in Mexico. These regiments cannot, by any possibility, be recruited under a year, or a year and a half. The report of the Adjutant-General, dated 5th December last, distinctly shows this. He states that "the recruiting service has been pushed with vigor," and then proceeds to give us the results. He says: "The whole number of men enlisted from the 1st of October, 1845, to the 30th of September, 1846, is 5,945; being an excess of 2,388 over the previous year. The number enlisted in October and November, and to be enlisted in December, may be put down at 1,500."

If only 1,500 can be enlisted in three months, with this "vigorous pushing," it is plain that it will take a year to enlist 6,000, and another half year to complete the ten regiments. But it will take a much longer time than this.

The authorized regular force, at this moment, is 16,998; or deducting the commissioned officers, 16,218. But the whole rank and file of the army, notwithstanding the "vigorous pushing" of the recruiting service, could only be computed at 10,000 on the 31st of December last.

There are thus more than 6,000 men still to be enlisted under existing authority, which, according to the estimates of the Adjutant-General, will require a full year, and thus postpone the completion of these new regiments to two years and a half from the present time.

It is plain, therefore, that these new regiments are called for with no reference to any immediate exigencies, but only in contemplation of future distant service and a protracted war.

The President has already in the field 24,984 men. Of these 8,473 are regulars, and 16,511 volunteers. He has already enlisted 1,500 more regulars, and about 9,000 more volunteers, making an aggregate force of about 36,000. He has authority, under existing laws, to increase the regular force to 17,000 and the volunteers to 50,000, making an aggregate force of 67,000 And now he calls for authority to raise 10,000 more of regulars. To what end is this vast array of military power? The enlistment is to be during the war, or for five years. It cannot be completed under a year and a half or two years. What visions of protracted conflict do these facts unfold!

men.

This

The proviso of the bill authorizes the President to appoint the officers of these ten regiments during the recess of Congress, and to report them to the Senate at their next session. proviso proves that these regiments are not expected to be in readiness for any present support or relief of the troops in Mexico. The officers are not to be appointed until Congress has adjourned. What a power is this to confer on the President! Nobody imagines that the Senate can exercise any effective check upon appointments so made, and when the officers are once at their posts. Four or five hundred commissions, of all grades, from brigadier-generals down to lieutenants, are thus to be placed in the hands of the President. How many of them are to be dangled in the eyes of members of this House, with the view of carrying measures which seem now to meet with no particular favor, remains to be seen.

But the great objection to the bill is the policy which it discloses. In proposing this measure and that of the LieutenantGeneral, the Administration virtually call upon Congress to sanction the ultra and extravagant policy which they have recently adopted in regard to this war. I say recently adopted, for it is plain that a new spirit has come over the dream of the Executive on this subject.

On the 11th of November last the Secretary of War addressed a letter, which is in print, to a gentleman in Kentucky, in which he said: "It is proper, however, to say that the amount of force already in service is deemed sufficient for the prosecution of the war."

On the 16th day of the same November he issued a requisition for ten new regiments of volunteers to serve during the war. What occurred during these five days to change the whole policy of the Administration has never been disclosed, but it is plain that a marvellous change was wrought. And in pursuance of it, these ten new regiments of regulars are now called for. This new policy can be nothing less than one of invasion and conquest.

The report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in June last said: "Texas, and indemnity for wrongs confessed by several treaties, coasts and borders in tranquil possession without trans

atlantic interference, are all we insist upon. It will be Mexican infatuation, should the contest become one of races, of borders, of conquest, and of territorial extension."

Mexican infatuation, I presume, Sir, is at length sufficiently manifested, and this contest of races, borders, conquest, and territorial extension is to be commenced. And this contest Congress is now called upon to sanction. If it be not so, the President can inform us. But if, as I cannot doubt, this be the policy, I am entirely opposed to it, and I feel bound to express that opposition in the most unequivocal terms.

THE

CONQUEST OF MEXICAN TERRITORY.

A SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF

REPRESENTATIVES OF THE

UNITED STATES, IN COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE ON THE STATE OF THE UNION, FEBRUARY, 22, 1847.

The Army Bill being under consideration in Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union,—

Mr. WINTHROP moved to add the following provisos to the first clause of the bill: Provided, That no more than a proportionate amount of the money appropriated by the two first sections of this bill shall be expended during any one quarter of the year for which said appropriations are made.

"Provided, also, That so much of said appropriations as shall be unexpended at the next meeting of Congress, shall be subject to reconsideration and revocation.

"Provided, further, That these appropriations are made with no view of sanctioning any prosecution of the existing war with Mexico for the acquisition of territory to form new States to be added to the Union, or for the dismemberment in any way of the Republic of Mexico."

The question having been stated, Mr. WINTHROP addressed the Committee as follows: :

THERE are few things, Mr. Chairman, more trying to the temper of one who has any reverence for order, or any regard for appropriateness, than the course of proceedings in this House. It was a saying of Solomon, "a word spoken in due season, how good is it!" Another of his proverbs compared such a word to "apples of gold in pictures of silver." But it would have puzzled even Solomon himself to realize his own ideas in such a body as this. There seems to be no such thing as saying a seasonable word in this House. No man can say the thing he wishes to say, at the time he wishes to say it. One must be

always out of season, either for himself, or for the House, or for the subject, or perhaps for all at once.

My own experience upon this point does not differ materially, I am sure, from that of those around me. A few weeks ago I desired to say something about the Loan bill. What happened? It was whipped through the House at the rate of half a million a minute. One hour of discussion was allowed for a bill of twenty-eight millions of dollars! Nothing remained for all of us but silent votes.

Next came the Three Million bill. I desired to say a word about that. But, after struggling for the floor for two or three days, I was compelled to content myself with an unexplained vote upon that bill also.

Last week I had proposed to make a few remarks, upon the Army bill, which, it was understood, was to form the subject of debate on Friday and Saturday. Other business intervened, and no Army bill was brought forward.

This morning I came into the House prepared to enter upon the discussion of the new Tariff bill, which the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means had given us formal notice would be taken up to-day. But the new Tariff bill is now passed over, and lo! the Army bill is before us.

Well, Sir, I will not complain. I ought to be too grateful, perhaps, for getting the floor at all, amidst such a crowd of competitors, to indulge in any fault-finding on the occasion. At any rate, I will seize the moment as it flies; revert, as well as I can, to my last week's preparations, and proceed, without further preface, to the consideration of the bill which has just been read.

As one of the members of the committee by which this bill has been framed, I feel bound to call the attention of the House and of the country to its peculiar and extraordinary character. Undoubtedly, Sir, it is the great bill of the session. It appropriates a sum of money little short of thirty millions of dollars to the military service of the Government. The amendments which will be moved, under the authority of the Committee of Ways and Means, will probably swell the amount considerably beyond that sum.* It has been prepared in conformity with

*The whole sum appropriated by this bill, as it finally passed the House, was $34,545,389.37.