Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/540

 was free soil by the terms of the Missouri compact, and was also covered by Indian reservations, not to be removed without a concurrence of two-thirds of the senate. Messrs. Benton and Linn, senators from Missouri, undertook the difficult task of engineering through congress a bill including this triangle (large enough to form seven counties) within the state of Missouri; which they effected, at the long session of 1835-6, so quietly as hardly to attract attention The bill was first sent to the senate's committee on the judiciary, where a favorable report was procured from Mr. John M. Clayton, of Delaware, its chairman; and then it was floated through both houses without encountering the perils of a division. The requisite Indian treaties were likewise carried through the senate; so Missouri became possessed of a large and desirable accession of territory, which has since become one of her most populous and wealthy sections, devoted to the growing of hemp, tobacco, &c., and cultivated by slaves. This is the most pro-slavery section of the state.

In 1837, the republic of Texas applied for annexation to the United States Remonstrances against it, and resolutions passed by state legislatures for and against annexation, were sent to congress and presented at the session of 1831 — 8. On the 4th of January, 1838, Mr. Preston, senator of South Carolina, offered the following preamble and resolution:

", the just and true boundary of the United States under the treaty of Louisiana, extended on the southwest to the Rio Grande del Norte, which river continued to be the boundary line until the territory west of the Sabine was surrendered to Sabine by the treaty of 1819.

"And whereas such surrender of a portion of the territory of the United States is of evil precedent and doubtful constitutionality.

"And whereas many weighty considerations of policy make it expedient to re-establish the said true boundary, and to re-annex to the United States the territory occupied by the state of Texas, with the consent of the said state:

"Be it therefore resolved, that, with the consent of the said state previously had, and whenever it can be effected consistently with the faith and treaty stipulations of the United States, it is desirable and expedient to re-annex the said territory to the United States."

On the 24th of April, 1838, the resolution was taken up for consideration, and supported by a speech, which is valuable for the historical information which it contains:

Mr. Preston said his proposition was not indecorous or presumptuous, since the lead had been given by Texas herself. The question of annexation, on certain terms, had been submitted to the people of the republic, and decided in the affirmative; and a negotiation had been proposed for effecting the object. Nor did his resolution give just cause of offense to Mexico. Its terms guarded our relations with that republic. Our intercourse with Mexico should be characterized by fair dealing, on account of her unfortunate condition, resulting from a long continued series of intestine dissensions. As long, therefore, as she should attempt to assert her pretensions by actual force, or as long as there was a reasonable prospect that she had the power and the will to resubjugate Texas, he would not interfere. He believed that period had already