Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 2).djvu/257

Rh tality of citizens of the United States. He warned against treating lightly the sacred obligations of treaties. As to the matter of slavery, he hinted that he might be trusted, not being a man “influenced by local or sectional feelings.” Finally, if Congress in a constitutional manner should acquire Texas, he would, as President, execute the legislative will.

It was significant that Andrew Jackson, whose favorite candidate Van Buren was, hurried upon the scene with a second letter, expressing his unshaken confidence in the man who would undoubtedly change his mind when he considered “the probability of a dangerous interference with the affairs of Texas by a foreign power.”

The letters of the presumptive candidates for the presidency went before the people at the same time that the annexation treaty was submitted to the Senate. Calhoun communicated together with the treaty an answer he had written to a dispatch from Lord Aberdeen, which had been received several weeks before. That answer contained his reasons why the annexation of Texas had become necessary. Lord Aberdeen had, in that dispatch, incidentally mentioned the well-known desire and constant exertion of Great Britain to procure the general abolition of slavery throughout the world, earnestly disclaiming, however, any intention directly or indirectly, openly or secretly, to interfere with the tranquillity and prosperity of the United States. Treating this as a new revelation, Cal-