The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 25, July 1921 - April, 1922 Page: 18
306 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Southwestern historical Quarterly
designs of Great Britain upon Texas was a potent factor in crys-
tallizing the sentiment for annexation. It was held to be degrad-
ing to the national honor "to sue for the consent of any other
power, to be deterred by foreign threats." "Should England, the
imperious mistress of land and sea, the especial guardian of the
negro race, wherever that guardianship can redound to her own
advantage,"-be permitted to interfere with affairs on this con-
tinent? A deadly blow would be aimed at the South if England
should join with Mexico in the abolition of slavery. In fact,
Mississippi afforded a conspicuous instance of the "continuous
drumbeat of resentment and defiance against foreign interposi-
tion."51
As a rule disunion was deprecated as "the greatest evil that
could befall us," but now and then an element representing the
"left wing" or the "chivalry," as it was termed, would obtain con-
trol of a meeting, and then resolutions of an even more sectional
cast than those described above would be the order of the day.
One such group of "rabid nullifiers" in a meeting at Columbus de-
clared that no man should be voted for who had not been the
open, fearless, and consistent advocate of annexation; if the treaty
of annexation, then pending, should be rejected, the South should
hold a convention to act as emergencies might require; in the
language of Jackson, it was a case of "peaceably if we can, forcibly
if we must."52
With one important exception, the tone of the public prints of
Mississippi touching annexation may be summed up in the words,-
"'Smith, Annexation of Texas, 302. Cf. Garrison, Dap. Cor. Tex., II,
240; Washington Daily Globe, June 19, 1844, quoting the New York
Herald of June 18.
52The description of the meetings is based in the main upon con-
temporary newspaper accounts.
"Without Texas," said Colonel William Davis, addressing a meeting
at Holly Springs on May 15, "we are hewers of wood and drawers of
water to the North." A group of citizens in Claiborne county declared
that while they grieved to see the Union threatened, nevertheless they
desired the immediate annexation of Texas. If justice to Texas was not
consonant with our treaty stipulations to Mexico, and the chances of
war with England, "we dare frankly and boldly to meet the responsibili-
ties of the alteration," for there were causes that justified the abrogation
of all treaties. The Texas Association of Holmes county declared in a
meeting at Franklin on June 8 that the opposition of Clay and Van
Buren was a "mere temporizing expedient of political chicanery to secure
the support of Northern abolitionists."
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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/m1/24/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.