tution was formed, it is not probable that either its framers or the people ever looked to the admission of any States into the Union, except such as then already existed, and such as should be formed out of territories then already belonging to the United States. Fifteen years after the adoption of the Constitution, however, the case of Louisiana arose. Louisiana was obtained by treaty with France, who had already obtained it from Spain; but the object of this acquisition, certainly, was not mere extension of territory. Other great political interests were connected with it. Spain, while she possessed Louisiana, had held the mouths of the great rivers which rise in the Western States, and flow into the Gulf of Mexico. She had disputed our use of these rivers already; and, with a powerful nation in possession of these outlets to the sea, it is obvious that the commerce of all the West was in danger of perpetual vexation. The command of these rivers to the sea was, therefore, the great object aimed at in the acquisition of Louisiana. But that acquisition necessarily brought territory along with it; and three States now exist, formed out of that ancient province.

"A similar policy, and a similar necessity, though perhaps not entirely so urgent, led to the acquisition of Florida.

แ

Now, no such necessity, no such policy, requires the annexation of Texas. The accession of Texas to our territory is not necessary to the full and complete enjoyment of all which we already possess. Her case, therefore, stands upon a footing entirely different from that of Louisiana and Florida. There being no necessity for extending the limits of the Union in that direction, we ought, I think, for numerous and powerful reasons, to be content with our present boundaries.

"Gentlemen, we all see that, by whomsoever possessed, Texas is likely to be a slaveholding country; and I frankly avow my unwillingness to do anything that shall extend the slavery of the African race on this continent, or add other slave-holding States to the Union. When I say that I regard Slavery in itself as a great moral, social, and political evil, I only use language which has been adopted by distinguished men, themselves citizens of slaveholding States. I shall do nothing, therefore, to favor or encourage its further extension. We have Slavery already amongst us. The Constitution found it in the Union; it recognized it, and gave it solemn guaranties. To the full extent of those guaranties, we all are bound, in honor, in justice, and by the Constitution. All the stipulations contained in the Constitution in favor of the slaveholding States which are already in the Union, ought

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to be fulfilled, in the fullness of their spirit and to the exactness of their letter. Slavery, as it exists in the States, is beyond the reach of Congress. It is a concern of the States themselves; they have never submitted it to Congress, and Congress has no rightful power over it. I shall concur, therefore, in no act, no measure, no menace, no indication of purpose, which shall interfere, or threaten to interfere, with the exclusive authority of the several States over the subject of Slavery as it exists within their respective limits. All this appears to me to be a matter of plain, imperative duty.

"But, when we come to speak of admitting new States, the subject assumes an entirely different aspect. Our rights and our duties are then both different.

"The free States, and all the States, are then at liberty to accept or to reject. When it is proposed to bring new members into this political partnership, the old members have a right to say on what terms such new partners are to come in, and what they are to bring along with them. In my opinion, the people of the United States will not consent to bring into the Union a new, vastly extensive, and slaveholding country, large enough for half a dozen or a dozen States. In my opinion, they ought not to consent to it. Indeed, I am altogether at a loss how to conceive what possible benefit any part of this country can expect to derive from such annexation. Any benefit to any part is at least doubtful and uncertain; the objections are obvious, plain, and strong. On the general question of Slavery, a great portion of the community is already strongly excited. The subject has not only attracted attention as a question of politics, but it has struck a far deeper-toned chord. It has arrested the religious feeling of the country; it has taken strong hold on the consciences of men. is a rash man, indeed, and little conversant with human nature, and especially has he a very erroneous estimate of the character of the people of this country, who supposes that a feeling of this kind is to be trifled with or despised. It will assuredly cause itself to be respected. It may be reasoned with; it may be made willing-I believe it is entirely willing to fulfill all existing engagements and all existing duties--to uphold and defend the Constitution as it is established, with whatever regrets about some provisions which it does actually contain. But to coerce it into silence, to endeavor to restrain its free expression, to seek to compress and confine it, warm as it is, and more heated as such endeavors would inevitably render it,-should this be attempted, I know nothing, even in the Constitution or in the Union itself, which would not be endangered by the explosion which might follow.

