slaves. Texas, if left to stand alone, there is every probability that slavery will be aban- doned in that country. The negroes are yet but few in number, and would be emancipated in the country with- out the shsfhtest inconvenience, and indeed would continue to be useful in the capacity of hirelings." He then goes on to remark that, as to the southern States, annexation " would give stabiHty and safety to their domestic institu- tions, and thereby save them for ever from the unpara- lelled calamities of abolition."
The very idea of freedom in Texas aroused the slave- holders to new and more resolute efforts for immediate annexation. So unequivocal had become the indications of a determination on the part of the south, to brook no longer delay, that at the close of the session of Congress in March, 1843, J. Q. Adams, and twelve other repre- sentatives pubhshed an address to the people of the United States, warning them of the machinations of the administration to secure the extension of slavery, by adding Texas to the Union—pointing out the gross violation of our neutral obligations towards Mexico, and calhng upon the free States for renewed and increased activity to avert the calamity with which the country was threat- ened. Subsequent events speedily confirmed the fore- sight of this address, with a single exception. The ad- dress declared that the annexation of Texas would be a measure in such violation of the Constitution, and for a purpose so odious and profligate, as " not only inevitably to result in a dissolution of the Union, but fully to justify it." How far this prediction was uttered in the spirit of prophecy, it is yet too soon to determine.
Mr. Upshur, whose sympathies for Texas were, as we have seen, connected with the price of Virginia negroes, RRVIEW OF THE MTXICAN WAR. 89 was called by Mr. Tyler to the office of Secretary of State, and, availing himself of the facilities afforded by his new office, prosecuted with vigor the work of opening another and most extensive slave market.