Newspaper Page Text
ii
The most perfect Government would be that Which, emanating directly from the People, Governs least —Posts least —Dispenses Justieeto all and confers Privileges on INonc. BEN'IILUL
BY T. S. REYNOLDS.
AMERICAN DEMOCRAT*
PUBLISHED WEEKLY
OYER OLD DARIEIf BANK.
MULBERRY STREET, MACON, GA.
AT $2.50 PaJR ANNUM,
jKTIu variably Paid in Advauce
Kates of Advertising, Ac,
One square, of 100 words, or less, in small type, 75 cents
for the first insertion, and 50 cents for aafcfi subsequent inser
ion.
All Advertisements containing more that! 100 and less than
200 words, will be charged as two squares.
To Yearly Advertisers, a liberal deduction will be made
•j-j s. B Sales of LAND, by Administrators, Executors,
Guardians, are required, by law, to be held on the first
Tuesday in the mouth, between the hours of 10 in the lore
noon, and 3 in the afternoon, at the Court-House in the Coun
,y in which the property is situated. Notice of these must
~.00 m a public Gazette, SIXTY DAYS, previous to the
jay of sale.
Sales of PERSONAL PROPERTY, must be advertised in
the same manner, FORTY DAYS previous to the day of sale.
Notice to Debtors and Creditors of an Estate, must be pub
,ished FORTY Days.
Notice that application will be made to the Court of Ordi
tary, for leave to sell LANtI, must be published FOUR
months.
Sales of NEGROES, must be made at public auction, oh
the first Tuesday of the month, between the legal hours of
sale, at the place of public sates in the couiity where the let
•J rs testamentary, of Administration or Guardianship, shall
have been granted, SIXTY DAYS notice being previously
given in one of the public gazettes of this State, and at the door
of the Court-House, where such sales are to be held.
Notice tor leave to sell NEGROES, must be published for
FOUR MONTHS, before any order absolute shall be made
th-reon by the Court.
Ml business of ibis nature, will receive prompt attention, a
the Office of the AMERICAN DEMOCRAT
REMITTANCES UY MAIL.—“A Postmaster may en-
Cldse money in a letter to the publisher of a newspaper, to
pay the subscription of a third person, and frank the letter, if
written by himself.” Amos Kendall, P- MO.
All Letters of business must be addressed to the PiBUSHBit,
Post-Paid. ,
Letier of the lion. Dixon 11. Lewis,
To his constituents of the Thi and Lon
gressionul District of Alabama.
Senate of the Usited States, )
May 18, IS4I. \
Fellow-Citizens: Having been ap
pointed by the Governor of Alabama, to
till the vacancy in tile Seriate cff the U.
States, occasioned by the resignation of
onr distinguished Senator, the Hon. Wil
liam R. King, on the 17th instant, I ac
cepted the appointment., und transmitted
to his excellency the resignation of my
seat for the unexpired balance of the 38th
Congress.
lilthus terminatingtherelation in which
1 have been so highly honored as your
immediate and exclusive Representative,
a relation which has existed with a large
portion of the district in uninterrupted
succession for tiie last filteen years, re
newed time after time bv fresh demon
strations of your confidence, far above
my humble merits, 1 feel that it is partic
ularly due to yon to know that this last
act of mine was dictated by no indiffer
ence in your interests, which could in
duce me to abandon ydtit service in
search of higher honors for myself.
In passing from one House to the oth
er, the theatre of iny legislative duties is
changed, without any change of those du
ties; and so tar from abandoning your ser
vice, the sphere of those services is en
larged, and l am required to represent
an important class of your interests in
the Senate, which are never acted on by
the 1 louse of Representatives.
