Showing posts with label Oregon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oregon. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Congressman Alexander H. Stephens to Governor George W. Crawford,* February 3, 1846


Washington, D. C., Feb. 3,1846.

Dear Crawford, Yours in relation to the Galphin claim came to hand last night and I will examine the case you cite. I turned over the papers relating to the claim to Judge Berrien some weeks ago who I think likewise turned them over to Mr. McDuffie who is to bring the subject before the Senate. This I think the better course. They have more time in the Senate, and being a smaller body are more disposed to attend to the real merits of the case. If a favourable report can be got through that body it will stand a much better chance in our House. And should it come there I would do all that labour, research and investigation can do to effect its passage. I have bestowed a good deal of attention to the subject and am clearly of opinion that it is founded in right and justice and ought to be passed. Our time however for some weeks, as you see from the papers, has been taken up almost exclusively with the Oregon debate, and when we will bring that to a close I am wholly unable to conjecture. Every one in the House I believe (myself alone excepted) is desirous of making a speech upon the subject. Even those who have spoken are anxious many of them to make another. But I suppose the debate will be ended in the House when it is taken up in the Senate, which will take place next week. It is a subject I feel no disposition to speak upon in its present shape and condition, and I partake very little of that excitement in relation to it which seems to prevail amongst others. I am for our rights as far as they are clear, and in maintaining them thus far I should not suffer myself to be influenced by any considerations growing out of a fear or apprehension of war. Nor do I conceive that the questions of peace or war are at all involved in terminating the joint occupancy under the convention of 1818. It seems to me that such a measure would only bring about a settlement of our boundary, which ought to be done, as our people are new going there in large companies for the purpose of colonizing. Whether this will lead to a rupture with England or not I cannot pretend to say. It ought not, and will not if properly managed. But one thing is certain, our government will have to recede from the position of Mr. Polk that our "title to the whole of the territory is clear and unquestionable ", or war will be inevitable unless I greatly mistake the temper of the British Government. The war however will not be the result of the giving the notice but subsequent legislation taking possession of the whole of the country. And this I am not prepared to do, and will not do, for I do not think our rights clear to that extent. And I moreover think that the whole subject is proper for negotiation and settlement upon terms of mutual compromise. And if I may go a step further I think this will be the result of the whole matter. If the notice is given, negotiations (if the President does his duty) will be opened, he will recede from his position, and the controversy will ultimately be ended in some sort of amicable adjustment. I can not bring myself to the belief that war will result. But enough of this. I am doing what I can to facilitate the settlement of the amount of our state at the Treasury Department, but my progress is slow. I sent you some papers upon this subject a few days ago.

P. S. — My health is good, much better than it has been for several years.
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* Governor of Georgia, 1843-1847, Secretary of War in Taylor's Cabinet, 1849-1850. He was for many years attorney for the Galphin claimants.

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 71-2

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

George D. Phillips to Howell Cobb, December 30, 1845

Clarksville [ga.], Decr. 30th, 1845.

Dear Sir: Enclosed you will receive a letter from our friend Col. Lumpkin to me apprising me he had collected a certain amot. of money which was held subject to my order. . . . Will you do me the kindness to speak to the Col. on the subject, or if you choose shew him his letter, which will refresh his recollection, and receive the amot., and likewise do me the farther favor to hand it to Thomas Ritchie with whom I am in arrears. No doubt you sometimes call on the venerable old gentleman whose grey head and tremulous hand is more formidable to the Whigs than an army with banners. This will give you some trouble perhaps, but we cannot live without troubling one another, and you do not know how much trouble I may have on your account yet. Be it however much or little I shall not make out my bill. I could send the statement of Maj. Walker if I thought it were necessary, but the Col. might think I questioned his honor, or some such thing; and I have a great disinclination to be called out in Cold Weather. I will however drop him a line. The President's Message has set all our mountain folks to thinking and talking. Every one understands, or thinks he understands, all about the Oregon question; and I heard a crowd on Christmas, not one of whom knew on which side of the Rocky Mountains Oregon was, swear they would support and fight for Polk all over the world, that he was right, and we would have Oregon and thrash the British into the bargain. As to the tariff, they despised it — they never liked it — and Polk had shewn it was not the poor man's friend. But about locking up the public money, they were not so sure he was right, — it had better circulate from hand to hand, as people could then get money for their work. After the Message had been elaborately [execrated?] by the meeting, my summing up was that our mountain population (save a few rabid Whigs) were sound to the core, and let peace or war betide they would do their duty. Bagatelle aside, this Oregon affair must prove a rough customer to us and England. I am no advocate of quarrels, much less protracted ones, and decidedly prefer a fight, though it results in a bloody nose, to the latter, and therefore feel anxious that the question should be settled; but I must be permitted to doubt if either England or the U. S. has pursued the most politic course, and think if negotiations could be resumed the controversy would be settled with scarcely a shade's variation from the terms previously offered and rejected. But how can the confab be reopened? Neither power will make the first advance; each to a great extent have taken their position, and pride prompts to its maintenance. That our old ally and best transatlantic friend in bye-gone days begins to look on us with green eyes there can be no doubt. Her conduct in relation to Texas, her notions of a balance of power, etc., prove it, and war with England will demonstrate it fully. We should therefore not precipitate a conflict, but with energy prepare for it by increasing our navy and fortifying the most assailable points. The opinion expressed by many distinguished men that England cannot war with us, is a strange delusion. With her stock of cotton on hand and the supplies she can get from Brazil, Egypt and the E. Indies, not one of her spindles would stop for two or three years; and as to her want of breadstuffs, she can feed her suffering thousands on the water and in Canada as cheaply as at home. Her press gangs are now superseded by the necessities of the people, and the difficulty would be to restrain enlistments. And has she ever had such a time to carry out those objects which she so anxiously desires, as the present? She is at peace with all Christendom, her population redundant, the Catholic fanatics of Ireland would forget repeal to join the crusade against slavery; and France, colonizing France, not at all relishing our declarations as to European powers interfering with the affairs of N. America, would stand aloof and feel no desire that the strife should cease until both were whipped.

