LIBRARY OF THK UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. Ace, RANCROFT LIBRARY LETTER THE HON. HENRY CLAY, OH HIE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS TO THE UNITED STATES. \BKAfl OF TWK UNIVERSITY WILLIAM E. CHANNING, D. D. R*print*t views on the subject of this inunication, would accomplish a good, to which, perhaps, no other man in the country is equal. I am bound, in frankness, to add aunt her reason for addressing you. I hope that your name, pre- fixed to this letter, may secure to it an access to some, prr-hap- to many, who would turn away, were its thoughts presented in a more general form. Perhaps by this aid it may scale the barrier. \\ liich n<>\\ excludes from the south a certain class of the writings of the north. I am sure your hospitality would welcome : Kentucky; and your well known generosity, I believe, will con- sent that I should use your name, to gain a hearing in that and the neighbouring States. It is with great reluctance that I enter on the topic of thi> . My tastes and hal>its incline me to very different objects of thought and exertion. I had hoped, that I should never again feel myself called to take part in the agitations and exciting dis- cussions of the day, especially in those of a political character. I desire nothing so much as to devote what remains of life t Miidv and exposition of great principles and universal truth-. But the subject of Texas weighs heavily on m\ mmt ihe revolt which threatens to sever that country from Mexico. On tin- |M.im our ciii/.-ns need lijjht. The Texan iiiMinvction is seriously regarded by many aiimnsjua as a strnirirl' of the- oppn- v,' minatril h\ I e ing brought into SUcli ivlatiou-hi|. ami \\ e nur fathers ami our-el\es a disclaimer of affinity with this new republic. The Texan revolt, if rcpinled in its causes ami it- means of success, is criminal; ami we on-lit in no way to become partakers in its guilt. You, I doubt not, are familiar with its history; hnt for the benefit of some, into whose hands thi< l.-ttn- mav fall. I will give the leading facts. 'Fhe first grant of land in Texas to onr citizens, was made un- der the Rmal (iovernment; and in accepting it, the obligation was expresslv incurred, of submission to the civil and reli- ion- despot i-m which then crushed the country. It was understood, that the settlers were to adopt the Catholic faith, and to conform in all other respects to the institutions of Mexico. Under 1 1. volntionan governments, which succeeded the fall of the Sj> power, the original grant was confirmed, and new ones made, on condition of siihjection to the laws of the land. The terms were ..heral. except that adherence to the Catholic religion was required as the condition of settlement. These facts will help us to understand the reasonableness of some of the complaints, under which the colonists seek to shelter their revolt. Mexico, on declaring her independence on the mother con; Mexico and Texas, in the July number of the North American Review for the year 1636. This article, as I understood at the lime, was written by an enlightened and respected citixen of the South. The quotations in the first head of this letter, without a marginal reference, are taken from thi* with a few unimportant exceptions. I have also made use of a pamphlet, bearing the title of the " War in Texas," written by Mr. Benjamin Lundy, a man of unimpeachable character, and who professes to have given pa: attention to the subject. With his reasonings and opinions, I have nothing to do; but his statement of facts has been represented to me as worthy of full credit I have also consulted a ' History of Texas, by David B. Ed- wards." I know not that this has furnished me any thing of importance. But, by its undesigned coincidence, it corroborates the preceding articles. My chief reliance, however, is not on books, but on the notoriety of the facts here given, which may be considered as a testimony borne to them by the whole people. This is a singularly unexceptionable testimony in the present case; because it is well known, that the advocates of the Texan revolt have bad possession, to a great degree, of the press of this country, and unfavour- able accounts could not have obtained general current-) . u it limit .1 f. ,u :. in truth. Let me add, that by tin- .North. ' I understand in this letter all the free States, and by "the South," all the slaveholding States, the terms are plainly restricted by the connexion. established a republican government, and was unfortunately be- trayed by her admiration of this country into the adoption of a Federal system, for which no foundation had been laid in her previous history. From this cause, added to her inexperience in self-government, and to the want of intelligence among the mass of her population, her institutions have yielded very imperfectly the fruits of freedom. The country has been rent by factions, the capital convulsed by revolutions, and the chief office of the state been secured by the military to popular chieftains. The emigrants from this country to Texas went with open eyes, with full knowledge of the unsettled state of affairs, into this region of misrule aud agitation. Happily their distance from the seat of government prevented their being drawn into the whirlpool of civil contests, which threatened at times the destruction of the metropolis. Whilst the city of Mexico was pillaged or laid under martial law, Texas found security in her remoteness; and, had her colonists proved loyal citizens, this security might have been undisturbed. Complaints of one another soon sprung up between the General Government and Texas. Mexico complained of the gross in- fraction of her laws, and Texas of the violence of the means by which it was attempted to enforce them. That both parties had ground of reproach, we cannot doubt ; nor is it easy to strike the balance between them, or to say where the chief blame lies. The presumption is strong, that the fault began with the colonists. We of this country, receiving our accounts of the controversy from Texans, are in danger of being warped in our judgments. But we have for our guidance our knowledge of human nature, which helps us to construe the testimony of interested witnesses, and which, in the present case, cannot easily deceive us. If we consider the distance of Texas from the seat of government, her scattered population, her vicinity to a slave country, the general character of the first settlers in a wilderness, and the difficulty of subjecting them to regular tribunals ; can we doubt, for a moment, that Mexico had cause for the complaints, which she urged, of the gross infractions and evasions of her laws in Texas, especially of the laws relating to revenue, and to the exclusion of slaves ? f On the other hand, if we consider the cir- cumstances of Mexico, can we doubt, that the military force sent by her to Texas, and needed there to enforce the laws, abused its power more or less? That lawless men should be put down by lawless means, especially in a country swept by the spirit of revolution, is an effect too common and natural to excite wonder. The wonder is that Texas escaped with so little injury. Whether she would have Suffered at all, had she -nhmitte.l in -ood far the laws \\hich slu ha.l pl.-.L-.-.l In-:-, It' to obey, may be fairly question. 1. I a>k \ou. Sir, whether it is not your deliberate mil, that Mexico, from tin* In-innm- of her \\nli tin- colonists, has been more sinned against than sinning. But allowing that the % iolent means, used by Mexico for enforcing I ere less provoked than we believe them to have been; did not the Texans enter the fount rv with a full knowledge of its condition? Dil they not become citizens of a state, just escaped from a grimlm- ii-|'ii>m, just entered into the school of freedom, which hal heen inured for ages to abuses of military i whose short republican history had been made up of ( i\il agitation In allegiance to such a state, did they nut consent to take their chan-v of the evils, through which it must have been expected to pass in its way to firm and free institutions? Was there, or could there be in so unsettled a society, that deliberate, settled, inflexible purpose of spoiling the colonists .f their rights, which alone absolves a violation of alle- giance from the guilt of treason ? Some of the grounds, on which the Texans justify their conflict for independence, are so glaringly deficient in truth and reason, that it is hard to avoid suspicion of every defence set up for their revolt. They complain of being denied the right of worshipping God according to the dictates of their consciences; and this do, though they entered the country and swore allegiance to its government, with full knowledge that the Catholic religion was the religion of the state, and alone tolerated by the constitution. What increases the hollowness and criminality of the pretence is, that notwithstanding the provision of the constitution, Protestant sects had held their meetings undisturbed in Texas, and no per- ion had ever taken place on account of difference of creed. Another grievance ly \\hieh they justify their revolt is, that the trial by jury had been withheld ; and this complaint they have the courage to make, although they were fullv aware, before becoming the adopted citizens of the country, that this mode of trial was utterly unknown to its jurisprudence, and though, in the constitution of the State of Coahuila and Texas, the following article had been introduced : " One of the principal subjects for the attention of Congress [State Legislature] shall be to establish in criminal cases the trial by jury, extending it gradually, and even adopting it in civil cases, in proportion as the advantages of this precious institution may be practically developed." One of the greatest grievances in the eyes of Texas, was the change of the Mexican government from a Federal to a Central or Consolidated form. But this change, however violently brought about, was ratified by the national Congress according to the rules prescribed by the constitution, and was sanctioned by the Mexican people. The decree of Congress, introducing this " reform" of the national institutions, declares the system of government " republican, popular, and representative/' and pro- vides all the organs by which such a government is characterised. What also deserves our consideration, in estimating this measure is, that the whole history of Mexico has proved the necessity of substituting a Central for a Federal government. Liberty and order can be reconciled and preserved in that country by no pro- cess but by the introduction of more simple and efficient institu- tions. And yet the Texans, a handful of strangers, raised the standard of revolt, because the government was changed by a nation of nine millions without their consent. I have spoken of the Texans as a handful of people. At the breaking out of the insurrection they were about twenty thousand, including women and children. They were, of course, wholly unable to achieve or maintain national independence ; so that one condition which is required to authorise revolution, namely, the ability to sustain a government, to perform the duties of sove- reignty, they could not pretend to fulfil. Twenty thousand men, women, and children, raising the standard of war, and proposing to dismember a mighty empire ! It is very possible that there are suburbs of London containing an equal number of discontented people, who suffer under and have reason to complain of municipal or national injustice. And may these fly to arms, set up for a nation, and strive to break the unity of the British dominions ? It should also be remembered, that the Texans were not only a drop of the bucket compared with the Mexican population, but that they were a decided minority in the particular State to which they belonged ; so that their revolt may be compared to the rising of a county in Massachussets or Virginia for the purpose of es- tablishing a separate sovereignty, on the ground of some real or imagined violation of right on the part of the Federal or the State government. Still more, this little knot of Texans were far from being unanimous as to the revolt. The older and wealthier inhabitants favoured peace. " There were great differ- ences of opinion among the colonists, and even violent party dis- sensions. Many, who were in the quiet enjoyment of their pro- perty, were opposed to all these hostile movements. The first public declaration of independence was adopted, not by persons assuming to act in a representative capacity, but by about ninety individuals, all, except two, Americans, if we may judge by their 9 names, acting for themselves, and recommending a similar course t< tli.