vereign and independent, in whatever relates exclusively to the internal administration and government thereof, agreeably to the constitutive act which shall be promulgated by the general Congress." This constitutive act of the general Congress of Mexico was adopted in the October following, and we shall presently refer to its provisions. In the meantime, the government of Coahuila and Texas was thoroughly organized. A governor was elected, and, in the exercise of his functions, was assisted by a vice-governor and council. All the authorities, corporations and officers of the State, were required to take an oath to acknowledge and obey the constituent Congress of the State. In this oath, the sovereignty and independence of the free State of Coahuila and Texas, represented by its constituent Congress, was recognized by the deponent. On the 28th August, 1824, the amalgamation of Coahuila and Texas is announced as complete, and the political chief and the deputation of Texas ceased their functions. The constitutive act of the Mexican federation, to which the Congress of Coahuila and Texas agreed to become a party, was promulgated in October, 1824-having been adopted by delegates from the States which agreed to become parties to it. In the declaration prefixed to the constitution, they say:

"The federal republic has been and was the necessary fruit of these discussions. The systematic tyranny of the Spanish mandarins could alone induce them to govern so immense a territory by the same laws, considering the enormous differences of its climates, dispositions of its inhabitants, and their consequent influence. What relations of convenience or uniformity could possibly exist between the burning soil of Vera Cruz and the frozen mountains of New Mexico? How could the same institutions govern the inhabitants of California and Sonora and those of Yucatan and Tamaulipas? The innocence and candor of the interior populations, have no occasion for laws relative to crimes and intrigues which are entirely unknown to them. The inhabitants of Tamaulipas and Coahuila will reduce their code to a hundred articles, while the inhabitants of Mexico and Jalisco will be on a level with the great nations which have advanced in the career of social order. These are the advantages of the federal system."

The objects of the laws and decrees which should issue from the general Congress, are declared to be-1st. To sustain the national independence, and to provide for the preservation and security of the nation in its exterior relations. 2d. To preserve the federal union of the States, and peace and public order in the interior of the confederation, 3d,

To maintain the independence of the States among themselves, so far as respects their government, according to the constitutive act and this constitution. 4. To sustain the proportional equality of obligations and rights which the States possess in point of law. The Congress was further authorized to admit new States and Territories to the federal union; to regulate the boundaries of the States, in case of differences; "to unite two or more States, upon their petition to that effect, into one; or to erect new States within the limits of those already in existence, with the approbation of three-fourths of the members present in both chambers, and the ratification of an equal number of the legislatures of the other States of the union."

We have cited not all, but enough, from this constitution, to identify the government of Mexico, to mark its character, and to enable us to determine the acts it was empowered to do. These citations, too, show another fact interesting in this connection, they expose the futility of the efforts made by the administrations of Mr. Adams and of Gen. Jackson, to obtain by purchase from Mexico the enlargement of our boundaries, in 1826 and in 1829. The federal government of Mexico was wholly incompetent to conduct negotiations of the kind desired by us.

The same citations, we trust, will establish to every American mind, that the true description of that government will be found in a memorable resolution we shall quote, and that the rights of the people of Texas would have an ample guarantee against any rightful re-conquest, in the nature and form of that government, if it be administered by the people of Mexico in the spirit in which it seems to have been framed. The resolution is in these words:

"That the powers of the federal government result from a compact to which the States are parties, and are limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting that compact; and no farther valid than they are authorized by the grants enumerated in that compact. And that in case of a deliberate, palpable and dangerous exercise of other powers not granted by the said compact, the States who are parties thereto have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties appertaining to them."

This resolution will be readily recognized, and its application will be felt in connection with the subsequent history

of Texas. That history we shall extract from Mr. Walker's speech in the Senate on the Treaty of Annexation:

"In 1834 and 1835 Santa Anna, at the head, not of the people, but of a mercenary army, overthrew the Mexican Constitution and Federation of 1824; drove the Congress of Mexico and the legislature of Texas and Coahuila, at the point of the bayonet, out of the halls of legislation. The people of Zacatecas, of Coahuila, and other States, resisted, but were overthrown; and this daring usurper, having annihilated the States by a military edict, and decreed a general disarming of the people, proceeded to execute the decree in Texas, and reduce her from a free and sovereign state of Republican Federation, to a mere subject department of a central despotism. War was made upon the people of Texas. They resisted; and, by a council of deputies of the people, established a provisional Government; which, on the 7th November, 1835, issued the following manifesto:

'Whereas, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and other military chieftains, have, by force of arms, overthrown the Federal Constitution of Mexico, and dissolved the social compact which existed between Texas and the members of the Confederacy, now the good people of Texas, availing themselves of natural right, solemnly declare

'First. That they have taken up arms in defence of their rights and liberties, which were threatened by encroachments of military despots, and in defence of the Republican principles of the Federal Constitution of Mexico of 1824.

'Second. That Texas is no longer morally or civilly bound by the compact of Union; yet, stimulated by the generosity and sympathy common to a free people, they offer their support and assistance to such of the members of the Mexican Confederacy as will take up arms against military despotism.

Third. That they do not acknowledge that the present authorities of the present nominal Mexican Republic have the right to govern within the limits of Texas.