But if Oregon is ours, although I regret it is not under instead of on the Pacific, we must have it unless we voluntarily yield a part; and I think the President has immortalised himself in taking the stand he has. I hope Congress will act on the subject with caution, prudence, and firmness. Let us ever be in the right and trust to our valor and the God of battles for the issue.

The winter has been excessively cold and has kept me at home, but shall leave in a few days for Ala. The vote on the adm. of Texas was nobly done. Write to Tom Rush to go to Congress. He has talents of a high order, and the people wish him to go, but he is disinclined. Do write to him at Nacogdoches.

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 69-71

Saturday, April 14, 2018

George D. Phillips to Howell Cobb, February 25, 1845

Hab[ersham] Co[unty, Ga.], Feb. 25,1845.

Dear Sir: I wrote you a few days ago that the Texas question, as decided now, would stand decided forever. I would stake my ears against a Romish crucifix, that time proves the correctness of this opinion; but I would qualify in this particular: if President Polk convenes an extra Congress and Texas be thereby annexed, even under less favourable circumstances than those secured by the House Resolutions, Texas will assent, provided there be no restrictions on the subject of slavery embraced. The wit of man could not devise a plan of annexation to which they would assent if at any future time any portion of Texas, or rather any State formed out of Texas territory, should give rise even to a discussion in Congress on the question of negro slavery. Her public lands are more than enough to pay her public debt, and she feels indifferent on that subject. You need not indulge the least fear that Texas will fall a prey to English diplomacy, intrigue, or money. I had my doubts and fears until I visited the country and mixed with her people freely, the elite and the clod-pole. Save the immigrants from the West, and probably those from abroad, all, all are Americans, and better, Southern, and dyed in the wool. And I hazard nothing in saying Texas will sustain and defend Southern rights and Southern institutions or cease to exist as a free people. Nor will Texas permit England to guarantee her independence. She is conscious of having a better guarantee in the strong arms and brave hearts of her sons; and if she is not received by the U. S., or her independence acknowledged by the powers that be, as soon as a new state of things becomes settled in Mexico she will wring from Mexico that acknowledgement. There is now a strong feeling in all the states from the Rio del Nort to the Table Lands to amalgamate with Texas; an invading army of 2000 men would certainly take possession of 4 states. As those who are resolved not to fight are easily whipd, all that Texas will desire of Uncle Sam will be to keep her Indians at home. As to Mexico and her own savages, she can take care of them.

The last mail brought us intelligence that Congress had decided to establish a territorial government in Oregon. The slavery question did not apply there; but to us it involved the question of power, and if I had been clear that the whole country to the 54th deg. N. L. belonged to us, I never could have supported the measure in advance of a settlement of the Texas question. With me it would have been: no Texas, no Oregon, or both simultaneously. I have never seen any conclusive evidence of our titles to Oregon north of 49, and doubt if such proof is extant. If so, where will I find it? If I am not deceived, Oregon will prove a Pandora's Box. For a foot of Maine I was willing to fight; for Texas I would fight the world, because the world would be impertinently interfering with our concerns; but for Oregon north of 49, I would not quarrel. . . .

There is I find an extraordinary effort making to remove Mr. Cooper, superintendent of the mint,1 from office; and that Dr. Singleton should have the motley crowd almost passeth belief and that too to wear the slippers. Does it not require some credulity to believe this, yet it is so. You know the Dr. is a dull plodding man, and if he were again in office and remained there for half a century he could not be as well qualified for the office as Mr. Cooper was the first week he entered it. Under the Dr.'s administration depositors had to wait from two to four weeks for coin. Some improvement took place when Rosignol was in office, but since Mr. Cooper has been in depositors often get their gold coin as soon as the assay can be made. Mr. Rosignol was an efficient man but his manners rendered him unpopular and it was said, perhaps with some truth, he killed two birds with one stone, served a bank and Uncle Sam too; and for this I presume was removed. Mr. Cooper is easy and polite in his intercourse with all who have business at the mint. If any charges of improper conduct have been brought against him I have not heard them; and it would be difficult to imagine one so correct and unexceptionable in his conduct that such a being as Harrison Riley could not bring a charge against. I presume they dare not attack Mr. Cooper on the ground of want of qualification. No change could be made for the better on that score. Do depositors of gold bullion want him removed? No, and he may challenge to the proof. I speak of honorable, intelligent gentlemen. Many two-and-sixpence depositors may have signed a petition. To what kind of a petition would you fail to get signers? You might get forty in Washington to emancipate my negroes and compel them to cut my throat. But if they really have, as I hear, 6000 petitioners for the removal, I have no doubt but 9/10 of them never were in the mint, made a deposit of gold or know Mr. Cooper, and further that 9/10 of them are Whigs. If Mr. Cooper or his friends were to get up counter petitions they could beat the celebrated Abolition petition a stone's throw. That I think had 7 thousand names. We could get 20 thousand in Geo. The truth is this: Dr. Singleton wants the office for the money. Harrison Riley, than whom the devil is not more artful, hates Mr. Cooper because he is a gentleman and a Democrat, and wishes to get him out of the county, and others whom I could name cooperate from interested motives. In justice to Maj. C. and in justice to your constituents I hope you and every Democratic Member of Congress of both houses will call on President Tyler and put this low and dirty effort down, by the correct representations. It is said Mr. C. is some way related to the President; if so, there may be more danger than if no such connection existed. If any importance is attached to six thousand then ask a suspension of any action until a counter petition of 10,000 can be sent on; and if the matter is reserved for the President-elect, do not in the fulness of heartfelt rejoicing and the pageantry of oiling the head of our triumphant Chief make you forget to call on him, the whole of you, Judge Colquitt at your head, and prevent an honest man and faithful officer from being thrown overboard to gratify a land pirate and his porpoise coadjutor. I write in haste and amidst confusion, but have no doubt wearied you. Adieu.
_______________