He

decisive character.

piness of the whole Union to remain as it is, without diminution, and without addition." William Henry Harrison was, in 1840, elected ninth President of the United States, after a most animated and vigorous canvass, receiving 234 electoral votes to 60 cast for his predecessor and rival, Martin Van Buren. Gen. Harrison was the son of Benjamin Harrison, a signer of signer of the Declaration of Independence, and was, like his father, a native of Virginia; but he migrated, while still young, to a point just below the site of Cincinnati, and thereafter resided in some Free Territory or State, mainly in Ohio. While Governor of Indiana Territory, he had favored the temporary allowance of Slavery therein; and in 1819, being then an applicant for office at the hands of President Monroe, he had opposed the Missouri Restriction. Gen. Harrison was, therefore, on the whole, quite as acceptable, personally, to the Slave Power as Mr. Van Buren; and he received the votes of Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana. He failed, however, to win the favor of Mr. Calhoun, and so had no considerable support in South Carolina; which State gave its vote, without opposition, to Mr. Van Buren, though it had opposed his election as VicePresident in '32, and as President in '36. Virginia, Alabama, and Missouri also supported Mr. Van Buren. Gen. Harrison was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1841, and died barely one month thereafter.

can of the Virginia school, and as such had supported Madison, Monroe, and, in 1824, William H. Crawford. Elected to the Legislature of his State in 1811, when but twentyone years of age, he had served repeatedly in that body, and in Congress, before he was, in 1825, elected to the Governorship of Virginia by her Legislature. In March, 1827, he was chosen to the United States Senate by the combined votes of the "National Republican," or Adams and Clay members, with those of a portion of the Jacksonians, who were dissatisfied with the erratic conduct and bitter personalities of John Randolph of Roanoke, Mr. Tyler's competitor and predecessor. Mr. Tyler had (in 1825) written to Mr. Clay, commending his preference of Mr Adams to Gen. Jackson, but had afterward gone with the current in Virginia for Jackson-basing this preference on his adhesion to the 'State Rights,' or Strict Construction theory of our Government, which was deemed by him at variance with some of the recommendations in Mr. Adams's first Message. In the Senate, Mr. Tyler was anti-Tariff, antiImprovement, anti-Bank, and antiCoërcion; having voted alone (in February, 1833) in opposition to the passage of Gen. Jackson's "Force Bill," against South Carolina's Nullification. He supported Mr Clay's Compromise Tariff. Being reëlected for a second full term, commencing December, 1833, he opposed the removal of the public deposits from

the United States Bank by Gen. Jackson, and supported Mr. Clay's resolution censuring that removal. He was fully sustained in so doing, at the time, by the public opinion and the Legislature of Virginia; but, two or three years thereafter, the thorough-going supporters of Gen. Jackson, having elected a decided majority to the Legislature, proceeded to "instruct" him to vote for expunging from the journal of the Senate that resolution; whereupon, refusing to comply, he resigned his seat, and returned to private life. In the desultory and tumultuous Presidential canvass that soon followed, he was supported by the Whigs, or anti-Jackson men, of the Slave States for Vice-President, and received the electoral votes of Maryland, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee. In 1838, he was elected as a Whig to the Legislature of Virginia, and as such made a delegate to the Whig National Convention, which met at Harrisburg, Pa., in December, 1839. He there, along with his Virginia colleagues, zealously supported Mr. Clay for President, and was affected to tears when the choice of a majority of the Convention finally designated Gen. Harrison as the Whig candidate. The next day, he was, with little opposition, nominated for Vice-President-the friends of Gen. Harrison urging this nomination as a peace-offering to the friends of Mr. Clay. Every elector who voted for Gen. Harrison voted for him also.

If Mr. Tyler's past political course might, by a severe critic, have been judged unstable, and indicative rather of pervading personal aspirations than of profound political convictions, there was one grave topic

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that of Slavery-on which not even the harshest judgment could pronounce him a waverer, or infirm of purpose. Born, reared, and living, in one of the most aristocratic counties of tidewater Virginia—that of Charles City, removing subsequently to that of Williamsburg-by no act, no vote, no speech, had he forfeited the confidence or incurred the distrust of the Slave Power; and his fidelity to its behests and presumed interests, was about to be conspicuously manifested.

