Lieutenant-General. JANUARY, 1847.] [29TH CONG. age or power, I am in favor of extending to the President, within the sphere of his existing powers, the fullest command of means. It is a necessary incident to the conduct of war to invest him, in this respect, with a large discretion. Be it for good or for evil, we must give him our confidence. It is always possible an Executive may not respond to it as we think he ought. But it is quite clear that he cannot without it hope for a successful execution of his plans. With these impressions, I shall vote for the men and means, which may be asked to carry on the war with vigor. I shall vote for such an organization of the army as is deemed necessary to give, it the greatest efficiency, so long as I see no salutary principle violated. The honorable Senator from Kentucky (Mr. CRITTENDEN) expressed the same determination in respect to men and means at a late meeting of the Senate. Sir, no one appreciates the patriotism of that honorable Senator better than myself; and I sincerely wish the confidence in the Executive, which this determination implies, could consistently with his views of duty, be carried a little farther that while giving to the Executive all the men and money asked for, he could also vote for such an organization of the army as is deemed necessary to a vigorous prosecution of the war; for means and men avail little without the energy-moral and physical-of an efficient organization. For myself, I perceive nothing objectionable in the measure proposed. On the contrary, I can readily conceive it to be essential to the successful prosecution of our military operations in MexiI believe it to be necessary to a proper organization of the army; and I sustain it with cheerfulness, as a measure which is deemed necessary by the Administration to sustain the honor of the country and to insure the success of its arms. I desire it to be distinctly understood that the measure is proposed with a view to the vigorous prosecution of the war, and in this view only I support it. If we were to have a war of posts, or a long and moderate war, the office would be unnecessary, and I should not give it my support. On this point I desire to say a few words more. I concur fully in the sentiments expressed by the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. CRITTENDEN) at a late session of the Senate, with regard to a vigorous prosecution of the war. I see no alternative but to advance with a competent force, and compel Mexico to make peace. Least of all would I approve the policy which has been referred to on this floor, of maintaining our present line of possession, and waiting for peace to come to us. I see in such a policy no beneficial results. On the contrary, I see in it nothing but evil and mischief. I believe it would be a line of war, assassination, and rapine, which neither party would have the ability to put down. It is only a restoration of peace, resting upon the solemn sanctions of a treaty, that can engage either party to treat the perpetrators of outrage with the severity necessary to suppress it. Draw a line across the Mexican territory, and place your soldiery here to guard it, and you will be exposed to the danger, so well described by the Senator from Kentucky, of having your own divided forces attacked by the combined forces of the enemy at any point which he may elect. Besides, sir, take such a line, and let our pres-co. ent hostile relations to Mexico continue, and you give to individual acts of depredation, in some degree, the sanction of law. You convert a war of communities into a war of individuals, without responsibility and without restraint, while the hostile feeling between the two countries will constantly grow more embittered by the repetition of acts of violence. Peace alone, uniting the sovereign power of both countries in the maintenance of order, can terminate a state of things disastrous to both, and at war with all the interests of humanity. I have but one word more to say in support of the bill. The President has asked the appointment of a commander of the armies in Mexico, with an increased rank. He believes it to be essential to the proper organization and movement of the army. He believes the success of our military operations may depend upon it. Sir, when the public honor and reputation are at stake, I am willing to extend to the Executive, on whom rests the whole responsibility of bringing the war to an honorable termination, any reasonable aid he requires. If we deny him the means he asks, and there shall be any failure in the enterprises set on foot, the responsibility will rest, not on him, but on us. While I am never in favor of enlarging unduly the sphere of executive patron Mr. BADGER said he had the honor of serving on the Military Committee; and when this bill was under consideration in that committee, in the absence of the chairman, (Mr. BENTON,) its members found themselves equally divided. He and the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. CRITTENDEN) were opposed to the plan of creating the office of lieutenant-general; while the other two members of the committee (Messrs. Dix and HOUSTON) were in favor of it. His friend from Kentucky and himself, however, felt bound in courtesy to permit the bill to be reported, as the two gentlemen who were in favor of it undoubtedly represented a majority of the committee, and the majority on this floor; still he felt bound to state his reasons for opposing it. He wished, in his own behalf, (and perhaps he might say on behalf of the honorable Senator from Kentucky,) to state to the Senate briefly, but yet somewhat more in detail than the short summary given by his honorable friend, the reasons which induced him and