1 I. e., the United States branch mint at Dahlonega, Ga.

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 66-8

Thursday, April 12, 2018

George D. Phillips* to Howell Cobb, February 21, 1846

Clarksville [ga.,] 21st Feb. 1846.

Dear Sir: I have just returned from a trip to Texas and if my voice could reach Washington and my opinions have any, the slightest influence on grave Senators, that beautiful country would soon be a portion of our Confederacy. I have seen and conversed with and freely mixed with all classes and do assure you if Texas is not now annexed it never can be with their consent. The property holders and higher classes of the people are anxious for the Union but the middle and lower classe[s] decidedly oposed to it, whilst but few people of property are now immigrating to the country, and vast numbers from Ark., Misso., Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, etc., to say nothing of the swarms from foreign countries are nearly to a man against annexation. Should the measure not succeed now many of its warm advocates will drop off and the issue between competitors for Congress in Texas at their next election will be, annexation or no annexation, and when that issue comes the anti-annexationists will be in the majority. I was not fully satisfied of the importance of Texas to our country in a military point of view until I travelled into the [country]. Nor would Oregon be worth a baubee to us without Texas; [never] could protect it, and if we do not get the last I hope we will be wise enough to surrender the latter; and if I had a seat in Congress I never would favour any project for the occupation of Oregon until we had got Texas, but on the contrary throw every impediment in the way, even give it up to England or the devil.

What is Tom Benton about; is he yet sowing the wind? He will surely reap the whirlwind for his past acts. It is thought by many he will break up the harmony of the Democratic party. I think not; he may fume, fret and denounce, but he has lost caste, he is no longer the big gun he was with the people, he is denounced from Geo. to the Colorado.

What a misfortune Yancey did not bore his man through just for the honor of Old Rip;1 but whatever is, is right!

I did intend being in Washington on the 4th and see little Jemmy invested with the proud mantle of Washington and Jackson, but my long trip and the delicate state of my wife's health will prevent; so I shall remain quiet until you get home and visit us at our Court.
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* A leading Democrat of northeastern Georgia, a keen critic of public affairs.

1 This alludes to the bloodless duel between William L. Yancey, of Alabama, and Thomas L. Clingman, of North Carolina. “Old Rip” (Rip Van Winkle) was a nickname of the State of North Carolina.

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 65-6

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Mark W. Delahay to Abraham Lincoln, May 13, 1860

Tremont House,
Gage, Bro. & Drake, Proprietors
Chicago, 10 P M May 13th 1860
Hon A Lincoln

My Dear Sir

Since your Springfield friends have been fairly located matters have been looking up. I have taken to their quarters a number of the Iowa Delegates, some of the Minnesota and all the Kansas. I have taken “Cottenwood” into my Room, he is sound. Ross & Proctor of Kansas I think can be managed their prefference is Chase. But even with the Seward Delegates you are their 2nd Choice – Greely is here as a Proxie for Origon, and is telling a Crowd now around him that NY can be carried for Bates I think he is Calculated rather to injure Seward – Some of the N. J. men talk very well as I just learned from Col Ross – and so do some of the Mass men – they say they are for a success – I have induced the Penna Delegates to stop talking about their man as an ultum attim. They have mooted one thing, that would Kill them off and I have admonished them to abandon it, which was to call Ills Ind Penna & N. J. Delegates together to harmonize between you & Cameron, such a move would appear like a “Slate” and Seward is too potent here to attempt such a meeting, his friends would probably Slate us, if it were done – I have been up late & Early and am perfectly cool & hopeful –

Delahay

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Brigadier-General Albert Sidney Johnston to Major Fitz-John Porter, February 25, 1861

San Francisco, California, February 25, 1861.

