Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1845-02-21
The Texas Question.

The Texas Question.
| We commented at some length in our
last number, on the course of Mr.. Benton,
in the United States Senate, on this impor-
tant subject. We have before us, in the
Richmond Enquirer, letter from a gen.
tleman IN Texas, to the editor of the En-
quirer, which processes to speak knowing
Iy Of the feelings Of the Texans on annex
alton. We give the letter entire, as it
appears in the above paper:
INTERESTING FROM TEXAS.
To the Editors Of the Enquirer.
EXTRACT of a letter, dated
"GALvEsToN, Jan. 25, 1916.
"You will doubtless be solcitous to learn
the present condition of public sentiment in
this Republic, in relation to the question of
annexation,
although the course pursued by the SEN
ate of the United States, at the last session,
was we'll calculated to ALLEVIATE the feelings Of
the people OF this country from this great ma
tlonal measure, yet am happy to assure You,
that nlneteen-twentieths of them abide firmly
to the hope, and confidently to the desire, that
it will at last be consummated, although both
pride and policy concur in inducing them not
to move until your Government has carried
out its long-disclosed, baffled, but we believe
cherished purpose.
"Great misapprehension prevails in the
United States, as to the feelings of this Gov
eminent. The Administration are decidedly
in favor of annexation. They consult beth
dignity and enlightened policy in remaining
at rest on this matter, and thus far, afford an
illustration of Burke's fine aphorism, that it
belongs to sagacious counsels, both in men
and nations, occasionally to observe wise
and mastery inactivity Whilst, therefore,
they are quite ready to close with a PROPOSE
ton for the union Of the two countries, when
1t shall have received the sanction of your
Congress, yet they have abstained from any
commitment which may bring them in I'M
friendly controversy with other Governments.
Yet 1T is weN that your Government and your
people should distinctly understand, that, on
no account whatsoever, not even the hazard
OF desolatlng, sangnlnary war with Mexico,
will we accept an annexation on the terms Of
Mr.. Benton's Bill. Those terms involve both
insult and injury to our country. Insult, in
making the consent of Mexico a condition
precedent to annexation, which warrants the
dependence, and are not of right SOVEREIGN
people. They involve injury to our country,
because the boundary, which the Senator from
Missouri has thought proper to prescribe for
Us, il founded on no accurate knowledge of
the Typographical and political relations and
localities of the two countries. So far from
Col. Benton's Desert being interposed be-
tween the Mexicans and ourselves, by run
nil ho
one of the most magnificent and fertile Prai-
ries on earth, open to incurson, and ahTording
no geographical boundary whatever. This
have from one Of the oldest hunters and most
successful pioneers in all Texas, Ii, therefore,
the learned Senator, instead of consulting an
old map, although he may find it in 'his fine
Paris edition of Humboldt Ga sealed book,
presume, to the rest of the worldly he will
call on that gallant partizan soldier, Col Kin
ney, at Corpus Christi, he will show him
that his Arabia Deserto is in point of fact an
.4rabia Fekr. If the Colonel can find any
natural boundary, short of the Rio Grande, he
will be greater traveller than the Baron
Munchausen. Every man Of sense in this
country knows that that river can be our only
boundary, and, what is far more important,
we will have none other.
"Coonel Benton's Bill is far more inluri-
Gus to US in another particular. His scheme
of putting two free States on the back of
slave one, is an hmine, totally and irrevocabIy
lnadmisslble. We are not conquered peo-
pIe-and. like Poland, must submit to have
our territory partltloned out, that tribute
may be paid to that Internal spirit Of fanati-
cism, which is fast running your country, and
which, by such an lll-assorted medly of States,
would fast ruin ours. We come into the I'm
ion as one State in the full integrity of our
sovereignty, or not at all-with the nndispu-
ted and indisputable power hereafter Of deci-
ding on what conditions, we will consent TO a
cesslon of our territory, for the formation of
other States.
elf your Congress should adjourn without
annexing US to your Union, and Mr.. Polk or.
ganlZe his Cabinet on an anti-annexation ba-
sis, by inviting into it individuals opposed to
the great issue on which he alone owes his
own election, we shall consider he has surren.
dered to the antl-annexation flank Of the De-
mocracy. and will take our measures accord
lngly. These measures will not be bv court
ing an alliance with England, on a basis
which shall cnt US off from all sympathy with
the Southern States, but by submitting at
once to Mexico the alternative of an honora-
BILE peace-or the invasion and conquest of ali
the Northern and Eastern provinces of new
Mexico. Stung into intolerable indignation.
that our Union has been prevented by the Abb
olitionists" and those aspirants who hope to
keep US apart, we know that the youth of the
heroic South will rush with the impetuosity
OF the mountain torrent to our aid, and three
hundred miles West of the Rio Grande, we
will IN six months. dictate the terms of an
honorable peace, with an immense accession
to our territory.
$50 far from discouraging the Southern