will not suffer by comparison with any thing in the military annals of the world he had taken advantage of the terms of capitulation which the brave and generous Taylor had so hu-manely and so wisely sanctioned, and had adopted the plan of masterly inactivity which that sagacious General proposed, an honorable peace might have been looked for at an early day. But a mad spirit of aggression and conquest was still destined to prevail. The capitulation was denounced. An officer was despatched, posthaste, to disavow and break up the armistice. The brilliant achievement of our armies was disparaged. Their noble-hearted commander was not even named in the Executive message. And a cry for more Mexican blood went forth from all the organs of the Administration.

And now, Sir, if I mistake not, a third opportunity is about to be offered for ending this war with whatever distinction may attach to military and naval success. A blow is about to be struck at Vera Cruz. It can hardly fail to be successful. That far-famed castle will be surrendered to our arms, as it lately was to those of France. All that gallant troops and brave tars can do, in that quarter, will be done; and victorious wreaths will once more adorn the brow of the veteran Scott.

And why should not the war end here? What object is to be gained by further fighting? Does the President propose to hold this castle? Why, Sir, I am informed, by one who knows, that even the Mexican garrison, composed of acclimated men, to whom the malaria of that region had been their daily breath from infancy, were dying there last summer at the rate of thirty men a day. How many of an American garrison can live there? Does the President propose to march to the capital of Mexico? Our armies may reach it; but it will only be to realize the idea which Dr. Franklin expressed in regard to the British armies in 1777, when they reached the capital of Pennsylvania. "Sir William Howe," said he, "has not taken Philadelphia; it is Philadelphia which has taken Sir William Howe."

Mr. Chairman, the President must abandon the absurd idea that he can only obtain peace by conquering it. The only conquest which is now needed, in order to secure

peace, is that

noblest of all conquests, in which fortune has no share, a conquest over himself; and would to Heaven that we could vote him supplies enough of true courage and real patriotism to enable him to achieve it! He has only to conquer his own self-will, his own pride of opinion, his own ambition to associate his name with the acquisition of more territory, and we can have peace to-morrow! Let him but stop fighting, declare an armistice, and disclaim all idea of spoliation or dismemberment, and then, however we may continue to quarrel about the declaration that "war exists by the act of Mexico," we shall all be able to agree that "peace exists by the act of the President." And, Sir, if he should live a thousand years, he will never win a nobler tribute than this.

Before taking my seat, Mr. Chairman, as the clock warns me I shall soon be obliged to do, I propose to make a few remarks on the new tariff which has been brought forward by the Committee of Ways and Means to furnish the sinews of this war. I remember that, some seven or eight years ago, a paper was sent to the table of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts, which it became my official duty to announce, and which, either from ignorance or accident, was indorsed, "Remonstrance against the Annexation of Taxes." This mistake has proved to have been quite premonitory. It was very much like spelling lone star, l-o-a-n. Loans and taxes are the legitimate fruits of the great measure of annexation. We have had a loan bill, and we now have a tax bill. For the first I have already voted. For the last, as it now stands, I shall not vote; and I desire to state some of the general views which govern me in this course.

I am ready, Sir, now and at all times, to unite in maintaining the national credit. I do not desire to see the evils of an odious war multiplied and aggravated by disordered finances and a bankrupt Treasury. If our armies are to be kept afoot, wherever they may be, and in whatever numbers they may be, I am for having means enough in the Treasury for feeding them, and clothing them, and paying them. I am for paying them, too if possible, not with depreciated paper, but in a sound redeemable currency. I desire to leave the Administration no apology or pretence for supporting our troops by a system of pillage and plunder in the enemy's country.

There are purposes of peace, too, which require money. There are just debts to be paid, important establishments to be supported, cherished institutions to be maintained, noble charities to be administered; and the Treasury must be supplied to meet the requirements of them all.

With these views I voted for the loan bill. I believed it to be a necessary provision for sustaining the public credit. I believed, and still believe, that even should the Administration reconsider and reverse the rash policy they have adopted, and proceed to prosecute a peace as vigorously as they have prosecuted the war, the loan would still be indispensable.

Now, Sir, let it be noted, that by this loan bill we have given the Administration the precise amount of pecuniary means which the Secretary of the Treasury considered necessary. He asked for authority to reissue five millions of Treasury notes. We have given it to him. He said that he should need authority to borrow twenty-three millions more, in case no additional revenue was raised, but that if duties were laid on tea and coffee, and the land graduation system was adopted, he should only require nineteen millions. We have given him the twentythree millions. I moved to reduce the amount to nineteen, and the House rejected the motion. Yet now he is found calling upon us for the additional revenue besides; and the President unites with him in a fervent appeal to our patriotism to lay a tax upon tea and coffee!