his colleague (Mr. CRITTENDEN) in committee, and which would induce him now, and he supposed he might say still influenced his colleague, to re 2D SESS.] Lieutenant-General-Vindication of the President. fuse, from considerations of public duty, to | Mr. BENTON asked the indulgence of the Senate to make an exposition of the circumstances under which the President had proposed the appointment of a lieutenant-general to command the army in Mexico, and with which appointment his name had become connected. It had been intimated, he said, on the floor of the Senate-hypothetically, to be sure, but not the less intelligibly and forcibly on that account that there might be an ulterior and covert design in the proposition: nothing less than a design on the part of the President to appoint his successor. The Senator from North Carolina, (Mr. BADGER,) in his speech on the lieutenant-general bill, had indulged in that hypothesis; and as no supposition could be more unfounded, or more injurious to the President or to the public service, or could descend from a higher source and as he (Mr. BENTON) happened to be in possession of all the facts necessary to the vindication of the President, be desired to make an exposition which would show the supposition to be unfounded, and would save the President's character and the public service from the injury they would suffer if the intimation was allowed to go out uncontradicted from the floor of the Senate. He asked leave; for, as the bill for the lieutenantgeneral was laid upon the table, and as he would not have it taken up, (and would not speak to it if it was,) and as he did not choose to commit the irregularity of hanging a speech on some irrelevant bill, he must throw himself upon the indulgence of the Senate for leave to make the exposition of facts which the case required, and which the intimations of the Senator from North Carolina had rendered necessary. Leave was given, and Mr. BENTON proceeded I feel myself called upon by the remarks of the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. BADGER) to vindicate the President from the unconstitutional and dangerous design which the hypothetical observations of that Senator would attribute to him; and shall do so in the simplest form of narrative, repeating to the Senate all that has taken place between the President and myself in relation to this appointment, and (JANUARY, 1847. thereby enabling the Senate and the people to judge of the justice of the accusation. It was at the beginning of the month of September last, and in the moment that I was about setting out to the West, that the President sent for me, and informed me that he had done so for the purpose of offering me a high appointment. He named it. It was the mission to France, then becoming vacant by the return of the gentleman (Mr. King, of Alabaina) so long an ornament to this Chamber. I declined the appointment, and for reasons which had induced me to decline high appointments from Presidents Jackson and Van Buren. Mr. Polk was kind enough to ask me to take time to consider; but I answered him that there was no need for time; that the answer would still be the same, after any length of consideration; and so, with thanks for the honor he had done me, the appointment to the French mission was definitively declined. This was the beginning of September last; so that, at that time, it is certain that the President could have had no such design as has been attributed to him by the Senator from North Carolina— no design to make me his successor, by virtue of military feats to be performed on the lowlands or the table land of the republic of Mexico. On the contrary, a fertile imagination-such as the Senator from North Carolina so happily possesses-might have seen, or thought it saw, in this proposed amendment, a sort of political deportation-something like an exiling and burying in a foreign Court-for a purpose the very reverse of what the Senator from North Carolina has supposed. I say an inventive imagination might have seen, or thought it saw, all this. Possessing no such imagination, I saw no such thing. And taking the offer in the sense in which it was made, as eminently honorable in itself and a signal evidence of the President's confidence in me, and goodwill for me, I made him my thanks for it privately, as I now do publicly; and the affair was dropped. This, I repeat, was at the beginning of September last-only three months before the meeting of Congress; so that, at that time, it is quite clear the President had no such momentous and fearful design as the Senator from North Carolina has attributed to him. Up to that time-up to the first day of September, in the year 1846-the republic was safe. Immediately after refusing the mission to France I went off to the West, was gone until the month of November, and had no communication of any kind, direct or indirect, nor upon any subject whatever, during my absence, with President Polk. This makes all safe again for two months more. I returned to this city in November, where my family was, and where Congress was soon to meet. The day after my arrival I called upon the President; and here we approach the dangerous ground! For, in that first interview, he actually asked me my JANUARY, 1847.] Lieutenant-General-Vindication of the President. [29TH CONG. was accustomed to return unopened, at the end of the campaigns, all the orders which the Aulic Council was in the habit of sending to him from Vienna. The President was bound to command: he could not go to Mexico to command in person; and he could not command from Washington. The solution of the difficulty, which reconciled all contradictions, and permitted the exercise of all duties, civil and military, was the appointment