The North-Carolina standard., 1844-04-10


Mexico could make no just objection to the trans
lfer.
In 1886, this question, together with that oi
ratifying their constitution, was submitted by the
constituted authorities to the people of Texas who
with unparalleled unanimity, There being bui
ninetythree dissenting votes,) decided IN favor Of
remuneration,
Texas, then, has already assented to the rean-
nexation not merely by the act of all her authori
ties, but of her people, and made it part and par
eel of the organization of the government itself;
and he who, with the knowledge of these facts,
would now deny the power of Texas to assent to
the remuneration, must reject and discard the great
fundamental principle of popular sovereignty.
Surely. then, no one will contend that the nonar-
chies may transfer, and we receive their colonies
and subjects, without and against their consent {;
but that the entire people of single republic, in
whom resides the only rightful sovereignty, can
not cede, nor we receive their own territory, and
that monarchs have more power than the people,
and are more truly sovereign. Texas, then, hav-
ing the undoubted right to transfer the whole, or
any part of the territory, there can be no differ
ence, as a question Of constitutional poaoer, be-
tween our right to receive part or the whole of
the territory.
The remuneration, then, can be accomplished
by any one of three modes LIST, by treaty; 3D.,
by an act of Congress, without treaty and Sd,
by the authority reserved to each State to extend
their boundaries. and annex additional territory
with the sanction of Congress
Isl. By treaty.-This right was established in
the cession of Louisiana and Florida and cannot
now be questioned, without menacing the organi-
zation of the government and integrity of the
Union; for, by virtue of this power, three States
and several Territories now compose part of
the republic In 1912 we acquired territory by
treaty, and attached it 10 the States of New York
and Vermont There was there no disputed
boundary for the call for certain parallel of
latitude-a mere question ofneasurement-which,
when made, placed this territory within the un-
doubted limits of Canada; in consequence of
which, we had abandoned the fortress erecting at
Rouses Point, and the ground it occupied, (which
was part of this territory) which we acquired
by the treaty of 1912. The question of the pow
er of annexation7by treaty is settled, and incor-
porated into the very existence of the government
and of the Union.
Cd The object may be accomplished by act of
Congress- without treaty.-The language of the
constitution is: New States may be admitted by
the Congress into this Union but no new State
shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction
of any other State; nor any State be formed by
the junction of two or more States, or paris of
States, without the consent of the legislatures of
the States concerted, as well of the Congress"
The grant is unlimited, except that the boundary
of an existing State cannot be disturbed by Con-
gress without the assent of the State legislatures
New States may be admitted by the Congress
into this Union" This is the broad language of
the constitution and, confne it to territory then
acquired, is to interpolate most important words
into that instrument. Nor could it have been the
intention of the trainers of the constitution to pre-
vent the acquisition of new territory. Louisiana
was not then part Of the Union, but it was
most important part Of the valley of the Missssip-
pI, containing New Orleans, and the whole of the
WESTERN and the most essential part of the eastern
portion of that territory, with both banks of its
great river for many hundred miles above its
mouth, and the only outlet of the products of the
mighty valley starting at the Youghiogany in
Maryland, and the Allegheny in New York,
uniting at Pittsburg, where they form the Ohio,
to the outlet of all into the Gulf If we look at
the condition Of many of the States when the
constitution was framed, we will find it could
never have been adopted had it forbidden the
QUESTION of the only outlet of all the products of
the West The waters of western Maryland, and
of western New York, commngle with those Of
the Ohio and Mississippi. There stood Pittsburg
at the head of the Ohio; and onethird of Penn
sylvania is intersected by streams which water
part of the great valley. Virginia then includ- d
Kentucky; three-fourths of her territory was
within the great valley, and the Ohio and Missis-
slppl itself were It's boundary Tor more tnan
thousand miles. North Carolina then included
Tennessee, and was bounded for hundreds Of
miles by the river Mississippi; and Georgia then
embraced Alabama and Mississippi, and was not
only bounded for several hundred miles by the
great river, but advanced to within few miles of
the city of New Orleans. Is it possible that all
these States, in forming the constitution could
have intended to prohibit forever the acquisition
of the mouth of the Mississippi, then in the hands
of a-hostile and despotic foreign power? The
constitution contains such suicidal provision !;
and all the historical facts both before and after
its adoption, are against any such anti-American
restrictions As to treaty, it is only necessary
as Indicating the assent of the ceding nation; and
if that has been given already, as in the case of
Texas, without treaty, our acceptance may be
made by Congress. Suppose the constitution of
Texas forbid the cession, except by Congress:
when their Congress passed the asserting law,
could not we accept, by act of Congress2 Or
suppose Texas, or any other contiguous territory,
was vacant and unclaimed by any power could
we not annex it by act of Congress? One ofthe
grounds assumed in Congress, and by our gov
ernment, in defence of our title 10 Oregon, is its
alleged discovery and occupancy by US, (long be-
fore the treaty with France,) being one of the
acknowledged modes by which nations acquire
territory; but if can only acquire territory by
treaty. then this ground, upon which we claim
title to Oregon, must be abandoned. 1t would be
strange, indeed, ifthe treaty making power (which