Sketches of the campaign in northern Mexico : in eighteen hundred forty-six and seven / by an officer of the First Regiment of Ohio volunteers.

OPPOSITION TO TIHE WARB...7
authorizing the President to accept the services of fifty thousand volunteers for its prosecution. It is, perhaps, to be regretted that there was not perfect unanimity in favor of that
important measure; and, indeed, for an earnest and energetic
pursuit of the war throughout,-all opposition to which should
then have been silenced by humanity, if not by policy and pa.
triotism. To abandon or denounce the government in such
an alarming crisis, would only serve to prolong the contest.
Peace once broken with such a people-ignorant of our power,
and boastful of their own-could only be conquered, and that
rost effectively and speedily, by united councils at home, and
resolute and vigorous action in the field. An accomplished
historian (Macaulay) has well remarked, that " if there be
any truth established by the universal experience of nations,
it is this: that to carry the spirit of peace into war, is a weak
and cruel policy. The time of negotiation is the time for deliberation and delay. But when an extreme case calls for'chat remedy, which is in its own nature most violent, and
which, in such cases, is a remedy only because it *is violent,
it is idle to think of mitigating and diluting. Languid wai
can do nothing which negotiation or submission will not de
better; and to act on any other principle is not to save blood
and money, but to squander them."
But I have no quarrel with the opponents of the Mexican
war bills. According to the venerable Senator from rMichigan, they have not been singular in their sentiment of hostility to the cause of their country.~ If, however, they, or any
* "I have seen a great deal of this political perversity,-this unpatriotic predisposition, which prompts many men always to take part against their country, what