The Somerset Herald And Farmers' And Mechanics' Register

From the Nat. Intelligencer.

THE MEXICAN WAR

We have, in our last paper, placed before our readers the Confidential Message of the President of the United States to the Senate, and the Documents accompanying it, showing the grounds taken by the President in his intercourse with the Executive Council (the Senate) in relation to the Mexican war: from which our readers will have learnt that the President is in communication with the Government of Mexico, of which Paredes is the head, with reference to a Negotiation for Peace or an adjustment of Boundary.

We now lay before them, in another column, a Proclamation issued some time ago by Gen. Taylor, at the head of the Army of invasion; which, though bearing the signature of the gallant General, is, upon the face of it, an elaborate manifesto, prepared for him, and undoubtedly issued, by Executive authority. It is for the reader to reconcile, in whatever way he can, the inconsistency between this annunciation to the People of the objects of the Executive, and that very different annunciation of its purposes and designs which the President has so recently made to the Senate.

In the message to the Senate the President is not only anxious to make Peace with Mexico, but announces that he has entered into negotiations with President Paredes to that end. In the Proclamation to the People of Mexico, the object of the war is declared, and reiterated, to be to "overthrow the tyrants"—meaning the actual Government with whom, since the publication of that Manifesto, the Executive has invited negotiations for Peace!

How are these extraordinary contradictions to be reconciled!

Again: the object of the War is declared, in the Proclamation, to be to obtain indemnity for claims, &c., and to overthrow the existing Government of Mexico. In the Message of the President of the United States of May 11th, so promptly responded to, in which he asked Congress to shoulder the War, and appropriate men and money to carry it on, the prosecution of the War was demanded, not to obtain indemnity for claims,&c.—and much less to overthrow the Government of Mexico—but because of Mexico having "passed the boundary of the United States," "invaded our Territory, and shed American blood upon the American soil." It was to repel invasion of our territory—to defend our territory—that the President called upon Congress to appropriate men and money, and not to liberate the people of Mexico from despots," or "to overthrow tyrants," who are declared to have usurped power over them.

Who can possibly determine the real objects or intentions of the Government in prosecuting this War, when the highest official authority gives such different, contradictory, and opposite versions of them?

Is there yet some other purpose, not revealed or hinted at in any of the Executive communications to Congress or to the People, nor even to the people of Mexico, the disclosure of which, when it comes, will furnish the key to these apparently irreconcilable inconsistencies?