WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1846
487
the ~ircumstances which, in his judgment, made the right of the President to do so extremely plain. He did not know that he should be able to do entire justice to the details of the case in stating the circumstances which had preceded the annexatio~ of Texas to the Union, and the conditions which had been proposed to her as the basis of that annexation. It was certainly true that the overture had originated with the United States. The Government had the option of proposing annexation or not: she chose to make the proposal, and Texas had accepted it. Unless the conditions appeared to her very favor- able, it was not to be presumed that she would have acceded to them. And could any one believe, that if she had understood that no provision was to be made for her naval officers, she would ever have accepted a proposition which was in its very nature unjust and degrading to them? He presumed no gentleman here would entertain such a thought for a moment. If then, she had united herself with the Republic of the North on certain conditions and guarantees, (among which she of course understood the admis- sion of her navy to be one,) was not this Government bound in honor and in good faith most strictly to fulfil them? There was no Senator here from '.Texas who came supplicating for the munificence of this Government. They were here to demand what they cl~imed to be the rights of Texas, according to the stipula- tions of the Government. If they were begging here for mere grace and favor, they might not perhaps expect to receive much in that relation; but when they came and made a direct appeal for rights, the ground was changed. Such was the attitude of himself and his colleagues on this occasion: they were claimants, not suppliants. Every promise, every pledge which one nation could extend to another, was made to Texas to induce her to become a part of this republic. On those promises and on the faith of those pledges she had come, and now it remained for the United States to redeem her plighted faith by giving Texas what she was justly entitled to. That she demanded, and she asked nothing more. By this bill it would be left discretionary with the President whether he should incorporate the navy of Texas into that of the United States or not. And was it to be supposed that he would not do so unless Texas had meritorious claims, and unless the individuals to be admitted as officers were worthy of being received? It would be conceding but little to Texas to do this: it would be granting her no favor, but simply a small portion of the justice to which she was entitled. Had Texas, after stipu- lating with the United States certain conditions on which she
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