210
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1850
attachment? No one sympathizes with her. No one considers that her rights have been postponed, nor that the honor of the United States is compromitted in withholding from her the execution of a solemn pledge. Now, sir, these form the burden of complaint against this bill, as far as Texas is concerned, and I ask you if Texas has not more abundant reason for complaint than the people of New Mexico? And I ask you further, whether Texas is to have her rights pretermitted that others may be forced upon us as communities? I do not know, but I am inclined to believe that this honorable body is not in a disposition to accord to Texas anything that she is entitled to. I believe they have come to the conclusion that she has been so long accustomed to adversity, to buffeting and hard knocks, that she will not revolt against a little kicking. Has New Mexico, who is connected to us by a treaty, acquired a higher claim to the consideration of the Government of the United States than Texas did by a solemn compact? You cannot comprehend it. I have been reluctant to consume the time of the Senate by remarks which I might offer in relation to the claims of Texas. I do not expect, by entering into any investigation of her bound- ary, to enlighten any mind upon it, for I am sure my colleagues, not only here, but in the other House, have submitted arguments fraught with ability and intelligence, and conclusive, so far as I can judge; and if there had been any deficiency in them whatever, certainly the argument of the honorable Senator from Georgia [Mr. Berrien] must have convinced every mind, when he threw all the facts before it, and compared them and traced them to a conclusion as unerring as truth itself. Then, sir, if diversities of opinion exist in relation to our rights, it is proper to go back to the original compact between Texas and the United States, to learn what was the understanding of the parties at the time, and what was to be expected from the pledges made by the Government of the United States. Every inducement that ~ould be presented by human ingenuity, every persuasive argu- ment on the one hand, and every dissuasive on the other, was P.mployed by high authorities, and pledges were given which yet, J am sorry to say, remain unredeemed. I say, then, that New Mexico would have been incorporated into the Union if Texas had not been estopped in the exercise of a jurisdiction which she had always claimed, and to which no adverse pretension has been set up till recently, and that in an informal manner. She relies on her compact with the United States, and she wishes to rely
I
I
Powered by FlippingBook