My Dear Major: I have received your letter of 22d of January. I found my trunk at Wells, Fargo & Co.'s office. I have no news to give you from this far-off region. Everything is quiet, and the affairs of the department are being conducted quietly and without difficulty from any source; though, without any excuse for it, the Government has allowed every department of the staff here to fall into a state of pauperism, making the military arm as impotent for action here as the greatest enemy of the republic could desire to have it. The district of Oregon owes not less than $200,000, and no money on hand except a few thousands in the Subsistence Department; this department owes probably $100,000, and not a cent to pay with. Is our Government absolutely stupefied? or why overlook the fact that they can protect the public interest here at least? There is abundance of money in the Mint to pay all the indebtedness of the Government here, and meet any emergency, if the Secretary of the Treasury would only recognize the fact, and transfer the funds in the Sub-Treasury to the credit of the disbursing officers. Volumes have been written against the credit system and the losses to the General Government in consequence of it, when it had credit; how much more strongly may all the arguments be urged now, when men begin to doubt its longer continuance! The loss to the Government must be so much the greater in consequence.

There was a huge Union meeting here on the 22d. The weather was beautiful, and the day was made a perfect holiday by the whole population, who, well dressed and entirely respectable in appearance and deportment, seemed to enjoy the fine weather. The streets were filled all day, the people going to and fro in pursuit of pleasure. The resolutions adopted by the meeting were declaratory of the devoted attachment of the people to the Union, of their opposition to secession as a right, of their repudiation of the idea of a Pacific republic as impossible, and expressive of their fraternal feelings toward all the States, and their duty and interest to bring about harmony. I would that there were no other sentiments within the broad expanse of our country.

Please present my kind regards to Mrs. Porter and Mrs. Holbrook, and believe me, very truly your friend,

A. S. Johnston.
To Major F. J. Porter, No. 66 Union Place, New York City.

SOURCE: William Preston Johnston, The Life of General Albert Sydney Johnston, p. 270

Sunday, November 24, 2013

From St. Louis

ST. LOUIS, May 14.

The steamer Emilie left this port to-day with 250 passengers, bound for the Bitter-Root Valley gold regions in Washington and Oregon Territories.

Among the passengers were the Treasurer and Directors of the American Mining and Exploring Company, who propose to commence mining operations in that region immediately on their arrival.

Andrew J. Vallandigham, a brother it is said, of the belligerent member of Congress from Ohio, is in custody of Col. Fitz Henry Warren, of Clinton, charged with horse-stealing, robbing and driving out Union Men, and marauding, Bushwhacking and jawhawking generally.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, May 17, 1862, p. 1

Monday, September 16, 2013

Polygamy

In the progress of the war, and the general interest with which all classes regard its prosecution, the proceedings of Congress, though of unusual importance, excite but little attention.  The action of that body in respect of the passage of a General Bankrupt Law, and the establishment of a National Armory in the West, except to a few immediately interested, seems to have lost interest; more, perhaps, from the fact that the public had settled down in the conclusion that nothing would be done with either of these measures at the resent session.

A bill has recently been passed by the House of Representatives that is calculated to produce great excitement in one portion of our Republic, and perhaps lead to sedition.  We allude to Mr. Ashley’s bill for the punishment of polygamy.  This is the corner-stone of the proposed State of Deseret, just as slavery is that of the projected Southern Confederacy and the Mormons intend to demand immediate admission into the Union with a State government based upon this principle, so revolting to enlightened humanity.  As congress “declares their fundamental system a crime, which morals and justice alike forbid,” and will not for a moment listen to the admission of a new State into the Union on such grounds, and the Mormon leaders are all in earnest in their demand, and emeute may be expected among the Priams of the far West that may require a few brigades to be kept in the field, after the little affair down South has been settled to the satisfaction of all loyal citizens.

As the Western troops have so distinguished themselves in fighting the rebels against our Government, we suggest that a sufficient number be detailed from them to whip the rebels against decency back into the path of virtue and morality.  The ties of a common Westernhood will not unnerve our brave boys; though they love the beautiful West, its broad prairies and invigorating atmosphere, they love more the Government that protects them in their rights, and they wish to enjoy those rights uncontaminated by sin and shame.

The great lights of Mormondom have recently been reflecting their rays on the obtuse faculties of their followers, in a series of set speeches on this libidinous feature of their corrupt system. – Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball and other “apostolic” dignitaries in Utah, who mould the deluded followers of the Mormon heresy at their will, we see it stated, boldly avow their purpose to make a direct issue with the Government.  In effect, they say, “that they have suffered unjust persecution until forbearance is no longer a virtue, and that they now insist upon a full recognition of their rights, on an equal footing with the States.”  Brigham recently expressed the views of the priesthood in a violent philippic; a single passage of which will reflect the whole:–

“We are not going to be satisfied with a mere pre-emption right on the soil in this territory.  Should the Government grant to every head of a family six hundred and forty acres of land, and to each wife and child their portion, as was done in Oregon territory, that would give me and to my sons and daughters quite a scope of country, and the whole people would swallow up all the land in this territory.  But shall we be satisfied with that?  No, I am going to have a larger pre-emption that the territory of Utah.  In a few years this territory will contain my own posterity.  In twenty years from now this spacious hall will not hold them, and in twenty years more they will more than fill this territory.  I cannot put up with this small possession.”

In a few years according to Brigham’s constructive tree of genealogy, Mormon offspring will be more numerous than the locusts of Egypt, and, like them, will devour the fat of the land. – Slavery and polygamy, “twin relics of barbarism,” must be wiped out from the fair record of our country, then our nation will march on to true greatness.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, May 10, 1862, p. 2

Thursday, June 20, 2013

From California

SAN FRANCISCO, April 26.

