The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 25, July 1921 - April, 1922 Page: 9

Annexation of Texas and the Mississippi Democrats 9
States, but also to the peace and commerce of the United States."24
It is not difficult to believe that "the peace and commerce of the
United States" was a secondary consideration in the minds of
these two Mississippi governors, and that their chief concern arose
from the danger that confronted their section unless more slave
territory was added to the Union. The legislature of Mississippi
was not slow in acting upon the suggestions of its governors; nor
is this surprising in view of the action taken by previous legis-
latures in putting the desirability of annexation exclusively upon
grounds of a sectional cast, while at the same time slavery was ex-
tolled as the very palladium of their prosperity and happiness.25
The subject of annexation engaged the attention of the state legis-
lators during the months of January and February. More than
twenty pages of the senate journal are devoted to the "Address
of a Citizen of Texas," which was in the nature of a reply to the
manifesto put forth by Adams and some twenty other members
of congress remonstrating against the annexation of Texas. One
extract may be quoted as conveying the tenor of the whole: "Texas
will be the instrument in the hands of Great Britain to. drive you
from your homes and to wrest from you your property."26 The
final vote on the preamble and resolutions adopted was 62 to 10,
nine Whigs voting in the affirmative. The most significant reso-
lution adopted declared, "That in the judgment of the Legisla-
ture, if the desired annexation should not be affected, it will be
incompatible with the rights, interests and tranquillity of the
United States, for any European power to obtain possession of
the territory of Texas, or to secure a commanding influence in
her councils; and that such an attempt would be considered by the
United States as a sufficient cause for war."27
"24Ibid.
"Niles' Weekly Register, LXIV, 173. On March 16, 1844, W. H. Ham-
mett, a member from Mississippi, presented in the national House of
Representatives resolutions "passed with great unanimity" by the legis-
lature of his state in favor of annexation. Hammett's attitude upon this
and other questions of a sectional nature may be gathered from a single
sentence of a speech delivered by him in the House the previous month:
"Let the struggle then come when it might, in the South there would be
no distinction between Whig and Democrat." These same resolutions
were presented by Robert J. Walker in the Senate. Cong. Globe, 28
Congress, 1 Session, 408, 235, 410.
"Senate Journal, 73-94.
"'Free Trader, Apr. 3, 1844. In January a resolution was introduced in