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 LIBRARY 
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ANNEXATION 
 
 THE TEXAS, 
 
 CASE OF WAR 
 
 BETWEEN 
 
 ENGLAND AND THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 " I know nothing greater or nobler than the undertaking and managing 
 some important accusation, by which some high criminal of State, or some 
 formed body of conspirators against the public, may be arraigned and brought 
 to punishment, through the honest zeal and public affection of a priv^ate 
 inan." — Lord Shafteahury. 
 
 D. UEQUHART, ESQ, 
 
 LONDON: 
 JAMES MAYNARD, PANTON STREET, HAYMARKET. 
 1844. 
 
-U7 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Settlement of Texas — Its Revolution and Independence . 9 
 
 Engagements of Mexico to England . , . ,17 
 
 Recognition of Texas by England . . . . .21 
 
 Treaty between Great Britain and Texas . . . .22 
 
 Mexican Protest 30 
 
 Recognition by Great Britain of the Revolted American 
 
 Colonies of Spain ....... 32 
 
 Conduct of England towards Texas and Mexico, under the 
 
 New Administration ...... 48 
 
 Treaty between Texas and the United States . . .54 
 
 Means used by the United States' Government to obtain the 
 
 Treaty from Texas . . . . . . .63 
 
 War between the United States and Mexico . . .70 
 
 Dr. Channing in 1834, on the Annexation of Texas . . 93 
 From the "Boundary Differences" in 1838 . . . .98 
 
i::-"' ~y 
 
 n 
 
 ANNEXATION OF THE TEXAS, 
 
 The great Felony has been consummated. As pirates 
 in disguise steal into a fortress to surprise by cunning, 
 when they cannot overcome by force, so did bands of 
 American outlaws enter the territories of their neighbour ; 
 and though the lifetime of half a generation has passed 
 between the beginning and the end — the original purpose 
 is proved and crowned by the present result. 
 
 When it was suspected that the American Union might 
 not prove the tranquil neighbour and peaceful community 
 of which she then wore the complacent aspect — when it 
 was doubtingly whispered that there might be something 
 under the Texan colonization — the Government and people 
 of the United States resented the suspicion as an insult.. 
 They pleaded " constitutional difficulties," and the inability 
 of the executive to put down the lawlessness of their southern 
 border; but they declared that never should the Govern- 
 ment of the United States countenance such deeds or 
 profit by them. They were believed. Belief is rife in 
 these times — for phrases. The robbery went on, and the 
 world now beholds the consummation. That consumma- 
 tion produces no abhorrence, not even surprise ; — but it 
 was not so when these treacheries commenced — unheeded 
 
 A 2 
 
4 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 when accomplished, they would have been impracticable 
 in their origin could they have been suspected. 
 
 The hordes thus engaged seemed to have united 
 every vicious dexterity, and to have expelled every com- 
 pensating virtue. By crimes committed, and immoral 
 and hateful principles proclaimed, they gained favour 
 among the nation they had left, inveigled new adven- 
 turers, and disseminating over the whole Union the virus of 
 this envenomed corruption, they made it directly participate 
 in their profits and their joys. Scrip was circulated for 
 land, to be robbed after it had been purchased, the free 
 States rejoiced that real ropnblicuiism was to be extended 
 southward, and the slave-holding States that new strength 
 was to be acquired by slavery ; for all there was con- 
 sideration and aggrandisement, trade and profits. Each 
 separate lust, immorality, or folly was called into play to 
 impel the whole Union into the paths of lawless ambition. 
 Gamblers without adventure — adventurers without faith — 
 stock-jobbers without capital — patriots without a country — 
 hucksters without industry — pirates without discipline — 
 pretenders without belief — pilferers without shame — be- 
 came to the United States guides, benefactors and exam- 
 ples ! 
 
 Tens of thousands of these enlightened citizens co- 
 lonized Texas ; repudiated Mexico, and called it a revo- 
 lution. Bands of sympathisers pressed forward, bearing 
 banners inscribed with " Freedom," ** Liberty," '' Land," 
 and ** Slavery" — the glorious revolution was paraded 
 through Europe— a " rising State" was to be hailed and 
 encouraged, liberalism rejoiced, benevolence commended, 
 and " the independence of Texas," from being the theme of 
 philosophic applause, became the pivot of political evolu- 
 tions. Diplomatic support sprung from the states of 
 Europe, and especially from that State, from which alone 
 they had to anticipate repression and punishment. Eng- 
 
OF THE TEXAS. O 
 
 land stepped forth to treat with Texas, waving those rights 
 supposed most dear to her, to facilitate for the freebooters 
 the slavery schemes that rendered their plot chiefly de- 
 testable, and gave it support in the neighbouring States 
 of the Union. The Americans now learned the power of 
 lying words, and discovered the means of obtaining the 
 favour of England — but, indeed, they had made the 
 discovery before, and applied it to herself. 
 
 This insurrection had no subliming touch of daring ; it was 
 as cowardly as wicked. Mexico to them was a region of 
 golden dreams, which might be obtained safely by cheating 
 each other into contempt for its rights, and hatred for its 
 owners. The Mexicans were the descendants of the old 
 Spaniards, a worn out and decrepid race, ignorant, idle, 
 priest-ridden, poverty-stricken, a disgrace to the name of 
 republicans, and an incubus on the fairest region of the 
 earth. It was " the mission of the Anglo-Saxon race"* to 
 drive forth the mongrel breed of Indian and Spaniard. 
 It was their duty to root out antiquated superstitions. 
 '* God and Nature" had marked out these possessions as 
 their inheritance. By such blasphemies, more awful than 
 the atrocious deeds which they had been used to prompt, 
 was conscience stifled, and pollution poured forth over 
 the land of America, which generations of retributive 
 agonies will not expiate. 
 
 Let not this national crime be compired with those 
 of France in the 18th century, of the Moguls in the 
 13th, or of the English in the 19th. In France an 
 enslaved people was organized, and did nor know what 
 it was about. The Moguls rushed forward, daring 
 and conscious, with that sense of justice that robbers 
 
 * An Englishman in Texas, anticipating Sir R. Peel, speaks of 
 the ** acquisitive tendency of the Anglo-Saxon race," as the principle 
 directing the events of the Western Hemisphere. 
 
O ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 present,* and obedient to the laws they had given 
 themselves, and to the rulers they had set up. England, 
 too, in evil ignorance, but not with evil purpose, has perpe- 
 trated her crimes, and would, with joy and exultation, re- 
 gain her former virtue, could she but find an honest leader 
 among her people. But the United States have neither 
 been slaves, nor coerced, deceived, or heedless men ; nor 
 have they been plunderers that avowed their purpose, and 
 joined each other to share uprightly, both risk and profit. 
 Abhorrence is too feeble a term for conduct such as theirs 
 — loatliing and disgust alone fills the mind at the contem- 
 plation of such atrocities. Such a race has to he cast out 
 like lepers from the society of man; to such death itself is 
 an escape and not a punishment. These are not phrases 
 adjusted to belie integrity, nor are they epithets selected to 
 deepen the die even of recognized guilt ; our expressions 
 cannot reach the reality, and in what we say, we but find 
 words for their deeds. Yet they have been made what 
 they are by England. 
 
 There has been one distinguished son of America who 
 has long ago placed upon record his abhorrence of such 
 acts, and his prognostication of the consequences ; not 
 reviling in hatred, but in sorrow labouring to stay sin and 
 avert calamity. We subjoin the words of Dr. Channing,f 
 and entreat for ihem the most earnest attention, for they are 
 worth all that has for twenty years been written in Europe. 
 In face of such warnings, was the design prosecuted and 
 is now completed. We, indeed, have looked to this event 
 as one ensured in proper season by that diplomacy 
 that rules the world. Texas and then Canada stood to 
 the United States, as Algiers and then Tunis to France,^— 
 Serbia to Austria, — the small States of Germany to 
 
 * ** There can even be no robbery without justice," says St. 
 Augustin, *' for how otherwise should they divide the booty V 
 t They will be found at the end of this article. 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 7 
 
 Prussia, — Scinde and Lahore to England : that is, as 
 temptations to which Russia should direct their covetous- 
 ness,* and thereby pervert their minds and lead them into 
 crime, so that the injured should find no protector; that 
 all should be confusion, until mutual animosity and ran- 
 cour, turned against each other the blood-thirstiness that 
 they had learnt to practise upon the -weak and honest. 
 Looking from this point of view at the present event, we 
 see rather subject of congratulation than of regret, for it has 
 come before its time. There is not at present a willing or 
 conscious instrument of Russia, minister either of England 
 or France. Mexico is not yet altogether cowed, and may 
 have the courage to make a stand — Canada is not yet in 
 insurrection— the parties in America have not concurred in 
 the resolution for the annexation of Texas ; none of the 
 parties have adopted it ; on the contrary, their leading men 
 oppose it. Clay,f Webster, and Van Buren declare it 
 immoral, inexpedient, and uncalled for by public opinion; 
 they point it out as dangerous to themselves, without 
 any reference to foreign dangers ; they speak even of the 
 dissolution of their own constitution and state as a con- 
 sequence of it. How, then, has it occurred? A man, 
 by accident raised to the chief magistracy, not a leader of 
 either party, and having made himself obnoxious to all, 
 grasps as he retires from office at this only unoccupied 
 
 * '* They," the allies of Philip, '* were gratified for a time with 
 the possession of the territories of others, to be in the end deprived 
 of their own." — Demosthenes. 
 
 t ** I consider the annexation of Texas at this time, without the 
 assent of Mexico, as a measure compromising the national character, 
 involving us certainly in a war with Mexico, probably with other 
 foreign powers, dangerous to the integrity of the Union, inexpedient 
 in the present financial condition of the country, and Jiot called for by 
 any general expression of public opinion:** — as if that were reason ! 
 
8 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 position. After his son has for years, with strangely un- 
 punished and unblushing daring, worked up the worst 
 passions, preaching conquest, blood and treachery, he 
 himself, in the last hour of his presidential existence, 
 makes this desperate throw for future popularity and 
 power.'*' Alas! in America, as in England, the days of 
 impeachment are gone by ; and there, too, while petty 
 offences are pursued with the greatest severity, the greatest 
 of crimes are certain of impunity, and become instruments 
 of success. 
 
 Forced on thus, before its time, that is before England is 
 bereft of her strength and alliances in America, or over- 
 taken by European dangers and colonial insurrection — the 
 British Government may be tempted by the want of 
 national support to this measure in the United States, or 
 impelled by the necessity of doing something to maintain 
 character, or embaj^rassed by the resistance of Mexico, — and 
 thus may cease for once to confide to events the care of over- 
 coming difficulties. Or Britain shall appear the camel 
 crouching for a speculator in American politics to mount. 
 Such a phantasm reflected back on her own eye from 
 the mirage of the world*s opinion, may shame her even yet. 
 
 * ** It should, however, be borne in mind, that this appeal to 
 public opinion is not only a circumstance in the case, but the main 
 object of the whole proceeding. Mr. Tyler and his profligate Cabinet 
 care very little whether they succeed in the annexation of Texas by 
 the aid of public opinion, but they hope to bend public opinion to 
 their interests by the project for the annexation of Texas. Viewed 
 in its true light, this act of the Republican Richelieus is the sub- 
 limest point of corruption. We have had many monsters in our 
 days — monster concerts, monster meetings, the monster mortar — 
 and this is the monster bribe — a bribe offered in one huge lump to 
 13,000,000 or 14,000,000 of people— slavery and lands for the 
 south, trade and market for the north — aggrandizement for the whole 
 Union. * Vote for President Tyler, and all this is yours.' "— Ttme*. 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 9 
 
 Settlement of Texas — its Revolution and 
 Independence. 
 
 The State of Cohahuila and Texas, in order to invite 
 settlers for its spacious domains, passed, with the concur- 
 rence of the general Government, laws and regulations 
 to admit colonists without any restrictions, and granting 
 to every applicant vacant lands on the most liberal scale. 
 The profession of Catholicism, required in the other States 
 of Mexico, was here dispensed with. The only obligation 
 imposed on settlers was an oath of allegiance to the Re- 
 public, and obedience to the laws of Mexico. The sale 
 and purchase of slaves was strictly forbidden, on the 
 penalty (should this condition of their settlement be vio- 
 lated) of forfeiting their lands. Under these hos- 
 pitable enactments, numbers flocked from the United 
 States, and had lands assigned them free from all charge. 
 No taxes were imposed upon them. 
 
 A civil contest subsequently arose, through the de- 
 sire on the part of many in the Mexican republic to 
 do away with federal institutions in favour of a central 
 government; the citizens of Texas, whether natives or 
 foreign settlers, although marking their preference to 
 federal institutions, abstained from embroiling themselves 
 in this domestic feud. 
 
 The rising prosperity of the early settlers attracted 
 a new class of emigrants, from the very refuse of the 
 United States. These, impatient of steady industry, 
 beijan to look with distaste on the laws of Mexico for- 
 bidding slavery, and its rights of ownership; they from 
 thenceforth laboured to produce confusion, and the project 
 was formed of robbing Mexico of the province, and of 
 tempting adventurers to their support, by proposing to 
 throw it into the arms of the United States. 
 
 To accomplish this, land speculations were organized ; 
 
10 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 and while the attention of the central government was 
 occupied with the civil commotions which unhappily 
 prevailed throughout Mexico, they succeeded in introduc- 
 ing cargoes of slaves. 
 
 The feelings and views of these men were in no way 
 shared by the original settlers from the United States, 
 so that their first steps were stealthy. In 1832, on 
 the strength of some grievances, of which the Texans then 
 complained, they commenced with putting forth the scheme 
 of a separation betweenTexas and Cohahuila. A constitution 
 having been drawn up, a convention was held in Texas to 
 petition the Sovereign Congress to sanction it, and to receive 
 them into the Mexican confederation as a separate State. 
 In this document, it is said, " The people of Texas present 
 the strongest assurances of their patriotic attachment to 
 the constitution and to the republic, pledging all and 
 every interest in life for the support of their declaration." 
 From this passage it will be seen, that the general con- 
 currence had been obtained, by the concealment of their 
 design . 
 
 Colonel Austin, charged with the mission of urging at 
 the capital the adoption of the prayer of the petition, re- 
 turned in 1834, with very different views. In the letter, 
 of the 25th August, announcing the conclusion of his mis- 
 sion, he says — 
 
 '* The Government have remedied the evils complained 
 of in Texas, and which threatened it with ruin ; and 
 those who acted last year in good faith, and with pure 
 intentioiis of separating from Cohahuila^ are now opposed to 
 it, because the reasons which made a separation neces- 
 sary no longer exist" Colonel Austin proceeded to ad- 
 vise, that *' a public act of gratitude should be expressed 
 by the people for those remedies that have been applied 
 by the State and General Government," and counselled 
 the Texans to '* discountenance in the most unequivocal 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 11 
 
 niauner," all '* inflammatory men," " political adventu- 
 rers," " would-be-great-men," and " vain tattlers," and that 
 they should " proclaim, with one unanimous voice, fide- 
 lity TO Mexico, opposition to violent men and mea- 
 sures,— and it will be peace and prosperity to Texas." 
 
 Foiled by this unexpected result, the malcontents then 
 alleged the fact of the existence of disunion and civil war 
 in the republic, as a reason for accomplishing their separa- 
 tion from it. 
 
 These machinations were again counteracted by the 
 efforts and decisions of the loyal and respectable inha- 
 bitants of the province, and public tranquillity was re- 
 stored. 
 
 We subjoin an extract from the address of the central 
 Committee of Texas, which, while establishing the most 
 flagrant case that ever was made out against the infatua- 
 tion of revolution, and the guilt of treason, is a testimony 
 to the mildness, humanity, and excellence of the Govern- 
 ment of Mexico, such as seems rather belonging to tradi- 
 tions of patriarchal society, than to times in which 
 nations vie in insubordination, with governments in inter- 
 meddling. 
 
 '* Allow us to ask you as men, as husbands, as fathers, if you 
 are prepared heedlessly to rush forward in a cause, the termination 
 of which may involve your country of adoption in all the horrors of 
 civil war ? Are you prepared to plunge yourselves and your country 
 into revolution, to imbrue your hands in the blood of your brethren, 
 and finally to be expelled from the land, to which we are so much 
 attached by the strongest of ties ? If you are, then adopt the plan 
 suggested, and we have too much reason to fear that our worst anti- 
 cipations will be realized I 
 
 '* But from the information which we have, and which can be re- 
 lied upon with confidence, we assure you that the feelings of the 
 Federal Government, particularly those of the President, are of the 
 
12 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 most favorable character towards Texas. We are assured of this 
 fact by our representative, Colonel Austin, and the advice which he 
 most earnestly presses upon us, is to be peaceful and quiet, and 
 to adopt as our motto, the Constitution and Laws, State and 
 Federal. 
 
 *' From the State Government too, we have surely received favors 
 the most liberal, and boons the most free ; in fact, what has been 
 for our particular benefit, which we have asked and they have not 
 granted, which was in their power to give? It has established the 
 trial by jury, it has organised a court especially for Texas, and if 
 it does not answer the desired end, and make us contented, it is not 
 the fault of the legislature. 
 
 " We ask you then, in the spirit of candor, has the government 
 ever asked anything unreasonable of Texas ? If she has, we must 
 before God and our country say, rve know it not! Again, for your 
 experimental knowledge shall bear us out, has she ever burdened 
 you with taxes, or the performance of arduous, expensive, or peri- 
 lous duties ? Nay, has Texas ever borne any part of the expenses 
 of sustaining the government that protects her citizens, their lives, 
 their liberty, and their property, either in legislation, or in war ? 
 
 " When have the people of Texas called upon the government 
 for any law to their advantage, or for the repeal of any law by which 
 they were aggrieved, but what their requests have been complied 
 with V 
 
 This fidelity to oaths, this peace, this prosperity, this 
 gratitude was, however, of short duration. Mexico dis- 
 turbed it not, withdrew no protection, infringed no right; 
 but the spirit of evil was busy and reviving. While honest 
 men slumbered over the triumph they had achieved, the 
 black activity of the designing broke forth again in the 
 form of a land job! The circumstances have been described 
 as follows by an American author : — 
 
 * " This address being founded on facts notorious to every man*s 
 experience, peace and quiet were the consequence." — Texas and 
 Mexico y by a Mexican Mer chanty p. 25. 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 13 
 
 ** A committee of land speculators, whose plans were well laid, 
 and whose funds were completely organized, presented themselves 
 before this — by the people of Texas never to be forgotten legisla- 
 ture, — which immediately passed a decree to sell the vacant lands of 
 Texas, and otherwise arranged it to be done as soon as bidders 
 should present themselves. 
 
 *' Of course they were there, and purchased this already sur- 
 veyed land, of 41 1 leagues, for 30,000 dollars in hand, to the Go- 
 vernment, or 72 dollars 99 cents per league. But we shall allow 
 their travelling expenses, in conjunction with those by-bribes to 
 such members of the legislature, as were not in partnership with 
 them, to raise the whole amount, expended in this nefarious trans- 
 action, to 40,000 dollars, or 96 dollars 35 cents per league. 
 
 " The house went on thus for some time gloriously ; decree after 
 decree was passed, and signed by as corrupted a governor, — what 
 will not gold do ! But behold the brother-in-law of the President 
 Santana, General Don Martin Perfecto del Cos, Commandant-General 
 of the Eastern States, and his troops were at hand I Santana him- 
 self was close by, quelling an insurrectionary movement in Zacatecas. 
 Orders were given from head-quarters, and the unconstitutionally 
 acting legislature of Cohahuila and Texas were (with the exception 
 of those who seasonably made their escape) made prisoners, and, in 
 due time, banished ; of course, their decrees of that session de- 
 clared null and void by the general Congress of Mexico. The 
 Texan representatives, ayid other Americans, at that time in Mon- 
 clova, lost no time in their retreat from thence to Texas — raised the 
 war-whoop — " Santana has destroyed the liberals of Zacatecas : Ge- 
 neral Cos has arrested the State Congress of Cohahuila and Texas, — 
 to arms,— ;/br the Mexicans have declared they will drive every 
 American out of their country .'"* 
 
 This appeal was not responded to ; public scorn and 
 condemnation pursued these vile speculators and their 
 treasonable confederates v^^ithin the walls of the legislature. 
 The sense of the province may be gathered from the pub- 
 lic act, of which we subjoin extracts : — 
 
 * History of Texas. By David B. Edwards. Cincinnati, 1 836. 
 
14 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 " Our constituents learning that the Congress of the State (Co- 
 hahulla and Texas) had, during its session of March present year, 
 acted improperly, — contrary to the rights of State, and in direct op- 
 position to the Constitution of the Mexican confederation, —being 
 corrupted from their line of legislative duties by the undue influence 
 of a few foreigners and others, they became amenable to the laws made 
 and provided — therefore were they treated by the government of the 
 nation according to their deserts." 
 
 " The law of the 14th of March past (1835,) is looked upon by 
 the people with horror and indignation — it is looked upon as the 
 death-blow to this rising country. In violation of the general con- 
 stitution and the laws of the nation, — in violation of good faith and 
 the most sacred guarantees, — Congress has trampled upon the rights 
 of the people and the Government, in selling four hundred and eleven 
 leagues at private sale, and at a shameful sacrifice ; thereby creating 
 a monopoly — thereby entirely ruining the future prospects of our 
 country, contrary to law, and contrary to the true interest of every 
 citizen in Texas." 
 
 The speculators now endeavoured by desperate acts to 
 compromise their compatriots with the native Mexicans 
 and the government. But these sent two of their most re- 
 spected citizens to General Cos to state the real feeling of 
 the colonists and the people of Texas, and to repudiate 
 the conduct of the rebels. Thus, then, had every means 
 successively adopted, failed in effect, and the hitherto 
 insignificant as desperate band, was at once utterly frus- 
 trated in its machinations and exposed in its character and 
 intentions, and the repose of the community seemed thence- 
 forward secured, when a new and unexpected incident oc- 
 curred, and changed the face of affairs. An armed expe- 
 dition from New Orleans arrived in Texas! 
 