-ir tVl low-citizens. That declaration furnishes proofs of the dissensions and jealousies of which we have spoken. It proves another fact, that the ancient population of the province was fa \uurable to the new views of the government <>f M<>\i< ... ' In some leilers written l-\ ('..!. S. T. Austin, the founder uf the colony* in the year 1834, whilst imprisoned in Mexico on the charge of encouraging revolutionary movements \\\ 'IV\as, we have sum,, ivmarkable passages, showing the aversion <>f the sounder part of the population to violent measures. " I wish my friends and all Texas to adopt and firmly adheiv to tin motto and rule I have stated in this letter. The rule is, to discountenance, in the most unequivocal and efficient manner, all persons who are in the habit of speaking or writing in violent or m 1m limits, created as strong a purpose to annihilate her uut hunt v in Texas. By tin- |>r..lul> Texas was \irtually -hut against emigration from the Southern and \YeMern portions of this country: ami it i< well |VP.\\M that the' eyes of the South and West had for somo time l to tin .-, aa a new market for slaves, as a new field for slave labour, and as avast accession ..i political power to the tlaveholding States. That such \i -\\- were prevalent. \\. kn..\s : u'farious as they are, they found their way into the p-ihlir prints. The project of dismembering a neitfhhouriM^ n-j.nhlir. that slaveholders and slaves might overspread a region \\ hi< -h had been consecrated to a free population, was discussed in newspapers as coolly as if it were a matter of obvious ri^ht ami uiu|ue>tinnahle humanity. A powerful interest was thus created for severing from Mexico her distant province. We have here : incitement to the Texan revolt, and another explanation of tin* agerness, with which men and money were thrown from the United States into that region to carry on the war of revolution. I }. occed to another circumstance, which helped to determine or at lutst to hasten the insurrection ; and that was, the disap- ment of the Texans in their efforts to obtain for themselves an organization as a separate State. Texas and Coahuila had hitherto formed a single State. But the colonists, being a minor- ity in the joint legislature, found themselves thwarted in the> plans. Impatient of this restraint, and probably suffering at from a union which gave the superiority to others, they prepared for themselves a constitution, by which they were to be erected into a separate State, neglect mj in their haste the forms prescribed by the Mexican law. This instrument they forwarded to the capital for the sanction of the General Congress, by whom it was immediately rejected. Its informality was a sufficient reason for its finding no better reception; but the omission of all provision to secure the country against slavery was a more serious obstacle to its ratification. The irritation of the Texans was great. Once invested with the powers of a State, they would not h-und it dirii.-ult, in their remoteness from the capital ami in the unsettled state of the nation, to manage their affairs in their own way. A virtual independence might have been secured, and the laws of Mexico evaded with impunity. Their exasperation was increased by the imprisonment of the agent who had carried th<; instrument to Mexico, and who had advised them, in an inter- cepted letter, to take matters into their own hands, or to organise a State Government without authority from the National Con- gress. Thus denied the privilege of a separate State, and threat- 14 ened with new attempts on the part of the General Government to enforce the laws, they felt that the critical moment had arrived ; and, looking abroad for help, resolved to take the chances of a conflict with the crippled power of Mexico. Such were the chief excitements to the revolt. Undoubtedly, the Texans were instigated by the idea of wrongs, as well as by mercenary hopes. But had they yielded true obedience to the country of which they had, with their own free will, become a part ; had they submitted to the laws relating to the revenue, to the sale of lands, and to slavery; the wrongs of which they com- plained might never have been experienced, or might never have been construed into a plea for insurrection. The great motives to revolt on which I have insisted, are so notorious, that it is wonderful that any among us could be cheated into sympathy with the Texan cause, as the cause of freedom. Slavery and fraud lay at its very foundation. It is notorious, that land spe- culators, slaveholders, and selfish adventurers, were among the foremost to proclaim and engage in the crusade for " Texan liberties." From the hands of these we are invited to receive a province, torn from a country to which we have given pledges of amity and peace. In these remarks, I do not, of course, intend to say that every invader of Texas was carried thither by selfish motives. Some, I doubt not, were impelled by a generous interest in what bore the name of liberty; and more by that natural sympathy which incites a man to take part with his countrymen against a stranger, without stopping to ask whether they are right or wrong. But the motives, which rallied the great efficient majority round the standard of Texas, were such as have been exposed, and should awaken any sentiment but respect. Having considered the motives of the revolution, I proceed to inquire, how was it accomplished? The answer to this question will show more fully the criminality of the enterprise. The Texans, we have seen, were a few thousands, as unfit for sove- reignty as one of our towns ; and, if left to themselves, must have utterly despaired of achieving independence. They looked abroad ; and to whom did they look? To any foreign state? To the government under which they had formerly lived? No; their whole reliance was placed on selfish individuals in a neighbouring republic at peace with Mexico. They looked wholly to private individuals, to citizens of this country, to such among us, as, defying the laws of the land, and hungry for sudden gain, should be lured by the scent of this mighty prey, and should be ready to slain their hands with blood for spoil. They held out a country as a prize to the reckless, lawless, daring, avaricious, and trusted 15 i.. in.- . \ n.'tus of intoxicated imagination ami in- pidity, to >ui'|l\ them with partners in their scheme of violence. the hands which raised the stan , \nlf- IJy foreign -|K.Mxii U their runs, i hat been conquered by von r and my count r\ tnm, by citizens of the I < violation ,,r MOT laws and of the laws of nation-. V. tilled tlu rank- which have wrested Texas from M n the army of eight hundred men who won the victory which scattered the Mexican force, and made its chief a prisoner, not more than fifty were citizens of Texas having grievances of il, seek relief from on that field.'' Tnfl Texans in thi> warfare are little more than a name, a cover. KM. In- which selii-h adver. 1 n another country have prosecuted their work of plunder. Some crimes, by their magnitude, have a touch of the sublime; and to this dignity the sei/ure !'Te\a- h\ our citizens is entitled. M tiinex funii-h no example of individual rapine on so a scale. It i- luitliini: less than the robber \ aim. Tin- pirate seizes a ship. The colonists and their coadjutors can tnselves with nothing short of an empire. The\ left tiieir Anglo-Saxon ancestors behind them. Those barh; conformed to the ma \im- ..f their age, to the rude code of IK in time of thickest heathen darkness. They invaded K: under their sovereigns, and with the sanction of the _ "n of the North. Hut it U in a civilised age, and ; refinements of manners; it is amidst the lights of science and the teachings of Chri-tianitv. amiUt expositions of the law of nations and enforcements of the law of universal love, ami! found it- instrument-. It i- I'mm a free, \\ell ordered, enlightened Christian country, that hordes have gone forth, in OJK-U hrink from a proposition to receive a piratical state in? confederacy. And of whom does Texas consist? Very mi; our own citizens, who have won a numtrv l.y waging war against a foreign nation, tu \\hirh we owed protection apiin-t -udi assaults. Does it consist with national honour, with national virtue, to receive to our embrace men who have prospered by crimes which \\e u , n hound to reprobate and repress? Had this country resisted \\ith its whole power the lawlessness 16 of its citizens ; had these, notwithstanding such opposition, suc- ceeded in extorting- from Mexico a recognition of independence; and were their sovereignty acknowledged by other nations ; we should stand acquitted, in the sight of the civilised world, of par- ticipating in their crime, were considerations of policy to deter- mine us to admit them into our Union. Unhappily, the United States have not discharged the obligations of a neutral state. They have suffered, by a culpable negligence, the violation of the Mexican territory by their citizens ; and if now, in the midst of the conflict, whilst Mexico yet threatens to enforce her claims, they should proceed to incorporate Texas with themselves, they would involve themselves, before all nations, in the whole infamy of the revolt. The United States have not been just to Mexico. Our citizens did not steal singly, silently, in disguise, into that land. Their purpose of dismembering Mexico, and attaching her distant province to this country, was not wrapt in mystery. It was proclaimed in our public prints. Expeditions were openly fitted out within our borders for the Texan war. Troops were organised, equipped, and marched for the scene of action. Adver- tisements for volunteers, to be enrolled and conducted to Texas at the expense of that territory, were inserted in our newspapers. The government, indeed, issued its proclamation, forbidding these hostile preparations ; but this was a dead letter. Military' com- panies, with officers and standards, in defiance of proclamations, and in the face of day, directed their steps to the revolted pro- vince. We had, indeed, an army near the frontiers of Mexico. Did it turn back these invaders of a land with which we were at peace? On the contrary, did not its presence give confidence to the revolters? After this, what construction of our conduct shall we force on the world, if we proceed, especially at this moment, to receive into our Union the territory, which, through our neglect, has fallen a prey to lawless invasion ? Are we willing to take our place among robber-states? As a people, have we no self-respect? Have we no reverence for national morality? Have we no feeling of responsibility to other nations, and to Him by whom the fates of nations are disposed? II. Having unfolded the argument against the annexation of Texas from the criminality of the revolt, I proceed to a second very solemn consideration, namely, that by this act our country will enter on a career of encroachment, war, and crime, and will merit and incur the punishment and woe of aggravated wrong- doing. The seizure of Texas will not stand alone. It will darken our future history. It will be linked by an iron necessity i: to long continued deeds of repine and blood. Ages may not see the catastn !!. << the tragedy, the first scene of which we are so ready to on ut. It is strange that nations should h<> M mm-h more rash than indmduaU; and tin-, in the face of experience, which has been teaching, from the beginning >t society, that, of all precipitate and criminal deeds, those perpetrated by nations TOthe most fruitful of mis. Did tin- country know itself, or were it disposed to profit l>\ ' -el t- knowledge, it would feel the necessity of laxm- an immediate curb on its passion for extended territory. It would not trust itself to new acquisitions. It would shrink from the t mptatinn to cont|u.