Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1848-02-10
SPEECH
SEN ATOis HOUSTON.

y
q The following spescl,, delivered By
Geo. l1oUsToN-(,he Hero Of San
Jacinto and founder Of the State Of
Texas, and "A Statesman who fu hi TO
be acquainted with all The relations
existin. between Texas ana Mexico,
,hei. boundaries. possessions, 81. -
at the great War Meeting recently
held in The city Of New York, will for
ever silence the Wing cIamor in favor
OF The Mexican claim TO territory this
side of the Rio Gran'!t. !, is in every
respect an Interesting and Instructive
speech, which deserves a free circula-
ton among The people of the Union,
and will be read with delight By the
patrons of the Republican and Ar
gu>:"-Bah. Rep.
Fellow citizens of the Democracy of
New York: For the frs, time in my
life ! am here presented before an as
semb! . which is the most enboltlening
which ever saw or ever heard Of, or
ever spa culated upon seeing and hear
ing. have heart much Of: the De-
mocracy Of New York. know their
zeal, their ardor, flieir patriotism, and
T their fidelity to the principles Of liber-
" and the Constitution. But now
see and have learned that they are a
mighty peope-mighty,I mean 10 say,
in the dignity and magnitude Of those
feelings which Influence great ptop'e,
and which make the man ever ready
to visdicate his rights, and sns-
tain and supper, the constituted au-
;horities Of his country. loud aD-
plause.) What is the subject and
object of this meeting? Its not, fell
iow-ci,izenS, meeting called to &c.
Hibernate upon war which We are a
bout TO go into. No; but is concern
ing a war in With we are already en-
gaged-which we are now in The
midst Of which, I may rather say,
we have already disposed of by the
gallantry of our troops, and the wis.
dom of our statesmen. We should
not be properly able 10 appreciate The
truth and Justice Of our conjilior, and
of the present war, if we did not re-
vert TO the causes of this war, and the
position in which we were placed, al
the time OF lis commencement in rela-
ton to the civilized world. ! grant
you, fellow citizens, il is true in re-
ferrng to those speeches, Of which We
hear SO much in respect TO this war,
that in part, i; has grown up ont of the
annexation Of Texas Blu; in that an
nexa'ion the best Of the bargain was
yours, and you ought TO be satisfied.
say the best of 1t was yours, not SO
much in the material you got-,hough,
by the by: that was not bad: but in
the extent and richness of soil, in the
variety and beauty Of climate, and in
the variety of these institutions We
possessed. We had nothing to learn
of these institutions and principles in
this annexation; we itnbibed them all
with. orr mothers milk, we returned to
you, chastened, it is true, in he school
ofexperence, and taught by the bitter
lessons Of adversely. The great pol
iticians Of this day have now put them
selves in opposition to this war, end
yet they were willing at its commence
snent to embark in It. They then said
it was the duty ofihe President to fix
the boundary Of tie newly acquired
country, and now they deny that her
boundary was tina: which she possess
ed before the annexation was made. y
That boundary, however, fyllow-ei'i-
zens, which they now deny 20 Texas,
was hers, and belonged to her by RICH,
of conquest. We gained ii not BY re-
belllous force or power. We never
rebelied against Mexico; out she, it
was, who first violated our cons,itu-
ton, subvertea oar laws, subjected Us
to the most cruel despotisa, and drove
us, by her injustice, tyranny, and OPP
preston, TO indicate our rights, which
were the common rights of freemen.
The object of Mexico, in her sys-
TEN of despoiism and oppression, .ex-
efcised against as, was, if possible, TO
sween,ns from the soil, to annihilate
the Whole race of as, and not to suffer
one Of the Saxon blood to leave the
impress 9TH foot upon the soil which
we inhabited. Wha. did we dc? We
resisted this oppressior,. we asserted
our lawful tights, we established for
ourselves a provisional government,
and we continued on ia the hope that /
a,better state-of things, better gov
eminent, would he createdin Mexico: !
that the other States would, like oer.
selves, assert their rights under the
Constitution, which had been so shame
fully violated. We continued hoping
that, The, Iexicans themselves would
rally to support Il, and redeem the
country from despotism, violence and