Lowell, Brookline, Dedham, Hingham, Roxbury and many other places. Mr. CHARLES F. ADAMS, Mr. JOHN G. Palfrey, Mr. WILLIAM I. BOWDITCH, Mr. WILLIAM H. CHANNING, and other gentlemen, did good service in addressing these assemblies. The Hon. STEPHEN C. PHILLIPS delivered two addresses on the subject, in the Tremont Temple, which exposed in a masterly manner the iniquity of the Texas Scheme, and which have since been published and widely read.

During these efforts on the part of the Committee, they received but little sympathy or assistance from the chief men of the party which had made hostility to Texas one of their watchwords in the late Presidential campaign. Some of the more prominent among them even refused to sign a remonstrance against the admission of Texas, as a Slave State, and thus threw the weight of their influence against even the utterance of a word of protest against this giant crime! The Representative of Boston in Congress, the Hon. ROBERT C. WINTHROP, has on more than one occasion announced it as his political creed, that "the Union, however bounded," is to be maintained and defended! It is but too evident that an influential, if not a numerous, portion of the Whig party in Massachusetts, are tired of being under the ban of the Slaveholding Whigs, and are desirous of gaining, by any submissions, a full restoration to the bosom of the Whig Church Universal. The penance that is to wash out the sins of Massachusetts against Slavery has not yet been fully pronounced. Perhaps nothing more than unquestioning submission in time to come to all its behests will be required. Whether the mass of the people are prepared to walk through this valley of Humiliation, or not, for such an object, remains to be seen.

Remonstrances with nearly fifty thousand signatures, obtained within a very short time, were forwarded to Congress, as the result of this agitation That it was of no avail, we know. That it would be of any avail was probably not expected by many who partook in the movement. Their guid

ing principle seemed to be a conscientious desire to do what they could, even though they believed their labors would be fruitless, to save the nation from this guilt and shame; and, at any rate, to free their own souls from any participation in it. The movement, notwithstanding its ill success, cannot be justly regarded as a failure, since it was the means of awaking, to a considerable extent, the attention of the people to their own implication in the crime of Slaveholding, both in its effects on the rights of its immediate victims, and on their own; and also of bringing together, in a combined effort, many individuals of widely differing views on other subjects, but who were of one mind as to the fatal nature of Slavery.

There are many in the land, whose eyes, sealed in a wilful or in a judicial blindness, refused to see this danger, till it was too late; and could hardly be persuaded that the bolt impended, until it had fallen upon their heads. To whomsoever else this event was unexpected, the intelligent Abolitionists of the country were well prepared for it. At every one of our successive gatherings, since the project of Annexation was first broached, has our warning voice been uplifted, entreating the people not to be deceived in this behalf. At times when universal security seemed to pervade the country, we have proclaimed that the scheme would never be abandoned, and that, unless an opposition of unexampled unanimity and vigor were presented to it by the North, it would be successful. We had watched too long, and knew too well, the wily and desperate nature of the Slave interest, to be deceived by any apparent relaxation of its wishes, or its efforts, to accomplish a measure vital to its own existence. We cannot but feel that, as far as our influence has extended, and our voice reached, we have been faithful in this matter to our country, to ourselves, and to our posterity.

But the deed is done. The catastrophe is over. The destruction has overtaken us. A revolution has taken place of mightier moment than that which severed the tie binding the

youthful colonies to the mother-country. The institutions which our Fathers established, for the preservation of liberty, are now in form, as they have been long in effect, overthrown, burying the hopes of the Slave, and the rights of the free, beneath the ruins. Like the adept in the romance, in breathing the breath of life into the creature of their own hands, they mingled with it an element which has transformed it into a demon, to make a mockery of the very purposes of its creation, and to pursue and destroy those they loved the best. In the emphatic language of Mr. GIDDINGS, just uttered in the ears of Congress, "the Union founded by our fathers has been subverted, and a new Slave-holding confederacy has been formed, giving to the Southern portion the balance of power, and subjecting the free labor of the North, the dearest rights of the free States, to the tender mercies of a Slaveholding oligarchy!" That this is literally true, is obvious from the fact that this act gives to the Slave-power a clear majority of four votes in the Senate; thus placing the entire and absolute control of the legislation and policy of the country in its hands. And when we reflect that this Slave-power resides in a compact aristocracy, not probably much exceeding in numbers ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND voting men, we may well curse the folly of our fathers who bequeathed this inheritance to us, and marvel at the patience of the seventeen millions of their sons who consent to abide by it.

