Augusta, Ga., May 7, 1846.
. . . P. S. — Exciting news from Mexico this morning; this
only could be reasonably expected. I have (entre nous) never seen any reasons of expediency
for sending Taylor to the Rio Grande. Why insultingly beard this poor
feeble distracted people? They have been hardly dealt with, and why not give
them some decent chance to cover up their humiliation, which they certainly
would have done by negociation ere long if our cannon had been kept out of
their sight. I should not be much surprised if we were on the eve of a long and
distracting war with all the attendant evils of debts, taxes, tariff, and the finale
of all ambitious Republics — a military despotism. I hope to God that we
may not yet have cause to wish that both Texas and Oregon had been ingulphed
before they were heard of by the people of the United States.
_______________
* United States Senator from Georgia, 1833-1837, president
of the Georgia Railroad & Banking Co., 1841-1878.
SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual
Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The
Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p.
75
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