by a race of freemen, would under any circumstances have been inevitable. There did not exist before the war any reason to doubt such a result. We are familiar with the advance of our own race in these United States. Seventy years ago the Alleghanies were our western wall.

There is no conquest like that of the plow. The spoils of battle pass away generally with its victors, sometimes with its victims. But when the civilized and civilizing emigrant plants himself in a new country, its destiny is, in most instances, fixed forever. The tree of civilization roots itself deep in the soil, and in its turn bears fruit, and scatters its seed beyond.

It

The principle of democracy is the prominent feature in the character of this race. has become an element of thought in the minds of men. It is not possible that a state should arise on our western coasts, which would not be governed according to the will of its inhabitants. There is no one who has seen the broad river of emigration sweep away the forest and its kings, who can say that when it has flowed on to the shores of the Pacific, its waters will

be less pure and fertilizing than they are today.

It is said, however, that without this war the United States might never have obtained possession of that country, that even if it had become a home of freedom, another nation might have arisen there. We confess that we should rejoice at the prospect of such a result. Such vast possessions are of no benefit to us as a nation. And on the other hand, if the rights of man were sure hereafter to be maintained in any event on those distant shores, as fully at least as they are here, of what consequence would it be to the citizens of those future states to be united under our particular organization. Some spirit other than the unselfish desire to extend the area of freedom must surely have prompted to this acquisition.

The day is passing away we trust, in which nations seek their gain in each other's loss. Who can doubt that a sister republic in that distant region, knit to us by blood and by social and political fellowship, would be so also by the bonds of peace and national attachment? Who can doubt that harmony and friendship would be borne from one to another

on the currents of their waters, that the iron hands which would unite their cities would bind their hearts to each other also, and that sympathies and thoughts would dart together over the network of their electric nerves? Who can doubt that while each would pursue its own domestic policy, a noble confidence and generosity would mark their intercourse, rejoicing in each other's welfare, and seeking each other's good.

But we can no more pretend to have attained to social and political than to individual perfection. Many are conscious that we are as yet very far from that end, and that our institutions, though the best undoubtedly that the world has ever seen, are but the imperfect work of imperfect beings. We can hardly suppose that the freemen of that region, with the light of our experience to guide them, would fail to improve upon our example. We say then, that if the acquisition of this territory is the only benefit attributable to the Mexican war, it has been productive of no good whatever.

But if this war was wrong in its beginning and continuance, the most splendid results, the

greatest blessings following in its train would not change its character in the least. Though its effect had been to consecrate that region to freedom, and though without its agency, as far as human understanding can discover, it would have been doomed to despotism, these consequences would afford no extenuation of its criminality. As we read in all the events of history that there is a power above us, who, by an ordained and inevitable chain of causes and effects punishes national sins by national calamities, how can we dare to hope, that we or our children shall enjoy that of which we have despoiled another? How can we expect but that this ill gotten possession will prove a curse to embitter our peace and to sap the foundations of our national prosperity.

CHAPTER XII.

THE Evils attending the War. Its Expense. Its Loss of Life-in battle-by disease.

WE have viewed the meager credit of this war; let us now examine its debtor side in its account with humanity.

It is estimated that the war will have cost the United States, including the price paid for the ceded territory and when arrears are liquidated and pensions fully paid, at least one hundred millions of dollars. This is so much capital which has been accumulated by the industry and enterprize of the citizens of the United States almost entirely destroyed, as if it had been consumed in some vast conflagration. We say almost, because some part yet remain in permanent articles, useless however except for other wars, and some in the profits of contractors; but this amount is comparatively