of a military deputy-a legatus-a locum tenens-a lieutenant to take the place of the constitutional commander-in-chief in the field; to give orders in his name, and to take the responsibility of plans and movements, while the generals, at the heads of divisions or columns, would only have the responsibility of execution. This, for reasons too well known to require rehearsal in this chamber, it was thought would be entirely ageeable to the gen opinion about the future mode of conducting | since the time that the Prince Eugene (of Savoy) the Mexican war. For reasons not proper now to be stated, but of the validity of which the country will some day have an opportunity of judging, the President saw fit to ask me my opinion upon the future mode of conducting the war. This request did not strike me as being any thing strange or unreasonable-either unbecoming in him to make, or for me to comply with. In my Senatorial capacity I was his constitutional adviser on many great questions, those of peace and war inclusive. In my political capacity, I was the supporter of his administration, and ready to give him my opinion on any subject. As chairman of the Senate's Committee on Military Affairs, and accustomed, in that character, to communicate on military subjects with all Administrations for about a quarter of a century last past, I saw nothing in the nature of the request he had made to implicate either of us. He asked me for my opinion as to the future mode of con-erals of highest rank in our army in Mexico; ducting the war. I gave it to him, first in speech, face to face, and afterwards in writing. And here it is! [holding up a roll of paper,] for I chose to retain the original for myself, while sending a copy to him. Here it is! and at the proper time the public shall see it, but not now; for I do not belong to the school that makes publication of plans of campaign-even dead plans-in time of war. it would secure their rear at home, and leave them free to contend with the enemy in front. It was not intended to diminish the fighting vocation of the two generals, but to reconcile and accomplish two desirable objects, namely, the execution of the President's plans, and the release of the major-generals from responsibility for plans and movements. This was the view of the office of lieutenant-general: as to the The President approved the plan: and it so proposed officer, there was no breach of milihappened that the nature of the plan required tary rule, law, etiquette, or propriety, in the a head to the army-one head to the whole proposed appointment. The office was original, body-to unite and combine the whole into one and belonged to no person. The President had harmonious and consistent movement. It so a right to nominate, and the Senate to conhappened, also, that enough was known of the firm, whom they pleased. Personally, I would ideas of the two highest in rank of the officers take no concern in it. I only asked the Presiof the army to know that their plans were dent to make known the name intended for the different; and it is a maxim of fundamental place to the members of Congress, that all obobservance in war, that no general is to be jections to the officer, as well as to the office, required to execute a plan which he disap- should be open to full inquiry. I forbade my proves. A new commander became indispen- friends to say a word on my account. I would sable; and as any new major-general would be not say a word for myself. I would not even subordinate to all now in commission, the solu- obviate a prominent objection by reminding tion of the difficulty lay in the creation of a any one that, in 1812, I was the military superior new rank, superior to that of major-general, of every general now in the service, and had a and inferior to the constitutional commander-right to have commanded the whole of them in-chief. The creation of the rank of lieu- if we had chanced to serve together. I was tenant-general, as had been done in the year 1798, at the time of the expected war with France, was the solution of the difficulty. This rank appeared to be the natural and regular derivation from the President's own political and military character, and the proper connecting-link between him and the army. As President, he was both the civil head of the Government and the military head of the army. He was commander-in-chief of the army and navy, and of the militia or volunteers when in service. They were all then in service, and in a foreign country. He could not go to Mexico to command in person: paramount duties required him to remain here. He could not send orders from the closet in this city. That was a folly of which there had been no example then colonel in the service of the United States, commissioned by President Madison, under a law of Congress, and led a regiment of my own raising from Tennessee to the lower Mississippi, under General Jackson, to meet the British then expected at New Orleans, but who did not come till 1814. I was then of a rank, and in a position to have commanded, if we had met, every general now in service. Even in the regular army, in 1813, I was lieutenantcolonel, while most of the present generals were company officers, and only one of them of the rank of colonel. Yet I scorned to mention these things, even to bosom friends, while the measure was depending, and only do it now for the purpose of rescuing the President from the supposed breach of military decorum 2D SESS.] Lieutenant-General-Vindication of the President. [JANUARY, 1847. which the appoinment of a citizen from civil | larly levied-duties regularly collected-would life (myself being that citizen) to the command accomplish these objects, and leave the United of the army would imply in