 It was not against Mexican armies that these bands 
 were directed ; they were engaged in vengeful and pre- 
 datory expeditions against Texans and Americans, to com- 
 pel them to make common cause with themselves. They 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 15 
 
 had even the audacity to pass resolutions such as the fol- 
 lowing: — 
 
 " Resolved — That no person or persons whatsoever, under the 
 control or in the name of Santana, shall be suffered to enter 
 Texas, whatever may he his credentials, or upon whatever prin- 
 ciple he may assume the privilege. 
 
 " Resolved — That if any citizen or citizens whatever, shall leave 
 the country on, or before the contest — or shall assist the enemy in 
 any shape whatsoever, during the conflict, their property shall be 
 confiscated for and in behalf of the war. 
 
 " Resolved — That the property of those inhabitants who may pre- 
 tend neutrality or otherwise, so as not to assist their brother Ameri- 
 cans in this war, shall be the ^rst sacrificed to its welfare and pro- 
 secution." 
 
 This was the " Revolution of Texas.'* 
 
 The forces of Mexico were at one time occupied in con- 
 testing, under hostile leaders, the establishment of a cen- 
 tral or a purely federative constitution ; at another engaged 
 in preparing to receive, and finally in resisting, the attack 
 made upon it by a great European power ; so that the 
 Government was unable to resist or put down, not the in- 
 surrection, for that term cannot apply, but the piratical 
 seizure of the province, where the bandits were supplied and 
 recruited from the neighbouring great nation, whose co-ope- 
 ration involved at once the well disposed American settlers, 
 and added to the external and internal embarrassments of 
 the Mexican Government, the danger of a war with the 
 United States. However, in the early part of 1836, an 
 ejffort was made ; a considerable body of troops, under the 
 President Santana, entered Texas, driving before him 
 General Houston, with some hundred insurgents, from one 
 frontier of the province to the other, when he was, with his 
 vanguard of 1400, suddenly surprised by the Texans, who 
 had been just before on the point of crossing into the United 
 States territory. It is supposed that this surprise was owing 
 
16 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 to reinforcements from the regular United States troops — 
 the Texan troops being themselves Americans. The Pre- 
 sident Santana was captured with the vanguard in this 
 bloodless surprise, and General Filisola, at the head of the 
 main body, was deterred from attacking the insurgents 
 from fear of compromising the life of the President; this 
 was the celebrated battle of San Jacinto, on the 2 1st April, 
 1836. 
 
 Texan independence was proclaimed on the 2d March, 
 1836. To this document 56 names were attached ; of these 
 50 were American citizens, three natives of Great Britain, 
 and three natives of Mexico. These three revolted Mexi- 
 cans — for the others are not only strangers and aliens, but 
 their presence takes from thedocument the authority it would 
 have, if signed only by the three Mexicans — give to them- 
 selves, by a resolution, 350,000 square miles of Mexican 
 territory. A year elapses, and Congress, by a vote, declares 
 them independent, according to their own terms; that is, 
 asserts that they do possess this property. 
 
 This was the " Independence of Texas." 
 
 These were the facts which European governments had 
 to consider in coming to a decision as to the light in which 
 they should look on the *' infant state" of Texas. 
 
 In concluding this statement of the circumstances of the 
 revolt, we have to remark,that what has been accomplished 
 by the United States against Ttxas, is now enacting 
 against California. Nor was it in Texas that the experi- 
 ment was first made. The revolt of Mexico against Spain 
 was fomented, encouraged, and supported by the United 
 States; their sympathies were then given to Republicanism 
 against Monarchy and Catholicism, as now their sympathy 
 is given to Anglo-Saxon against Indo- Mexican and free- 
 dom ; that is to say, lawless ambition has formed in these 
 days, and in this region, many pretexts ; but it is strange 
 that this war of castes, colors, and creeds^ should have been 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 17 
 
 Stirred up by a people who fled from England to ej^cajx; 
 from religious persecution, and who struggled upon their 
 own soil to assert political liberty. Thus has been pre* 
 pared for the western world a fate which may make it 
 envy, and invite from our European shores the order which 
 a barbarous despotism shall have there established on the 
 ruins of enlightened faction and civilized corruption. 
 
 Engagements op Mexico to England. 
 
 Mexico, by no single act abandoned or compfo* 
 niised her sovereign rights over any portion of her ter- 
 ritory, comprised within the limits of the provincial 
 state of Texas. As early as November, 1835, when the 
 first overt expeditions proceeded from the shores of the 
 United States, she indignantly remonstrated at Wash- 
 ington. The disregard of these remonstrances was a case 
 of war, which the weakness of Mexico alone prevented. 
 
 A State thus assailed has to look throughout the world 
 for allies and supporters. Where could Mexico look ? 
 With France she was at variance. Russia was sup- 
 posed to have schemes upon her territory on the Pacific. 
 Both Governments could only be considered by Mexico 
 as associated with the United States in character 
 and design, if not in immediate projects. There was, 
 however, one great Government, deeply interested in her 
 welfare — this power was England, on whom was the obli- 
 gation of supporting Mexico imposed, by the fact that her 
 own territory was exposed to the same danger as that of 
 Mexico, and from the same source. It became, therefore, 
 her part to support the remonstrances of Mexico, and to 
 enforce them in case the United States disregarded the 
 appeal. 
 
 The case presented itself in two points of view — first, the 
 making of Texas a slave-holding state; and secondly, its 
 
 B 
 
18 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 prospective incorporation with the United States. The first 
 was repugnant to all our sympathies, as well as to our 
 acquired rights. The second, alarming on the score of the 
 friendly relations which it was a primary object to preserve 
 with the United States, and threatening directly our 
 possessions and dominions on the American continent, — 
 and both these merged into one. Slavery being kept out of 
 Texas, its independence would be innoxious, and might be 
 real. Slavery established, independence was but a pretext 
 and a passage to its incorporation. A new power springing 
 into being between the Republic of Mexico and the United 
 States of America, though peopled originally and entirely 
 by citizens of the latter, could be no cause of apprehension 
 to England : being independent it became the necessary 
 ally of England in case she wanted one, that is, in 
 case the United States threatened her neighbours. It would 
 be the best protection to Mexico, as fitter to deal with their 
 Anglo-Saxon brethren, and being by the original constitu- 
 tion possessed of institutions similar to those of the New 
 England States, and not polluted by slavery, the new 
 republic would have found support most valuable within 
 the Union, and secured its permanency by arresting its 
 aggressive and ambitious tendencies. These, however 
 gigantic and alarming they have become, were then within 
 reach of easy cure. But the picture is reversed, the moment 
 that slavery is there established. It is no longer inde- 
 pendent ; and independence is but a mask for design ; 
 not of the United States against Mexico, but of a few 
 plotters against the United States. The property of the one 
 and the honour of the other were at once at stake ; the one 
 was to be plundered to constitute the other a plunderer. 
 
 Here, then, was a danger for England as for Mexico 
 of the most alarming kind, — a danger foreseen and self-an- 
 nounced from the very earliest moment. A danger which 
 now, after nearly ten years, bursts upon the nation unpre- 
 
OF THE TEXAS. \ \ 19 
 
 pared, nothing having been done by its governmenfr,^n^ther 
 ignorant nor unappealed to, to prevent its occurrence, %n<J^ 
 everything to encourage the actors and to precipitate the 
 event! 
 
 Nearly ten years ago was it furthermore avowed that 
 the diffijculty in the way of the annexation of Texas as a 
 slave-holding State, lay in the necessity of acquiring in th€ 
 north a compensating and counterbalancing increase of anti- 
 slavery territory. By the establishment, therefore, of 
 slavery in the provinces detached from Mexico by Ame- 
 rican adventurers, without opposition from England and 
 with her concurrence, and, as will be hereafter seen, her 
 positive and vehement co-operation, a change was wrought 
 in the minds of the whole Union. By the bare possibility 
 that England might sanction the annexation of the 
 Texas— a wider range of ambitious prospects naturally 
 presented itself. Not the disputed territory of the North- 
 east, not disputed Oregon alone, but the colonial pos- 
 sessions of Great Britain, from objects of hopeless longing, 
 now became aims of settled ambition, — fostered directly in 
 like manner by the Boundary Difference on the North, 
 the work of the same minister. 
 
 At so early a period the Texan question commanded, 
 upon grounds the most urgent, that the evil should be 
 checked in its origin. The ease of doing so equalled the 
 necessity. Here was no doubtful pretender to a Persian 
 throne — no Asiatic complication — no Egyptian or Turkish 
 politics. In the most thrilling accents of the English tongue 
 was expounded the danger to Texan freedom and Eng* 
 land's interests, by a citizen of the United States, and 
 thousands upon thousands of our countrymen had read 
 the exposition. 
 
 England had not to rely alone on the general rights 
 given to her in common with every other nation by public 
 law in arresting a danger by which she was threatened, 
 
 B 2 
 
20 ON fHE ANNEXATION 
 
 She had rights secured by treaty in Texas to defend — 
 rights which she could not abstain from asserting, but 
 wTiich being asserted, every difficulty was solved. 
 
 The 15th article of the treaty between Great Britain 
 and Mexico (December, 1B26,) stipulated that — 
 
 ** The government of Mexico engages to co-operate with his Bri- 
 tannic Majesty ybr the total abolition of the slave trade, and to 
 prohibit all persons inhabiting within the territories of Mexico, 
 in the most effectual manner, from taking any share in such trade." 
 
 The revolution of Texas, supposing it bona fide in its 
 origin and successful in its termination, could alter no inter- 
 national obligation affecting it as previously constituting 
 a portion of Mexico. For more than three years be- 
 fore the recognition of its independence by any Power, 
 the Texans violated this treaty without calling forth 
 the necessary steps on the part of Britain to enforce her 
 right and obtain satisfaction ; yet the Texans had engaged 
 in the traffic of slaves and imported them from the 
 United States and direct from Africa. The opportunity 
 thus presented itself before any one government had ac- 
 knowledged the independent existence of Texas — hecome 
 a slave holding State^ — and hence before any one power 
 could, on the ground of a c?e/<2c^o independence intermeddle 
 in the separate proceedings of Great Britain, based on 
 Treaty. Moreover, her zealous philanthropy in favour of 
 the African was at that time admitted by all nations as a 
 legitimate ground of action. 
 
 Great Britain had to call the attention of the govern- 
 ment of Mexico to the flagrant violations of the Treaty 
 of 1826, ** by persons inhabiting the territories of Mexico." 
 The acknowledgment of that government that it was not 
 within their power to control those acts, gave England a 
 right of war against Texas, which she was free to exercise 
 with or without Mexico's consent. But gladly would she 
 have availed herself of such aid in restoring order, dis- 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 2t 
 
 turbed only by foreign machinations, and in freeing the 
 loyal population of Texas from a forced participation in 
 the rebel outbreak. What, then, easier at the outset, 
 than prevention ? Had it not been easy it was requisite. 
 But it was easier far to do than to describe. The voice of 
 a powerful nation in a just cause is never heard in vain ; 
 the words of a great Government are acts. 
 
 The United States at first held aloof: disclaimed all 
 confederacy in or sanction of the proceedings in Texas, but 
 took no measures to repress them. Years having elapsed, 
 and public opinion gra<iually won over, the solicita- 
 tions of her citizens, now predominant in Texas, to be 
 received into the Union, was replied to by recognizing 
 their c?<?^yac^o independence — we might here be reading 
 the history of Georgia, Wallachia, or Serbia. France 
 followed up the act of the United States, and acknow- 
 ledged a sovereign existence in this body of American 
 plunderers. The French papers, with ready instinct, 
 exulted in the new enemy that had arisen for England 
 in the Western world, and the natural ally that had sprung 
 up for France. The recognition of the Texas was im- 
 portant in Paris because it was a Mow against England ! 
 Her accredited representative in Texas, proposed to the 
 Congress, to cement the alliance between them by the 
 establishment of a line of French military colonists, as a 
 barrier against the Indians. This was one of the fruits^ 
 of the treaty of the 15th of July. 
 
 Recognition of Texas by England. 
 
 Having shewn what England had neglected to do, we now 
 come to what she has done. She confirmed the act of 
 the United States and of France — she recognized Texas ! 
 
 No redress for past infractions of treaty are the 
 conditions of this compact — no assurances for a future 
 
22 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 observance of them contained in it — no single thing was 
 required from Texas — everything was sacriiiced to her. 
 Astounding as this may be, what we have stated 
 is nothing to what follows. It is a compact to coerce 
 Mexico— it is a bond of conspiracy, not a compact of 
 mutual advantage. It is an announcement, that the 
 independence of this revolted province is an object so 
 dear to the British Minister, that he sacrifices to it 
 all justice, sympathies, and interests of his nation. It 
 is to tell Mexico, before the world, that she must desist 
 from a contest in which she was engaged, and acknow- 
 ledge the sovereignty of foreign freebooters ; while aggra- 
 vating the wound to the national pride, by holding Texas 
 forth as dictating the conditions. In offering this unpa- 
 ralleled outrage, the British Government presented itself 
 as a mediator ! 
 
 Treaty between Great Britain and Texas. 
 
 '* Whereas,* her Majesty, the Queen of the United Kingdom of 
 Great Britain and Ireland, being desirous of putting an end to the 
 hostilities, which still continue to be carried on between Mexico 
 and Texas, has offered her mediation to the contending parties, 
 with a view to bring about a pacification between them, and whereas 
 the republic of Texas has accepted the mediation so oHered ; the re- 
 public of Texas, and her Britannic Majesty's Government, have deter" 
 mined to settle, by means of a convention, certain arrangements which 
 ivill become necessary, in the event of such pacification being 
 effected, and have, for this purpose, named as their plenipotentiaries, 
 that is to say, the Republic of Texas, General James Hamilton, &c. 
 &c. and her Majesty, the Queen of the United Kingdom, the Right 
 Honourable Henry John Viscount Palmerston, &c. &c. &c.* who 
 have agreed upon, and concluded the following articles : — 
 
 *' Article 1 .- — The Republic of Texas agrees that if, by means of 
 the mediation of her Britannic Majesty, an unlimited truce shall 
 
 * See a remarkable identity of style with the Lahore compact. 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 23 
 
 be established between Mexico and Texas, within thirty days 
 after this convention shall have been communicated to the Mexican 
 Government, by her Britannic Majesty's mission at Mexico, and 
 Mexico shall have concluded a treaty of peace with Texas, then 
 and in such case the Republic of Texas will take upon itself a, 
 portion, amounting to one million pounds sterling, of the capital of 
 the foreign debt contracted by the Republic of Mexico before the 1st 
 of January, 1835. 
 
 " Article 2.— The manner hi which the capital of one million 
 pounds sterling of foreign debt, mentioned In the preceding article, 
 shall be transferred from the Republic of Mexico to the Republic of 
 Texas, shall be settled hereafter by a special government between 
 the Republic of Texas and the Republic of Mexico. 
 
 ** Article 3. — The present convention shall be ratified, and the 
 ratifications shall be exchanged at London as soon as possible within 
 the space of nine months within this date. 
 
 " In witness whereof, &c. &c., London, 14th Nov., in the year 
 
 of our Lord, A.D. 1840. 
 
 (Signed) " Palmerston. 
 
 " Hamilton." 
 
 This treaty constituted England as much a freebooter 
 against Mexico as the Texan insurgents. Mexico could 
 therefore treat England only as an enemy, and if she did 
 not do so, she shewed at least by the language she held 
 that it was her weakness alone that prevented her. 
 
 Mexico is indebted to British subjects to the amount of 
 thirty millions sterling ; for the repayment of this debt 
 they hold Texas bound as a part of its territory. But in- 
 dependently of this general engagement, they obtained, as 
 a condition of reducing this debt to one-third, a special 
 bond on 45,000,000 of acres of unoccupied land in the 
 province of Texas, conceded by the law of conversion, for 
 the deferred debt in 1837. This property fell, therefore, 
 of right to the British bondholders, in case that Mexico 
 failed to perform her engagements. So that any attempt 
 of Mexico to alienate these lands, and any attempt at 
 
24 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 usurping them by a foreign power, imposed upon Eng* 
 Jand, as a matter of mere attorney practice, the necessity 
 of interposing a bar to such misappropriation. 
 
 This claim was not unknown to the Minister who 
 signed the convention with Texas, having been strongly 
 urged upon him by the Committee of the South Ame- 
 rican Bondholders, and fully admitted. Nevertheless, 
 this claim, together with the stipulation for the abo- 
 lition of slavery, is put out of the way in adopting Texas, 
 and in associating England to her violences and crimes ! 
 
 The treaty, conferring these lands of Mexico on the 
 insurgents, begins by saying that Texas is to pay one 
 million of the foreign debt ; that is, it wipes off nine of 
 the ten millions sterling for which the land is mortgaged, 
 and then wipes off this very million by placing to its 
 payment, conditions that Mexico was to fulfil, and which 
 of course Mexico would not fulfil. 
 
 Thus the Treaty is to wipe off at once all obligation of 
 Texas to Mexico, and of Mexico to England. But lest 
 Mexico should afterwards relent, and England be thus 
 committed to the enforcing of the onemillion against Texas, 
 a limit is placed in time, after the expiration of which there 
 can be no further claim. Thirty days are given ; and one 
 day later — say the thirty-first — Mexico consenting to the 
 *' unlimited truce,'* calls on Texas, made independent by 
 British protection, to pay this million to the British bond- 
 holders — the British minister would step in and forbid the 
 demand, saying, my fiat has not been executed— thirty days 
 have elapsed ! 
 
 A British minister enforces the extinction of a mortgage 
 to British subjects in behalf of American freebooters- 
 helps to rob Mexico and England, sustaining, at the same 
 time, the establishment of slavery in a new region, and 
 inviting the United States to aggression against its neigh- 
 bours. Here is no matter in which men can admit doubts 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 
 
 55' 
 
 with respect to conduct, and differences with respect to 
 opinion. It is a common matter of business ; it is mere 
 police or Old Bailey fraud. If the British minister were 
 a sharer in the plunder, it would be perhaps intelligible ; 
 if he does not pocket proceeds it is not the less fraud, and 
 it must be far more dangerous than if it were merely a 
 fraudulent transaction for pecuniary advantage. 
 
 All mention of the obligation of Texas having been 
 excluded from the discussion of this subject, this clause 
 presents England as interfering between Mexico and 
 Texas in order to gain. She appears domineering* and 
 
 * We must here anticipate the course of events in order to con- 
 nect causes and consequences, and mention that on the 15th June, 
 1843, this proclamation was issued by the President of Texas: — 
 ** An official communication has been received at the Department of 
 State from her Britannic Majesty's Charge d'affaires in Mexico, 
 announcing to this government the fact that the President of Mexico, 
 would forthwith order a cessation of hostilities on his part, therefore 
 I, Sara Houston, President of the Republic of Texas, do hereby 
 declare and proclaim that an armistice is established, to continue 
 during the pendency of negotiations between the two countries, and 
 until due notice of an intention to resume hostilities (should such 
 an intention be hereafter entertained by either party) shall have been 
 formally announced through her Britannic Majesty's Charge d'affaires 
 at the respective governments." 
 
 So that it is the English government that is working for that 
 cessation of hostilities, and that recognition of independence of 
 Texas which should prepare the way for the usurpation of the United 
 States, while the United States take this very fact of these nego- 
 tiations as a ground for pushing the annexation, as an argument 
 for it for her own people, and a justification for it in the eyes of the 
 world. "Is not Texas," says a member of the Senate, commenting 
 upon this document, ** already dependent upon England, when 
 England obtains for her an armistice, and the President of Texas 
 announces that this will continue ujitil its termination be announced 
 by England?" 
 
26 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 avaricious to foreigners, at home her minister appears 
 anxiously advancing her interests. The injured have now- 
 a-days forgot to cry aloud, for propositions only are heeded* 
 
 Let us take, to illustrate this act, the diplomatic inter- 
 ference between Turkey and Greece. 
 
 The limits were there adjusted so as to include the 
 })opulations which had joined in the war; the land belong- 
 ing to them going with them in their independence. No 
 land was included not occupied by the insurgents. For 
 the public property of Turkey, which was included within 
 these limits, compensation was made. The conferences 
 of Poros were held to ascertain these facts, and upon 
 its inquiries the conditions of the independence of Greece 
 were established. In Texas the insurgents had forfeited, 
 by the introduction of slaves, the right and title to the land 
 that each of them had previously possessed by Mexico's 
 grant and favour; and they proclaim their right to 
 hundreds of millions of other acres, and England treats 
 with them on that assumption, and constitutes herself a 
 party to it against the rightful owner ! So preposterous 
 a case presents itself, and there is, throughout Europe, na 
 eye to observe it — no abhorrence of the atrocity — no detec- 
 tion of the deception. In the whole discussions upon 
 this subject, the insurgents' and the Mexican unoccupied 
 lands are never doubted to be one and the same thing. 
 A pick-pocket in the streets of London, if he knocked down 
 a policeman, might with equal right be said to be the pro- 
 prietor of the whole of Middlesex. 
 
 The intelligence of this age is not less than that of any 
 other age, but there is the absence of the light by which 
 things can be discerned — the light of the law and the sense 
 of honesty. Ministers, while confused like their people, 
 are moreover overwhelmed with multiplicity of affairs, and 
 one Minister knows nothing of what another Minister has 
 done. The present Minister of Britain v^^ould no doubt 
 
« OP THE TEXAS. §7 
 
 reply to questions about Texas, as when he was for the first 
 time questioned about Serbia — " there are more important 
 things to attend to." We have the faculty of making all 
 things important— it is easy to do so ; neglect is the secret. 
 But there may be even worse things than neglect. Lord 
 Aberdeen has had his feelings warmed and excited, though 
 in opposite senses, by virtuous Serbia and profligate Texas. 
 
 Suppose, again, that in England the town of Dover had 
 revolted, and the Government chose to grant them their 
 independence, would that grant them also the territory of 
 the rest of England ? But the territory of Texas is no less 
 the territory of Mexico; and if Mexico, in granting inde- 
 pendence to the band of insurgents settled in Texas, could 
 not grant to them more than the property they possessed, 
 how can a foreign minister interfere, and, pretending to 
 make treaties, in reality pass acts of confiscation? — not, 
 indeed, avowing a purpose, but by chicane covering the 
 crime from the nation whose power he used to perpetrate 
 it. 
 
 And to crown this infatuation and guilt, these lands are 
 mortgaged to the State whose minister — breaking through 
 every decency of international intercourse — rushes into the 
 arena to constitute it a party with Texas against Mexico, 
 to the robbery of Mexico's land, and the extinction of its 
 own rights. 
 
