Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1844-07-25

py the constitution; to change the sys-
TEN OF taxation under which we have
SO long prospered, by admitting the
principle claimed in his bill for the dis
tributlon Of the proceeds of the public
lands; and lastly, to prevent the annex
alton of Texas to the United States
Tor 1t cannot be denied that his position
on this question is utterly at war with
the true interests Of his country. tie
says virtually that Texas ought not to
be admitted into the whole Union
while there is a respectable and con-
siderable portion of our citizens oppo:s'-
ed to it. On such a condition 1t is OBJ
vious annexation can never take place.
Br~igh influence had considerable and
respectable advocates in this country
In our revolutionary war, and IN our
second war with her. Will 1t ever be
without therno Never. As long as
there are fanatics III religion, as long
as there are diversities and differences
in human opinion respecting the forms
of government and the rights OF the
people, such advocacy will be found
resisting the advance of institutions
like ours, and laboring to incorporate
with them the features Of an opposite
system.
Who does not see that the people OF
the United States are competitors with
the people of England in the manutac-
turing arts, and in the carrying trade OF
the worlde and that the question is
soon to be, if it be not already, whether
Texas and Oregon are to be consider
ed as auxilarieS to American or Brit"
ish interests? whether these vast and
fertile regions are to be settled and
worked by our posterity, blessed by re-
publican government, or are to become
the theatre of British enterprise, and
thus add another link to the vast colo
NAL chain by which that great monar-
chv upholds its lords and mobiles, and
extracts from suffering millions the
earnings of their labor?
Nor is the question altered by the
alleged interest of Mexico IN the Tex
as territory. AS far as treaties are
concerned, good faith is not involved
in our decision. If the proposition
were to annex Mexico with her assent,
Texas could not complain: But we
al lynov that the treaty argument is
not only inapplicable, but incapable
of use in the determination of the ques-
ton, either as it affects us, Mexico
or other powers. Texas is indepen-
dent of Mexico-made so BY the pow
er of her arms, in the same sense that
we became independent Of Great Brl-
tan. She is independent OF Mexico
in another sense: that it IN never hav-
ing constituted part of Mecico, ex-
cept by compact which the latter has
violated and which compact would
never have been formed if the United
States had performed its duty.
But, without pursuing this view Of
the subject, it is enough for us to look
at the question as it is practically pre-
serted to US. Texas tells US she is
anxious to come into the Union. Be
ing originally a part of our Union,
knowing that she cannot exist happily
as State without the protection Of our
laws, that her geographical position as
we'll as the character and interest of her
citizens, necessarily attach them to,
our territory; and feeling as we may
we'll suppose she does, a greater con-
Germ for the fate of our free institutions
than she can for those fany monarch
V, she is deslrous that her fertile lands
and genial climate should share the
glorious instrumentafity of cherlshing
and maintaining the blessings of free
dom. Is this unnatural? Can it be
wise for us to turn a deaf ear to her en-
treaty, because Lord Aberdeen and
Lord Brougham, as British statesmen,
choose to withhold their consent, and
indulge in 1ague apprehensions respec-
ting the effect of the measure on this
scheme of abolishing slavery Shame,
shame on such patriotism! Shame on
the credulity which can be duped by
such fimsy pretence!
The American people cannot be de-
ceived in this manner. They know
that the real object Of England is tc
check the prosperity of the United
States and lessen their power to com
nete with England as naval powe
and as growing, agricultural, manu-
-factpring, and commercial country
Kew know that Lord Aberdeen, in thu
midst of thousands and thousands o
starving subjects of the British monar
ohv i more anxious, or ought to be,
~ rel;eve the wants Of those wretchet
neonle than he can be to alter the rela
t;on s,,bsisting between the white ant
- &c 4bic cOuntrV or eXaS.