The Arkansas banner., 1844-08-07
SPEECH or MR. wooBBURY,

Ill secret session on the treaty for tle an-
 nexation of Texas to tho United States.
 CONTINUED.
 am not one of those disposed to cxaeger- ate the advantages ct such al uion Go us; nor would1, on the contrary, scoi at the o5- iecions which are eaiegiaiAesi- honest iy, without doubt--by many against 1t. But in weighing the latter, trust that we may be able 10 free ourselves from some pfeiudices and apprehensions suited 10 other forms 0 government rather than q representative con. tederacy; and be litlle less local in poic3 and timidiu action than if we were, as once but three millions of people, and had eonGn. ed our explorations 10 Lake Ghamplain anf Cape Cot, rather than stretching west on oui own soil to the Rocky mountains and the Pa- ciiic ocean.
 Not forgetting the enlarged duties, as well as interests, that have devolyed on us by oul new position. let us examine, dispassionaieIY, both the reasons foraHd the abieetonsag sagainst the annexation proposed, as ! moral and pc Atical duty. For, though the right to take and to make the cession nay on bolh sides be clear Oar gnly may not require an assent to the ratification; and am frank to say, thai if lregartled the treaty as q mere pecuniary speculation, like the calculations oi the sena- tor from Rhode Island, Mir. SIMMONS, my hopes wouldnet be great for profit or credits or, if Hooked at some Of inc reasons assign ed for the measufein the correspondence, CT the prudence af some ef inc agents employ ed, olsthe patriotism ef some taking deep in- teresl in the question. But these, and many formal exceptions, seem scarcely suitable ta the magnitude ef the subject, and tie high duties aud national honor and interests which arc at issue. One of the most prominent of these interests is the importance of Texas to the United Statesfor security to tde commerce ot the West and Soatbwest through the mouth of the Aiississippiriyer. The freedom oi that commerce was topic which. as long ago as under the old confederation, agitated the whole country. l. then introduced the first geographical division of parties between the South and tie North, ill which the latter, unfortunately, was quiteas strenuous infesist- ing efforts and sacrifices to obtain that free dom, sitis now in resisting those to secure il, aller having been obtained.
 4 few circumstaaees in the agitation of that age indicate, strongly, preiudces and contests not very unlike the present one.
 Mf. Gorham, of Massachusetts, "afowcd his opinion, that lhe shutting the Mississippi would be advantageous 10 the Atlantic States, and wished 10 see 1t t"-6 Madison Par pers, P 609l
 But Virginia extended over Kentucky, and claimed all the Northwest; which, orth Caro- lina also crossed the Aleghanies into Ten nessee. Hence the South, al that carly day, became the champions of western interests, 10 less than southern ones
 And dthaueh aIf. Aymer. apparently concur- ring with 6orlHm, ''thpught fie enceasaFo- iaeElt ol she Wesiefn country Na suicide on the paft of lheeld Saies,-3 , Madison pu- pers, LAG page, 1---and though inc 1ote ol seven States was at first procured to proceed in the negotiations with Spain, without insist ing on the free navigation of the Mississippi, yet AIf. Jefferson wrote thatthe navigation of the Mississippi we must have Jeilcr- son's Life, 433 page,) And Hr. Jay at last admitted our right .te Ii w;is goa5i.-t5 Secret Journal, A5l.4 And the cid Congress, before breaking up, in September, 17SS, solemnly
 Resofee3, That the free navigation of the river Mississippi is clear and essential right of the United States, and that the same ought to be considered and supported as sucb-t4 ! Secret Journal, 453, September l6. l7S89 [
 ln the convention, while forming the con- 'stituiion, GeFerieHr Morris frankly statedthat 'sthe fstefies, and inc '.lfSsissipp,n securi- iy to them, were "the two great objects of E the Ulion.n-3 Madison Papers, 1523)
 The whole question, as pational one, was { than settled. That was the embryo of the . present crisis. The duty to secure became as imperative as had been the duty 10 obtain { zAmillion and a half of square miles of terri r tory, and what are now nine millions of Reo- pie on the waters ol the Missssippt and her tributaries. were foreseen, and were to Be shielded III peace as in war; and tranquility | to their institutions, no less than safety to their property of every kind, were in advance solemnly guaranded aud were never to be i neglected. On this implied pledge. your pub lie lands have been sold there and settled.
 It Is not necessary, at this part of our in- quiry, 10 detail all the steps since taken under the constitution 10 carry outlaithlully one of those great objects of .lhe Union connected win the Mississippi. Spain resisted and in- .rigued against all this. She was one of the ! last to aceede to our independence, and to make any treaty of limits onsthe south as to the Florida line, from rof our reyoltpeov- f ing an example coniagieus to her American colonies. It is said, by one of our most learned historians, that a document exists. in which she was advised by her prime minis ! ter then to allow the whole of them to become independent, except her West India islands and ii thai advice had been followed, which { subsequent eyeniss with the loss of millions of life and treasure, show 10 have been so wise, our present difficulties as to Texas would probably never have arisen. She pur- sued the opposite policy, and, after the peace of l7S3, sought to push her claims even on the Misisippi, as high up as the Ohio river, and as tar. east as the Alleghanies. And after driving her from these pfeiensions, and then from Florida and Louisiana, her descendants hold on upon Texas with death gripe; and long after iheir ability to sabdae il, or lis value to them can make il an object in itself at all | desirable Both freedom and security 10 the