So far, then, felloe-citizens', from
abandoning your service, or deserting
your interests, if, with a confidence in
iny ability to serve you far beyond my
humble hopes, it were to seek that thea
tre where your rights and interests are
at this time most involved, and most at
stake, I would go (he Senate of the Uni
ted States; I would look after the fate of
the treaty lor annexing Texas fb the Uni
on, now pending in that body—a ques
tion more important to you, so your chil
dren, and to your common country, than
any which has engaged the attention of
Congress since the formation of the Gov
ernment. 1 look upon the question of
Texan annexation as emphatically the
great question of the day —Of the ac.e
in which we live; more important in its
results to human liberty and free institu
tions on this continent than any other
since the issue presented to our forefath
ers in 76—“ whether these colonies are,
and of right ough. to be free and inde
pendent States.”
By whatever standard the magnitude
of this great question may be estimated,
it loses none of its importance. Asa ces
sion ol lands, whether we regard its qual
ity or value, it is the most important
known to modern times, its whole area
is supposed to be five times as much as
the large State of Virginia, much larger
than France, and three times larger than
England and Wales united. In size, it
is the seat of an empire large enough to
govern the continent, if not the world.
Few portions ot the globe of the same
magnitude contain a larger amount of
good lands, and perhaps no portion so
large an amount of the best kind of land.
Considering its fine southern climate,
the agricultural productions of r»o part ot
the world could probably exceed it in
quantity or value. Through much the
larger portion of its extent, it is undoubt
ed! y the finest cotton region on the globe.
1 state what I have no doubt your own
information will confirm, that with hands
and negroes at the same price, a planter
on the Brassos, Caney, or the Colorado,
can afford to make cotton a cent a pound
cheaper than it can be made in the best
cotton sections of Alabama or Georgia.
Asa sugar country, much of it is known
to be far superior to Louisiana, and near
nomii t'4-tf
D3HO3F.ATXC 3 .-.lf HEP.—“ #ree rratie, 2Lo» Duties, iio Debt, Separation from uanfes, Economy, ixctruuhtncnt, ana a Stria Stmcrence to the einsHt. ti n. ’
the Gulf coast its adaptation to sugar is j
equal to any lands in the world. Its soil j
is everywhere calcareous, and therefore
contains within itself the chief element j
of restoration, after being partially ex-1
hausted. The country is less covered j
Withbayons, lakes and ponds, than Lou
isiana—is drier, more healthy, and geti
erally requires little or no draining to
prepare it for cultivation ; while, with a
scarcity of timber, in many places ob
jectional, the labor ot Clearing the lands
is much less than usual.
In view of such advantages, I confess, j
fellow-citizens, I ant astonished that a
Single objection should be urged to an
nexation. Indeed, lam lost in amaze
ment, that in the eighteenth century, af
ter the natives of the civilized world have
traversed every ocean in voyages of ex
ploration and discovery, and ptished their
search for new lands, from the equator
to the ice-covered regions of the poles —
when the ingenuity of man is taxed to dis
pose of the starving millions who crowd
the world—when in the most civilized
countries the great‘problem of the age isto
''subsist' 1 ' the largest number of human
beings on the smallest spot of ground—l
say I ant lost in amazement that a single
objection should be made to secure a 1 oon
so widely spread with God’s choicest
bounties, and sb freely extended to us
by the brave hands and generous hearts
of those wild have sealed their title to
the soil with their blood. One tithe of
Texas, in quantity or value, would be a
stake for which all Elirope would war.
Let me ask fellow-citizens, what would
such a country be worth to England?
The sun never sets on her dominions,
yet the globe cannot furnish her with a
country supplying so many of her nctu
al necessities. Here would be a home
and occupation to the starving millions,
who, under the impulse of bettered con
dition, might raise cotton enough to
| clothe the world. In reference to this
staple, upon which so much of her man
ufacturing wealth and ascendency is
based, Tejfas would be more valuable to
; England than all her China and East In
i dia possessions.
YVhat is the valhe of this country to
I its ? How can We impose a moneyed
\ estimate or. the value of this broad ex
-1 tent of fertile land, already partially sub^
1 dued from its forest state by the indus
i try of those, who, speaking the same
I language, worshipping the same God,
reared under the same free institutions,
J are the more attached to our common
i country, because of a temporary estrange
ment from its protection.