 Supposing that, by some catastrophe, France had become 
 a silent wilderness, and that the proprietorship of that 
 region, and sovereignty over it had fallen to England, 
 and that she had invited settlers into France, granting 
 them lands, upon the condition of swearing allegiance, and 
 abstaining from traffic in slaves ; and that in consequence, 
 a few — say Barbaresques and Moors— had settled in the 
 neighbourhood of Perpignan, bringing with them slaves in 
 defiance of the conditions of their admission ; what would 
 be said if Algiers interfered to support their revolt against 
 
28 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 the crown aud laws of England ? — interfered not only to 
 make common cause with them, but to designate that 
 revolt as the Independence of *' France?" Who would 
 not at once comprehend the motives of the Algerian Go- 
 vernment, and recognise its character? Thi& is what 
 England has done, and no one can comprehend Aermotives, 
 nor understand her character. 
 
 A reason assigned in these times for displacing the 
 Indians from the land of their forefathers — is, that the right 
 of occupancy, must be restricted by the faculties of tillage. 
 This doctrine, put forth by an American Judge, is re- 
 echoed at the discriminating and interesting dinner tables 
 in England. Had the Indians robbed lands they could 
 not till, then would their claim be valid ; they would 
 command our sympathies, and be sure of our support. 
 
 This treaty does not stand alone. There are two more 
 treaties with Texas !* one bearing date of the same day, 
 the other of the day following. The one is a treaty of 
 commerce and navigation — a treaty of commerce and 
 navigation, with a republic q/*65,000 souls ! 
 
 The other is on the subject of slavery— it makes no men- 
 tion of the obligation to exclude slavery from the soil — it 
 passes under silence the obligation lying upon Texas to 
 
 * These treaties have been asked for in vain of the Parliamentary 
 Stationers, one only being forthcoming, that of Commerce and Navi- 
 gation, of the 1 3th of November. The Annual Register is the most 
 valuable work that we possess for the public history of England. In 
 referring to that work upon the subject of Texas, the following passage 
 is all that is to be found :— •' On the 16th of November, a commercial 
 treaty between Great Britain and Texas was signed. By this treaty 
 the independence of the infant state was recognised, and the basis of 
 the commercial stipulations was perfect reciprocity. It was hoped 
 that this would tend to bring about a reconciliation between Mexico 
 and Texas, and cause a settlement of the boundary between them J" 
 Thus are the sources of history poisoned. 
 
^OF THE TEXAS. 29 
 
 have no slaves, but it establishes the right of visit recipro- 
 cally by English and Texan men of war ! The slaves are 
 imported by land — this it is that gives to the Americans 
 their peculiar interest to the settlement. Lord Palmer- 
 ston makes a treaty to prevent the introduction of slaves — 
 by sea ! Such is the treaty signed by a Minister who was 
 the vehement enemy of slavery, and who was convulsing the 
 world in the prosecution of this darling scheme. The exis- 
 tence of this treaty is but an act of accusation against the 
 Minister, as proving that the circumstance of slavery was 
 before him, when drawing up that document. Slavery 
 could have been tolerated by him in such circumstances 
 only because he desired it. While this region is thrown 
 open to the establishment of slaver}^, so as might be sup- 
 posed to gratify the United States, the futile Right of 
 Visit clause is thrown in. The British minister is not 
 then sacrificing his country by collusion with the United 
 States, it is some other interest that he serves. The ob- 
 ject of that clause may be inferred from its effect as 
 represented in the following statement by one of the Can- 
 didates for the Vice-Presidentship.* 
 
 "Under this treaty the cruizers of England, and, in- 
 deed, the whole British navy, or any part of it, may be 
 brought into the gulph of Mexico, and stationed in the 
 narrow pass commanding the whole outlet from the gulph, 
 and all the commerce to and from the Mississippi. To 
 the right of search, under whatever name or form, espe- 
 cially within our own seas, and upon our own coasts, we 
 never have assented, and never can assent ; but here, under 
 the pretext of searcliing the vessels of Texas, the navy of 
 England, or any part of it, may occupy the only outlet of 
 the gulph of Mexico, and all our vessels entering the 
 
 * Mr. Walker, of Mississippi, from the New York Herald of March 
 7tli, 1814. 
 
30 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 gulph or returning from the month of the Mississippi, 
 must pass by and under the supervision of British cruizers, 
 subject to seizure and detention, on suspicion of being 
 Texan vessels concerned in the slave trade. The British 
 navy may thus also be quartered on the southern coasts of 
 Florida, and along the coast of Cuba and Mexico, to seize 
 upon Cuba whenever an opportunity presents. Such is 
 tlie influence, which it is thus proved, by official documents, 
 Great Britain has already obtained in Texas." 
 
 Mexican Protest. 
 
 No sooner did this plot of the British Minister transpire, 
 than the Envoy of Mexico protested against it in fitting 
 terms of abhorrence and indignation ; and the Mexican 
 Government, taught respect for law by the European 
 violence to which she seemed to be exposed as a mark to 
 level its poisoned shafts of guilt and perfidy, sanctioned 
 the step of its representative, and supported it by a 
 declaration distinguished alike by dignity, courage, and 
 discrimination. 
 
 " The Government of Mexico ratifies the protest of its 
 Charge d' Affaires to Lord Palmerston, adding, that the 
 acknowledgment of a faction of adventurers as an inde- 
 pendent nation, is contrary to the principles which Lord 
 Palmerston, conjointly with the four Powers, has main- 
 tained in Europe on the Turco-Egyptian question, in 
 which no adventurer, but an illustrious prince, a native 
 born of the country, endeavoured to withdraw himself 
 from the country of the Grand Seignior of Constantinople. 
 That the conduct of Lord Palmerston was a breach of the 
 harmony and good faith which was considered also by the 
 Spanish American States to be characteristic of the 
 British Government, so that it was impossible to conceive, 
 in the face of existing treaties of alliance and friend- 
 
OV THE TEXAS. 3t 
 
 ship between Great Britain and Mexico, by which th6 
 integrity of the Mexican territory is acknowledged, 
 Texas should he recognised as a sovereign people, not a 
 fraction of the same territory and its primitive inhabitants, 
 but a handful of adventurers who, in the sight of all the 
 world have entered upon the Mexican territory, is acknow- 
 ledged, bringing' slaves with them to re-establish slavery in 
 a country in which by law slavery was abolished, Tliat in 
 the treaty between Lord Palmerston and the Agent for 
 Texas, there is no provision for the abolition of slavery, a 
 condition which the English Government has exacted from 
 all the Spanish American Governments. That the territory 
 of Texas is mortgaged for the foreign debt of Mexico, and 
 to permit the alienation of a jjroperty so sacred against 
 THE WILL OF ITS OWNER, and encouraging the desires of 
 its aggressors with the moral force of the recognition of their 
 independence, is to attack every principle of justice and 
 international right. 
 
 *' In consequence, the Mexican government, firm in the 
 justice of its cause, and resolved to preserve the integrity 
 of its territory, will commit to force the execution of the 
 national will, whose energy is daily displayed in the re- 
 sources voluntarily proffered by all the citizens, and in the 
 progressive amelioration of the revenues of the state. And 
 the English people will render justice to Mexico when it is 
 seen that the anomalous conduct of the British Miriister 
 does not prevent her from fulfilling the obligations which she 
 has contracted, and will see besides that the Mexican na- 
 tion knows how to distinguish between the British people 
 and their Government.^* 
 
 The excuse set up for the minister's acts, that is, for 
 the speaker's heedlessness, will be — " Oh, he had other 
 business to attend to; he could not have been aware 
 of the circumstances; he left it to some clerk in tlie 
 Foreign Office. You cannot expect a British Minister to 
 
32 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 attend to such paltry things as these." Now this defence 
 of ignorance cannot be set up here; there stands the 
 Mexican Protest, which is the whole case. The Mexican 
 Minister must have urged all these reasons before — never- 
 theless, there stands the Treaty. It has borne its fruits ; 
 Slavery is established and British debt wiped out ; Texas 
 Annexation is decided by two of the *' three estates" of 
 the Union ; war between the United States and Mexico 
 approaches, and there is the Protest — it was made public by 
 the Mexican Government,— ^Aere is no reply ! 
 
 We cannot, need not stay for further comment. What 
 parallel is to be found for such acts in the records of 
 human crime ? and we know not if in the catalogue of the 
 deeds of the minister })y which it has been perpetrated 
 that it can be matched in composure and audacity ! 
 
 Recognition by Great Britain of the Revolted 
 American Colonies of Spain. 
 
 In order that the conduct of the British Government 
 on the present occasion may be justly appreciated, it is 
 requisite to revert to her former acts, in somewhat similar 
 circumstances, when our councils were directed by men of 
 undoubted genius, and of recognised authority in matters of 
 international law and practice, and under whom served 
 both the Foreign Ministers that have conducted the recent 
 transactions with Texas. 
 
 The enormous possessions of Spain in the Western He- 
 misphere, were not held as England now holds North 
 America or India. She watched them with the most 
 jealous eye, she most sedulously excluded them from in- 
 tercourse with other countries, nor was it enough to deal 
 with her own territories in a manner which should take 
 from other nations, all interest for her sovereignty, and 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 33 
 
 inspire them with sympathy for rebellion against it. 
 Her restrictive system was directed offensively and in- 
 juriously against Great Britain, interrupting her trade and 
 navigation with her own Colonies. Thence had arisen 
 deep animosity between the two nations. Under such 
 circumstances it was to be expected, that the insurrection 
 of the Spanish Colonies would have been hailed in England 
 with delight ; that seeing therein the gratification of 
 treasured up bitterness — the opening of new fields to 
 commerce, united to that great attraction of modern 
 Europe, the breaking up of empires and the overthrow of 
 states and laws — we should have rushed headlong to their 
 support, poured forth as England has done in Greece, 
 blood and treasure, or prepared cheap profits by en- 
 couragement and protection, as the United States in 
 Texas. So it would have been, had the event occurred to 
 day, but thirty-five years ago it was a different England, 
 little as her present inhabitants may suspect or can con- 
 ceive the change. England restrained her feelings, was 
 not seduced by her interests, took not her opinion as the 
 rule of her conduct, and observing the law, she granted to 
 the insurgents, neither avowed support nor secret encourage- 
 ment. Yet at the moment of the outbreak of these insurrec- 
 tions, the shield of England's protection was extended over 
 Spain, and she might have made with her, her own terms. 
 But she proposed nothing regarding the American Colonies, 
 she uttered no word that could wound the honour or pride 
 of Spain, or awaken suspicions respecting the motives of 
 England. 
 
 In 1810, the mediation of England to effect a recon- 
 ciliation with her Colonies, was requested by Spain and 
 granted to her, but she subsequently changed her mind. 
 On tlws occasion permission was asked and granted, to 
 trade with these Colonies, and the ancient interdiction of 
 
 c 
 
34 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 trade and coast laws of Spain, were, as regarded them, 
 " considered tacitly repealed." 
 
 In 1812 circumstances appearing more favourable, Eng- 
 land offered her mediation to the Cortes . The independence 
 of the Colonies, was not assumed as the condition of that 
 mediation. Our mediation was refused and it was not 
 pressed. 
 
 In the Treaty of 1814 with Spain, the British Govern- 
 ment introduced the expression of " an earnest wish to see 
 the restoration of the Spanish authority in America," and 
 bound itself to prohibit British subjects from supplying the 
 revolted Colonies with munitions of war. This engagement 
 was fulfilled by an order in Council. 
 
 In 1815, Spain applied to England for her good offices, 
 in effecting an adjustment with her Colonies, but as she 
 refused to state the terms upon which she was willing to 
 negotiate, England refused to yield her mediation.* 
 
 In 1819, an Act of Parliament was passed to prohibit 
 British subjects from serving in the ranks of the revolted 
 Colonists. 
 
 In 1822 upon a representation on the part of Spain, 
 that she was about to take measures for the reduction of 
 the Colonists, Great Britain urged for the first time upon 
 
 * Mr. Canning thus states the case in a despatch to Sir William 
 A'Court, January 30th, 1824. " From the year 1810 to the year 
 1818, when the recognition was proposed to be undertaken by the 
 Allied Powers assembled in conference at Aixla-Chapelle, and from 
 1818 to the present time, the good offices of His Majesty have 
 been at the service of Spain, within limitations, and upon conditions 
 which have been in each instance explicitly described. Those limi- 
 tations have uniformly excluded the employment of force or 
 menace against the Colonies on the part of any mediating pow«r, 
 and have uniformly required the previous statement by Spain of 
 some definite and intelligible proposition." . 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 25 
 
 the Spanish Government, the necessity of putting an end 
 to this state of hopeless war, and announced the necessity 
 in which she would be herself of negotiating with these de 
 facto independent States. It is indeed at once a cheering 
 and a melancholy contrast, that is here presented with the 
 doctrines of the instructed, and the conduct of the rulers of 
 our present time. Cheering that we have so recently con- 
 ducted ourselves like an honest and a rational nation ; 
 melancholy to think that we have so rapidly sunk into 
 heedlessness and misconduct, no less irrational than im- 
 moral. 
 
 While England interfered not herself, of course she pre- 
 vented interference by others. 
 
 On the invasion of Spain by France in 1823, the assent 
 of the British Government was yielded under the express 
 condition that France should not interfere between Spain 
 and her Colonies. 
 
 It was not till fourteen years after the first appeal for 
 mediation had been made ; it was not till after the power- 
 lessness of Spain to regain her ascendancy had been proved 
 and confirmed ; it was not till after the growth of extensive 
 commercial relations with the colonies, sanctioned by Spain, 
 had imposed the necessity of international relations with 
 them, that England took the first step of a formal and 
 diplomatic kind, — that was simply the appointing of con- 
 sular agents. 
 
 In the Royal speech at the opening of the Session of 
 1824. it was announced that in respect to Spain : — 
 
 *• His Majesty has appointed Consuls to preside at the principal 
 ports and places of those provinces (which have declared their sepa- 
 ration from Spain) for the protection of the trade of her subjects. 
 As to any further measures his Majesty has preserved to himself an 
 unfettered discretion, to be exercised as the circumstances of those 
 countries, and the interests of his own people, may appear to his 
 Majesty to require." 
 
 c 2 
 
36 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 Mr. Canning, commenting upon this passage, says: — 
 
 "The interpretation of this passage is clear — all know the mean- 
 ing of it to be that his Majesty declined overtures for any joint 
 consideration of this subject." 
 
 Alas ! that Mr. Canning had not applied to the East the 
 doctrines he so prided himself in revering in the West. 
 Here was the twilight. We simultaneously exulted in un- 
 fettered action in one country, and announced as commend- 
 able, concert with Foreign Powers in another ! 
 
 The sense of the Government at that time in respect to 
 the right of nations, and the rule of conduct which they 
 applied in the present case, was, on the 4th March of the 
 same year, expressed by Lord Liverpool as follows : — 
 
 ** A formal acknowledgment of independence could properly 
 be made on/y by the power who claimed dominion over another, 
 and in the strict sense of the word we had no right either to ac- 
 knowledge or dispute their independence." 
 
 Here appears the declaration distinct in itself, that no 
 nation could interfere between states, or portions of states 
 at war, and that no value could attach to recognition of 
 independence, and also, that such recognition, if extending 
 beyond the admission of the fact, was itself criminal ; but 
 in the guarded fashion in which the law is laid down, in the 
 clogs and qualifications appended, appears the mean subser- 
 viency to the opinion of these times, that boded, and has 
 brought the lawlessness of the present. 
 
 So far the British Government had proceeded only to 
 the establishment of consular agents ; but there was a 
 growing desire throughout the nation, and an earnest appeal 
 from the mercantile interests for a formal recognition of 
 South American independence, whilst attempts were made 
 by the great Powers of Europe and of America to convert 
 this question into one of conjoint decision and of inter- 
 position of foreign States in the affairs of their neighbours. 
 The English Government resisted alike the desires of its 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 37 
 
 people, and the instances of foreign Governments — it did 
 what it considered proper to do, and did so alone, 
 boldly as justly resisting the attempt of diplomatic inter- 
 vention. 
 
 On the 15th June, Sir James Mackintosh brought forward 
 this question, presenting a petition from 113 commercial 
 houses in London ; on which occasion Mr. Canning replied 
 to the following effect : — 
 
 "The Government of Great Britain thought it not merely 
 pohtically expedient, but just and generous to afford to Spain the 
 opportunity of presidency (of negotiation with the Colonies) and 
 absolutely to suspend any decision until they knew in what degree 
 she would avail herself of that opportunity. That condition is now 
 at an end. The British Government is left to act without further 
 reference to Spain — such is the result I have to communicate, and 
 here the only communication I have to make to the house ends." 
 
 He sat down amidst cheers from all parts of the House, 
 and immediately rose again to say — 
 
 " He had to communicate a fact which he had overlooked, and 
 the statement of which might be acceptable. That fact was, that 
 a second application had been made to the Government of His 
 Britannic Majesty to become parties to the conference about to 
 assemble (by the Powers of Europe for the settlement of the affairs 
 of South America) which application, though pressed with urgent 
 entreaties, had been again steadfastly refused ! '* 
 
 This information was received with reiterated applause. 
 
 At this time there were two great insurrectionary move- 
 ments going on in opposite regions of the earth, in Greece 
 against Turkey, and in America against Spain. On the 
 outbreak of the Greek revolution, Russia,— having de- 
 nounced it as revolutionary, — offered and pressed upon 
 Turkey her military co-operation to put it down. The 
 proposals for intervention in respect to America, were made 
 by the Spanish Government itself, in the first instance, to 
 France ; and by France it was urged on the other I'owers. 
 
38 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 At this time France had just completed the intervention 
 in Spain itself, at the suggestion of Russia, and was governed 
 by an administration raised to office, — as now known on 
 indubitable testimony, that of the minister himself, — by 
 the intrigues of Russia, and under the acknowledged influ- 
 ence of that Power. Russia may therefore be looked 
 upon as the proposer of both interventions, the ostensible 
 object of which was the subjugation of the revolutionary 
 principle by reducing the revolted provinces. 1 he two 
 mother countries taking opposite courses : Spain invoking 
 co-operation, and Turkey protesting* against any inter- 
 ference between herself and her subjects, and appealing to 
 the rights of nature and nations, the practices of civihzed 
 communities and the faith of treaties. 
 
 England took opposite courses in these questions. In 
 respect to the first, she associated herself with Russia to 
 enforce hy arms the emancipation of Greece, while she 
 resisted, and thereby prevented, any intervention in the 
 afiairs of Spain in South America. In a memorandum of 
 a conference between Prince Polignac and Mr. Canning, 
 
 * The Greeks equally protested against Russian interference, 
 ftftd first addressed themselves to England rather for protection 
 against Russia than Turkey. M. Rodios writes to Mr. Canning, 
 August 12, 1824:-— 
 
 "The Government (of Greece) would have persevered in its 
 system of silence, had not a note proceeding from the north of 
 Europe obliged it to break this silence. This note decides on the 
 fate of Greece by a will that is foreign to it. The Greek nation 
 prefer a glorious death to the disgraceful lot intended to be imposed 
 on theiti.'' 
 
 To this Mr. Canning replies : — 
 
 " The opinion of the British Government is, that any plan 
 proceeding from the Cabinet of St, Petersburgh can be drawn 
 up only with friendly intentions towards Oreece." 
 
OF THE TEXAS. SO 
 
 on the 9th Oct. 1823, the views and decision of the British 
 Government are thus stated by the latter : — 
 
 "That the junction of any foreign power, in an enterprise of 
 Spain against the colonies, would be viewed by them as constituting 
 an entirely new question ; and one upon which they must take such 
 decision as the interests of Great Britain might require. 
 
 *' That the British Government absolutely disclaimed, not only 
 any desire of appropriating to itself any portion of the Spanish 
 colonies, but any intention of forming any political connexion with 
 them, beyond that of amity and commercial intercourse. 
 
 " That in those respects, so far from seeking an exclusive pre- 
 ference for British subjects over those of foreign states, England was 
 prepared, and would be contented, to see the mother country (by 
 virtue of an amicable arrangement) in possession of that preference ; 
 and to be ranked, after her, equally with others, on the footing of 
 the most favoured nation." 
 
 In the same conference the questions of consular agents 
 is thus disposed of by Mr. Canning : — 
 
 **That the mission of consuls to the several provinces of Spanish 
 America was no new measure on the part of this country : that it 
 was one which had, on the contrary, been delayed, perhaps too 
 long, in consideration of the state of Spain, after having been an- 
 nounced to the Spanish Government in the month of December 
 last, as settled ; and even after a list had been furnished to that 
 Government of the places to which such appointments were interided 
 to be made. 
 
 ^'That such appointments were absolutely necessary for the pro- 
 tection of British trade in those countries." 
 
 Three months later the British Government made another 
 attempt to induce Spain to profit by the opportunity afforded 
 her, of acquiring advantages in South America, by being the 
 first to recognize colonies she could no longer hope to re- 
 conquer. Mr. Canning (January 30th, 1824) expressed 
 himself in these terms : — 
 
 *' Should Spain resolve to avail herself of the opportunity yet 
 
40 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 within her power, the British Government would, if the Court of 
 Madrid desired it, willingly afford its countenance and aid to a 
 recognition, commenced on that only basis which appears to them 
 to be now practicable, and would see, without reluctance, the con- 
 clusion, through a negotiation on that basis, of an arrangement by 
 which the mother country should be secured in the enjoyment ot 
 commercial advantages superior to those conceded to other nations. 
 
 *' For herself, Great Britain asks no exclusive privileges of trade, 
 no insidious preference, but equal freedom of commerce for all. If 
 Spain should determine to persevere in the present counsels, it can- 
 not but be expected that Great Britain must take her own course 
 upon this matter, when the time for taking it shall arrive, of which 
 Spain shall have full and early intimation." 
 
 In the same despatch the English Government declares 
 in express terms its determination to take part with the 
 Colonies in the event of any attempt of mediation, and of 
 Congress, upon the conditions assumed of interference, 
 either by ^^ force or menace;" and we learn that the Powers, 
 who so proposed to interfere, were Austria, Russia, Prussia, 
 Portugal, the Netherlands, and the United States. 
 
