Texas and the Massachusetts Resolutions Page: 27 of 54
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27
simpletons in the Free States as are predisposed to believe
any thing that may be told them. They seek the protection of
a power, which knocks the mranacles off' from every slave within
the scope of its influence! They voluntarily seek to sacrifice
a property in man, to defend and sustain which, they undertook
the insurrection against the Mexican power ! The
idea is amusing, to those who have watched with attention the
desperation with whichi the samre men, when citizens of the
United States, and their friends, have always contended for
that property. Sooner than that this should take place, the
whole of the company immigrating into Texas, would vacate
the lands of that territory, and returni to these favored regions,
where slavery and the constitution are said to flourishl together
and where it is treason to doubt the propriety of continuing
special privileges, which have the effect of encouraging the
increase of the slave population. When will the free citizens,
who love our institutions, cease to be led blindfold into the
Slnares which Iare sor u blusihingSly prepared for thlem ?
V\iihen iILr. Walker, acting in concurrence with Genteral
Jackson, succecded in obtaining the recognition, by the United
States, of tlte independence of T1'exas, in the manner
which lias been already explained, he probably congratulated
h1imself upon the measure, considering it as one step nearer to
the great object of his wislhes. ie did not then foresee
thle rise of a new objection to it, growing out of the very
ci ange thus efiected in the relation of that country to ours.
Ie did not perceive that tlie admission of Texas as an independent
foreign State was an unprecedented act of power in
the general government not sanctioned by the examples eitier
of Lotuisiana or the Florida treaties.
This objection is now very gravely urged in many quarters,
and, we lmut confess, we see no way to remove it, consistenttly
with the sliSghtest respect to the Constitution, which the
memibers of Congress are all sworn to support. Although
the acquisition of territory under the treaties referred to was
a very questionable proceeding, when judged by the naked
provisions of the constitution, still, as the people sanctioned
the act by their silence, we shall not non undertake, so far as
that goes, to review the decision. What Mlr. Jefferson, the
person under whose adniinistration the cession of Louisiana
took place, thought of the matter, is very well known . In
his letter to Wilson Carey Niholas, lhe says-- But wlhen I
consider that the limnits of the United States are precisely fixed
by the treaty of 1783, that the consitutiont expressl)y declares
itself to be 1made for thie United States I, canlnot hellp
believing the intention was not to permit Congress to 1admlit
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Adams, Charles Francis. Texas and the Massachusetts Resolutions, book, January 1, 1844; Boston, Massachusetts. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2355/m1/27/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.