officers, subsequently a persistent advocate of the acquisition
of Cuba, arrived in Washington in December and presented
a plan to the President for a permanent occupation of Mex-
ico. ^ Commodore Stockton, the Dewey of the conquest of
California, at a great dinner given in his honor the 30th of
December, advocated, not the annexation, but the occupation
of Mexico until that people should be completely regener-
ated, and would accept civil and religious liberty and main-
tain a genuine republic. ^
The National Ura, the organ of antislavery, advocated the absorption of Mexico by the admission to the Union of indi- vidual Mexican states as fast as they should apply. The dis- rupted condition of Mexico would favor this solution. ^
In New York the Hunker Democrats came out strongly. The "Address to the Democracy of New York, " unanimously adopted by the Syracuse Convention, explains that as the purpose of the occupation of Mexico is to advance human rights, such occupation is miscalled a conquest. "It is no more than the restoration of moral rights by legal means." The field for such a work is " opened to us by the conduct of Mexico, and such moral and legal means are offered for our use. Shall we occupy it? Shall we now run with
1 Claiborne's Quitman, II, 79.
2 Niles's Register, LXXIII, 335. The following passage is quoted from the New York Post in Niles's Register, LXXIII, 334, in article on "Manifest Destiny":
- Now we ask whether any man can coolly contemplate the idea of recalling our
troops from the territory we at present occupy, from Mexico — from San Juan de Ulloa — from Monterey — from Puebla — and thus by one stroke of a secre- tary's pen, resign this beautiful country to the custody of the ignorant cowards and profligate ruffians who have ruled it the last twenty-five years. Why, humanity cries out against it. Civilization and Christianity protest against this reflux of the tide of barbarism and anarchy." I have not had an opportunity to read the article in the Post to determine whether it was wholly serious. Nor is it, perhaps, of especial importance, for if a parody, it bears witness no less to preva- lent opinion.
3 The National Era, Aug. 19, 1847. The article fills three and one-half columns. The plan was presented again February 3, 1848. As these Mexican accessions would probably have preserved their non-slaveholding character, the number of free states would have been immensely reinforced by any such proceeding.
