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WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1851
They were powerless, for the sympathies of the people were not with them. Of the disunionists in Texas, or those who opposed the accept- ance of the ten million proposition, General Houston made equally as hasty work. He met their arguments triumphantly, and expressed his surprise that there was any opposition to a proposition so immensely advantageous to Texas. He alluded to the proposition that we once made to England, to give her five millions of dollars to secure a recognition of our independence by Mexico. There appeared to be no opposition to that measure. At another time Texas made overtures to the United States, for annexation. She was willing to surrender all her public domain on condition that that government would annex her, and assume the payment of her debt. There was no opposition heard to that proposition. But we had now made an infinitely better bar- gain-we were in an infinitely better position than we would have been, had either of the other propositions been successful. We had been annexed-we had ten millions of dollars, and we still had a vast public domain of one hundred millions of acres! What more could we desire? Had not everything conspired to render us eminently prosperous and happy as a people? And all this had been acquired without a single sacrifice of principle or honor on our part, and without jeopardizing, in the least, the interests of ur sister States of the South. On the contrary, Texas while regardful of her own interests, gave peace to the country. It was upon the acceptance of the proposition made to her, that the whole system of compromise turned. She had it in her power, by rejecting that offer, to open afresh the fearful agitation of the slavery question between the North and South. She acted as became her, conscious of her duty to herself and the Union. It was urged, that Texas in accepting the ten millions proposition would devote a portion of her territory to freesoil. This, so far from being the case, had the effect to take off the slavery restric- tion that already applied to a large portion of her territory. By the joint resolutions of annexation, the Missouri line of 36.30 was extended through Texas. No State could have been admitted above that line as a Slave State. That restriction is now removed and New Mexico can come in as a Slave State, if the people desire to do so; nor is there anything now to prevent the slave-
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