Thirty Years' View (Vol. I of 2)

"The encouragement of counterfeiting was the next great evil which Mr. B. pointed out as belonging to a small note currency; and of all the denominations of notes, he said those of one and two pounds in England (corresponding with fives and tens in the United States), were those to which the demoralizing business of counterfeiting was chiefly directed! They were the chosen game of the forging depredator! and that, for the obvious reasons that fives and tens were small enough to pass currently among persons not much acquainted with bank paper, and large enough to afford some profit to compensate for the expense and labor of producing the counterfeit, and the risk of passing it. Below fives, the profits are too small for the labor and risk. Too many have to be forged and passed before an article of any value can be purchased; and the change to be got in silver, in passing one for a small article, is too little. Of twenty and upwards, though the profit is greater on passing them, yet the danger of detection is also greater. On account of its larger size, the note is not only more closely scrutinized before it is received, and the passer of it better remembered, but the circulation of them is more confined to business men and large dealers, and silver change will not be given for them in buying small articles. The fives and tens, then, in the United States, like the £1 and £2 in England, are the peculiar game of counterfeiters, and this is fully proved by the criminal statistics of the forgery department in both countries. According to returns made to the British Parliament for twenty-two years – from 1797 to 1819 – the period in which the one and two pound notes were allowed to circulate, the whole number of prosecutions for counterfeiting, or passing counterfeit notes of the Bank of England, was 998: in that number there were 313 capital convictions; 530 inferior convictions; and 155 acquittals: and the sum of £249,900, near a million and a quarter of dollars, was expended by the bank in attending to prosecutions. Of this great number of prosecutions, the returns show that the mass of them were for offences connected with the one and two pound notes. The proportion may be distinctly seen in the number of counterfeit notes of different denominations detected at the Bank of England in a given period of time – from the 1st of January, 1812, to the 10th of April, 1818 – being a period of six years and three months out of the twenty-two years that the one and two pound notes continued to circulate. The detections were, of one pound notes, the number of 107,238; of two pound notes, 17,787; of five pound notes, 5,826; of ten pound notes, 419; of twenty pound notes, 54. Of all above twenty pounds, 35. The proportion of ones and twos to the other sizes may be well seen in the tables for this brief period; but to have any idea of the mass of counterfeiting done upon those small notes, the whole period of twenty-two years must be considered, and the entire kingdom of Great Britain taken in; for the list only includes the number of counterfeits detected at the counter of the bank; a place to which the guilty never carry their forgeries, and to which a portion only of those circulating in and about London could be carried. The proportion of crime connected with the small notes is here shown to be enormously and frightfully great. The same results are found in the United States. Mr. B. had looked over the statistics of crime connected with the counterfeiting of bank notes in the United States, and found the ratio between the great and small notes to be about the same that it was in England. He had had recourse to the most authentic data – Bicknell's Counterfeit Detector – and there found the editions of counterfeit notes of the local or State banks, to be eight hundred and eighteen, of which seven hundred and fifty-six were of ten dollars and under; and sixty-two editions only were of twenty dollars and upwards. Of the Bank of the United States and its branches, he found eighty-two editions of fives; seventy-one editions of tens; twenty-six editions of twenties; and two editions of fifties; still showing that in the United States, as well as in England, on local banks as well as that of the United States, the course of counterfeiting was still the same; and that the whole stress of the crime fell upon the five and ten dollar notes in this country, and their corresponding classes, the one and two pound notes in England. Mr. B. also exhibited the pages of Bicknell's Counterfeit Detector, a pamphlet covered over column after column with its frightful lists, nearly all under twenty dollars; and he called upon the Senate in the sacred name of the morals of the country – in the name of virtue and morality – to endeavor to check the fountain of this crime, by stopping the issue of the description of notes on which it exerted nearly its whole force.

"Mr. B. could not quit the evils of the crime of counterfeiting in the United States without remarking that the difficulty of legal detection and punishment was so great, owing to the distance at which the counterfeits were circulated from the banks purporting to issue them, and the still greater difficulty (in most cases impossible) of getting witnesses to attend in person, in States in which they do not reside, the counterfeiters all choosing to practise their crime and circulate their forgeries in States which do not contain the banks whose paper they are imitating. So difficult is it to obtain the attendance of witnesses in other States, that the crime of counterfeiting is almost practised with impunity. The notes under $20 feed and supply this crime; let them be stopped, and ninety-nine hundredths of this crime will stop with them.

"A third objection which Mr. B. urged against the notes under twenty dollars was, that nearly the whole evils of that part of the paper system fell upon the laboring and small dealing part of the community. Nearly all the counterfeits lodged in their hands, or were shaved out of their hands. When a bank failed, the mass of its circulation being in small notes, sunk upon their hands. The gain to the banks from the wear and tear of small notes, came out of them; the loss from the same cause, falling upon them. The ten or twelve percent. annual profit for furnishing a currency in place of gold and silver (for which no interest would be paid to the mint or the government), chiefly falls upon them; for the paper currency is chiefly under twenty dollars. These evils they almost exclusively bear, while they have, over and above all these, their full proportion of all the evils resulting from the expansions and contractions which are incessantly going on, totally destroying the standard of value, periodically convulsing the country; and in every cycle of five or six years making a lottery of all property, in which all the prizes are drawn by bank managers and their friends.

"He wished the basis of circulation throughout the country to be in hard money. Farmers, laborers, and market people, ought to receive their payments in hard money. They ought not to be put to the risk of receiving bank notes in all their small dealings. They are no judges of good or bad notes. Counterfeits are sure to fall upon their hands; and the whole business of counterfeiting was mainly directed to such notes as they handle – those under twenty dollars.