The only argument fellow-citizens,
which has or can be made, to counter- j
vail the pecuniary advantages of annex- j
ation, is, that so large an accession of
cotton aud sugar lands would depress
the price of such lands in the Southern
States. If, however, it has this alleged j
effect, it is only by increasing the. sup-1
ply of this greatest of God’s bounties, be- j
yond the temporary demand of our peo
ple. A great positive good is cheapened
by its abundance ; and in the very pro
cess of depreciation toa standard at which
all may buy, labor becomes enhanced in
value to an amount corresponding to the
reduced price of land. If, therefore, the
Southern planter complains of the depre
ciation of his lands, he will have abun
dant reason to rejoice in the enhanced
value of his slaves, if he has any ; and
if none, in the increased value of his
own labor. Nor will the effect of an
abundant and cheap public domain be
Confined to the labof of she South.—
The free labor of the North is not sta
tionary, but traverses otif wide extent of
country in search of higher reward.—
j Whatever diminishes the value, and of
j course the rent of lands, in anv quarter,
j invites labor to come from all other quar-
I ters and to work good lands at lower
i rates; and, as a consequence, to secure
higher rewards.
If I am right in this view, an enlarge
ment of the public domain becomes an
enlargement of the fund which is to feed
labor with cheaper bread, while it em
ploys ii at prices which high-priced land
cannot afford to give. The value of la
bor is profits left on production, after
paying capital. Suppose an acre of land,
which cost me two bundled dollars, rais
es fifteen bushels of wheat, worth fifteen
dollars. After deducting six per cent,
on the price ot my land, as a fair rent
for it, the profits left as the reward of my
labor is three dollars. But if the same
land had cost me but two per
acre, and produced thirty bushels of
wheat, worth fifty cents a bushel, my
gross receipts would be the same as be
fore—fifteen dollars. Suppose 1 deduct
twenty-five per cent, on the price of my
land as rent, the profits left as the re
ward of my labor will be fourteen dollars
and fitly cents. Heie I have received
higher interest on my land capital as
nut—have supplied wheat for one half
the price, and have realized almost five
times as much from my labor—and all
this is effected by being able to buy bet
ter lands at two dollars an acre, than 1
could get for two hundred dollars in
some other countries. And all this is
the effect of a large public domain.
Another consequence is, that in buy
ing public lands, the money paid is a
substitute for otherwise unavoidable tax-
MACON, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 1844,
ation; and it is not, therefore, too much
to say that the public domain is the peo-:
pie’s wealth—so much garnered capital
to lessen the taxation, cheapen the bread,
and to increase the wages of labor. Its
effect in increasing the price of labor was
admitted during the administration of
John Quincy Adams, ns a reason against
the further reduction and the more rapid
sale of the public lands; and the policy
was openly advocated of confining the
New Englander to his barren hills, that
he might the more readily, and of course
more cheaply, become an operative in a
factory.
So far, then, fellow-citizens, from wish
ing to see the price of lands increased in
the South, as a land holder, having more
of my estate in lands than all other pro
perty, besides I trust in <»od, I shall ne
ver live to see them much higher in price
than they now are. With an increase in
the price of lands, 1 should expect to
witnessthe inva.iableaccompannnents of
more rags, wretchedness, and hunger;
more jails, gibbets, and poor houses;
pobr rates and higher taxation. If it
were possible for land on account of its
abundance, to be worth nothing, which
I know cannot long bs the case with ci
vilized nmn, this very abundance Would
completely release labor from the tribute
! which it necessarily pays to capital.
But fellow-citizens, while I am willing
! to see land cheapened by its abundance,
I should greatly regret to see it lessened
in value by a calamity which would les
sen the returns which it would give to
labor. That this species of depreciation
can result from the annexation of Texas
to the United States, no one can suppose.
That it must result from the failure of
annexation necessarily terminating in the
acquisition of the country tv Gjeat Brit
ain, I think a close attention to facts
will sufficiently prove.
