Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1862-07-31
THE SPIRIT OF CONQUEST AN
ALLY OF DISUNlON,

inally put down, and the Union re-estaollsh-
ID upon firm basis, the uneasy desire to
augment our territories which has character
zed our people will find no place in the
policy. One OF the prominent
means made use of by the disunionists to at
once strengthen themselves and weaken the |
Union, has been that Of forced and unnatu-
raj territorial expansion. We do not now
refer to the acquisition of either the louisiana
Territory or of Florida. These acquisitions
were founded IN national necessity, and
though Jefferson had grave doubts Of the
Constitutional power of the government to
purchase Louisiana, the purchase was made,
and has ever been imputed to Mr.. Jefferson
az wise piece of craftsmanship. 1t gave
us the control of the great internal highway
to the sea, which is a natural bond of union
between the northwest and the guilt States
while the acquisition of Florida was necessary
to the security of our commerce in the Gulf
of Mexico. These acquisitions were made
before dsunion had lifted its ugly head.
But, in the acquisition of Texas the case
was wholly different, as we'll as the motive
which impelled to it. 1t was in no sense
national necessity, but on the contrary a ma
tional curse. The tree of annexation which
was then planted, in national pomp and pride,
with shouts of exultation, is now bearing the
accursed fruit of civil war with its sickening
horrors of devastation and bloodshed, car
rying sorrow and anguish and desolation to
every heart and hearthstone In the land
Blessed with unexampled peace and prosper
ity, possessing millions of acres of rich virgin
soil, under genial climate, which only await
ed the coming of the husbandman to cause it
to bloom and blossom as the rose," the ma
ton was forced into the annexation scheme
by the willy appeals of Southern disunionists,
for the openly avowed and only object, as
declared by Mr.. Calhoun, and Mr.. Upsher,
of strengthening the barbarous system of
slavery, which, if not then, is now seen, to be
mortal foe to Republican institutions, and
to the Union of our fathers. The annexa-
ton of Texas while she was yet in the rela-
ton of belligerency to Mexico, involved us
in an expensive war, and although the acqui-
sition of vast amount of territory was the
result, it brought sectional discord and strife
into the family Of States. True, the "golden
gate of the Pacific was thereby opened to
our commerce, and the loyal State of Cali
fornia was added to the Union, advantages
however which must turn to ashes in our
grasp with the permanent disruption of the
Union, and advantages which will hardly
compensate for the calamities of the civil war
which has been entailed.
As was forseen, the acquisition of Mexican
territory re-lnaugurated the fearful agitation
Of the slavery question. The warning voices
of Clay, Webster. Adams, Mangum, and
hosts of other patriotic statesmen, were raised
in vain The great South Carolina nulllfer
and disunionist touched with his potent wand
the national love of territorial expansion,
and the appeal to our vanity was too strong
for our virtue to resist.
We have only too conclusive evidence that
the annexation of Texas was part and parcel
of the scheme of the disunionists of the South
to divide the States. 1t was Matched by
South Carolina statesmen and adhered to
with pertinacity worthy of better cause
No considerations touching the peace and
harmony of the Union were sufficient to stay
their hands. The dream of an ultimate
Southern Empire, with slavery as its chic
corner stone was not abandoned with the fail
ure Of notification in 1880. The first pre-
text for disunion was the tariff. Jackson
prophetically said, before the annexation o
Texas, that the second would be slavery
He saw that was the lever which the arch
leader John G. Calhoun, would use with th,
most effect, and Calhoun himself did not fail t,
see it also. Hence, this bold, bad man pro
claimed to the world, and in defiance of it
moral sentiment, that the acquisition of Tex
as was sought, not as national, but as sec
tional necessity. The leaders of the move
ment were all shareholders, and it was t
conserve slavery and add to its politica
strength, that Texas, by gross infracton o
the Constitution, and with suicidal haste, wa
brought into the Union, only to prove treach
erous thereto-only to raise her fratricida
hand against it for its overthrow and destruc
! ton
This was the end which Calhoun pursued
Does any one believe he aimed at an
other end? Ever since 1880, he until hi
death, and his fellow disunionists, since, hav
> been plotting for the overthrow of the Union