"Mr. B. said he here wished to fix the attention of those who were in favor of a respectable paper currency – a currency of respectable-sized notes of twenty dollars and upwards – on the great fact, that the larger the specie basis, the larger and safer would be the superstructure of paper which rested upon it; the smaller that specie basis, the smaller and more unsafe must be the paper which rested on it. The currency of England is $300,000,000, to wit: £8,000,000 sterling (near $40,000,000) in silver; £22,000,000 sterling (above $100,000,000) in gold; and about £30,000,000 sterling (near $150,000,000) in bank notes. The currency of the United States is difficult to be ascertained, from the multitude of banks, and the incessant ebb and flow of their issues; calculations vary; but all put the paper circulation at less than $100,000,000; and the proportion of specie and paper, at more than one half paper. This is agreed upon all hands, and is sufficient for the practical result, that an increase of our specie to $100,000,000, and the suppression of small notes, will give a larger total circulation than we now have, and a safer one. The total circulation may then be $200,000,000, in the proportions of half paper and half specie; and the specie, half gold and half silver. This would be an immense improvement upon our present condition, both in quantity and in quality; the paper part would become respectable from the suppression of notes under twenty dollars, which are of no profit except to the banks which issue them, and the counterfeiters who imitate them; the specie part would be equally improved by becoming one half gold. Mr. B. could not quit this important point, namely, the practicability of soon obtaining a specie currency of $100,000,000, and the one half gold, without giving other proofs to show the facility with which it has been every where done when attempted. He referred to our own history immediately after the Revolution, when the disappearance of paper money was instantly followed, as if by magic, by the appearance of gold and silver; to France, where the energy of the great Napoleon, then first consul, restored an abundant supply of gold and silver in one year; to England, where the acquisition of gold was at the rate of $24,000,000 per annum for four years after the notes under five pounds were ordered to be suppressed; and he referred with triumph to our own present history, when, in defiance of an immense and powerful political and moneyed combination against gold, we will have acquired about $20,000,000 of that metal in the two concluding years of President Jackson's administration.

"Mr. B. took this occasion to express his regret that the true idea of banks seemed to be lost in this country, and that here we had but little conception of a bank, except as an issuer of currency. A bank of discount and deposit, in contradistinction to a bank of circulation, is hardly thought of in the United States; and it may be news to some bank projectors, who suppose that nothing can be done without banks to issue millions of paper, to learn that the great bankers in London and Paris, and other capitals of Europe, issue no paper; and, still more, it may be news to them to learn that Liverpool and Manchester, two cities which happen to do about as much business as a myriad of such cities as this our Washington put together, also happen to have no banks to issue currency for them. They use money and bills of exchange, and have banks of discount and deposit, but no banks of circulation. Mr. Gallatin, in his Essay upon Currency, thus speaks of them:

"'There are, however, even in England, where incorporated country banks issuing paper are as numerous, and have been attended with the same advantages, and the same evils, as our country banks, some extensive districts, highly industrious and prosperous, where no such bank does exist, and where that want is supplied by bills of exchange drawn on London. This is the case in Lancashire, which includes Liverpool and Manchester, and where such bills, drawn at ninety days after date, are indorsed by each successive holder, and circulate through numerous persons before they reach their ultimate destination, and are paid by the drawee.'

"Mr. B. greatly regretted that such banks as those in Liverpool and Manchester were not in vogue in the United States. They were the right kind of banks. They did great good, and were wholly free from mischief. They lent money; they kept money; they transferred credits on books; they bought and sold bills of exchange; and these bills, circulating through many hands, and indorsed by each, answered the purpose of large bank notes, without their dangers, and became stronger every time they were passed. To the banks it was a profitable business to sell them, because they got both exchange and interest. To the commercial community they were convenient, both as a remittance and as funds in hand. To the community they were entirely safe. Banks of discount and deposit in the United States, issuing no currency, and issuing no bank note except of $100 and upwards, and dealing in exchange, would be entitled to the favor and confidence of the people and of the federal government. Such banks only should be the depositories of the public moneys.

"It is the faculty of issuing paper currency which makes banks dangerous to the country, and the height to which this danger has risen in the United States, and the progress which it is making, should rouse and alarm the whole community. It is destroying all standard of value. It is subjecting the country to demoralizing and ruinous fluctuations of price. It is making a lottery of property, and making merchandise of money, which has to be bought by the ticket holders in the great lottery at two and three per cent. a month. It is equivalent to the destruction of weights and measures, and like buying and selling without counting, weighing, or measuring. It is the realization, in a different form, of the debasement and arbitrary alteration of the value of coins practised by the kings of Europe in former ages, and now by the Sultan of Turkey. It is extinguishing the idea of fixed, moderate, annual interest. Great duties are thus imposed upon the legislator; and the first of these duties is to revive and favor the class of banks of discount and deposit; banks to make loans, keep money, transfer credits on books, buy and sell exchange, deal in bullion; but to issue no paper. This class of banks should be revived and favored; and the United States could easily revive them by confiding to them the public deposits. The next great duty of the legislator is to limit the issues of banks of circulation, and make them indemnify the community in some little degree, by refunding, in annual taxes, some part of their undue gains.

"The progress of the banking business is alarming and deplorable in the United States. It is now computed that there are 750 banks and their branches in operation, all having authority to issue currency; and, what is worse, all that currency is receivable by the federal government. The quantity of chartered bank capital, as it is called, is estimated at near $800,000,000; the amount of this capital reported by the banks to have been paid in is about $300,000,000; and the quantity of paper money which they are authorized by their charters to issue is about $750,000,000. How much of this is actually issued can never be known with any precision; for such are the fluctuations in the amount of a paper currency, flowing from 750 fountains, that the circulation of one day cannot be relied upon for the next. The amount of capital, reported to be paid in, is, however, well ascertained, and that is fixed at $300,000,000. This, upon its face, and without recourse to any other evidence, is proof that our banking system, as a whole, is unsolid and delusive, and a frightful imposition upon the people. Nothing but specie can form the capital of a bank; there are not above sixty or seventy millions of specie in the country, and, of that, the banks have not the one half. Thirty millions in specie is the extent; the remainder of the capital must have been made up of that undefinable material called 'specie funds,' or 'funds equivalent to specie,' the fallacy of which is established by the facts already stated, and which show that all the specie in the country put together is not sufficient to meet the one fifth part of these 'specie funds,' or 'funds equivalent to specie.' The equivalent, then, does not exist! credit alone exists; and any general attempt to realize these 'specie funds,' and turn them into specie, would explode the whole banking system, and cover the country with ruin. There may be some solid and substantial banks in the country, and undoubtedly there are better and worse among them; but as a whole – and it is in that point of view the community is interested – as a whole, the system is unsolid and delusive; and there is no safety for the country until great and radical reforms are effected.

"The burdens which these 750 banks impose upon the people were then briefly touched by Mr. B. It was a great field, which he had not time to explore, but which could not, in justice, be entirely passed by. First, there were the salaries and fees of 750 sets of bank officers: presidents, cashiers, clerks, messengers, notaries public to protest notes, and attorneys to sue on them; all these had salaries, and good salaries, paid by the people, though the people had no hand in fixing these salaries: next, the profits to the stockholders, which, at an average of ten per centum gross would give thirty millions of dollars, all levied upon the people; then came the profits to the brokers, first cousins to the bankers, for changing notes for money, or for other notes at par; then the gain to the banks and their friends on speculations in property, merchandise, produce, and stocks, during the periodical visitations of the expansions and contractions of the currency; then the gain from the wear and tear of notes, which is so much loss to the people; and, finally, the great chapter of counterfeiting which, without being profitable to the bank, is a great burden to the people, on whose hands all the counterfeits sink. The amount of these burdens he could not compute; but there was one item about which there was no dispute – the salaries to the officers and the profits to the stockholders – and this presented an array of names more numerous, and an amount of money more excessive, than was to be found in the 'Blue Book,' with the Army and Navy Register inclusive.

