were required to leave the country within a short time, under penalty of being reduced to bondage.
The slave-holders, whose representative man at that time was Thomas H. Benton, senator from Missouri, thought of forming nine slave states out of Texas alone. But the Texans wanted to allure them with the prospect of a larger accession; and with that end in view, on the 19th of December, 1836, voted themselves the territory lying between the United States and the Rio Grande, from its source to its mouth.[1] The option of an independent nationality, or the consecration of that large domain to slavery through annexation to the United States, was submitted to the popular vote, and was decided in favor of the latter by 3,279 votes against 91. The slaveholders in the United States kept themselves well informed on these movements, and showed their alacrity to meet such manifestations half-way.
President Jackson despatched an agent to Texas to
- ↑ Taking in parts of Coahuila and Tamaulipas and New Mexico. According to the report of Henry M. Morfit, special agent of the U. S., the boundaries claimed by Texas extended from the mouth of the Rio Grande, on the east side, up to its head waters, thence on a line due north until it intersected that of the U. S.; thence to the Sabine, and along that river to its mouth, and from that point westwardly with the gulf of Mexico to the Rio Grande. The political limits of Texas proper, previous to her revolution, were the Nueces on the west, along the Red River on the north, the Sabine on the east, and the gulf of Mexico on the south. It had been the intention of the Texan government, immediately after the victory of San Jacinto, to have claimed from the mouth of the Rio Grande along its course to lat. 30°, and thence west to the Pacific. It was, however, discovered that this would not strike a convenient point on the California coast, that it would be difficult to control a wandering population so distant, and that the territory now determined upon would be sufficient for a young republic. U. S. Govt Doc., Cong. 24, Ses. 2, H. Ех. Doc. 35, vol. ii.
failed not to take advantage of. The desire of the slave interest in the U. S. became an anxiety when the young republic entered later into a treaty with England for the suppression of the African slave-trade. The slave-holders were greatly alarmed at the idea that a time might come when Texas, if left to herself, would decree the abolition of slavery. That fear was shared in by some of the Texan leaders; for even at the latest day, preceding the annexation, though the anti-slavery party was in the minority, the fact could not be disregarded that the majority of the people of Texas were not slave-owners, and that ere long the number of opponents to slavery would be increased by immigration from Europe. The idea of emancipation was an alarming one; whereas, on the other side, annexation was deemed of the highest importance to give stability and safety to slavery, and 'thereby save them forever from the unparalleled calamities of abolition.' Mirabeau Lamar's Letter, in Jay's Rev. Mex. War, 87-8.
