We are justified, then, in the conclusion, that the founders of the republic, and of its constitution, did not establish barriers to the enlargement of its boundaries. They were trustful and confident in the destinies of their descendants. They found these motives for trust and confidence in the early history of the people,-in the energy they had displayed in their first settlements, in the care with which they had nurtured the spirit of liberty,-in the patience and fortitude with which they had maintained a seven years war with Great Britain,-in their vigor and activity, in their fertility of expedients to develope the resources of the country, and, above all, in that love of honest accumulation, which begets the love of social order and the support of law. Rivers were here reaching thousands of miles into the interior, and new and improved modes of navigation were required. The steamboat was devised to supply this want. A staple was found of easy cultivation, adapted to the country, from which cheap raiment for all mankind could be produced; but the means of cleansing and preparing it for use were needed. The cotton gin was immediately invented. What mighty distances have been overcome by rail-roads! and, stranger than all, is the transmission of intelligence with the speed and with the aid of lightning! We desire nothing of our rulers, (for such we have too often to call our representatives,) but to allow the free growth of our people ;-to withdraw from them the shackles that restrain the victims of too much government in the old world, and are fast becoming inconsonant with the habits of the worn-out despotisms that are perishing there.

Let our Legislatures practise the moderate, self-denying principles of Jefferson, Macon, and Taylor of Caroline ;let them discard all officious, interfering, intermeddling regulation;-let them give to freedom its fullest and fairest development. The foundations on which our institutions rest, have their origin and sanction from above. The principles of eternal justice, from which arise a sacred regard to individual rights, and a reverence for that fundamental law, to the preservation of which all are pledged, constitute the pillars of our edifice. While these remain firm and substantial, we can witness the enlargement of our superstructure without apprehensions for its stability. No! no! The dangers that an American patriot ought to apprehend, do not find their source in the growth of our people, the in

crease of our territory, or the power of foreign competitors. They originate in the sordid, grasping and rapacious spirit of our legislation,-in the greed of one section after the property of the other, in the usurpations of power, the shortness of memory and laxity of conscience in our public men; indicative, as they are, of the absence of all faith in the institutions they have been called to administer, and of indifference to the solemn responsibilities they have assumed, with the task of thinking and acting for a free people. Such rulers as these have elevated the government above the Constitution they were sworn to defend, and above the people who entrusted it to them to preserve. The State, as some ideal thing, in their system engrosses every show of attention, and the rights of individuals, those which every article in the Constitution was intended to protect, are continually stricken down upon pretexts of general good,-national benefit,-AMERICAN INTERESTS. Under the epithets of "general," "national," "American," they embrace only the interests of the small and favored classes, who, in the old world, have reduced to degradation and want the masses of mankind. Such rulers have deserted the sure and stable foundations on which the framers of the Constitution rested the prosperity of our country,-they have sought to place it upon the shifting sources of a temporary and ephemeral expediency, on schemes, the "Cynthia of the minute." Every alteration in the state of the country,-every change in its condition, character or appearance,―must fill such rulers with apprehension. With them, the future destinies of the country never assume an aspect of the slightest interest. Nothing can be well ordered and sure but the pitiful present that they can command. Among this class of politicians, the measure of Annexation met with opposition. They were not prepared for it. They could not tell how it would be with Mexico-France-England. They did not like Mr. Tyler's way of negotiating the treaty. They thought he wished to "make capital" for a political campaign. They thought there might be some gunpowder nullification plot-that there might be a war, there was already a quasi war; and that the faith of treaties, the honor and the Constitution of the country, were greatly endangered.

Great reliance, it will be remembered, was placed upon' the state of our relations with Mexico. We shall content ourselves with the statement we have made of the posture

of these relations, and of the rights of Texas. If further information is needed, we will refer our readers to the speeches of Messrs. Woodbury and Walker of the Senate, as containing clear and masterly expositions of the public law on this subject. They are full and triumphant vindications of the right and duty of the United States to employ this "golden moment" for the accomplishment of this great measure. If additional confirmation were needed on the subject, the letter of Mr. Elliott, the British Chargé in Texas, to that government, would afford it. The necessary inference from his letter is, that the claims of Mexico upon Texas are subject to the control of the British government, and that these claims will be employed for the purpose of defeating all future projects for the annexation of that country to our own, and for no other purpose. How far this country should defer to Great Britain, will be determined by our opinions of her intentions. About fifteen years ago, one of her statesmen declared the mind of the British cabinet on this subject: "Our policy," Mr. Huskisson said, "is to prevent the United States from usurping our national influence with the Mexican States, as it appears they are inclined to do from their negotiations to make the State of Texas a part of the Northern Union." Contemporaneous with this declaration, the inquiries of Great Britain into the condition of our slave population, and of the most successful measures to be employed for agitation of schemes of emancipation, were made. The evidence taken was embodied in a very profound and luminous article in the second number of this Review. The object of these efforts is frankly confessed by a writer in the eighty-first number of the Westminster Review, who says:

"After the legal abolition of the slave trade, the English people began to reflect, justly enough, that their work was incomplete, unless they could eradicate slavery itself, first in their own dominions, and then by example, or diplomacy, or force, throughout the world. A society was formed having this most desirable object in view, and was supported by a numerous and able party in the legislature?

