The Arkansas banner., 1844-04-24
WAsHrNsToS CITY, Ian. $, ls

c5maas,icale hfs rieirs on ftat sehjecf.
 WAsHfNsTox CIry, Ian. 8. 1874.
 GENTLEMEN: Your letter, dated Gaeni' Carol county. Kentucky, November @'th'
 IS43. has been received. It contains the resolutions of aIneeting oi the people ol lhal county. in favor of the annexation ot Texas, and requesting the candidates for the pfesi- tiencv and vice-presideucy of the union to make s,kroen 10 (you1 or 10 the publlc> their views on lilis subject, As q committee, you have transmitted me these proceedings, together with a special letter, addressed to me as 8 candidate for the t'yce-p -presidency,3 requesting my opinions on this question. l am not candidate for the vice presidency. The only State in which my name has been designated, to any considerable extent, Tor this station, was my oVn; and knowing he" many, with much older and better claims than mine. were namei for this office, for this and other reasons. by letter dated Mo- vembcr 20, l8I3, addressed by me to the de mocric convention which assemblies this day ill Mississippi, my name IS wlihdfa"h internationally.
 The treaty by which Texas was surTon- dered to Spain, was always opposed by me; and in IS26. 1884, and 1835, various ad- dresses were made by me, and then publish ed, in favor of inc remuneration oi Texas; and the same opinions have been often eX- pressed by me since my election, III lo56, 10 the Senate of the UBion
 It was d revolution in Mexico that pro dueed the conflict for independence III feNas The citizens of Texas had been invited there by Mexico, under the solemn guaranty of the federal constitution of 1921. This con stitution. to which Texas so long and faith fully adhered, was prostrated by the nsufper Santa Anna. After a severe struggle the people of Mexico were subdued by fncrce- nary army; the States were annihllated, and a military dictator was placed at the head ol a central despotism. ln the capital of. Mex ico, and of the stale of Coahuila and Texas, the civil authorities were suppressed by the bavonet; the disarmng of every citizen was decreed, and the soldiery oi the nsuper pro- ceeded to enforce this edict. The people of Texas resolved to resist. and perish upon the field of battle. rather than submit to the des- potie sway of q teeacherous and sangulnary military dictator Short was the conflict. and glorious the issue. The American race was suecessful the armies of the tyfaHt were overthrown and dispersed, and the dictator himself was captured. He was released by Texas, and restored to his country, having first acknowledged, by solemn treaty, the independence of Texas. After the fail of Sanla Anna, and the total route and disper- sion of the Mexican army, and when q re-sub iugation had become hopeless, l introduced into the Senate the resolution acknowledging the independence of Texas l. was adopted in March, l837, and the name of Texas in- scribed on the roll of Independent nations. Subsequently, France, England, and Holland, have recognized her independence; and Texas now has all the rights of sovereignty over her territory and people, as full and perfect as any other nation of the world. It was to Spain, and not to Mexico, that we transferred Texas by treaty; and il was by a revolution in Mexico, and the recognition ol her inde- pendence, not by Spain, but by this republic and other nations, that Mexico acquired any title to Texas. Il was by successful reyo- lution. and the expulsion of Spanish power, that Mexico. unrecognised by Spain. acquired all her right to this tefritogy; and il is by a similar successful revolution that Texas has obtained the same territory. These prlncl- ples have been recognised for many years by Mexico, and by this republics and I ls absurd III Mexico now to attempt to recall her ule- quivocal assent to these doctrines, and ask 10 be permitted to change the well-settled law of nations, and oppose the remuneration of Texas. il Is an admitted principle of the law of nations, that every sovereignty may cede the whole or any part of their territory, unless restrained by some constitutional ln- terdict; and which, if 1t exist, may be removed by the same sovereign power which imposed the limitation. There is, however, no such limitation in the constitution of Texas, which Is a single central government, with the same authority to make the eession, as apperaned to France or Spain, in the transfer of Lou isiana or Florida. Nor does 1t change the question of power, that these were distant colonies; for the sovereignty extends alike over every portion of the nation and this principle was fully recognised, when Air. Adams, as President, and AIr. Clay. as Sec retary of State, in 1895 and 1927, by instruc- lions to our minister at Mexico; and General Jackson, as President, and Mr. Van Buren, as Secretary of State, by subsequent similar instructions in 1929, endeayored to procure from Mexico the cession of Texas, then contiguous and integral portion of the MeXi- can conlederacy. And if a nation may cede a portion of her territory, being completely sovereign over the whole, she may certainly cede the whole; and, i'll any event this would be question:, not of our right to receive, but of the authority of the ceding nation to make the transfer, or simply an inquiry, whether we obtained good or bad tile. h this case, this tile would be unquestionable; for Texas being independent in fact, and so re- cognised by ourselves, and the great powers of Europe, as completely sovereign through out her territory, Mexico would make no just objection to the transfer
 In 1838, this question, together with that of ratifying their constitution, was submitted by the constituted authorities to the people of Texas, who, witt. unparalleled unanimity. Lihere heinr ninot.--a 1, raa dIssantinm Nntes.A ]