I add, that your course in other respects has been in disagreeable harmony with the vote on the Mexican War Bill. I cannot forget--for I sat by your side at the time--that on the Fourth of July, 1845, in Faneuil Hall, you extended the hand of fellowship to Texas, although this slaveholding community was not yet received among the States of the Union. I cannot forget the toast,[196] on the same occasion, by which you were willing to connect your name with an epigram of dishonest patriotism. I cannot forget your apathy at a later day, when many of your constituents engaged in constitutional efforts to oppose the admission of Texas _with a slaveholding constitution_,--so strangely inconsistent with your recent avowal of "uncompromising hostility to all measures for introducing new Slave States and new Slave Territories into our Union."[197] Nor can I forget the ardor with which you devoted yourself to the less important question of the Tariff,--indicating the relative value of the two in your mind. The vote on the Mexican War Bill seems to be the dark consummation of your course. [196] "Our country,--however bounded, still our country, to be defended by all our hands." [197] Speech at the Whig Convention in Faneuil Hall, Sept. 23, 1846. Pardon me, if I ask you, on resuming your seat in Congress, to testify _at once_, without hesitation or delay, against the further prosecution of this war. Forget for a while Sub-Treasury, Veto, even Tariff, and remember this wicked war. With the eloquence which you command so easily, and which is your pride, call for the instant cessation of hostilities. Let your cry be that of Falkland in the Civil Wars: "Peace! Peace!" Think not of what you call in your speeches "an _honorable_ peace." There can be no peace with Mexico which will not be more honorable than this war. Every fresh victory is a fresh dishonor. "Unquestionably," you have strangely said, "we are not to forget that Mexico must be willing to negotiate."[198] No! no! Mr. Winthrop! We are not to wait for Mexico. Her consent is not needed; nor is it to be asked, while our armies are defiling her soil by their aggressive footsteps. She is _passive_. We alone are _active_. Stop the war. Withdraw our forces. In the words of Colonel Washington, RETREAT! RETREAT! So doing, we shall cease from further wrong, and peace will ensue. [198] Speech at the Whig Convention, Sept. 23, 1846.