Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1845-02-15

FROM THE HOUSE, FOR ANNExING TEXAS +,
THE UNITED STATES
Unwilling that this decisive argument against tn
incorporation of foreign States with our own by an,
resort inferior to the treaty making power SHOULD
fail to be any where examined through the disncli
nation which many have to read any thing, of what
ever merit or importance, unless in brief we have
taken the pains to make close abstract of this re-
port; so that its main points at least may reach
even the reader who has the least time spare fol
the consideration of such matters.
Thereport sets out with adverting the deep int
rest and the strong passions, political, party and
personal, which the measure has excited, not only
through communities and masses, but even in those
legislative bodies which only camer affections should
reach. With this excitement, produced by very
various and very extreme views of mere expe-
diency hardly offering itself any where in the same
light, the committee hope not to be able directly to
deal they confne themselves to the legitimate
question alone of the merits Of the several schemes
of annexation OF those of the plan sent in from the
House in particular, and Of the constitutional pos
sibility of thus effecting the object proposed
The projects are, in the main, alike in the mode
of action which they propose: they all assert that
the power to annex Foreign Territory and State re-
sides in this Government and that il is through the
ordinary legislative action that this power is to be
exer:ed. This claim of power the report proceeds
TO examine first as to its existence at all and, Sc
sondly, as to its extent, if existing.
In scrutinizing the former proposition, that this
Government has the constitutional power to annex
10 It an independent foreign territory, the committee
protest against the force of precedent as an argu-
ment. II there Is precedent, that precedent may
have been illegal and unwarrantable or it may have
expressly placed itself the principle of necessi-
~, the salus popali-a law overriding all human
enactments and obligations. OF such cases the
leading one is that of the acquisition of Louisiana
by the Jefferson Administration; of which the later
purchase of Florida was but the sequel, avowed
and intended from the first its completion As
10 these, the committee insists with great force that
legal precedents cannot be made of them they
were distinctly admitted by Mr.. JEFFERSON himself
10 be acts beyond both the letter and the spirit Of
the Constitution, and to be dictated only by law
superior TO it. To cure it, he proposed, first, al
act of indemnity and, secondly, an alteration o.
the Constitution, that should permit the incorpora
ton of Florida, when it could be effected. These
facts strip those instances of all force as precedents
unless for that which needs no precedent an act O
overruling necessity.
To justify like act, there must be like neces
sly' and that would find its force, not in example
but IN the occasion and its more than legal or con
stitutional validity. Sepreservationd demanded ane
legalized the acquisition of Louisiana: but thos.
acts can give no ultra-constitutional authority fo
what cannot plead the same high necessity. Ger
tainly, they who urge the present measure allege
among countless other things, like necessity: bu
IT is for them to prove its existence, and that with
an adequate certainty, not by facts supposed merely
not TO speak of those disproved
As to deriving authority for this act from any
more regular source, the school of strictconstruc
tionists, the high and severe interpreters of the
Constitution, have always held that all the powers
to be lawfully derived from that instrument for this
Government, or any part of it, found in pre-
else grant, forming special sort of schedule in the
Constitution ITSELF There and elsewhere in it the
principal powers have each a name and definition
To be valid in its application, each power mus
answer to its name and definition there
But the territory hitherto acquired has been OBJ
tanned only through the treaty-making power and
hence that power has, until lately, come to be con
sdered as sole in that faculty and as of unlimited
extent.
Yet 1t was the opinion Of Mr.. JEFFERSON that tc
admit power so unlimited was to render the Con
shtution blank-a truth too evident 10 need 81
pounding. Like all the other enumerated powers
tins power must be limited by the objects for which
1t was granted. Under this right construction il is
far from being paramount: it is but subsidiary-the
handmaiden of the Constitution. Under this con
struction, there must even be some suner;or nove,
TO put the matchmaking power in motion nor car
the latter act except on behalf of that superio,
power, and in subordination to it.
Within its own proper sphere, however. though
Limited as above shown the treaty-makinu nowe,
IS by the Constitution, paramount to all others
That peculiar sphere is our foreign relations /: and
over their arrangement, of whatever nature il has
entire control. To ascertain whether or not a mar
ncular transaction belongs to this power, we have
only TO ask, Is it foreign 20
We have seen that all the powers granted bv III,
Constitution have attached to them express names
lndiyidualor generic-as the treaty making power.
the war power" . the revenue power" &c. Tn
legitimacy, then, Of any pretended power is easl,
tested by considering whether it answers to any .
these names. Try Annexation thus Is II
name or its purpose expressed in the Constitution
Certainly not Power is given TO Congress IN ac
CURE from the State soil and sites for forts &c
there he uouer IN do III, Ill - !,