We might multiply facts in support of each proposition here laid down, to show the miserable condition of things in Texas, and the utter impossibility that a man of honor could embark in such a cause with such men. Should it be rendered necessary, we may yet do so; but for the present we will pause with this remark, that if there be any, now, in Kentucky, whose hearts are animated with the desire of an honorable fame, or to secure a competent settlement for themselves or families, they must look to some other theatre than the plains of Texas. We would say to them, Listen not to the deceitful and hypocritical allurements of LAND SPECULATORS, who wish you to fight for their benefit, and who are as liberal of promises as they are faithless in performance. We are aware of the responsibility which we incur by this course. We are aware that we subject ourselves to the misrepresentations of hired agents and unprincipled landmongers; but we are willing to meet it all, relying upon the integrity of our motives and the correctness of our course. Lexington, Sept. 10, 1836. EDWARD J. WILSON, NEW-YORK SUN. Extract from General Houston's letter to General Dunlap of Nashville "For a portion of this force we must look to the United States. It cannot reach us too soon. There is but one feeling in Texas, in my opinion, and that is to establish the independence of Texas, and to be attached to the United States." Here, then, is an open avowal by the commander-in-chief of the Texian army, that American troops will be required to seize and sever this province of the Mexican republic, for the purpose of uniting it to ours; and this avowal is made by a distinguished American citizen, in the very face of that glorious constitution of his country, which wisely gives no power to its citizens for acquiring foreign territory by conquest, their own territory being more than amply sufficient to gratify any safe ambition; and in the face, too, of the following solemn and sacred contract of his country with the sister republic which he would dismember: "There shall be a firm, inviolable, and universal peace, and a true and sincere friendship between the United States of America, and the United Mexican States, in all the extent of their possessions and territories, between their people and citizens respectively, without distinction of persons or places." In the earlier days of our republic, when a high-minded and honorable fidelity to its constitution was an object proudly paramount to every mercenary consideration that might contravene it, an avowed design of this kind against the possessions of a nation with whom the United States were at peace, would have subjected its author, if a citizen, to the charge of high treason, and to its consequences. When Aaron Burr and his associates were supposed to meditate the conquest of Mexico, and attempted to raise troops in the southern states to achieve it, they were arrested for treason, and Burr, their chief, was tried for his life. But now, behold! the conquest of a part of the same country is an object openly proclaimed, not in the letters of General Houston alone, but by many of our wealthiest citizens at public banquets, and by the hireling presses in the chief cities of our Union. The annexation of a foreign territory to our own by foreign conquest, being thus unblushingly avowed, and our citizens, who are integral portions of our national sovereignty, being openly invited and incited to join the crusade with weapons of war, it becomes an interesting moral inquiry what is there in the public mind to excuse or even to palliate so flagrant a prostitution of national faith and honor in these days, any more than in the days that are past? The answer is ready at hand, and is irrefutable. An extensive and well organized gang of swindlers in Texas lands, have raised the cry, and the standard of "Liberty!" and to the thrilling charm of this glorious word, which stirs the blood of a free people, as the blast of the bugle arouses every nerve of the warhorse, have the generous feelings of our citizens responded in ardent delusion. But, as the Commercial Advertiser truly declares, "Never was the Goddess of American liberty invoked more unrighteously;" and we cannot but believe that the natural sagacity, good sense, and proud regard for their national honor, for which our citizens are distinguished in the eyes of all nations, will speedily rescue them from the otherwise degrading error in which that vile crew of mercenary hypocritical swindlers would involve them. The artful deceivers, however, have not relied upon the generosity and noble sympathy only of our fellow citizens, for they insidiously presented a bribe to excite their cupidity also. NEUTRALITY! Next the Texian revolution. Was it not laughable to see these Texians, all of them, generally speaking, slaveholders; adhering to the constitution of 1824, one article of which emancipates all the slaves in Mexico! Was it not laughable to see them proclaiming a constitution, of which, eleven years ago, the Americans in Texas had prohibited the proclamation by the Mexican authorities there, under the heaviest threats!