er for certain specified objects. Upon the
same principle that they would refuse to form a perpetual union with
Texas because of her local institutions our forefathers would have been
prevented from forming our present Union. Perceiving no valid objection
to the measure and many reasons for its adoption vitally affecting the
peace, the safety, and the prosperity of both countries, I shall on the
broad principle which formed the basis and produced the adoption of our
Constitution, and not in any narrow spirit of sectional policy, endeavor
by all constitutional, honorable, and appropriate means to consummate
the expressed will of the people and Government of the United States
by the reannexation of Texas to our Union at the earliest practicable
period.

Nor will it become in a less degree my duty to assert and maintain by
all constitutional means the right of the United States to that portion
of our territory which lies beyond the Rocky Mountains. Our title to the
country of the Oregon is "clear and unquestionable," and already are our
people preparing to perfect that title by occupying it with their wives
and children. But eighty years ago our population was confined on the
west by the ridge of the Alleghanies. Within that period--within the
lifetime, I might say, of some of my hearers--our people, increasing
to many millions, have filled the eastern valley of the Mississippi,
adventurously ascended the Missouri to its headsprings, and are already
engaged in establishing the blessings of self-government in valleys of
which the rivers flow to the Pacific. The world beholds the peaceful
triumphs of the industry of our emigrants. To us belongs the duty of
protecting them adequately wherever they may be upon our soil. The
jurisdiction of our laws and the benefits of our republican institutions
should be extended over them in the distant regions which they have
selected for their homes. The increasing facilities of intercourse will
easily bring the States, of which the formation in that part of our
territory can not be long delayed, within the sphere of our federative
Union. In the meantime every obligation imposed by treaty or
conventional stipulations should be sacredly respected.

In the management of our foreign relations it will be my aim to observe
a careful respect for the rights of other nations, while our own will
be the subject of constant watchfulness. Equal and exact justice should
characterize all our intercours