In one thing, however, the opponents of the war succeeded. Going far beyond the limits of reasonable criticism and helpful suggestions, and indulging in language calculated to dishearten and hamper the administration, they encouraged the enemy. It is merely Polk's war, announced the Boston _Atlas_, quoted in the _Monitor Republicano_. Mexico would have disgraced herself by receiving Slidell, declared the same journal. Her spirit, proclaimed the _National Intelligencer_, was fitted to "command the admiration of all men capable of appreciating the virtue of courage and fortitude under the most disastrous circumstances." Severance, a member of Congress, openly applauded her resistance. We cannot beat her without ruining our finances, maintained Waddy Thompson. The destruction of her national independence was "the true issue," one sheet falsely assured her, as if to whet her sword. It was entirely uncertain, proclaimed Calhoun in February, 1847, whether our army could reach Mexico City or dictate a peace if it should. She cannot be conquered, it was often said.[34.21] Magazines of epithets and arguments, that became gunpowder the moment they crossed the Rio Grande, poured from the Whig presses. Leading papers invoked foreign intervention. The official journal of the Mexican government offered the thanks of the nation to Webster for threatening our President with impeachment. "If there is in the United States a heart worthy of American liberty, its impulse is to join the Mexicans," exclaimed a Boston journal; "It would be a sad and woeful joy, but a joy nevertheless, to hear that the hordes under Scott and Taylor were, _every man of them, swept into the next world_." No wonder that Polk dropped a hint about aiding and abetting the enemy. It was proper. In 1813-14 the _National Intelligencer_ had stigmatized those who denounced the country's war after its own present fashion as "traitors in thought and purpose."[34.21] [THE DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS] Early in December, 1846, amidst feelings of depression, dissatisfaction with the government and opposition to the war, the second session of the Twenty-ninth Congress opened. The Democrats of that body found themselves in a general state of dissension. At the beginning of the year Marcy had written privately, "Our noble party [is] on the brink of ruin," and there it still hung.[34.22]