The ship Joseph Peabody has been forfeited to the Government for smuggling.

Trade has recently revived, to supply the demand for goods suitable to the Oregon and British Columbia mines, in advance of anticipated large emigration business with the interior.

Gen. Wright has issued an order requiring the arrest of persons charged with aiding and abetting, by words or acts, the rebellion.  Such persons are to be confined, unless they subscribe the oath of allegiance.


SAN FRANCISCO, April 28.

The Steamer Panama has arrived from Mazatlan.  The Confederates in New Mexico and Arizona are making efforts to bring the Boarder States into sympathy with them.

Gen. Sibley, commanding the Rebels [sic] forces, had sent Col. Reiley to open negotiations with the Governor of Sonora.  Reiley tendered troops to enter Sonora, and chastise the Apache Indians, for whose service he asked the right of way overland from Guaymas to Arizona, and also the privilege of purchasing supplies at Mazatlan.  The Governor entered into a long correspondence with Reiley, and sent a special messenger to the Governor of Cinalva, on the subject of his mission.  No definite arrangements appear to be agreed upon, but Reiley received courteous treatment from the Government officials, and at last accounts had arrived at Guaymas, where he boasted that he had been far more successful than he had hoped for.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, May 1, 1862, p. 2

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Annexation

[By John L. O’Sullivan]

It is now time for the opposition to the Annexation of Texas to cease, all further agitation of the waters of bitterness and strife, at least in connexion with this question, – even though it may perhaps be required of us as a necessary condition of the freedom of our institutions, that we must live on for ever in a state of unpausing struggle and excitement upon some subject of party division or other. But, in regard to Texas, enough has now been given to party. It is time for the common duty of Patriotism to the Country to succeed; – or if this claim will not be recognized, it is at least time for common sense to acquiesce with decent grace in the inevitable and the irrevocable.

Texas is now ours. Already, before these words are written, her Convention has undoubtedly ratified the acceptance, by her Congress, of our proffered invitation into the Union; and made the requisite changes in her already republican form of constitution to adapt it to its future federal relations. Her star and her stripe may already be said to have taken their place in the glorious blazon of our common nationality; and the sweep of our eagle’s wing already includes within its circuit the wide extent of her fair and fertile land. She is no longer to us a mere geographical space – a certain combination of coast, plain, mountain, valley, forest and stream. She is no longer to us a mere country on the map. She comes within the dear and sacred designation of Our Country; no longer a “pays,” she is a part of “la patrie;” and that which is at once a sentiment and a virtue, Patriotism, already begins to thrill for her too within the national heart. It is time then that all should cease to treat her as alien, and even adverse – cease to denounce and vilify all and everything connected with her accession – cease to thwart and oppose the remaining steps for its consummation; or where such efforts are felt to be unavailing, at least to embitter the hour of reception by all the most ungracious frowns of aversion and words of unwelcome. There has been enough of all this. It has had its fitting day during the period when, in common with every other possible question of practical policy that can arise, it unfortunately became one of the leading topics of party division, of presidential electioneering. But that period has passed, and with it let its prejudices and its passions, its discords and its denunciations, pass away too. The next session of Congress will see the representatives of the new young State in their places in both our halls of national legislation, side by side with those of the old Thirteen. Let their reception into “the family” be frank, kindly, and cheerful, as befits such an occasion, as comports not less with our own self-respect than patriotic duty towards them. Ill betide those foul birds that delight to file their own nest, and disgust the ear with perpetual discord of ill-omened croak.

Why, were other reasoning wanting, in favor of now elevating this question of the reception of Texas into the Union, out of the lower region of our past party dissensions, up to its proper level of a high and broad nationality, it surely is to be found, found abundantly, in the manner in which other nations have undertaken to intrude themselves into it, between us and the proper parties to the case, in a spirit of hostile interference against us, for the avowed object of thwarting our policy and hampering our power, limiting our greatness and checking the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions. This we have seen done by England, our old rival and enemy; and by France, strangely coupled with her against us, under the influence of the Anglicism strongly tinging the policy of her present prime minister, Guizot. The zealous activity with which this effort to defeat us was pushed by the representatives of those governments, together with the character of intrigue accompanying it, fully constituted that case of foreign interference, which Mr. Clay himself declared should, and would unite us all in maintaining the common cause of our country against foreigner and the foe. We are only astonished that this effect has not been more fully and strongly produced, and that the burst of indignation against this unauthorized, insolent and hostile interference against us, has not been more general even among the party before opposed to Annexation, and has not rallied the national spirit and national pride unanimously upon that policy. We are very sure that if Mr. Clay himself were now to add another letter to his former Texas correspondence, he would express this sentiment, and carry out the idea already strongly stated in one of them, in a manner which would tax all the powers of blushing belonging to some of his party adherents.

