Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1836-06-16
The following article should have ap-
peared in No. IS:
From the Quarterly Anti-Slavery Magazine.
TEXAS.

From the Quarterly Anti-Slavery Magazine.
TEXAS.
BY DAVID LEE CHILD, ESQ.
[COncludedl
The follorcing is an ertract from Benton S
Essays on the ANNEXATION Of TEXAS,
/ pm6tished in tbs ST. Louis Beacon, IN
the Spring Of 1929.
That these latter THE slave statesl have
much to fear from the undue preponder-
ence Of the free states is proved in every
way that human proof can be exhibited to
the human mind in speeches, writings
and essays; in newspaper publications;
in books and pamphlets; in the acts and
proceedings Of corporate bodies; in the
resolutions and memorials OF societies and
associations in the solemn acts Of state
legislation and in the halls of Congress
from the federal bench, and from the sa-
cred stand Of the rul pit; all issuing for
series of years fromthe non-slaveholding
states, all thick ening as time advances and
all tending to one point, the abolition Of
slavery, uader the clause in the declara-
ton Cf independence, which asserts the
natural equality Of all men. Dreadful
woull be the condition of these states
cruel and terrible their fate beyond the
power Of pen to describe, or pencil to paint,
or imagination to conceive, if in the e.
ceSsire preponderence of free states a ma
jority Of the jud ges shall be found on the
;; bench Of the Supreme Court of the Uni
ted States to act on the law declared by
Mr. Justice Story in his charge to the
Grand Jury at Portsmouth, N. H. in
May 1920; or a majority in Congress
should be found to act on the principles
avowed by Mr. R. King in the Senate; or
on the principles contained in the petition
presented TO the House of Representatives
$ by its then Speaker, Mr. J. w. Taylor, in
, the session of 1923; or on the princi-
pies contained in the report ola committee
OF the House of Representatives in the
case ofthe slave Of D'Auterive, at the scs-
r sion before the last"
The acquisition of Texas for a slave
market was a subject of grave calculation
by grey-headed politicians, and men wear
: ing the ermine of justice in the Virginia
, Convention Of 1929. Judge Upshur OF
the Superior Court observed in a very
elaborate speech, that if Texas was OBJ
e tanned, as he earnestly hoped, it would
v raise the price of slaves considerably
i Mr. Gho!son, Of the Virginia Assembly,
stated in 1882, that the price Of slaves fell
t,orntyJfre per cent within two hours at
g ter the news Of the non importation act o
It Louisiana was known in that state. The
e acquisition Of Texas would probably raise
II their price fly per cent at least, The
number OF slaves now in the United States
>. supposing them to have increased as rap
: IDLY since 1890 as they did between 1920
J. and 1880, is 2,444,855, equal at 5000 pc
g head, (Mr Jcferson's estimate,) to $488
10 97l,OOO. Fifty per cent on this sum il
J. S244,485,5OO-the immediate gam to tn
" slave holding portion ofour fellow citizen
i from the annexation of Texas! We TAX
J.; into this calculation, which we believe t
be under the truth, the political considera
ton that this annexation will either secur
a permanent ascendancy to the slave-hold
y ing and multiplying states In the govern
'e mcnt of the union or it will enable an
lis embolden them 10 secedc and set up sIav
~ emLi,e in that central, vast and most invi
=. ing portion Of the continent. And then
nc they should want a further market fO
slaves some twenty or thirty years henc'
es the Mcxicans will have to fight for cx!s
=, ence, or fall a prey to this Unsuitable nor
~ s,er, the modern Mmotaur, America
hH s'avery This is inevitable. 1t We
. avowed five years ago, in an article in tt
N. Edgefeid Carolinian, supposed to be fro
J.. the pen Of the present Coz. McDmGTe, tn
~ the luxtlposition of "a free empire to tt
an slave-holding southwest was a nuisan(
:" which ought to be abated by our obtai
iii ing Texas. The Georgians could n
? bear the juxtaposition Of Florida. Whe
| is this to end
To these elements ofan important al
bloody war in Texas, must be added II
ur- land Spectators in all our principal cite
be- including some of the most influential of
:. GERS of government There is much re
son TO apprehcnd that capitalists have dI
FIX ped into this concern. 1t is no impeac
US. ment of their accustomed sagacity, to su
,alf pose them to have calculated with con
- dence on the success of the grasping a
p'' encroachipg policy of our slave hoIdI
government in that direction. To the
fuencp of these spectators may be
tributed the meetings, committees and
ia nations in our free cities, and the ra
inn levying of war against afriendIy republ
in violation of the law of nations, and
ana defiance of the penal laws of this countr
the the culpable negligence or collision
ers. prosec uting officers and grand jurors
,..o the present imminent danger of ruptl
'"'o between the two nations The meetlr
ng- of the south. on this subject, differ fir
heir those of the north, by extending far