MR. CLAY AGAINST ANNEXATION.

After glancing at the recent history of Texas, Mr. Clay continues :

"Mexico has not abandoned, but perseveres in, the assertion of her rights by actual force of arms, which, if suspended, are intended to be renewed. Under these circumstances, if the Government of the United States were to acquire Texas, it would acquire along with it all the encumbrances which Texas is under, and, among them, the actual or suspended war between Mexico and Texas. Of that consequence, there cannot be a doubt. Annexation and war with Mexico are identical. Now, for one, I certainly am not willing to involve this country in a foreign war for the object of acquiring Texas. I know there are those who regard such a war with indifference, and as a trifling affair, on account of the weakness of Mexico, and her inability to inflict serious injury on this country. But I do not look upon it thus lightly. I regard all wars as great calamities, to be avoided, if possible, and honorable peace as the wisest and truest policy of this country. What the United States most need are union, peace, and patience. Nor do I think Nor do I think that the weakness of a power should form a motive, in any case, for inducing us to engage in, or to depreciate, the evils of war. Honor, and good faith, and justice, are equally due from this country toward the weak as toward the strong. And, if an act of injustice were to be perpetrated toward any power, it would be more compatible with the dignity of the nation, and, in my judgment, less dishonorable, to inflict it upon a powerful, instead of a weak, foreign nation."

Mr. Van Buren, in his very long letter, had studiously avoided all all allusion to what, in the cant of a later day, would have been termed the "sectional" aspect of the question; that is, the earnest and invincible repugnance of a large portion of our people to the annexation proposed, because of its necessary ency to extend and strengthen Slavery. Mr. Clay confronted this view of the case cautiously, yet manfully, saying:

tend

"I have hitherto considered the question upon the supposition that the annexation is attempted without the assent of Mexico. If she yields her consent, that would materially affect the foreign aspect of the ques

163

tion, if it did not remove all foreign difficulties. On the assumption of that assent, the question would be confined to the domestic considerations which belong to it, embracing the terms and conditions upon which annexation is proposed. I do not think Texas ought to be received into the Union, as an integral part of it, in decided opposition to the wishes of a considerable and respectable portion of the confederacy. I think it far more wise and important to compose and harmonize the present confederacy, as it now exists, than to introduce a new element of discord and distraction into it. In my humble opinion, it should be the constant and earnest endeavor of American statesmen to eradicate prejudices, to cultivate and foster concord, and to produce general contentment among all parts of our confederacy! And true wisdom, it seems to me, points to the duty of rendering its present members happy, prosperous, and satisfied with each other, rather than to attempt to introduce alien members, against the common consent, and with the certainty of deep dissatisfaction. Mr. Jefferson expressed the opinion, and others believed, that it never was in the contemplation of the framers of the Constitution to add foreign territory to the confederacy, out of which new States were to be formed. acquisitions of Louisiana and Florida may be defended upon the peculiar ground of the relation in which they stood to the States of the Union. After they were admitted, we might well pause a while, people our vast wastes, develop our resources, prepare the means of defending what we possess, and augment our strength, power, and greatness. If, hereafter, further territory tion, we need entertain no apprehension should be wanted for an increased populabut that it will be acquired, by ineans, it is to be hoped, fair, honorable, and constitutional. It is useless to disguise that there are those who espouse, and those who oppose, the annexation of Texas upon the ground of the influence which it would exert on the balance of political power between two great sections of the Union. I conceive that no motive for the acquisition of foreign territory could be more unfortunate, or pregnant with more fatal consequences, than that of obtaining it for the purpose of strengthening one part against Such a principle, put into practical operaanother part of the common confederacy. tion, would menace the existence, if it did of the Union." not certainly sow the seeds of a dissolution

The

He closed his letter-which is not quite a third so long as Mr. Van

164

Buren's-with the following sum- | day, by 148 Yeas to 118 Nays, and ming up of his convictions:

On

the fate of Van Buren sealed.
the first ballot, he received 146 votes
to 116 for all others; but he fell, on
the second, to 127, and settled gradual-

"I consider the Annexation of Texas, at this time, without the consent of Mexico, as a measure compromising the National character, involving us certainly in war with Mexico, probably with other foreign Pow-ly to 104 on the eighth, when he was ers, dangerous to the integrity of the Union, withdrawn-Gen. Cass, who began inexpedient in the present financial condition of the country, and not called for by any general expression of public opinion."

The Whig National Convention met at Baltimore, May 1-every district in the United States fully represented. HENRY CLAY was at once nominated for President by acclamation, and Theodore Frelinghuysen for Vice-President on the third ballot. The number in attendance was estimated by tens of thousands, and the enthusiasm was immense. The multitude separated in undoubting confidence that Mr. Clay would be our next President.

