New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-01-26
THE TEXAS CREDITORS BILL.
conespondepce fThe N. Y. Tribune.
WASHINGTON, Monday, Jan. p, 1855

conespcndencs ofThe N. Y. Tribune.
WASHINGTON, Monday, Jan %, 1855.
Notice was given in the House. to-day, of a
resolution to be offered next Monday, to nix day
for Me consideration of the bill to bestow gra
tuhy Of some $1,000, 900 upon certain persons
claiming TO be the creditors of Texas.
The bill is presented under suspicious circum-
stances, from the fact that it has already passed
the Senate by large majority. That same body
ratified the Gadsden Treaty, and passed the Ne
brsska bill by decisive votes Its prompt sup
mort of this extra three millions for Texas scrip
holders will, necessarily, prejudice the measure,
both with the House aud with the country.
1t was expressly stipulated, both In President
Tylers Treaty with Texas, and in the Joint Reso-
lutions of Congress under which Texas became
member of our Union, that she should retain her
public domain and pay her own debts. She o.
fyed MS her public domain If are moad assume her
debts, bat that offer tre defined She retained her
public lands, and we confirmed her title and boun-
daries by a war with Mexico, which cost us one
hundred millions. Subsequently we gave her ten
millions outright, under the pretense of getting
her release ON, small strip on her extreme north,
hy no possibility worth onetwentieth part OF that
sim and 10 which her title was doubtful and at
tenuated in the extreme We are now asked to
nav three millions more, for the benefit OF certain
scriphoders.
Ii is said that the CustOmI1ouse revenues OF
Texas were pledged to certain OF her creditors,
before her annexation to the Union, and that, as
by the net of annexation those revenues were
transferred 10 the Federal Government, the duty
of providing for those creditors was transferred to
the same Government. All this proceeds upon
the surposition that before the annexation, those
creditors had species of lien or mortgage upon
those revenues. This is all mistake lheir
and md frlfb nf
| Texas. The appropriation of the Custom House
revenues TO particular purpose, was mere hs-
cal arrangement of Texas and liable 10 BE altered
| bv her. as necessity change OF policy might
| dictate In no ineligible sense, either In law
or in fact, did it constitute lien or
mortgage. The security of the creditors OF Tex,
as one and all rested solely in her good faith and
| in her ability The first has not been diminished,
| and the second has been vastly augmented by an
pcxaton. In return for our Custom House reVe-
nues amounting at the time Of annexation TO not
more thsn two hundred thousand dollars. we have
relieved her of military expenditures vastly greater
| in smouut. Her lands have been made valuable,
and she has now in her own treasury and here
ten millions Of bonds. which she has received from
u. substantially as a gratuty As, then, we nave
| taken none of her resources without paying al
enormous equivalent. by what principle are we
now invoked to pay debts which we expressly re-
| fused 10 assume -,
Who asks us to pay these extra three millions
Not Texas, for she denies that II is due Aounu
antly able as she undoubtedly is, rich IN her owl
right, and enriched by our munihcence, to pay al
she owes, she only claims the recognized pre-
rocatiye ofsovereignty to fix for herself the extent
Of her liabilities, subject only to her moral re'Pen
sibility, to the opinion of mankind; To vote THU
| extra three millions q an insult TO Texas because
it is an impeachment OF her justice, although
strange as it may seem, her own delegation II
Congress seems ready to infct the disgrace upol
her. These gentlemen should pause. II tho..
claims are really due TO the full extent as claimed
why does not Texas discharge them from her owl
OVERLOOKING treasury Does it become the Sena
tors and Representatives of Texas to give vote
which assume that Texas 10 swindling her cred
itors, and swinding them 80 fagrastly - to en
title them to "a appeal to the charity Of Congress
| ALOOKER-ON