Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/240

220 either by an open declaration, or by invading Texas. Both the Congress and convention of the people of Texas invited this Government to send an army into that territory to protect them against the menaced attack.

I would request the Senator's attention.

The moment the terms of annexation offered by the United States were accepted by Texas the latter became so far a part of our own country as to make it our duty to afford such protection and defense.

So far President Polk. But here is a dispatch addressed by Mr. Buchanan to Mr. Donelson, dated Washington, May 23, 1845:

I am instructed by the President to inform you that as soon as the existing Government and the convention of Texas shall have accepted the terms proposed in the first two sections of the joint resolution for annexing Texas to the United States, he will then conceive it to be both his right and his duty to employ the Army in defending that State against the attacks of any foreign Power.

No belligerent aid, therefore, until annexation is Constitutionally and legally completed! A significant spectacle again—the defense of President Grant's acts put to shame by James Buchanan!

So much for the Texas precedent. Were there any precedent for the usurping act now under discussion in all this, I think it would be high time to upset and disavow and condemn that precedent as a rule for future action. But it was no such precedent; and thus it may be affirmed that the President's usurpation of the war-making power in this case stands absolutely and utterly without a parallel in the history of the United States. And here I desire to address a solemn word of warning to the Senate. If even an attempt could be made, as it has been made