"Mr. B. said this was a faint sketch of the burdens of the banking system as carried on in the United States, where every bank is a coiner of paper currency, and where every town, in some States, must have its banks of circulation, while such cities as Liverpool and Manchester have no such banks, and where the paper money of all these machines receive wings to fly over the whole continent, and to infest the whole land, from their universal receivability by the federal government in payment of all dues at their custom-houses, land-offices, post-offices, and by all the district attorneys, marshals, and clerks, employed under the federal judiciary. The improvidence of the States, in chartering such institutions, is great and deplorable; but their error was trifling, compared to the improvidence of the federal government in taking the paper coinage of all these banks for the currency of the federal government, maugre that clause in the constitution which recognizes nothing but gold and silver for currency, and which was intended for ever to defend and preserve this Union from the evils of paper money.

"Mr. B. averred, with a perfect knowledge of the fact, that the banking system of the United States was on a worse footing than it was in any country upon the face of the earth; and that, in addition to its deep and dangerous defects, it was also the most expensive and burdensome, and gave the most undue advantages to one part of the community over another. He had no doubt but that this banking system was more burdensome to the free citizens of the United States than ever the feudal system was to the villeins, and serfs, and peasants of Europe. And what did they get in return for this vast burden? A pestiferous currency of small paper! when they might have a gold currency without paying interest, or suffering losses, if their banks, like those in Liverpool and Manchester, issued no currency except as bills of exchange; or, like the Bank of France, issued no notes but those of 500 and 1,000 francs (say $100 and $500); or even, like the Bank of England, issued no note under £5 sterling, and payable in gold. And with how much real capital is this banking system, so burdensome to the people of the United States, carried on? About $30,000,000! Yes; on about $30,000,000 of specie rests the $300,000,000 paid in, and on which the community are paying interest, and giving profits to bankers, and blindly yielding their faith and confidence, as if the whole $300,000,000 was a solid bed of gold and silver, instead of being, as it is, one tenth part specie, and nine tenths paper credit!"

Other senators spoke against the recharter of these banks, without the amelioration of their charters which the public welfare required; but without effect. The amendments were all rejected, and the bill passed for the recharter of the whole six by a large vote – 26 to 14. The yeas and nays were:

Yeas. – Messrs. Black, Buchanan, Calhoun, Clay, Crittenden, Cuthbert, Davis, Ewing of Ohio, Goldsborough, Hendricks, Hubbard, Kent, King of Alabama, Knight, Leigh, Naudain, Nicholas, Porter, Prentiss, Rives, Southard, Swift, Tallmadge, Tomlinson, Walker, Webster.

Nays. – Messrs. Benton, Ewing of Illinois, King of Georgia, Linn, McKean, Mangum, Morris, Niles, Robinson, Ruggles, Shepley, Wall, White, Wright.

CHAPTER CXLIV.

INDEPENDENCE OF TEXAS

During several months memorials had been coming in from public meetings in different cities in favor of acknowledging the independence of Texas – the public feeling in behalf of the people of that small revolted province, strong from the beginning of the contest, now inflamed into rage from the massacres of the Alamo and of Goliad. Towards the middle of May news of the victory of San Jacinto arrived at Washington. Public feeling no longer knew any bounds. The people were exalted – Congress not less so – and a feeling for the acknowledgment of Texian independence, if not universal, almost general. The sixteenth of May – the first sitting of the Senate after this great news – Mr. Mangum, of North Carolina, presented the proceedings of a public meeting in Burke county, of that State, praying Congress to acknowledge the independence of the young republic. Mr. Preston said: "The effects of that victory had opened up a curtain to a most magnificent scene. This invader had come at the head of his forces, urged on by no ordinary impulse – by an infuriate fanaticism – by a superstitious catholicism, goaded on by a miserable priesthood, against that invincible Anglo-Saxon race, the van of which now approaches the del Norte. It was at once a war of religion and of liberty. And when that noble race engaged in a war, victory was sure to perch upon their standard. This was not merely the retribution of the cruel war upon the Alamo, but that tide which was swollen by this extraordinary victory would roll on; and it was not in the spirit of prophecy to say where it would stop." Mr. Walker, of Mississippi, said:

"He had, upon the 22d of April last, called the attention of the Senate to the struggle in Texas, and suggested the reservation of any surplus that might remain in the treasury, for the purpose of acquiring Texas from whatever government might remain the government de facto of that country. At that period (said Mr. W.) no allusion had been made, he believed, by any one in either House of Congress to the situation of affairs in Texas. And now (said Mr. W.), upon the very day that he had called the attention of the Senate to this subject, it appeared that Santa Anna had been captured, and his army overthrown. Mr. W. said he had never doubted this result. When on the 22d of April last, resolutions were introduced before the Senate by the senator from Ohio (Mr. Morris), requesting Congress to recognize the independence of Texas, he (Mr. W.) had opposed laying these resolutions on the table, and advocated their reference to a committee of the Senate. Mr. W. said he had addressed the Senate then under very different circumstances from those which now existed. The cries of the expiring prisoners at the Alamo were then resounding in our ears; the victorious usurper was advancing onward with his exterminating warfare, and, in the minds of many, all was gloom and despondency; but Mr. W. said that the published report of our proceedings demonstrated that he did not for a moment despond; that his confidence in the rifle of the West was firm and unshaken; and that he had then declared that the sun was not more certain to set in the western horizon, than that Texas would maintain her independence; and this sentiment he had taken occasion to repeat in the debate on this subject in the Senate on the 9th of May last. Mr. W. said that what was then prediction was now reality; and his heart beat high, and his pulse throbbed with delight, in contemplating this triumph of liberty. Sir (said Mr. W.), the people of the valley of the Mississippi never could have permitted Santa Anna and his myrmidons to retain the dominion of Texas."

