The Daily Cincinnati Republican, And Commercial Register

From the Washington Globe of this morning

SANTA ANNA.

The Georgetown Metropolitan takes a warm interest in the fate of Santa Anna, and by way of giving its sentiments in regard to him some importance, undertakes to utter them for the President of the United States.

"It is understood (it says) that the President of the United States has expressed the greatest solicitude for the fate of the illustrious prisoner, whom the fortune of war has thrown into the hands of the Texans."

Santa Anna's advocate directly inverts the opinions of the President, unreservedly expressed by him to all who have conversed with him, and repeatedly stated in our presence. So far from ever having the greatest solicitude for the fate of the "illustrious prisoner," the President has again and again declared that he deserved the most ignominious death; and that the only justification for the lenity shown him, was to be found in the condition of Texas, which might make it proper to subject the demands of justice to the policy of getting rid of the armies of Mexico, through the influence of the chief.

But the grounds upon which the Metropolitan sustains the position taken for Santa Anna is as abhorrent to principles, as the pretext of authority set up in the name of the President, is unfounded. The Metropolitan says:

"A slight view of the circumstances of the case will serve to demonstrate how fatally imprudent, both in a political and moral point of view, such a proceeding would be to Texas; Santa Anna is the recognized and legal chief of an independent country, and certainly occupies, both from station and talent, no small space in the public eye. The revolt of Texas, a province, and integral part of the Mexican State, was an act of high treason against that State, which by the public law of every nation, subject each aider and abettor to the penalties of death. Thus, though the massacre of the garrison of the Alamo and of Fannin and his command, were acts barbarous, treacherous, and altogether indefensible, there can be no doubt, as the laws of nations have been usually expounded, that the Mexican chief had a military right to refuse quarter to those whom he considered traitors, and to subject every man found in arms against the Mexican State to the summary infliction of military execution.

"The history of every country shows that things as bad under color of the same suprema lex nationis, have been done times without number. To go no farther for a precedent, it has been done by the British Government in Ireland by wholesale, and certainly under circumstances quite as incapable of excuse as the recent instances. To put Santa Anna to death then for his participation in acts, which, however cruel and morally unwarrantable, were still in universal conformity to military right, would call down upon the Texans the indignation of the world, and deprive them of that conquering force of public opinion which now swells in their favor from every lover of freedom and his kind. This contest in Texas, deprived of this, is but the insurrection of a banditti, without dignity and without interest, beyond the individual traits of its bloody and ferocious prowess."

The Editor adds this consideration to intimidate the American people:

"The citizens of the United States are regarded by both the populace and rulers of Mexico, and not unjustly, as the authors and unlawful abettors of the present state of affairs in Texas, consequently the highest degree of exasperation prevails in all the States of the Republic, against Americans, which even now is scarcely concealed, but which in such an event as Santa Anna's death, there is but too much reason to dread, would find vent in too general acts of outrage and of bloodshed.

"The knowledge of this state of feelings, corroborated too by official information creates that feeling of anxiety and uneasiness in the President's mind, which will be shared most fully by every one, who views the case as he ought."

So it would seem that the President is not only operated upon by sympathies for "the illustrious prisoner," "the recognized and legal chief who occupies by station and talent no small space in the public eye," but his fears for our own citizens in Mexico create in his mind an additional anxiety and uneasiness for the fate of Santa Anna. He was apprehensive, it would seem from the Metropolitan, of "the monstrous anomaly of bringing the Captive General to a public trial, and of course execution; and in such a state of society, there is no saying how far such an example may induce others, and less scrupulous demanders of retribution, to bring the Mexican prisoner before the tribunal of Judge Lynch."

If ever President Jackson intimated alarm for the safety of his own countrymen, as a motive of giving impunity to Santa Anna, or his shocking murder of four hundred prisoners surrendering upon capitulation, and under the protection of the laws of nations, then we confess we do not know the man. Such a breach of faith and butchery as that committed by Santa Anna, cannot be covered under the pretext that he was "the legal chief of an independent State," and that "the revolt of Texas was an act of high treason against that State."

This principle would not only have justified Great Britain during the Revolutionary War in putting to death all the prisoners who surrendered upon terms guaranteeing their protection and support as prisoners of war, but the total extermination of all the people of the colonies. A chief magistrate of this country, who could so far respect such a right, as to propose to save our citizens in Mexico, by having it submitted to by the people of Texas, whom it has already visited with military execution, and now threatens with "extermination to the Sabine," would surely show himself alike forgetful of the history, and regardless of the principles of this Government—and would certainly mistake the feelings and character of his countrymen.