The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 9, July 1905 - April, 1906 Page: 18

Texas Historical Association Quarterly.

probably entertained of a conspiracy such as was afterwards
charged against the leaders of the Southern States, to detach Texas
from Mexico and add it to the slave territory of the United States
by sending American settlers into it, wresting it from Mexico, con-
verting it into a republic, and finally annexing the republic to the
United States. At any rate the English feeling on the subject
seems to have been voiced by the Earl of Clarendon, who in a
speech in the House of Lords in April, 1845, said that the restless
and encroaching people of the United States would not in case
of annexation be long without indulging their national taste for
a boundary quarrel or establishing a cause of war with Mexico.
and spoke of "a recent declaration made by the highest authority"
according to which it had "for the last twenty years been the settled
policy of the American Government to gain possession of Texas."
It was natural that with such an opinion of the United States Eng-
land should wish to see that country separated from Mexico
by an independent State if possible. A third reason for England's
desire for the continued independence of Texas was the fact that
so long as Texas remained independent England would be able to
secure favorable terms for commerce with her, with a possibility
of the ultimate conversion of Texas to free-trade; but, if she en-
tered the American Union, England's products would be shut
out by the high tariff maintained by the United States. A specific
motive mentioned in some of the letters of the time was England's
desire to set up Texas as a rival of the Southern States of the
Union in the production of cotton, with the expectation of obtain-
ing cotton more cheaply from Texas on account of special com-
mercial favors which England hoped to be able to persuade Texas
to grant her. It was more than hinted at times that England
hoped to be able to break down the American tariff by importing
goods into Texas and smuggling them across the border into the
United States, but it is of course unlikely that there was any basis
for the charge. A fourth reason for England's conduct, and the
one that attracted most attention, was her attitude toward slavery,
of which she was the avowed enemy. By her treaties with the
principal commercial nations she had almost broken up the slave-
trade, and she now hoped to see the institution of slavery itself
everywhere abolished. She regretted that it existed in Texas, but
hoped through her moral influence and by giving financial aid