DESIGN OF THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.
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enlighten and arouse the public mind on this point, said, in speaking of the war in Texas:
"It is susceptible of the clearest demonstration, that the immediate cause, and the leading object of this contest, originated in a settled design among the slaveholders of this country, (with land speculators and slave traders,) to wrest the large and valuable territory of Texas from the Mexican republic, in order to reestablish the system of slavery; to open a vast and profitable slave market therein; and, ultimately, to annex it to the United States. And, further, it is evident, — nay, it is very generally acknowledged, — that the insurrectionists are principally citizens of the United States, who have proceeded thither for the purpose of revolutionizing the country; and that they are dependent upon this nation for both the physical and pecuniary means to carry the design into effect. We have a still more important view of the subject. The slaveholding interest is now paramount in the executive branch of our national government; and its influence operates, indirectly, yet powerfully, through that medium, in favor of this grand scheme of oppression and tyrannical usurpation.
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"Such are the motives for action, — such the combination of interests, — such the organization, sources of influence, and foundation of authority, upon which the present Texas insurrection rests. The resident colonists compose but a small fraction of the party concerned in it. The standard of revolt was raised as soon as it was clearly ascertained that slavery could not be perpetuated, nor the illegal speculations in land continued, under the government of the Mexican republic. The Mexican authorities were charged with acts of oppression, while the true causes of the revolt, — the