But the end is not yet. We are assured that the vast territory of Texas can furnish forty States of the size of Massachusetts. As fast, therefore, as the locust swarms of Slavery light upon and blast successive portions of that virgin soil, State after State, with a constitution in her hand, like that of Texas," securing in the most clear and nervous manner the rights of the master to the slave," will demand, and with justice, admission to the confederacy. And when this destiny is accomplished, and when the last of the daughters of the young

Republic of the Southwest is gathered into our bosom, she will point to the broad plains of Mexico,- the fruitful mother of future States,- and, like the prophetic phantom of Banquo's descendant, will come "bearing a glass, which shows us many more!"

It is yet too soon to predict the consequences of this momentous event. The ink is yet scarcely dried of the signature that authenticated the dark and ominous deed. An interval of guilt and silence succeeds to the stormy agitation that heralded it. Whether this repose, on the part of the opposers of the measure, is only a breathing space to enable them to put forth their energies with a new vigor for the redemption of their country from her disgrace, and themselves from their political serfdom; or whether it evinces but a weak and criminal despondency, that despairs of the Republic, and yields a slavish submission to the ascendant tyranny; can be disclosed by time alone. Futurity only, though perhaps a near futurity, can tell whether there is yet virtue and manliness enough in the nation to shake off their shameful vassalage, or whether it is destined to add another instance to those already recorded on the page of history, of a Republic sinking beneath the weight of its own selfishness and crime, and a fresh example,

"How nations sink, by darling schemes oppressed,
When Vengeance listens to the fool's request."

If there be indeed spirit and virtue enough left in the people to resent this outrage on their own rights, as well as on the rights of Humanity, and to resist the further aggressions of the encroaching power of Slavery, the annexation of Texas may prepare them for the only measure by which they can effectually do either the one or the other. We need scarcely say, to this audience, that we mean, THE DISSOLUTION OF THE EXISTING UNION OF THESE STATES.

In this alone lies the last hope of the Northern States, for real independence and self-government. The Constitution, and whatever of protection it may have been supposed to afford to Northern rights, being trampled under foot, and the nominal balance of power, which had been vouchsafed in the long established mode of admitting new States to the Union, being turned in favor of Slavery by the insulting sword of the conqueror, the North may perhaps learn that "Va Victis"wo to the vanquished—is the just and necessary watchword of such a victory. Already the great West, whose consent to the Annexation of Texas was purchased by the promise of the simultaneous acquisition of Oregon, is beginning to discover that the chivalry of the South, who were willing enough, for their own purposes, to plunge the country into a war with Mexico, which would be mainly waged with Northern commerce, are ready to break their word of promise to the ear and to the hope, rather than risk a collision with the chief consumer of their cotton, and tremble at the prospect of black regiments carrying a crusade for liberty, under the red-cross of St. George, into the heart of their plantations. And it seems by no means impossible, that the Slaveholders, in their gamesome mood of triumph, may play such fantastic tricks with their favorite toy of the Tariff, as to arouse the Almighty Dollar to put forth its omnipotence, and unseal the eyes even of Northern manufacturers. Upon such assistances as these we may confidently rely in our agitation of the question of Disunion. The deliverance of the North may yet be derived from the very excesses of the South. And the philosophical historian of a future day may discern, as he traces the downfall of Slavery to the remote causes, that its supporters might date the destruction of their cherished institution from the hour when the curse of Texas was granted to their prayers.