Neither brings any pay, we believe, nor any command, except
in such cases as rarely occur, and then only to the advantage of
government. There are varieties in honor, as in any other human
interest: so are there many moral degrees in warfare. Thus, the very
individual who admires the occupation of Algiers, or that of Tahiti,
or the attack on Canton, together with the long train of Indian
events which have dyed the peninsulas of the East in the blood of
their people, sees an alarming enormity in the knocking down of the
walls of Vera Cruz, though the breach opened a direct road into San
Juan de Ulloa. In the eyes of the same profound moralists, the
garitas of Mexico ought to have been respected, as so many doors
opening into the boudoirs of the beautiful dames of that fine
capital; it being a monstrous thing to fire a shot into the streets
of a town, no matter how many came out of them. We are happy,
therefore, to have it in our power to add these touches of
philosophy that came from Pigeonswing to those of the sages of the
old world, by way of completing a code of international morals on
this interesting subject, in which the student shall be at a loss to
say which he most admires--that which comes from the schools, or
that which comes direct from the wilderness.
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