Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1845-03-01
THE TWELFTH WEEK OF THE SESSION.

The naudble and noiseless foot OF Time
has brought us to the end Of the twelfth week
of the session. and within one week of the close
If the Twenty-eighth Congress Except the usual
annual race for popularity in the House Of Re-
representatives. upon the Civil Appropriation Bill,
which has come off within the last week with more
than the customary jockeying in one or two short
turns Of the course the Texas question has absorbed
nearly all attention. not in the Senate Chamber only,
but in the House Of and almost every
where else in this city, 1t has even superseded, in
great Degree the interest felt about the Cabinet of
the new President if indeed the Cabinet question
and the Texas question be not SO blended and mixed
up togetheras some of the letter-writers insnuate
that they are-that the composition Of the Cabinet
depends upon the Texas question, and the fate OF
the Texas question upon the composition OF the
Cabinet. However that may be, the character of
in the Senate, seem to hang in equally doubtful
scales
Upon this Texas question we pretend to arraign
no mans opinion, and to question no mans motive.
But we are not the less grieved and chagrinsd at
what we see and hear; at the false and impudent
fabrcatons of nesDs from all quarters of the world
( from England, from France, and from Mexico-to
!. operate upon the minds Of honorable men unsus-
picious Of such arts, upon whom some impression
appears to be made by these despicable inventions;
at the misplaced ingenuity with which the Consti-
ton is tortured to extract authority for Congress
from its express grants of power, which authority
is otherwise delegated in other provisions of the
Constitution; and last, but not least, at DISPOSE
ton which we think we discover to overleap the
bounds of the Constitution to do that which, it is
hardly denied by some, the Constitution does not
authorize.
To our readers who understand the plain import
Of words it can hardly be necessary to re-stae the
question which appears to us TO be involved in the
Ioint Resolution which has passed the House. In
hree words, however, it is this Texas is either
Independent to the extent of being able to convey to
he United States complete sovereignty over the
Territory she occupies, or she is not If she be,
that sovereignty certainly cannot be assumed with
out her consent: If she be not she is Province of
Mexico, at war with that Power and the sovereign
" over her territory with equal certainty cannot be
case, the acquisition of Texas requires the assent
and cooperation of foreign Power: That assent
can only be given by Treaty the President Of the
United States, with the advice and consent of two
birds of the Senate, is the treaty making power
s,blished by the Constitution of the United States
which is the supreme lar: Congress, therefore, has
,ot the power to :" annex Texas by the passage
f Joint Resolution for that purpose.
Could any doubt be entertained upon so plain
,ropositon-were it possible that we could deceive
ourselves about the import of the cleares provisions
,f the Consttuton-we have the corroborative opin-
ion, not only Of the large majority of our friends
Of the legal profession but of those also whose opin-
ION on this subject is high as that of any living
men can be. We refer especially to that of ALBERT
GALLATIN, the survivor of all those contemporaries
Of the era Of the Constitution who stood side by
vide with him in the early contests for just con-
struction Of it; man now venerable in years, but
venerable yet more for the recttude and perfect in
tegrity of his life and principles who lives in the
midst Of posterity," and whose voice ought to be
persuasive and authoritative, in the present emer-
gency, as that of one risen from the dead. In a
loer of very recent date from him, referring TO the
manner in which Louisiana was acquired and after
wards admitted into the Union, he says:
!" In the same manner Congress, by an analogous
process, may resolve that Texas, whenever dc-
guired in conformity NTH the Constitution, shall
be admitted into the Union a State or States.
But territory can be acquired only by treaty or
conquest. As this last mode is in this case out OF
the question, it is unnecessary to discuss in what
cases conquest occupation may, without the
sanction of treaty, confer legitimate right. On
this occasion the mutual assent of at least two par
ties, Texas and the United States, is absolutely
necessary. Call it agreement, compact, or by any
other name, IL is only by treaty that the onnera-
ton of Teas can be Effected"
What weight ought strained differences from par
ncuar grants of power in the Constitution to have
against its plainest and most vital provisions, thus
fortifiedl As TO the clause about the admission oil
s.new States" we presume that it has been estab.
hshed, beyond the possibility of doubt on the mind
OF our readers during this debate, that il has no re-
ference to any other territory than such as actually
appertans TO the United States. And as to the
attempt to overturn the constitutional authority q
fhe Senate by differences Of power for Congress
from the power to lay taxes, to make war, &C. il is
with difficulty we can believe, though we feel bound
10 believe, that those who urge such arguments are
serious in what they say.
For ourselves, we cannot resist the conviction,
nor the obligation Of stating it that the passage Of
the Resolution from the House of Representatives
in its present form, or in any form which does no,