n, refused to second this honourable policy,
intended to set limits to one of the greatest of social evils. Slaves
come into Texas with their masters from the neighbouring states of this
country. One mode of evading the laws was, to introduce slaves under
formal indentures for long periods, in some cases, it is said, for
ninety-nine years; but by a decree of the state legislature of Coahuila
and Texas, all indentures for a longer period than ten years were
annulled, and provision was made for the freedom of children during this
apprenticeship. This settled, invincible purpose of Mexico to exclude
slavery from her limits, created as strong a purpose to annihilate her
authority in Texas. By this prohibition, Texas was virtually shut
against emigration from the southern and western portions of this
country; and it is well known that the eyes of the south and west had
for some time been turned to this province as a new market for slaves,
as a new field for slave labour, and as a vast accession of political
power to the slave-holding states. That such views were prevalent we
know; for, nefarious as they are, they found their way into the public
prints. The project of dismembering a neighbouring republic, that
slaveholders and slaves might overspread a region which had been
consecrated to a free population, was discussed in newspapers as coolly
as if it were a matter of obvious right and unquestionable humanity. A
powerful interest was thus created for severing from Mexico her distant
province."

The fact is this:--America, (for the government looked on and offered no
interruption,) has seized upon Texas, with a view of extending the curse
of slavery, and of finding a mart for the excess of her negro
population: if Texas is admitted into the Union, all chance of the
abolition of slavery must be thrown forward to such an indefinite
period, as to be lost in the mist of futurity; if, on the contrary,
Texas remains an independent province, or is restored to its legitimate
owners, and in either case slavery is abolished, she then becomes, from
the very circumstance of her fertility and aptitude for white labour,
not only the great _check to slavery_, but eventually the means of its
_abolition_. Never, therefore, was there a portion of the globe upon
which the moral world must look with such interest.

England may, if she acts promptly and wisely, make such terms with this
young state as to raise it up as a barrier against