Mr. Walker afterwards moved the reference of all the memorials in relation to Texas to the Committee on Foreign Relations. If the accounts received from Texas had been official (for as yet there were nothing but newspaper accounts of the great victory), he would have moved for the immediate recognition of the Texian independence. Being unofficial, he could only move the reference to the committee in the expectation that they would investigate the facts and bring the subject before the Senate in a suitable form for action. Mr. Webster said:

"That if the people of Texas had established a government de facto, it was undoubtedly the duty of this government to acknowledge their independence. The time and manner of doing so, however, were all matters proper for grave and mature consideration. He should have been better satisfied, had this matter not been moved again till all the evidence had been collected, and until they had received official information of the important events that had taken place in Texas. As this proceeding had been moved by a member of the administration party, he felt himself bound to understand that the Executive was not opposed to take the first steps now, and that in his opinion this proceeding was not dangerous or premature. Mr. W. was of opinion that it would be best not to act with precipitation. If this information was true, they would doubtless before long hear from Texas herself; for as soon as she felt that she was a country, and had a country, she would naturally present her claims to her neighbors, to be recognized as an independent nation. He did not say that it would be necessary to wait for this event, but he thought it would be discreet to do so. He would be one of the first to acknowledge the independence of Texas, on reasonable proof that she had established a government. There were views connected with Texas which he would not now present, as it would be premature to do so; but he would observe that he had received some information from a respectable source, which turned his attention to the very significant expression used by Mr. Monroe in his message of 1822, that no European Power should ever be permitted to establish a colony on the American continent. He had no doubt that attempts would be made by some European government to obtain a cession of Texas from the government of Mexico."

Mr. King, of Alabama, counselled moderation and deliberation, although he was aware that in the present excited feeling in relation to Texas, every prudent and cautious course would be misunderstood, and a proper reserve be probably construed into hostility to Texian independence: but he would, so long as he remained a member on that floor, be regardless of every personal consideration, and place himself in opposition to all measures which he conceived were calculated to detract from the exalted character of this country for good faith, and for undeviating adherence to all its treaty stipulations. He then went on to say:

"He knew not whether the information received of the extraordinary successes of the Texans was to be relied on or not; he sincerely hoped it might prove true; no man here felt a deeper detestation of the bloodthirsty wretches who had cruelly butchered their defenceless prisoners, than he did; but, whether true or false, did it become wise, discreet, prudent men, bound by the strongest considerations to preserve the honor and faith of the country, to be hurried along by the effervescence of feeling, and at once abandon the course, and, he would say, the only true course, which this government has invariably, heretofore, pursued towards foreign powers? We have uniformly (said Mr. K.) recognized the existing governments – the governments de facto; we have not stopped to inquire whether it is a despotic or constitutional government; whether it is a republic or a despotism. All we ask is, does a government actually exist? and, having satisfied ourselves of that fact, we look no further, but recognize it as it is. It was on this principle (said Mr. K.) – this safe, this correct principle, that we recognized what was called the Republic of France, founded on the ruins of the old monarchy; then, the consular government; a little after, the imperial; and when that was crushed by a combination of all Europe, and that extraordinary man who wielded it was driven into exile, we again acknowledged the kingly government of the House of Bourbon, and now the constitutional King Louis Philippe of Orleans.

"Sir (said Mr. K.), we take things as they are; we ask not how governments are established – by what revolutions they are brought into existence. Let us see an independent government in Texas, and he would not be behind the senator from Mississippi nor the senator from South Carolina in pressing forward to its recognition, and establishing with it the most cordial and friendly relations."

Mr. Calhoun went beyond all other speakers, and advocated not only immediate recognition of the independence of Texas, but her simultaneous admission into the Union; was in favor of acting on both questions together, and at the present session; and saw an interest in the slaveholding States in preventing Texas from having the power to annoy them. And he said:

"He was of opinion that it would add more strength to the cause of Texas, to wait for a few days, until they received official confirmation of the victory and capture of Santa Anna, in order to obtain a more unanimous vote in favor of the recognition of Texas. He had been of but one opinion, from the beginning, that, so far from Mexico being able to reduce Texas, there was great danger of Mexico, herself, being conquered by the Texans. The result of one battle had placed the ruler of Mexico in the power of the Texans; and they were now able, either to dictate what terms they pleased to him, or to make terms with the opposition in Mexico. This extraordinary meeting had given a handful of brave men a most powerful control over the destinies of Mexico; he trusted they would use their victory with moderation. He had made up his mind not only to recognize the independence of Texas, but for her admission into this Union; and if the Texans managed their affairs prudently, they would soon be called upon to decide that question. No man could suppose for a moment that that country could ever come again under the dominion of Mexico; and he was of opinion that it was not for our interests that there should be an independent community between us and Mexico. There were powerful reasons why Texas should be a part of this Union. The Southern States, owning a slave population, were deeply interested in preventing that country from having the power to annoy them; and the navigating and manufacturing interests of the North and the East were equally interested in making it a part of this Union. He thought they would soon be called on to decide these questions; and when they did act on it, he was for acting on both together – for recognizing the independence of Texas, and for admitting her into the Union. Though he felt the deepest solicitude on this subject, he was for acting calmly, deliberately, and cautiously, but at the same time with decision and firmness. They should not violate their neutrality; but when they were once satisfied that Texas had established a government, they should do as they had done in all other similar cases: recognize her as an independent nation; and if her people, who were once citizens of this Republic, wished to come back to us, he would receive them with open arms. If events should go on as they had done, he could not but hope that, before the close of the present session of Congress, they would not only acknowledge the independence of Texas, but admit her into the Union. He hoped there would be no unnecessary delay, for, in such cases, delays were dangerous; but that they would act with unanimity, and act promptly."