 Lord Brougham, on the 3d Feb. 1824, said : — " Ferdi- 
 nand had been expressly assured by the Emperor Alexander, 
 that upon the destruction of the constitutional system he 
 would assist him to recover his Transatlantic dominions," 
 and he prognosticates as the result, '• that these countries 
 would be again brought under the iron rule of the mother- 
 country," and on these grounds he " applauded the course 
 taken by the United States," — who were acting in concert 
 with this same Emperor Alexander, — " and hoped that 
 England would follow in the same path '' But fortunately, 
 those who then ruled England neither sought the help of 
 Henry Brougham, nor were scared by his thunder. 
 
 It has been seen that the object of England was to 
 allow to Spain priority of negotiation, and therefore pre- 
 ference in treaties with her late colonies. The object of 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 41 
 
 the United States, as exposed in the Message to Congress 
 of 1825, was exactly the reverse. It is laid down as a fun- 
 damental maxim to prevent such concessions as " indispen- 
 sable to the effectual emancipation of the American hemis- 
 phere,^^ and it is enforced upon the South American States 
 '* that such concession to any European nation would be 
 incompatible with that independence which they have 
 declared and maintained," and on this the President 
 grounds the mission of representatives from the United 
 States to the Congress at Panama. 
 
 Mr. Quincy Adams, in a subsequent Message (1826,) 
 deplores the death of the Emperor Alexander, as a great 
 misfortune for the United States. He speaks of the ^'can- 
 did and confidential intercourse of sentiment between him 
 and the Government of the United States, upon the affairs 
 OF Southern America ;' and he points out " the necessity 
 in which the other Governments of Europe were thereby 
 placed, of sooner or later recognising the independence of 
 our neighbours." 
 
 Here then is seen, entirely from another source, the 
 agency of Russia in the questions at issue between Spain 
 and her Colonies. While moving at once the diplomacy of 
 Europe and the diplomacy of America, she was using them 
 in opposite senses. Employing in Europe the principle of 
 legitimacy, to induce them to form a congress, to restore by 
 force and threat, the supremacy of the Crown of Spain, — 
 employing in America the revolutionary tendencies and sym- 
 pathies of the United States, to lead them to a concert to 
 extort the independence of the Colonies from the Crown of 
 Spain ! 
 
 The American President goes on to shew that the policy 
 of Russia is not contingent upon the accidental biasses of a 
 chief, and that, as amongst us, the King does not die, so in 
 Russia policy does not change. 
 
 '* We have had the most satisfactory assurance that the sen- 
 
42 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 timents of the reigning Emperor towards the United States, are 
 altogether comformable to those which have so long and constantly 
 animated his Imperial Brother, and we have reason to hope that 
 they will serve to cement that harmony and good understand- 
 ing between the two nations, which, founded in congenial interests^ 
 cannot but result in advancement of the welfare and prosperity of 
 both." 
 
 Mr. Canning was, however, able and fortunate enough 
 to paralyse these projects, or at least to postpone their 
 execution for a time. He prevented European conferences 
 to decide upon the affairs of America, and caused to drop 
 from the hands of Russia the half forged additional chains 
 which she was about to place upon the necks of European 
 Cabinets, and dissolved the power of the attractions with 
 which she was drawing to herself the desires and the 
 policy of the United States. Preserving the faith of Eng- 
 land to law, and its obligations to Spain, he preserved also 
 his duties to British interest,s, and to the American Colo- 
 nies, and prevented the accumulation of incalculable con- 
 fusion and distraction upon Europe and America. It 
 was with a full sense of the difficulties with which he had to 
 contend, and of the triumph that he had effected over 
 them, that those memorable words of his were uttered, 
 though inteUigible only in the knowledge of those difficul- 
 ties, '* that he had called a new world into existence to 
 redress the balance of the old.'^ 
 
 At the opening of the Session of 1825, the following 
 announcement was made from the throne by the Commis- 
 sioners appointed to open Parliament: — 
 
 " In conformity with the declarations which have been repeatedly 
 made by his Majesty, his Majesty has taken measures for confirm- 
 ing by treaties the commercial relations already subsisting between 
 this kingdom and those countries of America, which appear to 
 have established their separation from Spain.*' 
 
 Such was the simplicity of this most grave announce- 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 43 
 
 ment, such the care even at this last moment, to fulfil the 
 conditions imposed upon the Government of this country, 
 as laid down by Lord Liverpool, as interfering in no way 
 between countries, one of whom claimed dominion over the 
 other, and of invalidating by no act the de jure rights of 
 Spain. 
 
 The discussion which took place upon the Address was 
 memorable as being one of the happiest oratorical efforts of 
 Mr. Canning.* The point at issue reduced itself indeed 
 to the simple one of the time and mode of execution. 
 The opposition did not question the recognition of the 
 provinces — it had been previously urging to that recogni- 
 tion. The Government now justified the time it had 
 chosen, and the mode it had adopted, and concurring with 
 the opposition upon all other points, it peculiarly upon these 
 entered its claim to merit and applause. 
 
 ** As to the propriety," says Mr. Canning, " of admitting the 
 independence of States that had successfully shaken off their de- 
 pendence on the mother country, to the rights of nations, there can 
 be no dispute. There were two ways of proceeding, where the case 
 was made questionable — recklessly and with a hurried course, or by 
 another so strictly guarded, that no principle should be violated, 
 and no offence should be given. The three States with which the 
 British Government had to deal were Buenos Ayres, Colombia, and 
 Mexico, and at no earlier period could any of them have been 
 recognized." 
 
 '* As to Buenos Ayres, it was undoubtedly true that the Spanish 
 forces were sent away many years since ; but it comprised thirteen 
 or fourteen small and separate states, which were not till very lately 
 collected into any federal union. Would it not have been an 
 absurdity to have treated with a power which was incapable of 
 answering for the conduct of the communities of which it was com- 
 posed ? So soon as it was known that a consolidation had taken 
 
 * it was on this occasion that he quoted and applied the 
 words, '* this is my thunder J' 
 
44 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 place, the treaty with Buenos Ayres was signed. Next, as to 
 Colombia. As late as 1 822 the last of the Spanish forces were 
 sent away from Porto Cabello, which was up till that time held for 
 the King of Spain. It was only since that time that Colombia 
 would have been admitted as a state having a separate existence. 
 Some time after that, however, Colombia chose to risk her whole 
 force, and a great part of her treasure, in a distant war with Spain 
 in Peru. Had that enterprise proved disastrous, the expedition 
 would have returned with the troops to re-establish the royal autho- 
 rity. The danger was now at an end. The case of Mexico was 
 still more striking. Not nine months ago, an adventurer who had 
 wielded the sceptre of Mexico, left these shores to return thither, 
 and re possess his abdicated throne. Was that a moment at which 
 this country ought to have interfered to decide, by recognition, the 
 government of Mexico ? The failure of the attempt of that adven- 
 turer afforded the opportunity for recognition ; and, the instant the 
 failure was known, the decision of the British Cabinet was taken. 
 Therefore, so far from the time being ill-chosen, or the measures 
 tardily adopted, it was not physically or morally possible to have 
 anticipated them even by a few weeks." 
 
 Coining then to deal with the mode of recognition, and 
 the objections respecting it, Mr. Canning says — 
 
 ** Was this mode of proceeding unsatisfactory, because there did 
 not exist in the archives of the Foreign Office, a single document 
 relative to this question, which Spain had not seen, and of which 
 the powers in alliance with this country had not been supplied with 
 copies ? Was this transaction deemed unsatisfactory, because Spain 
 was told, that if she would take precedence in recognising the 
 independence of the Colonies, this country would be content to 
 follow her steps, and to allow to her a priority in the markets of 
 those Colonies? Was the arrangement unsatisfactory, because pro- 
 ceeding alone, England disdained to take any unfair advantages of a 
 friendly State ? Was it unsatisfactory, because we saw, that who- 
 ever might follow us in recognising the independence of those 
 States, would be placed by our side, and would enjoy equal ad- 
 vantages with ourselves." 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 45 
 
 In the treaty proposed by Great Britain to Mexico, there 
 was the clause of the most favoured nation, but that clause 
 was restricted, allowing under certain restrictions, prefer- 
 ences to be given to Spain and to the South American 
 States. Moreover, tRere was no article containing a re- 
 cognition of the independence of Mexico. The Com- 
 mittee of the Mexican Congress, to which it was referred, 
 urged the Congress to reject it, and the Congress itself 
 expressed the wish that it should contain ** an express re- 
 cognition of independence." This the British Government 
 would not admit. 
 
 In the very same message in which is announced the 
 ratification of the treaty with Great Britain, is also announced 
 by the President to the Mexican Republic, that " the 
 frontier on the west and the north has been fortified with 
 particular care to the side of the Texas'' This was a period 
 of great financial embarrassments, and this was one of the 
 first applications made by Mexico of the sums borrowed 
 from England. 
 
 The proposed Congress of Panama was to be assembled, 
 not merely for the purpose of maintaining the conjoint in- 
 dependence of the South American States against '* the 
 common enemy'^ (Spain) ; but also for the purpose of adjust- 
 ing common principles of international law and internal 
 practice, to bring about *' good harmony amongst them- 
 selves, and free them from all European influence or domina- 
 tion," and further to extend that harmony " throughout the 
 world." In these propositions we may find the interpreta- 
 tion of the " candid and confidential communication" 
 between the United States and the Russian Government, 
 respecting " the afiairs of Southern America." 
 
 *' The general Congress which the South American Republics 
 proposed to hold at Panama held out to the United States," says 
 the Annual Register, " an opportunity of forming with themselves a 
 connection exclusive of all European influence, which would make 
 North America, in some measure, a member of their own body, and 
 
46 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 secure to it preferences and a preponderance to which European 
 powers, who took no part in the deliberations of the assembled repre- 
 sentatives, could not hope to aspire." 
 
 The Union would rather have made the Southern 
 States dependencies of the Northern, and that not by the 
 exclusion of '*all European influence," but through a 
 European influence, and one equally interested in gaining 
 an ascendancy over the United States, and in convulsing the 
 Southern Republics, if only to prevent their produce from 
 coming into competition with her own. With strange 
 inconsistency, the same authority which argues that the 
 United States sought to exclude European influence, repre- 
 sents Russia as supporting their views " warmly at Madrid." 
 
 At the very moment that these philanthropic objects were 
 put forward by the United States, they were making the 
 same insidious preparation for breaking down the authority 
 of Mexico that they had so recently been applying to Spain. 
 
 In 1825 the fortification of the Texas frontier had been 
 provided for. How necessary the precaution appeared in 
 the subsequent year, when a revolt broke out in the Texas. 
 The insurgents on the 16th December, 1826, declared their 
 independence, assumed the title of the Republic of Fre- 
 donia, and entered into treaties of alliance with the neigh- 
 bouring Indian tribes. '* This event was believed to have 
 taken place, if not at the instigation yet with the knowledge 
 and connivance of the United States. The Mexican Con- 
 gress appropriated £500,000. for the expedition for the 
 repression of the insurrection ; but the rebellion was put 
 down without assistance from Mexico, by the troops in the 
 country and its inhabitants ; the dispersed insurgents took 
 refuge amongst the Indians and in the territory of the United 
 States."''^ This is the interpretation of those principles of 
 general harmony and benevolence which Russia assisted 
 -the United States to urge at Madrid, and which the United 
 States, through the Congress of Panama and subsequently 
 * Annual Register, 1827. 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 47 
 
 of Tacubaya, endeavoured to establish throughout the 
 " American Continent," and which were thence to be ex- 
 tended " throughout the world !" 
 
 At the close of the year 1827, the President says : '* Since 
 the accession of the Emperor Nicholas to the Imperial 
 throne of all the Russias, the friendly dispositions towards 
 the United States, so constantly maintained by his pre- 
 decessor, continue unabated, and have recently been 
 testified by the appointment of a Minister Plenipotentiary 
 to reside at this place." Thus then had the harmony in- 
 dured throughout, full and complete at its close as pro- 
 mising at its commencement. 
 
 At the opaning of the Drama, the parts are distributed 
 as they now appear at the close of the first act. The United 
 States preying on the Southern Republics and secretly 
 prompted by Russia, while France stands hanging between, 
 urged and used by both. There is this difference, however, 
 that England is changed from protector to betrayer. 
 
 It seems impossible to imagine that the same nation, and 
 within the same generation, should present examples of 
 characters so opposite, and of conduct so contradictory. 
 Her conduct in the first instance was not the result of 
 caprice, but in obedience to the laws ; in the second, our 
 acts are in rebellion against those very laws, in opposition to 
 interests the most clear, in sacrifice of the most distinctly 
 established rights, and in defiance of the most strongly 
 pronounced opinions and sympathies. 
 
 We conclude this reference to our past conduct in respect 
 to the Spanish Colonies, by repeating what we have already 
 noticed, that in the treaties ratified in 1826, between 
 England and the former Colonies of Spain, the condition 
 was established, that slavery should be extirpated from 
 their soil. In taking part with the American freebooters 
 that have robbed Texas, we have supported them against 
 the mother state and our Treaties in the establishment of 
 slavery ! 
 
48 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 Conduct of England towards Texas and Mexico, 
 
 UNDER THE New ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 The administration to whom pertained the Pbreign 
 Minister whose acts in Texas we have described, was driven 
 from office in 1^41. On the accession of their opponents, 
 a reversion of a course so criminal and incomprehensible 
 as that pursued in Texas, and in regard to Mexico and 
 the United States -might have been considered, not as a 
 consequence only, but as of necessity, involved in the 
 change which England had effected in her governors. But 
 nothing of what was rational, — nothing of what was ex- 
 pected, — nothing of what was requisite was done. Nor 
 was it cold indifference alone that was manifested by the 
 new chiefs of England to a position of such imbecile infamy ; 
 but their apathy was coloured with the show of approval — 
 they sent a Consul -General to Texas. They choose for that 
 officer one selected by their predecessor for buccaneering 
 expeditions in the other hemisphere, and marked thus at 
 once by this eloquent selection their adoption of the policy 
 of their predecessor, and their sympathy with the pursuits 
 and character of Texas. 
 
 Definite language or specific act in reference to Texas, 
 we have not from Lord Aberdeen, until two years and some 
 days after his appointment to the office of disposer of Great 
 Britain ; — it is then no act of his —it is in reply to empty 
 words uttered in the House of Lords. 
 
 Lord Brougham was, on the 18th August, 1843, " irre- 
 sistibly anxious* for the abolition of slavery in Texas," and 
 " knew the Texans would do much as regarded the abolition 
 of slavery, if Mexico could be induced to recognize their in- 
 dependence," and " if by our good offices we could get the 
 Mexican government to acknowledge the independence of 
 
 * It is a pity that this anxiety did not lead him to read the trea- 
 tieS; and then to consult some work on international law. 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 49 
 
 Texas, it might terminate in the abolition of slavery in 
 Texas, and ultimately the whole of the Southern States in 
 America.'' 
 
 Lord Aberdeen, thereupon, said that he was endeavour- 
 ing *' to procure from Mexico the recognition of Texas^* 
 and that he "need hardly say that every effort on the 
 part of Her Majesty's Government would lead to that 
 result which was contemplated by his noble friend ; that no 
 one was more anxious than himself to see the abolition of 
 slavery in Texas," which would be " pressed" hy ^^negotia- 
 tions and every other means in the power of Government." 
 
 Supposing that Lord Aberdeen had meant what he said, 
 and that with the power of England at his disposal, he had 
 intended to interfere in the affairs of a foreign state, to 
 change its internal constitution, then would this have been 
 an announcement to the United States of a danger of the 
 greatest magnitude, and the revelation on the part of Great 
 Britain of a conspiracy of the blackest die, giving to the 
 United States the power of appealing to every civihzed 
 community for support and assistance in the war for exist- 
 ence into which it was impelled. But the words of Lord 
 Aberdeen were simply breath, mere gossip, and every man 
 in both hemispheres knew that they were so ; and he con- 
 cludes with excusing himself from expressing any opinion on 
 the subject ; in fact, he was not aware that he had said any 
 thing. Nevertheless this conversation has been made the 
 foundation of the subsequent proceedings of the United 
 States, and not without reason, as the very insignificance of 
 the words uttered made them to the United States of the 
 deepest importance. 
 
 Mr. Everett, on Nov. 3rd, 1 843, writes :— 
 
 " In obedience to your instructions, I alluded to the agency 
 which the British government were supposed to be exercising to 
 procure the abolition of slavery in Texas. Lord Aberdeen said 
 he was glad I had mentioned this subject, for it was one on wMch 
 
^50 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 he intended himself to make some observations. His attention 
 had been called to some suggestions in the American papers in 
 favour of the annexation of Texas to the Union, by way of coun- 
 teracting the designs imputed to England ; and he would say, that 
 if this measure WERE undertaken on aky such grounds, it 
 would be wholly without provocation.^^ 
 
 To say that if undertaken on such grounds it would be 
 without provocation, is to concede to the United States the 
 right to take -this step if one pleased. 
 
 Mr. Everett reporting, Lord Aberdeen proceeds : — 
 
 *' England had acknowledged the independence of Texas, and 
 had treated and would continue to treat her as an independent 
 power. That England had long been pledged to encourage the 
 abolition of the slave trade and of slavery, as far as her influence 
 extended, and in every proper way, but had no wish to interfere in 
 the internal concerns of foreign governments. She gave her advice 
 where she thought it would be acceptable in favour of the aboli- 
 tion of slavery, but nothing more. In reference to Texas, the sug- 
 gestion that England had made or intended to make the abolition 
 of slavery the condition of any treaty arrangement with herj 
 was wholly without foundation. It had never been alluded to in 
 that connection." 
 
 Lord Aberdeen repels as an injurious imputation, that 
 which it was his duty to have enforced. It was a right which 
 he ought to have obtained for England, had it not been 
 already secured to her by Canning. 
 
 We continue to quote Lord Aberdeen. What he can 
 utter is truly wonderful. 
 
 " General Hamilton, as commissioner from Texas, had proposed 
 that England should make or guarantee a loan to Texas, to be used 
 to aid her in obtaining from Mexico the recognition of her inde- 
 pendence, and in other ways to promote the development of her re- • 
 •sources ; and he himself (Lord Aberdeen) had at first thought 
 somewhat favourably of the proposition, considering Texas as a fine 
 promising country, which it would be good policy to help through 
 her temporary embarrassments. But on mentioning the project to 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 31 
 
 his colleagues, they deemed it wholly inexpedient, nor did he him- 
 self continue to give it countenance ; nor was the loan, as proposed 
 by General Hamilton, and at first favourably viewed by himself, in 
 the slightest degree connected with the abolition of slavery as a 
 condition or consequence. In the course of the last summer he 
 had been waited upon, as he supposed I was aware at the time, by 
 a deputation of American abolitionists, who were desirous of engag- 
 ing the British government in some such measure, (viz., of a loan 
 connected with the abolition of slavery), but that he had given them 
 no countenance whatever. He had informed them that, by every 
 proper means of influence he would encourage the abolition of 
 slavery, and that he had recommended the Mexican Govern- 
 ment TO INTEREST ITSELF IN THE MATTER ; but he told them at 
 
 the outset that he should consider himself bound in good faith to 
 repeat every thing that might pass between them to the Texan 
 Charge d'affaires." 
 
 By England's treaty with Mexico in 1826, the federative 
 states of that republic bound the territories appertaining 
 to them, to a total abolition of slavery. That obligation is 
 inherent to the soil. Texas could not, by separating from 
 the United States of Mexico, free herself from it, even 
 though that de facto independence claimed for her should 
 have been secured de jure by an unconditional recogni- 
 tion of Mexico. England had not caused the insertion of a 
 special clause reiterative of this obligation, but she had 
 inserted no clause discharging either England or Texas from 
 their mutual obligations ; she required to exercise no agency^ 
 
 * What the agency was that England employed in Texas to pro- 
 mote her views, the American agents suflSciently represent, in 
 describing the hoax played off on Lord Aberdeen about the loan; 
 beyond this there was the agent sent by Lord Durham from 
 Canada to Texas, to preach war against Mexico, extol slavery, and 
 proclaim the *' acquisitive instincts " of the Anglo Saxon race ; and 
 this was the aspirant to place in Texas, the confidentially consulted 
 of the Foreign Office, and the sole instructor of, and authority to 
 
 the British nation on Texan politics. 
 
 D 2 
 
^2 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 to procure abolition of slavery in any portion of the then 
 existing Mexican territory. She had kept silent on the past 
 infraction, awaiting the termination of this contest, but this 
 proceeding of the representative of the United States, re- 
 quired, if any thing could require, that an end be put to 
 suspense, and the right of England asserted. Had such — 
 the statement of the case — been the British minister's reply, 
 the matter was at once closed ; but had such reply been 
 possible, the case would not have arisen. Lord Aberdeen 
 was estimated from the hour of his entrance into office, or 
 long before. The interview was a gossiping forth of opinion 
 on his part, warily drawn forth and recorded by the crafty 
 American, and then sent back to Lord Aberdeen to confirm. 
 
 But, as if this had not sufficiently compromised Eng- 
 land, Lord Aberdeen recapitulates all his untutored anxiety 
 in a despatch to Mr. Pakenham, for communication to the 
 United States' Secretary of State ; in which he says, that 
 Her Majesty's Government " have put themselves forward 
 " in pressing the Government of Mexico to acknowledge 
 '* Texas as independent," and that with regard thereto, they 
 ** avow that they wish to see slavery abolished there, as else- 
 *' where^ and they should rejoice if the recognition of that 
 " country J^ the Mexican Government should be accompanied 
 "*' BY AN ENGAGEMENT on the part of Texas to abolish slavery 
 ** eventually^ and, under proper conditions ^ throughout the 
 " republic." 
 
