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18
to the eyes of the civilized world. From the day of the accession
of General Jackson to the Presidency, to the last of
his second term, no effort was left untried by him, by which he
could hope to acquire Texas. In the summer of 1829, Mr.
Anthony Butler, the person who was to be employed by him
as his negotiator, came to Washington, and had long conferences
with him, and with Mr. Van Buren, that he might
be the more fully master of all the designs of the administration.
In 1830, General Jackson's own affidavit on record in
the Court at Washington proves that he became fully aware
of General Houston's schemes, but that instead of communicating
his information to the government with which we were
at peace, and which was most deeply affected by them, he
confined himself to a letter of inquiry, addressed, not to the
Governor, but to the Secretary of the Territory of Arkansas,
and calculated rather to invite a contradiction of the designs
charged, than to elicit any facts. It should be recollected,
that this was at just about the same time that the singular
article already quoted, intimating, as from a source entitled
to " the highest credit," that Texas might "throw off the
yoke of allegiance to Mexico"-appeared in the columns of
the State Gazette of this very Arkansas Territory. And not
satisfied with the ordinary forms of official intercourse, General
Jackson himself, notwithstanding the position he occupied
which seems to require no little delicacy in the management
of the foreign relations, kept up a constant interchange of
private and confidential letters with Mr. Butler, the perpetually
recurring burden of which, if we are to judge by the replies
of that gentleman, was Texas, Texas.
Mr. Tyler has been much blamed for carrying on a secret
negotiation with Texas. We have no disposition to volunteer
any palliation of his measures; but, we ask, what censure
should his conduct bear in this instance, in comparison with
that of his more distinguished predecessor ? He has, to be sure
tried to betray the Union, by a sudden stroke of policy, into a
measure which he knew a large part of it held in great detestation,
and deemed subversive of the Constitution. But General
Jackson continued secretly at work during eight long
years, coaxing, threatening, proposing treaties never to be
executed, harping upon private claims, bad as well as good,
for the sake of obtaining a denial of them that would make
cause of quarrel, endeavoring to raise the most frivolous
doubts, in order to unsettle the clear boundary of the Sabine,
and only stopping short at the deliberate proposal by Mr.
Butler, of carrying every thing by downright bribery and corruption.
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Adams, Charles Francis. Texas and the Massachusetts Resolutions, book, January 1, 1844; Boston, Massachusetts. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2355/m1/18/?rotate=270: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.