Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1845-01-17

questions. The House of Representatives
in Committee of the Whole, have been for
some days past. and is up to the present
moment, engaged in an able, animated and
occasionally acrimonious discussion OF this
great measure. Several plans have been in
troduced, for the purpose of effecting an
nexation: but which of them will be finally
adopted, we are unable 10 say. Many
speeches have been made on the subject,
by both Wings and Democrats. Some of
them by Young members. We wish our
limits would permit US to give the speech
of Mr.. Owen, from Indiana. He is both
young man, and a young member, we
believe, but The eloquent and powerful APP
peals which he offered to the House in be-
half Of this great measure, would DO hon
or to any man, old Or young, in that House.
His speech throughout, is argumentat:ve,
as we'll as eloquent. We insert his closing
remarks. which we think will cause Gf it
has the same effect upon others as upon
ourself.) the pulse of every Southern free
man 10 throb with increased animation and
rapidi,y.
Say that we remain inactive and neutral,
and suffer things to take their course. What
> happens! Just at this moment Mexico is
embroIed at home But her civil wars are
ever of short duration. And to Texas it mat
tiers little which of the ba.barians triumph
They have both, like Hannibal at the alt r,
sworn eternal enmity to her. They vie with
t each other in protestat!ons of zeal. Death
, and destruction to the Texans that, even
now, is the theme of every despatch, the bur-
den of every proclamation. The victor, be he
= Paroles or Santa Anna, is pledged to carry
out, without delay, in all its barbarlty, the me-
naced invasion. Tosustain and give brIllan-
: cy to newly-gotten power, he must redeem his
pledge. Imagine the sequel! The Rio Bravo
is crossed. Another league, and rufiian SOL
diery-their swords yet wet with the blood OF
their countrymen-enter the doomed land
! Must call up before you, the scenes that are
TO ensue? Cruel, at best, and terrible, is the
trade Of war! But war of determination
/ war, where the eye pities not! where the
: sword spares not! where the command is to
h save alive none that breathe! Conquerors,
. even in the flush of victory, have wept over a
field of battle, where the strong man died, his
t weapon in his hand, the frown of defiance yet
g unfaded from his brow. But a field of slaugh.
h ter, ndiscriminate slaughter, slaughter OF the
a defenceless, the unresisting Ia field, where
B.. mingle, defled in dust and gore, the white
:. locks of venerable age, and the fair soft hair
: of unofending childhood Think--think
s what it is-ths carnage of a nation, without
n distinction Of age, of condition-there is ye,
r more-of SEX DO you remember the words
!. of the Dramatist1
r "The man who lays his hand upon woman,
II Save in the way of kindness, is wretch,
o Whom 'twere base fattery to call coward J"
And is is woman--it is that gentle being
: whom the desert lion himself is said to pity
y and to spare--it is the young mother-her in
S FAINT charge sheltered in her arms-lt is the
y wife and mother, fleeing to rescue her person
e from the pollution of a brutal banditti-tt
d save the child of her bosom from their mur
> derous steel-It is even she, to adopt, in al
Il their cold official atrocity, the words Of the
= decree Of blood, who, if she be crash enough
d , to the sight of this approaching horde
IL of assasslns-is TO be "pursued until taken
e or put to DEATH" And what then? The re
u port of these deeds of crime and shame is tc
Is come to US across the Sabine. The story O
s. each succeeding brutality is to sink down, il
s. all It's damning details, into the hearts of GU
l" people. The South. with her fiery pulse an,
her hot chivalry, is to hear it. The West
IL with her fearless spirit and her quick sympa
IS thies, is to hear it. The North-yes, tn
D. North, less quickly reused. yet bearing, unde
,, her snow, warm heart Of pity-is to hear il
And, when the shadow of these deeds of dark
g. ness has settled down, like pail over the en
g. tire land, | ask it yet again. what then 81
nr is no concern Of ours. Let them perish !!
+ Will that be the language-that the spirt-o
" young America ? but her adopted child
d even dare, in this, 10 answer for her. NJ
lie no, thousand times not Wemay turn owe
" here tho leaves of musty volumes we ma
ia quote black letter within these walls, in proc
:, that it is our bounden duty to stand passivel
by, without an effort to save, without pre-
" test to avert, and see our brethren of Texas
he their wives and their little ones. butchered be
re fore our eyes. See if the People will nc
9 make the case their own! We have not We
- in this hemisphere, reached the age Of plac
u. indifference. A nations early youth, liIl
I'd mans, is full of warm and generous impulse
le GU will see it! Mark what the dec sion c
~ this nation will be! That we have a right t
&C Interfere. l tell you, no !-other than tha
- Will he her language--that we have no rigf
Ill to hold back! There is a law more holy, ia
III more Imperative than the law of the statut
of. book-the unwritten law of the human heal
that law. which taught the Samaritan thu
he was the neighbor of him who fell anon
Thieves. And that law, speaking from tn
re hearts of young and noble people, will de
r. clare to US, that if we pass by on the othe
- side, and abandon our neighbors of Texas t
=" their fate, ours is the crime, ours the scandal
IL ours, before the world, the shame! And S
X it is! When we sit tameIy down under threat
at like these-when mercy and courage are 8
u quenched within US, that We suffer, unprotes
- ted, outrage thus infamous on the law of ma
IS ture of nations-outrage. we are expressl
told, that is to spread it's crimson stain eve
u to It's very borders--then let our fair nations