The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 25, July 1921 - April, 1922 Page: 3

Annexation of Texas and the Mississippi Democrats 3
ical of Whig sentiment until the Texas question became in the
South a matter of party strife, was the declaration of a leading
Whig journal which welcomed the annexation issue as showing
who were for "Texas and liberty to the South, or against Texas
and white freedom in the South"; for the acquisition of Texas
would give the South an equality in the Union by which she could
maintain her rights and meet the North upon fair ground.7
While there is abundant evidence of the genuineness of the sen-
timent in Mississippi with reference to the desire for annexation,
it would be a mistake to suppose that annexation was the only
issue that was felt to be involved in the presidential election of
that year. Responsible spokesmen of the Democratic party deemed
other matters besides the acquisition of Texas to be at stake;
party doctrine touching the questions of a national bank, the tariff,
internal improvements, are a continually recurring theme in the
public prints, in the speeches of campaign orators, and in well-
nigh numberless resolutions adopted during the summer and fall
of 1844 in meetings held throughout the state in furtherance of
the cause of annexation." As proof of this may be cited the con-
servative expressions of the Mississippian, one of the leading or-
gans within the state, whose tone at times resembled that of the
leading Whig journals. This paper was friendly to annexation,
the appearance of Clay's letter upon the subject, the only course left
his followers was to subordinate their real desires in the matter of
annexation to the exigencies of political expediency. "We go for Henry
Clay, Texas or no Texas," sums up the attitude of the party in Mississippi,
as elsewhere in the South. But the significant thing is that prior to 1844
the Whigs of the state were eager for the acquisition of Texas on purely
sectional grounds. Cf. Constitutionalist, May 15, 1844.
'Daily Courier (Natchez) in Woodville Republican, June 4, 1836;
Weekly Courier and Journal, Feb. 27, Mch. 17, 24, 1837.
8Thus the Democratic Association of Adams county affirmed that in
the election of 1844 the voters had declared against a national bank,
the destruction of the veto power, and the assumption of debts, in addi-
tion to deciding the question of annexation. A correspondent writing
under the designation of "Old Republican," protested that while so far
as Mississippi was concerned the cry was "immediate annexation." that
was only one of the questions to be settled by the forthcoming election.
"Is it not apparent," asked the writer, "to the most common minds that
in the North and throughout the world, there is a moral influence being
brought to bear against slavery which, if it does not preclude utterly the
admission of another state into the Union, will make it dangerous to
attempt it? . . . It is to the northern Democracy the South is in-
debted for its institutions." Free Trader, Nov. 26, 1844; Mississippian,
July 5, 1844.