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5
result, for we know the calculating policy of that gentleman.
The principles of liberty are never safe in the hands of men
who make a trade of public affairs. Mr. Van Buren must
be judged by his preceding course, taken as a whole-and
from that let no man delude himself with the belief that he is
fixed to any thing but his own interest. If the citizens of the
Free States are to have any hope of maintaining to themselves
and their children the blessings of liberty, they must
rely upon themselves. For their voice alone will form the
potential rule by which the conduct of such men as Mr. Van
Buren will be guided. And with regret it must be confessed
that of such men, do, for the most part, our legislative bodies
consist.
In order to a full comprehension of the merits of this question,
it is necessary to go a great deal deaper than Mr.
Tyler's treaty with Texas. That is but an incident-an
important one, it may be-but still only one of many, which
spring from the same cause. What that cause is, few of the
leading politicians of the present day dare to tell if they
know. The exposure of it to the light is not a very safe
process to any one ambitious of a share of power, to get
which it is necessary to gain the assent of Senators from the
Southern States. The Massachusetts resolutions ventured to
point to that cause in a manner that could not be misunderstood.
Hence the extraordinary way in which they have been received
throughout the chain of the slave States, and in both
branches of the federal legislature. Massachusetts struck
directly at the root of the evil; She showed from whence
came the policy which has already-put fetters on the Free
States, the galling nature of which they will only begin to
feel when the annexation of Texas shall have brought its train
of evils along with it, and the consequence has been a general
burst of indignation from the parties interested in maintaining
the delusion. .It must be confessed that Massachusetts,
in making the exposition which she did of the
power wielded by the representation of property in -an,
conceded by the constitution of the United States, over the
interests of the Union, went a step beyond public opinion,
even in the Free States, and she has not yet been properly
sustained in any quarter, but, on the whole, this is not to be
regretted. There is time enough. Events will show whether
she is right or wrong. If tlhe duty of sustaining the great
principles of human progress against attack, is to devolve
upon any one, who so fit to lead as the people of Massachusetts
?
Let no one, however, be so simple as to imagine that the
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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/m1/5/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.