resolution, declaring the expediency of annexing Texas to the Union. On the 14th June, 1838, Mr. Thompson of the same State pro- posed a joint resolution in the Lower House, directing the President to take proper steps for the annexation of Texas, " as soon as it can be done consistently with the treaty stipulations of this Government."
At the South there was little or no difference between the two political parties on the question of annexation. As a specimen of the recklessness and profligacy with which the measure was then urged, we may quote the following language held by a prominent whig journal, "We have heretofore asserted, and we repeat it again, that Texas should be made a component part of our country at all hazards, peaceably if she was wilhng, and forcibly, if she was reluctant."* The North, however, was not silent. The whig party were nearly united in their opposition to Texas, and they Avere in many instances joined by portions of their political opponents. The States of Vermont, Maine, Massachu- setts, Connecticut. Rhode Island, Isew York, and Penn- sylvania, all protested, through their Legislatures, against annexation. It is not, therefore, surprising that Mr. Van Buren departed from the poUcy of General Jackson in re- ferrinsr the claims of Mexico to arbitration instead of the Bword.
- Frankfort (Ky.) CommomocaUh, May 2d, 1838.