The Democratic National Convention met in the same city on the 27th of that month. A majority of its delegates had been elected expressly to nominate Mr. Van Buren, and were under explicit instructions to support him. But it was already settled among the master-spirits of the party that his nomination should be defeated. To this end, before the Convention had been fully organized, Gen. R. M. Saunders, of North Carolina, moved the adoption of the rules and regulations of the Democratic National Conventions of May, 1832, and May, 1835, for the government of this body; his object being the enactment of that rule which required a vote of two-thirds of the delegates to nominate a candidate. After a heated discussion, the twothirds rule was adopted, on the second

with 83, having run up to 114. On the next ballot, JAMES K. POLK, of Tennessee, who had received no vote at all till the eighth ballot, and then but 44, was nominated, receiving 233 out of 266 votes. This was on the third day of the Convention, when Silas Wright, of New York, was immediately nominated for Vice-President. He peremptorily declined, and George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, was selected in his stead. Mr. Polk had been an early, and was a zealous, champion of Annexation, as always of every proposition or project calculated to aggrandize the Slave Power. The Convention, in its platform,

"Resolved, That our title to the whole2 territory of Oregon is clear and unquestionable; that no portion of the same ought to be ceded to England or any other power; and that the reoccupation of Oregon, and the reannexation of Texas, at the earliest practicable period, are great American

measures, which the Convention recommends to the cordial support of the Democracy of the Union."

Col. Thomas H. Benton, in a speech in the Senate, May 6, had set forth the objections to Messrs. Tyler and Calhoun's Treaty of Annexation, on the ground of its assuming, on the one hand, to cede, and on the other, to accept and maintain, the entire territory claimed by Texas, including all that portion of New Mexico lying east of the Rio Grande, in these forcible terms:

"These former provinces of the Mexican 2 That is, up to 54° 40'; including what is now British Columbia.

COL. BENTON ON THE BOUNDARY OF TEXAS.

165

this rëannexation by the application of some odious and terrible epithet. Demosthenes advised the people of Athens not to take, but to retake, a certain city; and in that re lay the virtue which saved the act from the character of spoliation and robbery. Will it be equally potent with us? and will the re prefixed to the annexation legitimate the seizure of two thousand miles of a neighbor's dominion, with whom we have treaties of peace, and friendship, and commerce? Will it legitimate this seizure, made by virtue of a treaty with Texas, when no Texan force-witness the disastrous expeditions to Mier and to Santa Fé-have been seen near it without being killed or taken, to the last man?

"I wash my hands of all attempts to dismember the Mexican Republic by seizing her dominions in New Mexico, Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Tamaulipas. The treaty, in all that relates to the boundary of the Rio Grande, is an act of unparalleled outragè on Mexico. It is the seizure of two thousand miles of her territory, without a word of explanation with her, and by virtue of a treaty with Texas, to which she is no party. Our Secretary of State, in his letter to the United States Chargé in Mexico several days after the treaty was signed, and after the Mexican Minister had withdrawn from our seat of Government, shows full well that he was conscious of the enormity of this outrage; knew it was war; and proffered volunteer apologies to avert the consequences which he knew he had provoked.

Vice-royalty, now departments of the Mexican Republic, lying on both sides of the Rio Grande from its head to its mouth, we now propose to incorporate, so far as they lie on the left bank of the river, into our Union, by virtue of a treaty of rëannexation with Texas. Let us pause and look at our new and important proposed acquisitions in this quarter. First: There is the department, formerly the province, of New Mexico, lying on both sides of the river from its head-spring to near the Pass del Nortethat is to say, half way down the river. This department is studded with towns and villages-is populated, well cultivated, and covered with flocks and herds. On its left bank (for I only speak of the part which we propose to rëannex) is, first, the frontier village Taos, 3,000 souls, and where the custom-house is kept at which the Missouri caravans enter their goods. Then comes Santa Fé, the capital, 4,000 souls; then Albuquerque, 6,000 souls; then some scores of other towns and villages-all more or less populated and surrounded by flocks and fields. Then come the departments of Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Tamaulipas, without settlements on the left bank of the river, but occupying the right bank, and commanding the left. All this-being parts of four Mexican departments, now under Mexican Governors and Governments-is permanently rëannexed to this Union, if this treaty is ratified, and is actually rëannexed from the moment of the signature of the treaty, according to the President's last Message, to remain so until the acquisition is rejected by rejecting the treaty! one-half of the department of New Mexico, with its capital, becomes a territory of the United States; an angle of Chihuahua, at the Pass del Norte, famous for its wine, also becomes ours; a part of the department of Coahuila, not populated on the left bank, which we take, but commanded from the right bank by Mexican authorities; the same of Tamaulipas, the ancient Nuevo Santander (New St. Andrew), and which covers both sides of the river from its mouth for some hundred miles up, and all the left bank of which is in the power and possession of Mexico. These, in addition to old Texas; these parts of four States-these towns and villages-these people and territory-these flocks and herds-this slice of the Republic of Mexico, two thousand miles long and some hundred broad-all this our President has cut off from its mother empire, and presents to us, and declares it ours till the Senate rejects it! He calls it Texas! and the cutting off he calls reannexation! Humboldt calls it New Mexico, Chihuahua, Cöahuila, and Nuevo Santander now Tamaulipas; and the civilized world may qualify | Buren had been peculiarly strong,

