can republic, for the purpose of uniting it to ours; and this avowal is made by a distinguished American citizen, in the very face of that glorious constitution of his country, which wisely gives no power to its citizens for acquiring foreign territory by conquest, their own territory being more than amply sufficient to gratify any safe ambition; and in the face, too, of the following solemn and sacred contract of his country with the sister republic which he would dismember:

"There shall be a firm, inviolable, and universal peace, and a true and sincere friendship between the United States of America, and the United Mexican States, in all the extent of their possessions and territories, between their people and citizens respectively, without distinction of persons or places."

In the earlier days of our republic, when a high-minded and honorable fidelity to its constitution was an object proudly paramount to every mercenary consideration that might contravene it, an avowed design of this kind against the possessions of a nation with whom the United States were at peace, would have subjected its author, if a citizen, to the charge of high treason, and to its consequences. When Aaron Burr and his associates were supposed to meditate the conquest of Mexico, and attempted to raise troops in the southern states to achieve it, they were arrested for treason, and Burr, their chief, was tried for his life. But now, behold! the conquest of a part of the same country is an object openly proclaimed, not in the letters of General Houston alone, but by many of our wealthiest citizens at public banquets, and by the hireling presses in the chief cities of our Union. The annexation of a foreign territory to our own by foreign conquest, being thus unblushingly avowed, and our citizens, who are integral portions of our national sovereignty, being openly invited and incited to join the crusade with weapons of war, it becomes an interesting moral inquiry-what is there in the public mind to excuse or even to palliate so flagrant a prostitution of national faith and honor in these days, any more than in the days that are past? The answer is ready at hand, and is irrefutable. An extensive and well organized gang of swindlers in Texas lands, have raised the cry, and the standard of "Liberty!" and to the thrilling charm of this glorious word, which stirs the blood of a free people, as the blast of the bugle arouses every nerve of the warhorse, have the generous feelings of our citizens responded in ardent delusion. But, as the Commercial Advertiser truly declares, "Never was the Goddess of American Liberty invoked more unrighteously;" and we cannot but believe that the natural sagacity, good sense, and proud regard for their national honor, for which our citizens are distinguished in the eyes of all nations, will spedily rescue them from the otherwise degrading error in which that vile crew of mercenary, hypocritical swindlers would involve them. The artful deceivers, however, have not relied upon the generosity and noble sympathy only of our fellow citizens, for they insidiously presented a bribe to excite their cupidity also. They have not only falsely represented the Texian cause as one of pure, disinterested liberty and justice, as opposed to perfidious tyranny and cruel oppression, but they have themselves assumed something more than the liberty which they basely and hypocritically advocate, by impudently promising a fertile paradisiacal piece of Texian land, a mile square, to every American citizen and foreign emigrant, who will sally forth to capture it from the Mexican republic! Induced by one or both of these objects, many hundreds of our enterprising citizens left their own ample and unobjectionable country, to unite with Irish, English, and other foreign adventurers in a war, from the fullest success of which, only some six or eight land companies, who have fraudulently and audaciously monopolized the Texian territory, would gain an important benefit. And to this shrine of Mammon, concealed by the crowding banners of ostensible liberty, have many hundreds of our gallant youth been treacherously sacrificed-sacrificed by a mercenary treachery, compared to which, that exercised by Santa Anna, in defence of the republic of which he was president, was innocence and patriotism.

Had we in the Texians, a brave and injured people, struggling in the land of their birth, or even of their adoption, for those abstract and social rights of mankind which were the objects of our revolution, and which we obtained and enjoy, theirs would be a cause with which angels might sympathize, and which the bolts of heaven might well be launched to aid. But is it such a cause?-Deceived by misrepresentations, we were ourselves led so to consider it, in its earlier efforts; but a fair examination of facts has undeceived us, and we look in vain either for such a cause or such a people in the Texians. What are the facts?

