ect of whom the
gentleman speaks. I certainly have no objections to our minister's
making such representations as he can in favor of the release of
citizens of the United States, although taken in actual war against
Mexico, in association with Texian forces; but I am not prepared to
go to war to obtain their liberation. I must first be permitted to
ask how it is that these men happen to be in the streets of Mexico.
Is it not because they formed part of an expedition got up in Texas
against the Mexican city of Santa Fe? Were they not taken
_flagrante bello_, actually engaged in a war they had nothing to do
with, to which the United States were no party? In all this great
pity and sympathy for American citizens made to travel hundreds of
miles barefoot and in chains, the question 'How came they there?'
seems never to be asked. And yet, so far as the interposition of
this nation for their recovery is concerned, that is the very first
question to be asked.

"I come now to the third ground for war urged by the gentleman from
Virginia, and I hope I do not misrepresent him when I say that I
understood him to affirm that if he had the power he would prohibit
the invasion of Texas by Mexico; and if Mexico would not submit to
such a requirement, and should persist in her invasion, he would go
to war. The gentleman stated, as a ground for war, that Santa Anna
had avowed his determination to 'drive slavery beyond the Sabine.'
That was what the gentleman from Virginia most apprehended--that
slavery would be abolished in Texas; that we should have neighbors
at our doors not contaminated by that accursed plague-spot. He would
have war with Mexico sooner than slavery should be driven back to
the United States, whence it came. If that is to be the avowed
opinion of this committee, in God's name let my constituents know
it! The sooner it is proclaimed on the house-tops, the better--the
house is to go to war with Mexico for the purpose of annexing Texas
to this Union!"

CHAPTER XIII.

REPORT ON PRESIDENT TYLER'S APPROVAL, WITH OBJECTIONS, OF THE BILL FOR
THE APPORTIONMENT OF REPRESENTATIVES.--REPORT ON HIS VETO OF THE BILL
TO PROVIDE A REVENUE FROM IMPORTS.--LECTURE ON THE SOCIAL COMPACT, AND
THE THEORIES OF FILMER, HOBBES, SYDNEY, AND LOCKE.--ADDRESS TO HIS
CONSTITUENTS ON THE P