The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1847-01-14

: Texas Che says was included in the Louis
lana grant Well, suppose that true-wha
: then Why it has nothing to do with tn
question. If Texas once belonged to the Uni
$ ted States, it was coded to Spain, and henc
J we have no claim to it on that account. Thei
the President speaks of his treaty with SAINT
J Anna. | shall not, Mr.. Chairman dwell up
on the subject. My first remark is, that Their,
; was no treaty made with Santa Anna-noth
ing that deserves the name of treaty. In tht
second place, he was prisoner, and not com
petent to treat, and third, if treaty had beer
made and ratified, that treaty had been vic
lated by Texas herself; for one of the princi
pal reasons why Santa Anna was induced t.
enter into that treaty, arrangement, Or what
ever it may be called, was, that he should h5
liberated and sent uAd5r-the protection Of
Texas to Vera Cruz He did embark for
that city, but the populace demanded his de-
tention, and he was taken from the vessel; he
was brought back into Texas and kept pris-
oneP in close confinement; and he himself
makes this charge against the Texan Gov
ernment, and the President of Texas admits
1t to be true, and regrets the occurrence. So
that, if treaty had been entered into, the
violation of treaty by Texas is good reason
why it should be of no binding force But
there never was a treaty there was arrange
ment, no doubt between Gen. Houston and
Santa Anna; there was nothing that deserves
the name Of treaty, nothing that was ever
ratified by the Mexican government.
But the President says that the Texan
Congress, in 1886, when fixing their bounda-
ries, declared that the Rio Grande, from its
mouth to its source, was their western boun-
dairy And he spreads it before the country
and before the world, as an argument to JUS
tity us in our claim to the Rio Grande. Now,
Mr. Chairman, if the President of the United
States, lawyer in his own country, should be
called upon by one Of his own clients, and
asked whether he could prosecute claim sue
ccssiully against neighbor to a portion of
land, and at the same time should inform him
that he had no other title 10 it than the dec
laration of the individual from whom he had
received his quit claim deed, do you suppose
he could hesitate single moment in telling
him he had no cause whatever? do not be-
lieve there is pettifogger in the country
who would hesitate TO declare that there was
no foundation for the claim. And still the
President of the United States, the head Of
great nation, in a public document, spread
before the country and the world as a justi-
fcation Of an act Of war; brings forward that
consideration as evidence that the country to
the Rio Grande was ours Who does not
blush for the honor of his country under cir
cumstancrs like these
But the President says this was claimed by
Texas-that Texas declared the Rio Grande
to be her western boundary. Well, Mexico
declared the Sabine to be her eastern boun-
Diary. And what does that prove AS much
in one case as in the other. The declaration
of Mexico is as conclusive as that of Texas
neither of them deserve one moments consd-
Grafton; and the President himself, by adj
hitting that New Mexico was a department
of Mexico, and Santa Fe its capital, and that
it was conquered by our arms, virtually ad- |
mits that this argument is deserving Of no
He knows that boundaries |
can be established only by treaty or by the
sword, and that neither OF these can be aIleg- |
ed in favor OF the claim of Texas to the Rio
Grande.
But there is another argument Of the Pres |
idcnt which deserves consideration and it is
this: Texas, says he, had extended her au !
thority beyond the Nueccs, and, to sum up all
his declarations, because they all fall under
the same general principle, they amount to |
this Texas had extended her jurisdiction be-
yond the Nueces; she had a custom house |
at Corpus Christi, on the immediate bank Of |
that river the people living on that river, in |
the immediate valley Of the Nueces, had been |
in the Texan Congress, and had |
assened to annexation to the United States
the United States, by act Of her Congress, had |
established a custom house at Corpus Christi
alt these things were true just over the river,
on the west bank, in the immediate valley Of
the river and Observation-Disclosures what p
Therefore we had title to the country, some
one hundred or hundred and fifty miles fur
Their, to the Rio Grande, where not one of
these declarations will hold good Beyond
the Nuecas, and therefore to the Rio Grandc
Now, what kind of logic is this?
Why, MIR Chairman, suppose that question
had arisen before the Virginia portion of this
District had been recorded, involving the
boundary of the District, and it could be prov
ed that the district extended south of the Po-
tomac that Alexandria and jackson city
we're subject to the laws of the District; and
from this it should be inferred that the dis
trict extended to the Mississippi, what would
be thought of such an argument? 1t would
be treated with deserved ridicule. But this
S the logic of the message. Beyond the Po-
,omac, and therefore to the Mississippi and
ust as sound as beyond the Nueces, and there
ore to the Rio Grande. Beyond the NucceS,
md therefore to the Rio Grande
Who does not see the utter absurdity of
such reasoning? And yet this is all that there
S in the Presidents boosted argument He
states several facts, which he knows will APP
ply to Corpus Christi and narrow strip of
and on the West banl, of the Nueces, and to
his alone and then, because they are beyond
he Nueces, he would have us believe that the
same is true over the whole country to the
Rio Grande, which every one knows is not
he fact And yet, by this artful and decep-
i've statement, the executive attempts to hide
his own misconduct, to cover up his gross act
IF usurpaton. I speak plainly on this sub,
ect for the occasion demands it, and the cry
IF traitor shall not deter me.
| have now examined all the arguments adj
luced by the executive to prove our title to