Speech of Hon. Wm. Lowndes Yancey, of Alabama, on the annexation of Texas to the United States, delivered in the House of Representatives, Jan. 7, 1845. Page: 14 of 14
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14
but we demand safety. So far from the slaveholding
region increasing in power disproportionately,
as some have said, a report of one of
your own committees shows unerringly the reverse.
By it we learn that instead of retaining
our proportionate number of Representatives in
Congress, taking as a standard our relative number
in 1790, we have lost. In the apportionment
of 1810, we fell six below what that relative
number demanded. In 1820 we fell seven below.
In 1830 we fell ten below; and in 1840 we fell
fourteen below! Losing relative strength in the
representative branch of the Government; having
compromised away all possibility of retaining an
equality even in the Senate, by the fatal Missouri
compromise; with a fearful prospective inequality
staring us in the face; attacked day after
day, month after month, year after year, by
those who are virtually sworn to be our supporters-with
the world arrayed against, and its
most subtle and efficient nation using every
means to subvert, our favorite institution, can we
be true to ourselves if we do not demand "the
bond"--its fulfilment to the very letter. And if
in considering upon this project of annexation,
our Great Statesman has felt, and wrote, and acted,
for his own land in acting for the Union-if
we have ventured to express the reasons we entertain
for it, boldly, candidly, and explicitly, as
it becomes men at all times to do, nature sanctions,
reason approves, the course and the folds of the
Constitution should shield him and us from reproach.
The
highest considerations ofindividual, of sectional,
and of national interests, urge us then on to
annexation, to open wide the door of the Union,
to this young member of the family of Re
publics. Unteeling hands ejected her in 1819.
She has survived the dangers of anarchy and
despotism to which that act exposed her. Hers,
indeed, is an epitome of our own history. And
now, when leaning upon the sword of victory,
her garments dripping with the blood of her
merciless and tyrannical foe, and in the blue
folds of her banner glittering a single star-the
"Lost Pleiad" from our own constellation-when
Texas, taught at the same fountain, and worshipping
at the same altar of freedom as we,
having transplanted upon her green prairies our
institutions, laws, and religion-demands admission
to our confederacy as a oo-guardian of the
fires lit up in 1776-what American arm
can close that door upon her? Those fires were
designed sir to spread their genial influence far beyond
the narrow confines of the republic as it
existed in the days of '76; to blaze higher and
higher until they had illuminated every dark corner
of the earth where benighted man was bowed
down beneath the oppressions of despotic power.
Instead of building a Chinese wall around it, sir,
let us widen the sphete of its radiance, and add
fuel to the flame:
"Then let that mighty flame burn on,
Through change and change, thro' good and ill;Like its own god's eternal will,
Deep, constant, bright, unquenchable."
And may the day be not far distant when shall
be heard from the bolders of the States of Texas,
the voices of her intelligent and patriotic citizens,
mingling with ours in the great drama of SZLFGOVERNMENT.
APPENDIX.
NOTE
A.-A select committee on West India colonies,
reported to the British Parliament, July 25,
1842, a series of resolutions and the testimony taken
before them.
In answer to question 24,474, it came out that Sir
Charles Metcalfe, former Governor of Jamaica, held
"it indispensable for the relief of Jamaica, that immigration
from Africa, or some other tropical climate,
should take place upon a very extensive scale."
The 11th of the resolutions reported, is, "That one
obvious and most desirable mode of endeavoring to
compensate for this diminished supply of labor, is to
promote immigration of a fresh laboring population to
such an extent as to create competition for employment."
The
12th resolution recommends "that such immigration
should be conducted under the authority, inspection,
and control of responsible public officers."
The Foreign Quarterly Review for October, 1843,
also urges immigration direct from Africa!
NOTE B. The relative condition of the blacks in
the non-slaveholding and slaveholding States, is exhibited
by the following table, made up from official
State reports:
The proportion of colored prisoners and paupers to
the entire colored population, in
Boston, Chelsea, and Suffolk, is as 1 to 16.17
New York city and co. " 1 "24.03
Philadelphia city and co. " 1 ' 29.03
Richmond city and Henrico co. 1 "45.09
City of Charleston District "4 1 "63.48
The above table shows that bond and free negroes
stand higher, physically and morally, in the slave, than
they do in the free, States.
The report of the Eastern Penitentiary, Pennsylvania,
for 1839,says: 'The number of re-convictions to this
penitentiary. and the continued yearly increde of the
colored convicts, are subjects which demand the serious
consideration of the Legislature."
The physician, in his report, says: "The admissions
to the prison (for 1839) are, 80 colored and 99 white
convicts-which shows an increasing disproportionate
number of colored persons, constituting in it a peculiar
and important feature; and accounting in a
great measure for its sickness, mortality, medical expense,
and labor."
"Deaths have been 11, viz: 2 whites and 9 blacLk
The inspectors report, that "the instanoes of mentar
disorder the last year, have been about half of those of
the previous year; and, as usual, have occurred among
the colored prisoners, with few exceptions, and are
chargeable to their depraved habits." "At the ckoe
of the last year, there were 161 to 349colored and 16.
white prisoners"-the proportion being 1 to 135. The relative
number of black and white nl the whole State,
by censas of 1840, was 1 to 349.
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Yancey, William Lowndes. Speech of Hon. Wm. Lowndes Yancey, of Alabama, on the annexation of Texas to the United States, delivered in the House of Representatives, Jan. 7, 1845., book, 1845; Washington. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2415/m1/14/?rotate=270: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .