The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 25, July 1921 - April, 1922 Page: 17
306 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Annexatiion of Texas and the Mississippi Democrats 17
leaders that the argument in favor of immediate reannexation on
sectional grounds was advanced; in numerous public meetings,
many of them non-partisan, and representing practically every
section of the state, resolutions were adopted demanding re-annex-
ation as of vital importance to the security and perpetuity of
southern institutions. In the meetings in which members of both
parties participated, they avow their intention "to bury the toma-
hawk of party warfare and contend shoulder to shoulder for the
cause of annexation." It is not surprising to find the makers of
these resolutions condoning, as the legislature had done seven
years before, the institution of slavery. "Southern slavery con-
fers countless blessings on both master and slave," runs one reso-
lution; another "solemnly asserts the right to extend slavery as
our wishes or interest may dictate." "Re-annexation" is declared
to be paramount to all other political questions of the day. The
burden of scores of resolutions representing every section of the
state is that annexation was "absolutely and indispensably neces-
sary to the preservation of our domestic institutions," and that
right soon. To oppose annexation-and it was only from the abo-
litionists that opposition came-was "to strike a death-stab at the
institutions of the South in their tenderest and most vital point."
While it was criminal and dangerous to postpone such a "great
national blessing" as the annexation of Texas, the measure was a
question of life and death with southern men, with the citizens
of the slaveholding states. "So essential do we deem it to the
very existence of our domestic institutions, and the security of
our families and firesides, that all who oppose obstacles to this
great measure are foes to the prosperity and enemies to the se-
curity of our domestic institutions." If Texas were refused, no
alternative would be left but for her to. make terms with England,
"our deadliest enemy"; for the thing most to be apprehended at
this time was British interference with slavery.50 Allusion to the
possibility of England exerting her influence in a manner danger-
ous to the peace and safety of the southern states is a continually
recurring theme in the arguments advanced by the advocates of
annexation; and there can hardly be a doubt that the supposed
oA Whig journal referred to the madcap and revolutionary meetings,
where the Democratic champions grappled with each other on the Texas
question, Golumbus Whig, May 23, 1844.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 25, July 1921 - April, 1922, periodical, 1922; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101082/m1/23/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.