Texas annexation

“ It is time now for opposition to the Annexation of Texas to cease, all further agitation of the waters of bitterness and strife, at least in connexion with this question,—even though it may perhaps be required of us as a necessary condition of the freedom of our institutions, that we must live on for ever in, a state of unpausing struggle and excitement upon some subject of party division or other. ”

“ The people of Texas are sovereign and independent. Under Providence they hold their destiny in their own hands. Justice to them requires that they should have been left free to decide the question of annexation for themselves without foreign interference and without being biassed by foreign influence. Not a doubt exists but that the people of the two Republics are anxious to form a re-union. Indeed, the enthusiastic unanimity which has been displayed by the citizens of Texas in favor of annexation is unexampled 585in the history of nations. ”

“ The independence of Texas is a fact conceded by Mexico herself, and she had no right or authority to prescribe restrictions as to the form of government which Texas might afterwards choose to assume. But though Mexico can not complain of the United States on account of the annexation of Texas, it is to be regretted that serious causes of misunderstanding between the two countries continue to exist, growing out of unredressed injuries inflicted by the Mexican authorities and people on the persons and property of citizens of the United States through a long series of years. ”

“ With those disasters fresh in the minds of the people, Protection continued to be a leading issue in the succeeding Presidential campaign of 1844—but coupled with the Texas-annexation issue. In that campaign Henry Clay was the candidate of the Whig party and James K. Polk of the Democratic party. Polk was an ardent believer in the annexation policy and stood upon a platform declaring for the "re-occupation of Oregon and the re-annexation of Texas at the earliest practicable moment"—as if the prefix "re" legitimatized the claim in either case ”

“ There is no point of view in which the proposition for annexation can be considered, that any serious obstacle in point of form presents itself. If this government be a confederation of states, then it is proposed to add another state to the confederation. If this government be a consolidation, then it is proposed to add to it additional territory and population. That we can annex, and afterwards admit, the cases of Florida and Louisiana prove. We can therefore deal with the people of Texas for the territory of Texas ”

“ Foreign powers should therefore look on the annexation of Texas to the United States not as the conquest of a nation seeking to extend her dominions by arms and violence, but as the peaceful acquisition of a territory once her own, by adding another member to our confederation, with the consent of that member, thereby diminishing the chances of war and opening to them new and ever-increasing markets for their products. ”

“ The matter was hurried through Congress; the Northern Democrats made no serious opposition, since they saw in this annexation a vast accession of territory around the Gulf of Mexico, of indefinite extent. Thus, Texas, on March 1, 1845, was offered annexation by a Joint Resolution of the Senate and House of Representatives, in the face of protests from the wisest men of the country, and in spite of certain hostilities with Mexico. ”

“ With no friendship for slavery, though unprepared to excommunicate to eternal damnation, with bell, book, and candle, those who are, we see nothing in the bearing of the Annexation of Texas on that institution to awaken a doubt of the wisdom of that measure, or a compunction for the humble part contributed by us towards its consummation. ”

“ A controlling majority of the people and a large majority of the States have declared in favor of immediate annexation. Instructions have thus come up to both branches of Congress from their respective constituents in terms the most emphatic. It is the will of both the people and the States that Texas shall be annexed to the Union promptly and immediately. ”

“ The North, therefore, still had an imperial area from which to organize future free States, while the South had not a foot more territory from which to create slave States.
Sagaciously anticipating this contingency, the Southern States had been largely instrumental in setting up the independent State of Texas, and were now urgent in their demand for her annexation to the Union. Two days before the signing of the Iowa and Florida bill, Congress passed, and President Tyler signed, a joint resolution, authorizing the acquisition, annexation, and admission of Texas. ”

“ The present movement is the only one the United States will ever enjoy to annex Texas. I am intensely solicitous to see the matter consummated and my country at rest. 'Tis true that we are not to be great gainers when compared to the United States in what they derive. Had I been at Washington, 1 would most certainly have not made a treaty so indefinite as to individual rights which may arise and be involved in the subject of annexation. ”

“ This misapprehension of the true feeling which disposed this country to look with such favor upon the annexation of Texas is very likely to produce the very state of public opinion which is erroneously supposed already to exist, and which would lead to that very result, the consequences of which we have endeavored to consider, much sooner than is dreamed of by those who are most reckless in giving the impulse. ”

“ Believing, as the Executive did at the commencement of the present session, that the subject of annexation was in the best position in which Texas could place it, he did not allude to it in his general message, apprehending that any public action, taken either by the Executive or the Congress, would only have a tendency to embarrass the subject. Action must now be taken by the United States, and we must now watch and meet their disposition toward us. If we evince too much anxiety it will be regarded as importunity, and the voice of supplication seldom commands, in such cases, great respect. ”

“ Partly as a result of the slavery controversy then raging in the United States and partly in fear of war with Mexico, the United States refused annexation.
In the second period, Texas altered her attitude, withdrew her application for annexation, and made plans to perpetuate her republic. During this period, Texas was recognized by powers such as Great Britain, France, Holland, and Belgium. Americans, laboring under the influence of what they considered a Manifest Destiny, feared the influence of foreign powers in Texas. ”

“ By the fruit the tree is to be known. An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit. If the fruit of electing Mr. Clay would have been to prevent the extension of slavery, could the act of electing have been evil?
But I will not argue further. I perhaps ought to say that individually I never was much interested in the Texas question. I never could see much good to come of annexation, inasmuch as they were already a free republican people on our own model. On the other hand, I never could very clearly see how the annexation would augment the evil of slavery. ”

“ Generally the officers of the army were indifferent whether the annexation was consummated or not; but not so all of them. For myself, I was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day regard the war, which resulted, as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. It was an instance of a republic following the bad example of European monarchies, in not considering justice in their desire to acquire additional territory. Texas was originally a state belonging to the republic of Mexico. ”

“ Although Mexico had not recognized her independence, Texas had now been a republic ever since General Samuel Houston [170] had defeated the Mexican leader, Santa Anna, at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. The leading Texans were Americans, however, and desired annexation, but this would mean not only war with Mexico, but also a huge increase of territory for slavery. Accordingly Northern men shrank from allowing the annexation of the sparsely populated region. Anti-slavery sentiments were growing, and such able men as Joshua R. Giddings of Ohio were championing them in Congress. ”

“ For an entire year before Houston entered the United States Senate virtual annexation, under President Polk, had existed. As a Representative from Tennessee, entering the House in 1824, one year later than Houston, Mr. Polk, among the most decided of opponents of internal improvements, of a protective tariff, and of restriction of slave territory, had been elected specially as an advocate of Texan annexation in its bearings on the questions then dividing political parties. The issue of extended slave territory was settled for a time when Texas was annexed ”

“ Congress' failure to carry into the Annexation Resolution the boundaries fixed by the 1836 Texas Boundary Act did not, of course, foreclose the possibility that the State's boundary might ultimately be fixed in accordance with that statute. It is significant in this regard to note the opinions ventured in Congress on the probable settlement of the boundary with Mexico which would occur subsequent to annexation. One group asserted that the Texan claims to the Rio Grande, particularly the portion which encompassed New Mexico, could not possibly be maintained. ”

“ No arm of force has been raised to produce the result. The sword has had no part in the victory. We have not sought to extend our territorial possessions by conquest, or our republican institutions over a reluctant people. It was the deliberate homage of each people to the great principle of our federative Union.”
The proffered annexation of Texas had been declined both cxlvi by General Jackson and Mr. Van Buren, on the ground that, unless made with the consent of Mexico, it would involve a war with that power. ”