'Fourth. That they will not cease to carry on war against the said authorities, whilst their troops are in the limits of Texas.

'Fifth. That they hold it to be their right, during the disorganization of the Federal system, and the reign of despotism, to withdraw from the Union, to establish an independent Government, or to adopt such measures as they may deem best calculated to protect their rights and liberties; but that they will continue faithful to the Mexican Government so long as that nation is governed by the Constitution and laws that were framed for the government of the political association.'

The war was immediately prosecuted by Santa Anna on the people of Texas. On his part, it was a war of conquest carried on by a military usurper, against the Constitution he had sworn to support, and against the people of Texas-whilst on their part, it was a war in defence of the Constitution, and of their rights and liberties so solemnly guarantied. The conflict progressed. The people of Texas were successful; and the entire army of the invader, together with their leader, Gen. Cos, were captured. Another effort was then

made by the people of Texas to preserve the Constitution of 1824; and in the articles of capitulation of the 11th December, 1835, it was stipulated among other things

That General Cos and his officers retire with their arms and private property into the interior of the Republic under parole of honor, that they will not, in any way, oppose the re-establishment of the Federal Constitution of 1824.'

Such was the second and final effort of the people of Texas to preserve the Constitution of 1824. But the parole of honor of General Cos was most shamefully violated, and he returned in company with the military dictator himself, Santa Anna, at the head of an army of eight thousand, avowing openly his purpose of the indiscriminate slaughter of all who resisted the reign of the usurper. Then, and not till then, when all hopes of re-establishing the Constitution of 1824 were utterly extinguished, did the people of Texas, on the 2nd March, 1836, by their delegates assembled in general convention at Washington, issue a declaration of independence, in which they set forth

"That the Federal Republican Constitution of their country, which they have sworn to support, has no longer a substantial existence, and the whole nature of their Government has been forcibly changed, without their consent, from a restrictive Federative Republic, composed of sovereign States, to a consolidated, central, and military despotism.'

That when

'Anarchy prevails, and civil society is dissolved in its original elements, in such a crisis, the first law of nature, the right of self-preservation, the inherent and inalienable right of the people to appeal to first principles, and take their political affairs in their own hands,'

&c.

After reciting a long train of grievances, far exceeding in enormity those detailed in our own Declaration of Independence, they proceed to say:

'We then took up arms in defence of our National Constitution. We appealed to our Mexican brethren for assistance; our appeal has been made in vain; though months have elapsed, no sympathetic response has yet been heard from the interior. We are, therefore, forced to the melancholy conclusion, that the Mexican people have acquiesced in the destruction of their liberty, and the substitution therefor of a military government; that they are unfit to be free, and incapable of self-government.'

"The necessity of self-preservation, therefore, now decrees our eternal political separation.

'WE, therefore, the delegates, with plenary powers of the people of Texas, in solemn convention assembled, appealing to a candid world for the necessities of our condition, do hereby resolve and declare, that our political connexion with the Mexican nation is forever ended, and that the people of Texas do now constitute a free, sovereign and and independent Republic-and are fully invested with all the rights and attributes which properly belong to independent nations; and, conscious of the rectitude of our intentions, we fearlessly and confi

dently submit the issue to the Supreme Arbiter of the destinies of nations.'

The appeal thus made was answered by a just and overruling Providence; and the sanguinary dictator, with his mercenary army, were overthrown and captured on the 21st April, 1836; and there the conflict terminated, and has never been renewed. And here let me call your attention to the important fact, that the present Government, the central despotism of Mexico, never was the Government, de facto or de jure, of Texas, and never controlled its destinies or its people for an instant of time. It never carried into execution a law, or enforced an edict, within the limits of Texas! It is not now, and never was, the Government of Texas; and the people of Texas never owed or rendered it any allegiance. The case of Texas is stronger than any that has ever occurred in the history of nations-far stronger than that of the colonies in 1776. It was not a revolt against an established Government, but it was a successful resistance to a most unrighteous effort to establish over it the dominion of a military usurper and of a central despotism. The present Government of Texas is the only subsisting Government that has exercised any jurisdiction over the people of Texas; and the war carried against it was a war of conquest and invasion, conducted by a Government of which it never constituted a part-which never exercised jurisdiction over it, and to which it never owed any allegiance. It is conceded that the Republic of Texas is a Government de facto; but do not these incidents clearly prove that it is a Government de jure-that is, a rightful Government, founded upon the will of a majority of the people, and established by them as the only refuge from anarchy or despotism? And who will deny the rightful authority of such a Government?"

This being the condition of Texas, she makes the application for admission to the Federal Union. Let us consider the objections that have been opposed to her wishes. They may be reduced to five

First. The Constitution of the United States does not authorize the admission of new States, formed of territory not included within the territorial limits of the United States.

Second. The boundaries of the United States are already too extensive for the purposes of an efficient government. Third. Our relations with Mexico render a consent, on our part, to such an application, a violation of public duty and a sacrifice of national honor.

Fourth. An assent to the proposition will involve us in a collision with Great Britain and France.

Fifth. That the admission of Texas to the Union as a slave-holding community, will degrade the nation in the estimation of foreign powers, spread the evil of slavery, dis