granted. Let every hill be a Potosi, and every stream a Pactolus. Let millions of gold and silver flow into the coffers of our republic from the

El Dorado of the Pacific. But is it a wise prayer to pray that our country should be exposed to such a temptation? that our countrymen should be drawn still deeper into the passion for money ? These lands we have seen were as much forced from Mexico against her will, as the robber's booty is extorted from the helpless traveller by arms and threats.

We beat, we threatened, we coaxed Mexico to do what was against her wishes and interests. Can such treasures, thus procured, carry a blessing to their rapacious possessors? Not if life has one lesson left to teach; not if there is any truth in God's word; not if Providence has any oversight over human affairs. Ill-gotten riches, - when as a general rule have they benefitted individuals or nations? Are we not rushing into the love of money, into extravagance and worldliness, and unrepublican and unchristian habits with sufficient rapidity, but we must invoke new powers from the god of gold to add to their momentum? It is quite a sufficient offset, in the judgment of not a few, to all the abominations of this war, that it has resulted in the acquisition of so much more material wealth; as if that were the great good of life, as if that were what we most needed in this country, as if it were not the means of stimulating to greater intensity, the eager desire for gain, and making the dollar more than ever the deity which the multitude worship. Enterprise is spoken of; but had we not already a country resting on two remote oceans? was there any lack of room? Could "the American multiplication table," as it has been called, replenish the land to overflowing in one or two centuries? Must we cast covetous eyes on our neighbors' lands, because we are a progressive people? Read the history of the nations which have most abounded in the precious metals; read the tales of California life thus far developed, and then let the true lover of his country, let the friend of freedom and free institutions, say whether if he were to select any mode of retribution for the stupen

dous folly and crime of such a war, he could devise any one that under a fascinating disguise carries a Pandora's box of greater evils, than the acquisition of the gold lands of the Sacramento. The wounds of the sword may heal, but to pamper the lust for wealth is to inflict deeper wounds than those of the sword. The scars of the battle-field may be grown over by the unwearied powers of nature, and the bombarded city may again be built, but the deep, eating canker of avarice preys upon the nation's inner life, and frets and poisons and consumes what is most fair and noble and great and good in the character of the chief republic on the globe. The ancient saying may be fulfilled, "He gave them their request, but he sent leanness into their souls." Who that reviews the violent and fraudulent means employed to revolutionize and conquer California, can look with honest complacency on the gold coin stamped with that appellation? Who that understands in any measure what makes a State, what constitutes "the true grandeur of nations," but must lament with an unusual bitterness of sorrow, that, breaking away from the high promise and beautiful charm of our youth, and abjuring the splendid destiny of justice, peace and humanity, we should be content to crawl in the dust to scrape together a little of the perishable life of the world ; and to care less for obedience to those eternal principles on which the moral universe is built, than for certain plantations stocked with slaves, certain harbors on the Pacific, and certain valleys barren in aught but the fiery gold !*

"I am a friend to gold currency, but not to gold mining. That is a pursuit which the experience of nations shows to be both impoverishing and demoralizing to a nation. I regret that we have these mines in California; but they are there, and I am for getting rid of them as soon as possible. Make the working as free as possible."

"I care not who digs it up. I want it dug up. I want the fever to

CHAPTER XVIII.

NEW SCHEMES OF INVASION AND ANNEXATION.

"Peace is preeminently our policy. Our road to greatness lies not over the ruins of others, but in the quiet and peaceful development of our immeasurably great internal resources,-in subduing our vast forests, perfecting the means of internal intercourse throughout our widely extended country, and in drawing forth its unbounded agricultural, manufacturing, mineral, and commercial resources. In this ample field, all the industry, ingenuity, enterprize, and energy of our people may find employment for centuries to come; and through its successful cultivation, we may hope to rise, not only to a state of prosperity, but to that of greatness and influence over the destiny of the human race, higher than has ever been attained by arms by the most renowned nations of ancient or modern times. War, so far from accelerating, can but retard our march to greatness.”—Calhoun.

THE alleged benefit of war as ridding society of many of its worst members, and drawing off the vicious and abandoned to supply the decimation of its hospitals and battlefields, is very problematical. For it often returns home more vagabonds and villains, than it enlisted. It demoralizes many who were before pure, and spreads by means of its disbanded troops an immoral influence far and wide in the land. A large class of reckless, adventurous spirits are

be over. I want the mining finished. Let all work that will. Let them ravage the earth-extirpate and exterminate the mines. Then the sober industry will begin which enriches and ennobles a nation. Work as hard as we may we cannot finish soon." Speech of Mr. Benton in the Senate, January 15, 1849.

educated and instigated in times of war to such a pitch of hardened brutality, that they learn by practice to love to fight. They are intoxicated with the excitements of battles, and when peace is declared, they have become so enamored of the profession of the soldier, that they long for some new occasion for wielding the sword; it matters little what the justice or merits of the cause may be, provided it open a theatre for bravery, promotion and pay.

In accordance with these principles, we find that the soldiers lately embarked in the Mexican Foray, are many of them anxious to go upon another human hunt. Some of them remained in Mexico, and enlisted in the army there. Some of them returned to Vera Cruz, and offered their services to Yucatan in the late contest with the Indians. But still others, and it has been darkly hinted that thousands are interested in the plan,-propose to renew under the pretext of "a Buffalo Hunt on the Rio Grande," the process of Mexican dismemberment, and erect a new republic out of the provinces between the Siera Madre and that River, at first designed to be independent, but afterwards to fall into the hands of the United States as ripe fruit from the tree. The press has been full of rumors on the subject. Information was requested by Congress from the President of the United States in relation to the expedition; to which he replied that he had no official information that any citizen or citizens of the United States were planning to revolutionize any part of Mexico.

But however this particular plan may be, it is sufficiently evident to all, that this war has given our countrymen a taste for national aggrandizement, that will ask for more and more. When the wild beast has dipped his tongue in blood, he rages for new prey. The strong passions that have been quickened by this conquest will not soon subside. The Sierra Madre republic may become an exploded idea, but not so the ambition and reckless spirit of adventure and