We pledge ourselves to answer the question with a perspicuity which shall defy all future obscuration, and with a rigid adherence to truth which shall defy the most desperate efforts to refute. We have, at present, only room to state, in brief, that the Texian revolution was concerted by the planters and slave speculators in the southern states ever since the first permission given by the Spanish authorities to Moses Austin, of Missouri, in the year 1820, to introduce three hundred families, professing the Catholic religion, as colonists of a grant of land which he obtained on this express condition. From that time to the present moment, the aggressions have been on the part of the colonists, under the sanction of the southern speculators; and not until their purpose of getting a physical force into the province which should detach it from Mexico, and make it a slaveholding state, became flagrant and undisguised, had the settlers ever received aught but protection, encouragement, toleration and kindness, from the Mexican government. They paid no taxes, had their own laws and tribunals, were allowed to profess and exercise all the religions they chose, though contrary to the Mexican constitution; enjoyed all the fruits of a beautiful and bounteous soil without return or tribute to the government to which it belonged, and were, without exception, the freest civilized people upon the face of the earth. But the object of the colonizing land agents of the South was to make this prolific province their own, and the field of a new and lucrative negro slavery. To this they still tenaciously adhere; and if they can induce a strong force of our American youth to shed their blood for the unjust and avaricious cause of slavery, under the name of Texian liberty and independence, they will undoubtedly secure their object. We doubt not the ability of our gallant countrymen to exterminate any number of Mexicans that can be brought against them, but in fighting for the union of Texas with the United States, which is the avowed meaning of "Texian independence," they will be fighting for that which, at no distant period, will inevitably DISSOLVE THE UNION. The slave states, having this eligible addition to their land of bondage, with its harbors, bays, and well bounded geographical position, will ere long cut asunder the federal tie, which they have long held with ungracious and unfraternal fingers, and confederate a new and distinct slaveholding republic, in opposition to the whole free republic of the North. Thus early will be fulfilled the prediction of the old politicians of Europe, that our Union could not remain one century entire; and then also will the maxim be exemplified in our history, as it is in the history of the slaveholding republics of old, that liberty and slavery cannot long inhabit the same soil.-NewYork Sun, 1836.

The South wish to have Texas admitted into the Union for two reasons. First, to equalise the South with the North, and secondly, as a convenient and safe place calculated from its peculiarly good soil and salubrious climate for a slave population. Interest and political safety both and alike prompt the action and enforce the argument. The South contends that preservation and justice to themselves call for that aid to be tendered to them which would be given by the acquisition of Texas. They are not safe as they are. They are not balanced with the free states. Their exposure to insurrection is fourfold, with not one-fourth the means to redress their grievances. They contend that they have an internal foe within, and an awful foe in all those who demand the emancipation of their slaves, and who call upon them to give up their property now and for ever. The question is, therefore, put by the South to congress and the country. "Shall we have justice done us by the admission of Texas into the Union, whenever that admission may be asked by the Texians themselves?" The question is a fair one, and must soon be met by congress and the nation. The North almost to a man will answer no. The West will be divided, and the discussion of the question will find two strong and powerful parties; the one in favor of Texas, a slaveholding province, and the other against it.Mobile (Ala) Mercantile Advertiser.

NEUTRALITY!

Next in turn was the change in the government effected by Santa Anna; and next the Texian revolution. Was it not laughable to see these Texians, all of them, generally speaking, slaveholders; adhering to the constitution of 1824, one article of which emancipates all the slaves in Mexico! Was it not laughable to see them proclaiming a constitution, of which, eleven years ago, the Americans in Texas had prohibited the proclamation by the Mexican authorities there, under the heaviest threats!-What man of common sense can believe in this humbug? None, gentlemen; none but those that have risked their thousands in this country; and they, whoever they may be, feign to believe it. The statements made throughout the United States, of tyranny and oppression on the part of Mexico toward the American citizens in Texas, are slanderous falsehoods, fabricated to create and nurture the worst prejudices and jealousies. The Americans in Texas have had their own way in every case, and on every occasion; and whenever there happened a legislative act that was, from any cause, repugnant to the feelings of the people of Texas, it was silenced at once. In short, if there has existed a good cause of complaint in Texas, it was that men were too much their own masters, and too little under the restraint of any law. Any allegation to the effect that the Mexican government had deceived citizens of the United States in relation to promises of lands first made to them, is false, and I defy any one to show a forfeiture of title to lands, when the conditions of the grant had been fulfilled by the settler.