the opinion of the States free, or nearly free, from the expenses Senator from North Carolina. Sir, if the ap- of the war. pointment of a citizen from civil life to the command of the army, would be an insult to it, that army is now already grievously insulted; for the present President is from civil life, and is now the constitutional commander-in-chief of the army, with rather more power than a lieutenant-general would have, and rather less experience in military affairs than the proposed one possesses. Finally, and to conclude the vindication of the President in this particular, I can say that Mr. Polk is not the first President who proposed to give me the command of the army against Mexico-that General Jackson himself proposed it in 1836, when our affairs with that country looked warlike; and that then, as now, I agreed to take it. And here, Mr. President, having fulfilled my task of vindicating the Chief Magistrate of the Union from the design, hypothetically imputed to him, of wishing to appoint his successor, in my person, and by means of this lieutenantgeneralship, I might close my remarks; but as my name has been coupled with this business, and as I have remained silent, and even left my seat while the measure was depending, I must now take leave, with the kind indulgence of the Senate, to proceed a step further, and to say a word on my own account; and to show that service, and not rank, was my inducement to agree to the offer of the President; and that there might have been cases in which I would not have accepted the office of lieutenant-general, even if it had been created. I have already said that I will not now show what my own plan was; but I can say of it that it was a plan which looked to a result, and promised an issue, and that briefly; and that I would have had nothing to do with any plan of any other kind -nothing to do with any plan that contemplated a long and moderate war, or a war of masterly inactivity, or of retreat upon the Rio Grande, or of defending a line; or of attack upon the idle and solitary castle of San Juan of Ulua-especially at the commencement of the season for the black vomit. In no one of these cases would I have been lieutenantgeneral, or captain-general, or major-general, or colonel-general, or any other sort of a general that ever was heard of. I know very well that the President had no idea of any one of these most amiable plans; but there is a way to give him an idea of them, and even to force them upon him; and that would be, by the simple process of denying him the means of doing any thing else. I shall not state my plan; but I will say of it, that, besides intending a result, it proposed to carry on the war, while there was war, according to the usage of all nations in the case of invasive war-the invaders to be paid and subsisted by the invaded. Contributions regu I can say, further, that my plan was not limited to a mere military view of the subject; that it comprehended a union of policy and of arms-the olive-branch to go with the sword, ministers to treat, as well as an army to fight. A diplomatic mission, nationally constituted both in a geographical and in a political sense, was to attend the head-quarters; and, while the ministers stood ready to negotiate at every step, the army was to make an organization and an attitude to give emphasis to negotiation. And this combination of arms and of policy was not mere guess work, the idle conception. of fancy; but the result of a knowledge of the state of parties in Mexico-a peace party, for honorable peace; a war party, for endless war -as was so luminously shown by the Senator from New York (Mr. Dix) a few days ago. My plan was adapted to both of these parties-honorable peace for the one; the sword for the other. The military part of the plan has fallen to the ground: the diplomatic part falls with it: and now it devolves upon those who have frustrated the plan of the President to present him a better. I counted much on the efficacy of the diplo matic part of this plan; for great errors prevail in Mexico with regard to our designs and feelings towards that country, and which nothing but an authentic mission can remove. The war party is incessant in its calumnies against us, artfully contrived to operate on every class of the people, and to render peace impossible. It has a falsehood for every class. To the religious orders the war is represented as a war of religion-the Protestant against the Catholic and a war of sacrilege the spoliation of the churches. To the Creole Spaniards and the Indians of mixed blood they present it as a war of races-the Anglo-Saxon against the SpanishAmerican-and the subjugation of the latter intended. To the unmixed Indian race, (nearly the one-half of the whole population, and the sole resource of the army for its rank and file,) it is presented as a war of extinction, or of slavery-their race to be extirpated, like so many tribes in our North America; or to be carried into slavery to work the fields of their masters, like the slaves brought from Africa. And, to all, it is presented as a war of ambition and of conquest, in which there is no peace for Mexico but in the degradation of her citizens and the loss of her independence. A mission, such as I proposed, would authentically contradict all these calumnies, and show the deceived people of Mexico that just and honorable peace is all that we want; and that, far from wishing her degradation, both policy and interest unite in making us wish to see her prosperous, happy, and independent. She is a republic-our neighbor-who did us the honor to copy our form of government, and had a great commerce with FEBRUARY, 1847.] Three Million Loan. us. The injuries of which we complain were the work