The

"I therefore propose, as an additional resolution, applicable to the Rio del Norte boundary alone-the one which I will read and send to the Secretary's table, and on which, at the proper time, I shall ask the vote of the Senate. This is the resolution: Resolved, That the incorporation of the left bank of the Rio Del Norte into the American Union, by virtue of a treaty with Texas, comprehending, as the said incorporation would do, a part of the Mexican departments of New Mexico, Chihuahua, Cöahuila, and Tamaulipas, would be an act of direct aggression on Mexico; for all the consequences of which the United States would stand responsible."

The opposition of the Northern Democrats to the Annexation project, though crippled by the action. of their National Convention, was not entirely suppressed. Especially in New York, where attachment to the person and the fortunes of Mr. Van

"I do not think it right to announce in advance what will be the course of a future Administration in respect to a question with a foreign power. I have, however, no hesitation in saying that, far from having any personal objection to the Annexation of Texas, I should be glad to see it without dishonor, without war, with the common consent of the Union, and upon just and fair terms.

"I do not think that the subject of Slave

Democratic repugnance to this mea- | the Annexation question. The masure was still manifested. Messrs. terial portion of that letter concluded George P. Barker, William C. Bry- as follows: ant, John W. Edmonds, David Dudley Field, Theodore Sedgwick, and others, united in a letter-stigmatized by annexationists as a "secret circular”—urging their fellow-Democrats, while supporting Polk and Dallas, to repudiate the Texas resolution, and to unite in supporting, for Congress, Democratic candidates hostile to Annexation. Silas Wright, who had prominently opposed the Tyler treaty in the United States Senate, and had refused to run for Vice-President with Polk, was made the Democratic candidate for Governor of New York, which State could not otherwise have been carried for Polk. In a canvassing speech at Skaneateles, Mr. Wright referred to his opposition as unabated, and declared that he could never consent to Annexation on any terms which would give Slavery an advantage over Freedom. This sentiment was reiterated, and emphasized in a great Democratic convention held at Herkimer in the autumn of that year.

ry ought to affect the question, one way or the other. Whether Texas be independent, or incorporated in the United States, I do not believe it will prolong or shorten the duration of that institution. It is destined to become extinct, at some distant day, in my opinion, by the operation.of the inevitable laws of population. It would be unwise to refuse a permanent acquisition, which will exist as long as the globe remains, on account of a temporary institution.

"In the contingency of my election, to which you have adverted, if the affair of acquiring Texas should become a subject of consideration, I should be governed by the state of facts, and the state of public opinion existing at the time I might be called upon to act. Above all, I should be governed by the paramount duty of preserving the Union entire, and in harmony, regarding it, as I do, as the great guaranty of every political and public blessing, under Providence, which, as a free people, we are permitted to enjoy."

This letter was at once seized upon by Mr. Clay's adversaries, whether Democrats or Abolitionists, as evincing a complete change of base on his part. It placed the Northern advocates of his election on the defensive for the remainder of the can

The canvass of 1844 was opened with signal animation, earnestness, and confidence on the part of the Whigs, who felt that they should not, and believed that they could not, be beaten on the issue made up for them by their adversaries. So late as the 4th of July, their prospect of carry-vass, and weakened their previous ing New York and Pennsylvania, hold on the moral convictions of the and thus overwhelmingly electing their candidates, was very flattering. On the 16th of August, however, The North Alabamian published a letter from Mr. Clay to two Alabama friends, who had urged him to make a further statement of his views on

more considerate and conscientious
These
voters of the Free States.
were generally hostile to Annexation
precisely or mainly because of its
bearings upon Slavery; and the
declaration of their candidate that
such considerations "ought not to

DEFEAT OF MR. CLAY.