-What man of common sense can believe in this humbug? None, gentlemen; none but those that have risked their thousands in this country; and they, whoever they may be, feign to believe it. The statements made throughout the United States, of tyranny and oppression on the part of Mexico toward the American citizens in Texas, are slanderous falsehoods, fabricated to create and nurture the worst prejudices and jealousies. The Americans in Texas have had their own way in every case, and on every occasion; and whenever there happened a legislative act that was, from any cause, repugnant to the feelings of the people of Texas, it was silenced at once. In short, if there has existed a good cause of complaint in Texas, it was that men were too much their own masters, and too little under the restraint of any law. Any allegation to the effect that the Mexican government had deceived citizens of the United States in relation to GENERAL WILKINSON. 39 promises of lands first made to them, is false, and I defy any one to show a forfeiture of title to lands, when the conditions of the grant had been fulfilled by the settler. Now, sir, as to the war: here I will ask Americans, (except the speculators,) how many military incursions, insurrections, and rebellions, avowedly for the purpose of snatching Texas from its proper owners, will, in their mind, justify Mexico in driving from its territories, the pirates that would thus possess themselves of the country? Be it remembered, that these revolutions have never been attempted by the resident citizens of Texas, but in every case by men organized in the United States for the purpose and coming from afar: why, a single provocation of this nature were ample justification; but Texas has, from the time of the adjustment of the boundary by Wilkinson and Ferrara, experienced seven or eight. The Americans (I mean the regulars) and Texians, appear to understand each other perfectly. The neutrality is preserved on the part of General Gaines, by allowing all volunteers, and other organized corps destined for Texas, to pass in hundreds and thousands undisturbed, but keeps in check any attempt on the part of the native Mexicans and Indians, to act against the Texians. The Texians are allowed to wage war against a friendly power, in a district of country claimed by the United States. The prisoners of war taken by the Texians are ignorant to which party they are subject. The American general claims the country only from Mexico, but has no objections to the carrying on of war against Mexico in the district he claims! Pray, sir, let Americans speak honestly, and let them say whether any govemment has, within the last century, placed itself in so ridiculous a light?—not only ridiculous, but contemptible. Will not any honest man confess at once that General Gaines, or any authority clothing him with the discretion so indiscreetly used, would never have dreamed of the like against a government able and ready to defend itself, and punish such arrogance? What is Europe to say to this? Will not Mexico complain? And will there be no sympathy for her?-Letter to the Editors of the New-York Commercial Advertiser, dated Nacogdoges, Texas, September 14, 1836. [Alas, for our national degeneracy and infamy;-In 1811, the suspicion of being accessory to this horrible outrage against the laws of nature, and of nations, led a to distinct charge in the trial for treason of] GENERAL WILKINSON. CHARGE V.-That he, the said James Wilkinson, while commanding the army of the United States, by virtue of his said commission, and being bound by the duties of his office to do all that in him lay, to discover and to frustrate all such enormous violations of the law as tended to endanger the peace and tranquillity of the United States, did, nevertheless, unlawfully combine and conspire to set on foot a military expedition against the territories of a nation, then at peace with the United States. Specification, He, the said James Wilkinson, in the years 1805 and 40 THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND TEXAS. 1806, combining and conspiring with Aaron Burr and his associates, to set on foot a military expedition against the Spanish provinces and territories in America.-Wilkinson's Memoirs, Vol. II. THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND TEXAS. By a treaty between Great Britain and Spain, for the suppression of the slave-trade, concluded in 1817, the British government was authorized to appoint commissioners to reside in Cuba, who, with Spanish commissioners, were to form a court for the adjudication of such ships as might be seized with slaves actually on board. The British commissioners from time to time make reports to their government, which are laid before Parliament, and published by their direction. The following are extracts from a report, dated 1st January, 1836. "Never since the establishment of this mixed commission, has the slave-trade of the Havana reached such a disgraceful pitch as during the year 1835. By the list we have the honor to enclose, it will be seen that fifty slave vessels have safely arrived in this