Do we not know, Mr. President,
that it is a law, never to be repealed,
that falsehood shall be short lived?—
Was it not ordained of old, that truth
only shall abide forever? Whatever
we may say to-day, or whatever we
may write in our books, the stern tri
bunal of history will review it all, de
tect falsehood, and bring us to judge
ment before that posterity, which shall
bless or curse us. as we may act nou>,
wisely or otherwise. We may hide in
the grave, (which awaits us all,) in
vain; wc may hope there, like the
foolish bird that hides its head in the
sand, in the vain belief that its body
is not seen, yet even there, this prepos
terous excuse of want of ‘room,’ shall
be laid bare, and the quick-coming fu
ture will decide, that it was a hypocrit
ical pretence, under which we sought
to conceal the avarice, which prompt
ed us to covert and to seize by force,
that which was not ours.
Mr. President, this uneasy desire to
augment our territory, has depraved
the moral sense, and blunted the other
wise keen sagacity of our people.—
What has been the fate of all nations
who have acted upon the idea, that
they mtHt advance? Our young ora
tors cherish this notion with a fervid,
but fatally mistaken zeal. They call
it hy the mysterious name of‘destiny.’
“Our destiny,” they say, is ‘onward,’
and hence they argue, with ready so
phistry, the propriety of seizing upon
any territory and any people, that may
lay in the way of our •fated’ advance.
