For "the majority of the people of Texas are not owners of slaves."*

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our

On the 11th of October, 1843, Mr. Upshur took the initiative and proposed annexation to the Texans; he told them, on the 16th of Jan., 1844, that without annexation "they cannot maintain that institution [Slavery] ten years; probably not half that time." If Texas is not annexed, he says again, "the people of the Southern states will not run the hazard of subjecting their slave property to the control of a population who are anxious to abolish slavery." Mr. Upshur was not so crafty as Mr. Murphy, his agent at Texas. He says: "Take this position on the side of the constitution and the laws, and the civil, political, and religious liberties of the people of Texas secured thereby, (saying nothing about abolition) and all the world will be with you;" say "nothing which can offend even our fanatical brethren of the North; let the United States espouse at once the cause of civil, political, and religious liberty in this hemisphere." A treaty was made, but fanatical brethren of the North" were offended, and on the 8th of June, 1844, the Senate rejected it by a vote of 35 to 16.§ "The immediate annexation of Texas was now the favorite measure of the slave power. They had little fear that, in the next presidential term they could repeal the tariff of '42, but felt doubtful of the success of annexation. Mr. Upshur feared New England; || had he lived at Boston, and known the influences then controlling New England, he would have seen there was no reason for present fear. A presidential election was at hand; the Democratic convention was to meet at Baltimore in May. Mr. Van Buren was the most prominent candidate of the party. Most of the delegates to the convention had been instructed by the primary assemblies which appointed them, to support him. But he was a Northern man; while President he had not favored annexation; he had lately written a public letter, (April 20, 1844,) and plainly declared himself hostile to annexation as then proposed. Mr. Ritchie,

* Jay, pp. 87, 88.

† Executive Document, No. 271, 28th Congress, 1st Session, p. 46. Letter of Sept. 23d, 1843, and Sept. 24th, ubi sup.

See Mr. Tyler's Special Message of April 22d, 1844, and his Annual Message of Dec. 5th, 1843.

See his Letter to Mr. Murphy, [No. 14] Executive Document, No. 271, ubi sup.

.p.

T See his Letter to Mr. Hammet, in Niles' Register, new series, Vol. XVI. p 153, et seq.

NO. IX.

9

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"the senior field-marshal of Van Buren's party," forsook and opposed his old friend. Mr. Cross, of Arkansas, "would not vote under any circumstances for a man opposed to the annexation of Texas; " Van Buren was not the proper person for the party to rally around in the coming struggle;""nine out of ten of our friends think so. The Tyler committee wrote on their card, as for Van Buren, "Texas has destroyed him;""the last, best, and wisest counsel of Andrew Jackson was the annexation of Texas."

The convention assembled; Van Buren got more than a majority, but could not get two-thirds of the votes. Candidates were numerous. There were some that proposed Cass, Calhoun, Buchanan, Tyler, Tecumseh-Johnson; some even thought it best to take again Andrew Jackson-"gallant old Ironsides." Even Commodore Stewart was talked of. When the political tide ebbs clean out of the harbor, strange things appear on the bottom, only seen on such occasions. Men thought it very surprising that such a man should be spoken of-certainly it had no precedent, and he no political experience. Now the nomination would not be at all surprising or irregular. The Commodore's letter looks silly enough now. But who knows if only elected, that he would not have been as great a man as Mr. Polk, nay, as Tyler, or Taylor? He was for "immediate annexation," and would "throw ourselves on the justice of our cause before God and the nations." Valiant Commodore; he might have been as great a man as Mr. Polk, had the tide of nomination served in his favor.

After all the mountainous labor of the Baltimore Convention, there came forth Polk; Mr. James K. Polk. Men wondered. "Who the Devil is James- K-Polk?" said many Democrats; and when told, they thought it was "a nomination not fit to be made." None of them proved it, by facts and arguments, quite so faithfully as the distinguished author of that phrase did on a recent occasion at Marshfield; they left that for Mr. Polk to do, (not by logic, but by exper iment,) and he did-we shall see what he did, in due time. Mr. Van Buren was "sincerely desirous for their success," the success of the nominees. The Whigs were pretty firmly united in support of Mr. Clay, "Harry of the West," and "that same old Coon," as he has publicly called himself. He was not, publicly, much opposed to annexation, nor much in

favor of it, and in respect to that was a pretty good index of his party. Yet some Whigs were seriously and conscientiously opposed to the annexation of Texas as a slave territory; so were a few Democrats, who constituted the moral element of the party. Both of these minorities have since reported their presence in the politics of the land, indications of something yet future. It was a rash movement of the party, this changing their leader and their line on the very brink of battle, under the guns of their opponent, already put in battery and ready to fire; but they were confident in their strength, and were so well drilled that they only needed the word of command, to perform any political evolution or revolution.

as

It is a little curious to look back. On the 3d of March, 1843, twenty-one members of Congress solemnly declared that "annexation would be identical with dissolution; would be an attempt to eternize an institution and a power of a nature so unjust not only to result in a dissolution of the Union, but fully to justify it." Five of the twenty-one were from Massachusetts. "A good memory is" not so "needful to a" politician, as to another class of persons not named among gentlemen. The protest of March. 3d was not very distinctly remembered at a later date by every one of the signers thereof.

