544
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1847
effects; and it is effects that .we should regard. Mexico is not insensible to the opinions of this body. For the purpose of show- ing the influence the debates here have upon them-not only upon the political men of that country, but upon the community at large-he would read an extract from a letter written at the National Palace of Mexico in the month of September, 1843, by Mr. Bocanegra to Mr. Thompson, then our Minister resident there. He says : "The undersigned hopes, with good reasons from the principles of justice which ought to preside over the deliberations of the Congress of the United States, that it will never listen to sug- gestions, nor to private interests, detrimental to the law of nations and international law; but as it may happen that ambition and delusion may prevail over public propriety, that personal views may triumph over.sane and just ideas, and that the vigorous reasoning of Mr. John Quincy Adams and his co-laborers may be ineffectual, how can it be considered strange and out of the way that Mexico, under such a supposition, should announce that she will regard the annexation of Texas as an act of declaration of war?" He had read this for the purpose of showing, that whatever advocacy Mexico may receive on this floor, or in our councils, either National or State, it would have no beneficial result on this country. When the declaration of war was made by Congress, it was almost as the action of one man. He had hoped to see the una- nimity preserved which was manifested on that occasion. That unanimity delighted his heart. He felt that we were then united to redress the wrongs of the United States, and to chastise Mexico into a determination to recompense us for the wrongs done to us, by holding her territory until she shall reimburse us that which is due, and the expenses of the war. And as to the subject of slavery, which had been brought into this discussion, for one, he had to say, that he anticipated nothing but-evil from thii'premature discussion on that subject. It was not a question which necessarily grew out of the war, or the general policy of the war. He regarded it as a calamity under which the nation labored; but it was not brought on by our- selves, but by our ancestor~. · He admitted that it was a question which must be some day met, but he trusted the intelligence of this nation would control
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