--i. We are a restless people, prone to encroachment, impatient of the ordinary laws of progress, less anxious to con- solidate and perfect than to extend our institutions, more umhi- tious of spreading ourst IM > .\er u wide space than of diffusing beauty and fruit fulness over a narrower field. We boast of our rapid growth, forgetting that, throughout nature, noble grout h- are slow. Our people throw themselves beyond the bounds of civilization, and expose themselves to relapses into a semi-bar- barous state, under tlu> impulse of wild imagination, and for the name of great possessions. Perhaps there is no people on earth, on whom the ties of local attachment sit so loosely, liven the wandering tribes of Scythia are bound to one spot, the graves of 'heir fathers; but the homes and graves of our fathers detain us feebly. The known and familiar is often abandoned for the dis- tant and untrodden ; and sometimes the untrodden is not the less eagerly desired because belonging to others. We owe this >: in a measure, to our descent from men who left the old world for the new, the seats of ancient cultivation for a wilderness, and who advanced by driving before them the old occupants of the To this spirit we have sacrificed justice and humanity; and, through its ascendancy, the records of this young nation are stained with atrocities, at which communities grown grey in cur- ruption miirht blush. It is tuli T i mo, that we should lay on ourselves serious, resolute restraint. Possessed of a domain, vast enough for the growth of ages, it is time for us to stop in the career of acquisition and con- quest. Already endangered by our greatness, we cannot advance without imminent peril to our institutions, union, prosperity, N in ue, and peace. Our former additions of territory have been justified by the necessity of obtaining outlets for the population of the South and the West. No such pretext exists for the occu- pation of Texas. We cannot seize upon or join to ourselves that territory, without manifesting and strengthening the purpose of 18 setting no limits to our empire. We give ourselves an impulse, which will and must precipitate us into new invasions of our neighbours' soil. Is it by pressing forward in this course that we are to learn self-restraint? Is cupidity to be appeased by gratification? Is it by unrighteous grasping, that an impatient people will be instructed how to hem themselves within the rigid bounds of justice? "* Texas is a country conquered by our citizens ; and the annex- ation of it to our Union will be the beginning of conquests, which, unless arrested and beaten back by a just and kind Providence, will stop only at the Isthmus of Darien. Henceforth, we must cease to cry, Peace, peace. Our Eagle will whet, not gorge its appetite on its first victim ; and will snuff a more tempting quarry, more alluring blood, in every new region which opens southward. To annex Texas is to declare perpetual war with Mexico. That word, Mexico, associated in men's minds with boundless wealth, has already awakened rapacity. Already it has been proclaimed, that the Anglo-Saxon race is destined to the sway of this magni- ficent realm, that the rude form of society, which Spain established there, is to yield and vanish before a higher civilization. Without this exposure of plans of rapine and subjugation, the result, as far as our will can determine it, is plain. Texas is the first step to Mexico. The moment we plant our authority on Texas, the boundaries of those two countries will become nominal, will be little more than lines on the sand of the sea-shore. In the fact, that portions of the Southern and Western States are already threatened with devastation, through the impatience of multitudes to precipitate themselves into the Texan land of promise, we have a pledge and earnest of the flood which will pour itself still farther south, when Texas shall be but partially overrun. Can Mexico look without alarm on the approaches of this ever growing tide ? Is she prepared to be a passive prey ? to shrink and surrender without a struggle? Is she not strong in her hatred, if not in her fortresses or skill? Strong enough to make war a dear and bloody game? Can she not bring to bear on us a force, more formidable than fleets, the force of privateers, that is, of legalised pirates, which, issuing from her ports, will scour the seas, prey on our commerce, and add to spoliation, cruelty and murder? Even were the dispositions of our government most pacific and opposed to encroachment, the annexation of Texas would almost certainly embroil us with Mexico. This territory would be overrun by adventurers ; and the most unprincipled of these, the proscribed, the disgraced, the outcasts of society, would, of course, 19 keep always in advance of the better copulation. These v, ieprssopt our republic on the borders of the Mexican States* The . of the connexion of such men with the Indians forewarns us of the outrages, which would attend i heir contact with tin- der inhabitants of our southern neighbour. Texas, from its re- moteness from the seat of government . \\ >uld lie feebly restrained by the authorities of the uhi.h it would belong. Its whole early history would be a lesson of acorn ; education for invasion of her soil. Its legislature would lind in its position some colour for stretching to the utmost the doctrine of State-sovereignty. It would not hear unmoved the cries for protection and \en-eaiuv, \\liicli would hreak from the fmnti.-r. from the very men wh. - l.iu lessness would provoke the cruelties so indignantly denounced; nor would it *ift \ery anxiously the question, on which side the wrong began. To the wisdom, mo- deration, and tender mercies of the back-settlers and lawgivers of Texav. tin- peace of thi> country would he committed. Have we counted the cost of estaMUliing and making* perpetual these hostile relations with Mexico? Will wars, begun in rapa- citv. carried on so far from the centre of the confederation, and, of consequence, little checked or controlled by Congress, add strength to our institutions, or cement our union, or exert a healthy moral influence on rulers or people? What limits can be set to the atrocities of such conflicts r What limits to the treasures, which must be lavished on such distant borders? What limits to the patronage and power, which such distant expedit i< >ns miM accumulate in the hands of the Executive? Are the blood and hard-earned wealth of the older States to be poured out like water, to protect and revenge a new people, whose character and condition will plunge them into perpetual wrongs? Is the time never to come, when the neighbourhood of a more powerful and civilised people will prove a blessing, instead of a curse, to an inferior community? It was my hope, when the Spanish colonies of this continent separated themselves from the mother country, and, in admiration of the United States, adopted republican institutions, that they were to find in us friends to their freedom, helpers to their civili/ation. If ever a people were placed by Providence in a condition to do good to airing state, we of this country sustained such a relation to Mexico. That nation, inferior in science, arts, agriculture, and legislation, looked to us with a generous trust. She territories to our farmers, mechanics, and have conquered her by the only honourablelm^iijBfffoaf ff superior intelligence, industry, and i idil 20 have poured in upon her our improvements; and by the infusion of our population have assimilated her to ourselves. Justice, good-will, and profitable intercourse might have cemented a last- ing friendship. And what is now the case ? A deadly hatred burns in Mexico towards this country. No stronger national sentiment now binds her scattered provinces together, than dread and detestation of Republican America. She is ready to attach herself to Europe for defence from the United States. All the moral power, which we might have gained over Mexico, we have thrown away; and suspicion, dread, and abhorrence, have sup- planted respect and trust. I am aware that these remarks are met by a vicious reasoning, which discredits a people among whom it finds favour. It is sometimes said, that nations are swayed by laws, as unfailing as those which govern matter; that they have their destinies; that their character and position carry them forward irresistibly to their goal; that the stationary Turk must sink under the pro- gressive civilization of Russia, as inevitably as the crumbling edi- fice falls to the earth; that, by a like necessity, the Indians have melted before the white man, and the mixed, degraded race of Mexico must melt before the Anglo-Saxon. Away with this vile sophistry ! There is no necessity for crime. There is no Fate to justify rapacious nations, any more than to justify gamblers and robbers, in plunder. We boast of the progress of society, and this progress consists in the substitution of reason and moral principle for the sway of brute force. It is true, that more civilised must always exert a great power over less civilised communities in their neighbourhood. But it may and should be a power to en- lighten and improve, not to crush and destroy. We talk of accom- plishing our destiny. So did the late conqueror of Europe; and destiny consigned him to a lonely rock in the ocean, the prey of an ambition which destroyed no peace but his own. Hitherto, I have spoken of the annexation of Texas as embroil- ing us with Mexico; but it will not stop here. It will bring us into collision with other states. It will, almost of necessity, in- volve us in hostility with European powers. Such are now the connexions of nations, that Europe must look with jealousy on a country, whose ambition, seconded by vast resources, will seem to place within her grasp the empire of the new world. And not only general considerations of this nature, but the particular rela- tion of certain foreign states to this continent, must tend to de- stroy the peace now happily subsisting between us and the king- doms of Europe. England, in particular, must watch us with suspicion, and cannot but resist our appropriation of Texas to 21 ourselves. She has at once a moral and political interest in thi- question, which demands and will justify mterlVren. ,-. First, England has a moral interest in this question. The annexation of Texas is sought by us for the Tory purpose of extending slavery, and thus \\ill ue. e^anl\ -i\. n.