of a few, while the great majority of the people, who have done us no harm, are willing to do us justice; and every republican in Mexico reciprocates the wish for that close connection, political and commercial, between the two republics, which is necessary to their own prosperity, to the stability of the republican system in all the Spainish American States, and to the complete independence of the New World from the Old. I counted much on the efficacy of the diplomatic part of the plan, and not less on the military part, if the other failed. Of this I can say nothing but that it was not framed in total ignorance of Mexican character, Mexican country, and Mexican resources. Forty years ago I studied Humboldt, and did not overlook his chapter on the military defences of the country, and especially his imposing development of the great elements of defence with which nature had endowed her; the dangers of the coast when the north wind was blowing, which blows from the autumnal to the vernal equinox-the black vomit when it was not-and the deep defiles of volcanic mountains. The plan may have been bad; but it was not conceived without some knowledge of the subject; and it promised a result-peace to the country, if it succeeded; and to the soldier that died, a death worthy of the soldier-the battle-storm his embrace, the field of honor his bed, the lofty summits of the Cordilleras his monument and his grave! TUESDAY, February 2. Three Million Loan.* Mr. SEVIER moved that the Senate proceed to the consideration of the special order, being the bill making appropriations to bring the This bill was no part of the ordinary support of the war by providing for the army and navy. It was a special appropriation for a special purpose, as its terms imply, and as was made known by the President in a confidential mes sage. It looked to the acquisition of territory, and to the payment of money in advance of the ratification of the treaty of purchase. Santa Anna had returned, and expected this money, and was ready to treat on the assurance of receiving it. The clause in the bill by which the President was to cause an account of the expenditure, made under his direction, to be laid before Congress as soon as may be, sufficiently indicate it to be of the nature of secret service money. This being the character of the appropriation, and evidently intended for territorial acquisition, it became the main topic of the debate of the session-embracing the origin, the conduct, and the objects of the war, and giving a full view both of the opposition and of the administration side of that question. It was to this bill that Mr. Wilmot proposed his proviso against the introduction of slavery in the territory which should be acquired, which created so much excitement for some time, and was finally rejected on showing that slavery was then extinct in the territory expected to be acquired. [29TH CONG. existing war with Mexico to a speedy and honorable conclusion. The motion having been agreed to, the bill was taken up for consideration as in Committee of the Whole. After having been read a second time, as follows: exceeding three millions of dollars, be, and the "Be it enacted, &c., That a sum of money, not defraying any extraordinary expenses which may same is hereby, appropriated, for the purpose of be incurred in order to bring the existing war with Mexico to a speedy and honorable conclusion, to be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, and to be applied under the direction of the President of the United States, who shall cause an account of the expenditure thereof to be laid before Congress as soon as may be " Mr. SEVIER remarked, that this bill had been introduced upon the recommendation of the President of the United States, and that the Committee on Foreign Relations, by whom it was reported, in preparing the bill, had resolved to follow the form in which other enactments of a similar character had been framed. One of those enactments to which he referred was passed in the year 1803, at the time of the acquisition of Louisiana, during the Administration of Mr. Jefferson; and another in 1806, when it was proposed to purchase Florida. A similar bill had also passed the Senate at the last session of Congress, the proposition having been first considered with closed doors, and afterwards reported in open session. The design of the committee was to follow those precedents, excluding all extraneous matter, and incorporating nothing that was calculated to excite sectional or party feeling, or to occasion debate. It was the opinion of the committee, and in this opinion he concurred, that all such matter would be ill-timed, and that its introduction could lead to no good result; and he intended, if it were moved from any quarter, to put any thing of that sort into the bill, of the last session, he found that the Committo oppose it. In looking over the proceedings tee on Foreign Relations had reported two resolutions on the subject, the first of which declared that the course indicated by the President in his Message received the approbation of the Senate, and was in the following language: desire that the existing war with Mexico should be "1. Resolved, That the Senate entertain a strong terminated by a treaty of peace, just and honorable to both nations; and that the President be advised to adopt all proper measures for the attainment of that object." This resolution was discussed for several days, and was at length voted on, and was sanctioned by every Senator, on both sides of the Senate, with the exception of two, the Senator from Texas, (Mr. Rusk,) and the Senator from Missouri, (Mr. ATCHISON.) The second resolution was as follows: "2. Resolved further, That the Senate deem it |