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all Whigs; and the proposition being returned to the House, the amendment of the Senate was concurred in by 134 Yeas to 77 Naysa party vote: so the Annexation of Texas was decreed, in the following

terms:

Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled, "That Congress doth consent that the territory properly included within, and rightfully belonging to, the Republic of Texas, may be erected into a new State, to be called the State of Texas, with a republican form of government, to be adopted by the people of said republic, by deputies in Convention assembled, with the consent of the existing government, in order that the same may be admitted as one of the States of the Union.

"Sec. 2. And be it further resolved, That the foregoing consent of Congress is given upon the following conditions, and with the following guarantees, to wit:

“First: Said State to be formed, subject to the adjustment by this Government of all questions of boundary that may arise with other governments; and the Constitution thereof, with the proper evidence of its adoption by the people of said Republic of Texas, shall be transmitted to the President of the United States, to be laid before Congress for its final action, on or before the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and forty six.

“Second: Said State, when admitted into the Union, after ceding to the United States all public edifices, fortifications, barracks,

5 On the final vote in the Senate, the YEAS -for the Proposition as amended-were as follows the names in italics being those of Whigs: Messrs. Allen, Ashley, Atchison, Atherton, Bagby, Benton, Breese, Buchanan, Colquitt, Dickinson, Dix, Fairfield, Hannegan, Haywood, Henderson, Huger, Johnson, Lewis, McDuffie, Merrick, Niles, Semple, Sevier, Sturgeon, Tappan, Walker, Woodbury-27.

ing said debts and liabilities, to be disposed of as said State may direct; but in no event are said debts and liabilities to become a charge upon the United States.

"Third. New States of convenient size, not exceeding four in number, in addition to the said State of Texas, and having sufficient said State, be formed out of the territory population, may hereafter, by the consent of thereof, which shall be entitled to admission under the provisions of the Federal Constitution; and such States as may be formed out of that portion of said territory lying south of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude, commonly known as the Missouri Compromise line, shall be admitted into the Union with or without Slavery, as the people of each State asking admission may desire. And in such State or States as shall be formed out of said territory north of said Missouri Compromise line, Slavery. or involuntary servitude (except for crime) shall be prohibited..

[WALKER'S AMENDMENT—ADDED.] “And be it further resolved, That if the President of the United States shall, in his judgment and discretion, deem it most advisable, instead of proceeding to submit the foregoing resolutions to the Republic of Texas, as an overture on the part of the United States for admission, to negotiate with that Republic; then,

"Be it resolved, That a State to be formed out of the present Republic of Texas, with suitable extent and boundaries, and with two representatives in Congress, until the next apportionment of representation, shall be admitted into the Union by virtue of this act, on an equal footing with the existing States, as soon as the terms and conditions of such admission, and the

The NAYS-against the proposed Annexation

cession of the remaining Texan territory to the United States, shall be agreed upon by the Governments of Texas and the United

States.

"And be it further enacted, That the sum of one hundred thousand dollars be, and the same is hereby, appropriated to defray the expenses of missions and negotiations, to agree upon the terms of said admission and cession, either by treaty to be submitted to the Senate, or by articles to be submitted to the two Houses of Congress, as the President may direct.

"Approved, March 2, 1845."

President Tyler immediately, on the last day of his term, rendered the Walker amendment nugatory by dispatching a messenger to Texas to secure her assent to Annexation, pure and simple; and thus the triumph of the measure was secured.

This complete triumph of Annexation, even before the inauguration of Mr. Polk, was hailed with exultation throughout the South, and received with profound sensation and concern at the North. at the North. It excited, moreover, some surprise; as, three days before it occurred, its defeat for that session appeared almost certain. Mr. Bagby, a Democratic Senator from Alabama, positively declared from his seat that he would not support it; while the opposition of Messrs. Niles, of Connecticut, Dix, of New York, and Benton, of Missouri, was deemed invincible; but the Alabamian was tamed by private, but unquestionable, intimations, that it would not be safe for him to return to his own State, nor even to remain in Wash

sure.

