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| James K. Polk. |
McGrawville Express, Thursday, January 13, 1848.
IMPEACHMENT OF MR. POLK.
We have already stated that the House of Representatives passed a resolution, 85 to 81, declaring that the President commenced the Mexican war both unnecessarily and unconstitutionally.
The passage of such a resolution is not enough. The House of Representatives must follow up this declaration, and draw up a bill of impeachment against the President, and have him regularly tried before the Senate, or be discharged as a representative body before the whole world. If Mr. Polk, the President of the United States, commenced the war against Mexico without any necessity and contrary to the constitution, he ought to be impeached, tried, convicted and punished, according to the constitution, for such a grievous offense.
The House of Representative in passing that resolution the other day, have affirmed this proposition; and we call on them, in the face of heaven and earth, and according to all principles of sound morality, to go forward with the work, and bring the President to justice, in the proper way. There is no alternative left to the lower House of this thirtieth Congress, but to proceed in this course, or be damned to eternal infamy through all future time.—N. Y. Herald.
FROM MEXICO.
The greatest part of the Governors of the Mexican States were still in session at Querretaro, and with the exception of the Governor of San Louis, were unanimously in favor of peace.
Gen. Herrera is not expected to live. The Church have administered the sacrament to him. The Government have nominated Bustamente General-in- Chief.
Congress has passed to a first reading proposition that they would listen to no peace proposition till the American troops are withdrawn from Mexico.
Bustamente has been nominated by the Supreme Government General-in-Chief of the army in reserve, and Commandant General of the States. His predecessor, Gatierres, is second in command, and Cortizar next.
In the Mexican Congress three propositions have been presented to a first reading—that, in the event of the city of Querretaro being threatened with an invasion by the American army, Congress shall be removed to the city of Aguascalientes: second, that the Government shall listen to no propositions of peace so long as the invading force does not evacuate the national territory that they occupy, and cease to blockade the ports of the Republic: third the same under the strictest responsibility, shall dictate such measures and projects as will be sufficient on its part to carry on the war.
FROM YUCATAN.
INSURRECTION OF THE INDIANS.
Accounts from Yucatan to the 19th Nov., state that a battle had been fought between Col. Zetina's Revolutionary forces, 1,800 strong, and Rozardoes, 1,000 strong, in which the latter gained a compete triumph. Zetina made the attack on the city of Vulladolid. The action lasted three hours. He lost four pieces of artillery, and seventy men killed, among whom were three officers.
The Indians, 5,000 strong, commanded by a chief named Prait, had attacked Tijosuco. The inhabitants stood out for 24 hours, when they were obliged to retreat for want of ammunition to continue the combat, leaving the town, containing 6,000 inhabitants, in the hands of the Indians. Since this success their numbers have increased to 15,000 troops. The governor was marching with a force among the Spanish portion of the country.
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| General Winfield Scott. |
NEWS OF THE DAY.
The War office have received by the officers that have recently arrived from Mexico, various trophies of the war. Among them are two small beautiful brass wall pieces of ordinance, sent by General Scott, and brought to this city by Col. Andrews. The most curious of these trophies is the black flag of the guerillas. The material is bombazette. The ornaments and letters in the centre, upon the red ground, are worked with green silk upon black cloth pieces, except the squares which are worked with white. But the most remarkable is a small pennant on the top, made of black, 51 inches by 11 3/4, with various military ornaments. On the top and bottom are a death's head and cross bones. In the centre, these ominous words : "No doi cuartel."—GIVE NO QUARTERS. This staff and flag was taken at La Mira Flores on the 13th of August, 1847, from the guerrillas who attacked Lieut. Hammond's party.—Wash. Union.
Arrest of Gens. Pillow and Worth.
Some authentic accounts have come to hand concerning the difficulty among some of our prominent officers. Gen. Scott published the order from the war Department prohibiting officers from writing letters concerning the movements of the army, &c., and then adds the following under date of Mexico, Nov. 12:
"The attention of certain officers of the army is called to the foregoing regulation, which the General-in-Chief has resolved to enforce so far as may be in his power. As yet but two echoes from some of the brilliant operations of our army in this basin have reached us—the first in a New Orleans, the second in a Tampico paper. It requires not a little charity to believe that the principal heroes of the scandalous letters alluded to, did not write them, or specially procure them to be written, and the intelligent can be at no loss in conjecturing the authors, chiefs, partisans and pet performers.
"To the honor of the disease, pruriency of fame not earned, cannot have seized up on half a dozen officers present, all of whom it is believed to the same two coteries. False credit may no doubt be obtained at home by such despicable self-puffings and exclusion of others, but at the expense of just esteem and consideration of all officers who love their country, their profession and the truth of history.
"The indignation of the latter class cannot fail in the end to bring over the conceited and envious to their proper level."
