Daily Bulletin. (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 1, No. 11, Ed. 1, Friday, December 10, 1841 Page: 3 of 4
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The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
she collected no direct tax and if we cut off her rev-
enue. we humbled her and then he said we might by-
extortion procure the recognition of our independence
when we could not otherwise get it. The Gentleman
from Washington said Yucatan had no navy to co-operate
with us; but he reads in the newspapers that they
had one brig and two schooners. Peraza represented
the same and thought that Navy about equal to our
own. He said the Yucateeos did not consider their
Navy alone sufficient and therefore they wanted our
assistance.
He would now consider the law of last Congress for
laying up the navy and he thought it a curious com-
pound. (The gentleman here read the law.) Now
Sir if an army of 20000 men were on the Medina or
Nueces of what use would it be to send out a licet.
How would they check an army on land. Our ves-
sels could never be sent out till they had first been to
New Orleans to refit and the President would haArc
been criminally negligent if he had waited until he
saw the Mexican fleet coming before he ordered out
the Navy. The law had been enacted at a time when
every body expected peace. The mediation of Eng-
land had been promised and every body supposed it
would be effectual. Under such circumstances the
law had been passed. The promised mediation pro-
ved of no avail and under the new aspect of things the
President ordered the navy out and the gentleman con-
tended that he had done right.
Mr. Cooke said
That whenever a question was presented for the
consideration of the House he thought it would be
well first to consider whether it was expedient for the
House to entertain tiie question. This question pre-
sented itself to the House in such light as in his opi-
nion to preclude the House from acting upon it.
The Constitution gave to the President in the most
ample and complete manner the power to enter into
treaty stipulations which were then subject to the ac-
tion of the Senate
If an agent of a Foreign Government presented him-
self for the purpose of negotiating a treaty to the Ex-
ecutive and the Senate belonged the power to act in
the matter.
The House had no right to enquire into it.
The people of Yucatan were like ourselves driven
by the despotism of the mother country from their po-
litical connexion they had declared themselves a Gov-
ernment de facto and their position was such a one as
to warrant a treaty between us and her.
He said that Yucatau had a navy an army a gov-
ernment and a population much greater than our own
and that she was carrying on a government in a man-
ner much better than we had that she was our superior
' in wealth and population.
Under this state of things Yucatan had sent us pro-
posals for a treaty of co-operation and the Executive
had examined the proposals and with the Senate would
conclude upon the matter. The subject was improper-
ly before this House.
We were told that because Yucatan was not an es-
tablished and acknowledged Government that we
should have spurned her proposals.
He asked if the countries beyond the grgat Atlantic
had not entered into treaties with the United States of
the North when she was in the position of Yucatan
and if Holland did not loan to her 2000000 of dollars
at that very time.
Had we not precedent sufficient to authorize the
" course we had taken was it not warranted by the laws
-of nations.
When the proposals were laid before the Senate it
would decide upon all this.
What the President had done was done by virtue of
the powers confided to him by the Constitution and
the House could not enquire into it.
He said it seemed to him that some other motive
than the apparent one had influenced and prompted
all this movement that he was disposed to resist this
impression that his generous feelings so disposed him
but he was forced to that conclusion by the evidences
before him fairly pushed into- it he must adopt iO He
said the President had toiled on through his term of
service and performed the duties incumbent upon him
with how much expediency or integrity gentlemen
might appreciate differently. He was now about to
pass from his station he would have no longer the dis-
tribution of favors but he (Mr. Cooke) cared not; as in
1S39 his voice should be found upon the side of Jus-
tice and against the disposition to assail a departing
officer.
He said the Santa Fe expedition must stand upon
its own merits that it had no connection with this sub-
ject and if gentlemen wished to arraign the President
for his conduct in it let them present it to this House
in the only proper form it could come before them and
as the Constitution prescribed.
Mr. Cooke here went into a descriptive account of
the Convention of Panama and the part taken in it by
the United States of the North by the action of its Pre-
sident. He drew from this an argument in favor of
the constitutional powers the President and showed
by a reference to the proceedings of the House of Re-
presentatives of the United States how very cautious
they were in interfering with the prerogatives of the
President.
And now Sir said Mr. Cooke as to the policy of
this act of the Executive which had been so bitterly
commented on we will take this law of last session Sir
and however crude its conception may have been
however hastv its legislation into existence however
indefinite in its character still it was a law and he
was disposed to have it obeyed and he said it had not
been violated. Mr. Cooke here endeavored to show
that the contingency contemplated by the law had pre-
sented itself.
He wanted to know how much longer the wretched
people of the West were to endure the sacking of their
towns the plunder of their property and the carrying
off of their citizens ; how much longer was it to be sub-
ject to devastation and gentlemen to contend that we
were not invaded ? The gentleman went on to paint a
vivid picture of the suffering and misery of the people
of the West and exclaimed in forcible terms against the
policy which would permit this state of things. The
gentleman contended that we had already been invad-
ed ; he said that Mexico had declared and published
a blockade of our whole coast and that other nations
would suppose the actual existence and enforcement of
the blockade unless we had otherwise demonstrated.
He contended that und r these circumstances the or-
dering out of the Navy was necessary and proper. The
gentleman in further illustration of his positions con-
tended that as the Constitution had made the President
the commander-in-chief of the army and navy that Con-
gress had no right to interfere with that command ; he
said that they had no right to dictate to him that he
should battle at one time or another ; that he should do
this thing or not do that ; he said that his order in the
direction of these matters was final and uncontrollable ;
he said it was true that he could not stand upon the
deck of a ship and say hoist this sail or that but still
that his general command was absolute ; that it was
given him by the Constitution and that Congress could
do nothing to restrict it ; that so long as we had one or
the other he had the right to control them and the
only way to prevent it was to legislate them out of existence.
The Union Bank of Mississippi has voted to dis-
continue business and wind up the institution as speed-!
ily as is i: consistent with the present condition of the)
country. "
The Presbyterian General Assembly have indefi-
nitely postponed the subject ot Sjayery. and ordered
the papers relating to it to be returned to the persons
who presented them.
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Whiting, S. Daily Bulletin. (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 1, No. 11, Ed. 1, Friday, December 10, 1841, newspaper, December 10, 1841; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth80066/m1/3/?q=%22Places+-+United+States+-+Texas+-+Travis+County+-+Austin%22: accessed July 9, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.