The author of this View did not reply to Mr. Calhoun, being then on ill terms with him; but he saw in the speech much to be considered and remembered – the shadowings forth of coming events; the revelation of a new theatre for the slavery agitation; and a design to make the Texas question an element in the impending election. Mr. Calhoun had been one of Mr. Monroe's cabinet, at the time that Texas was ceded to Spain, and for reasons (as Mr. Monroe stated to General Jackson, in the private letter heretofore quoted) of internal policy and consideration; that is to say, to conciliate the free States, by amputating slave territory, and preventing their opposition to future Southern presidential candidates. He did not use those precise words, but that was the meaning of the words used. The cession of Texas was made in the crisis of the Missouri controversy; and both Mr. Monroe and Mr. Calhoun received the benefit of the conciliation it produced: Mr. Monroe in the re-election, almost unanimous, of 1820; and Mr. Calhoun in the vice-presidential elections of 1824 and 1828; in which he was so much a favorite of the North as to get more votes than Mr. Adams received in the free States, and owed to them his honorable election by the people, when all others were defeated, on the popular vote. Their justification (that of Mr. Monroe's cabinet) for this cession of a great province, was, that the loss was temporary – "that it could be got back again whenever it was wanted" – but the victory of San Jacinto was hardly foreseen at that time. It was these reasons (Northern conciliation, and getting it back when we pleased) that reconciled General Jackson to the cession, at the time it was made. One of the foremost to give away Texas, Mr. Calhoun was the very foremost to get her back; and at an immense cost to our foreign relations and domestic peace. The immediate admission of Texas into the Union, was his plan. She was at war with Mexico – we at peace: to incorporate her into the Union, was to adopt her war. We had treaties of amity with Mexico: to join Texas in the war, was to be faithless to those treaties. We had a presidential election depending; and to discuss the question of Texian admission into our Union, was to bring that element into the canvass, in which all prudent men who were adverse to the admission (as Mr. Van Buren and his friends were), would be thrown under the force of an immense popular current; while all that were in favor of it would expect to swim high upon the waves of that current. The proposition was incredibly rash, tending to involve us in war and dishonor; and also disrespectful to Texas herself, who had not asked for admission; and extravagantly hasty, in being broached before there was any official news of the great victory. Before the debate was over, the author of this View took an opportunity to reply, without reference to other speakers, and to give reasons against the present admission of Texas. But there was one of Mr. Calhoun's reasons for immediate admission, which to him was enigmatical, and at that time, incomprehensible; and that was, the prevention of Texas "from having the power to annoy" the Southern slave States. We had just been employed in suppressing, or exploding, this annoyance, in the Northeast; and, in the twinkling of an eye, it sprung up in the Southwest, two thousand miles off, and quite diagonally from its late point of apparition. That sudden and so distant re-appearance of the danger, was a puzzle, remaining unsolved until the Tyler administration, and the return of Mr. Duff Green from London, with the discovery of the British abolition plot; which was to be planted in Texas, spread into the South, and blow up its slavery. Mr. Bedford Brown, and others, answered Mr. Calhoun. Mr. Brown said:

"He regarded our national character as worth infinitely more than all the territorial possessions of Mexico, her wealth, or the wealth of all other nations added together. We occupied a standing among the nations of the earth, of which we might well be proud, and which we ought not to permit to be tarnished. We have, said Mr. B., arrived at that period of our history, as a nation, when it behooves us to act with the greatest wisdom and circumspection. But a few years since as a nation, we were comparatively in a state of infancy; we were now, in the confidence of youth, and with the buoyancy of spirit incident to this period of our existence as a nation, about to enter on 'man's estate.' Powerful in resources, and conscious of our strength, let us not forget the sacred obligations of justice and good faith, which form the indispensable basis of a nation's character – greatness and freedom; and without which, no people could long preserve the blessings of self-government. Republican government was based on the principles of justice; and for it to be administered on any other, either in its foreign or domestic affairs, was to undermine its foundation and to hasten its overthrow."

Mr. Rives concurred in the necessity for caution; and said:

"This government should act with moderation, calmness, and dignity; and, because he wished the Senate to act with that becoming moderation, calmness, and dignity, which ought to characterize its deliberations on international subjects, it was his wish that the subject might be referred. If it was postponed, it would come up again for discussion, from morning to morning, to the exclusion of most of the business of the Senate, as there was nothing to prevent the presentation of petitions every morning, to excite discussion. It was for the purpose of avoiding these discussions, that he should vote to refer it at once to the Committee on Foreign Relations. A prominent member of that committee had been long and intimately acquainted with the subject of our foreign relations, and there were members on it representing all the different sections of the country, to whose charge he believed the subject could be safely committed. It would seem, from the course of debate this morning, that gentlemen supposed the question of the recognition of the independence of Texas, or its admission into this Union, was directly before the Senate; and some gentlemen had volunteered their opinions in advance of the report of the committee. He did not vote to refer it to the committee to receive its quietus, but that they might give their views upon it; nor did he feel as if he were called upon to express an opinion upon the propriety of the measure. It was strange that senators, who stated that their opinions were made up, should oppose the reference."

Mr. Niles, of Connecticut, was entirely in favor of preserving the national faith inviolate, and its honor untarnished, and ourselves from the imputation of base motives in our future conduct in relation to Texas, and said:

"This was a case in which this government should act with caution. In ordinary cases of this kind the question was only one of fact, and was but little calculated to compromit the interests or honor of the United States; but the question in regard to Texas was very different, and vastly more important. That is a country on our own borders, and its inhabitants, most of them, emigrants from the United States; and most of the brave men constituting its army, who are so heroically fighting to redeem the province, are citizens of the United States, who have engaged in this bold enterprise as volunteers. Were this government to be precipitate in acknowledging the independence of Texas, might it not be exposed to a suspicion of having encouraged these enterprises of its citizens? There is another consideration of more importance. Should the independence of Texas be followed by its annexation to the United States, the reasons for suspicions derogatory to the national faith might be still stronger. If we, by our own act, contribute to clothe the constituted authorities of the province with the power of sovereignty over it, and then accept a cession of the country from those authorities, might there not be some reason to charge us with having recognized the independence of the country as a means of getting possession of it? These and other considerations require that this government should act with caution; yet, when the proper time arrives it will be our duty to act, and to act promptly. But he trusted that all would feel the importance of preserving the national faith and national honor. They should not only be kept pure, but free from injurious suspicions, being more to be prized than any extension of territory, wealth, population, or other acquisition, which enters into the elements of national prosperity or power."

The various memorials were referred to the committee on foreign relations, consisting of Mr. Clay, Mr. King of Georgia, Mr. Tallmadge, Mr. Mangum, and Mr. Porter of Louisiana; which reported early, and unanimously, in favor of the recognition of the independence of Texas, as soon as satisfactory information should be received, showing that she had a civil government in operation capable of performing the duties and fulfilling the obligations of a civilized power. In the report which accompanied the Resolution, its author, Mr. Clay, said:

"Sentiments of sympathy and devotion to civil liberty, which have always animated the people of the United States, have prompted the adoption of the resolution, and other manifestations of popular feeling which have been referred to the committee, recommending an acknowledgment of the independence of Texas. The committee shares fully in all these sentiments; but a wise and prudent government should not act solely on the impulse of feeling, however natural and laudable it may be. It ought to avoid all precipitation, and not adopt so grave a measure as that of recognizing the independence of a new Power, until it has satisfactory information, and has fully deliberated.

"The committee has no information respecting the recent movements in Texas, except such as is derived from the public prints. According to that, the war broke out in Texas last autumn. Its professed object, like that of our revolutionary contest in the commencement, was not separation and independence, but a redress of grievances. In March last, independence was proclaimed, and a constitution and form of government were established. No means of ascertaining accurately the exact amount of the population of Texas are at the command of the committee. It has been estimated at some sixty or seventy thousand souls. Nor are the precise limits of the country which passes under the denomination of Texas known to the committee. They are probably not clearly defined, but they are supposed to be extensive, and sufficiently large, when peopled, to form a respectable Power."