It is wholly untrue, and unjust to ourselves, the pretence that the Annexation has been a measure of spoliation, unrightful and unrighteous – of military conquest under forms of peace and law – of territorial aggrandizement at the expense of justice, and justice due by a double sanctity to the weak. This view of the question is wholly unfounded, and has been before so amply refuted in these pages, as well as in a thousand other modes, that we shall not again dwell upon it. The independence of Texas was complete and absolute. It was an independence, not only in fact, but of right. No obligation of duty towards Mexico tended in the least degree to restrain our right to effect the desired recovery of the fair province once our own – whatever motives of policy might have prompted a more deferential consideration of her feelings and her pride, as involved in the question. If Texas became peopled with an American population; it was by no contrivance of our government, but on the express invitation of that of Mexico herself; accompanied with such guaranties of State independence, and the maintenance of a federal system analogous to our own, as constituted a compact fully justifying the strongest measures of redress on the part of those afterwards deceived in this guaranty, and sought to be enslaved under the yoke imposed by its violation. She was released, rightfully and absolutely released, from all Mexican allegiance, or duty of cohesion to the Mexican political body, by the acts and fault of Mexico herself, and Mexico alone. There never was a clearer case. It was not revolution; it was resistance to revolution: and resistance under such circumstances as left independence the necessary resulting state, caused by the abandonment of those with whom her former federal association had existed. What then can be more preposterous than all this clamor by Mexico and the Mexican interest, against Annexation, as a violation of any rights of hers, any duties of ours?

We would not be understood as approving in all its features the expediency or propriety of the mode in which the measure, rightful and wise as it is in itself, has been carried into effect. Its history has been a sad tissue of diplomatic blundering. How much better it might have been managed--how much more smoothly, satisfactorily, and successfully! Instead of our present relations with Mexico--instead of the serious risks which have been run, and those plausibilities of opprobrium which we have had to combat, not without great difficulty, nor with entire success--instead of the difficulties which now throng the path to a satisfactory settlement of all our unsettled questions with Mexico--Texas might, by a more judicious and conciliatory diplomacy, have been as securely in the Union as she is now--her boundaries defined--California probably ours--and Mexico and ourselves united by closer ties than ever; of mutual friendship and mutual support in resistance to the intrusion of European interference in the affairs of the American republics. All this might have been, we little doubt, already secured, had counsels less violent, less rude, less one-sided, less eager in precipitation from motives widely foreign to the national question, presided over the earlier stages of its history. We cannot too deeply regret the mismanagement which has disfigured the history of this question; and especially the neglect of the means which would have been so easy of satisfying even the unreasonable pretensions and the excited pride and passion of Mexico. The singular result has been produced, that while our neighbor has, in truth, no real right to blame or complain--when all the wrong is on her side, and there has been on ours a degree of delay and forbearance, in deference to her pretensions, which is to be paralleled by few precedents in the history of other nations--we have yet laid ourselves open to a great deal of denunciation hard to repel, and impossible to silence; and all history will carry it down as a certain fact, that Mexico would have declared war against us, and would have waged it seriously, if she had not been prevented by that very weakness which should have constituted her best defence.

We plead guilty to a degree of sensitive annoyance – for the sake of the honor of our country, and its estimation in the public opinion of the world – which does not find even in satisfied conscience full consolation for the very necessity of seeking consolation there. And it is for this state of things that we hold responsible that gratuitous mismanagement – wholly apart from the main substantial rights and merits of the question, to which alone it is to be ascribed; and which had its origin in its earlier stages, before the accession of Mr. Calhoun to the department of State.

Nor is there any just foundation for the charge that Annexation is a great pro-slavery measure – calculated to increase and perpetuate that institution.  Slavery had nothing to do with it.  Opinions were and are greatly divided, both at the North and South, as to the influence to be exerted by it on Slavery and the Slave States.  That it will tend to facilitate and hasten the disappearance of Slavery from all the northern tier of the present Slave States, cannot surely admit of serious question.  The greater value in Texas of the slave labor now employed in those States, must soon produce the effect of draining off that labor southwardly, by the same unvarying law that bids water descend the slope that invites it.  Every new Slave State in Texas will make at least one Free State from among those in which that institution now exists – to say nothing of those portions of Texas on which slavery cannot spring and grow – to say nothing of the far more rapid growth of the new States in the free West and Northwest, as these fine regions are overspread by the emigration fast flowing over them from Europe, as well as from the Northern and Eastern States of the Union as it exists.  On the other hand, it is undeniably much gained for the cause of the eventual voluntary abolition of slavery, that it should have been thus drained off towards the only outlets which appeared to furnish much probability of the ultimate disappearance of the negro race from our borders.  The Spanish-Indian-American populations of Mexico, Central America and South America absorbing that race whenever we shall be prepared to slough it off – to emancipate it from slavery, and (simultaneously necessary) to remove it from the midst of our own.  Themselves already of mixed and confused blood, and free from the “prejudices” which among us so insuperably forbid the social amalgamation which can alone elevate the degradation even though legally free, the regions occupied by those populations must strongly attract the black race in that direction; and as soon as the destined hour of emancipation shall arrive, will relieve the question of one of its worst difficulties, if not absolutely the greatest.

No – Mr. Clay was right when he declared that Annexation was a question with which slavery had nothing to do.  The country which was the subject of Annexation in this case, from its geographical position and relations, happens to be – or rather the portion of it now actually settled, happens to be – a slave country.  But a similar process might have taken place in proximity to a different section of our Union; and indeed there is a great deal of Annexation yet to take place, within the life of the present generation, along the whole line of our northern border.  Texas has been absorbed into the Union in the inevitable fulfilment of general law which is rolling our population westward; the connexion of which with that ratio of growth in population which is destined within a hundred years to swell our numbers to the enormous population of two hundred and fifty millions (if not more), is too evident to leave us in doubt of the manifest design of Providence in regard to the occupation of this continent.  It was disintegrated from Mexico in the natural course of events, by a process perfectly legitimate on its own part, blameless on ours; and in which all the censures due to wrong, perfidy and folly, rest on Mexico alone.  And possessed as it was by a population which was in truth but a colonial detachment from our own, and which was still bound by myriad ties of the very heart-strings to its old relations, domestic and political, their incorporation into the Union was not only inevitable, but the most natural, right and proper thing in the world – and it is only astonishing that there should be any among ourselves to say it nay.

In respect to the institution of slavery itself, we have not designed, in what has been said above, to express any judgment of its merits or demerits, pro or con.  National in its character and aims, this Review abstains from the discussion of a topic pregnant with embarrassment and danger – intricate and double-sided – exciting and embittering – and necessarily excluded from a work circulating equality in the South as in the North.  It is unquestionably one of the most difficult of the various social problems which at the present day so deeply agitate the thoughts of the civilized world.  Is the negro race, or is it not, of equal attributes and capacities with our own?  Can they, on a large scale, coexist side by side in the same country on a footing of civil and social equality with the white race?  In a free competition of labor with the latter, will they or will they not be ground down to a degradation and misery worse than slavery?    When we view the condition of the operative masses of the population in England and other European countries, and feel all the difficulties of the great problem, of the distribution of the fruits of production between capital, skill and labor, can our confidence be undoubting that in the present condition of society, the conferring of sudden freedom upon our negro race would be a boon to be grateful for?  Is it certain that competitive wages are very much better, for a race so situated, than guarantied support and protection?  Until a still deeper problem shall shave been solved than that of slavery, the slavery of an inferior to a superior race – a relation reciprocal in certain important duties and obligations – is it certain that the cause of true wisdom and philanthropy is not rather, for the present to aim to meliorate that institution as it exists, to guard against its abuses, to mitigate its evils, to modify it when it may contravene sacred principles and rights of humanity, by prohibiting the separation of families, excessive severities, subjection to the licentiousness of the mastership, &c.?  Great as may be its present evils, it is certain that we would not plunge the unhappy Helot race which has been entailed upon us, into still greater ones, by surrendering their fate into the rash hands of those fanatic zealots of a single idea, who claim to be their special friends and champions?  Many of the most ardent social reformers of the present day are looking towards the idea of Associated Industry as containing the germ of such a regeneration of society as will relieve its masses from the hideous weight of evil which now depresses and degrades them to a condition which these reformers often describe as no improvement upon any form of legal slavery – is it certain, then, that the institution in question  - as a mode of society, as a relation between the two races, and between capital and labor, – does not contain some dim undeveloped germ of that very principle of reform thus aimed at, out of which proceeds some compensation at least for its other evils, making it the duty of true reform to cultivate and develop the good and remove the evils?

To all these, and the similar questions which spring out of any intelligent reflection on the subject, we attempt no answer.  Strong as are our sympathies in behalf of liberty, universal liberty, in all applications of the principle not forbidden by great and manifest evils, we confess ourselves not prepared with any satisfactory solution to the great problem of which these questions present various aspects.  Far from us to say that either of the antagonist fanaticisms to be found on either side of the Potomac is right.  Profoundly embarrassed amidst the conflicting elements entering into the question, much and anxious reflection upon it brings us as yet to no other conclusion than to the duty of a liberal tolerance of the honest differences of both sides; together with the certainty that whatever good is to be done in the case is to be done by the adoption of very different modes of action, prompted by a very different spirit, from those which have thus far, among us, characterized the labors of most of those who claim the peculiar title of “friends of the slave” and “champions of the rights of man.”  With no friendship for slavery, though unprepared to excommunicate to eternal damnation, with bell, book and candle, those who are, we see nothing in the bearing of the annexation of Texas on that institution to awaken a doubt of the wisdom of that measure, or a compunction for the humble part contributed by us towards its consummation.