-\\ lit e stare-trade. A new and vast market for slaves cannot, of course, be opened. \\ithnut in\n;ni: and pres S the la\e- trade; and, of late, a strong public feeling; impels the ( Jovernment to resist, as fur as may be, the extension of slavery. Can we expect her to be a passive spectator of a measure, by which her struggles for years in the cause of humanity, and M>me of her strongest national feelings are to be withstood ? England is a privileged nation. On one part of her hi- she can look with unmixed self-respect. With the exception of the promulgation of Christianity, I know not a moral -tVort so irlorious, as the loni:, painful, victorious struggle of her philan- thropists against that concentration of all horrors, cruelties, and rimes, the slave-trade. Next to this, her recent Emancipation Act is the most signal expression, afforded by our times, of the pro- iv of civili/.ation and a purer Christianity. Other nations have won imperishable honours by heroic struggles for their own risrhN. But there was wanting the example of a nation espousing, with disinterestedness, and amidst great obstacles, the rights of others, the rights of those who had no claim hut that of a mon humanitv, the rights of the mo xanrlioned l.y nur own example. It i* understood, that, at one period of the internal disorders of Spain. \\ In. 1. rend, -r. -1 :.ll her n possessions insecure, we sought from France and Great Britain assurances that they would not posseas themselv Cuba. Still more, after the revolt <>t her colonies from > and after our recognition of their independence, it was annm to the nations of Europe, in the message of the Preside n \v< should regard as hostile, any interference, on their part, with these new governments, " for the purpose of oppressing them, or nntrollini: tin-. in an\ other way." I, of course, li:i\<- no communication with foreign cabinets; but I cannot doult that Great Britain has remonstrated against the anm '\atinn oi' Texas to this country. An English minister would be unworth\ of In. office, who should see another state greedily swallowing up terri- in the neighbourhood of British colonies, ami not strive, by all just means, to avert the danger. I have just referred to the warning given by us to the powers of Europe, to abstain from appropriating to themselves the colonies torn from Spain. How will Europe interpret our act, if we now seize Texas and take this stride towards Mexico? Will she not suspect, that we pur- posed to drive away the older vultures, in order to keep the v h t i in to ourselves; that, conscious of growing power, we fore- MINV. in the exclusion of foreign states, the sure extension of nur own dominion over the new world? Can we expect th w itli such an example before them, to heed our warning? Will they look patiently on, and see the young vulture feasting on tin nearest prey, and fleshing itself for the spoils which their own possessions will next present? Will it be strange, if hunger for a share of the plunder, as well as the principle of self-defence, should make this continent the object of their policy to an n we have never dreamed ? It is of great and manifest importance, that we should use ei just means to separate this continent from the politics of Europe, that we should prevent, as far as possible, all connexion, except commercial, between the old and the new world, that we should give to foreign states no occasion or pretext for insinuating them- selves into our affairs. For this end, we should maintain t . . . our sister republics a more liberal policy than was ever adopted by nation towards nation. We should strive to appease their in- ternal divisions, and to reconcile them to each other. We should make sacrifices to build up their strength. Weak and di- vided, they cannot but lean on foreign support. No pains should be spared to prevent or allay the jealousies, whuh the great su- 24 periority of this country is suited to awaken. By an opposite policy we shall favour foreign interference. By encroaching on Mexico, we shall throw her into the arms of European states, shall compel her to seek defence in transatlantic alliance. How plain is it, that alliance with Mexico will be hostility to the United States, that her defenders will repay themselves by making her subservient to their views, that they will thus strike root in her soil, monopolize her trade, and control her resources. And with what face can we resist the aggressions of others on our neigh- bour, if we give an example of aggression? Still more, if by our advances we put the colonies of England in new peril, with what face can we oppose her occupation of Cuba? Suppose her, with that magnificent island in her hands, to command the Mexican Gulf and the mouths of the Mississippi ; will the Western States find compensation for this formidable neighbourhood, in the pri- vilege of flooding Texas with slaves? ~~S Thus, wars with Europe and Mexico are to be entailed on us by the annexation of Texas. And is war the policy by which this country is to flourish? Was it for interminable conflicts that we formed our Union? Is it blood, shed for plunder, which is to consolidate our institutions ? Is it by collision with the greatest maritime power, that our commerce is to gain strength? Is it by arming against ourselves the moral sentiments of the world, that we are to build up national honour? Must we of the North buckle on our armour, to fight the battles of slavery; to fight for a possession, which our moral principles and just jealousy forbid us to incorporate with our confederacy? In attaching Texas to ourselves, we provoke hostilities, and at the same time expose new points of attack to our foes. Vulnerable at so many points, we shall need a vast military force. Great armies will require great revenues, and raise up great chieftains. Are we tired of freedom, that we are prepared to place it under such guardians? Is the republic bent on dying by its own hands? Does not every man feel, that, with war for our habit, our insti- tutions cannot be preserved? If ever a country were bound to peace, it is this. Peace is our great interest. In peace our re- sources are to be developed, the true interpretation of the consti- tution to be established, and the interfering claims of liberty and order to be adjusted. In peace we are to discharge our great debt to the human race, and to diffuse freedom by manifesting its fruits. A country has no right to adopt a policy, however gain- ful, which, as it may foresee, will determine it to a career of war. A nation, like an individual, is bound to seek, even by sacrifices, a position, which will favour peace, justice, and the exercise of a 25 beneficent influence on tin- \\orld. A nation, provoking- war by cupiditv. l.\- encroachment, and, above all, by efforts to propagate the CUtte Of -lavrry. i- alike false to Ittdf, to Co,!. a,,.l to the human race. III. I priH vcd now to a consideration of what is to me the strongest argument against annexing Texas to tli I > This measure will extend and pcrpetua' I have neces- -arily glanced at tin- topic in tin- preceding pages; but it deserves to be brought out distinctly. I shall speak calmly, hut I must speak earnestly; and I feel, and rejoice to feel, that, however you may differ from some of mv views, yet we do not differ as to the great principle on which all my remarks and ivmnnst rancet are founded. Slavery seems to you, as to me, an evil and a wrong. Your language on this subject has given me a satisfaction, tor \\ hirli I owe you thanks; and if, in what I am now to say, I may use expressions which you may think too strong, I am sure \our candour \\ ill recognise in them the signs of deep conviction, and wil! acquit me of all desire to irritate or give pain. The annexation of Texas, I have said, will extend and per- petuate slaver}*. It is fitted, and, still more, intended to do so. On this point there can be no doubt. As far back as the year 1829 the annexation of Texas was agitated in the Southern and Western States ; and it was urged on the ground of the strength and extension it would give to the shareholding interest. In a series of essays, ascribed to a gentleman, now a senator in Con- gress, it was maintained, that five or six slaveholding States would by this measure be added to the Union ; and he even in- timated that as many as nine States as large as Kentucky might be formed within the limits of Texas. In Virginia, about the same time, calculations were made as to the increased value \\ hich would thus be given to slaves, and it was even said, th;r acquisition would raise the price fifty per cent. Of late the language on this subject is most explicit. The great argument for annexing Texas is, that it will strengthen " the p institutions" of the South, and open a new and vast field for slave r\ . By this act, slavery will be spread over regions to which it is now impossible to set limits. Texas, I repeat it, is but the first >f aggressions. I trust, indeed, that Providence will beat back and humble our cupidity and ambition. But one guilty suc- cess is often suffered to be crowned, as men call it, with greater; in order that a more awful retribution may at length vindicate the of God, and the rights of the oppressed. Texas, sn c 26 with slavery, will spread the infection beyond herself. We know that the tropical regions have been found most propitious to this pestilence ; nor can we promise ourselves, that its expulsion from them for a season forbids its return. By annexing Texas, we may send this scourge to a distance, which, if now revealed, would appal us, and through these vast regions every cry of the injured will invoke wrath on our heads. By this act, slavery will be perpetuated in the old States, as well as spread over new. It is well known, that the soil of some of the old States has become exhausted by slave cultivation. Their neighbourhood to communities, which are flourishing under free labour, forces on them perpetual arguments for adopting this better system. They now adhere to slavery, not on account of the wealth which it extracts from the soil, but because it furnishes men and women to be sold in newly settled and more southern districts. It is by slave-breeding and slave-selling that these States subsist. Take away from them a foreign market, and slavery would die. Of consequence, by opening a new market, it is prolonged and invigorated. By annexing Texas, we shall not only create it where it does not exist, but breathe new life into it, where its end seemed to be near. States, which might and ought to throw it off, will make the multiplication of slaves their great aim and chief resource. Nor is the worst told. As I have before intimated, and it cannot be too often repeated, we shall not only quicken the domestic slave-trade, we shall give a new impulse to the foreign. This, indeed, we have pronounced in our laws to be felony; but we make our laws cobwebs, when we offer to rapacious men strong motives for their violation. Open a market for slaves in an un- settled country, with a sweep of sea-coast, and at such a distance from the seat of government that laws may be evaded with impunity, and how can you exclude slaves from Africa? It is well known that cargoes have been landed in Louisiana. What is to drive them from Texas? In incorporating this region with the Union to make it a slave country, we send the kidnapper to prowl through the jungles, and to dart, like a beast of prey, on the defenceless villages of Africa; we chain the helpless, despairing victims ; crowd them into the fetid, pestilential slave-ship ; expose them to the unutterable cruelties of the middle p^sage, and, if they survive it, crush them with perpetual bondage. I now ask, whether, as a people, we are prepared to seize on a neighbouring territory, for the end of extending slavery? I ask, whether, as a people, we can stand forth in the sight of God, in the sight of the nations, and adopt this atrocious policy? Sooner perish! Sooner be our name blotted out from the record i.f nati<> Tin- it no place for entering into th.- ..rjum.