But now, Sir, what do we want of a greater force than we have in Mexico?  I am not saying, What do we want of a force greater than we can supply? but, What is the object of bringing these new regiments into the field?  What do we propose?  There is no army to fight.  I suppose there are not five hundred men under arms in any part of Mexico; probably not half that number, except in one place.  Mexico is prostrate.  It is not the government that resists us.  Why, it is notorious that the government of Mexico is on our side, that it is an instrument by which we hope to establish such a peace, and accomplish such a treaty, as we like.  As far as I understand the matter, the government of Mexico owes its life and breath and being to the support of our arms, and to the hope, I do not say how inspired, that somehow or other, and at no distant period, she will have the pecuniary means of carrying it on, from our three millions, or our twelve millions, or from some of our other millions.

What do we propose to do, then, with these thirty regiments which it is designed to throw into Mexico?  Are we going to cut the throats of her people?  Are we to thrust the sword deeper and deeper into the “vital parts” of Mexico?  What is it proposed to do?  Sir, I can see no object in it; and yet, while we are pressed and urged to adopt this proposition to raise ten and twenty regiments, we are told, and the public is told, and the public believes, that we are on the verge of a safe and an honorable peace.  Every one looks every morning for tidings of a confirmed peace, or of confirmed hopes of peace.  We gather it from the administration, and from every organ of the administration from Dan to Beersheba.  And yet warlike preparations, the incurring of expenses, the imposition of new charges upon the treasury, are pressed here, as if peace were not in all our thoughts, at least not in any of our expectations.

Now, Sir, I propose to hold a plain talk to-day; and I say that, according to my best judgment, the object of the bill is patronage, office, the gratification of friends.  This very measure for raising ten regiments creates four or five hundred officers; colonels, subalterns, and not them only, for for all these I feel some respect, but there are also paymasters, contractors, persons engaged in the transportation service, commissaries, even down to sutlers, et id genus omne, people who handle the public money without facing the foe, one and all of whom are true descendants, or if not, true representatives, of Ancient Pistol, who said,

                   “I shall sutler be
    Unto the camp, and profits will accrue.”