Mr. Southard concurred in the views and conclusion of the report, but desired to say a few words in reply to that part of Mr. Calhoun's speech which looked to the "balance of power, and the perpetuation of our institutions," as a reason for the speedy admission of Texas into the Union, and said:

"I should not have risen to express these notions, if I had not understood the Senator from South Carolina [Mr. Calhoun] to declare that he regarded the acknowledgment of the independence of Texas as important, and principally important, because it prepared the way for the speedy admission of that State as a member of our Union; and that he looked anxiously to that event, as conducing to a proper balance of power, and to the perpetuation of our institutions. I am not now, sir, prepared to express an opinion on that question – a question which all must foresee will embrace interests as wide as our Union, and as lasting in their consequences as the freedom which our institutions secure. When it shall be necessarily presented to me, I shall endeavor to meet it in a manner suitable to its magnitude, and to the vital interests which it involves; but I will not, on the present resolution, anticipate it; nor can I permit an inference, as to my decision upon it, to be drawn from the vote which I now give. That vote is upon this resolution alone, and confined to it, founded upon principles sustained by the laws of nations, upon the unvarying practice of our government, and upon the facts as they are now known to exist. It relates to the independence of Texas, not to the admission of Texas into this Union. The achievement of the one, at the proper time, may be justified; the other may be found to be opposed by the highest and strongest considerations of interest and duty. I discuss neither at this time; nor am I willing that the remarks of the senator should lead, in or out of this chamber, to the inference that all those who vote for the resolution concur with him in opinion. The question which he has started should be left perfectly open and free."

The vote in favor of the Resolution reported by Mr. Clay was unanimous – 39 senators present and voting. In the House of Representatives a similar resolution was reported from the House Committee of foreign relations, Mr. John Y. Mason, of Virginia, chairman; and adopted by a vote of 113 to 22. The nays were: Messrs. John Quincy Adams, Heman Allen, Jeremiah Bailey, Andrew Beaumont, James W. Bouldin, William Clark, Walter Coles, Edward Darlington, George Grennell, jr., Hiland Hall, Abner Hazeltine, William Hiester, Abbott Lawrence, Levi Lincoln, Thomas C. Love, John J. Milligan, Dutee J. Pearce, Stephen C. Phillips, David Potts, jr., John Reed, David Russell, William Slade.

It is remarkable that in the progress of this Texas question both Mr. Adams and Mr. Calhoun reversed their positions – the former being against, and the latter in favor, of its alienation in 1819; the former being against, and the latter in favor of its recovery in 1836-'44. – Mr. Benton was the last speaker in the Senate in favor of the recognition of independence; and his speech being the most full and carefully historical of any one delivered, it is presented entire in the next chapter; and, it is believed, that in going more fully than other speakers did into the origin and events of the Texas Revolution, it will give a fair and condensed view of that remarkable event, so interesting to the American people.

CHAPTER CXLV.

TEXAS INDEPENDENCE – MR. BENTON'S SPEECH

'Mr. Benton rose and said he should confine himself strictly to the proposition presented in the resolution, and should not complicate the practical question of recognition with speculations on the future fate of Texas. Such speculations could have no good effect upon either of the countries interested; upon Mexico, Texas, or the United States. Texas has not asked for admission into this Union. Her independence is still contested by Mexico. Her boundaries and other important points in her political condition, are not yet adjusted. To discuss the question of her admission into this Union, under these circumstances, is to treat her with disrespect, to embroil ourselves with Mexico, to compromise the disinterestedness of our motives in the eyes of Europe; and to start among ourselves prematurely, and without reason, a question which, whenever it comes, cannot be without its own intrinsic difficulties and perplexities.

"Since the three months that the affairs of Texas have been the subject of repeated discussion in this chamber, I have imposed on myself a reserve, not the effect of want of feeling, but the effect of strong feeling, and some judgment combined, which has not permitted me to give utterance to the general expression of my sentiments. Once only have I spoken, and that at the most critical moment of the contest, and when the reported advance of the Mexicans upon Nacogdoches, and the actual movement of General Gaines and our own troops in that direction, gave reason to apprehend the encounter of flags, or the collision of arms, which might compromise individuals or endanger the peace of nations. It was then that I used those words, not entirely enigmatical, and which have since been repeated by some, without the prefix of their important qualifications, namely; that while neutrality was the obvious line of our duty and of our interest, yet there might be emergencies in which the obligation of duty could have no force, and the calculations of interest could have no place; when, in fact, a man should have no head to think! nothing but a heart to feel! and an arm to strike! and I illustrated this sentiment. It was after the affair of Goliad, and the imputed order to unpeople the country, with the supposititious case of prisoners assassinated, women violated, and children slaughtered; and these horrors to be perpetrated in the presence or hearing of an American army. In such a case I declared it to be my sentiment – and I now repeat it, for I feel it to be in me – in such a case, I declared it to be my sentiment, that treaties were nothing, books were nothing, laws were nothing! that the paramount law of God and nature was every thing! and that the American soldier, hearing the cries of helplessness and weakness, and remembering only that he was a man, and born of woman, and the father of children, should fly to the rescue, and strike to prevent the perpetration of crimes which shock humanity and dishonor the age. I uttered this sentiment not upon impulsion, but with consideration; not for theatrical effect, but as a rule for action; not as vague declamation, but with an eye to possible or probable events, and with a view to the public justification of General Gaines and his men, if, under circumstances appalling to humanity, they should nobly resolve to obey the impulsions of the heart instead of coldly consulting the musty leaves of books and treaties.

