Thoughts on the proposed annexation of Texas to the United States Page: 22 of 55
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22
ON THE PROPOSED
the treaty, with the uniform policy and the obvious welfare of the
United States."*
Has any thing occurred in the six and a half years that have
elapsed since the date of this letter to alter the rights of the casel
If it be said that the period of the time, the feebleness of the
Mexican government, the growing strength of Texas, have greatly
diminished the probability of her return to Mexico, does that furnish
any answer to the charge of bad faith as regards ourselves 1
What have we to do with the weakness of Mexico or the strength
of Texas Mexico points to the treaty, which declares "that
there shall be a firm, inviolable and universal peace, and a true
and sincere friendship, between the United States of America and
the United Mexican States." [Elliott's Diplomatic Code, vol. ii.
p. 28.] She declares that Texas is " all her own," to use Mr.
Walker's favorite expression, and insists that we shall not interfere
to decide a quarrel of which neither God nor man has made
us the arbiters. In the face of this, to annex Texas, is a direct
violation of the treaty; an unfriendly, and a hostile act.
But more than this: it is perfectly notorious that the Texans
levied forces and raised money in this country for the purpose of
resisting Mexico, against our own laws and in violation of our
treaties with the Spanish Republic. The federal government excused
itself on the ground of its incapacity to check those outbreaks
of popular sympathy. The apology is at the best not very
honorable. But our conduct becomes vastly more suspicious
when we avail ourselves of the very consequences of our own
neglect or impotence, when Texas, revolutionized by the illegal
acts of our own citizens, is annexed to our dominion on the plea
of an independence established by those same illegal acts. What
apology is pretended for this breach of faith 1 None whatever.
The advocates of the measure do not even seek to excuse it: they
rely entirely upon the inability of Mexico to resent or avenge
the wrong.
A war with Mexico is talked of as if it were the easiest and
simplest thing in the world, to be carried on without difficulty or
expense, and the triumphant result of whidh would be certain and
speedy. And these are the gasconading predictions of a people
who have spent six or seven years, and expended forty millions
of dollars in order to drive a handful of Indians from our own
territory. A war with Mexico would let loose upon us the privateers
of the world-and in what a strife should we find ourselves
engaged-commencing with a breach of treaty, waged for
the maintenance of territory unjustly acquired, having for its
avowed result the extension of slavery, accompanied with ruinous
expense and destruction to commerce-can any man in cold blood
contemplate with indifference the prospect of such a contest
" Fortune," says Napier,t "always assert3 her superiority in war,
*Mr. Forsyth's letter to General Huntt, 25th August, 1837.
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Sedgwick, Theodore. Thoughts on the proposed annexation of Texas to the United States, book, January 1, 1844; New-York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2387/m1/22/?rotate=270: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .