these two cities expressed their indignant dissent. The Richmond newspaper press vehemently opposed the convention and its object. Said the Richmond Enquirer: "There is not a Democrat in Virginia who will encourage any plot to dissolve the Union." A meeting of citizens in Nashville protested against "the desecration of the soil of Tennessee by having any convention held there to hatch treason against the United States." A general meeting of the citizens of Tennessee, numerously attended, passed resolutions which struck the keynote of Southern sentiment. These resolutions are quoted at length by Mr. Benton. The following extract will be sufficient to show their spirit: "The citizens here assembled are Tennesseeans; they are Americans. They glory in being citizens of this great confederated republic; and whether friendly or opposed to the immediate annexation of Texas, they join with decision, firmness and zeal in avowing their attachment to our glorious and, we trust, impregnable Union, and in condemning every attempt to bring its preservation into issue or its value into calculation. " (Benton s Thirty Years, vol. 2, pp. 617, 618.) Could words be stronger? Such were the sentiments of a State which had contributed more than any other to the colonization of Texas and to its ultimate independence.
Meanwhile, the annexation was vehemently opposed at the North. The main argument used against it was "slavery." The general Northern sentiment expressed opposition to the extension of slavery, but behind this was the vehement abolition party, stimulating the growth of a public sentiment in favor of forcible emancipation. The logic of the entire Northern opposition tended to tie the hands of the South to await the admission of the coming Northern States, when the South would be help less in the government, with the subversion of its domestic institutions threatened by an aggressive party. Those who expected the South to rest quiet with such a condition of affairs staring them in the face surely did not