"Beyond this I did not go, and, except in this instance, I do not speak. Duty and interest prescribed to the United States a rigorous neutrality; and this condition she has faithfully fulfilled. Our young men have gone to Texas to fight; but they have gone without the sanction of the laws, and against the orders of the Government. They have gone upon that impulsion which, in all time, has carried the heroic youth of all ages to seek renown in the perils and glories of distant war. Our foreign enlistment law is not repealed. Unlike England, in the civil war now raging in Spain, we have not licensed interference by repealing our penalties: we have not stimulated action by withdrawing obstacles. No member of our Congress, like General Evans in the British Parliament, has left his seat to levy troops in the streets of the metropolis, and to lead them to battle and to victory in the land torn by civil discord. Our statute against armaments to invade friendly powers is in full force. Proclamations have attested our neutral dispositions. Prosecutions have been ordered against violators of law. A naval force in the gulf, and a land force on the Sabine, have been directed to enforce the policy of the government; and so far as acts have gone, the advantage has been on the side of Mexico; for the Texian armed schooner Invincible has been brought into an American port by an American ship of war. If parties and individuals still go to Texas to fight, the act is particular, not national, compromising none but the parties themselves, and may take place on one side as well as on the other. The conduct of the administration has been strictly neutral; and, as a friend to that administration, and from my own convictions, I have conformed to its policy, avoiding the language which would irritate, and opposing the acts which might interrupt pacific and commercial communications. Mexico is our nearest neighbor, dividing with us the continent of North America, and possessing the elements of a great power. Our boundaries are co-terminous for more than two thousand miles. We have inland and maritime commerce. She has mines; we have ships. General considerations impose upon each power the duties of reciprocal friendship; especial inducements invite us to uninterrupted commercial intercourse. As a western senator, coming from the banks of the Mississippi, and from the State of Missouri, I cannot be blind to the consequences of interrupting that double line of inland and maritime commerce, which, stretching to the mines of Mexico, brings back the perennial supply of solid money which enriches the interior, and enables New Orleans to purchase the vast accumulation of agricultural produce of which she is the emporium. Wonderful are the workings of commerce, and more apt to find out its own proper channels by its own operations than to be guided into them by the hand of legislation. New Orleans now is what the Havana once was – the entrepot of the Mexican trade, and the recipient of its mineral wealth. The superficial reader of commercial statistics would say that Mexico but slightly encourages our domestic industry; that she takes nothing from our agriculture, and but little from our manufactures. On the contrary, the close observer would see a very different picture. He would see the products of our soil passing to all the countries of Europe, exchanging into fine fabrics, and these returning in the ships of many nations, our own predominant, to the city of New Orleans; and thence going off in small Mexican vessels to Matamoros, Tampico, Vera Cruz, and other Mexican ports. The return from these ports is in the precious metals; and, to confine myself to a single year, as a sample of the whole, it may be stated that, of the ten millions and three quarters of silver coin and bullion received in the United States, according to the custom-house returns during the least year, eight millions and one quarter of it came from Mexico alone, and the mass of it through the port of New Orleans. This amount of treasure is not received for nothing, nor, as it would seem on the commercial tables, for foreign fabrics unconnected with American industry, but, in reality, for domestic productions changed into foreign fabrics, and giving double employment to the navigation of the country. New Orleans has taken the place of the Havana; it has become the entrepot of this trade; and many circumstances, not directed by law, or even known to lawgivers, have combined to produce the result. First, the application of steam power to the propulsion of vessels, which, in the form of towboats, has given to a river city a prompt and facile communication with the sea; then the advantage of full and assorted cargoes, which brings the importing vessel to a point where she delivers freight for two different empires; then the marked advantage of a return cargo, with cheap and abundant supplies, which are always found in the grand emporium of the great West; then the discriminating duties in Mexican ports in favor of Mexican vessels, which makes it advantageous to the importer to stop and transship at New Orleans; finally, our enterprise, our police, and our free institutions, our perfect security, under just laws, for life, liberty, person and property. These circumstances, undirected by government, and without the knowledge of government, have given to New Orleans the supreme advantage of being the entrepot of the Mexican trade; and have presented the unparalleled spectacle of the noblest valley in the world, and the richest mines in the world, sending their respective products to meet each other at the mouth of the noblest river in the world; and there to create in lapse of time, the most wonderful city which any age or country has ever beheld. A look upon the map of the great West, and a tolerable capacity to calculate the aggregate of geographical advantages, must impress the beholder with a vast opinion of the future greatness of New Orleans; but he will only look upon one half of the picture unless he contemplates this new branch of trade which is making the emporium of the Mississippi the entrepot of Mexican commerce, and the recipient of the Mexican mines, and which, though now so great, is still in its infancy. Let not government mar a consummation so auspicious in its aspect, and teeming with so many rich and precious results. Let no unnecessary collision with Mexico interrupt our commerce, turn back the streams of three hundred mines to the Havana, and give a wound to a noble city which must be felt to the head-spring and source of every stream that pours its tribute into the King of Floods.

"Thus far Mexico has no cause of complaint. The conduct of our government has been that of rigorous neutrality. The present motion does not depart from that line of conduct; for the proposed recognition is not only contingent upon the de facto independence of Texas, but it follows in the train, and conforms to the spirit, of the actual arrangements of the President General Santa Anna, for the complete separation of the countries. We have authentic information that the President General has agreed to an armistice; that he has directed the evacuation of the country; that the Mexican army is in full retreat; that the Rio Grande, a limit far beyond the discovery and settlement of La Salle, in 1684, is the provisional boundary; and that negotiations are impending for the establishment of peace on the basis of separation. Mexico has had the advantage of these arrangements, though made by a captive chief, in the unmolested retreat and happy extrication of her troops from their perilous position. Under these circumstances, it can be no infringement of neutrality for the Senate of the United States to adopt a resolution for the contingent and qualified acknowledgment of Texian independence. Even after the adoption of the resolution, it will remain inoperative upon the hands of the President until he shall have the satisfactory information which shall enable him to act without detriment to any interest, and without infraction of any law.

"Even without the armistice and provisional treaty with Santa Anna, I look upon the separation of the two countries as being in the fixed order of events, and absolutely certain to take place. Texas and Mexico are not formed for union. They are not homogeneous. I speak of Texas as known to La Salle, the bay of St. Bernard – (Matagorda) – and the waters which belong to it, being the western boundary. They do not belong to the same divisions of country, nor to the same systems of commerce, nor to the same pursuits of business. They have no affinities – no attractions – no tendencies to coalesce. In the course of centuries, and while Mexico has extended her settlements infinitely further in other directions – to the head of the Rio Grande in the north, and to the bay of San Francisco in the northwest; yet no settlement had been extended east, along the neighboring coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The rich and deep cotton and sugar lands of Texas, though at the very door of Mexico, yet requiring the application of a laborious industry to make them productive, have presented no temptation to the mining and pastoral population of that empire. For ages this beautiful agricultural and planting region had lain untouched. Within a few years, and by another race, its settlement has begun; and the presence of this race has not smoothed, but increased, the obstacles to union presented by nature. Sooner or later, separation would be inevitable; and the progress of human events has accelerated the operation of natural causes. Goliad has torn Texas from Mexico; Goliad has decreed independence; San Jacinto has sealed it! What the massacre decreed, the victory has sealed; and the day of the martyrdom of prisoners must for ever be regarded as the day of disunion between Texas and Mexico. I speak of it politically, not morally; that massacre was a great political blunder, a miscalculation, an error, and a mistake. It was expected to put an end to resistance, to subdue rebellion, to drown revolt in blood, and to extinguish aid in terror. On the contrary, it has given life and invincibility to the cause of Texas. It has fired the souls of her own citizens, and imparted to their courage the energies of revenge and despair. It has given to her the sympathies and commiseration of the civilized world. It has given her men and money, and claims upon the aid and a hold upon the sensibilities of the human race. If the struggle goes on, not only our America, but Europe will send its chivalry to join in the contest. I repeat it; that cruel morning of the Alamo, and that black day of Goliad, were great political faults. The blood of the martyr is the seed of the church. The blood of slaughtered patriots is the dragon's teeth sown upon the earth, from which heroes, full grown and armed, leap into life, and rush into battle. Often will the Mexican, guiltless of that blood, feel the Anglo-American steel for the deed of that day, if this war continues. Many were the innocent at San Jacinto, whose cries, in broken Spanish, abjuring Goliad and the Alamo, could not save their devoted lives from the avenging remembrance of the slaughtered garrison and the massacred prisoners.

"Unhappy day, for ever to be deplored, that Sunday morning, March 6, 1836, when the undaunted garrison of the Alamo, victorious in so many assaults over twenty times their number perished to the last man by the hands of those, part of whom they had released on parole two months before, leaving not one to tell how they first dealt out to multitudes that death which they themselves finally received. Unhappy day that Palm Sunday, March 27, when the five hundred and twelve prisoners at Goliad, issuing from the sally port at dawn of day, one by one, under the cruel delusion of a return to their families, found themselves enveloped in double files of cavalry and infantry, marched to a spot fit for the perpetration of the horrid deed – and there, without an instant to think of parents, country, friends, and God – in the midst of the consternation of terror and surprise, were inhumanly set upon, and pitilessly put to death, in spite of those moving cries which reached to heaven, and regardless of those supplicating hands, stretched forth for mercy, from which arms had been taken under the perfidious forms of a capitulation. Five hundred and six perished that morning – young, vigorous, brave, sons of respectable families, and the pride of many a parent's heart – and their bleeding bodies, torn with wounds, and many yet alive, were thrown in heaps upon vast fires, for the flames to consume what the steel had mangled. Six only escaped, and not by mercy, but by miracles. And this was the work of man upon his brother; of Christian upon Christian; of those upon those who adore the same God, invoke the same heavenly benediction, and draw precepts of charity and mercy from the same divine fountain. Accursed be the ground on which the dreadful deed was done! Sterile, and set apart, let it for ever be! No fruitful cultivation should ever enrich it; no joyful edifice should ever adorn it; but shut up, and closed by gloomy walls, the mournful cypress, the weeping willow, and the inscriptive monument, should for ever attest the foul deed of which it was the scene, and invoke from every passenger the throb of pity for the slain, and the start of horror for the slayer. And you, neglected victims of the Old Mission and San Patricio, shall you be forgotten because your numbers were fewer, and your hapless fate more concealed? No! but to you also justice shall be done. One common fate befell you all; one common memorial shall perpetuate your names, and embalm your memories. Inexorable history will sit in judgment upon all concerned, and will reject the plea of government orders, even if those orders emanated from the government, instead of being dictated to it. The French National Convention, in 1793, ordered all the English prisoners who should be taken in battle to be put to death. The French armies refused to execute the decree. They answered, that French soldiers were the protectors, not the assassins of prisoners; and all France, all Europe, the whole civilized world, applauded the noble reply.

"But let us not forget that there is some relief to this black and bloody picture – some alleviation to the horror of its appalling features. There was humanity, as well as cruelty, at Goliad – humanity to deplore what it could not prevent. The letter of Colonel Fernandez does honor to the human heart. Doubtless many other officers felt and mourned like him, and spent the day in unavailing regrets. The ladies, Losero and others, of Matamoros, saving the doomed victims in that city, from day to day, by their intercessions, appear like ministering angels. Several public journals, and many individuals, in Mexico, have given vent to feelings worthy of Christians, and of the civilization of the age; and the poor woman on the Gaudaloupe, who succored and saved the young Georgian (Hadaway), how nobly she appears! He was one of the few that escaped the fate of the Georgia battalion sent to the Old Mission. Overpowered by famine and despair, without arms and without comrades, he entered a solitary house filled with Mexican soldiers hunting the fugitives of his party. His action amazed them; and, thinking it a snare, they stepped out to look for the armed body of which he was supposed to be the decoy. In that instant food was given him by the humane woman, and instant flight to the swamp was pointed out. He fled, receiving the fire of many guns as he went; and, escaping the perils of the way, the hazards of battle at San Jacinto, where he fought, and of Indian massacre in the Creek nation, when the two stages were taken and part of his travelling companions killed, he lives to publish in America that instance of devoted humanity in the poor woman of the Gaudaloupe. Such acts as all these deserve to be commemorated. They relieve the revolting picture of military barbarity – soften the resentments of nations – and redeem a people from the offence of individuals.

"Great is the mistake which has prevailed in Mexico, and in some parts of the United States, on the character of the population which has gone to Texas. It has been common to disparage and to stigmatize them. Nothing could be more unjust; and, speaking from knowledge either personally or well acquired (for it falls to my lot to know, either from actual acquaintance or good information the mass of its inhabitants), I can vindicate them from erroneous imputations, and place their conduct and character on the honorable ground which they deserve to occupy. The founder of the Texian colony was Mr. Moses Austin, a respectable and enterprising native of Connecticut, and largely engaged in the lead mines of Upper Louisiana when I went to the Territory of Missouri in 1815. The present head of the colony, his son, Mr. Stephen F. Austin, then a very young man, was a member of the Territorial Legislature, distinguished for his intelligence, business habits, and gentlemanly conduct. Among the grantees we distinguish the name of Robertson, son of the patriarchal founder and first settler of West Tennessee. Of the body of the emigrants, most of them are heads of families or enterprising young men, gone to better their condition by receiving grants of fine land in a fine climate, and to continue to live under the republican form of government to which they had been accustomed. There sits one of them (pointing to Mr. Carson, late member of Congress from North Carolina, and now Secretary of State for Texas). We all know him; our greetings on his appearance in this chamber attest our respect; and such as we know him to be, so do I know the multitude of those to be who have gone to Texas. They have gone, not as intruders, but as grantees; and to become a barrier between the Mexicans and the marauding Indians who infested their borders.