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Page 36
Mr. Calhoun. Will the honorable Senator permit me to interrupt him for a
moment? Mr. Webster. Certainly.
Mr. Calhoun. I am very reluctant to interrupt the honorable gentleman;
but, upon a point of so much importance, I deem it right to put myself
_rectus in curia_. I did not put it upon the ground assumed by the
Senator. I put it upon this ground; that Great Britain had announced to
this country, in so many words, that her object was to abolish slavery
in Texas, and, through Texas, to accomplish the abolition of slavery
in the United States and the world. The ground I put it on was, that it
would make an exposed frontier, and, if Great Britain succeeded in
her object, it would be impossible that that frontier could be secured
against the aggressions of the Abolitionists; and that this Government
was bound, under the guaranties of the Constitution, to protect us
against such a state of things.
Mr. Webster. That comes, I suppose, Sir, to exactly the same thing. It
was, that Texas must be obtained for the security of the slave interest
of the South.
Mr. Calhoun. Another view is very distinctly given.
Mr. Webster. That was the object set forth in the correspondence of a
worthy gentleman not now living, who preceded the honorable member from
South Carolina in the Department of State. There repose on the files
of the Department, as I have occasion to know, strong letters from Mr.
Upshur to the United States Minister in England, and I believe there are
some to the same Minister from the honorable Senator himself, asserting
to this effect the sentiments of this government; namely, that Great
Britain was expected not to interfere to take Texas out of the hands
of its then existing government and make it a free country. But my
argument, my suggestion, is this: that those gentlemen who composed the
Northern Democracy when Texas was brought into the Union saw clearly
that it was brought in as a slave country, and brought in for the
purpose of being maintained as slave territory, to the Greek Kalends.
I rather think the honorable gentleman who was then Secretary of State
might, in some of his correspondence with Mr. Murphy, have suggested
that it was not expedient to say too much about this object, lest it
should create some alarm. At any rate, Mr. Murphy wrote to him that
England was anxious to get rid of the constitution of Texas, because it
was a constitution establishing slavery; and that what the United
States had to do was to aid the people of Texas in upholding their
constitution; but that nothing should be said which should offend the
fanatical men of the North. But, Sir, the honorable member did avow this
object himself, openly, boldly, and manfully; he did not disguise his
conduct or his motives.
Mr. Calhoun. Never, never.
Mr. Webster. What he means he is very apt to say.
Mr. Calhoun. Always, always.
Mr. Webster. And I honor him for it.
This admission of Texas was in 1845. Then in 1847, _flagrante bello_
between the United States and Mexico, the proposition I have mentioned
was brought forward by my friend from Georgia, and the Northern
Democracy voted steadily against it. Their remedy was to apply to
the acquisitions, after they should come in, the Wilmot Proviso. What
follows? These two gentlemen, worthy and honorable and influential men
(and if they had not been they could not have carried the measure),
these two gentlemen, members of this body, brought in Texas, and by
their votes they also pre-vented the passage of the resolution of the
honorable member from Georgia, and then they went home and took the lead
in the Free Soil party. And there they stand, Sir! They leave us here,
bound in honor and conscience by the resolutions of annexation; they
leave us here, to take the odium of fulfilling the obligations in
favor of slavery which they voted us into, or else the greater odium of
violating those obligations, while they are at home making capital and
rousing speeches for free soil and no slavery. And therefore I say, Sir,
that there is not a chapter in our history, respecting public measures
and public men, more full of what would create surprise, and more full
of what does create, in my mind, extreme mortification, than that of the
conduct of the Northern Democracy on this subject.
Mr. President, sometimes when a man is found in a new relation to things
around him and to other men, he says the world has changed, and that he
is not changed. I believe, sir, that our self-respect leads us often
to make this declaration in regard to ourselves when it is not exactly
true. An individual is more apt to change, perhaps, than all the
world around him. But under the present circumstances, and under the
responsibility which I know I incur by what I am now stating here, I
feel at liberty to recur to the various expressions and statements,
made at various times, of my own opinions and resolutions respecting the
admission of Texas, and all that has followed.
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