Iowa territorial gazette and advertiser. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa Territory [Iowa]) 1840-1846, 1844-05-18

ced the progress Of the treaty, which was
signed in the February following, and which
threw away Texas, dismcmbered the val
lev Of the Mississippi, mnhlatei two Of our
noblest rivers, brought foreign boundary
to the ncighborhood Of New Orleans, and
established desert barrier between Mis-
souri, and Mexico, to interrupt their trade,
and shelter the depredators upon the lives
and property Of their citizens. | was not
then in politics, and had nothing to do with
public affairs; but ] saw and felt at once
the whole enormity Of this gratuitous and
unaccountablc sacrifice, and instantly raised
my voice against it in articles published in
the st. Louis papers, and in which were
given in advance, all the national reasons
against throwing away the country, which
are now, after a lapse of tw enty-fivc years,
given by others for getting it back. Twas
young and ardent then, and had some fire
in me, and not only wrote against the treaty,
but against its authors, and their mo,ives:
and even imprecated a scoe Upon the heads
Of the statesmen who should continue to IA
vor it.* Mr.. Adams, the negotiator and
the ostensible author of the treaty, was the
statesman against whom all my censure was
directed, and Twas certainly sincere in my
then belief Of his great culpability; but The
declaration which he has lately made on
the floor Of the House Of Representatives,
absolves him from all censure on account
Of that treaty, and places the blame on the
majority Of Mr.. Monroe's cabinet, by whose
votes he was governed, contrary to his
own opinions, in establishing the boundary
which so much condemned.
A voice of mere individual. not In any
public station, and thousand miles from
the seat of government, was no impeachment
to the progress of the treaty: it went for
ward; was signed in the month of Febru-
airy, 1919; approved by Mr.. Monroe's cab
met; unanimously ratified BY the Senate;
and greeted with the universal applause Of
the public press.
/ But all this concurrence of authorities,
and Of applause, made no impression upon
me. | continued to look upon the treaty
with Indignation and amazement; and the
more SO, because the published correspon-
dencc showed that the sacrifice Of our ter
ritory was gratuitous and wanton! that the
Spanish government had offered us more
than we had accepted! that we had yolun-
tarily sacrificed our rivers, boundaries and
territory! and l continued to assail the
treaty under the confident belief that such
an unnatural boundary could not stand, and
i that the sacrificed territory would eventu-
ally be restored to the country from which
it had been torn.
| The treaty of 1919, between the United
States and Spain, so far as it applied to the
south western boundary of the United
States, was one of the most gratuitous sa-
criices ever made by nation which was
not conquered, and actually occupied by a
conquering army. It gave up natural
boundary great river, desert, and a
mountain-on the most vulnerable flank OF
the Union-the flank coterminous with the
largest foreign power on our continent, and
proNimate to one Of our greatest and most
exposed cities. Instead Of this natural
boundary, far removed from our cities and
population, it substituted an arbitrary line
under a longitude far in the interior Of our
country, and along rivers wholly within our
natural boundaries, and incapable of being
forfeited except at an expense of hundreds
of millions. 1t gave up 100000 square
miles of territory, enough to make FIVE or
six great States, and all of il not only valua-
BILE in itself, but valuable beyond all price
from its position within our natural limits.
It brought foreign frontier--the frontier
Of a non-slareholding empire-to the neigh
borhood of New Orleans, and almost to the
heart Of the valley Of the Mississippi. It
mutilated two Of our great rivers-the Ar
kansas and the Red river; streams equal
to the Danube, and both Of which had their
sources and their mouths within our nat
ural boundaries, and were wholly ours BY
existing treaties; placed foreign power
upon their banks, and gave to that power
a right, according to our o,cn assertion of
the ta,c Of nations-a right to navigate those
rivers through our territories to their own
OUTLET in the sea. It gave away not only
the southern and sunny province of Texas,
but what never was Texas but part of the
valley of the Mississippi, lying between
the Red river and the Arkansas, and ex-
tending to the hyperborean region Of north
latitude AZ. Finally, it established des-
ert region Of great extent between the State
Of Missouri and the province Of New Mex
leo, to interrupt and mar the inland COM
merce and the social intercourse, between
the United States and the Mexicans on the
important line of communication between
St. Louis and Santa Fe; and to crown all
these sacrifices Of territory, rivers, and nat
ural boundaries, they were made in favor
Of a no',-slarcholding power, whose domin-
ions were thus brought in contact with the
slaveholding State Of Louisiana, and almost
in contact with the slaveholding (then Ter
ritories, now) States of Missouri and Ar
kansas. -
/ Such sacrifice of great national inter-
ests, so unanimously concurred in by the
public authorities, gave the firstgreat shock
to my confidence in public bodies: the
treaty Of the next year with the British
government for the joint occupation Of the
Oregon, gave me the second great shock;
and the two shocks together, shocked me SO
much that | came into public life in 1920,
with very little concern for my own posi-
ton, when should chance to find myself
standing SOLITARY and alone" upon great
national questions.