He soon contrived to quarrel immedicably with Mr. Clay, and with the great majority of those whose votes had elected him, by vetoing, first, a National Bank bill, passed by both Houses, while all the leading provisions were suggested by his Secretary of the Treasury; and then, Congress having passed another Bank bill, based entirely on his own suggestions, and conforming in all points to his requirements, he vetoed that also. Hereupon, all the members of his Cabinet--which was that originally selected by Gen. Harrison

peremptorily resigned their places, Mr. Webster alone excepted, who retained the position of Secretary of State until May, 1843, when he also resigned, and was succeeded by Abel P. Upshur, of Virginia, a gentleman of considerable ability and spotless. private character, but a doctrinaire of the extreme State Rights, ProSlavery school, under whom the project of annexing Texas to this country was more openly and actively pushed than it had hitherto been. Mr. Upshur was killed by the bursting of a gun, on the 28th of February, 1844, and was succeeded by John C. Calhoun, who prosecuted

the scheme still more openly and vigorously, and under whose auspices a Treaty of Annexation was concluded April 12, 1844, but which was resolutely opposed in the Senate, and rejected, receiving but fifteen votes.

It is not probable that the masterspirits of the Annexation intrigue were either disappointed or displeased by this signal defeat of their first public movement. It is very certain that they were not disconcerted. For the Presidential Election of 1844 was now in immediate prospect; and they had two darling objects to achieve by the Annexation project: first, the defeat of Mr. Van Buren in the Democratic National Convention; next, the defeat of Mr. Clay before the people.

The defeat of Mr. Van Buren's nomination was first in order, and a matter of very considerable difficulty. He had been the candidate of the party at the preceding election, and beaten, as his supporters contended, " without a why or wherefore," by a popular frenzy incited by disgusting, though artful, appeals to ignorance, sensuality, and every vulgar prejudice and misconception. The disorganization of the Whigs, following Gen. Harrison's death and Tyler's defection, had brought their antagonists into power in at least two-thirds of the States, and they were quite as confident as the Whigs of their ability to triumph in the approaching Presi

dential election.

"The sober second thought" of the people had been specially appealed to by Mr. Van Buren for the vindication of his conduct of public affairs, and that appeal had been favorably responded to by his party. There

was no room for reasonable doubt that a great majority of his fellowDemocrats earnestly desired and expected his nomination and election. To prevent the former was the more immediate object of the preternatural activity suddenly given to the Texas intrigue, which, never abandoned, had for several years apparently remained in a state of suspended animation. Mr. Thomas W. Gilmer, of Va., formerly a State Rights Whig member of Congress, now an ardent disciple of Calhoun and a partisan of John Tyler, by whom he was made Secretary of the Navy a few days before he was killed (February 28, 1844, on board the U. S. war steamer Princeton, by the bursting of the big gun already noticed), was the man selected to bring the subject freshly before the public. In a letter dated Washington, January 10, 1843, and published soon after in The Madisonian, Mr. Tyler's organ, he says:

"DEAR SIR:-You ask if I have expressed the opinion that Texas would be annexed to the United States. I answer, yes: and this opinion has not been adopted without refleccauses, which I believe are rapidly bringing about this result. I do not know how far

tion, nor without a careful observation of

these causes have made the same impression, on others; but I am persuaded that the time is not distant when they will be felt in all their force. The excitement, which you apprehend, may arise; but it will be temporary, and, in the end, salutary. *** I am, as you know, a strict constructionist of the powers of our Federal Government; and I do not admit the force of mere precedent to establish authority under written constitutions. The power conferred by the Consti

tution over our foreign relations, and the repeated acquisitions of territory under it, seem to me to leave this question open as one of expediency.

"But you anticipate objections with regard to the subject of Slavery. This is, indeed, a subject of extreme delicacy, but it have the most salutary influence. is one on which the annexation of Texas will Some have thought that the proposition would