1 take for granted, what the Texans
assert, that they feel as a people too
much weakness and insecurity to remain
longer in their present position; that
while they are able to maintain them
selves with increasing confidence against
Mexico, their immensely valuable terri
torial possessions, and their necessarily
large and growing foreign trade, require
an alliance with some other government
sufficiently strong to insure them peace
at home and security abroad. In what
ever manner this may be effected, it
must result in the loss of her independ
ence, and in the permanent substitution
of some other sovereignty than her own.
It is needless to look around for the gov
ernment with which next to our own she
is mpst likely to ally herself, England,
iu this as in most other cases, is our for
midable rival. With the strongest ma
rine on earth, quickened by the power
of steam, and sheltered by naval stations
encircling our coast, and extending on
the east and west far beyond it she can
concentrate at will a military and naval
force on Texas, which will bring the
weakest section of the Union more in
contact with British power than France
itself-sheltercdby the fortifications which
guard the British channel. Bounded al
ready by her several extended frontiers
of Oregon, the two Canadas, Nova Sco
tia, aud New Brunswick, with the nar
row channel of the Gulf of Mexico, the
outlet for two thirds of our foreign com
merce, commanded by the guns which
reach from her heavy armaments in the
West Indies to the Keys of Florida—it
requires nothing but the acquisition of
TeXas by Great Britr in to close the cir
cle of contact with which she has artful
ly environed us.
And the power into whose coil and
I embrace we shall thus surrender our
selves, in England; not commercial
I England—seeking onr trade, and de
pendent on its for the cotton on which
she enriches herself & clothes the world
—but England, insolent with the design
of re-enacting, on the continent of North
i America, that partition of territory, and
that establishment of military and com
mercial power, which she has so success
fully imposed on the East Indies and
China. Suppose the first object of her
wishes attained in the acquisition of Tex
; as, and upon this firm fulcrum she has
planted the lever which is strong enough
to move the world, we have only to com
pare onr means of competing with the
production of cotton in British Texas, to
the means of competition of both coun
tries with our own, to judge of the effect
which the two results would have on the
price of our land and the value of labor.
1 n any event, Texas, with the great na
tural advantages I have attributed o her
as a cotton growing country, must be our
competitor tti the production of that sta
ple. I take no note of her in her present
j condition as it is one in which she can
! not loug remain. She must cither be
annexed to this country, or substantially
belong to Great Britain. If she were an
nexed to the United States, I have before
shown that the effect would be to dimin
ish the price of lands, but to raise the
price of labor. Slaves at high prices,
would be exchanged most advantageous
ly with the cheap and fertile lauds of
Texas ; white cheapened lands in the
South wouldbe converted intosiiil cheap
er lands in Texas ; and the proceeds of
a year’s labor would buy a better home
stead for a family, than if annexation had
never taken place. Alabama, Mississip
pi, and Louisiana, would occupy the
same reletion to Texas as a cotton coun
try, that Georgia, South Carolina and
North Carolina now occupy to the three
first named States. The cultivation of
cotton in many parts of the South would
give way to other pursuits; while the
price of land in all, including Texas,
would be adjusted on a low level vary
ing according to local advantages. In
this process, it is difficult to sav that any
portion is really injured; while, in the
general effect,, as a whole, the people are
benefitted by increasing the extent, and
improving the quality oftheir lands.
But, suppose England acquires the
country. To anrtex it to, and make it a
part of England, as we would make it a
part of the United States, is impossible.
It therefore can never be on any other
footing than a Government tributary to
another; and, in this instance, a distant
Government. That, in this situation, it
may receive many favors and kindnesses
from from the mother country, it is true;
but, in the main, that these favors are to
be more than reciprocated by substantial
benefits to the mother country, is alsd
true, or the colony would be a losing
concern to the Crown. It will be ov
eined as two-thirds of the tributary world
is now governed—in reference to the in
terests of England. This consideration
would keep back emigrants from the
United States, and cause them to prefer
competing with England in the produc
tion of cotton, to entrusting nil they hold
dear to a foreign Government.
