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The Pro-slavery War

The Pro-slavery War image
Parent Issue
Day
20
Month
June
Year
1846
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Thé Democratie papers aro trying hard lo mnko the people beüeve that the Muxieans liavo invadedowr torritory, and commonoe..1 bbStJlifiöi. Thfs was not j lbo Caso. No bouiulary lino liad ever boon agreod upon bel ween Texas ;uul Mexico: consequently, when sbo was anuoxed lo ns, nuno was establisheJ. Ii was a iii matter Tor nogutiauon, and our Minister to Mexico, Mr. SKdol', was authori.cd to a.ljusl ii. Hut n tho moantimo, we ma re bed nn anny on totbo dispüied torritory, between lbo. rivera Neutjes and Rio Grande. Welt, it is asked, liad no not a rigbt todo so? fiad we Hot as good a right tooccupy tbe leftïloty as .Mexico? Supposo tbat to be granied: on the otlier band, had nol Mexico as gpod a rigbt tbore as we? IC tbc territory be common, botb may enjov t, bul tbe party tbat underlakes to drive tbc otber frorn il bccomes tho aggressor. - Wo not only took possession ol'tbe country, bul buik a fortified camp, and pointedour loaded cannon witliin a distance of 1,500 Peet from the houses in tbe city of Malamoias. This was done in n state of profuund peacef It wos in itself a suflïcier.t cause for bostih'ties, il persisted in. Suppose tbc Detroit river was but 200 yards wide, and the British should assemble a largo anny on tbe olher side. and load & point iheir cannon at i:speaceable citizens, and stand reaoy with burning matches to reduce the city to ashes in a night, tlie peo)le of Michigan would not endure t. They would say as the Mexicans did to Gen. Taylor.ifvou arefriends, act the part of friends by withdrawing your threatening attitude : if not, wc shall consider you as enemies. As wc wl'sh our readers to have a clear idea of tbe wickedness and wrong involved in this war, commerced for tbe nggrandizoment of Slavery, we will quote at lengt li the following extract from a speech ofSenator Benton of Missouri, in May, 1814, in the Senate, on the treaty subniitted by Mr. Tylcr for re-annexing Texas. No higber authority than Mr. Benton on Texas matters can be quoted, as he has becn familiar witli them lYom the beginning. All that he said of lbo wrong contemplatcd by the treaty of Tyler in 1844, is noio truc of the military invasión commenced by Polk in 1340. "These former provinces of the Moxican Yicerovalty, now departmcnls of thz Mexican ÈtepubUc, y ing O7iboth sides of the Rio Grande from its hcad to ils moulh, we now propose to incorpórate, so lar as they lie on the lelt bank of tbe river, intaour Union, by virtueofa treatv of re-annexatíon with Texa. Let us pause and look at our new and important proposed' acqtiisition in tliis quarter. - First : Tbere is ihe dopnrtment, formerly the province of Ncic Mexico, lying on both sides ofino river froni its headspring lo near ihe Paso del Norte - that ís to say, half way down the viver. This department is s'.udded wuh towns and villoges - is populated well cultivated, and covered wiíh fiocks and herds. On its lefl bank, (for I only speak of the part whieh we propose to re-annex,) is, firsí, tho frontier villageTaos, tliree thousand ííouIs. and wherethe custotn-house is kopt at wbicb thc Missouri caravans enter ;hoir goods. Then comes Santa Fe, the capital, four thousand souls ; jhen Albuquerque, tis thousand souls .; then some score of oiher towns and villages - al] more or less popula ted and surrounded by flocks and field. Then come thedepartments of C ihualrc , Coahuila and Tainaulipas, without seltlements on the left bank of the river, but occupying the rigbt bank and commandmg tho left. - All this - being par ts nfj our Mexican departmenls, noto under Mexican Govcrnors and (jlorrnimcns - is permanently reannexed to this Union, if this treaty is ratiíied, and is actual ly re-annexed ('rom the moment of the signature of thc treaty. according to tho President's last message, to remain so until tbe acquisition is rejec(ed by rejecting lbo treaty f Theonehalf of thc department of Ñew Mexico, ivith iti capital, becomes a territory of United States : an ingle of Chihuahua, at the Paso del Norte, famous for its wine, also becomes ours; a part of the deparfment ofCoahuila, not populated on the left bank, wbich we take, but comnianded froin i be rigbt bank by Mexican autborities ; the same of Tamaulipas, the ancien-t Nuevo Santander (New St. Andrew,) and which -covers bolh siiJcs of ihe river from ts moufh for some bundred miles up, and all ihe left bank ofwhicb is in the power and possession of Mexico. These, in nddilion to oíd Texas; thesc parts of four States - these towns amï villages - the.se people and territory - these flncks and herds - this slice ofthe Ri -public af Mr.rícn, two thousand miles long and some hundred broad - all this our President has cut ofí' from its mother empire, and presents to áj ond dpclares it ours tul tlio Senate rejeets it T Me calis it Texas : and the culling ofF he calis re-annexationí Ilumbolt calis it New Mexico, Chihuahua, Conhuiln, and Nuevo Snntandar, now Tamaulipns, and the civilized world may qualify this rennnexation by the annexation of some odious and terrible epithef. Deniosthenes advised the people of Athens not "to tako, but to re-take a certain crty ; and in that re laid the virtue which saved i the act from tho character of spoliation and robljery. Will it be eqüaíly potent wíth us? and will the jik prefixed to the annexation legitímale thc seizurc of two thousand miles of a neighbcgfs, domain with whom we have trealies of peacc and fricmbiliip and commcrcc? Will it legitímate ibis seizurc, made by virtue ofa ireaty when no Texan forcé - witness the uisastrous expeditions to Mier and Santa Fe - have been sccn near ü without hcing kiltcd, or takea to the last man!" "1 svash my hands of all attempts to diamcinbcr the Möxtcdh Kcpuhlic by srizing .her dominion in New Mexico, Chihuahua CoahaÜáj and Tamaulijias. - The treaty m all that relatkn to THE BOUNDAKY OF TUK RO GllANDE 18 vx act of unparali.eled outragb on' Mexico. It is the skizüre of two thousano miles of her territory, without a word of oxplanation with her, and by virtue of a trèaty with Texa.s to whioh shc is no party. Om' Secretary of State, in liis letter to the United States Charge in Mexico, and scven days after the Mexican Minister had withdrawn from ourscat of Government, shows full wclltljat he was conscioiix of the enor.MITY OF TUK OLTRAC.K ; kllCW it Was war ; and proflered volunteer apologics to avert the consequences which he knew he had provoked." "I the re fo re propo?p, as an additiorial resolution, applicable to the Rio del Norle boundary only - the one which I will read and rend to tho Sccretary's tablo, and on which, nt the proper time, I shall ask the vöte of the Senate. This is the resolution : "Resolved, That the incorporation of the lelt bank of the Rio del Norte into the American Union, by virtue of a treaty with Texas, comprehending as the sak incorporation would do, a part of the Mexican departments of New Mexico, Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Tamaulipas, would be an act of direct aggression ox Mexico; for all the consequences o: which the United States would stand responsiblc."