-nt a-am-t lUvery. I have elsewhere gi ven m\ \n-\vs of n. In truth, no argument It Mededi Xhtirfllof sla-very speaks for ftltK h i- "ii,. ,,r tli,,*,- primarx. intuitive truth-, which need only a fair xhi'.ition to !. immediately received. To state is to condemn this institution. The choice which every freeman makes of death for hi- < In. for every thinpf he loves, in preference it is. l*he single con-id.Tation, that, hy -lax. TV. one human being is placed powerless mil def 'uceless in the lwnU of an to be dnvon t.. \\hatever labour that other may impose, to suffer whatever punishment he may inthct, to live as his tool, tin- in- -tnunent of his pleasure, this is all that is needed, to satisfy such as know the human heart and its unlit ness for irresponsible power, that, of all conditions, slavery is the most hostile t< the v, self-respect, improvement, rights, and happiness of human k Is it within the bounds of credibility, that a people, boast- : freedom, of civilization, of Christianity, should systemati- v strive to spread thi- calamity over the earth? To perpetuate and extend slavery is not now, in a moral point of view, what it once was. We cannot shelter ourselves under the errors and usages of our times. We do not beloi the dark ages, or to heathenism. We have not grown up under the prejudices of a blinding, crushing tyranny. We livt under free institutions and under the broad light of Christianity. Every principle of our government and religion condemns slavery. The spirit of our age condemns it. The decree of the civilised world has gone out against it. England has abolished it. France and Denmark meditate its abolition. The chain is falling from the serf in Russia. In the whole circuit of civilised nations, with the single exception of the United States, not a voice is lifted up in defence of slavery. All the great names in legislation and religion are against it. The most enduring reputations of our times have been \\<>n l>y resisting it. Recall the great men of this and the last generation, and, be they philosophers, philanthro- ji-N. poets, economists, statesmen, jurists, all swell the reproba- tion of slavery. The leaders of opposing religious sects, Wesley, the patriarch of Methodism, Edwards and Hopkins, pillars of Cal- vinUm. join as brothers in one solemn testimony against slavery. And is this an age in which a free and Christian people shall de- liberately resolve to extend and perpetuate the evil? In so doing, we cut ourselves off from the communion of the nations; we sink below the civilization of our age; we invite the scorn, indigna- tion, and abhorrence of the world. 28 Let it not be said, that this opposition of our times to slavery is an accident, a temporary gust of opinion, an eddy in the cur- rent of human thought, a fashion to pass away with the present actors on the stage. He who so says must have read history with a superficial eye, and is strangely blind to the deepest and most powerful influences which are moulding society. Christianity has clone more than all things to determine the character and direction of our present civilization ; and who can question or overlook the tendency and design of this religion ? Christianity has no plainer purpose than to unite all men as brethren, to make man unutter- ably dear to man, to pour contempt on outward distinctions, to raise the fallen, to league all in efforts for the elevation of all. Under its influence, the differences of nations and rank are sof- tening. To the establishment of a fraternal relation among men, the science, literature, commerce, education of the Christian world are tending. Who cannot see this mighty movement of Provi- dence ? Who is so blind as to call it a temporary impulse ? Who so daring, so impious, as to strive to arrest it? What is the tendency of all governments in the Christian world? To secure more and more to every man his rights, be his condition what it may. Even in despotisms, where political rights are denied, private rights are held more and more sacred. The absolute monarch is more and more anxious to improve the laws of the state, and to extend their protection and restraints over all classes and individuals without distinction. Equality be- fore the law is the maxim of the civilised world. To place the rights of a large part of the community beyond the protection of law, to place half a people under private, irresponsible power, is to oppose one of the most characteristic and glorious tendencies of modern times. Who has the courage to set down this reve- rence for private rights among the fashions and caprices of the day? Is it not founded in everlasting truth? And dare we, in the face of it, extend and perpetuate an institution, the grand feature of which is, that it tramples private rights in the dust ? Whoever studies modern history with any care, must discern in it a steady growing movement towards one most interesting result, I mean, towards the elevation of the labouring class of society. This is not a recent, accidental turn of human affairs. We can trace its beginning in the feudal times, and its slow advances in subsequent periods, until it has become the master movement of our age. Is it not plain, that those who toil with their hands, and whose productive industry is the spring of all wealth, are rising from the condition of beasts of burden, to which they were once reduced, to the consciousness, intelligence, self- 29 re-pert, and proper Imppin^s of men: I< it not the strung ten- !" our times \<> diflu-r amm the many the improvement- once confined to the few? He who overlooks this has no com- prehension of the great work of Providence, or of tin- m<-t signal feature .f his tunes; ami U tlii- an a-e I'm- etVorts t.. extend and perpetuate an institution, the very object of \\huh K t.. keep d.iun the labourer, and to make him a machine for an* -nitim-ation? 1 know it has been said, in reply to such views, that, do \\ L.t we will with the labourer, call him what we will, he is and must be in reality, a slave. The dot-trine has been published at the South, that nature has made two classes, the rich and the poor, the employer and the employed, the capitalist and the operative, and that toe class who work are, to all intents, slaves to those in whose service they are engaged. In a report on the mail, recent 1 \ offered to the Senate of the United States, an effort was made t.. establish resemblances between slavery and the condition of free labourers, for the obvious purpose of showing, that the shades of difference between them are not very strong. Is it possible that such reasoning's escaped from a man who has trod the soil of New England, and was educated at one of her colleges ? Whom did he meet at that college? The sons of her labourers, young men whose hands had been hardened at the plough. Does he not know, that the families of labourers have furnished every depart - ment in life among us with illustrious men, have furnished our heroes in war, our statesmen in council, our orators in the pulpit and at the bar, our merchants whose enterprises embrace the whole earth? What! the labourer of the free State a slave, and to be ranked with the despised negro, whom the lash drives to toil, and whose dearest rights are at the mercy of irresponsible power? If there be a firm, independent spirit on earth, it be found in the man, who tills the fields of the free States, and moistens them with the sweat of his brow. I recently heard of a vi-iter from the South compassionating the operatives of our manufactories, as in a worse condition than the slave. \Vhat carries the young woman to the manufactory ? Not, generally, the want of a comfortable home ; but sometimes the desire of sup- pi \ im: herself with a wardrobe which ought to satisfy the affluent, and oftener the desire of furnishing in more than decent style the home, where she is to sustain the nearest relations, and perform the most sacred duties of life. Generally speaking, each of these young women has her plan of life, her hopes, her bright dreams, her spring of action in her own free will, and amidst toil sh* trives to find seasons for intellectual and religious mlt mv. h is 30 common in New England, for the sons of farmers to repair to the large towns, and there to establish themselves as domestics in families, a condition which the South will be peculiarly disposed to identify with slavery. But what brings these young men to the city? The hope of earning in a shorter time a sum, with which to purchase a farm at home or in the West, perhaps to become traders; and in these vocations they not unfrequently rise to consideration, and to what, in their places of residence, is called wealth. I have in my thoughts an individual distinguished alike by vigour and elevation of mind, who began life by hiring himself as a labourer to a farmer, and then entered a family as a domestic ; and now he is the honoured associate of the most enlightened men, and devotes himself to the highest subjects of human thought. It is true, that much remains to be done for the labouring class iri the most favoured regions ; but the intelligence already spread through this class, is an earnest of a brighter day, of the most glorious revolution in history, of the elevation of the mass of men to the dignity of human beings. It is the great mission of this country to forward this revolu- tion, and never was a sublimer work committed to a nation. Our mission is, to elevate society through all its conditions, to secure to every human being the means of progress, to substitute the government of equal laws for that of irresponsible individuals, to prove that, under popular institutions, the people may be carried forward, that the multitude who toil are capable of enjoying the noblest blessings of the social state. The prejudice, that labour is a degradation, one of the worst prejudices handed down from barbarous ages, is to receive here a practical refutation. The power of liberty to raise up the whole people, this is the great idea, on which our institutions rest, and which is to be wrought out in our history. Shall a nation having such a mission abjure it, and even fight against the progress which it is specially called to promote? The annexation of Texas, if it should be accomplished, would do much to determine the future history and character of this country. It is one of those measures, which call a nation to pause, reflect, look forward, because their force is not soon ex- hausted. Many acts of government, intensely exciting at the moment, are yet of little importance, because their influence is too transient to leave a trace on history. A bad administration may impoverish a people at home, or cripple its energies abroad, for a year or more. But such wounds heal soon. A young peo- ple soon recruits its powers, and starts forward with increased impulse, after the momentary suspension of its activity. The chief interest of a people lies in moaning, which, n haps httle noise, go far to fix it* character, to determiiu IN policy and fate for ages, to decide its rank among nations. A fearful responsibility rests on those who originate or control these pregnant acts. The destiny of millions is in their hands. The execration of millions may fall on their heads. Long after present ts shall have passed away, long after they and their generation shall have vanished from the earth, the fruits of their agency will be reaped. Such a measure i- that ..f \\hnh I n,,w write. It will commit us to a degrading policy, the issues of which lie- hcyond human foresight. In owning to ourselves vast regions, through \\ hi. h we may spread slavery, and in spreading this, among other ends, that the -laxeholding States may bear rule in the national councils, we make slavery the predo- minant interest of the state. We make it the basis of power, the spring or guide of pnhlic measures, the object for which the revenues, strength, and wealth of the country are to be exhausted. : v will be branded on our front, as the great Idea, the pro- minent feature of the country. We shall renounce our high calling as a people, and accomplish the lowest destiny to which a nation can be bound. And are we prepared for this degradation? Are we prepared to couple with the name of our country the infamy of deliberately spreading slavery? and especially of spreading it through regions from which the wise and humane legislation of a neighbouring republic had excluded it? We call Mexico a semi-barbarous people ; and yet we talk of planting slavery where Mexico would not suffer it to live. What American will not blush to lift his head in Europe, if this disgrace shall be fastened on his country > Let other calamities, if God so will, come on us. Let us be steeped in poverty. Let pestilence stalk through our land. Let famine thin our population. Let the world join hand- ajain-r our free institutions, and deluge our shores with blood. All this can be endured. A few years of industry and peace will recruit our wasted numbers, and spread fruitfulness over our desolated fields. But a nation, devoting itself to the work of spreading and perpetuating slavery, stamps itself with a guilt and shame, w huh generations may not be able to efface. The plea