The idea of purchase now took strong hold of the southem mind ; and great efforts were made to enlighten pub- lic opinion on the importance of Texas, and the necessity of its acquisition. In 1829 a series of newspaper essays on the subject appeared from the pen of Mr. Benton, a distinguished Senator from Missouri. Of the character of these essays some opinion may be formed from the fol- lowing notices of them in the journals of the day.
The Edgefield Carolinian, speaking of Texas, remarked, " Some imposing Essays, originally published in the St.
Louis Beacon, with the signature of * Americanus,' and attributed to Col. Benton of the Senate, explaining the circumstances of the treaty of 1819, and displaying the advantages of the retrocession, have operated on the pub- lic mind in the West with electrical force and rapidity.
The writer produces strong circumstantial proof that the 6un*ender of Texas resulted from the subserviency of our negotiator to Spain in her contest with Mexico, together with the powerful subsidiary motive of hostihty to the southern and western sections of our country. Ameri- canus exposes the evils to the United States of this sur- render under twelve distinct heads. Two of them of particular interest to this section of the country, that it brings a non-slaveholding empire in juxta-position ivith the slaveholding South-west, and diminishes the outlet for the Indians inhabiting the States of Georgia, Alabama, Mis- sissippi, and Tennessee."
A Baltimore paper, speaking of the essays of " Ame- ricanus," says, " One of the reasons that he assigns for the purchase of Texas is, that Jive oV six more slaveholding States may thus be added to the Union. Indeed, he goes farther than this in one of his calculations, and esti- mates, that ' Nine more States as large as Kentucky,^ may be formed within the limits of that province."