 Puerile as all this is, the heart sinks as it dwells on the 
 solemnity of the transactions, the magnitude of the interests 
 thus bartered away in vain sounds ; words without substance 
 or application, taking the place of language consistent with 
 a position of undoubted right and acknowledged power. 
 The words of Lord Aberdeen amount to an avowal of a 
 desire to make Mexico impose that condition of things on 
 Texas which is the object of the fears of the United States. 
 Fearful of an act of energy made in the behalf and in the 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 53 
 
 name of England, that of Mexico is put forward ; to her it 
 is left to do that which the act of England disqualifies her 
 from performing. This cowardly purpose is perceptible 
 amid useless sentences, uncalled-for observations, and 
 general propositions, all of which serve him nothing and are 
 turned against him. His declarations of integrity, his pro- 
 pitiations of favour serve him not, his empty propositions are 
 returned upon him, to overwhelm him. Lord Aberdeen's 
 communication is reported on the 3d of November, 1843, 
 it is not answered till the 13th of April, 1844. The honest 
 man has deemed his favour ripening, — and lo his words have 
 brought forth the Annexation Treaty ! The day after it 
 is signed the American Government deign to reply by com- 
 municating the treaty in a despatch the most insulting that 
 ever was addressed by overbearing despot to cringing slave. 
 Mr. Calhoun* says that he is directed by the President 
 of the United States to express the — 
 
 '*deep concern excited by the avowal for the first time made ta 
 this government, 'that Great Britain desires, and is constantly 
 exerting herself to procure, the general abolition of slavery through- 
 out the world.' " 
 
 ** It is with still deeper concern the President regards the avowal 
 of Lord Aberdeen, of the desire of Great Britain to see slavery 
 abolished in Texas ; and, as he infers, is endeavouring, through 
 her diplomacy, to accomplish it, by making the abolition of slavery 
 ONE OF THE CONDITIONS ON WHICH Mexico SHOULD acknowledge 
 her independence. It has confirmed his previous impressions as 
 to the policy of Great Britain in reference to Texas, and made it his 
 
 * In this despatch there is the unblushing avowal that the Texan 
 insurgents were American citizens. He says, **It was the Spanish 
 Government and Mexico herself that invited and offered high pre- 
 miums to our citizens to colonize Texas." There have been before 
 now men treacherous and ungrateful, but they have never before 
 made parade of their ingratitude, nor urged it as giving them a right 
 to punish or destroy their benefactor. 
 
54 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 duty to examine with much care and solicitude what would be Us 
 effects on the prosperity and safety of the United States should she 
 succeed in her endeavours. * * * Under this conviction it is felt to 
 be the imperious duty of the federal government, the common 
 representative and ^ro^ecior of the States of the Union, to adopt, in 
 self-defence, the most effectual measures to defeat it." 
 
 "Texas would expose the weakest and most vulnerable portion of 
 our frontier to inroads, and place in the power of Great Britain 
 the most efficient means of effecting in the neighbouring States of 
 this Union what she avows to be her desire to do in all countries 
 where slavery exists.'* 
 
 '* The President directs me to inform you that a treaty has 
 BEEN CONCLUDED between the United States and Texas for the 
 ANNEXATION of the latter to the former as a part of its terri- 
 TORV, which will be submitted without delay to the Senate for its 
 approval. This step has been taken as the most effectual, if 
 not the only means of guarding against the threatened danger 
 and securing their permanent peace and welfare.'^ 
 
 England had to act, she fails to do so, but gives words, 
 and words of no avail, destructive of her power and nonsen- 
 sical. On the other hand, the United States, thus strength- 
 ened, encouraged and armed, acts, and the act is as bold as 
 it is flagrant and decisive. 
 
 Treaty between Texas and the United States. 
 
 Article 1. Cedes to the United States all its territories, 
 to be held by the United States in full property and sove- 
 reignty. It is a cession of territories to be held as such ; 
 there is no naention of state or annexation. 
 
 2. The citizens of Texas are incorporated in the Union. 
 
 3. Titles and claims to real estate recognized. 
 
 4. Public lands to be regulated as other public lands 
 of the Union. 
 
 5. The United States assume the debts and liabilities 
 of Texas. No mention of foreign debt, or of liability for 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 55 
 
 Mexican debt. The debt so assumed, shall not exceed 
 10,000,000 dollars. 
 
 5. Settles a Commission for the liquidation of the debts. 
 
 6. Texan laws to be maintained, and officers retained, 
 until new provision, excepting the President, Vice-Presi- 
 dent, and heads of Departments. 
 
 7. Commissioner of the United States to receive the 
 transfer of territory, archives, and public property ; '* and he 
 
 SHALL EXERCISE ALL EXECUTIVE AUTHORITy IN SUCH TER- 
 RITORY.** 
 
 This treaty is thus not of Annexation, but of Sur- 
 render; it is not a state annexed, but a province acquired. 
 The Federal Government takes possession of the public 
 property, archives, &c. and sends a Commission to adminis- 
 ter the internal laws — its present Government being dis- 
 posed of by simply excepting "President, Vice-President, 
 and heads of departments," in the article stipulating the 
 conditional continuance in their functions of the inferior 
 officers. 
 
 Texas is to be incorporated without a voice in Congress, 
 so that the objection of the New England States on the 
 score of slavery is removed, and Texan equality adjourned 
 until compensation can be had on the north. 
 
 Texas is brought under the international stipulations 
 existing between the United States and Foreign Powers, to 
 the abrogation of its own. 
 
 Its laws are confirmed, so slavery is established. 
 
 No foreign debt is provided for, and a stipulation, limit- 
 ing the amount of its debts, excludes foreign debt and 
 liabilities. 
 
 The United States is to liquidate internal debts, and ap- 
 propriates for that purpose a sum greatly exceeding the 
 debits, as presented in the Texan documents. 
 
 But there are treaty stipulations existing between Eng- 
 land and Mexico, and between England and Texas, which 
 
56 
 
 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 directly, on two general grounds, bring the question to 
 issue, and constitute this annexation a casus belli against 
 Texas. Our treaty with Mexico stipulates the aboli- 
 tion of slaver3\ This treaty binds all the parts of the 
 Mexican republic — the separation of a portion from the 
 rest abrogates the treaty in neither; for, if the separation 
 of Texas from Mexico could discharge Texas, so would 
 the separation of Mexico from Texas discharge Mexico : 
 nor can the transfer, however legitimate, of a territory 
 from one crown to another, take off any burden; it 
 passes with its rights and duties, its debts, credits, privileges, 
 and obligations. No more can incorporation with the 
 United States, than separation from Mexico invalidate 
 that treaty; and slavery in Texas is an infraction of that 
 treaty, and if, on appeal, continued, is a casus belli. 
 The treaty is therefore, — 
 
 1 . A violation of the treaty rights of England in Texas 
 as a part of Mexico, in respect to internal slavery. 
 
 2. A violation of the treaty rights of England with Texas, 
 as regards th3 right of search. 
 
 3. A violation of the obligation of Texas to British capi- 
 talists, as conjointly contracted with Mexico, and is a usur- 
 pation, by the United States, of the property mortgaged to 
 England for the payment of the Mexican debt. 
 
 This is on the hypothesis that the United States denies 
 existing obligations. Not denying them, and accepting 
 Texas with its burdens, the United States Government 
 takes upon itself, — 
 
 1st, The obligations imposed by England's treaty with 
 Mexico, to extinguish slavery in Texas — 2ndly, to hold the 
 land mortgaged to the Mexican bondholders in Texas at 
 their disposal — 3dly, to fulfil, with respect to Texas, the 
 mutual obligations of Right of Visit. 
 
 These obligations, it is for the English Minister to 
 enforce, and here the question is brought to the sim- 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 57 
 
 plest issue. Not doing so he is guilty. From the mo- 
 ment that the British Minister foregoes those rights, it is 
 no longer for England a question with the United States. 
 Her enemy is within, it is a culprit you have to bring to 
 justice ; and, retaining such a one as your Minister, — are 
 you serious when you speak of extrication or relief? 
 
 An American statesman, writing subsequently to the sig- 
 nature of the treaty, says : — 
 
 ** If the Government of the United States, were to ac- 
 quire Texas, it would acquire along with it all the incum- 
 brances that Texas is under." 
 
 And again, 
 
 " Should Texas be annexed to the Union, the United 
 States will assume and become responsible for the debt of 
 Texas, be its amount what it may ; and this responsibility 
 will exist whether there be a stipulation in the treaty or 
 not expressly assuming the payment of the debt of Texas. 
 For I suppose it to be undeniable, that if one nation becomes 
 incorporated in another, all the debts, and obligations, and 
 incumbrances, and wars of the incorporated nation become 
 the debts, and obligations, and incumbrances, and wars of 
 the common nation created by the incorporation." 
 
 Texas comprises the largest area of conjoined upland 
 and alluvial soil in the known world. It is capable of grow- 
 ing rice, indigo, cotton, sugar, coffee, tobacco, silk, and all 
 tropical produce ; it consists of above 200,000,000 acres of 
 flooded and arable land ; it is estimated as being capable of 
 forming two slave and three free labour states; 136,000,000 
 of acres are unoccupied and public property, that is, Mexi- 
 can property. The remainder is illegally occupied, and 
 is forfeit by violation of the original compact, or has been 
 taken possession of by fraudulent contrivance. This pro- 
 perty, equal in dimensions to France, but many times 
 exceeding it in capabilities of production, would, by the 
 treaty, pass into the hands of the Federal Government. 
 
58 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 The value will depend entirely on the stream of emi- 
 gration directed upon the Republic, but exceeding in 
 resources, fertility, and facility of communication, the ad- 
 vantages which any other unoccupied regions possess, it is 
 a property which may be made more rapidly productive 
 than any other of a similar description. 
 
 Forty-five millions of acres have been mortgaged to 
 British subjects by the Mexican Government, at five 
 shillings per acre — the Texan Government has disposed 
 of other lands to British adventurers at fifteen shillings ; 
 at what sum, then, shall we set down the value of these 
 350,000 square miles, to the United States? Shall' it 
 be 10 millions sterling, or 50, or 100, or 200« millions ? 
 The latter is a small sum compared with what that country 
 may produce, and yet it may be the dearest purchase that 
 ever has been made. We must, however, take the United 
 States as intelligently acquiring this property, and therefore 
 calculate on its due application, and in this sense we may 
 rate it at the largest of these sums. 
 
 We have seen here that there is one and the same question 
 made out of Texan annexation and slavery abolition. These 
 two are resolved into one by the United States, — they 
 present themselves, therefore, as one to us. 
 
 England has paid 20 millions sterling, to do away with 
 slavery in her own colonies, and these colonies are going 
 into decay ; the United States establishes slavery in inde- 
 pendent regions, making them thereby her own in absolute 
 possession. England has paid about 30 millions to support 
 the independence of an " infant state," to wit, Mexico; and 
 the land mortgaged to her for repayment of a portion of her 
 lien, passes to the United States : she supporting the " infant" 
 of Texas, breaks England's lien, and acquires in land four 
 times its amount. Thus has England, on the conjoint 
 Texan and slavery questions, sacrificed £50,000,000 — the 
 United States have gained £200,000,000. We, by losing 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 59 
 
 our money, sacrifice our objects ; they, gaining money, have 
 realised theirs. This booty, secured by the United States 
 is obtained through the very pretence of hostility to Eng- 
 land, and by obtaining it, the means are prepared to achieve 
 the confiscation in the North, of other British property in- 
 finitely exceeding, for the present, even this gigantic gain ; 
 and that is the territories, mines, and fisheries of Canada, 
 Kova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Cape Breton. 
 
 But, it may be said, if England's mortgage on Texas is 
 wiped out, she still has recourse against Mexico. What 
 will be the answer of Mexico to such a pretension ? *' You 
 have endeavoured to force us to recognise the independence 
 of a province where you had nothing to do, making it a con- 
 dition that your own mortgage should be broken, even upon 
 the unoccupied land, our property, which it contained. 
 We protested in your interest against your act — we wipe 
 our hands clean of all bonds to you — and hold you respon- 
 sible for the loss, thrice exceeding your own, which you have 
 entailed upon us. There stands your own act — there stands 
 our protest recorded against it."" 
 
 The message of the President conveying the treaty, is 
 of course a verbose pleading of advantage, and an impu- 
 dent asserting of pure and upright motives, or repudiation 
 of all spirit of *' unjust aggrandizement." But the essen- 
 tials of this document are in reference to France and 
 England. 
 
 France has no possessions to be endangered in the West- 
 ern Hemisphere. France has herself entertained there 
 projects of aggrandisement ; at one time leaning to schemes 
 for the subversion of the existing powers, at another hav- 
 ing recourse to open assaults upon them. Her ambition 
 has been directed thither, not for acquisition only but to 
 gain maritime power, and this has been pursued in secret 
 long years ago, at the direct suggestion of the Russian go- 
 vernment, as a means of placing France in hostility with 
 
60 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 England.* France has not long since most cruelly 
 wounded Mexico. It is not then to France that Mexico 
 will turn for protection, either rel}ing on her sense of jus- 
 tice or her good-will, or through apprehensions whicli she 
 might entertain from Mexico's enemy. All these conside- 
 rations act in an opposite sense. Further, the feelings of 
 England and France are not estranged only hut mutually 
 emhittered, and their relations are so precarious that it is 
 attributed as a success and merit to the minister of the lat- 
 ter country that he has kept them at peace. France must, 
 therefore, not only look to ingratiate herself with the 
 United States, but to foster ill-will between them and Eng- 
 land. It is with those considerations duly weighed and 
 perfectly understood that the step of Mr. Tyler is taken. 
 But of course the Message can contain no direct allusion 
 to such a subject, and human ingenuity could not con- 
 trive the means of bringing France into such a document. 
 In the very first paragraph appears the word France ! 
 
 " Should this treaty meet with your approval, the govern- 
 ment will have succeeded in reclaiming a territory which 
 formerly constituted a portion, as it is confidently believed, 
 of its domain under the Treaty of Cession of 1803,=* by 
 France to the United States." 
 
 The proposition could only render the matter ludicrous 
 — but that it is a signal flung out to the French people, 
 from whom the United States derive their rights. Absurd 
 as a statement, this becomes respectable as a deception. 
 Mr. Tyler commences then with saying, France is with 
 you : you flatter her by this act ; you gratify her hatred ta 
 England and encourage it. 
 
 It might be supposed in this country, that upon such 
 an occasion all allusion to England would be carefully 
 avoided, as it was England they would have to fear and 
 
 * Chateaubriand's Congress of Verona. 
 
 t The treaty of 1803 was abrogated by the treaty of 1819. 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 61 
 
 propitiate. But the President has only his own compa- 
 triots to apprehend, and these he can combat only through 
 the animosit}'^ against England, of which he seeks to con- 
 stitute himself the leader, and which he has in his hands 
 so wonderful an occasion for exasperating. 
 
 " Least of all was the Executive ignorant of the anxiety of 
 other Powers to induce Mexico to enter into terms of reconcilia- 
 tion with Texas, which, affecting the domestic institutions of 
 Texas, would operate most injuriously upon the United States, and 
 might most seriously threaten the existence of this happy union. 
 Nor could it be unacquainted with the fact, that although foreign 
 Governments might disavow all design to disturb the relations 
 which exist under the constitution between these States, yet that 
 one, the most powerful amongst them, had not failed to declare 
 its marked and decided hostility to the chief features in those 
 relations, and its purpose, on all suitable occasions, to urge upon 
 Mexico the adoption of such a course in negotiating with Texas 
 as to produce the obliteration of that feature from her domestic 
 policy, as one of the conditions of her recognition by Mexico as 
 an independent State. The Executive was also aware of the 
 fact, that formidable associations of persons, the subjects of 
 foreign Powers, existed, who were directing their utmost efforts 
 to the accomplishment of this object.'* 
 
 He then farther goes on to represent, that England had 
 ambitious views upon Texas; he asserts, that the annexation 
 treaty is a measure of seU-defence,— defence against Eng- 
 land to be made at the expense of Mexico. We have before 
 shewn that England supported Texas without enforcing 
 her treaty-right in the abolition of slaver)^ The corre- 
 spondence published in America shews that Lord Aberdeen 
 had positively declared against any interposition on the 
 part of England in this matter. Every thing that could 
 favour the designs of the United States upon Texas had, 
 therefore, been done by two successive British governments. 
 More could not have been done had Mr. Tyler dictated 
 
G2 ON THE ANNEXATIOIS 
 
 to either English minister his course. Lord Aberdeen had, 
 moreover, explained, in the manner the most satisfactory 
 that could be for Mr. Tyler, his expressions in the House 
 of Lords of the 18th August, and denied the imputation 
 cast upon him. The statements of the President are there- 
 fore falsehoods, designed not to deceive but to degrade. 
 The diplomatic documents are published with them, in 
 order that that falsehood may appear. It is in the force 
 of insult, and in the weight of contumely, that his gain 
 lies, because England's degradation.* And well he knows 
 that he had to deal with one who would neither resist in 
 deed, nor reply in word, and be alike cowed and bewil- 
 dered by the audacity of the act, and the turpitude of the 
 man. The Anti-Slavery Association is then forced into 
 the service of this inflammatory manifesto, linking its 
 rhetoric and Lord Aberdeen's designs. 
 
 This document is for Europe and the world; it is the 
 announcement, as well as the exposition of a startling 
 event. The world is told what Mr. Tyler can dare — and, 
 as they will soon see, with impunity and success. This is 
 in connexion with the question of the Slave Trade, there- 
 fore also with the Right of Search ; to France and Ger- 
 many the matter is brought home, and an opportunity 
 afforded to each of adjoining themselves to this harmless 
 course of excitement and popularity. Thus has the English 
 Government by, as it fancies, w^ishing well to all men and 
 doing their best, succeeded in entangling question after 
 question, and the knot of each difficulty ravels all the 
 cords and tightens all the meshes.f 
 
 * Russia studiously exhibited to the Eastern world the lawless- 
 ness of her seizure of the Vixen, for, in like manner, in that lay the 
 value to her of the act. 
 
 + The project of a discriminating duty on slave-grown sugar comes 
 on the top of this to lay on fresh meshes on the one side, and heap 
 new disturbance to public law on the other. In your treaties wherein 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 63 
 
 ** One circumstance," says the Times, " however, which renders 
 this treaty more inexplicable than it would have been at any other 
 moment is, that an armistice, dated the 9th of March, had been 
 concluded between the authorities of Mexico and Texas for the pur- 
 pose of enabling them to bring their negotiations for the pacifica- 
 tion and independence of Texas to a conclusion before the 1st of 
 May. In this very interval of time, however, and at the very 
 moment at which the Texan Commissioners are supposed to be 
 at the city of Mexico under a safe conduct, for the adjustment 
 of their quarrel and the recognition of their independence, we 
 ■iearn that another treaty has been signed at Austin to merge this 
 barely acquired sovereignty, this unfledged independence, in the 
 Union ; and that not even with the privileges of a State, but in 
 the humbler capacity of a territory, sending one member to the 
 JSenate.'* 
 
 By this suspension of hostilities was the way paved for 
 the annexation treaty, and tJiis suspension was brought about 
 hy the agency of England. Her intervention was made 
 public by proclamation in Texas ! England, then, by Mr. 
 Tyler's act, appears in Mexico as conspiring against her with 
 the United States. She is, by Mr. Tyler's word, represented in 
 Europe and America as conspiring against the United States 
 with Mexico ? England has neither a hand to resist nor a 
 tongue to deny ; she has only a hand for her foes' assist- 
 ance, and a tongue for his use. Mr. Tyler, can at once 
 employ her docile agency and denounce her insidious 
 ■designs. 
 
 Means used by the United States' Government to 
 
 OBTAIN the Treaty from Texas. 
 The United States have presented themselves in this 
 act, and throughout, as fostering and protecting the Texas — 
 
 you have granted the ** rights of the most favoured nation," you 
 asked no question about slaves and contrived no provision against their 
 produce. What is this pandering to declaimers at home but fur- 
 nishing new bitterness to those who arc not your foes and new 
 weapons to those who are ? 
 
64< ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 but their protection has been that of the " wolf to the lamb," 
 according to the simile which they seem to delight to apply 
 to England in their official documents — their protection has 
 been the hug of the bear, such as Serbia or Wallachia have 
 felt ; but here the design is not covered with Muscovite 
 art, it is openly and unblushingly avowed. In the English 
 manifesto, on declaring war, there would require nothing 
 but their own words hereafter quoted. 
 
 The American Secretary of State directs the most intent care 
 and anxiety to be given to prevent Texas from acquiring 
 "a separate legislature,'^ or even a *' quasi independence. ''* 
 
 The proposal of annexation did not proceed from Texas ; 
 there is not even a collusive supplication obtained from 
 the weak state ; it is on the proposal, and the threat of the 
 strong ! It was first made after the conversation in the 
 House of Lords, and was finally and absolutely urged, after 
 the receipt of Lord Aberdeen's explanations, in a lengthened 
 despatch, dated Washington, 16th of January, 1844. But 
 before examining this document, it is necessary to state 
 that the present proposal must not be confounded with that 
 originally made to the United States by the Texan Govern- 
 ment. That proposal came while as yet no act of Congress 
 had been passed, and when the band of freebooters had not 
 been dandled and swaddled by foreign diplomacy, and 
 docketted with the style and title of independence and of 
 sovereignty. While distracted between the agonies of pre- 
 tension and the anxieties of alarm, they proposed not to 
 become an annexed territory, or to extinguish themselves 
 as a state; they offered an "amalgamation of flags" only, 
 and association to the Union, " with full reservation of their 
 sovereign rights." This the United States rejected, but 
 recognized their independence. Texas then formally with- 
 drew the proposal, in order to facilitate negotiations for 
 recognition by the powers of Europe : and it was on the 
 impresssion conveyed of reality in that independence, and 
 * Despatch of Mr. Upshur, November IS, 1843. 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 65 
 
 of the absence of designs on the part of the United States, 
 evinced by the rejection of the proposal of annexation, that 
 the recognition of Texas was obtained from the European 
 Governments, or excused by those Governments to their 
 nations. These results being now realized, again in 1842, 
 as we learn from a note of the Mexican Commissioners,* 
 an informal renewal of the negotiation on the part of Texas 
 took place. On what terms we are not informed, but it 
 was again withdrawn in August last — that is to say, at the 
 very time of the conversation in the House of Lords, which 
 gave to the United States the occasion to proceed, as already 
 shewn. The proposal was made on the 16th October. 
 
 After commenting on the rejection by Texas of its pro- 
 posal, the American Government proceeds to say — 
 
 ** It is quite natural that they should be disinclined to hazard 
 the friendship of other -powers, and particularly of England, by 
 an appeal to the United States, which might not be successful.'* 
 
 It then applies itself to remove grounds of ill-will and 
 doubts of the readiness of the nation to come into the views 
 of the President, which he is ready to support by his " treaty- 
 making power.'' 
 