So much of Texas as lay north of the parallel of 36° 30′ north latitude was thereby allotted to Free labor, when Texas had never controlled, and did not at that moment possess, a single acre north of that parallel, nor for two hundred miles south of it. All the territory claimed by her north of that line was New Mexico, which had never been for a week under the flag of Texas. While seeming to curtail and circumscribe Slavery north of the above parallel, this measure really extended it northward to that parallel, which it had not yet approached, under the flag of Texas, within hundreds of miles. But the chief end of this sham compromise was the involving of Congress and the country in an indirect indorsement of the claim of Texas to the entire left bank of the Rio Grande, from its mouth to its source; and this was effected.

darling project; and the repugnance of Messrs. Niles, Dix, and Benton, was somehow overcome-the Walker amendment serving as a pretext for submission to the party behest, when no plausible excuse could be given. Mr. Polk was already in Washington, engaged in making up his jewels; and he had very freely intimated that no man who opposed Annexation should receive office or consideration at his hands. The three Tylerized Whigs from the South, who voted in the affirmative, had not been counted on as opponents of the scheme.

The Democrats of the North, having elected Mr. Polk after a desperate struggle, and being intent on the imminent distribution of the spoils, might regret this early fruit of their triumph, but could hardly be expected openly to denounce it. Mr. John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, who had evinced (as we have seen) insubor

dination in the House, and who was then the regular Democratic nominee for the next House in the election just at hand, was thrown off the ticket unceremoniously, and another nominated in his stead-who, however, failed of success; the election resulting in no choice, so far as this seat was concerned. Three regular Democrats were elected to the others. In no other State was there any open and formidable opposition manifested by Democrats to this sudden consummation of the Texan intrigue.

The Whigs and Abolitionists of the Free States, of course, murmured; but to what end? What could they do? The new Democratic Administration must hold the reins for the ensuing four years, and its decided ascendency in both Houses of the next Congress was already amply secured. There were the usual editorial thunderings; perhaps a few sermons, and less than half-adozen rather thinly-attended public meetings, mainly in Massachusetts, whereat ominous whispers may have been heard, that, if things were to go on in this way much longer, the Union would, or should, be dissolved. This covert menace was emphatically rebuked by Mr. Robert C. Winthrop, of Boston, speaking the sentiment of the great majority of leading Whigs. "Our country, however bounded," was declared by him entitled to his allegiance, and the object of his affections. The great majority, even of the murmurers, went on with their industry and their trade, their pursuits and their aspirations, as though

6"The negroes taken from the Southern States should be returned to their owners, or paid for at their full value. If these slaves were considered as non-combatants, they ought to be restored; if as property, they ought to be paid

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nothing of special moment had happened.

Yet it did not escape the regard of keen observers that our country had placed herself, by annexing Texas under the circumstances, not merely in the light of a powerful aggressor on the rights of neighboring helplessness, but of a champion and propagandist of Slavery, as the fit, beneficent condition of the producers of tropical and semi-tropical staples throughout the world. The dispatch of Mr. Calhoun to France, with one or two others of like purport, aimed more directly at England, justified and commended and commended our designs on Texas expressly and emphatically on this ground. England, he argued, was plotting the extinction of Slavery throughout the Western Hemisphere. The United States must clutch Texas, or she would soon fall a prey to British intrigue and British influence-being induced thereby to emancipate her slaves; thus dealing a damaging, if not mortal, blow to Slavery throughout the New World. To avert this blow, and to shield the social and industrial system which it menaced, were the chief ends of Annexation.

Now, it was not literally true that our country was thus presented, for the first time, in the questionable attitude of a champion of Slavery. In our last treaty of peace with Great Britain, our commissioners at Ghent, acting under special instructions from the State Department, had adroitly bound Great Britain to return to

6

for." This stipulation is, moreover, expressly included "in the conditions on which you are to insist in the proposed negotiations."-"Letter of Instructions from Mr. Monroe, Secretary of State, 28th January, 1814.