The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 5, July 1901 - April, 1902 Page: 31
370 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Annexation of exas and the illexican War. 31
minority and the overshadowing importance of the war with Eng-
land soon relegated this opposition to the rear.4
In the negotiations which led to the treaty of 1819, although
John Quincy Adams was the especial champion of the claim of the
United States to Texas, New England opposition to the acquisition
of llorida was so extreme that President Monroe and the slave-
holding members of his cabinet, as a concession to New England
feeling, forced Mr. Adams to. give up, not only Texas, but over
60,000 square miles of what was confessedly a part of the Louisiana
purchase, and therefore a part of United States territory, so that
more area was lost than gained by the Florida purchase and treaty
of 1819, irrespective of any claim which the United States had to
Texas proper.2
Coming on down to the annexation of Texas, opposition arose
from the same source, with John Quincy Adams, the former expan-
sionist, in the lead. No invective was too strong, no vituperation
too bitter, and no constitutional construction too strained for his
opposition to the measure. Finding that the former efforts at
secession were fruitless, Massachusetts now adopted the plan of
South Carolina, and by legislative action solemnly nullified the acts
of Congress, and unless recently repealed this nullification still
stands as part of the law of Massachusetts.
The present attitude of Ex-Governor Boutwell, Senator Hoar,
and Edward Atkinson upon the matter of expansion is therefore
historically and geographically consistent.
To determine the question as to whether the early movements
made towards the peopling of Texas were due to the inspiration of
the slave holder, we need only note one or two or the formative
influences of that period.
Moses Austin, in whose mind the colonization of Texas orig-
inated, was a Connecticut man, born and educated in that State.
He came to Virginia and remained several years, but never engaged
in planting. In his mining operations he imported English labor-
ers. Just before the expiration of President Washington's last
'McMaster's Hist. People U. S., loc. cit.
2Benton's Thirty Years' View, I, 15 et seq.TVon Holst, Vol. II, p. 117.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 5, July 1901 - April, 1902, periodical, 1902; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101021/m1/37/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.