California will probably, next fall away from the loose adhesion which, in such a country as Mexico, holds a remote province in a slight equivocal kind of dependence on the metropolis. Imbecile and distracted, Mexico never can exert any real governmental authority over such a country. The impotence of the one and the distance of the other, must make the relation one of virtual independence; unless, by stunting the province of all natural growth, and forbidding that immigration which can alone develop its capabilities and fulfil the purposes of its creation, tyranny may retain a military dominion, which is no government in the legitimate sense of the term. In the case of California this is now impossible. The Anglo-Saxon foot is already on its borders. Already the advance guard of the irresistible army of Anglo-Saxon emigration has begun to pour down upon it, armed with the plough and the rifle, and marking its trail with schools and colleges, courts and representative halls, mills and meeting-houses. A population will soon be in actual occupation of California, over which it will be idle for Mexico to dream of dominion. They will necessarily become independent. All this without agency of our government, without responsibility of our people – in the natural flow of events, the spontaneous working of principles, and the adaptation of the tendencies and wants of the human race to the elemental circumstances in the midst of which they find themselves placed. And they will have a right to independence – to self-government – to the possession of the homes conquered from the wilderness by their own labors and dangers, sufferings and sacrifices – a better and a truer right than the artificial tide of sovereignty in Mexico, a thousand miles distant, inheriting from Spain a title good only against those who have none better. Their right to independence will be the natural right of self-government belonging to any community strong enough to maintain it – distinct in position, origin and character, and free from any mutual obligations of membership of a common political body, binding it to others by the duty of loyalty and compact of public faith. This will be their title to independence; and by this title, there can be no doubt that the population now fast streaming down upon California will both assert and maintain that independence. Whether they will then attach themselves to our Union or not, is not to be predicted with any certainty. Unless the projected railroad across the continent to the Pacific be carried into effect, perhaps they may not; though even in that case, the day is not distant when the Empires of the Atlantic and Pacific would again flow together into one, as soon as their inland border should approach each other. But that great work, colossal as appears the plan on its first suggestion, cannot remain long unbuilt. Its necessity for this very purpose of binding and holding together in its iron clasp our fast-settling Pacific region with that of the Mississippi valley – the natural facility of the route – the ease with which any amount of labor for the construction can be drawn in from the overcrowded populations of Europe, to be paid in the lands made valuable by the progress of the work itself – and its immense utility to the commerce of the world with the whole eastern Asia, alone almost sufficient for the support of such a road – these considerations give assurance that the day cannot be distant which shall witness the conveyance of the representatives from Oregon and California to Washington within less time than a few years ago was devoted to a similar journey by those from Ohio; while the magnetic telegraph will enable the editors of the "San Francisco Union," the "Astoria Evening Post," or the "Nootka Morning News," to set up in type the first half of the President's Inaugural before the echoes of the latter half shall have died away beneath the lofty porch of the Capitol, as spoken from his lips.

Away, then, with all idle French talk of balances of power on the American Continent. There is no growth in Spanish America! Whatever progress of population there may be in the British Canadas, is only for their own early severance of their present colonial relation to the little island three thousand miles across the Atlantic; soon to be followed by Annexation, and destined to swell the still accumulating momentum of our progress. And whosoever may hold the balance, though they should cast into the opposite scale all the bayonets and cannon, not only of France and England, but of Europe entire, how would it kick the beam against the simple, solid weight of the two hundred and fifty, or three hundred millions – and American millions – destined to gather beneath the flutter of the stripes and stars, in the fast hastening year of the Lord 1945!

Published in United States Magazine and Democratic Review, Volume 17, no.1 (July-August 1845), p. 5-10


EDITOR'S NOTE:  This is the first use "Manifest Destiny."

Monday, August 9, 2010

There is a large emigration from . . .

. . . this State the present spring to Washington and Oregon Territories and to Colorado and California. We also notice a large number passing through this city from Eastern States on their way to the Territories probably.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 10, 1862, p 1

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

News Summary

The Chicago Journal (Republican) says that the Congressional Apportionment Bill was passed at the recent session of the legislature, though not equalizing the districts as well as it might have done, is fully as fair as could have been expected. Stark County is in the 11th District composed of the following counties: Rock Island, Mercer, Henry, Bureau, Stark, Whiteside, and Lee. Population 231,183: Political status at last election, 15,777 Republicans,7,186 Demcrats, Republican majority 8,250.

The rumor comes through rebel sources that the gunboat Queen of the West, which ran the rebel blockade at Vicksburg, on the 3d inst., has been captured while attacking Fort Hudson, a few miles below that city up the Red River.

It is rumored that the government intend suppressing the circulation of all political papers among the soldiers and that it has already been done on the Potomac, a sensible movement.

A Washington dispatch announces the arrival there of a large number of civilian prisoners from Camp Chase, Ohio, to be exchanged and sent south.

The discovery of precious metal in Nevada warrant the belief that it will in a few years surpass California.

It is said that $23,000,000 have been stolen in the quartermaster’s department in the last few months.

Thurlow Weed, the great whig leader of Albany, N.Y., and now a conservative Republican, has been to Washington at the instance of the President, he has been in consulting with him the offshot of which is being watched for with no little anxiety.

Maj. Gen. Cassius M. Clay it is said is about to return to Russia.

Montana is the name of a new Territory which is about being organized by Act of Congress in the unorganized part of old Oregon.

The new Stafford projectile is making extraordinary havoc with iron-clad targets. Previous experiments with these projectiles prove conclusively that targets of 9 inch iron plates, back by 21 inches of hard wood can be readily penetrated. Its peculiarities of construction are kept a secret.

The spirits have predicted in Andrew Jackson Davis’ paper that France will be soon fighting for the Confederacy and England for the United States. Mr. Davis has weekly war despatches [sic] by spiritual telegraph.

The London correspondent of the Chicago Journal (probably its polite editor Charles Wilson who is sec’y of legation) says, that the ladies must be prepared to hear before many months of the abolishment of one of their daring institution – Crinoline –.

MARRYING BY TELEGRAPH. – The Syracuse Journal as the announcement of the marriage of C. S. Gardiner a soldier stationed at Washington to a Miss Palmenter of N. Volna N. Y. by telegraph, Rev. W. H. Carr officiated as the clergyman. The parents of the bride objected and this mode was planed to cheat the old folks.

The cultivation of sugar beets as well as sorghum, is attracting attention at the West and the prospect is that large amounts of beet sugar will soon be made.

– Published in the Stark County News, Toulon, Illinois, Thursday, February 26, 1863