tion (slavery) ten years—probably not half that time.'* To remove all apprehension, that, if Texas should consent to a treaty of annexation, she might be subjected to the mortification of having the treaty rejected for want of the constitutional majority of two-thirds of the Senate in its favor, he hazarded, in his desperation, the following most extraordinary assertion :—" Measures have been taken to ascertain the opinions and views of Senators upon the sub- ject, and it is asco'tained that a clear majority of tivo- thirds are in favor of the measure ! ! " 11\q fact that this very Senate, whose votes Mr. Upshur professed to have canvassed, rejected the treaty, by a majority of more than two-thirds, throws a painful suspicion upon the personal veracity of the American Secretary ; and the more so, as no explanation was ever given to the public of the won- derful discrepancy between his canvass and the actual vote.
Great Britain thought proper to disavow the machina- tions which it had been deemed expedient by the parti- sans of Texas to ascribe to her. Our Government was, on the 8th April, officially informed, that it was indeed well known to the whole world that Great Biitain desired the abohtion of Slavery wherever it existed, but that she would not unduly interfere to accomplish it—that she aimed at no dominant influence in Texas, and that, in striving for human liberty, the Government would not " openly nor secretly resort to any measures which can tend to disturb the tranquillity, or thereby affect the pros- perity of the American Union." This avowal, so frank and honorable, so becoming a free and a christian people, perhaps hurried the conclusion of the treaty, as it removed one of the pretended reasons alleged for its neces- sity. Four days after the British document was received, Mr. Calhoun, as Secretary of State, to which office he had been appointed on the death of Mr. Upshur, had the gratification of signing a treaty with Texas, by which that State was annexed to the American Union.
In the proud elation of feeling caused by so signal a triumph in the cause of human bondage, Mr. Calhoun re- plied on the 8th April, 1844, to the