on which we have rested, that slavery was not our choice, but a sad necessity bequeathed us by our fathers, will avail us no longer. The whole iruilt will be assumed by ourselves. It is very lamentable, that among the distinguished men of the South, any should be found so wanting to their own fame, as to become advocates of slavery. That vulgar politician-. \\ho look 32 only at the interests of the day and the chances of the next elec- tion, should swell the madness of the passions, by which they hope to rise, is a thing of course. But that men, who might leave honourable and enduring record of themselves in their country's history, who might associate their names with their country's progress, and who are solemnly bound by their high gifts to direct and purify public sentiment, that such men should lend their great powers to the extension of slavery, is among the dark symptoms of the times. Can such men be satisfied with the sympathies and shouts of the little circle around them, and of the passing moment? Have they nothing of that prophetic instinct, by which truly great men read the future? Can they learn nothing from the sentence now passed on men, who, fifty years ago, defended the slave-trade ? We have to rejoice, Sir, that you, amidst the excitements of the time, have always given your testi- mony against slavery. You have adhered to the doctrine, which the great men of the South of the last generation asserted, that it is a great evil. We shall not forget this among the good services which you have rendered to your country. I have expressed my fears, that by the annexation of Texas, slavery is to be continued and extended. But I wish not to be understood, as having the slightest doubt as to the approaching fall of the institution. It may be prolonged, to our reproach and greater ultimate suffering. But fall it will and must. This, Sir, you know, and I doubt not, rejoice to know. The advocates of slavery must not imagine, that to carry a vote is to sustain their cause. With all their power, they cannot withstand the provi- dence of God, the principles of human nature, the destinies of the race. To succeed, they must roll back time to the dark ages, must send back Luther to the cell of his monastery, must extinguish the growing light of Christianity and moral science, must blot out the declaration of American Independence. The fall of slavery is as sure as the descent of your own Ohio. Moral laws are as irresistible as physical. In the most enlightened countries of Europe, a man would forfeit his place in society, by vindicating slavery. The slaveholder must not imagine, that he has nothing to do but fight with a few societies. These, of them- selves, are nothing. He should not waste on them one fear. They are strong, only as representing the spirit of the Christian and civilised world. His battle is with the laws of human nature and the irresistible tendencies of human affairs. These are not to be withstood by artful strokes of policy, or by daring crimes. The world is against him, and the world's Maker. Every day the sym- pathies of the world are forsaking him. Can he hope to sustain 33 Uavery against the moral feeling, the solemn sentence of the hu- man race? The South, cut off by its " peculiar institutions t'n.,,, close connexion uith other communities, comprehends little tin- pro- mM of i he ci\ilised \\orld. The spirit, which is spreading throu-li other communities, finds no organ \vitliin its |,,.rders, anutli \\ ill cease to be what it was. In the period to which I have referred, slavery was acknowledged there to be a great evil. I heard it spoken of freely with abhorrence. The moral sentiment of the community on this point was not corrupt. The principles of Mr. Jefferson in relation to it found a wide response. The doctrine, that slavery 34 is a good, if spread by the seizure of Texas, will work a moral revolution, the most disastrous which can befall the South. It will paralyse every effort for escape from this enormous evil. A deadly sophistry will weigh on men's consciences and hearts, until terrible convulsions, God's just judgments, will hasten the deliverance which human justice and benevolence were bound to accomplish. IV. I now proceed to another important argument against the annexation of Texas to our country, the argument drawn from the bearings of the measure on our National Union. Next to liberty, union is our great political interest, and this cannot but be loosened, it may be dissolved, by the proposed extension of our territory. I will not say that every extension must be pernicious, that our government cannot hold together even our present con- federacy, that the central heart cannot send its influences to the remote States which are to spring up within our present borders. Old theories must be cautiously applied to the institutions of this country. If the Federal government will abstain from minute legislation, and rigidly confine itself within constitutional bounds, it may be a bond of union to more extensive communities than were ever comprehended under one sway. Undoubtedly, there is peril in extending ourselves, and yet the chief benefit of the Union, which is the preservation of peaceful relations among neighbouring States, is so vast, that some risk should be taken to secure it in the greatest possible degree. The objection to the annexation of Texas, drawn from the unwieldiness it would give to the country, though very serious, is not decisive. A far more serious objection is, that it is to be annexed to us for the avowed purpose of multiplying slaveholding States, and thus giving poli- tical power. This cannot, ought not to be borne. It will justify, it will at length demand, the separation of the States. We maintain that this policy is altogether without reason on the part of the South. The South has exerted, and cannot help exerting, a disproportionate share of influence on the confederacy. The slaveholding States have already advantages for co-operation, and for swaying the country, which the others do not possess. The free States have no great common interest, like slavery, to hold them together. They differ in character, feelings, and pur- suits. They agree but on one point, and that a negative one, the absence of slavery, and this distinction, as is well known, makes no lively impression on the consciousness, and in no degree coun- teracts the influences which divide them from one another. To this may be added the well known fact, that in the free States, 36 the subject of politics is of secondary importance, \\hiUt at the South it U paramount. At the North every mun mu-t toi Mil-M-teiu , ami. aund>t the fe\crM compriitiuiiN and anxietie- of the oarer and uni\er>al pursuit of Lram, political p..\\, \\ith little comparative avidity. In some district- it is i. . : .| t. representatives for Congress, so backward ar< men to forego the emoluments of their vocation, the \< independence, for the uncertainties of puMic life. At the North. too, a vast amount of energy is absorbed in associations of a re* ligious, philanthropic. literan, character. The apath\ oftliefree States in regard to Texas, an apathy from \vhich tin \ an- ju-t beginning to be roused, is a striking proof of their almost incred- ihlc inditVcrencc to political pouer. Perhaps no imrallel to le found in the history of confederation-*. \Yhat a eontr..-t does the South form with the divided and slumbering North ! Thnv. one strong, broad distinction exists, of which all the inemters of the community have a perpetual consciousness; there, a peculiar eli-inent i> found, which spreads its influence through tin- ma^. ami impresses itself on the whole constitution of society. Sla\ n is not a superficial distinction. Nothing decides the character of ia people more than the form and determination of labour. I I.IK , we find a unity at the South unknown at the North. At tlu- South, too, the proprietors, released from the necessity of labour, and having little of the machinery of associations to engage their attention, devote themselves to politic- with a concentration of zeal, which a Northern man can only comprehend by residing on the spot. Hence the South has professional politicians, a char- hardly known in the free States. The result is plain. The South has generally ruled the country. It must always have an undue power. United, as the North cannot be, it can ul\\ a\> link with itself some discontented portion at the North, which it can liberally reward by the patronai;*- which the possession of tlu- .iiK-nt confers. That the constitutional rights of the South *hould \)e prejudiced by the North, is one of those moral impos- >ihilities, against which it i- folly to ask security. We cannot consent, that the South should extend its already disproportionate power by an indefinite extension of territory, because we maintain, that its dispositions towards us give us no pledge, that its power will be well used. It is unhappily too well known, that it wants friendly feelings towards the N led from ns by an institution, v. huh gives it a peculiar char- which lays it open to reproach, and which will never it to rival our prosperity, it cannot look on us with favour. It magnifies our faults. It is blind to our virtues. At the > 36 no unfriendly disposition prevails towards the South. We are too busy and too prosperous for hatred. We complain, that our good-will is not reciprocated. We complain, that our commerce and manufactures have sometimes found little mercy at the hands of the South. Still more, we feel, though we are slow to com- plain of it, that in Congress, the common ground of the confed- eracy, we have had to encounter a tone and bearing, which it has required the colder temperament of the North to endure. We cannot consent to take a lower place than we now hold. We cannot consent, that our confederacy should spread over the wilds of Mexico, to give us more powerful masters. The old balance of the country is unfavourable enough. We cannot con- sent, that a new weight should be thrown in, which may fix the political inferiority of ourselves and our posterity. I give you, Sir, the feelings of the North. In part they may be prejudices. Jealousies, often groundless, are the necessary fruits of confeder- ations. On that account, measures must not be adopted, dis- turbing violently, unnaturally, unexpectedly, the old distributions of power, and directly aimed at that result. In other ways the annexation of Texas is to endanger the Union. It will give new violence and passion to the agitation of the question of slavery. It is well known, that a majority at the North have discouraged the discussion of this topic, on the ground, that slavery was imposed on the South by necessity, that its continuance was not of choice, and that the States in which it subsists, if left to themselves, would find a remedy in their own way. Let slavery be systematically proposed as the policy of these States, let it bind them together in efforts to establish political power, and a new feeling will burst forth through the whole North. It will be a concentration of moral, religious, political, and patri- otic feelings. The fire, now smothered, will blaze out, and, of consequence, new jealousies and exasperations will be kindled at the South. Strange, that the South should think of securing its " peculiar institutions" by violent means. Its violence necessarily increases the evils it would suppress. For example, by denying the right of petition to those who sought the abolition of slavery within the immediate jurisdiction of the United States, it has awakened a spirit, which will overwhelm Congress with petitions till this right be restored. The annexation of Texas would be a measure of the same injurious character, and would stir up an open, uncompromising hostility to slavery, of which we have seen no example, and which would produce a reaction very dangerous to union. The annexation of Texas will give rise to constitutional ques- ( tions and conflicts, which cannot be adjusted. It is \\, 11 known, that the additions to our territory of Louisiana anle portion of our H h.i\e mi comprehension of the first principles of 111- It i< an undeniable tart, that, in consequence of these and other symptoms, the confidence of many reflecting men in our free institutions, is \vr\ much impaired. Some despair. That main pillar of public liberty, mutual trust aiming < it i/.