Now, sir, as to the war: here I will ask Americans, (except the speculators,) how many military incursions, insurrections, and rebellions, avowedly for the purpose of snatching Texas from its proper owners, will, in their mind, justify Mexico in driving from its territories, the pirates that would thus possess themselves of the country? Be it remembered, that these revolutions have never been attempted by the resident citizens of Texas, but in every case by men organized in the United States for the purpose, and coming from afar: why, a single provocation of this nature were ample justification; but Texas has, from the time of the adjustment of the boundary by Wilkinson and Ferrara, experienced seven or eight. Now what is Mexico to do? Can it be expected that she will maintain a large arıny in Texas merely for the purpose of guarding against the attempts of a few? Certainly not. Were the population of the United States one of savages, from one of which we should not expect good policy, and that international equity which has heretofore been the boast of Americans, it might perhaps be expected; but Mexico has rested under the belief that when a few marauders should interfere with her possessions, the American people would not object to see them properly chastised. But, gentlemen, what at present seems to be the situation of affairs? Not only has Houston avowed that his acts were prompted by the highest authority within the United States, but a general officer of the army of the United States presents himself, with forces, upon the Mexican frontier. His first orders are to preserve perfect neutrality; and his particular attention is called to one of the articles of the treaty between the United States and Mexico, by which the contracting parties bind themselves to restrain their respective Indians within their own limits. General Gaines having arrived, is at once in correspondence with the Texian officers, and despatches to Washington "information derived from the highest authority in Texas"-this, too, against the most positive information given to General Gaines, by respectable and intelligent people, that misrepresentations of all kinds were fabricating, and would be invented to induce him to cross. Upon the information thus given at Washington by General Gaines, Mr. Secretary Cass writes that he has laid before the executive his letter, and that his construction, in the uncertainty of the boundary between the United States and Mexico being acquiesced in, he, General Gaines, is authorized to cross the Sabine river, and proceed as far as Nacogdoches, seventy-five miles within the Mexican territory. This permission is given, however, only under certain contingencies; (and I am certain that these have not been present.) Here I must be permitted to ask, (and I address myself to every American who loves his country, and is proud of it,) how it can be maintained, under any pretext, that honor would suggest, or justify, that the frontier between the United States and Mexico is uncertain? For a long time after the acquisition of Louisiana, the United States exercised jurisdiction only to the Rio Hondo, but six miles west of Natchitoches, Natch the intermediate territory between this point and the Sabine river, about twenty miles, being considered neutral territory. At last General Wilkinson, for the United States, and General Ferrara, for Mexico, arranged the Sabine as the frontier; a survey made by Mr. Melish also establishes the Sabine, at this point, as the frontier. A subsequent regular and formal treaty between the two governments confirms this frontier, and has especial and particular reference to Melish's map and survey; and more recently still, the present executive declares by proclamation, that the two governments shall continue to exercise jurisdiction within the territory now occupied by either. This was the result of a conference with the Mexican minister, who justly represented that Arkansas had overleaped the boundary between the two governments, and was in the exercise of jurisdiction within a part of the Mexican dominions.

There is certainly a part of the boundary not yet traced; but it is a line passing over land only, and running from the thirty-second degree of latitude on the Sabine, due north to Red River. Thus it will be perceived, that all the Sabine, from the sea to the thirty-second degree, is the boundary; and that the Sabine above the thirty-second degree, belongs exclusively to Mexico; hence the impossibility of there being uncertainty about it. I will ask again, if there is doubt as to the Sabine frontier, how it happens that when the Texians were petitioning congress for a recognition of their independence, no information was imparted to the national legislature of the circumstances. Again, if there is a doubt as to the Sabine frontier, how happens it that war in that territory, by regularly organized armies of citizens of the United States, is tolerated against a friendly power? No, sir; there is no doubt or uncertainty as to the Sabine frontier. Mr. Secretary Cass cannot be au fait, or he is willing to lend himself for a most unworthy purpose.