port during the year just expired. In 1833, there were twenty-seven arrivals, and in 1834, thirty-three; but 1835 presents a number, by means of which there must have been landed upwards of fifteen thousand negroes. "In the spring of last year an American agent from Texas purchased in the Havana two hundred and fifty newly imported Africans, at two hundred and seventy dollars a head, and carried them away with him to that district of Mexico-having first procured from the American Consul here certificates of their freedom. This, perhaps, would have been scarcely worth mentioning to your lordship, had we not learned, that within the last six weeks, considerable sums of money have been deposited by the American citizens in certain mercantile houses here, for the purpose of making additional purchases of bozal negroes for Texas. According to the laws of Mexico, we believe such Africans are free, whether they have certificates of freedom or not; but we doubt much whether this freedom will be more than nominal under their American masters, or whether the whole system may not be founded on some plan of smuggling them across the frontier of the slave states of the Union. However this may be, a great impulse is thus given to this illicit traffic of the Havana; and it is not easy for us to point out to government what remonstrances ought to be made on the subject since the American settlers in Texas are almost as independent of American authority as they are of Mexico. These lawless people will doubtless, moreover assert, that they buy negroes in the Havana with a view to their ultimate emancipation. We thought the first experiment to be of little consequence-but now that we perceive fresh commissions arriving in the Havana for the purchase of Africans, we cannot refrain from calling your lordship's attention to the fact, as being another cause of the increase of the slave-trade in the Havana." The foregoing throws light on the following recent article in the Albany Argus: - TEXAS AND SLAVERY. 41 "The fate of Henry Bartow, late of the Commercial Bank of this city, has been at length definitely ascertained. The agent sent out by the bank has returned, and states that Bartow died at Marianne, near Columbia, in Texas, on the 30th of June last, of the fever of the country, after an illness of about four weeks. He had purchased a farm on the Brassos, and, in company with a native of the country, had commenced an extensive plantation, and sent $10,000 to Cuba for the purchase of slaves. We grant that Texas would present us an immense territory of rich soil, and would be another brilliant star in our standard. On the other hand she would give us her quarrel with Mexico-add to our unwieldly slave incumbrance-and give the balance of power to the southern and southwestern states. We much question whether the United States should ever add more states to the confederacy. Already we are rent by the fiercest internal dissension. The North and South, the East and West, have their local feelings-which are becoming more strong and definite every day. As it is, we are in constant and hourly danger of splitting, The time must come ultimately, and when it does it will be with terrible power. Why then should we burthen ourselves with still another local interest that must tend rapidly to hasten this result? But another strong reason against such an annexation is the fact that it is a slaveholding country. The northern people differ relative to the expediency of interfering with this subject; but they all admit that it is an evil, dangerous to our safety as a nation. It is universally acknowledged that the slave population may ultimately become unmanageable by rapid increase; and when it does we may expect to see re-enacted the fearful, blood-curdling scenes of the West Indies. It is obvious, therefore, it would be highly impolitic to add such a slave market as Texas to the Union.-Detroit Spectator. Were any further proof wanting to convince those at all conversant with the subject, that Texas will speedily become a great slave mart, the following article from the Liberia Herald, will furnish it. We have proved, time and again, by the most indubitable testimony, (and the fact should be kept constantly before the people,) that the great cause which led to the rupture between the inhabitants of Texas and the mother country, was a determination on their part to traffic in slaves, which is strictly forbidden by the constitution of Mexico. How northern men, therefore, who profess to be opposed to slavery, can with any degree of consistency lend their influence in behalf of Texas, is more than can be accounted for. The fact is, they are not opposed to slavery; and we unhesitatingly declare, that every one who has taken the pains to inform himself of the first causes of the Texian insurrection, is at heart a slaveholder, if he is in any manner aiding the cause of the insurgents. By "defending Texas," he is "upholding" and virtually justifying the enslavement of his brother, and his cry of liberty, is the very quintessence of hypocrisy. That is the question Shall Texas be admitted into the Union? |