 '* When the measure was first suggested, although the entire 
 south was in favour of it, as they still are, it found few friends 
 among the statesmen of the other states. Now, the north, to a great 
 extent, are not only favourable to, but anxious for it, and every day 
 increases the popularity of the measure simong those who originally 
 opposed it. Measures have been taken to ascertain the opinions and 
 views of senators upon the subject,, and it is found that a clear con- 
 stitutional majority of two-thirds are in favour of the measure. There 
 is not, in my opinion, the slightest doubt of the ratification of a 
 treaty of annexation, should Texas agree to make one." 
 
 The representative of the United States is instructed " to 
 urge" upon the Texan President '* the absolute necessity of 
 
 * 15th April, 1844. 
 
 £ 
 
66 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 annexation, with reference to the interests, s.rid possiblf/ the 
 safety, of both countries.'* 
 
 The despatch then deals with the question of England, 
 and repeats the arguments used with the Minister in Lon- 
 don, which, by such use must acquire certainly increased 
 efficacy with the Texan Government. 
 
 " My views are, in fact, disclosed in a despatch addressed to Mr. 
 Everett, at London, of wliich a copy is enclosed. To these may be 
 added the following considerations : — Tf^Aa/ motive cati England 
 have for a disinterested friendship towards Texas? Friendship 
 between nations is never disinterested, but in this case even the 
 common feeling of national kindness cannot be presumed to exist. 
 The policy of England is purely commercial. Her object is to 
 engross the commerce of the world ; by diplomacy, if she can, and 
 by force if she must. On this subject she will expect, and ulti- 
 mately compel^ concessions from Texas, which Texas, once surren- 
 dered to her influence and protection, will not have the power to 
 refuse. The consequence will be to disgust and irritate other 
 nations, and particularly the United States. We are even now the 
 great rivals of England in commerce and manufactures. It is a 
 favourite object with her to cripple us in both these branches of our 
 industry, and for that reason she is pushing her influence in every 
 commercial mart of the world.'* 
 
 It then shews that a connexion between Texas and Eng- 
 land must lead to collision between Texas and the United 
 States ; and upon this proceeds to threaten the Republic. 
 
 " We have it in our power to do more injury to the commerce, 
 and, incidentally, to the agriculture of Texas, in time of peace, than 
 ail the other countries of the world combined ; and for the same 
 reason, we can benefit her in equal degree. It is not to be supposed 
 that we shall feel any hesitation on this subject, if Texas shall reject 
 our overtures, and throw herself hito the arms of England. Instead 
 of being, as we ought to be, the closest friends, it is inevitable 
 that we shall become the bitterest foes. In this feeling all farts 
 of our country will participate. The north, which is the most 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 67 
 
 influential in the policy of our government, will entertain it more 
 strongly than the south ; because their great and leading interests, 
 particularly in New England, must fall a sacrifice to this hostile 
 policy on the part of Texas." 
 
 So that, while the commercial policy of Great Britain, and 
 her activity in executing or planning thirty-seven commer- 
 cial treaties, has the effect, as avowed by their negotiator, of 
 " choking up the old channels of commerce,'* they are never- 
 theless successful in furnishing to America arguments by 
 which to unite nations against us, and coerce, by threats, 
 independent states not only into submission, but to the 
 surrender of their existence. 
 
 The American Secretary then proceeds to the subject of 
 slavery : — 
 
 "I have commented upon this topic in the despatch to Mr. 
 Everett. I will only add, that if Texas should not be attached to 
 the United States she cannot maintain that institution ten yean^ 
 and probably not half that time, 
 
 " You will readily perceive that, with such causes as these at work, 
 a long continuance of peace between that country and the United 
 States is absolutely impossible. War is inevitable. England will 
 be a party to it from necessity, if not from choice ; and the other 
 great powers of the world will not be idle spectators of a contest In- 
 volving such momentous results. I think it almost certain that the 
 peace of the civilized world, the stability of long-established institu- 
 tions, and the destinies of millions, both in Europe and America, 
 hang on the decision which Texas shall now pronounce. What has 
 she to hope in this conflict of stronger powers ? She will find her- 
 self between the upper and the nether millstones, ground to powder 
 in their revolutions." 
 
 Finally, the conditions of annexation are thus stated : — 
 
 " To admit her people to a full participation in its government, 
 and a full share in its promising destinies.*^ 
 
 We have seen how this condition is fulfilled in the 
 treaty. 
 
 E 2 
 
68 
 
 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 We must here notice means of another description. The 
 Texan Commissioners present the following statement of 
 the debts of the Republic, as " extracted from a Report of 
 the Committee of the House of Representatives of the 
 Congress of Texas, made on the 12th January, 184 1 :" — 
 
 Dollars. 
 
 *' Funded debt, bearing interest 10 per cent. . 1,650,000 
 ** Bonds sold and pledged, bearing interest I 
 
 percent. .... 1,350,000 
 
 " Treasury notes, without interest . . 3,000,000 
 
 ** Debts of various descriptions, say audited 
 
 drafts, and other claims, without interest . 1,000,000 
 
 *' Total . . . 7,000,000" 
 
 This account includes accumulated interest ; the interest, 
 therefore, not having been paid, while rated at 10 per cent., 
 shews the stock, however created, to have been worthless, 
 and, therefore, the charge to be fictitious. The two latter 
 items " treasury notes," and various, ^^ sai/ audited drahs,'' 
 present nothing tangible ; and this is a statement made out 
 by a Committee of the Texan speculators. The two first 
 items alone bear interest, which, in the course of three 
 years, would, at their nominal rate, amount to 900,000 
 dollars. The Commissioners allow that, since that period, 
 " the revenues of the Government have more than equalled 
 its expenditure." This is the account they bring forward 
 at the moment that the United States' Government is pres- 
 sing in the most instant manner, the annexation, and when, 
 therefore, they may make their own terms. Their whole 
 debt, under these circumstances, falls 2,000,000 of dollars 
 short of the sum set down in the treaty. But the Report 
 of the Texan Government, in the same year, (1841) sets 
 down the debt at between four and five millions of dollars ! 
 The American Government now undertakes to pay 
 10,000,000 dollars. Here, then, are at least 5,000,000 dollars. 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 69 
 
 that is above a million sterling, appropriated for the purpose 
 of bribery ! For this sum, however, the lands of Texas 
 are mortgaged, that is to say, Texas (supposing the land its 
 own) is purchased with its own money, to its own undoing^ 
 But these lands are Mexican and riot Texan, they have in 
 part been transferred to England, so that this money is pro- 
 cured at the expense first of Mexico, and then of England ; 
 or, in other words, England has placed a million sterling at 
 the disposal of Mr. Tyler, to enable him to bribe the Legis- 
 lature, and the authorities of Texas, into a surrender of 
 themselves and their trust, in order to give such importance 
 to the anti- British feelings in the United States, that Mr^ 
 Tyler may be re-elected President of the Union. 
 
 Nothing so curious has been narrated of the Arabiaa 
 Nights. Yet the glorious British nation, for whose re- 
 laxation from its severer studies and occupations these 
 exhibitions are prepared, seem to fail to derive from them 
 the amusement which future generations will suppose they 
 were calculated to afford, either by the merit or the cost 
 of the performance. 
 
 Here are menaces of irresistible power directed against 
 Texas, to constrain her to self-sacrifice, joined to false pro- 
 fession and corruption. Is not this tantamount to in- 
 vasion ? And if it was our duty before to defend Mexico — 
 this despatch imposes the additional obligation of protecting 
 Texas. 
 
 While Mexico and England are pursued with open ran- 
 cour, Texas, as now published by themselves, has been the 
 object of covered perfidy. Not less has been the treachery 
 of the Government to its own free nation, from whom the 
 plot was concealed until it had ripened for execution. And 
 this is the act of the model republic ; and it is the people 
 which does such things, and doing avows them, that have 
 taken the stars of Heaven for its emblem, and for its 
 colours the hues that indicate innocence and love ! 
 
7ft ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 War between the United States and Mexico. 
 
 It requires that some difference should be pending 
 between two States for war to be made, into the justice of 
 which neutrals have to inquire. There are no griev- 
 ances of the United States to which Mexico refuses re- 
 dress — there are no demands of Mexico which the United 
 States will not acknowledge. 
 
 The fact of civil war does confer the character of inde- 
 pendence, with the rights of belligerents to both parties ; 
 and it is open to any neutral appealed to by the revolted 
 province, if it judged its cause just, to declare war 
 against the parent State, In that case it would be for 
 the United States to declare war against Mexico. It 
 would then be for other States to judge of the justice 
 or of the objects of such declaration, and to deal with it 
 accordingly. In taking this course, there must have been 
 grounds, and their hands must have been clean, and no 
 creating of revolt by secret machination, to be afterwards 
 defended by open violence. This is not attempted. Yet 
 this was the only form in which the case could have been 
 presented, to throw around it the least complication, as 
 brought to the test of the Laws of Nations, and of 
 civilized communities. 
 
 The United States does not make war against Mexico, 
 but lays hold on Texas, and leaves Mexico to find re- 
 dress where and how she can.* The act is therefore 
 one of that character which brands the United States, 
 not only with unjust and ambitious violence, but which 
 
 * ** A deadly hatred burns in Mexico towards this country. No 
 stronger national sentiment now binds the scattered provinces 
 together, than dread and detestation of Republican America. 
 Suspicion, dread, and abhorrence, have supplanted respect and 
 trust." — Dr. Channing in 1834. 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 71 
 
 Stamps it a ^'pirate State," making it the enemy of man- 
 kind, and imposing on all neighbours within the sphere 
 of their operations, the obligation to protect Mexico, as 
 a first necessary measure of self-defence. 
 
 We have first, then, anxiously to inquire, and devoutly 
 to pray that Mexico, **the Circassia of the West," may 
 have heart and strength to assert her rights and ours, and 
 those of human nature, and it is with delight that we are 
 enabled to quote the following words of indignation, with 
 which the Mexican Government has met the announce- 
 ment of the Annexation Treaty : — 
 
 "The usurpation of Texas (for its annexation to the United States 
 can be called by no other name) would be an open declaration of 
 war against Mexico by the United States ; and doubtless is only 
 the precursor of other ambitious movements which many of their 
 papers are already in plain terras predicting. It happens that the 
 Spanish-American race does not admit the superiority claimed in 
 favour of the Anglo-Saxon race ; and even if they did, Mexico would 
 know how to defend with glory the territory which she was able by 
 her unaided arm to render independent of the mother country, and to 
 maintain her honour and rights, or perish in the attempt, sooner 
 than submit to an insult so degrading. In future she could not 
 count upon her own safety, nor even her political existence, should 
 she permit a friendly nation to erect itself into a conqueror of her 
 territory, by means so degrading, shameful (vergonzoso) and 
 perfidious." — Diario del Gohierno. 
 
 The American nation is, however, not yet that " pirate 
 state," but becomes so by this act if completed. A seal is 
 then set to the compact between the present opposing ten- 
 dencies of the Union. " No Texas !" recently exclaimed 
 the southerns ; then «* no Oregon !" " No Oregon !" ex- 
 claimed the northerns ; then ** no Texas !" The annexa- 
 tion of Texas was the condition upon which the Southern 
 States should consent in the usurpation of Oregon — the 
 usurpation of Oregon the condition upon which the Northern 
 
7^ ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 States should assent to the annexation of Texas. But as 
 England might be so far dreaded as yet to enforce moder- 
 ation, they are involved in a preliminary contest with an 
 enemy whom they despise. The American nation does 
 not rush on in united vehemence of lustful guilt — it is en- 
 trapped. There are those who appeal to the lingering 
 sense of integrity in the breasts of their countrymen, and 
 look around for every argument that can give weight to 
 their words or arrest by the fear of consequences. They 
 appeal to — England^ to her rights, her interests, her duty, 
 and her power ; they invoke those interests and that 
 power ! 
 
 If covetousness for Texas has prompted cupidity for 
 Oregon and Canada, so has covetousness of Oi'egon 
 strengthened and confirmed cupidity for Texas. Had 
 there not been British possessions in North America, 
 Texas might not have been invaded ; and if there were 
 not hatred for England in the United States, Mexico 
 might not have been doomed to destruction. If, there- 
 fore, England had here no interest at stake, she is in jus- 
 tice bound to rescue Mexico, even were it required to 
 have recourse to those extreme means of arms and coer- 
 cion, which she is so accustomed on other occasions to 
 employ. But while the Americans do reckon upon a war 
 with Mexico — they have no idea of danger from England ! 
 So in the usurpation of the Oregon, it is not England, but 
 the Red Indians that cause alarm ! In every case England 
 furnishes but a theme for eloquence in the enormity of 
 her crimes, and temptation for rapacity in the vastness of 
 her possessions. 
 
 But the American Government have grounded their 
 act — one not of war, but far worse— of robbery against 
 Mexico, on the statements in Parliament of the British 
 Minister. All that Lord Aberdeen has to say, is—" You 
 have acted without provocation, for we (England) had 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 73 
 
 really no design to supplant the authority of Mexico in 
 in Texas, or to establish our own." The explanation is 
 not accepted.* The original declaration is insisted on — 
 the measure persevered in. There the official declaration 
 stands; it is England that the United States assails, and 
 Mexico is subjected to this war in consequence of a 
 difference between the United States and England ;f 
 England disavows the truth of the allegation, but leaves 
 the United States to proceed, and Mexico to perish. 
 
 This question presents itself to the British Cabinet as 
 a surprise, no doubt, in the first instance ; but it will soon 
 be considered merely as an embarrassment, occasioned, 
 not by the pretensions of the United States, but by 
 the resistance of Mexico. Then will come the idea 
 of conciliating the good-will of the United States by 
 pressing Mexico to a surrender, which will limit the 
 duration of her trouble, and diminish the amount of her 
 sacrifices. You cannot stand neuter ; not supporting 
 Mexico you must bring your weight to depress and 
 subdue her. 
 
 Tunis was Lord Aberdeen's first embarrassment, when 
 
 * The New York American remarks — " The correspondence 
 which in some surreptitious way has got before the public, presents 
 grave cause for reflection in the tone of the letter from our Secretary 
 of State to Mr. Pakenham, respecting the alleged interference by 
 England with slavery in Texas. Any purpose of such interference 
 having been explicitly disclaimed on behalf of his Government by 
 Lord Aberdeen, the persistance with which Mr. Calhoun under- 
 takes to prove inferentially that this disclaimer cannot be true, is 
 anything but courteous or conciliatory." 
 
 f A pretty contrast this, to the invasion of Caubul — because of a 
 pretended difference with Russia, and because the Prince of Caubul 
 had admitted an agent of Russia at the request of the agent of 
 England, We do present riddles to the world, but cannot read 
 them ourselves. 
 
7^ ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 assailed by France. He considered that the best way 
 of settling the matter, was siding with the strong ; 
 consequently he threatened the Porte with a junction 
 of the English and French fleets, if they should main- 
 tain their sovereign rights; he had thus also the 
 opportunity of conciliating a powerful ally, and France, 
 as all the world knows, has been from that time indisso- 
 lubly bound to England. Serbia was his next great 
 embarrassment, that Province being assailed by Russia. 
 He adopted a somewhat similar plan : he mitigated 
 the wrong by undertaking to execute it; vituperated as 
 *^ semi-harbarous '* the people that clung to their rights — 
 and as ^^intemperate,*' the Prince that opposed Russia. 
 The embarrassment being got rid of, the gratitude of 
 Russia has been secured to England by incalculable 
 obligations. Why should not Mexico in like manner be 
 saved from inexpedient pretensions, and the occasion 
 seized to propitiate our Anglo-Saxon brethren — and com- 
 plete the circle of good will and affection between the great 
 powers of the earth ? 
 
 Happy era ! when the harsh dictates of justice have been 
 supplanted by the benign promptings of humanity, and 
 the rude barriers of law have given place before the 
 softening influences of expediency. 
 
 Let us suppose the case, that Mexico, by patiently sub- 
 mitting, should not afford us this standing ground, would 
 that deprive us of the right of resistance or diminish the 
 obligation to do so ? No, it would only diminish our 
 facilities, and increase our dangers. 
 
 On the accession of the present Ministry, they had to 
 do what their predecessors had left undone, and en- 
 force against Texas the treaty with Mexico respect- 
 ing slavery; which done, the thorn and poison was ex- 
 tracted from the transaction. Had they been prepared 
 to enforce even the subsequent treaty with Texas, a bar 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 75 
 
 would have been placed to this attempt, and of course 
 the knowledge of their determination would have pre- 
 vented this coup d'etat, which in that case could only 
 recoil upon its authors. This is not done — they are not 
 even left in suspense. Lord Aberdeen is communicative 
 and busy. He converses with the excellent person re- 
 presenting the United States — he writes letters to Mr. 
 Pakenham — he has interviews with -the abolitionists, and 
 makes proposals to the Mexican envoy ; where England 
 and the United States are opposed, he reconciles himself 
 with them and is confidential ; where Mexico is concerned, 
 takes counsel with ** the excellent person," that is, conspires 
 with Mr. Tyler ; he presses poor devoted Mexico into the 
 breach, and places her in the alternative of doing what 
 England disqualified her from attempting, or of losing 
 Lord Aberdeen's grace and favour. And this is a con- 
 scientious man's service, who strains to overtake his duties, 
 and who would do nothing he knows to be wrong. With 
 the utmost sincerity he reveals his predilections for the 
 " promising young state," his wishes to support it with 
 money ; he then frankly avows the discomfiture of his pro- 
 ject. With this integrity and unwonted simplicity of cha- 
 racter, he has brought upon England shame, and con- 
 firmed her in the path to ruin ; and there have been, before 
 now, men whose good qualities were more dangerous and 
 fatal to their country, than if they had been engaged in the 
 blackest designs, and prompted by the direst passions. 
 
 What would have been the conduct of France, if Greece, 
 while struggling with Turkey, had been incorporated by 
 England, even although Greece had not been a name 
 only for a horde of English adventurers, entering insi- 
 diously under the garb of allegiance and submission to 
 Turkey ? Although England had not been assaulting 
 the provinces of France, and preparing for her dismem- 
 berment by the previous dismembermentof Turkey, would 
 
76 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 the French people not have arisen from the Rhone to the 
 Alps, from the Channel to the Mediterranean, as one man, 
 to wreak vengeance on such perfidy ? What their turpi- 
 tude had they quietly acquiesced ? And what, still more, 
 if the England that had planned this treaty was a weak 
 and contemptible power, unable to resist for a single day 
 the armaments of France, and pursuing these insidious 
 practices only on the calculation of her unlimited endur- 
 ance and irredeemable imbecility? Such, however, is the 
 design which the United States have planned, such the 
 infamy which England has endured, and they now com- 
 bine to startle the world with its sufferance and execu- 
 tion. 
 
 We now come to the great question, Will the treaty be 
 ratified ? But what means such a question at the present 
 day ? Has not England executed a treaty without ratifi- 
 cation ? Did not that very treaty stipulate that it should 
 be executed without ratification ?* Did any one question 
 that act? Was it so much as noticed? To England, 
 then, a treaty is binding in its signature, and not in its 
 ratification. And as regards her, the United States have 
 their case clear, if not taking her stand now when it is 
 signed, she attempt to resist when it shall be ratified. 
 
 The authority that ratifies, is the same that negotiates. 
 Powers of negotiation, are given to obtain credence for the 
 negotiators from the opposite party, and therefore are they 
 exchanged. Ratification is withheld merely as a security 
 against the exceeding of their powers by the negotiators. 
 A case of refusing ratification cannot have reference to 
 differences of the negotiating authority with itself, but to 
 the conduct of the negotiations with respect to the opposite 
 
 * Treaty of July 15, 1840, where England (or Russia through 
 her) dragged along with her Austria and Prussia, and France, in 
 opposing the treaty, did not dare to take her stand on this violation 
 of public law. 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 77 
 
 party. Katrfication has been withheld hilherto only on 
 such occasions, or on the discovery of some plot or design, 
 which, if discovered after the ratification, would have 
 broken up the treaty itself.* 
 
 In the United States, the consent of the Senate is con- 
 stitutionally requisite for the ratification of a treaty, but so 
 it is for its negotiation. To negotiate a treaty in the 
 United States without tWe consent of the Senate, is as 
 great an usurpation on the part of the President, as to 
 execute it without its ratification. The case of assent or 
 dissent cannot arise at this stage of the proceedings. Here 
 is therefore a concerted fraud between the parties, or an 
 inability on the part of the Senate to comprehend, or an 
 indisposition to support its rights. The second alterna- 
 tive would be equally dangerous with the first; but both 
 are conjoined. In some there is collusive assent, in others, 
 indistinct, and therefore futile opposition. Instantaneously 
 the question is raised from insignificance to magnitude by 
 the mere fact, that it is presented in a novel and fallacious 
 manner. The ingenuity of its managers in displacing con- 
 stitutional practice, is a further addition to its importance. 
 
 We would however earnestly press on the American citizens 
 one consideration which may touch them. While they are 
 confused between the signing and the ratifying of a treaty, 
 that is debating where there is no diiference, — they are in 
 reality surrendering liberty and power. A President has 
 used the diplomacy of the state for his purposes, committed 
 the nation before it was aware, and where he has exercised 
 a flagrant usurpation occupies it in a sophistical dispute. 
 
 * The refusal of France to ratify her treaty respecting the Slave 
 Trade, is a new incident in the history of the world, presented by 
 the imbecility of a Minister (M. Guizot) who could not judge of 
 what he could effect, and who escaped from the embarrassment of 
 attempting too much, by subverting further international practice 
 and right. 
 
78 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 He prepares to carry a project of his own by corrupting and 
 seducing the very Senate whose authority he has defied and 
 overthrown. Asa minister in England can plot in secret 
 and use the arm of the nation to do his work, and then 
 pervert that nation's mind into approval of his acts ; so 
 now has a President of the United States in Uke manner 
 discovered the facility of doing any thing with a people 
 vehement in proclaiming its liberty. If that liberty is dear 
 to them— if it be not a pretence and a deceit, let them now 
 assert it in the only manner in which it can be preserved. — 
 The impeachment of Mr. Tyler. 
 
