Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 2).djvu/256

246 had said in his letter to Crittenden of the 5th of December, 1843, that the establishment of British influence in Texas “would not be regarded with so much detestation by the civilized world as would the conduct of the United States in seeking to effect annexation,” because the motive that would be attributed to the United States, “and with too much justice, would be that of propagating, instead of terminating, slavery.” But in the manifesto, while not reasoning distinctly from the anti-slavery point of view, he did, indeed, emphatically object to the main reason, — the restoration, or rather the guaranty, of the balance of power, for which Texas was desirable to the slave-holding interest. The bulk of the Whig party in the Free States accepted the document as substantially in accord with their views.

A public letter from Van Buren appeared at the same time in the Democratic organ at Washington, the “Globe.” The coincidence was noticed as remarkable. Van Buren questioned the constitutionality of admitting Texas as a new state by treaty; it could only be done by Congress. He, too, believed that annexation meant war with Mexico. Whether we could “hope to stand justified in the eyes of mankind for entering into” such a war, was a grave question, “in respect to which no American statesman or citizen could possibly be indifferent,” especially as nothing was more true or more extensively known than that Texas was wrested from Mexico through the instrumen-