General Gaines having, however, persuaded the executive and secretary that the line was "imaginary," and that he "might cross it," orders troops from forts Towson and Gibson, to occupy Nacogdoches, as I have said before, seventy-five miles beyond the limits of Mexico; and what is worse, directs those troops to cross the Red River above, and march through the country to the place of destination; so that the troops came into the Mexican dominions at least two hundred miles beyond Nacogdoches, and, having arrived there, are ordered to fortify and erect other buildings. How is this, gentlemen? Call you all this neutrality?

But, for a farther description of our affairs here, I will add the following facts. The Americans (I mean the regulars) and Texians, appear to understand each other perfectly. The neutrality is preserved on the part of General Gaines, by allowing all volunteers, and other organized corps destined for Texas, to pass in hundreds and thousands undisturbed, but keeps in check any attempt on the part of the native Mexicans and Indians, to act against the Texians. The Texians are allowed to wage war against a friendly power, in a district of country claimed by the United States. The prisoners of war taken by the Texians are ignorant to which party they are subject. The American general claims the country only from Mexico, but has no objections to the carrying on of war against Mexico in the district he claims! Pray, sir, let Americans speak honestly, and let them say whether any government has, within the last century, placed itself in so ridiculous a light?not only ridiculous, but contemptible. Will not any honest man confess at once that General Gaines, or any authority clothing him with the discretion so indiscreetly used, would never have dreamed of the like against a government able and ready to defend itself, and punish such arrogance? What is Europe to say to this? Will not Mexico complain? And will there be no sympathy for her?-Letter to the Editors of the New-York Commercial Advertiser, dated Nacogdoches, Texas, September 14, 1836.

[Alas, for our national degeneracy and infamy; -In 1811, the suspicion of being accessory to this horrible outrage against the laws of nature, and of nations, led a distinct charge in the trial for treason of]

GENERAL WILKINSON.

CHARGE V.-That he, the said James Wilkinson, while commanding the army of the United States, by virtue of his said commission, and being bound by the duties of his office to do all that in him lay, to discover and to frustrate all such enormous violations of the law as tended to endanger the peace and tranquillity of the United States, did, nevertheless, unlawfully combine and conspire to set on foot a military expedition against the territories of a nation, then at peace with the United States.

Specification, He, the said James Wilkinson, in the years 1805 and 1806, combining and conspiring with Aaron Burr and his associates, to set on foot a military expedition against the Spanish provinces and territories in America.-Wilkinson's Memoirs, Vol. 2.

[The Charleston Mercury, March, 1837, gives the following in the report of a speech of the Hon. John C. Calhoun, at a public dinner given him in Charleston on his return from congress.]

"He spoke of Texas, and at that name was interrupted with long and loud cheering, and his concluding words on that topic, pronounced with deep emotion, that 'TEXAS must be annexed to the Union,' were answered with a universal burst of applause, that showed how glowing was the sympathy of the people of South Carolina with the heroes of San Jacinto. He pointed out clearly the importance to the South, of the annexation," &c.

RELIGIOUS AND MORAL TESTIMONY.

Presbyterian Synod of New York and Philadelphia, 1787.

The Synod, taking into consideration the overture concerning slavery, came to the following judgment:

The Synod of New York and Philadelphia do highly approve of the general principles in favor of universal liberty that prevail in America, and the interest which many of the states have taken in promoting the abolition of slavery. They earnestly recommend it to all the members belonging to their communion, to give those persons who are at present held in servitude, such good education as to prepare them for the better enjoyment of freedom. And they moreover recommend that masters, wherever they find servants disposed to make a just improvement of the privilege, would give them a peculium, or grant them sufficient time, and sufficient means of procuring their own liberty at a moderate rate; that thereby they may be brought into society with those habits of industry that may render them useful citizens. And finally, they recommend it to all their people to use the most prudent measures, consistent with the interests and the state of civil society in the countries where they live, to procure eventually the final abolition of slavery in America.

[This "judgment" was also republished as the decision of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1793.].

The second annunciation of the sentiments of the Presbyterian Church upon the subject of slavery, was made in the year 1794, when the "scripture proofs," notes, &c., were adopted by the General As