The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-12-25


known that the trainers Of this California con-
stitution meant to live under it themselves
Even this little boon is denied US. We all know
that the men. who have gone to California are
mere sojouruers there; they mean to stay little
while and then return to their homes in other
parts of the world. Hundreds aud thousands
have already left the country, and others will
follow their example. Not one-half of the per
sons who aided in the formation of the so-caed
constitution of California are there now; and
in year or two more the population will have
undergone an entire revolution sas&
We have heard that there were many humid
red thousand people in California. The num-
Der in the country at the time the constitution
was framed has been estimated at two hundred
thousand or more, and this has been constantly
urged in excuse for their assumption Of the right
to make constitution and set up an indepen-
dent State government.
When asked by what authority a few inter-
lopers from abroad undertook to snatch from
the rghtful owners the rich gold mines on the
Pacific, and to appropriate to free soil all that
vast territory lying between the thirty second
and forty-second degrees Of north lntitude--em-
bracing an area larger than the States OF Loa-
isana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama
we have been told they were great and grow
ing people, that there were u quarter OF mil
lion of inhabitants in the country, and hundreds
of thousands on their way there Let us en-
anime the truth Of these bold assertions. II
there is any country on earth where there are
no women and children, where the whole popu-
lation consists of full grown men, that country
is California. We all know that the emigration
has been confined to the adult male population,
who have gone on visit OF observation leay-
ING their families and friends behind, and intend
| oil knnNu Mt N
of voting there was no restriction; every male
inhabtant over the age of twenty years was
allowed to vote, and on the important question
of adopting n State constitution, the pol-books
showed less than thirteen thousand voters. IL
there was quarter OF million people in the
country, how shall we account for this meagre
vote! The fact is, this is but another link in
the great Chain Of deception and fraud by which
we have been denied our rights in the country
by which we and our posterity have been
cheated out of the most valuable property on
earth-by which we have been reduced to the
sad alternative Of submitting - the most hui
initiating deprivation OF our rights, or driven
to severance OF the bonds WHICH unite US to
the North.
If the gross injustice, the deep injury and
wrong which we are called upon to suffer, had
ceased with the consummation of this California
fraud, we might have bent our heads in huma-
ton and in sorrow, and without daring to com
plain of the tyranny Of our oppressors, have
borne it in silence. But it did not stop here
The cup of our degradation was not quite full
to overhowing; and it was determined to wresl
from the saveholding State of Texas, one-third
of her rightful territory. In the preparation OF
this fraud the North had two powerful allies
and both, | am panied to say, furnished by the
South One was the ten millions Of dollars
taken from n common treasury. and the Other
the vote of one-half the Southern delegation II
Congress.
hold in my hand map of Texas. 1t speaks
more eloquenty in defence Of Texas than the
ablest orator has ever yet spoken. Here onthi:
map is the boundary of Texas, as marked frs
by her sword and then made legible by the &C
of her legislature in December, 1886. See, i
extends from the mouth Of the Rio Grande tt
the source of that river, and it reachoa to thu
AID degree of north latitude. Here, too, il
marked on this map the Contemporaries Line,
and the line of Adjustment" rs laid down in the
final act Of ACKNOWLEDGMENT commonly known
as Pearce's bill. Keep these lines in you
memory, fellow-citizens, while we recur for ont
moment to the history Of the remuneration o
, Texas to the United States.
5 What is that history | need not relate tn
A whole of it, | need not say how like an arden
; lover we woocd and won this fair daughter o
= the Saxon blood Texas was young, blooming
+ and independent; we wooed her as the love
J wooes his mistress. She fell into our arms
and with rapturous hearts we took her for bet
, ter or for worse. Fathers Clay and Van BureT
forbade the banns; but the people cried, will
n loud voice, "let the marriage go on" 1t die
60 on; Texas merged her separate independence
, into that of the United States, and here in my
hands is the marriage contract. Here is tn,
t treaty, here the resolution of annexation. II
| will be seen that we took her just as she was
l Just as she presented herself. We took tina
4 Texas which lay east Of the Rio Grande, an
all along that river from its mouth to its source
: and South of the AID parallel of latitude north
t We took the Texas which was defined by thu
act Of December, 1896 we took the Texa
marked on this map hold 1t up before you. |
is portrait Of the fair damse she was, before
her limbs were amputated by the Northern doc
tors, aided by surgeons Clay, Pearce, Foote ant
others from the South.
| Turn to the resolutions of annexation.
hold them here without pausing to read then
will state what no man can deny. They ex
pressly stipulate, that all that part of Texas y
ing south Of the parallel of 36 degrees and &c
minutes north latitude, shall remain slave terri
tory and all north shall be free territory after
its admission into the Union as States With
this written agreement between the high con
tracing parties, how can any man come forward
and say that Texas never extended to the par:
allel of SO! degrees! How dare any man pre-
tend that Texas did not extend north Of that
line and up to 40 degrees! will not insult
your understanding by debating so palpable q
proposition before you. 1t is as clear as the sur
in yonder heavens, that at the period Of annexa
ton, the whole country supposed we were ac'
curing all the territory east of the Rio Grande
and up to AZ degrees. The only party on earth
who expressed doubt on this point, was Mexi.
CO, and for acting on her expressed doubts, we
went to war with her, all parties in this country
at least uniting in the war and when we had
whipped her, and obtained not only her recog
milton of the Texas boundary, but a cession Of
New Mexico and California, into the bargain
what do we hear! Why, that Texas never
owned one foot of territory north of 36t de-
grees. Though we agreed that all of Texas
south of SO! should be slave territory, and al