The Secretary tell us that these duties are essential to enable him to negotiate the loan. It is not so, Sir. You have held out such a tempting bait to capitalists, both foreign and domestic, by the terms of the loan, that, from present appearances, it will be negotiated quite too readily. But, if it were not so, there is another and a better way than by the provisions of any new tariff bill, by which its negotiation may be secured.

It is one of the great beauties of this system of loans that it appeals to the confidence of the people. It bears the same relation to the finances, which the volunteer system bears to the military forces of the country. There must be good will towards the Government, and something of trust and confidence in its policy, or neither of these systems can be successful. Confi

dence is the one thing needful for the public credit; and this confidence must exist in the right quarter.

The venerable Gallatin has given us a seasonable hint on these points, in the pamphlet on the Oregon question which he published last year. He tells us in what quarter, and by what means, the Government must obtain these loans:

“There is as yet (says he) but very little active circulating capital in the new States; they cannot lend; they, on the contrary, want to borrow money. This can be obtained in the shape of loans only from the capitalists of the Atlantic States. A recurrence to public documents will show that all the loans of the last war were obtained in that quarter."

And again:

"When our Government relies on the people for being sustained in making war, its confidence must be entire. They must be told the whole truth; and, if they are really in favor of the war, they will cheerfully sustain the Government in all the measures necessary to carry it into effect."

Now, Sir, if the President desires to create an entire confidence in the public credit, and to render his loans easy of negotiation, he must let the people of the country understand where this war is to end. He must tell them the whole truth. He must disclaim these indefinite ideas of national aggrandizement. He must abandon the purpose of dismembering Mexico. He must dissipate that dark cloud of disunion, which is seen hovering over us as often as we agitate the question of an extension of territory. He must give assurance that peace is to be restored and the Union preserved; and he can then have all the money which may be wanted at a moment's warning. This, Sir, is the way, and this the only way, of creating real confidence in the right quarter.

But if it were true, Mr. Chairman, that additional taxes were necessary at this moment to sustain the public credit, this little bill, which has been reported by the Committee of Ways and Means, would do little or nothing toward such an end. Why, there is something almost ridiculous in the introduction of such a bill for such an emergency as the present. Here we are, with a public debt of fifty millions already created, and with an annual expenditure of more than fifty millions already authorized, and how do we propose to provide for it? We call upon

the Secretary for his grand projet, and what does he present to us? A few additional duties on a little iron and coal and sugar and on two descriptions of cottons, twenty per cent. on tea and coffee, and a graduation of the price of the public lands! I am wrong, Sir. The Secretary of the Treasury disclaims recommending the duties on iron, and coal, and sugar, and cottons. I am not surprised at it either; for the whole yield of them all would be too insignificant to be worthy even of his attention. From the best accounts I can get, the duties on one description of cottons would yield absolutely nothing, as none of them are imported. The Secretary has been loud in his complaints about minimums. Sir, this whole bill is a minimum, and a friend near me well suggests that it is worthy of a minimum Administration. Certainly, it is the very smallest bill that was ever reported in any country to meet so great an exigency. Three millions a year is the largest estimate which anybody can make of the revenue which will be derived from it; it will probably not exceed two millions and a half. Seriously, Mr. Chairman, such a bill, in my judgment, is more likely to injure the public credit than to sustain it. If we do any thing at this moment, we should do enough to impress capitalists with the idea that we are not afraid to tax. We should go for raising eight or ten millions more revenue at the least. With specific duties, and proper discriminations, we might easily accomplish that result. And until specific duties and proper discriminations are reestablished, we shall have no sound, productive, permanent revenue system.

The Secretary is indeed pluming himself greatly on the operation of his new tariff. Undoubtedly, Sir, it has thus far yielded somewhat more than was anticipated. But one swallow does not make a summer. One month's operation is no test of a tariff. Nor is this a moment when any fair calculation can be made of its real results. There are too many disturbing causes. There is a war on this side of the ocean, and a famine on the other; no potatoes in Ireland; short grain crops all over Europe; a second short cotton crop in our Southern States. A general derangement of commerce and currency has ensued, which happens to enure greatly to our benefit. You might as well judge of the ordinary height of the waves by the tossings and