in Mexico, because when he returns lo his Country, he will be wanting both in the willingness and the ability to bring it about; and his execution cannot retard the encl, because his death will be as acceptable in Mexico as in Texas, and can engender no additional hatred and hostility lo this Country. If he return, public opinion will not permit him lo promote our wishes; and if he die, il will operate as a salutary warning to those who shaU lead a future expedition into this Country. It will be a guarantee against the savage butchery of prisoners, and confine the movements of the enemy within the limits of civilized warfare. If it be fore a moment supposed that it might cause the concentration and return of the Mexican forces now retiring from our borders, I can only answer that nothing can be more improbable, hut if true, it will not be a movement of much alarm, for the same chivalry that strewed the plains of San Jacinto can just as easily reap the remaining harvest. I have always thought, and still believe, that our sole reliance should he upon our swords, and not upon the faith of Santa Anna. If the armies now on the retreat shall darea countermarch, there will not be in the next battle a Mexican left to teU the tale of their defeat; and if another expedition against us shall be gotten up in the Fall or the Spring thereafter, there will come into our country such a Ca\'aleadc of gallant heroes as will make their chivalry to skip. They may pour their effeminate thousans upon our borders as "numerous as the leaves that strew the vale of Valembrozia;" but we will only sweep them from the soil indignant, with a hurricane of death. The very first army that turns its face to the East will awaken a war, which will move onward and onward over the broad prairies of the West, knowing no termination until it reaches the walls of l\'lexico, where we shaU plant the standard of the Single Star and send forth our decrees in the voice of our artillery. Such, Gentlemen, are my humble views of this embarrassing question, submitted with a little more prolixity than I had promised or intended. 1f aught that I have said, however, can have any influence upon the decision of the Cabinet, I shall not regret the labour bestowed or the lime consumed; but if otherwise, I can only promise to yield a cheerful acquiescence to whatever course may be determined upon by a majority of our body. Harmony in our councils is indispensable at this crisis to the maintenance of official confidence and the preservation of public tranquility; but as unanimity of sentiment on this occasion is not to be had, I can do nothing further to avoid the evils of dissention, than to co-operate with the Cabinet in the execution of its final decision; which I shall <lo the more readily, because I have so many reasons to know that
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