Under any circumstances, wc phould
find this competition in the production
of cotton a difficult matter; but if Eng
land should discriminate in favor of Tex
as cotton, by taking off the duty which
our cotton now pays in her ports; and ii
she should, in a still more important
matter, discriminate in favor of the i ex
ari planter, by taking the duties from
goods imported to Texas—l ask how
long should we pretend to compete with
Texas in raising cotton? We should
raise it, subject to a deduction of about
1 eight cents upon the export, in the shape
of a duty, when it lands ill England,
and an average of 40 per cent, in duties
when it returns m the form of imports.
This would be a permanent bounty of
| forty-eight per cent, in favor of Texas
ovrr American cotton —and one which
| would stop the growth of cotton in the
I United States, as soon as this high boun
; ty could call together the labor necessary
;to make cotton enough in Texas to
clothe the world. The effect of this
would be, not to diminish, hut to destroy
the value of land in the South. It would
at once bring the South to that condition
i of degraded poverty described by John
Randolph, when the slave would not run
from his master, but the master would be
compelled to rim away from the slave.
England would thus effect her abolition
purposes in the natural way, by reducing
| the value of slave labor to such an extent,
that the pressure falls heavier on the
I master than on the slave.
But fellow-citizens, Texas, in the
hands of England, would be just as po
tent in impoverishing the North as the
South. Give England the cheapest and
best cotton lands, she will not only have
the cheapest cotton, but the cheapest
Cotton goods, in the world. Let her im
poverish the South, and by taking from
her the monopoly she has so long enjoy
ed. of furnishing the world with cotton,
and what becomes of the market for New
England manufactures? How will the
bounty fed products of Northern labor
encounter English goods, smuggling
across the Texan linC, and meeting them
m every market of the South and West?
Who does not see, that in spite ot cus
tom-house contrivance, England, through
Texas can force her goods into many of
the markets of the West and South,
throughout the whole of our Indian
tribes, and throughout the larger portion
of Mexico, yith as much facility as she
is now forcing them on the people of In
dia and China. This, in fac', is the pro
cess, as it is the essence of British slave
ry. She enslaves, not by races nor by
but through her territorial acqui
sitions she establishes commercial despo
tisms, which render empires aud conti
nents tributary to her exactions and her
power.
But, fellow-citizens, this war on onr
industry aud commerce which Great
Britain by an alliance with Texas, will
be enabled to make at .such odds against
us, is not the only contest which we must
be prepared to meet. We must look lor
an indiscriminate war on all our institu
tions. On tbe ruins of the only Repub
lican Constitution hi the world, except
| our own, capable of limiting power, and
; in the hands ot a people capable of sus
tainmgsucli limitations. England plants
in Texas the standard of the authority
with which she expects to control this
continent. She comes not in the meek
and quiet spirit of her Christian laith “to
render unto Caesar the things that are
Caesar’s,” but in advance, she avows her
self a great political relormer, who has
already intertered, aud intends still fur
ther to iuterfere, in procuring the aboli
tion of slavery m Texas, and declares
: her determination to persist until she has
expelled slavery from the civilized world.
Already allied to the treasonable design
of our Tappans, Birneys and Garrisons,
she takes the lead in the work ot propa
gandisin, bv possessing-herself of a slave
holdmg republic in the vicinity of our
strongest .slaveholding section, where
she can give practical illustrations in the
work of abolition. In the mean time,
she is to rally to this point the fanaticism
of all Christendom, that she may send
forth her hellish agents, preaching liber
ty to the slave and death to his master.
\\ hen this is proposed to be resisted, she
is doubtless to make manifestations of iter
military power by black regiments quar
tered on our frontier, and mustered in
sight of our cotton plantations, ready,
with her emancipated and our runaway
blacks, at the first tap of a British dritm
to march on our sleeping wives and chil
dren.
