A Charleston paper treating of the same subject, ob- served, " It is not imposssible that he (President Jack- son) is now examining the propriety and practicability of a retrocession of the vast territory of Texas ; an enter- prize which could not fail to exercise an important and favorable influence upon the future destinies of the South, hy increasing the votes of the slaveholding States in the United States Senate.'' Judge Upsher, of Virginia, afterwards Secretary of State under President Tyler, remarked, the same year, in the Virginia Convention, " If Texas should be obtained, which he strongly desired, it Would raise the price of slaves, and be a great advantage to the slaveholders of that State." Mr. Doddridge, in the same debate, asserted, " The acquisition of Texas will greatly enhance the value of the property in question." Debates, p. 89. Mr.
Gholston, of the Virginia Legislature in 1832, said, " He believed the acquisition of Texas would raise the price of slaves fifty per cent, at least." Virginia being a breeding State, these gentlemen were anxious to obtain Texas as a new and extensive market for their staple commodity. To stimulate the action of the Government, rumors were set afloat of the intentions of Great Britain to possess her- self of Texas ; an artifice practised without intermission from 1829 to the day of annexation. The following from the New Orleans Creole, of 1829, is a specimen: "A rumor reached us by the last packet from Mexico, that a company of British merchants had offered to advance $5,000,000 to the Mexican Government on the condition that the Province of Texas should be iilaced under the pro- tection of Great Britaii}"
President Jackson entered fully into the views of the slaveholders, and on the 2oth August, 1829, Mr. Poin- sett was instructed to offer five miUions for Texas. Al- though this bid so greatly exceeded the former, it was promptly rejected. The offer Avas, according to a Mexi- can journal, followed by another : " When he (Poinsett)
found his offer objectionable, he further insulted the nation by proposing a loan of ten millions (as a pawn- broker would) upon the