WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1850
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had been represented in the consultation of Texas. Mexico never asserted any title adverse to that of Texas to that portion of territory. They made occasional incursions. The last incursion or invasion that was made by either party was by the army of Texas, when they passed the Rio Grande and took Guerrero and some other places. But Texas has never sent a hostile army across that boundary, never made any invasion since 1843. 1 Congressional Globe, Apvendix, XXII, Part 2, pp. 1198-1199. · ~This was Colonel S. W. Jordan. For accounts of this episode see H. H. Bancroft, North, Mexican States and Texas, II, 327-328, 331; W. C. Binkley, The Expansionist Movement in Texas, etc., 47-49; J. W. Schmitz, Texa1i Statecraft, 103. EXPLAINING HIS VOTE FOR THE ADMISSION OF CALIFORNIA, AUGUST 13, 1850 1 It is with great reluctance, Mr. President, that I rise to occupy one moment of the attention of the Senate, but for the last many months I have sat and listened to the debates upon this and other kindred subjects. I have not participated in them, for the reason I hoped, and doubted not that gentlemen better quali- fied than myself would manage the discussion, and give such a direction to the measures of this body as would be most becoming. I have not been insensible to the discussions which have been hypothetically stated and positively charged upon those who might think proper to vote for the California Bill. I have voted for that bill, and I have also voted for another which has been denounced as unfriendly to the South. And in casting my vote for the other measure, I believe that I have been actuated by feelings as purely southern as any gentleman in this body; and though my conception of what is beneficial to the South may not be right, I nevertheless insist that my motives are as pure as those of any gentleman. What consideration, sir, could influence me to depart from a policy calculated to advance the interests of the South? What have been my connections with the South, and what have been my course and manner of life? So far as I can understand it, and the interests of the South, it has never been adverse to them for one moment. Gentlemen have gratuitously come forward as the champions of the interests of that State which I have the honor in part to represent here. They have denounced the course which I have pursued. Whether the motives by which I was actuated were directly impugned or not, is not material.
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