Transcription contributed by Martie Callihan 17 January 2005

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The war with Mexico aroused but little of the martial spirit of the people of Warren County. There was a prevalent sentiment among the people that the war was unnecessary; many believed that their Government was in the wrong. The county was strongly Whig in politics, and the majority were not enthusiastic in their support of the war measures of a Democratic administration. There were but few men from the county in the war.

No event during the progress of the war aroused more interest among the people of every class in the county than the memorable speech of their fellow-citizen, Thomas Corwin, against the further prosecution of the war, delivered in the Senate of the United States February 11, 1847, just before Gen. Scott began the last campaign, which completely broke the military power of Mexico, and after Taylor had won his most brilliant victories. Perhaps no speech ever delivered in Congress was so much talked about. On one side, its sentiments were approved; on the other, they were denounced as treasonable. The orator himself, in after years, with some rhetorical exaggeration, said the speech had caused him to be burned in effigy in every town and hamlet from Maine to Texas that had sent a soldier to fight against Mexico. The famous expression of "Welcome you with bloody hands" caused the Senator in his own county to be represented on banners carried in the processions of his political opponents with his hands and arms to the elbows painted blood red, and underneath the picture, the word "Traitor." Considering the unpopularity of the sentiments uttered, the mere politician regarded the orator as unwise. Looking at the strength and boldness of his language, some of his friends reproached him for imprudence, and his opponents denounced him as a traitor. But time has already marked it as the greatest and best speech of the eminent orator. Portions of it have become familiar to school-boys, and have taken their place among the most eloquent passages in the English language. The memorable expressions, "bloody hands" and "hospitable graves" occur in a passage which is frequently incorrectly quoted. The exact language of Senator Corwin will be found below:

Sir, had one come and demanded Bunker Hill of the people of Massachusetts, had England's lion ever showed himself there, is a there a man over thirteen and under ninety who would not have been ready to meet him—is there a river on this continent that would not have run red with blood—is there a field but would have been piled high with the unburied bones of slaughtered Americans before these consecrated battlefields of liberty should have been wrested from us?

If I were a Mexican, I would tell you, "Have you not room in your own country to bury your dead men? If you come into mine, we will greet you with bloody hands and welcome you to hospitable graves."