Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1855-11-10
BENTON'S HISTORY.
CONCLUDED FROM FIRST PAGE.

the point of the truth of the Maryland citizens
private letter-but to argue quite off upon a
new text. 1t so happened that Lord Aber-
deen,-after the fullest contradiction of the
imputed design, and the strongest assurances
of non-interference with any slavery policy Ell
Their of the United States Oh. of TeXas,-dld
net stop there but, like many able men who
are not fully aware of the virtue OF stopping
when they are done, went on to add something
more, of no necessary connection or practical
application to the subjcct-a mere general
abstract declaration on the subject of slavery,
on which Mr. Calhoun took position, and erect
ed a superstructure of alarm which did more
embarrass the opponents of the treaty and to
iaAame the country, than all other matters put
together. This cause for this new alarm was
found in the superauous declaration, " IHat
Great Britain desired and is constantly etcrting
herself to procure the general abOlition Of SfGrcry
throughout the acortd." This general d~eclara-
ton, althouh preceded and followed by %relterat-
ed assurances of non-interference with slavery
in the United States, and no desire for any
dominant influence in Texas, were seized upon
Us an open avowal of a design to abolish sla-
very everywhere. These assurances were all
disregardcd. Our Secretary established him
Sell UPON liC WIZ w. ~ - 49,
qualifications and denials. lie saw in them
the means of making to a northern man Mr..
Van Buren, Just as ~perilous the support as the
opposition of immediate annexation. So, max
ing the declaration of Lord Aberdeen the text
of a most elaborate reply, he took up the oppo-
site ground Support and propagation of sla-
ery)arguing it generally in relation to the
world and specially in relation to the United
S4.4o- II Ill.,. 81 ,1,,;or. +ho opnoxntion
so fully upon that ground that all its supper
tiers must be committed to it. Here was a new
turn, induced by Mr.. Blair's article in the
Globe. and by which the support of the treaty
would be as obnoxious in the North as Oppo-
sition to it would be in the South.
1t must have been a strange despatch for a
British Minister to receive-an argument in
favor of slavery acknowledgements by
comparative statements taken from the United
States census, between the numbers of deaf,
dumb, blind, idiotic, insane, criminal and pau
pers among the free and the slave negroes
showing a large disproportion against the free
negroes and thence dcducing a conclusion in
favor of slavery. 1t was a strange diplomatic
despatch, and incomprehensible except with a
knowledge of the circumStanceSin which it was
was written. But it was not written for Lord
1tiCIbtFil, Iupu5l w " num-, SbilNt hS'
sent to those for whom it was intended long
before he saw it. The use that was made of
it showed for whom it was written. Two days
after its date, aud before it had commenced its
maritime voyage to London, it was in the
American Senatc-SGut il with the treaty,
with the negotiation Of which it had no con
n~ection, being written a week after its sigma
ture, and after the time that the treaty would
1o-o I,cn .,.k =, I,1 - ,,t l,a, Gov +hn -
pearance of the articles (supposed to speak
Mr.. Van Buren's sentiments in the GL0be.
1t was no embarrassment to Mr.. Van Buren,,
whose letter III answer to TIE in~tcrrogatorics
had been written, and was soon after publish
ed. 1t was an embarrassment to Others. 1t
made the annexation a sectional and a slavery
question, and insured the rejection of the trca-
ty. 1t disguised northern senators and that
was one of the objects with which it had been
written. For the whole annexation business
had been conducted with a double aspect
one looking to the Presidency, the other to
disunion and the alternative, to the further
ance of which the rejection Of the treaty by
northern votes was an auxiliary step.
And while the whole negotiation bore that
for one of its aspects from the beginning, this
er-post factO despatch, written after the treaty
WAS SlSlcu, dHu gwen W llC = llt lCuIl punt
before it got to the British Secretary of State,
became the distinct revelation of what had
been before dimly Swallowed forth. All hope
of the Presidency from the Texas intrigue had
now failed-the alternative aspect had become
the absolute one and a separate republic,
consisting of Texas and some southern states,
had become the object. Neither the exposure
of this object, nor the history of the attempted
,r,o..A;-, ll.~. - a.. .lA -
rate chapter is required for each.
And this incident of the Maryland citizens
private letter from London, Lord Aberdeen's
contradiction, and the strange despatch of Mr..
Calhoun to him, are only mentioned here as
links in the chain of the Presidential intrigue,
and will be dismissed with the remark that the
Maryland citizen was afterwards found out,
and was discovered to be Il citizen better known
as an inhabitant of Washington than of Mary.
land and that the private letter was intend.
ed to be for public use, and paid for out of the
contingent fund OF the State Department ; and
the writer, a person whose name was the syonyn
of subscrviency to Mr.. Calhoun namely, Mr..
Duff Green. All this was afterwards brought
out under Il call from the United States Sen.
ate, moved by the writer of this View, who
had been put upon the track by some really
private information ; and when the Presiden,
tial Message was read in the Senate, disc.os-
ing all these facts, he used an express on taken
from a Spanish proverb which had some cur.
rency at the time 8" AT lust The dcrH is puHed
from Under the UaRtet.r
The time was approaching for the meeting
of the democratic Presidential convention. post
poned by collision with the Wings, (thc man
ayers in each party from the month of De
cember to the month Of May--the 21th day
of it. 1t was now May, and every sign was
not only suspicious to Mr.. Van Buren,, but
ominous to his opponents. The delegates al
most universally remained under instructions
to support him. General jackson, seeing how
his letter to Mr.. Brown had been used, though