197
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1850
but I hope it will not escape the consideration of the Senate, I move that the memorial be printed. 1 Cong·1·essional Globe, XXI, Part 2, 1st Sess., 31st Congress, 1849-1850, p. 1433, July 22, 1850. The proceedings were laid upon the table, and the question of printing was referred to the Committee on Printing.
CONCERNING THE TEXAS-NEW MEXICO BOUNDARY, JULY 25, 1850 1
, Mr. President, the situation of Texas, I confess, is very peculiar. She has not attempted to dictate to Congress any terms. She has not insisted upon any new rights. She has made no new pretensions. Whatever Texas now claims, she asserted anterior to annexation. Before that measure was adopted by the United States, Texas had for years asserted her boundary, and had so been recognized, not only by the United States, but also by other nations. When she became annexed, she intermitted no claim to any territory which she had avowed was hers. She has maintained that claim up to the present moment. No claim adverse to that of Texas was set up until very recently, and as late as the 19th of November last. No adverse claim whatever was set up by the United States, or any State or Territory. Mexico certainly did not set up any. She put in an adverse claim only against the independence of Texas, not against her boundary. Every manifestation that could be given of the territory of T~xas, according to her avowed limits, had been given by other nations. England had recognized her boundary to be west of the Nueces. It was recognized as a part of T'exas by an applica- tion of the British minister to permit British subjects, who had been colonized there to resume their settlements. They did not go to Mexico to obtain permission, but they came to Texas, and she assured them that all they had to do was to resume their former possession. War had driven them away. Sir, it is no arrogant pretension on the part of Texas to say that she insists upon her boundary. It is no encroachment upon the rights of the United States. She is where she has always been since her relations were first established with the United States. And there I presume she will remain as long as she is a State, unless she consents to some compromise by which she may relinquish some portion of her territory. It is not the wish of Texas to insist upon anything that is unreasonable or unjust in the maintenance of her rights. The honorable Senator from New
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