the support of her government, when, by coming into the Union, she voluntarily taxes herself four times that amount; she is not insensible to the fact that she offers to the confederacy four hundred miles of seacoast, with all the advantages of the rich valley of the Rio Grande, including sixteen degrees of latitude, from its source to its mouth, with more [409] than one hundred millions of acres of public domain. And for what are these mighty surrenders made? Does Texas receive a quid pro quo in having her coffers filled for the purpose of carrying on what ought to be her brilliant destiny even as one of the states? No! She receives just enough of the proceeds of her immense domain to pay a debt, not a tithe of its value. And to whom is this debt paid but to the citizens of the United States, most of whom have bought it upon speculation? Texas is none the better off for this, save in the protection of that national faith, which she prizes as an honest nation should. If this debt were paid to her own citizens, it would be that much towards her individual state wealth, whereas not one dollar in fifty comes to those citizens. It goes into the hands of foreign money-shavers and broker-gamblers, who care nothing beyond for her prosperity, because such people have no feelings except in the usury of coppers.

Thus it is that Texas would denude herself by abolishing her Constitution - by dismissing her foreign ministers - by cutting short her acquaintance with an enlightened world - by surrendering her separate independence, and committing national suicide - to submit to a high protective tariff, and resort to the grinding operation of a direct tax for the support of her state government, and then sink to an obscure corner in the constellation of states for that proud feeling which a majority of her citizens claim in their nativity. The United States can not, [410] must not, therefore, view her as the only beneficiary to the contract.

This feeling of nativity must be strong indeed which would voluntarily make these mighty surrenders; and to him who cannot feel that pride of birth which most of the people of Texas feel, these surrenders must appear truly astonishing. It is an exalted feeling far above all calculations of dollars and cents; and truly may we exclaim, in the language of a distinguished Roman, "Nescio quâ natale solum dulcedine cunctos ducit, et immemores non sinit esse sui."5 If the sordid interests of money were to enter into the calculation, it would appear as reasonable for a son who had received a competent outfit from a father, and taken upon him all the duties and pleasures of a household, to seek to surrender everything back to that father when he had subsequently married a termagant stepmother.

Since the establishment of Texian independence, she cannot have viewed, but with regret and mortification, the rapid growth of principles in her fatherland, which no circumstances under annexation will cause her ever to submit to. At the establishment of Texian independence, a fanatical few preached the doctrine of universal equality between the white and black man, between the master and the slave. Then this few received the countenance of but few - then