Selections: C. M. Clay On Texas: Extract From A Reply To A P...

As a measurë of Economy, as a means of Defence. and as a mere extensión of Boundary, we both agree that Texas canr.ot be admittod. AH those high moral hnd constitutional considerations which I have declined using for the present are most certainly against iís Annexation. - Every one would conclude, then, that we both would come to the same Q. E. P. - Texas, therefore, is nolto bt. admitted. - But no! Setting out with the same data, granting the same postúlales, following the same method of demonstration, wc cometo utterly different conclusions - I, that Texas ought not. will and, so far ns I lorm an integral portion of National power, shall not be annexed - you, that she ought not perlmps, yet will, and so far as you are concerned, shall be aliied to us! If I am right, you are wrong- if you are right, then is the American Peopie stupified and dishenored by your own showing. For if pecuniary interests.goodpolicy and good faith lead them to ubslain from Texas, no ':lnsatiable craving for good land" excuses their rapacity, nor any "determination rightfully orwrongfully to have it," evidenccs their wisdom or conceals their dishonor. Whiü terrible pow er is th ís, then, wliich, ovrriding all Gonsiderations of moral aid material inter Cit, determines us to seize npon a Foreign Nation. and, in spite of the faith of Treaties, the feeíings and wishes of the majority of the Nation. in violation of the National Constitution, and at the hazard of the Dissolution of the Union, "wrongfully to appropriateitto ourselves?" You nre constrained to make the lnunilitnting confession - It is Slavery, which makes the "South desire the Annexation, though contrary to her interests," and the North to refuse the alliane'e, "though contrarv io her interests." But here you seem to contradict your previous show ing, that the Admissiouof Texas would be injurious to the North. And it may be farthersafely said that no monopoly of trad e in Texas seeured to the North by alliance can compénsate her for her losses by the perpetuafon of Slatferyywfrñíh Texas, at least for some centimes, would probably insure. For we are consumers. not most]y because we have Slaves, but because we are Planters; and èvéry Slave made iree is sö much the greater consumer of Northern asan intelligent, educatëi freerran produces more to give in excbang.e than an une'ducated slave. - Add to' this that by Enianci palion the whole class of masters is added to the producing insteal of being merely the agents of the consumptioh of the fruits of others' labor. Am Í riglit,. then, when I plant myseif típon physicá'l Vell being, and say Texas cannot be admitted? - am I right, when 1 stand upon the faith of Treaties and declare, she ought not to come in? - am I even if Mexico assent to the Union, when I interpose the bulwarksof the Constitution, and proclaim1 that, till these shall be leveted to the ground, she cannot beoiVrsT Am I right. when I gather about me all the glorious principies and hallowedassociations whichillustrate the American name, and cönfess, that all these must perish, before Texas can becoms1 one (or more) of these United States? Then no more of tlus ill-omened "must!" It is the command of a superior to an inferior - the language of a King to his subjects - the voice of the master to slave. We are y et free - the day on which Texas must be wedded to us - the day on which, as you seenv to anticípale, she shall be thrust upon us - we are free no more! In Kentucky, the grösfe popülation may be set down at 800,000'f 31,495 only, the Auditor's books show to be Slaveholders; not one in four or five as estimated; by you' to be the ratio in the five States of Maryland, Viginia, Keiatucky, Tennessee and Missouribut onc in Iwcntyfwe onty, is a slavehold er; and tliis is probably the ratio in al the States named, the number of Slave liolders dccreasing as you go farthe South. To this insignificant minorit} we have sacrificed Comaion Schools we cannot sustain them- the Supremacy of the Laws, it has not been vindicated- the National and State Constitutions.they have been trámpled under foot - Liber ty of Speech and of the Press, there is not a despot ism in Europe ihat has Jes-s tlian we-a Navy, it cannot be ours- Manufactures, they are impossible with Slave Labor- all the Arts and Scierxes, the useful and ornamental, they perish ïere - the Chrisiian Morality, the salt has lost its savor"- high Intellectual deelopment, such only as can exist where he spirit is free in its flights and untrameled in its utterance: Slavery, like thej fabled Stygian lake, paralyses the wings , of Genius - dread, gloomy and remorseless, she suffers none - none to escape - each victim but adds more and