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. This 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 offi cers 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.

estimates from the Departments, looking to the most vigorous prosecution of the existing war. More than fourteen millions of dollars are appropriated to "transportation and supplies in the Quartermaster's Department"- an item having unquestionable reference to further, and still further, invasion of the territories of Mexico. Finally, Sir, this bill runs through a period of sixteen months from this 22d day of February, and provides for supporting and prosecuting this war to the 30th day of June, 1848!

Mr. Chairman, the Congress of the United States to-day has some control over the Executive in relation to this war. Today, discussion in regard to its ends and objects, its conduct and its conclusion, is something more than empty breath. To-day, the Representatives of the people have the reins in their own hands. But pass this bill; pass it without proviso or limitation; and to-morrow the President is out of our reach. We have given him a carte blanche. We have given him a charter wide as the wind. We have surrendered the purse to the same hands which already hold the sword, and have virtually said to him, « March on, slay, burn, sack, plunder, at your own sovereign will and pleasure. So far as thirty millions of dollars for the land forces alone (to say nothing of ten or twelve millions more for the navy) will serve your turn, you have unlimited discretion to invade and conquer for sixteen months to come!"

This, Sir, is the language of this bill, as it stands. Is it republican language? Is it democratic language? Is it constitutional language?

Are you aware, Mr. Chairman, is this House aware, that the Parliament of Great Britain, omnipotent as it is often called, have never ventured of late years to pass such a bill as this? The British Parliament, in all the plenitude of its power, could not pass this bill, without violating one of the principles of the constitution of the realm. That principle, unwritten, indeed, but firmly established by the practice of a long series of years, is, that appropriations for the support of standing armies should not be made for a longer term than a single year.

Our own Constitution is explicit upon the subject. Congress shall have power, it says, "to raise and support armies, but no