The northern galaxy. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1844-1848, 1844-10-02
SPEECH OF MIR. CH0ATE,
Delivered before the Boston Young HENS
Wig Club

OtoOs
Concluded.
But trace the consequences of Annexation
on ourselves-First, chief, most compre
hensive and most mretrievable of its evils iCiL
be its disastrous aspect on the durability ofth.
Union. Texas, lei US suppose, the territory
as territory, is annexed. The war with Mex
leo is at an end. The valor Of the West has
triumphed. The debt of the War, the debt
of Texas. is funded. Time passes. New
States carved out Gifts ample fields knock
for admission into the Union. Do you con-
slider that it may be cut up into forty States as
large as Massachusetts! ButsuppOse TWEEN
ty, fifteen, ten, five only-appy one after
another. Is there aman' out of a mad
house who does not see that FIVE, three, one
such application could not be acted on, and
either rejected or granted, without shaking
this government TO its loundationl Is there
a man who does not see that, if all the NAL
ice and all the ingenuity of Hell were appeal
ed TO to devise one fiery and final trial of the
strength of our American feeling, of our fra
ternal love, of our appreciation ofthe uses of
Union, of all our bonds of our political broth
er hood, it could cOntrive no ordeal half so
dreadful as thatl To me this seems so pal
pable that lhave doubted whether Col Benton
is not right in his conjecture that diSunioH is the
exact object of some of the movers of Annex
atiOn,-Certainly in looking over that grim
roll of South Carolina toasis and dinner
speeches which covers brOadside of the last
lntelligencer, it is quite impossible TO resist
the conclusion that, as regards some individ-
uals Of this body of Annexalonisls, either
they are laborinS under very reasonable poll
tics, or that their Madeira has quite to much
brandy in it, will say, too, of any annexa-
ZIONIST, who thinks that because we survived
the Missouri Question, it vould be pretty
thing to move half dozen more such ques-
tons, that he means to sever the States, or is
profoundly ignorant of the way by which they
are to be kept together. Does he consider
under what totally different circumstances
these Missouri questions would break out
from those which attended the old Does
he consider that the territory of Missouri was
already parcel Of the United States and had
been for nearly twenty years; that unlike
Texas, 1t had been annexed as part of LOuis-
lana, with no view at all to the diffusion and
perpetuation Of slavery; but on grounds Of
policy which the severcst moralist, the STRIFE
test expOunder of the Constitution, the most
passionate lover Of liberty. might approve;
and that therefore, having been received rs a
territory direrSo iniuifu, the public sensibility
was less shocked by its emergence into a
Slave State than now it would be, when the
end and aim of the original acquisition is
slavery, wholly slavery, and nothing but
slavery! Does he reflect how vast a change
the sentiments ofcivilization have Undergone
on that whole subject since eighteen hundred
twenty! Does he remember that in that
learning the world is five hundred years OIL
der than it was thenl Can he not read the
gathering signs of the times? Does he not
mark the blazing characters traced by the
bodiless hand, as in the unfinished
picture Docs he not remember what
the nations have done, and especially what
England has done, within twenty years.
Does he not see and feel that in that interval,
public opinion has been generated, has
been organized, wholly new, aggressive, intol-
Grant of the sight, intolerant ofthe cry, OF man
in chainsl Does he not see and feel with
what electrical force and speed it strikes
from one quarter of the globe to another, and
is spreading TO enfold the whole civilized
world like an atmosphere! Does he think
ii wise TO blow such an atmosphere into Il
hurricane of flannel Does he really expect
to bring his five States into the Unionl Is
he not sure of failngl And is he not seek
ing pretext for flying in Passion-lor COM
planning that territory cOnstitutionalIy emil
tied to admission is excluded, and thereupon
for retiring from the Union, if he can. him
self However this may be, say that he
means to sever the States, or lie is profoundly
ignorant, or criminably reckless, of the tenn
per and the policy by which they are to be
holden together.
/ would have him who desires adequately
to comprehend the probable influence of an
nexation on the durability Of the Union and
its influence on the temper and feelings Of the
States composing the Union, one toward an
other; to consider also, whether, over and
above these eternal antipaihies Of liberty and
slavery, which it must kindle into an inextin-
guishable flame; whether, over and above
these, this measure will not appear, and
ought not 10 appear, to lie a mere attempt to
retain, or to give, to one region aud one inter
est of the Republic, an ascendenCy, TO which, !
as against the others, it is not entitled! Is
there not vast danger, that in this way, it will
array States, and regions Of States, against
each other, on a contest Of interest, Of bust !
ness, of relative powerl VIII It not be re-
garded as aifrontive to the pride, as usurpa- /
tlOu OI
to the pockets of postions of the people Of
as well as an outrage on the senti- I
ment of liberty and the spirit Of the age .
How can it be defended, on the principles Of
our political association! The generation OF
our fathers who framed the Union, saw as well
as we do, the grent natural regional divisions
Of the country. They foresaw, as well as we
now see, that one of these regions might come
10 prefer one system of industrial governor
tai policy, another TO prefer another; that
one might incline TO free trade, and another
to protection; that one might little more
solicitously favor the interests of cotton
planting; another, those of navigation; an
other those of general agriculture; another,
those of mechanical and manufacturing arts
They foresaw that in this way there might
crow to be such thing as Southern, or as a
Western, or as Central. or as an Eastern
of which should be a
Constitutional Administration-and yet, the
policy Of each might take tincture from the
ocality which predominated in its origin and
They foresaw, too, that there
yould come to be what you would call South
I'm influence, and Western influence, and
Central influence, and Eastern influence;
Il. i Il !