At the other extreme was the State of South Carolina. This is a very remarkable State, and her doings-we mean the doings of her lips- deserve a special notice. Before the Baltimore Convention, it was necessary for that Empire State to speak out, her trumpet giving no uncertain sound. So, on the 15th of May, the people of Charleston, who had "forborne to give any public declaration of opinions and wishes,

and patiently waited," at length and solemnly "resolved" that annexation is "an American and national measure, antagonistic to foreign interference ["still harping on my daughter"] and domestic abolitionism"; "if the treaty for the recovery (!) of Texas be defeated because of the increase it will give to the slave-holding states, it will be the denial of a vital right to them."

Even after the convention, the danger of the patriarchal institution is so great that there must be " a Southern convention." The "South Carolinian," of May 30th, said, annexation is "a question not of party, but of country, and to the South one of absolute self-preservation"; "under the subtle encroachments of our old enemy of Britain, aided by the

her doom is sealed if

and affect a union with

traitorous abolitionists at home, she does not arise in her might Texas"; "England once firmly seated in Texas, and there is an end of all power or safety for the South, which would soon. be made another St. Domingo." A convention of Slave States was to be called "to take into consideration the question of annexing Texas to the Union, if the Union will accept it; or if the Union will not accept it, then of annexing Texas to the Southern States." The convention was to offer the Union this "alternative": "either to admit Texas into the Union, or to proceed peaceably and calmly to arrange the terms of a dissolution of the Union." Annexation must be had at all costs. A meeting "in the Williamsburg district" declared, quite "in the Ercles" dialect of that region, that "the doom of the South is sealed and the dirge of our fair republic will ere long be sung by liberty's last minstrel, if she does not arise in her might and affect a union with Texas."

Here are some of the "sentiments" of South Carolina; the time and place are the 4th of July and "Marion CourtHouse: "The annexation of Texas - the great measure of deliverance to the South-though defeated now by the bitterness and faction of party; come what may we will never give her up." "The protective tariff and abolition - the one, under the form of law, seeks the profits of our labor; the other, under the guise of philanthropy, to wrest our property from us. South Carolina is ready to resist the one and repel

the other."

An "unsuspected nullifier" of 1832 came out to assure the people that "the political Moses [to wit, Mr. MosesCalhoun] is neither lost nor dead, but that he is ready to fol low the pillar of cloud by day, or fire by night." "True," he says, "there is a Joshua, [Mr. Joshua-Polk, meaning,] full of the spirit of wisdom, for that Moses has laid his hands on him"; but "there is still no prophet in Israel [inuendo the United States of America] like Moses," [to wit, Mr. MosesCalhoun.] But somehow it seemed Moses had been so long talking with his Lord, that the Baltimore Convention,sorely to seek for a prophet of some mark and likelihood, for there was no open vision in those days,-could not steadfastly look upon the face of this Moses and make him their President; and so, as for this Moses, the people of South Carolina wot not what would become of him, nor even what would become of themselves without Texas. A writer in the Charleston Mercury

asked, "What is the remedy for the evils which afflict the South?" and is thus replied to by a far sighted man in the same journal, who does not sign himself "Captain Bobadil," though he is certainly of that military family: "I answer, unreservedly, Resistance-combined Southern resistance, if you can procure it [if emphaticum]; if not, then State resistance."

A Virginia writer, we forget who, said there was "a big screw loose somewhere in South Carolina"; we shall presently see his mistake. This resistance was seriously meant; South Carolina was apparently arming for the fight, mustering that "small infantry" of hers. How shall we relate her deeds, and in what well-becoming words essay our venturous task? Oh Muse, author of bombast and of fustian, who, from the heights of Gascony, where thou presidest over founts of froth and brooks of foam,- didst once descend to inspire the soul of Bavius and of Mævius, bards of vast renown and parents of a never ending, never silent line, come and inspire some of their mighty kin to sing the horrid internecine war, bidding him tell who first, who last, came forth to fight. 'Twas Quattlebum! so is he known to fame. Alas, the muse of Gascony will not again inspire a bard with verse fitting such mighty themes. So let the muse of history record it with pedestrian pen. General Quattlebum, the renowned commander-in-chief, commissioned, epauletted, the admiration of negro slaves, mounted on his war-horse, went round, "sonorous metal blowing martial sounds," full of dignity, state-valor, "reserved rights," and nullification" an eye like Mars to threaten and command; "- went round to stir up the spirit of fight, "reviewing his regiments." Oh reader, gentle or simple, this is history which we record; the veracious Niles has registered the deeds. One newspaper says that General Quattlebum addressed every regiment "in a speech for annexation. The men all go for annexation, — right off the reel, now or never." The Charleston Mercury exclaimed, "Thus it will be seen that two thousand eight hundred and thirty-two men, with arms in their hands, in the drill-field, have expressed their decided determination to sustain the measure." The"forty-third regiment" resolved "that it would be more for the interest of the States, [the South and South-west,] that they should stand out of the Union with Texas, than in it without her." This was the thing" combined Southern resistance if it could be had; if not, then State resistance"- the resistance of South Carolina and her "two thousand eight