-n-. is shaken. That we must seek security for property and life in a stronger government is a ^in-adim: conviction. Men, \\lio in public talk of the stability of our institutions, whisper their doubts (perhaps their scorn) in private. So common are these apprehensions, that the knowledge of them has reached Europe. Not long ago, I received a letter from an enlightened and fervent friend of liberty, in Great Britain, beseeching me to inform him, how far he was to rely on the representations of one of his countrymen just re- turned from the United States, who had reported to him, that, in the most respectable society, he had again and again been told, that the experiment of freedom here was a failure, and that faith in our institutions was gone. That the traveller misinterpreted in a measure what he heard, we shall all acknowledge. Hut is the old enthusiasm of liberty unehilled among us? Is the old jealousy of power as keen and uncompromising? Do not parties more unscrupulously encroach on the constitution and on the rights of minorities f In one respect we must all admit a change. When you and I grew up, what a deep interest pervaded this country in the success of free institutions abroad! With what throbbing hearts did we follow the struggles of the oppressed! How many among us were ready to lay down their lives for the cause of liberty on the earth! And now, who cares for free in- st it ut ions abroad? How seldom does the topic pass men's lips! Multitudes, discouraged by the licentiousness at home, doubt the value of popular institutions, especially in less enlightened coun- tries; whilst greater numbers, locked up in gain, can spare no thought on the struggles of liberty, and, provided they can drive a prosperous trade with foreign nations, care little whether they are bond or free. 42 I may be thought inclined to draw a dark picture of our moral condition. But at home I am set down among those who hope against hope ; and I have never ceased to condemn as a crime the despondence of those, who, lamenting the corruptions of the times, do not lift a finger to withstand it. I am far, very far from de- spair. I have no fears but such as belong to a friend of freedom. Among dark omens I see favourable influences, remedial processes, counteracting agencies. I well know, that the vicious part of our system makes more noise and show than the sound. I know, that the prophets of ruin to our institutions are to be found most frequently in the party out of power, and that many dark auguries must be set down to the account of disappointment and irritation. I am sure, too, that imminent peril would wake up the spirit of our fathers in many who slumber in these days of ease and security. It is also true, that, with all our defects, there is a wider diffusion of intelligence, moral restraint, and self-respect among us, than through any other community. Still, I am compelled to acknow- ledge an extent of corruption among us, which menaces freedom and our dearest interests : and a policy, which will give new and enduring impulse to corruption, which will multiply indefinitely public and private crime, ought to be reprobated as the sorest calamity we can incur. Freedom is fighting her battles in the world with sufficient odds against her. Let us not give new chances to her foes. That the cause of republicanism is suffering abroad, through the defects and crimes of our countrymen, is as true, as that it is regarded with increased scepticism among ourselves. Abroad, republicanism is identified with the United States, and it is cer- tain that the American name has not risen of late in the world. It so happens, that, whilst writing, I have received a newspaper from England, in which Lynch law is as familiarly associated with our country, as if it were one of our establishments. We are quoted as monuments of the degrading tendencies of popular in- stitutions. When I visited England fifteen years ago, republican sentiments were freely expressed to me. I should probably hear none now. Men's minds seem to be returning to severer prin- ciples of government; and this country is responsible for a part of this change. It is believed abroad, that property is less secure among us, order less stable, law less revered, social ties more easily broken, religion less enforced, life held less sacred, than in other countries. Undoubtedly, the prejudices of foreign nations, the interests of foreign governments, have led to gross exaggera- tion of evils here. The least civilised parts of the country are made to represent the whole, and occasional atrocities are con- 43 trued into habits. Hut u h. does not feel, that we have given cause of reproach? and shall we fix this reproach, au\ in- our power to build up and spread ivMMin.: the eliorts ,,f utht-r rountri.", I'm- its aU.lition. hy lallin'i: behind monarchies in reverence for the rights of mm .- When we look for\\;ml lo the probable growth of this count r\ ; \\hrn \vr think of tin- million- of human hein^ \\ ho aiv to spivad over our present territory; of the career of imprn\ement ami glory opened to this new people; of the impulse \\hi.-h free insti- tutions, if prosperous, may be expected to give to philosophy, religion, science, literatim-, and arts; of the vast field in \\hirh the experiment is to be made of what the unfettered powers of man may achieve; of the bright page of history which our fathers have filled, and of the advantages under which their toils and virtues have placed us for carrying on their work ; when we think of all this, can we help, for a moment, surrendering ourselves to bright visions of our country's glory, before which all the glories of the past are to fade away? Is it presumption to say, that, if just to ourselves and all nations, we shall be felt through this whole continent, that we shall spread our language, institutions, and 1 1\ ili/ation through a wider space than any nation lias yet tilled with a like beneficent influence? And are we prepared to barter these hopes, this sublime moral empire, for conquests by force? Are we prepared to sink to the level of unprincipled nations, to content ourselves with a vulgar, guilty greatness, to adopt in our youth maxims and ends which must brand our future with sordidness, oppression, and shame? This country cannot ait peculiar infamy run the common race of national rapacity. Our origin, institutions, and position are peculiar, and all favour an upright, honourable course. We have not the apologies of nations hemmed in by narrow bounds or threatened by the over* shadowing power of ambitious neighbours. If we surrender our- selves to a selfish policy, we shall sin almost without temptation, and forfeit opportunities of greatness vouchsafed to no other people, for a prize below contempt. I have alluded to the want of wisdom with which we are accus- tomed to speak of our destiny as a people. We are destined (that is the word) to overspread North America; and, intoxicated u ith the idea, it matters little to us how we accomplish our fate. To spread, to supplant others, to cover a boundless space, this ilfiim our ambition, no matter what influence we spread with us. Why 44 cannot we rise to noble conceptions of our destiny? Why do we not feel, that our work as a nation is, to carry freedom, religion, science, and a nobler form of human nature over this continent ; and why do we not remember, that to diffuse these blessings we must first cherish them in our own borders; and that whatever deeply and permanently corrupts us, will make our spreading influence a curse, not a blessing, to this new world? It is a common idea in Europe, that we are destined to spread an inferior civilization over North America; that our slavery and our absorp- tion in gain and outward interests, mark us out as fated to fall behind the old world in the higher improvements of human nature, in the philosophy, the refinements, the enthusiasm of literature and the arts which throw a lustre round other coun- tries. I am not prophet enough to read our fate. I believe, indeed, that we are to make our futurity for ourselves. I believe, that a nation's destiny lies in its character, in the principles which govern its policy and bear rule in the hearts of its citizens. I take my stand on God's moral and eternal law. A nation, re- nouncing and defying this, cannot be free, cannot be great. Religious men in this community, and they are many, are pe- culiarly bound to read the future history of their country, not in the flattering promises of politicians, but in the warnings of con- science and in the declaration of God's word. They know and should make it known, that nations cannot consolidate free insti- tutions and secure a lasting prosperity by crime. They know, that retribution awaits communities as well as individuals; and they should tremble amidst their hopes, when, with this solemn truth on their minds, they look round on their country, i Let them consider the clearness with which God's will is now made known, and the signal blessings of his Providence poured out on this people, with a profusion accorded to no other under heaven; and then let them consider our ingratitude for his boundless gifts, our abuse of his beneficence to sensual and selfish gratification, our unmeasured, unrighteous love of gain, our unprincipled party- spirit, and our faithless and cruel wrongs toward the Indian race ; and can they help fearing, that the cup of wrath is filling for this people? Men, buried in themselves and in outward interests, atheists in heart and life, may scoff at the doctrine of national retribution, because they do not see God's hand stretched out to destroy guilty communities. \ But does not all history teach, that the unlicensed passions of a guilty people are more terrible minis- ters of punishment than miraculous inflictions? To chastise and destroy, God needs not interfere by supernatural judgments. In every community, there are elements of discord, revolution, and m rum, pent up in the human soul, whirli m-.>d only to !* quirkem-d and set free by a new order of events, to shake and convulse the whole social fabric. Never were the causes of disastrous change in human affairs more active than at the present moment. 