It is not, however, necessary for us to appeal to irresponsible authority to find evidence of the policy of the British government. The dispatch of Lord Aberdeen, which was submitted to the Senate with the Treaty of Annexation, is sufficiently significant. In December last, Lord Aberdeen, under the pretext of "stopping misrepresentations which had

been circulated in the United States," and "of correcting the errors into which their government had fallen," "relative to the designs which Great Britain is supposed to entertain with regard to the Republic of Texas," volunteers the fol lowing information:

1. That Great Britain desires to see the independence of Texas finally established and generally recognized, especially by Mexico.

2. That this desire does not arise from any motive of interest or ambition, but from a general regard to the wellbeing of both nations.

3. That she does not desire to establish any dominant influence over Texas,-her objects being purely commercial ; and that she has no thought or intention of seeking to act, directly or indirectly, in a political sense, on the United States through Texas.

4. With regard to the abolition of slavery in Texas, that Great Britain desires to see slavery abolished there, as elsewhere, and would rejoice if the recognition of that country by the Mexican government, should be accompanied by an engagement, on the part of Texas, to abolish slavery eventually, and under proper conditions, throughout the Republic. But, although she earnestly desires, and feels it to be her duty to promote such a consummation, she will not interfere unduly, or with an improper assumption of authority, with either party, in order to ensure the adoption of such a course.

5. That Great Britain declares it must be, and is well known, both to the United States and to the whole world, that Great Britain desires, and is constantly exerting herself, to procure the general abolition of slavery throughout the world; but that the means which she has adopted, and will continue to adopt, for this humane and virtuous purpose, are open and undisguised. That she has never sought to stir up disaffection or excitement of any kind in the slave-holding States of the American Union: and that the slave-holding States may be assured, that although she shall not desist from those open and honest efforts which she has constantly made for procuring the abolition of slavery throughout the world, she will neither openly, nor secretly, resort to any measures which can tend to disturb their internal tranquillity, or thereby affect the prosperity of the American Union.

Let us give credit to every word of this very remarkable and extraordinary dispatch, and then consider what means

Great Britain reserves to herself to accomplish the objects she so ardently desires.

We have never supposed that Great Britain would engage in attempts to incite insurrections among our slave-holding population, in times of peace. The hazards of a war with this country, and the indignation and reproach of the civilized world, are penalties she would not like to incur. Her pride, too, would dissuade a resort to an expedient so ignominious. Her measures are more cautious, well proportioned and considerate. She understands the springs that move others, and selects those best adapted to her ends. Her efforts have been, and will be, to bring opprobrium upon the slave-holder; to concentrate the aversion of mankind upon the laws that tolerate the institution; to cut off from the nations and individuals connected with it, the support and countenance of other nations; finally, to enlist actively and zealously the sympathies of the world in favor of the slave. The object of her interference with Mexico was, as we have seen, to subject the recognition of the independence of Texas to the condition that slavery should be abolished. She does not hesitate, then, (and this is one only of the modes she selects,) to enlist other nations in her schemes, and to render the grant of important concessions dependant upon a conformity to her wishes upon this subject. With regard to the United States, a series of legal measures adopted by Great Britain, bearing directly upon them, disclose the energy with which she is working to attain her purpose.

The extension of her acts for the abolition of the slave trade, to British residents in foreign countries, by a late act of Parliament, is a striking illustration of this. It is well known, that in every Southern city, the menial offices are performed by slaves. It would be difficult to live in the South, and not employ a slave for some purpose or other. The act we have referred to, embraces nearly all the cases of employment, and does embrace every case of interest in slave property that can be imagined, and, with three or four immaterial exceptions, denounces the severest punishments against any British resident who shall violate the act. The employment and ownership of slave property are alike forbidden her subjects, in whatever clime, under whatever laws their destiny may be cast. The British consuls are required to publish this law in foreign ports, and to make regular reports to the British minister of the offences against it.

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VOL. VI.-No. 12.