Address on the annexation of Texas, and the aspect of slavery in the United States, in connection therewith: delivered in Boston November 14 and 18, 1845 Page: 44 of 56
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44
of nearly 400,000 square miles, equal to 250,000,000 acres.
Endeavour to realize its extent by reflecting that it is capable
of containing fifty States of the size of Massachusetts,
that it is more than twice as large as all New England and
all the Middle States taken collectively, and that it is equal
to more than one third of the whole territory included within
the States already admitted,into the Union. Consider, that,
in a few years, taking the present Slave cotton and sugar
States as a standard, it will be capable of employing and subsisting
a slave population of at least two millions. Consider
what a market for slaves must be opened to furnish the supply
which will thus be needed, and to what extent and for
how long a period the business of rearing slaves in the old
States may be continued and made profitable. Consider,
that, with the slave population which I have supposed, the
States into which Texas may be divided will be entitled to
elect, according to the present apportionment, more than fifty
members of the House of Representatives, two Senators for
each State, and as many Presidential Electors as will be
equal to the joint number of Senators and Representatives.
Weigh carefully in your minds all these results,- which
must be verified, if the future shall be like the past, if the
Ethiopian shall not change his skin nor slavery its character,
- and tell me, in the exercise of your sober judgment, what
will be the effect of the annexation of Texas, - where we
shall find ourselves, if the Union shall be preserved, a few
years hence, - and what will be the condition and character
of the Free States, if slavery shall be enabled to exert all its
pernicious political and moral influences over them upon so
enlarged a scale. Consider, further, that the necessary policy
of slavery is one of continued annexation. See the manifest
unwillingness to be content, even for a time, with the acquisition
of Texas. Contemplate- the project already formed,
already in progress, for the annexation of California ; and see
how it may be followed, even at no distant day, by'a scheme
of bribery or violence that will bring within the Union the
whole remaining portion of the Mexican Republic. See, too,
the evidence that the slave-holding politicians, not satisfied
even with the vast extent of territory which they may desire
and seize upon the continent, are about to extend their
grasp to Cuba, and even have a design upon St. Domingo.
With the policy they avow, with the motives which manifestly
actuate them, ask yourselves, I pray you, where they will
stop, so long as the Free States shall go with them and for
them, and the lust of power and the cravings of interest shall
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Phillips, Stephen C. Address on the annexation of Texas, and the aspect of slavery in the United States, in connection therewith: delivered in Boston November 14 and 18, 1845, book, January 1, 1845; Boston. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2361/m1/44/?rotate=90: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.