Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1845-02-01
I.aon rar p4IIr NATIONAL Isrrlrlsrscrno On JANUARY
THE EIGHTH WEEK OF THE SESSION

m0crauc members nelu Oh tlc SATURDAY niSns Pac-
ceding, brought to close on Saturday last at two
O'Clock; and the House proceeded % vcts upon the
propositions before it. The result of the trials OF
strength Of the different propositions was the pas
sage, by a majority Of twenty-five votes, 5of the
Joint Resolution introduced some days ago by the
Hon. MILTON BRowN, Wing Member from the
State of Tennessee, with an amendment, accepted
by him, limiting the existence Of slavery in Texas
to the territory south of the Missouri compromise
line. This proposition united majority in its ia
vor because less exceptionable in its details than
any other which had been presented though equally
open with them to the gravest Of the objections
which lie against any action whatever upon the SUBJ
ject under existing circumstances.
So far, therefore, as depends upon the will Of
the House Of Representatives, Congress is to
exercise the power Of admitting into the Union the
Territory Of Texas-a Territory equally foreign to
the United States, whether regarded as an indie
pendent Government or Province of Mexico
This decision by the House Of Representatives
involves, in our opinion, the exercise of power
which, if it belong to the Government Of the
United States at all, belongs, in the first stage (of
annexation) exclusively to those branches of the
Government which are invested with the authority
to make contracts with Foreign Powers, and cannot
be exercised By Congress, as proposed, without
violation Of the Constitution. Texas is either an
independent Power, capable of disposng of her
own destiny, she is not. If she be, the consent
of twohirds of the Senate in joint action with the
y Executive, is necessary to make compact treaty
with her. II she be not, she is province of
IL -
peace, and can only be annexed, or admitted into
this Union, whether with or without the conditions
specified in the Joint Resolution, by a compact, or
treaty, with Mexico, formed in the mode prescribed
by the Constitution, in these brief but explicit terms
:" He the President shall have power, by and
with the advice and consent of the Senate to make
freafes provided two-thirds ofthe Senators present
concur"
This provision Of the Constitution is the.supREmE
LAW OF THE LAND - and no action by Congress,
short of revolution, can override or set aside this
!" Supreme Law" The Joint Resolution which
has received the appreciation Of the House of Rep
resentatves, therefore can, in view of the mat
ter, only be sustained as revolutionary movement.
Such, we very well know, is not the light in which
il is viewed by him who moved it, and by many Of
those who voted for it. But there are some gentle
men. it is equally well known, whose purpose of
annexation" without regard TO constitutional inn
pediments, has been openly avowed. At this mo-
ment we have before us, in New York paper, an
extract from the Charleston Mercury, the organ of
numerous and talented party in the State in which
it is published, which declares that it is insult
to the South to keep Texas out Of the Union;''
that if the act of annexation is unconstitutional
aisjustifable by your own base perfdy accusing
thus Of perfdy the North, having nterfered with
the institutions Of the South in first violating the
Constitution in respect to us in this vital partcu-
lar /" and concluding its observations on the SUBJ
ject (siill addressing " the North as follows
g So far as this question is concerned, you have
destroyed the Constitution; and will you quote IL
ito us Your hypocrisy is as shallow as your
streachery is base, and we know not which most
: to despise, your impudence or your wickedness.
CONSTITUTION OR NOT, WE WILL HAVE
Texas r. ~
The view which zee take OF the constitutional
question involved in this joint resolution has the
sanction Of every authority legal or political, which
be brought to bear upon the subject to the effect
that Congress cannot make a contract scifh for
eign nation that the Legislative poyer neuer can
do that which can be done by treaty; and that
phatsUer requires the consent Of another nation
belongs to the treaty pocer, and CAN ONLY BE RE
ouLATED BY 1T. 4sa
In presence Of this great constitutional impede
ment to the action of Congress on the subject all
considerations Of expectancy, and even of moral or
political right, connected with this measure, import
ant and momcntous as we have heretofore shown
them to be, fade away the reader viii perceive,
into absolute insigni6cance.
The HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, therefore, by
its decision Of Saturday last overlapping the barrier
Of the Constitution, and calling upon the Senate to
follow its example, has placed the public peace and
honor involved in the maintenance Of the several
departments Of this Government in their proper or
bits, emphatically and finally at the arbitramcnt Of
the SENATE Of the United States.
To that august body, which has SO often thrown
its shield over the Constitution Of the country, is
now presented the issue, whether they will give
their consent to do that by legislation which can
only be done by treaty, and which they themselves
have declared to be unwise and inadmissbIe in
that more solemn FORM Whether they will per-
init their constitutional rights to be stricken down,