But fellow-citizens, suppose slavery is
abolished, will England be satisfied?—
After successfully practising an interfer
ence with one class of our institutions,
will she desist till she has remodelled the
whole to her fancy? Certainly not—and
to think so betrays ah ignorance of the
history' and designs of a people whose
policy is always controlled by theif far
seeing sagacity, and never by their fanat
icism. When the slavery of man to
man, race to race, and color to chlor,
which 1 have before alluded to, shall end,
the more Comprehensive progress of Brit
ish slavery in subjecting empires and
continents to the dominion of England,
has just begun. If every Englishman
were born with the single passion of
universal dominion over the human race,
the English Government could not have
devoted its whole energies more system
atically and vigorously to the work of
subjugating tbe globe. And are we the
only people she does not wish again to
subjugate to her power, and, by a process
of recolonization, to adapt onr institutions
once more to the interests of Great Brit
ain, rather than onr own? We who
have alone succeeded in twice humbling
her pride, and who, in the estimation ol
mankind, have exceeded her in the wis
dom of our institutions? The English
people can forgive any thing sooner than
acknowledged superiority in another
country, and if but one English yoke
was to be made, further to enslave man
kind, British pride would prepare that
yoke for our American neck. They
hope still further to divide us on slavery,
to put themselves at the head of one di
vision, and to build up an essentially
English party, with English principles
and feelings, who will betray tbe coun
try and its free institutions once more n
to their hands.
But, I may be asked, what evidence
have 1 that England seeks an alliance
with Texas. 1 am at liberty to refer to
ho evidence sent to the Senate confiden
tially, which has not been published;
but it would seem to me that the more
natural enquiry would be, what evidence
is there that England will not, in obedi
ence to her invariable policy, seek such
an alliance? Why should she make
Texas an exception, worth more to her,
as I have before remarked, than her East
India and China possessions ? Is it out
of courtesy to us, as her only rival on
this contine t? or is there any force in
the intimation which has been made,
that she dare not accept a proposition
which has been made to us, and which
we have refused ? What rightful cause
of quarrel would WC have of her for thus
accepting? I claim nothing more than
ordinary sagacity in adopting the univer
sal opinion in Texas, that Great Britain
has anxiously endeavored to treat for
that country; that the negotiations have
been broken off by the strong popular
sentiment in favor of annexation with
this country; and that, if we reject the
proposals made through her minister,
Texas will probably in sixty days, form
a treaty with Great Britain, which Brit
ish interests will not fail to ratify. To
reject this second proposition made to us
in a spirit of brotherly kindness, by a
people who feel that they are bone ol our
bone, and flesh of otir flesh, will be noth
ing short of contemptuously banishing
them from our protection, to seek the
aid of a toreign rival. To many kin
dred portions of a common country, it
will tie felt like tearing a limb from the
living body; while to Texas it will bean
indignity the more keenly lelt, because
inflicted by their owu brethren. That
it will produce an exasperation of the
public mind, which, in addition to the
preferences doubtlessly felt bya few ambi
tious individuals for British annexation,
will drive the country at once into the
anxious embrace ot Great Britain, it ap
pears to me tolly to doubt; and therefore
1 propose open and direct opposition, to
a promise to lavor annexation at a future
day.
It is not to be disguised, fellowncitizens,
that most of the opposition which is lelt
or leigued against re-annexation grows
out of the strong anti-slavery feeling
which prevails in many parts of the coun
try. Many, no doubt, in good faith,
make conscientious objections, not found
ed in this sentiment; but a large number
make other objections, when opposition
to slavery, either in themselves, or in the
community, is the governing motive.—
\‘l jjen we see the importance of aajjexa-
VOL. II—NO 4.
tion to all sections of the country, and
the variety of interest beneficially affec
ted by it, we may form some idea ol the
strength of that objection, which, alone
and unaided, makes annexation doubt
ful. If Texas were not a slaveholding
country, does any one imagine there
would beany serious opposition to its
annexation.