 In a recent report of the Committee on Federal Relations, 
 respecting "admission into the harbour of the United States 
 of free persons of colour," there are some remarks on the 
 *' Treaty-making power" which are worthy of consideration 
 in connexion with the Texan Treaty. 
 
 It is there argued that the Senate, being composed not 
 according to the general population of the Union, but to 
 the number of States, were the Treaty-making power to 
 overrule the separate legislation of the States, the greater 
 States would lose their preponderance, "and the Federal 
 Government could do by treaty what Congress could not 
 by Law,^* The basis of the reasoning is the Senate's con- 
 stitutional authority in making treaties, and the object of 
 the argument is to represent that authority as one that 
 might become despotic and alarming. Contemporaneously 
 we have the President making treaties himself, without 
 consulting the Senate. Has the plain sense to substitute 
 ■''this is a usurpation;" for '* will the Senate ratify ?" If 
 there was reason to apprehend the usurpation o/the Senate, 
 is there none to apprehend the usurpation from the Senate ? 
 If the Senate could be dangerous merely as yielding to the 
 inclinations of the weaker States, will that danger be dimi- 
 nished by its being converted into a tool of the Executive 
 Government ? 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 79 
 
 In the same report these words occur : 
 
 *' A question of vital importance occurs — *How far the 
 Treaty-making power can bind the States?' This depends 
 upon the previous question, ' How far the States have 
 yielded by the federal compact their individual sovereignty?* 
 The Constitution vests in the President the power to make 
 treaties hy and with the advice of the Senate, Sec'* 
 
 To the question of ** vital importance," as to the limit of 
 the Treaty-making power, comes now to be added the 
 question of much graver importance as to who is to exercise 
 the Treaty-making power? The first they have not an- 
 swered, the second they do not ask. The first is a prospec- 
 tive fear, the second a consummated act. The first is to be 
 decided by the constitution when it arises, by the second 
 the constitution is upset. 
 
 Mr. Clay touches on the subject — weakly and inefficiently, 
 but still he touches. 
 
 " Assuming that the Annexation of Texas is war with Mexico, is 
 it competent to the Treaty-making power to plunge this country into 
 war, not only without the concurrence of, but without deigning to 
 consult Congress, to which, by the constitution, belongs exclusively 
 the power of declaring war ?" 
 
 His letter, however, furnishes far deeper colouring for 
 this usurpation, for when he speaks of danger which the 
 Mexican war must bring if England sides with her, and of 
 the burden of the treaty rights and pecuniary obligations 
 weighing on Texas, which the United States will assume — 
 of the abhorrence of the world against a nation plunging into 
 a war of unprovoked aggression, to sustain a practice repu- 
 diated by mankind, he only enumerates consequences 
 directly flowing from the violation of the American consti- 
 tution by its President, not in usurping the powers of Con- 
 gress, but in superseding in fact and deed the functions of 
 the Senate. All this might have been done by the Senate 
 and by the Congress — without any constitutional infraction, 
 
80 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 but as it is done, the President usurps from Congress the 
 powersof war, from the Senate of negotiation — and he looks 
 to public opinion to justify him — that is, he seeks to change 
 the nation by his crime, and to convert that crime into a 
 means of greatness. 
 
 The following reflections of Mr. Clay, valuable to us on 
 other grounds, present for the United States most alarming 
 considerations. 
 
 *' I was aware, too, that holders of Texan land and Texan scrip, 
 and speculators in them, were actively engaged in promoting the 
 object of annexation. Still, I did not believe that any executive of 
 the United States would venture upon so grave and momentous a 
 proceeding, not only without any general manifestation of public 
 opinion in favour of it, but in direct opposition to strong and decided 
 expressions of public disapprobation. But it appears that I was 
 mistaken." 
 
 Again : — 
 
 *' Such a principle, put into practical operation, would menace 
 the existence, if it did not certainly sow the seeds of a dissolution of 
 the Union. It would be to proclaim to the world an insatiable and 
 unquenchable thirst for foreign conquest or acquisition of territory. 
 For if to-day Texas he acquired to strengthen one fart of the 
 confederacy y to-morrow Canada may be required to add strength 
 to another. And after that might have been obtained, still other 
 and further acquisitions would become necessary to equalise and 
 adjust the balance of political poiuer. Finally, in the progress of 
 this spirit of universal dominion, the part of the confederacy which is 
 now weakest, would find itself still weaker, from the impossibility of 
 securing new theatres for those peculiar institutions which it is 
 charged with being desirous to extend." ; 
 
 Shall these warnings be disregarded, and England's 
 acquiescence be the triumph of Mr. Tyler ? The formal 
 character of a treaty will give authority to the project, 
 and implicate the nation in its furtherance. Texas will 
 appear a suppliant, which is exposed by its predilections 
 for them, and whom it would be ungenerous to cast off. 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 81 
 
 On these grounds, we much doubt whether internal resist- 
 ance will be sufficient to frustrate this design, nor do we 
 look upon its realization as immediate. Such would not 
 be even advantageous to the promoters; it would lose 
 thereby to them its agitational value. 
 
 England, on her side, will be puzzled between treaty 
 and ratification, and looking to the point of ratification 
 to take its stand, the Government will wait; by not 
 acting at once they will have done their worst. The 
 Americans will wait also, to allow the talk to be ex- 
 pended. They will reject the treaty-^knowing its rejection 
 to be a step towards its acceptance — England will accept 
 the rejection as a triumph. The next time it comes before 
 the Senate, it will be no longer a novelty for England, and 
 therefore not worth thinking of. What would an occasion 
 be if it endured always ! Would genius be commended if 
 mediocrity insured success, or knowledge esteemed, if 
 ignorance conferred security? 
 
 At the beginning of Van Buren's administration, repug-^ 
 nance to the Texan scheme was still so strong, that they 
 positively seized a vessel, the Pelican, which was fitted out 
 to assist the Texans. The last act of Van Buren's career 
 was to recognize the independence of Texas. At the com- 
 mencement of Mr. Tyler's Presidency the annexation of 
 Texas was as much reprobated as in the former period 
 their recognition ; the last, act of his authority is a Treaty 
 for its annexation. 
 
 In the mean time every encouragement is given from 
 England. The first outbreak of indignation of the public 
 press might have had its efi^ect were England without a go- 
 vernment or America without an envoy. But there is Lord 
 Aberdeen in England and Mr. Everett from America. 
 But Lord Aberdeen may have been shocked by perfidy, to 
 which even he could scarcely remain longer blind, and 
 have proved restive or wrapped himself up in dogged 
 
82 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 silence, but Lord Aberdeen has spoken, and, as with 
 Russia, while the press exasperates the minister invites. 
 Lord Brouorhafti has here rendered his usual service of 
 
 o 
 
 dragging to light and revealing the nakedness of the land.* 
 Having expressed his surprise that it should have been 
 upon a conversation with him that the American govern- 
 ment had justified its act, and having demanded expla- 
 nation, Lord Aberdeen said that he " believed the case was 
 wholly without example in the history of public laio,'* 
 
 What would be expected if in the case of an atrocious 
 murder, the judge before, whom the criminal was tried, 
 said, this is wholly unexampled in the history of law? 
 You would know that the man was an idiot ; but what if 
 you could not get rid of him as a judge, and if all the 
 people saw nothing strange but something remarkably 
 spirited in the expression ? Afterwards Lord Aberdeen 
 says, that if the treaty were carried into effect : — 
 
 "He should be prepared to state his opinion to the 
 house, and to do that which was consistent with his duty 
 as a minister of the crown, and which the public service 
 might require." 
 
 Lord Aberdeen has already done all that is requisite ; he 
 has declared it to be law — public law — extraordinary indeed, 
 but still law — very much to be deplored, but still law — 
 very desirable that the majority of the senate should reject 
 it, but they would be very wrong to reject it, seeing that it 
 is law : when it is carried into effect — whatever the opinion 
 which he will be " prepared to state," his ** duty as a 
 
 * Lord Brougham can injure England also by suppression. A 
 conversation in the House of Lords, in which Lord Beaumont de- 
 nounced the recent interference with the laws of Turkey, and 
 
 WHICH WAS RESPONDED TO BY LORD ABERDEEN BY A HEARTY 
 
 Hear, hear, was suppressed by all the papers at the suggestion cf 
 lx)rd Brougham. 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 83 
 
 minister of the crown, and the public service" will require 
 him to recognize that law. Lord Brougham was, of course, 
 content, having got the ** satisfactory information" on 
 the subject which he had asked. And after this interrup- 
 tion the House proceeded to business upon — the Dublin 
 and Cashel Railway. 
 
 There is but one course for England to take, not two 
 courses. There is but one time for England to act, and 
 there is not a moment for delay. There is one path of 
 duty, one of right, one of necessity, one of security, one of 
 honour — glorious, unheard-of occasion, all these are one ! 
 There is no time requisite to deliberate, there are no 
 longings interposed by the necessity of delay to the 
 grasping of such a fortune. It requires no treaty of 
 common defence with Mexico, no compulsion by arms 
 of Texas ; and it is not necessary to shatter to atoms the 
 pretensions republic. Mexico revives in strength and 
 security ; Texas eschews slavery ; the United States pu- 
 nish the insolent offender, and make atonement for his 
 offence, without suffering in their lives and fortune?, and 
 with the recovery of their rights and honour — for all this 
 it requires only to be known that there is in England a 
 Minister, such as Channing described and supposed a 
 Minister of England to be. Such a man would know 
 that the navies and armies of England are weapons not 
 to perpetrate crimes, but to use in her own defence. *' A 
 terrible thing," says de Maistre, "would be a robust 
 child." What is an empire oppressing the earth with 
 terrific power, yet less in mind than a child ? 
 
 We are not left to guess what the effect of an upright 
 and a bold course would be upon the United States itself 
 or on Europe. The following passage from Mr. Clay re- 
 cognizes the sharaelessness of his country's acts, the right 
 of England, or, indeed, of any power to protect Mexico, 
 and points out the means of doing so. We make no apology 
 
 F 2 
 
84 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 for fortifying by quotations positions of such vital import- 
 ance, on the appreciation of which our very existence will 
 soon be seen to depend. We are upon the very turn of 
 the affairs of the world, and the chance of making this 
 matter clear imposes the endeavour by every means to 
 accomplish it. 
 
 ** Honour and good faith and justice are equally due from this 
 country towards the weak as towards the strong. And, if an act of 
 injustice were to be perpetrated towards any power, it would be 
 more compatible with the dignity of the nation, and, in my judg- 
 ment, less dishonourable to inflict it upon a powerful instead of a 
 weak foreign nation. But are we perfectly sure that we should be 
 free from injury in a state of war with Mexico ? Have we any 
 security that countless numbers of foreign vessels, under the autho- 
 rity and flag of Mexico, would not prey upon our defenceless com- 
 merce in the Mexican gulf, on the Pacific ocean, and on every 
 other sea and ocean ? Have we any certain guarantee that Mexico 
 would obtain no allies among the great European powers ? Suppose 
 Great Britain and France, or one of them, were to take part with 
 Mexico, and, by a manifesto, were to proclaim that their objects 
 were to assist a weak and helpless ally to check the spirit of en- 
 croachment and ambition of an already overgrown republic, seeking 
 still further acquisitions of territory, to maintain the independence of 
 Texas, disconnected with the United States, and to prevent the 
 further propagation of the slave trade from the United States — what 
 would be the effect of such allegations vpon the judgment of an 
 impartial and enlightened world?'* 
 
 Nor are we without the means of justifying Mr. Clay's 
 estimate of the effect upon mankind of such a course, ii 
 adopted by England. The Government, from whom resist- 
 ance alone could be apprehended, thus deals with the 
 question, through its organ the Journal des Debats. 
 
 *' A country which, like France, has taken so glorious a part in 
 the abolition of slavery, should energetically condemn the language 
 openly held by the Government of the United States. We have 
 before, us the correspondence exchanged between Mr. Upshur, Mr. 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 85 
 
 Calhoun, Mr. Everett, and Mr. Pakenham ; and all the notes 
 written on the part of the United States are, from beginning to end, 
 not only an apology, but an audacious justification of the principle 
 of slavery ; while nearly all the rest of the Christian world is making 
 immense sacrifices to deliver society from this hideous leprosy that 
 has so long disfigured it, the United States alone defend it in lan- 
 guage of the most revolting nature. These are the terms in which 
 republican and democratic governments understand humanity, 
 equality, and liberty I" 
 
 But sowing time and harvest season come, and depart 
 alike in vain, when there are none to sow and none to reap ; 
 and so will these favourable dispositions fade away. For- 
 tune belongs of right to the acting hand ; and never since 
 the world has rolled on, was mere energy possessed of such 
 power as now ; for right and wrong being obliterated, the 
 boldest will ever be the best. Here, then, was the chance 
 of arresting the growing hostile dispositions of France and 
 of the United States ; and, that occasion lost, these will be 
 strengthened, if only by the additional evidence of fatuity 
 presented in our neglect. 
 
 " Is it needful to urge the English Government to such 
 a course V a stranger might say, *' is it not rather the task 
 of those who look to rights to restrain the too ready use 
 of weapons and exercise of power. Have not armies been 
 pushed into distant regions, because of the mere presence 
 there of the envoy of a friendly power? Have not expeditions 
 been sent all round the globe to be themselves the bearers 
 of a simple demand for payment for smuggled goods, and 
 used their weapons in destroying cities, to enforce it without 
 having made it ? Have we not seen the fortresses of Syria 
 blown into the air, because a subordinate Government 
 had a difference with its principal ? Have we not seen 
 the navies of England used in a civil quarrel between 
 a sovereign and his subjects, where they were sent as 
 ' mediators ?' What shall be the terrible and rapid ven- 
 
86 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 geance that such a Government will exercise against a 
 not unworthy foe, and in a case no less of provocation 
 than of justice!'* He who should speak thus would be 
 strange to England in our times, and he would have to 
 learn that the load-stone of England was crime, and that 
 injustice was her inducement, whether to inflict or sufter 
 at any cost. 
 
 Keep the law and the law will keep you ; break the law 
 and the law will break you. Our feet have been in the 
 paths of iniquity, our hands have been imbrued in inno- 
 cent blood, we have enacted before the world on the 
 grandest scale the character of destroyer and spoiler. — 
 Shall you not then be a spoil to another destroyer? We 
 have imitated the American citizens in Texas— can we 
 resist their deeds because we suffer ? We who have been 
 every where removing our neighbours* landmark — shall 
 we hold firm our own? We have substituted might for, 
 right ; and those who do so are smitten with cowardice, 
 and are dismayed by the God they have raised on high. 
 Shall we tell the Mexicans that they can confide in our 
 sense of justice? — can we call upon the Ameiicans to re- 
 nounce their projects 1 A shout of laughter would be the 
 answer to our appeal, and a finger of scorn would point to 
 Scinde, China, and Affghanistan. These were the en- 
 couragements to American ambition — these the strength 
 of her injustice — these the blight of English power, the 
 load upon her heart, the mark upon her brow, and the 
 curse upon her faith. Until justice be done, lustration be 
 made throughout the land, atonement before heaven and 
 upon earth, — England can resist no aggression. Till then 
 injustice is sacred and inviolable in her eyes---unassail- 
 able by her weapons, and irresistible by her power. 
 
 This is not a weakness of a part, it is a disease of the 
 body, it circulates through the limbs, it is propelled from 
 the heart, it invigorates with the strength of delirium^ it 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 87 
 
 poisons the whole frame, and the gangrene which is revealed 
 in the limb which we are now examining, will affect every 
 limb progressively of which the body is composed; and 
 as in respect to the neighbouring state of America our 
 guilt has developed in them crime, and armed in them 
 injustice, so will every other neighbour be rendered dan- 
 gerous by the passions we have inspired, and coalesced by 
 the mightiness of the plunder which we ojffer to their con- 
 federated cupidity. *' This treason," exclaimed Cicero upon 
 a memorable occasion, *' is directed against the state, its 
 gods, the senate in which we stand, against every one of 
 you — against the world." So is this treason under which 
 England lies guilty and suffering, a treason against the 
 faith which we profess, the laws which we obey, the con- 
 stitution we uphold, the nation we compose, the subjects 
 wp possess — against the very enemies we arouse, against 
 human nature and the world itself. 
 
 And can it be that dangers so mighty shall raise no 
 deliverer? 
 
 The possession of power and dominion involves duties 
 corresponding with fortune, and if our rights are sacred, it 
 is only when our obligations have been kept. The yoke 
 of obligation has long been broken by this nation, and 
 now behold the fruits — calling itself free, it despises, even 
 to the very knowledge, its affairs, until they are confused, 
 and then it is interested because of novelty, and the slum- 
 ber of its reason is succeeded by the vehemence of its pas- 
 sions. It is because England has neglected the manage- 
 ment of her affairs and called them *' foreign," that these 
 results have been brought, and these fatal passions instilled 
 on either side of the Atlantic. It is but two months since 
 we entered at considerable length into the position of Eng- 
 land in the Western Hemisphere, and these two months 
 have sufficed to give the character of prophecy to the 
 statements there contained, but it is years since the very 
 
88 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 same things have been asserted, the same explanation given 
 of mysterious acts, the same sequence pointed out as their 
 necessary result. Common characters have been shewn 
 in the Boundary Differences, from the setting aside the 
 award of the King of Holland, the Caroline negotia- 
 tions, the Texan Recognition and Treaty, the support 
 given to France in her blockade of Mexico, &c. all 
 tending to and necessarily bringing estrangement and 
 hatred between the United States and England, while 
 simultaneously a similar process was bringing a similar 
 result between France and England. If, then, there were 
 those who did foresee and who laboured to prevent, may 
 there not have been those who did foresee and laboured to 
 effect ? And what is it that was foreseen by those, the value 
 of whose warnings has been confirmed by results, it was 
 not that the wind or the storm, it was not that chance and 
 " tendencies'* should bring those things, but that they should 
 he done, that there was a purpose to be gained by doing 
 them, and that in that purpose were involved men who 
 having the power to act for nations, could blind them and 
 then drive them mad. 
 
 As we have before said, this attempt on the part of the 
 United States would be, were there men in England to 
 deal with it, not an embarrassment, and not a danger, bat 
 a most glorious opportunity; neglected, however, as it will 
 be, it becomes a fatal calamity. Mexico surrendered, 
 England becomes of necessity the satellite of the United 
 States in the West, as she is of Russia in the East ; the only 
 hope of nations for their defence becomes the dupe and 
 instrument of their assailant. 
 
 Mexico abandoned, of course you then abandon the 
 Oregon, and Mexico surrendered and the Oregon aban- 
 doned, what hearts will your colonists in North America 
 have to defend your sovereignty ? They will not be the 
 pivot of your action and the body of your strength ; it will 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 89 
 
 be against them that your power, if exerted at all, must be 
 directed. The provinces who formerly defended you against 
 your neighbours, will invite those neighbours against 
 you. Deal with the question in Mexico : support that 
 state; give it strength and confidence in your support ; 
 beat down the projects of America by that strength of 
 Mexico and your resistance, and you will have no struggle 
 to maintain. The knowledge of your decision then, to do 
 justice in favour of a foreign power, will save you from a 
 disgraceful surrender of your own territory, and will save 
 you from the otherwise inevitable dismemberment of your 
 own empire. All that is wanted is a word, but that word 
 must be spoken by a man. But to do this, England must 
 become different from what she is. The present ministers, 
 whatever their good intentions, can do nothing ; their 
 hands are bound by our past crimes, and that load of 
 crime cannot be thrown off till the nation abhors it ; the 
 nation cannot abhor it till it understands it, and no crime, as 
 no law, can be understood, except by judicial investigation 
 of facts. Parliamentary inquiry into our past conduct,— 
 that inquiry which Sir R. Peel resisted as inexpedient for 
 the public service, — alone can save England from dis- 
 memberment in America, from a war with France and the 
 United States, and finally from being protocolised ; that 
 is to say, extinguished as an independent power. Her inde- 
 pendence cannot be broken down with the same ease and 
 comfort to herself as in Turkey and Persia ; internal con- 
 vulsion and ruin will accompany our degradation. 
 
 p.S. — The intelligence that has just reached this coun- 
 try, respecting the convulsion in the United States, 
 will, alas, only excite gratification, through the animosity 
 which the intelligence by the former packet aroused ; 
 
90 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 they will fancy that the Government of the United 
 States is weakened, and its power of aggression thereby 
 paralyzed; they will imagine that the hour of dissolution is 
 at hand, and complacently repeat that all danger for them 
 is passed away. There is security for England only where 
 there exists contentment at home and integrity. As there 
 are elements for Russian ambition to work upon, only where 
 there is internal discontent and external ambition. The 
 more the internal bonds of union are weakened, the more 
 will external aggression be palliated, excused, and adopted 
 by American statesmen; who will see, in committing their 
 country against England, a safety valve opened for internal 
 discontent, and a bond presented to them, in the failure of 
 all others, by those very designs which they had recently 
 looked upon as subversive of their liberties, and destructive 
 of their federal union. 
 
 June 20. 
 
 The President has continued to prosecute with unblush- 
 ing daring his scheme ; and the remedy which we suggested 
 as alone available, namely, — impeachment, has suggested 
 itself to his compatriots. This has been declared by Chan- 
 cellor Kent as the only course to be pursued, and as a 
 course that must be pursued to preserve Constitution and 
 Liberty. 
 
 As to the future, --the resistance awakened in the United 
 States affords the Government of England time to regain 
 their ground. If the English Government can now make 
 up its mind to perform its duty,— if they declare they will 
 hold the United States, on the annexation of Texas, 
 bound by the Treaties lying upon Texas and Mexico — 
 abolition of slavery^ liability for Mexican debt, and right 
 of search, they may, even without going to the point of 
 defending Texas against the United States, or defending 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 91 
 
 Mexico against the one and the other, so strengthen 
 internal resistance as not merely to frustrate the design, 
 but even to restore the character of the United States, by 
 bringing about the impeachment of this Great Criminal. 
 
 If the British Government fail in doing this, then have 
 we no resource but the impeachment of Lord Aberdeen. 
 Impeachments, it is true, require public virtue and public 
 spirit. We say not that we possess the means of cure, but 
 we declare what that cure is, and assert that there is none 
 other. 
 
