t that I earnestly opposed, as a
member of the Cabinet of Mr. Polk, the Mexican treaty of 1848, among
other reasons, upon the suggestion then made by me, that if we abandoned
Mexico, it would subject us to the danger of European interference there
(just as it has occurred) by force of arms. That treaty was carried by a
constitutional majority of only three votes, mainly through the
instrumentality of Mr. Calhoun, who was against the invasion of Mexico,
and for 'masterly inactivity,' resting on the banks of the Rio Grande,
because he knew (as declared in my Texas letter of January, 1844)
'Slavery never could cross the Rio Grande,' and that, as a consequence,
all of Mexico which we would permanently hold, as we ought to have done,
from Texas to Tehuantepec, would, Mexico having abolished Slavery, have
become Free States. I believed also that the permanent occupation and
annexation of Mexico would have forever settled all the dangers of the
Slavery question, because it would have flanked the Slave States of the
Southwest, by many powerful Free States adjacent on the Southwest,
containing already seven millions of people, most of whom were of the
colored race, and who would have fought to the last against the
reestablishment of Slavery.

Yet, strong and decided as is my opposition to the course of Napoleon on
the Mexican as well as the Confederate question, I believe that the
policy of Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward on this question has been marked by
great courage, devoted patriotism, and the highest statesmanship. I am
not for mingling this or any other question of foreign or domestic
policy with the maintenance of the Union, but have only answered the
assaults of adversaries on the Mexican and other subordinate issues.
This, however, I must say: that the treaty with Mexico, by which we
abandoned that country, having been ratified, I am opposed to any
violation of its provisions. While I adhere to the opinions expressed at
the time by me against that treaty; while I am opposed to forcing Mexico
into our Union, I believe that Napoleon the Third, unwittingly, by his
invasion, has caused Mexico soon to gravitate, by the overwhelming wish
of her people, into the arms of the great Republic. Thus is it that the
French invasion will have settled forever in our favor the question of
the American equilibrium.

I have published the views expressed in these letters on consultation
with no one. They are my own individual opinions, and I