New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1844-05-20
Cen. Cass on Annexation.

We thought we had already pretty vivid con-
cepton of the character of u reckless, ambitious
demagogue, but Gen. Cass's letter in favor of An
nexation has heightened the coloring of that char
acter decidedly. That he would eventually come
out in favor of Annexation VIC have all along ex-
pected, since that is the course by which alone he
can hope 10 supplant Van Buren, in obtaining the
Presidential nomination at Baltimore, and his
course ever since he returned from Europe has
been governed by an unmistakable idea From
the most sycophantic Of courtiers to the most OBJ
sequous of demagogues is no farther than from
the sublime to the ridiculous, and those who know
what sort of an ambassador the General was
abroad can have had no difficulty in predicting
the sort of Politician he would be at home
And vet there was a time when we thought bet
ter of this man, and yielded him, no homage GER
tainly, but respect. His manly course with regard
TO the ISLANDERS on Gen. Harrison led us to regard
him as one calculated TO aid in dispellng the
falsehoods and calming the animosities of our
party contests and we welcomed his return from
Europe as an suspicious event. The subsequent
publication of his official correspondence with our
Government, developing his oficious and most
pernicious interference to break up the European
league and treaty for the suppression Of the Alr-
can Slave Trade-lor which he was most unmer-
cifully yet deservedly chastised by Mr.. Webster
somewhat changed our opinion of him, and his
more recent industrious efforts to embroi us with
Great Britain in regard to Oregon r!pcned our un-
c.,o.oblo on,,;or Rut the lattar nm Appnxotion
is far below any thing to which he had previous.
Nv descended. Now he need fear no lower deep.
Just look at his pretexts for Annexation. a
hostile nation might use Texas to our injury, in
case of War, Is this decent excuse for taking
that country to ourselves Z? Might not every Ma
ton in Europe covet the territories of every neigh.
Dor for the same rsasonl Ought we not to clutch
Canada on the same ground Surely any Military
man must say that a territory SO populous, so
thrifty, so filled with gallant soldiery, stud
ded with imprcgnablc iortresses, so skirtcd by
navigabe waters, affording the widest choice
of points of attack, must be far more DANCE
rous neighbor to us than Texas ever can be-
oh, but the South is our weak point, says
the ex. Minister only hear writer in Fraser'S
Magazine and then he proceeds to recount
some of the frghtful thugs said in that article
as though il were of the least possible consequence
what some anonymous blockhead or black
guard penny-a.liner in a London periodical OF no
political consequence should say about the mat
ter. The fellow doubtless wrote for bread and
gin, and piled up the agony to make his article
startling and attractive; the publisher bought the
article to sell his magazine, and that was the end
of the matter. Little could either of them have
imagined that such wretched syllabub would be
quoted three years after by an aspiran to the Pre-
sidency of the United States, as atfording basis
for alarm on ,hepart Of our pcoplc-a prctext for
our stretching forth our hands to grasp foreign
territory. Low as is their estimate of the under
standing of the American Democracy, they can.
not have believed it would bear to he insulted
with such an appeal TO its ignorance and It's
cowardice
Yet even this gassy article requires 10 be twist.
ed TO answer Gen. Cass's purpose, for it never
hints, even remotely, at an attack on the United
States through Teras. II speaks of the South as
constituting our weak point, and to be assailed
by black army from the West Indies, but ne, or
dreams of turning the flank of the Union by land.
ing on the almost harborless coast of Texas and
marching through the tangled wiIdcrnesses and
unfathomable swamps of the South. West at least
FIVE hundred miles TO the Red River and Missis-