 The following extracts from the American papers will 
 speak for themselves : — 
 
 *^ The permanent well-being of the American people, as well as 
 public justice and self-respect, demand at the hands of the House 
 of Representatives the immediate impeachment of John Tyler, for 
 the high crimes and misdemeanors of which he has been guilty. 
 We say this out of no feelings of detestation to his character, or of 
 hatred to his person. We demand his impeachment as an act of 
 justice, essential to the safety of the American republic. We be- 
 lieve the course of conduct he has pursued vitally hostile to the con- 
 stitution, the laws, and liberties of the Union. How far soever he 
 may be beneath the contempt of honest men, his acts in the high office 
 whose powers he accidentally wi6lds,are dangerous — infinitely danger- 
 ous to the national safety ; and the House of Representatives, in 
 whose care the constitution has placed the public peace, rests under 
 an obligation which it cannot shake off, to take such measures^ as, 
 in its best discretion, acting as the sworn agent of the national will, 
 it may deem necessary for its preservation. 
 
 *' It has been ascertained upon good authority, and the informa-^ 
 tion is corroborated, so far as they go, by official documents, that 
 Mr. Tyler has so disposed of a portion of the navy and army of the 
 United States as to offer a forcible opposition, under the direction of 
 the President of Texas, to the action of Mexico, should that 
 government see fit to prosecute the lawful war in which it has been 
 for several years engaged with the Republic of Texas. These offi- 
 
92 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 cial orders, though those of them which have reached the pubKceyc 
 are drawn up in a guarded and cautious manner, taken in connection 
 with the secret stipulations said on good authority to have been made, 
 are equivalent, in all essential respects, to the commencement of a 
 war with Mexico, — a nation with whom we have, in existing, 
 unrepealed, and on their part, un violated treaties, solemnly pledged 
 .our national faith and sacred honour to maintain relations of peace 
 and friendship. Obedience to these orders will speedily plunge us 
 into the horrors of actual hostility. The lives of American citizens 
 will at once be sacrificed. The ships of American merchants will 
 instantly be made the prey of privateers. The resources of our 
 national treasury will be used for the slaughter of our allies. The 
 peace of the world will be disturbed ; the citizens of the United 
 States involved in the horrors and responsibilities of an infamous 
 war, and the escutcheon of the American Union blackened in the 
 eyes of every Christian nation, with a disgrace more foul and 
 damning than ever blotted the name of any civilized people on the 
 face of the earth. These are not imaginary evils ; they are the 
 legitimate and inevitable results of obedience to the orders of the 
 acting President. And these orders were given, involving as they 
 do consequences of infinite and dreadful moment, not only in con- 
 tempt of the will of the people of the United States, but without 
 the knowledge, so far as appears, of a single member of either 
 branch of the national legislature I" — New York Courier and 
 Enquirer, 
 
 ** What is the reasoning in favour of annexation ? Confident 
 expectation of a war with England as the basis — the facilities Eng- 
 land would have in the possession of Texas for the prosecution of 
 war against the United States, as the superstructure. There is the 
 whole story. 
 
 ** Now we confess, for our own part, that we are becoming 
 heartily tired and ashamed of this perpetual bug-bearing about 
 England by our public men. It manifests a paltry, miserable jea- 
 lousy, coupled with a still more paltry fear, which might be pardoned 
 in some petty German principality, but is most unbecoming in the 
 great and powerful republic of the western continent. What is 
 
OF THE TEXAS. OS 
 
 there to justify us in this everlasting looking forward to war ? Why 
 cannot we place some little confidence in our strength, to say 
 nothingof our just dealings with other nations and the just dealings 
 of other nations with us ? Why must we be for ever libelling the 
 spirit of our own political institutions, whose end and aim and glory 
 are all bound up with peace ? Why do we, republicans, proclaimers 
 and apostles of justice, progress, civilisation, and enlightenment — 
 why do we prate eternally of that which is the deadliest foe to civi- 
 lisation and progress?" — New York Commercial Advertiser. 
 
 Dr. Channing in 1834, on the Annexation of Texas. 
 
 "Some crimes, by their magnitude, have a touch of the 
 sublime; and to this dignity the seizure of Texas by our citi- 
 zens is entitled. Modern times furnish no example of indivi- 
 dual rapine on so grand a scale. It is nothing less than the 
 robbery of a realm. The pirate seizes a ship. The colonists 
 and their coadjutors can satisfy themselves with nothing short 
 of an empire. They have left their Anglo-Saxon ancestors 
 behind them. Those barbarians conformed to the maxims of 
 their age, to the rude code of nations in time of thickest 
 heathen darkness. They invaded England under their sove- 
 reigns, and with the sanction of the gloomy religion of the 
 North. But it is in a civilized age, and amidst refinements 
 of manners ; — it is amidst the lights of science and the teach- 
 ing of Christianity, amidst expositions of the law of nations 
 and enforcements of the law of universal love, amidst institu- 
 tions of religion, learning, and humanity ; — that the robbery 
 of Texas has found its instruments. It is from a free, well- 
 ordered, enlightened Christian country, that hordes have gone 
 forth, in open day, to perpetrate this mighty wrong. 
 
 ** We boast of our rapid growth, forgetting that, through- 
 out nature, noble growths are slow. Our people throw them- 
 
94 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 selves beyond the bounds of civilization, and expose themselves 
 to relapses into a semi-barbarous state, under the 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. Even the wandering tribes of 
 Scythia are bound to one spot, the graves of their fathers; 
 but the homes and graves of our fathers detain us feebly. 
 The known and familiar is often abandoned for the distant 
 and untrodden ; and sometimes the untrodden is not the 
 less eagerly desired because belonging to others. 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 corrup- 
 tion might blush. 
 
 ** Texas is a country conquered by our citizens ; and the 
 annexation of it to our Union will be the beginning of con- 
 quests, 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 mind 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. 
 
 ** A deadly hatred burns in Mexico towards this country. 
 No stronger national sentiment now binds her scattered pro- 
 vinces together, than dread and detestation of Republican 
 America. She is ready to attach herself to Europe for de- 
 fence 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 supplanted respect 
 and tru&it. 
 
OF THE TEXAS. §5 
 
 ** I am aware that these remarks are met by a vicious rea- 
 soning which discredits a people among whom it finds favour. 
 It is sometimes said, that nations are swayed by laws, as un- 
 failing as those which govern matter ; that they have their 
 destinies ; that their character and position carry them for- 
 ward irresistibly to their goal : that the stationary Turk must 
 sink under the progressive civilization of Russia, as inevitably 
 as the crumbling edifice 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. 
 
 " Hitherto, I have spoken of the annexation of Texas as 
 embroiling us with Mexico; but it will not stop here. It 
 will bring us into collision with other states. It will, almost 
 of necessity, involve 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 relations of certain foreign 
 states to this continent, must tend to destroy the peace now 
 happily subsisting between us and the kingdoms of Europe. 
 England, in particular, must watch us with suspicion, and 
 cannot but resist our appropriation of Texas to ourselves. 
 She has at once a moral and political interest in this question, 
 which demands and will justify interference. 
 
 "England has a political as well as moral interest in this 
 question. By the annexation of Texas we shall approach 
 her liberated colonies ; we shall build up a power in her 
 neighbourhood, to which no limits can be prescribed. By 
 adding Texas to our acquisition of Florida, we shall do much 
 towards girdling the Gulf of Mexico ; and I doubt not that 
 some of our politicians will feel as if our mastery in that sea 
 were sure. The West Indian Archipelago, in which the 
 
96 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 European is regarded as an intruder, will, of course, be em- 
 braced in our over-growing scheme of empire. In truths 
 collision with the West Indies will be the most certain effect 
 of the extension of our power in that quarter. The example, 
 which they exhibit, of African freedom, of the elevation of 
 the coloured race to the rights of men, is, of all influences, 
 most menacing to slavery at the South. It must grow conti- 
 nually more perilous. These islands, unless interfered with 
 from abroad, seem destined to be nurseries of civilization and 
 freedom to the African race. 
 
 " Will a slaveholding people, spreading along the shores of 
 the Mexican Gulf, cultivate friendly sentiments towards com- 
 munities, whose whole history will be a bitter reproach 
 to their institutions, a witness against their wrongs, and whose 
 ardent sympathies will be enlisted in the cause of the slave? 
 Cruel, ferocious conflicts must grow from this neighbourhood 
 of hostile principles, of communities regarding one another 
 with unextinguishable hatred. All the islands of the Archi- 
 pelago will have cause to dread our power ; but none so much 
 as the emancipated. Is it not more than possible, that wars, 
 having for an object the subjugation of the coloured race, the 
 destruction of this tempting example of freedom, should 
 spring from the proposed extension of our dominion along the 
 Mexican Gulf? Can England view our encroachments with- 
 out alarm? 
 
 " An English Minister would be unworthy of his office, 
 who should see another state greedily swallow up territories 
 in the neighbourhood of British colonies, and not strive, by 
 all just means, to avert the danger. 
 
 *' 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 de- 
 fenders will repay themselves by making her subservient to 
 their views, that they will thus strike root in her soil, mono- 
 polize her trade, and control her resources. And with what 
 face can we resist the aggressions of others on our neighbour. 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 97 
 
 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 neigh- 
 bourhood, in the privilege of flooding Texas with slaves. 
 
 "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 we are 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 incorpo- 
 rate 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 free- 
 dom, 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 institutions 
 cannot be preserved? If ever a country were bound to peace, 
 it is this. Peace is our great interest. In peace our resources 
 are to be developed, the true interpretation of the constitution 
 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 
 gainful, 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 beneficent influence on the "world. A nation, 
 
 o 
 
98 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 provoking war by cupidity, by encroachment, and above all, 
 by efforts to propagate the curse of slavery, is alike false to 
 itself, to God, and to the human race. 
 
 " This possession will involve us in new Indian wars. 
 Texas, besides being open to the irruption of the tribes within 
 our territories, has a tribe of its own, the Camanches, which 
 is described as more formidable than any in North America. 
 Such foes are not to be coveted. The Indians I that ominous 
 word, which ought to pierce the conscience of this nation, 
 more than the savage war-cry pierces the ear. The Indians I 
 have we not inflicted and endured evil enough in our inter- 
 course with this wretched people, to abstain 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? 
 
 '* But one thing does move me. It is a sore evil, that free- 
 dom should be blasphemed, that republican institutions should 
 forfeit the confidence of mankind, through the unfaithfulness 
 of this people to their trust." 
 
 {From the " Boundary Diff'erences*' in 1838.) 
 
 *' The New World was to read a political lesson to us of the 
 old. May the moral of the old not be cast away on its young 
 ambition — and, tainted already with crimes from which the 
 oldest civilization recoils, let it not suppose that the experience 
 of the past is not available for it, nor that retributive justice is 
 to slumber over violence, because it is disguised as free, or 
 excused as new. 
 
 ** An apostle of national justice, worthy of better ages and 
 of nobler times, has arisen among our descendants in the 
 West. In the seclusion of remoteness — under the shade of 
 privacy —engaged in the holy ministry of the altar — this ex- 
 traordinary man has grasped the political relations of the old 
 and the new world, with a precision, and exposed them with a 
 power, which the land of his birth, as that of his ancestry, 
 has hailed with cold and fruitless admiration. 
 , " To attempt to' exhibit to America the ruin of its character 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 99 
 
 — the destruction of its institutions— the downfall of its political 
 existence — as the inevitable consequences of a career of aggres- 
 sion ;--the deluging of Europe and America in blood, as tha 
 result of an insane purpose of greatness and dominion ;— would 
 be but to follow the argument exhausted by Dr. Channing; 
 I refer to his letter on the Texas, to Mr. Clay ; — from which, 
 extensive as has been its circulation, I have extracted some pas- 
 sages — confident that those who have already read them will 
 re-peruse them with increased interest and advantage.* 
 
 **The attempt of Dr. Channing to arrest the spirit of 
 violence, or the lust of plunder, amongst his countrymen, 
 was made during the first aggressions upon a large scale 
 against the Province of Mexico. He justly considered that 
 event, not as an accident, but as the result of inherent na- 
 tional immorality, and as the commencement of a long series 
 of future violence, wars, and disasters. His arguments bore 
 on considerations of a moral kind ; and on the misfortune 
 which the United States, as a nation, was preparing for itself. 
 These are his strong — his unassailable positions : having how- 
 ever established these, he proceeds to unrol before his country- 
 men another aspect of futurity ; —he points out to them the 
 certainty of collision with England, (although at that time, 
 designs against the Canadas, nor aggressions upon the dis- 
 puted territory, appeared in the distance, but as incidentally 
 among a hundred other results of a purpose of aggression), 
 and he pointed out the impossibility on the part of England, 
 of submission to the assaults of the 'United States, or any peo- 
 ple whatever : the imperative obligation resting on the British 
 Cabinet, not merely to prevent an extension of her dominions, 
 alarming to the peaceful relations of the world, but also to 
 curb and repress, in the people of the United States, the spirit 
 
 • I cannot omit stating that the question of the Texas, so far 
 back as the year 1833, had engaged my most serious attention, and 
 has been to me, looking to it from the shores of theEuxine, as the 
 key to the events of the world. 
 
 The perusal of Dr. Channing's letter produced on me an elec- 
 trical effect. — That such thoughts should in this age exist any 
 where ! That such views should proceed from America ! 
 
100 ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 of aggression. — That spirit, easily arrested at its source, 
 would be irresistible in the full current of its accumulated 
 streams, and accelerated course. The responsible guardian 
 of the interests and destinies of a neighbouring people, could 
 not contemplate, without dismay, the development of such a 
 spirit in America ; nor avoid, without criminality, to use 
 every just and honourable means to repress its growth, and 
 resist its progress. 
 
 ** England has falsified the prognostics, and disproved the 
 conclusionSj of Dr. Channing. England has been heedless of 
 the alarms which he entertained, — she has been blind to the 
 motives he has exposed ; — felt, or seemed to feel, no interest 
 in the present or the future, to entertain no sense of duty, or 
 instinct of preservation. England has thus abandoned Dr. 
 Chaaning, with the friends, in America, of England and of 
 peace, to the contempt of their compatriots. Those who, 
 with him, alike respected England's power and her intelli- 
 gence, and who had raised their voices to say to their country- 
 men, * Venture not there — it is unjust — it is moreover, 
 * injurious to England, and she will not suffer it/ have learnt 
 to disbelieve reason, or to despise England; — have learnt 
 that nothing was too unjust for England to approve, and 
 nothing too injurious for her to suffer." 
 
 ** America has commenced to speak of war — to threaten 
 England. Is this a result of the perversion of its own rea- 
 son, or a justifiable conviction of the degradation of that of 
 Great Britain ? It is a natural result of long endurance of 
 injustice, that they should threaten violence : but new inquiries 
 will not fail to be made, and conclusions, startling to America, 
 may be the result. 
 
 ** With a Government, weak in its central authority, dis- 
 jointed in its constitutional power; — with a People, destitute 
 of national patriotism, sacrificing every feeling to gain, and 
 bending every faculty on acquisition, — disunited in popular 
 sympathies, divided in immediate interests, distinct in ulterior 
 aims, — haughty in the exaction of submission, suspicious in 
 the yielding of authority,— untrained to war, unbroken to 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 101 
 
 discipline ; — with a Country, extended, unoccupied, exposed, 
 — undefended by frontiers of difficulty, unprotected by for- 
 tresses of strength ; — with every neighbour a foe — a servile 
 insurrection threatening within, — and the Indian prowling 
 around, maddened by injustice, and desperate in revenge ; — 
 to enter into war, except a war of necessity, and a war 
 of justice, would be an act of madness, not a measure 
 of policy. 
 
 *' Let us suppose, however, that collision takes place — let 
 us suppose the United States re-enacting the tragedy of 1812, 
 and marching her armies to the St. Lawrence. In the last 
 war, when England was in anns against France (then mistress 
 of Europe,) and could not send a single soldier to Canada, 
 did not the United States incur defeat after defeat ? Was 
 not army after army captured ? And did that power not 
 reckon then on a bloodless triumph : and was not the result 
 all but fatal to her political existence ? 
 
 " No elements of strength have grown up since then ; no 
 fortifying of popular judgment — no strengthening of executive 
 authority : — the United States are, now, as weak as then : no 
 better fitted to judge, and more liable to err, — to be carried 
 away by popular passion, and to be acted on by foreign in- 
 trigue. The American Union is now more likely to plunge 
 into war, because England ceases to steady its judgment, by 
 imposing respect for justice; and less likely either to muster 
 strength for the struggle, or to exhibit judgment in its con- 
 duct. What could America do against England ?— Invade 
 Canada ? Does she conceive that the conquest of Canada can 
 be eflfected, except with the destruction of the power of Great 
 Britain : or that England, recalling her energies, as she has 
 always done in war, will not bring them all to bear on a con- 
 test for existence; — strike the Union at all points at once, and 
 hy the weapons the most dreadful — legalized by necessity." 
 
 **Thus demoralized, their first step was to re-enact on the 
 Indian, the lessons of injustice they had learnt from their 
 parental state. Each district brought into cultivation — each 
 successive extension of territory and dominion, waa extorted 
 
lOS ON THE ANNEXATION 
 
 by violence, or abstracted by fraud, from the ' lords of the 
 soil ;' and each successive wave of population, as it spread in 
 a widened circle around, marked its flow with blood. The 
 settlement of the new race upon the virgin soil, was effected 
 by the extirpation of the charities of nature, and the outrage 
 of the rights of man, 
 
 *' Among the chief sources of American weakness, — glaring 
 amidst the proofs of constitutional fallacy and of human in- 
 justice, is the state of the Negro, and the condition of the 
 coloured race. But here, too, has not England with humilia- 
 tion to remember, that ihat system was her system, — that the 
 crime of which she has ceased to be guilty, had been by her 
 transmitted to her American progeny, as a principle of law, 
 and an hereditary possession. 
 
 " A popular opinion arose in the southern portion of the 
 Union, in favour of invading the neighbouring country ; and 
 that measure was announced, adopted, and carried into effect, 
 in the manner of a proposal touching some municipal or paro- 
 chial regulation. Public opinion justified it; a free press 
 advocated it ; and a people proud of their institutions car- 
 ried it into effect : exhibiting a departure from those ordinary 
 feelings of integrity and honour which had hitherto been ad- 
 mitted in common by all men, — and, at the same time, a dis- 
 regard for the existing authority of the State, which I believe 
 has never before occurred in the history of man ; for even 
 rebellion in the old world has been united by a principle or 
 controlled by a leader. Dr. Channing asks whether they are 
 prepared to take the new position in the world of a * robber 
 state :* — but robbers have never yet been known destitute of 
 authority among themselves. What prospect does such an 
 event present to the neighbours of the United States ? What 
 prospect for itself ? England, — whose interests in the inde- 
 pendence of Mexico were not less than her interests in the 
 independence of this Island, — extends no protecting shield 
 before that State ; articulates no word to save it from this 
 disaster— the American people from this guilt — the American 
 Government from this degradation. Yet, one word would 
 
OF THE TEXAS. 103 
 
 have sufficed. England— whose most anxious efforts ought 
 to have been directed, and whose whole power, if necessary, 
 ought to have been exerted, to arrest the progress of a spirit 
 of aggression in the United States, — carefully avoids the in- 
 dication of any interest or of any opinion on that subject j 
 when an expression of her intention and her determination 
 would have effectually overawed and repressed that spirit. 
 She is indeed the first to hail, and first to confirm, the triumph 
 of this injustice. 
 
 "The United States, thus mentally constituted, thus morally 
 instructed, next turned the lawlessness of their ambition, di- 
 rected with the cunning of the Indian, against Great Britain 
 herself. And here again has Great Britain to bear the dis- 
 grace of their attempts, and the penalty of their success. 
 Her contemptible submission was the cause of their boldness, 
 the justification of their injustice, by yielding up every con- 
 tested right, and sanctioning each advanced pretension. 
 
 " Commotions take place in Canada : the people of the 
 North, emulating those of the South, look on Canada as a 
 new Texas, on England as another Mexico. Armed bands 
 proceed to carry war into the provinces of a friendly power ; 
 and constituted authorities applaud, support, and co-operate. 
 England, differing in this respect from Mexico, finds excuses 
 for such acts in 'the constitutional difficulties' of the Govern- 
 ment of the United States ; — the perpetrators, when discom- 
 fited, withdraw in peace to their homes, experiencing, and 
 fearing, no retribution from the power they have offended, or 
 from the state to which they belong : and, instructed by the 
 * harmony prevailing between the two Governments,' consider 
 such acts as honourable enterprises — Then follows, — the new 
 assault on the disputed territory." 
 
 " It is because England has been false to herself, that the 
 United States have not been true to their own interests. It is 
 because England is allied to her foes, that the United States 
 have been false to her. The interests of both are then iden- 
 tical. England, by the assertion of her own rights and the 
 performance of her own duties, can still preserve both." 
 
104 ON THE ANNEXATION OF THE TEXAS. 
 
 (The same writer, twelve years ago, in illustrating the 
 causes of the instability of European Governments, thus 
 alludes to Texas) : — 
 
 ** The Mexican government being unable to protect or 
 occupy the Texas, granted a large tract of that splendid pro- 
 vince to American settlers, who became subjects of the Mexi- 
 can republic — this opened to Mexico the prospect of many 
 and important advantages ; the confirmation, by occupation, 
 of its right to the province, the protection of its frontier from 
 the Indians, the augmentation of its population and territorial 
 resources, and, above all, the formation of a population towards 
 the United States, possessing the characteristic energy of its 
 population, and eminently capable of resisting its encroach- 
 ments. For the supply of their wants, and the disposal of 
 their produce, the settlers found it convenient to establish a 
 yearly, caravan with Louisville. A barbarous Turkish ad- 
 ministration would have thought that the province could best 
 understand its own wants ; but the Mexican government had 
 not emancipated itself from the prejudices of Europe. The 
 sequel may easily be anticipated — prohibition of the caravan, 
 contempt of the settlers for orders that could not be enforced, 
 measures to prevent further settlements, and animosity deeply 
 implanted, which, of course, will end in the loss of the province 
 to Mexico." — Turkey and its Resources. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 O. NORMAN, PRINTER, MAIDEN LANE, COVENT GARDEN. 
 
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