And yet, fellow-citizens, it is difficult
to account for the fact that a sent:met*,
which is con fined almost exclusively to
one section of the Union, and from ati
past indications is far from being in the
ascendant there, should so far have out
weighed all considerations of interest and
feeling in favor of this measure, as to have
rendered re-annexation doubtful. It can
only la? accounted for by the iact that the
country is divided into two great rival
parties, whose organization, i am sorry
to believe, is rapidly becoming paramount
to all considerations of policy and piin
ciple. To what other cause can we as
sign the sudden changes of men and
communities on this subject ? Mr. Ciay
comes out in opposition to annexation,
and forthwith a large majority of his par
ty—many up to that time professmsr
strong devotion to the measure—hand
themselves in united opposition to it.—
On the other hand, Mr. Van Buren’s
friends, expecting him to declare in fa
vor of the measure, make known their
feelings in advance. He unexpectedly
takes position against the measure, and
though fewer of his friends than those
of Mr. Clay have accommodated then
opinions to his, it is even now. ten days
before the Baltimore Convention, doubt
ful whether helms forfeited the nomina
tion of his party, by the expression cf
opinions on the most important question
of the day, which not one out of ten of
his friends can approve.
I ask, then, is it strange that the Abo
litionists, though relatively weak as a
party, should have so much influence on
this question, when they place it above
all Considerations of party or the Presi
dency, and go only for the man who is
opposed to annexation ; when, on the
other hand, so large a portion of those
who are in favor of annexation, are w il
ling to place the Presidency' so much
above the question as to vote for the can
didate of their own party, even if oppo
sed to it. Though Mr. Clay will lose in
all sections of the country many patriot
ic friends by his opposition to annexation,
yet it is doubtful if he is not ultimately
more than compensated bv the united
votes of the Abolitionists. The effi ct of
the question, as to Mr. Van Bitten, is
yet to be seen in the action of the Balti
more Convention. In any event, the
Abolitionists have shown their power;
and have incontestably proved that by
h ilding themselves aloof from party or
ganization, and free to support any can
didate supporting their wicked princi
ples, they are stronger than all the slave
holding States, bound by party ties to
the support of a particular candidmc, and
with no power to confer their votes, ex
cept on the nominee of the party.
in fact, the cause of immediate annex
ation depends on its being strong enough
to ride over tbe politicians of both ;ar
ties. Mr. Clay’s friends are just as much
interested in sinking the question of'l ex
as, in order that, by Mr. Van Buren’s
nomination, there may be no Texan
candida'e, as are Mr. Van Btnen’s friends
themselves. All of one parly, and many
of the other, are thus united in the com
mon object of keeping the issue out of
the Presidential election ; while the great
popular party, on whose broad shouidem
the question can be safely and triumph
antly carried, ask but a Texan standard
to be raised, to conduct them to victory.
Concluded in our next.
The title of Itfexico to Texas.
Facts are. stubborn things. History
presents the following singular array of
titles to Texas:
In 1819 the country, including Texas,
was ceded to Spa in by the United States,
and of course Spain became its rightful
owner.
In 1321 Mexico, then a part of the
Spanish dominions, revolted, and com
menced her war of independence; Tex
as then was a part of the country known
as Mexico. The contest continued for
years l»etween Spain and Mexico. It
was during this contest that President
Adams and Henry Clay, in 1825 and
1827, and lieu. Jackson and Martiu Van
Buren, iu 1529, endeavored to purchase
Texas of Mexico ; while, according to
some, the latter had no right to seil if,*
because Spam had not then acknowledg
ed the right of Mexico to hold it; hut, on
the contrary, hid formally protested
against our government treating with
tier as an independent nation. But be
fore Spain did this—that is,
in 1835 Texas revolted from Mexico,
defeated Gen. Cos and one Mexican ar
my in December, 1835, aud Santa Anna
and another Mexican army in April,
183d, and to all intents and purposes be
came a nation as much independent of
Mexico as Mexico wgs independent cf
Spain ; for Mexico exercised no more ju
risdiction over Texas than Texas exerci
se over Mexico; or than Spain exerci
sed over Texas. Hot after the victories
of San Anton i.5 and San Lp >to, and af
ter the acknowledgment of her ladepeu-