The letters alluded to by Gen. Scott as the echoes from home are evidently the Leonidas letters, and the other a letter which appeared first in the Pittsburg Post, was thence transferred to the Tampico paper. When Gen. Scott's orders were published, Col. Duncan came out in the North American with a letter in which he avowed himself the author of the Tampico or Pittsburg letter. Col Duncan says:
"Justice to Gen Worth, who is evidently one of the heroes pointed at in the order, requires me to state that he knew nothing of my purpose to write the letter in question, nor that it had been written till well on its way to its destination. He never saw, nor did he know, directly or indirectly, even the purport of one line, word or syllable of it till he saw it in print and he is equally ignorant of my design to make this declaration, which I do. I wrote the letter unprompted, and on my own responsibility."
After the publication of this letter Duncan was placed under arrest, and subsequently Pillow was arrested, and Gen. Worth.
The North American is of the opinion that Pillow was arrested on account of the Leonidas letter, but on the following grounds: Pillow having taken exceptions to the finding of a court of inquiry, which finding had been approved by Gen. Scott, addressed a paper relating to the matter to the Secretary of war, through the Commander-in-Chief, preserving a copy which he showed in a letter accompanying, he had sent directly to the Secretary at Washington. This transaction is judged to be contempt, and for this contempt Pillow is arrested.
Gen. Worth's arrest is thus noticed in the North American of the 25th ult. The last arrest occurred yesterday, that of Brevet Maj. Gen. Worth, and the charge is, we believe, contempt towards the General-in-Chief.
EDITOR'S TABLE.
Mr. EDITOR—Permit me through your columns, to ask the citizens of this town if they will not be disregarding their own interests, if they do not immediately take measures to construct a PLANK ROAD from McGrawville to Homer. The stock of the road from Syracuse to Tully is all taken, and will be completed early next season, and should we be behind the times in consulting our own interests. A company might be formed from Homer to Tully, and also one from Homer to McGrawville. I should consider this the best plan, as then each company would have its matters so near that it would be perfectly under their control.
The road that is built north from Syracuse, I am credibly informed, pays over thirty per cent, and is the best public stock in the State. This being the case, where can the Capitalists find a more safe and profitable investment for his funds than this? It may be said Plank Roads will soon decay. It is believed by those best acquainted with them, that they will last eight or ten years with very little repairs, and will pay for themselves, with simple interest in four years; consequently, it cannot be otherwise than a safe investment. It is hoped this subject will be thoroughly considered, and immediate action had upon it. Will not Cortland village engage in this, and consort measures with us, for its speedy accomplishment? Would it not be well to call a meeting of the citizens of this town to consider the subject? Let us hear from our Cortland friends upon this subject. Should anything be done this winter with regard to it, NOW is the time to act, as arrangements might be made for the necessary lumber to construct it. A CITIZEN.
Far Fetched, Dear Bought, by ACADEMICUS.
The mind of man is ever on the stretch, either winging itself into the interminable region of fancy, or ploughing the deep and turbid waters of science, or enjoying itself in indeterminate ease, contemplating the surrounding beauties of nature, or busied with the multifarious cares of life seeking whereby they may die rich.
Man pursues the empty bubble of fame with as much ardor as a Nantucket whaler would a huge whale, and seems to think that if it only comes from some other place than home, it is more savory, but they forget that "a prophet is not without honor save in his own country," and " if he hath honor among his own brethren will not others much more honor him." But this is moralizing more than we anticipated, wishing to speak of the folly of exclusively subscribing for city papers when we have so good one so near home and the material in abundance at our hands for making it far surpass them.
There is no place beneath the torch of day that is not distinguished in a greater or less degree for something, and nowhere are the scenes of the novelist, the sculptor, the painter, and the matters-of-fact man laid so often as in the country.
The city papers teem with incidents drawn from the country, which if they were published in our own papers would render their columns superior to any of the much boasted Syracuse papers. Our county press needs only to be supported, first with something tangible in the shape of dollars and cents and lastly with our contributions to its pages.
In the language of the poet.—
Sacred founts wild harps, and moonlight glens,
And forests vast, fair lawns, lonely oaks;
And little willows sipping at the brook;
Old wizzard haunts and dancing seats of mirth;
Gay festine bowers, and palaces in dust;
Dark owlet nooks, and caves and battled rocks;
And winding vallies, roofed with pendent shades;
And tall and perilous cliffs that overlook,
The breadth of ocean sleeping on his waves;
Have all been themes of poetic diction.
And some of these are under our eyes every day and does not our minds dwell upon them to some extent? Yet if we neglect to express those thoughts they might as well [have] never existed for they only add to the indebtedness of their originator at the great day of accounts.
Fame is only "a shadow," yet in order to procure a shadow something solid must intervene and if we would make Cortland County far famed we must hold it up in all its parts; and in order to accomplish this, we MUST SUPPORT within its precincts an independent literary journal, in such a manner that it may never be trammeled with party politics or advertisements. If all ye grumblers about advertisements would bestir yourselves and each one obtain at least one new subscriber, it would enable such a journal to enlarge its size and at the same time drop its list of advertisements. Better keep your money within our own county and have the labor done here, and thereby furnish the laborer with provision, for reasoning from analogy we suppose that even an editor and printer eats. Let this be done and it will be more fame to our county than ever so great a circulation of the far fetched and cash bought city papers.
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