80- rubles, from the struggle of opposing princi- ples, m the earth quakes through the force of central tin- ThU is not the time for presumption, lot driving Heaven by new crimes, for giving a new range to cupidity and ambition. Men who fear God must fear for their country, in this "day of pro- vocation," and they will be false to their country, if they look on passively, and see without remonstrance the consummation .,f a great national crime which cannot fail to bring down awful retribution. I am aware that there are those, who, on reading these pagen, will smile at my simplicity in urging moral and religious motives, disinterested considerations, lofty aims on a politician. The com- mon notion is, that the course of a man embarked in public life will be shaped by the bearing of passing events on his imraedisfe popularity; that virtue and freedom, however they may round his periods in the senate, have little influence on his vote. But I do not Indie ve. that puhlic life is necessarily degrading, or that a statesman is incapable of looking above himself. Public life ap- peals to the noblest, as well as basest principles of human nature. It holds up for pursuit enduring fame, as well as the noton the passing hour. By giving opportunities of acting on the vast and permanent interests of a nation, it often creates a deep sense of responsibility, and a generous self-oblivion. I have too much faith in human nature to distrust the influence of great truths and high motives on any class of men, especially on men of command- ing intelligence. There is a congeniality between vast powers of thought and dignity of purpose. None are so capable of sacrificing themselves, as those who have most to sacrifice, who, in otlVrini: themselves, make the greatest offerings to humanity. With tin- conviction, I am not discouraged by the anticipated smiles and scoffs of those, who will think, that, in insisting on national pu- rity as the essential condition of freedom and ^ioatiiflM| I hare " preached " to the winds. To you, Sir, rectitude, is not an empty name, nor will a measure, fraught with lasting corruption and shame to your country, seem to you any thing but a fearful caUunilv - Bancroft Lifor I have now finished the task which I have felt myself bound to undertake. That I have escaped all error, I cannot hope. That I may have fallen into occasional exaggeration, I ought perhaps 46 to fear, from the earnestness with which I have written. But of the essential truth of the views here communicated, I cannot doubt. It is exceedingly to be regretted, that the subject of this letter has as yet drawn little attention at the North. The unpre- cedented pecuniary difficulties, pressing now on the country, have absorbed the public mind. And yet these difficulties, should they be aggravated and continued far beyond what is most dreaded, would be a light national evil, compared with the annexation of Texas to the Union. I trust the people will not slumber on the edge of this precipice, till it shall be too late to reflect and pro- vide for safety. Too much time has been given for the ripening of this unrighteous project. I doubt not, as I have said, that op- position exists to it in the slaveholding States. This, if mani- fested in any strength, would immediately defeat it. The other States should raise a voice against it, like the voice of many waters. Party dissensions should be swallowed up in this vast common interest. The will of the people, too strong and fixed to be resisted, should be expressed to Congress, in remonstrances from towns, cities, counties, and Legislatures. Let no man, who feels the greatness of the evil which threatens us, satisfy himself with unprofitable regrets; but let each embody his opposition in a form which will give incitement to his neighbours, and act on men in power. I take it for granted, that those who differ from me will ascribe what I have written to unworthy motives. This is the common mode of parrying unwelcome truths; and it is not without in- fluence, where the author is unknown. May I then be allowed to say, that I have strong reasons for believing, that, among the many defects of this letter, those of unworthy intention are not to be numbered. The reluctance, with which I have written, satisfies me, that I have riot been impelled by any headlong pas- sion. Nor can I have been impelled by party-spirit. I am pledged to no party. In truth, I do not feel myself able to form a decisive opinion on the subjects, which now inflame and divide the country, and which can be very little understood except by men who have made a study of commerce and finance. As to having written from that most common motive, the desire of dis- tinction, I may be permitted to say, that, to win the public ear, I need not engage in a controversy which will expose me to un- measured reproach. May I add, that I have lived long enough to learn the worth of applause. Could I, indeed, admit the slightest hope of securing to myself that enduring fame, which future ages award to the lights and benefactors of their race, I could not but be stirred by the prospect. But notoriety among 47 contemporaries) obtained by taking part m the irritating discus- sions of the day, I would n<>t -!;!, h nut .1 hand t<> - , < . I cannot but fear, that the earnestness \N it 1> whuh 1 )iav< writ- ten, may seem to indicate an undue excitement of mind. Hut I have all along fdt distinrtK khetaMlanre of raininess, an the. discharge of all the obligations of an independent state. And what is Texas? A collection of a few settlements, which would vanish at once, were a Mexican army elieve, that the government is resolved on this great wrong, unless we are compelled so to do. We hope, that the present administration will secure the confi- dence of good men by well considered and upright measures, look- ing beyond momentary interests, to the lasting peace, order, and _rth of the country. There is another objection to the annexation of Texas, which, after our late experience, is entitled to attention. This possession, 50 will involve us in new Indian wars. Texas, besides beirg open to the irruption of the tribes within our territories, has a t r ^e of its own, the Camanches, which is described as more form'dable than any in North America. Such foes are not to be cov^ed. The Indians! that ominous word, which ought to pierce the conscience of this nation, more than the savage war-cry piei ces the ear. The Indians! Have we not inflicted and endured e* T il enough in our intercourse with this wretched people, to abstaft from new wars with them ? Is the tragedy of Florida to be acted again and again in our own day, and in our children's? In addition to what I have said of the constitutional objections to the annexation of Texas to our country, I would observe, that we may infer, from the history and language of the constitu- tion, that our national Union was so far from being intended to spread slavery over new countries, that, had the possibility of such a result been anticipated, decided provisions would have been introduced for its prevention. It is worthy of remark, how anx- ious the framers of that instrument were to exclude from it the word Slavery. They were not willing, that this feature of our social system should be betrayed in the construction of our free government. A stranger might read it, without suspecting the existence of this institution among us. Were slavery to be wholly abolished here, no change would be needed in the constitution, nor would any part become obsolete, except an obscure clause, which, in apportioning the representatives, provides that there shall be added to the whole number of free persons " three-fifths of other persons." Slavery is studiously thrown into the back ground. How little did our forefathers suppose, that it was to become a leading interest of the government, to which our peace at home and abroad was to be made a sacrifice! I have said, that I desire no political union with communities bent on spreading and perpetuating slavery. It is hardly neces- sary to observe, that this was not intended to express a desire to decline friendly intercourse with the members of those communi- ties. Individuals, who have received from their ancestors some pernicious prejudice or institution, may still, in their general spi- rit, be disinterested and just. Our testimony against the wrong which such men practise is not to be stifled or impaired by the feelings of interest or attachment which they inspire ; nor, on the other hand, must this wrong be spread by our imaginations over their whole characters, so as to seem their sole attribute, and so as to hide all their claims to regard. In an age of reform, one of the hardest duties is, to be inflexibly hostile to the long rooted corruptions of society, and at the same time to be candid and just 51 to thtee who uphold them. It is true, that, with the most friendly g, we ghall prolttbly give offence to those who are interested * which we condemn. But we are ii"i <>n this account from the duty of cultivating and expressing kindness and laying strong restraint on our passions, and of avoiding 4 needless provocation. Tin- sp.veh of Mr. Adams nil the siihjet t of the preo-dm- letter, deiivererd to use the powers of the government for the abolition of shivery. On this point, there is but one feelm- at the North. Tin- free States feel, that they have no more right to abolish slavery in the slaveh* lding States than in a foreign country. They repinl the matter as wholly out of their rea< h. They, indeed, claim the ri-ht of setting forth the e\iK of -lusery, as of any other pernicious and morally wron- institution. Hut tlie thought of touching the laws which establish it in any State, they ivjert \\itliout a discor- dant voice. In regurd to the District of Columbia, many of u-. feel, that slavery continues there by the action of all the States, that the free States, therefore, are responsible for it; and we main- tain that it is most unreasonable, that an institution should U sus- tained by those who hold it to be immoral and pernicious, lint A no such responsibility for slavery in the slavehol.lni- States. These States must determine for themselves how l.. !u it shall continue, and by what means it shall be abolished. \\ solemnly urge them to use their power for its removal; hnt nothing would tempt us to wrest the power from them, if \\e could. The South has fears, that the free States may IN- In i.y * enthusiasm" into usurpation of unconstitutional JK on the subject. One is tempted to smile at the want .f a. .jnaint- ance with the North, which such an apprehension betrays. Tin- enthusiasm, to endanger the South, must spread through all tin- free States; for, as the slaveholders are unanimous, nothing l.nt a like unanimity in their opponents can expose them to harm. And is it jMKsible, that a large number of communities, spread over a vast surface, having a diversity of interests, and all ab- sorbed in the pursuit of gain, to a degree, JM -rhaj.-. without a I'.ir.ill.-l, -h-MiM I... driven I.y a moral, philanthropy- enthusiasm. into violations of a national comna^Jb^w^iich their peace and prosperity would be put in ppfl^MP Alb^&tbijied and 1. 52 efforts against other communities, with whom they sustain ei'ceed- ingly profitable connexions, and from whom they could ri>t be sundered without serious loss? Whoever is acquainted wit A the free States knows, that the excesses, to which they are exposed, are not so much those of enthusiasm, as of caution and wordly prudence. The patience, with which they have endured recent violent measures directed against their citizens, shows little pro- pensity to rashness. The danger is, not so much that they wiL invade the rights of other members of the confederacy, as that they will be indifferent to their own. I have spoken in this letter of the estimation in which this country is held abroad. I hope I shall not be numbered among those, too common here, who are irritably alive to the opinions of other nations, to the censures and misrepresentations of tra- vellers. To a great and growing people^ how insignificant is the praise or blame of a traveller or a nation! " None of these things move me." But one thing does move me. It is a sore evil, that freedom should be blasphemed, that republican institutions should forfeit the confidence of mankind, through the unfaithfulness of this people to their trust. In reviewing this letter, I perceive that I have used the strong language, in which the apprehension of great evils naturally ex- presses itself. I hope this will not be construed as betokening any anxieties or misgivings in regard to the issues of passing events. I place a cheerful trust in Providence. The triumphs of evil, which men call great, are bu^ clouds passing over the serene and everlasting heavens. Public men may, in craft or passion, decree violence and oppression. But silently, irresistibly, they and their works are swept away. A voice of encouragement comes to us from the ruins of the past, from the humiliations of the proud, from the prostrate thrones of conquerors, from the baffled schemes of statesmen, from the reprobation with which the present age looks back on the unrighteous policy of former times. Such sentence the future will pass on present wrongs. Men, measures, and all earthly interests pass away ; but Principles are Eternal. Truth, justice, and goodness partake of the omni- potence and immutableness of God, whose essence they are. In these it becomes us to place a calm, joyful trust, in the darkest hour. GLASGOW : g iir.nni ii\vi. K AM. ..V, fins i rit