Address on the annexation of Texas, and the aspect of slavery in the United States, in connection therewith: delivered in Boston November 14 and 18, 1845 Page: 27 of 56
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27
their undue share of representation, -that opponents of
slavery shall not be deemed eligible to any national offices, and
that, in whatever manner the authority of the government
can be exerted to uphold slavery, it shall not be withheld.
Now, in view of this established policy of the government,
who amongst us can fail to perceive that the Free States,
with their vastly greater population, and their greater resources
in all respects, in submitting to be placed upon a
political equality with the Slave States, and in according to
slavery a permanent and controlling influence in the administration
of the government, have sacrificed alike their dignity,
their principles, their interests, and their rights ? And
who is there amongst us, capable of estimating the magnitude
of such a sacrifice, and unprepared to submit passively to
still greater exactions, -who is there, now that slavery claims
not only an equality, but, through the annexation of Texas,
a preponderance of political power, that does not perceive,
that, if there be a question of vital interest, of appalling reality,
to him and his fellow-citizens of the Free States, it must
be the absorbing question of slavery, especially in the form
in which it is now presented, and in reference to the issue
which must now be decided ?
The political influence of slavery, in the relation it establishes
between the Free and Slave States, deserves to be considered
in another aspect. The axiom is too trite to be
sufficiently regarded, but its truth is all-important, that a
republic can have no safe foundation except in the character
of its citizens ; and that, to make our government what it
was designed to be, -to make it indeed a glory and a blessing
to the country, - every citizen must be a republican,in
his sentiments, his tastes, his habits, and in all his personal
and social relations. It was a natural consequence of the
emigration of our forefathers from Great Britain, and an unavoidable
incident of colonial subjection to the mother country,
that the customs and manners, which had grown up
under a monarchy in an aristocratic state of society, should
be transplanted here; and it was too much to be accomplished
at once, in introducing a change of government, to
introduce also a corresponding change in the private condition
of the people. In the Free States, however, under
the influences peculiar to our institutions, from the effect of
universal education, from the necessity of universal industry,
and from the practical enjoyment of equal rights, there has
been a gradual approximation to the contemplated and intended
result; so that it is now seen and felt by all, that, if
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Phillips, Stephen C. Address on the annexation of Texas, and the aspect of slavery in the United States, in connection therewith: delivered in Boston November 14 and 18, 1845, book, January 1, 1845; Boston. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2361/m1/27/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.