It is in
this particular you seem mistaken. The Locos are untiring in their
efforts to make the impression that all who vote supplies or take part in
the war do of necessity approve the President's conduct in the beginning
of it; but the Whigs have from the beginning made and kept the
distinction between the two. In the very first act nearly all the Whigs
voted against the preamble declaring that war existed by the act of
Mexico; and yet nearly all of them voted for the supplies. As to the Whig
men who have participated in the war, so far as they have spoken in my
hearing they do not hesitate to denounce as unjust the President's
conduct in the beginning of the war. They do not suppose that such
denunciation is directed by undying hatred to him, as The Register would
have it believed. There are two such Whigs on this floor (Colonel Haskell
and Major James) The former fought as a colonel by the side of Colonel
Baker at Cerro Gordo, and stands side by side with me in the vote that
you seem dissatisfied with. The latter, the history of whose capture with
Cassius Clay you well know, had not arrived here when that vote was
given; but, as I understand, he stands ready to give just such a vote
whenever an occasion shall present.
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