The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 20, July 1916 - April, 1917 Page: 69

British Correspondence Concerning Texas

would certainly appear to be scarcely practicable to accomplish
this object within the specified time.
The first necessary step would be a call of the present Con-
gress (in existence till the first Monday in next September) by
a majority of which the proposed change must be agreed to,
and referred by them to the Congress next to be chosen, which
could not assemble again at the very earliest before the middle
of October.
If that Congress should pass the proposed measure it would
have to be submitted again to the people and making every
allowance for the readiness with which they would enter into
schemes to accelerate this matter, I think it could hardly come
back to Congress, and have been adopted in time to reach Wash-
ington in the United States by the 1st January 1846.
My own impression is that although these resolutions may
fail in the Senate, it is probable enough that some Measure will
pass that body, intended to maintain a state of expectation in
this Government and people; perhaps proposals to renew the
Negotiations for settlement by treaty, and in that case I should
consider it fortunate rather than otherwise that these resolu-
tions have passed the House, for they will indicate to the people
of Texas the kind of terms which can be carried through the
Legislature of the United States; and the more these terms are
examined the less acceptable must they be in this quarter. If
the affair should take the turn of Negotiation again, there is
reason to think that accommodation will be more difficult than
it would have been before the appearance and passage of these
Resolutions; though after all Her Majesty's Government must
be sensible that objections in Texas must always be liable to give
way before the representations and management of the Govern-
ment of the United States.
Your Lordship will I believe hear with satisfaction that Mr
Ashbell Smith has been appointed Secretary of State, and I am
expecting to have the pleasure of seeing him here in the course
of a few days.
Charles Elliot.
The Right Honourable.
The Earl of Aberdeen, K. T.