The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1845-01-16
THE TEXAS CUES TON.
SPEECH OF MIR. OWEN,
OF INDIANA,
In the House of Representatives,
"WEDNESDAY, Jan. 8, I545.
Concluded

A word about humanity by-and-by. Meanwhile
suffer me to ask, whether in the of Santa Anna
the Texans acquired sufficient strength to give him
efiectual resistance" The Mexican Dictator will
hardly deny that And if he cannot shall it be tole-
Grated, that Mexico, by paltry fiction which de-
ceives no one, not even herself should persist in as
Stunning that there is such Republic as Texas that
the lands lying between the Del Norte and the Sa-
bne form but petty revolted province of hers,
which, when she can find few weeks leisure, she
will deign to chastise and resubjugate All this, II
the subject were less grave, might pass piece of
national pleasantly As is, is little short of an
insult to the common sense of mankind
And we but sanction that insult If we longer hold
back in our judgment sustained it is by the COM
mon voice Of the world that Texas has been receiv-
ed as an equal into the family of nations and now
enjoys, as fully any other nation upon earth the
powers and rights of an independent sovereign.
Enough on this branch of the subject But now,
dismlssiDg the question of right we are met BY nu,
merous objections against the expedeDcy of
ton, as measure frsught with evil consequences to
human Improvement even with danger to the integ
rity Of our Union. One of these-estcemed the graz
vest by some good men--is made in a sacred cause
in the name Of human liberty II u.s. that in receiving
Texas, we increase and perpe,uate slavery among
men,
We increase slavery By what process' When,
by act OF Congress otherwise, that coun-
try now called the Republic of Texas tn be styled
henceforih the Territory the State of Texas does
that reduce single human being, not now a slave,
TO the condition of forced vassalsge' No one will
pretend that il But it will increase the number
of slaves IN the United Sfatss7 Undoubtedly. And so
also will surely increase within the United States
the number of murders, and thefts and breaches Of
the peace; unless we imagine Texas Utopia, where
crimes and offences are utterly unknown.
Every human enterprise is Of checkercd conse.
quences "The lives Of the best Of u.s." it has been
somewhere well said, "are spent in choosing between
evs.' In this world of imperfectons, the practical
question TO be answered before we act, is not wheth-
er our action is to produce unmixed good--to no hui
man policy IS il given thus to operate-but whether
the good it promises will preponderae the evils
to which II may open the door In admitting Texas
we Increase, TO some extent, our slave territory
But shall we count II for nothing the other hand
that we increase also, by one-sxtb our Union happy
prosperous, blessed, even with all her faults as we
feel her to be. Is tia privilege to be citizen ofthese
United States to sit down in peace and safety under
the shelter Of our republican institutional And sha
we count for nothing the extension Of that privilege
to tens Of thousands now living its prospective er-
tension to millions more yet to livel
We can find no Utopia to annex. II J. RICH, or
Is wrong, it j. wise or 1t is unwrc-apart from all
temporary and sectional consideration, Ito extend
the national serriiory n rigAt and wise, we must be
content 10 carrying out such extension 10 take ihings