If any doubt should remain of the correctness of these statements, let them be tested by the divine and undeniable precept, "Do unto others as you would be done by."
If at this moment France was to contract a treaty of defensive and offensive alliance with Mexico, a treaty taking effect immediately, and pending the war between the United States and Mexico, and binding herself to defend it with all her forces against any and every other Power, would not the United States at once consider such a treaty as a declaration of war against them?
If, in lieu of declaring war against Great Britain, in the year 1812, the United States had only suspended the ordinary diplomatic relations between the two countries; and Great Britain had declared that she would not enter into any negotiation for the settlement of all the subjects of difference between the two countries, unless the United States should, as a preliminary condition, restore those relations; would not this have been considered as a most insolent demand, and to which the United States never would submit?
If the United States were, and had been for more than a century, in possession of a tract of country, exclusively inhabited and governed by them, disturbed only by the occasional forays of an enemy; would they not consider the forcible military invasion and occupation of such a district by a third Power, as open and unprovoked war, commenced against them? And could their resistance to the invasion render them liable to the imputation of having themselves commenced the war?
Yet it would seem as if the splendid and almost romantic successes of the American arms had, for a while, made the people of the United States deaf to any other consideration than an enthusiastic and exclusive love of military glory; as if, forgetting the origin of the war, and with an entire disregard for the dictates of justice, they thought that those successes gave the nation a right to dismember Mexico, and to appropriate to themselves that which did not belong to them.
But I do not despair, for I have faith in our institutions and in the people; and I will now ask them whether this was their mission? and whether they were placed by Providence on this continent for the purpose of cultivating false glory, and of sinking to the level of those vulgar conquerors who have at all times desolated the earth.
VII.—THE MISSION OF THE UNITED STATES.
The people of the United States have been placed by Providence in a position never before enjoyed by any other nation. They are possessed of a most extensive territory, with a very fertile soil, a variety of climates and productions, and a capacity of sustaining a population greater, in proportion to its extent, than any other territory of the same size on the face of the globe.
By a concourse of various circumstances, they found themselves, at the epoch of their independence, in the full enjoyment of religious, civil, and political liberty, entirely free from any hereditary monopoly of wealth or power. The people at large were in full and quiet possession of all those natural rights, for which the people of other countries have for a long time contended, and still do contend. They were, and you still are the supreme sovereigns, acknowledged as such by all. For the proper exercise of these uncontrolled powers and privileges, you are responsible to posterity, to the world at large, and to the Almighty Being who has poured on you such unparalleled blessings.