more to that noxious atmosphere yhich infects her inhospitable shores, making her very weaknesa, exhaustion, and decay her impregnable defence. Have the less than one in twenty-five, to say nothing of the ■ entire ten millions of the North, imposed upon us all these sacrifices, and do the)' now come on once more ivith. that everlasting word 'hmisV? Surely. this isunworlhy of our Patriot Sires. IfSlavery has already grown so great that you are forced to cry out, "It is time for every Statesmanj whorever located, to look it full in the face;" is it not, then, also bccnme too Jarge for compromise? Nay, is not the institution in ilseif incapable of connpromise? Whon out of the original Thirteen States a new Government was formed to "establish Liberty," the compromiso was to reduce Slavery gradually to extinction - read the Madison Papnrs and deny it! Search the Constitution for the word 'Slavery' in vain, and deny it! Vv'hen Kentucky. Tennessee and Alabama and Mississippi, were successively taken info the Union, it might seem that Slavery shouldhave rested satisfied forever - the wide bounds of the.Constitutiönal Empire, were they verg enough for Slavery? No! then come Louisiana, and hard upon her footsteps Florida hastens io the sacrifice. Louisi ana and Arkansas. and Missouri, nc knowledgethedevouring appetite of Slave ry - and is. she yet content? doesshe abate any what in her demands? No. She knows too well that Liberty and Slaverj cannot exist under the same Government; and wifh an unerring instinct she hastens us on to enlarge her dominion, growing more openly rapacious and shameless as she fee Is that she has less to fear from the slumbering and perishing friends of Liberty and Equal Kights. Texas spreads out her "banks and braes" in the distance, and the "insatiable craving" ol Slavery hurries us once 'more, at "the price of blood," if nrcissary, to its acquisition. And yet, in view of all these fucts, you would give her "the Eastern part of Texas, another single Slave Siate." for a compromise! Suppose her snfely enthroned in Eastern Texas, and she scentsonce more the orange groves of western Texas, exciting again her insatiable craving-- I ask you, with all the fearlul energy of self-defence, what new guaranty for the preservation of the compromise do you offer Can you suppose that the few hal f star ved neg roes who should 6nd their way to this new Colonization elysium would oppose their Westward progress? Can you bring any new Constítutional or moral barriere more strong íhan those which already oppose tbedreadíul "musí" in vain? Will the addition of three or five Slnve States, by giving Slavery preponderance in the Senate, strengthen the defences of Constitutional Liberty, and oppose more eñectual barriers to the expansión of the limits of servitude,than a Senatorial equality can now da? ïiavonot the mad projectors of this fatal scheme already proclaimed from the high sanctuary, the inner temple, of the world wide Republicanism, the American Senate, that this whole Continent is or should be ours? Aside from this could a Free Black colony exist along side of Slaveholding Texas? - would not the slave fleo to it from oppression?- and1 would the Colonists. return their black brethren once again into bondage? - and would not aTexan invasión bethesureconsequenee? Can all the power of the Union now shieldthe harborerof the runaWay slave from vengeance? - did it protect t:heokees of Georgia or save the of Florida from exterminalion'?- would a miserable Black colony fare better, in a word, than freeborn, white American citizens have done? The idea, then, ofa F ree Black colony alongsidè ofslaveTKe London Non-Comformist of April 3d gives the number ofSlaveholders, ahd those interestcd in them, at 32,700, ia a popul atioiv of 000,000, in S. C.: holding Texas, with due deference to your more raature reflections, I pronounco absolutély absurd and impossiblc. Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri, I am willing to recognise as States possessing cqnality with the rest; I submit to the past decisión of the Nation; at the same time I mostsolemnly protest against the precedent, and deny the Constitutional possibility of the Annexation of new Slave States to the Union. Lel Slavery subside into its Constitutional limits - I stand by the Constitution. If, in the dread necessities of coming time, Americans sliall, like the Spartans,in a nightthin out Americans, as you intímate, let not this blood be upon our garments - not for all the Cotton and Sugar which since creation's dawn, has grown on the green earth beneath the dewy heavens, would I have posterity of mine look upon this "sorry sight." Let the aspirations ofians ascend in gratitude to the Father of Destiny, that our own loved native State is subject to no such miserable slave growing Cotton and Sugar necessity as this! Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri, then, as.yousay, would become non-slaveholding States. J. Q. Adnms thinks that the Slave Trade cannot be suppressed till África is Christianizeo, and the supply of slaves cut off. - I, with great deference, contend that the mgrJeet must be destroyed before the trade can be suppressed. Do you stop the vent for Slaves from these five States by taking in Texas? No. Then let these States take in Texas. No, we must stop liere - now; the time grows stringent, fearfully pressing. Amencans; Liberty, 01 Slavery! "Under which Kingr, Bezoni.-.nTspKok, or die!" I am firmly of opinión that you are mistaken in the supposed necessity of Colonization; all additional expense and complicated arrangement for ibe disposal of emancipnted blacks I regard asso many obstacles to doing any - it but adds new links to "a lengthening chain.15 - Free blacks are not a tax on the North, "as we have been taught to believe" - they wouldbe a better class here, because of. the climate. W henever Kéntucky moves in earnest on this subject - as moveshe will - the great mass of Slaves wil] be removed and sold else wliere. Thcre will not be more left than wewill beglad to employ in suc'.h meninl offices as they now fill - where they wiii not be at all in the way of that increase of intelligence and provident Labor which adds so much to the substance and glory of a People. The time has passed when we are to console ourselves wilh vain reflections upon Northern Abolitionists - the time has come when we are to regard not names but whether he be right. Is not all injusfice retnbütive? And while we join in feeding the false and morbid appetite of pro-slayery men, by denouncing Abolitonists, do we not place the very obstacles in the way of progress of which you so bitterly complain? ' 1 hear a way-farer say to me, "You rascal get out of the way! thal steam carwillcrush you!';shall [ shut my eyes and in blind obstinacy be crushed? Or shall Í not rather first save myself. and then nurture my gratitude or vengeance for a fit opportunity of manifestation? If the former course befolly in a single individual, how much more should a great state be ashamed to practice such absurdities! and the statesman who daré not meet and expose them is more a coward than he who shows his back to his Country's invnders. I conclude, then. that the bounds of American Slavery should not be enlarged - that the five middle Slave States, as you say, will not ollow the Dissolution of this Union; wg are a Nation; and nothing but revolution can sever us" - there should be no new Slave tates added to this Union - Slavery will be abolished in the District of Columbia - the Nrth will by the Ballot Box drive Slavery into its Conatutional limits, the present Thirteen Slave States, and there leave it, to ourselves, to our consciences, and to Destiny- all the non-cotton growing Staies will, by peaceable means, free themselves from slavery. Kentucky will be among the first to lake the lead - this will by first gaining supremacy in the Legislature, then ,by calling a convention, and at last by legal Emanciparon, which will be eaey and light, as many Slaveholders wijh their sla ves will have been removed from the State. When seven Southern States sha 11 bocome Free, Slave Represen tation will be abolished-- and this, in conjunction with all the regardsof political promotion and the spirit of the age operating upon. the ambitious and the virtuous will induce the sncrifice of slavery even in tha cotton growing state?, or else the extinction of one or the ojher of the races in all that región- and j,t last our lund will be redeemed, and Ljberty and Union shall reign supreme ipt.mong us. If there be indeed, as you sfcy, a majority of slaye,'holders with p h) our belief thatry ought to and must fal) - I solemnly commend my plan and yours to theircalm consideraron, and most cheerfully exclaim, "God save the right!" Thus far only I must fore ver dissent: I cannot, but regard the Annexation of Texas to this Nation as trcoson against the Republic, the virtual rovolutionnry overthrowof the American Government; andsoesteeming t, should arms be opposed to arms, as Gen. Hamilton vauntingly threatens on the part of the land of "all theChivalry," I shall not hesitate to strike for the Constitution transmitted me as my birth right, from a gallant ancestry. Here in this Texan Thermoplte we must take our ground - hero some of our countrymen must stand - ay, and if the worst comes to the worst, must fall, too, or else no Marathon shall ever bring glory, safet) and liberty to our homes. Your friend in the cause of "the Union as it is."