TEXAS ANNEXATION: SECRET ORIGIN; BOLD INTRIGUE FOR THE PRESIDENCY.
In the winter of 1842-'3, nearly two years before the presidential
election, there appeared in a Baltimore newspaper an elaborately
composed letter on the annexation of Texas, written by Mr. Gilmer, a
member of Congress from Virginia, urging the immediate annexation,
as necessary to forestall the designs of Great Britain upon that
young country. These designs, it was alleged, aimed at a political
and military domination on our south-western border, with a view to
abolition and hostile movements against us; and the practical part
of the letter was an earnest appeal to the American people to annex
the Texas republic immediately, as the only means of preventing
such great calamities. This letter was a clap of thunder in a clear
sky. There was nothing in the political horizon to announce or
portend it. Great Britain had given no symptom of any disposition
to war upon us, or to excite insurrection among our slaves. Texas
and Mexico were at war, and to annex the country was to adopt the
war: far from hastening annexation, an event desirable in itself
when it could be honestly done, a premature and ill-judged attempt,
upon groundless pretexts, could only clog and delay it. There was
nothing in the position of Mr. Gilmer to make him a prime mover
in the annexation scheme; and there was much in his connections
with Mr. Calhoun to make him the reflector of that gentleman's
opinions. The letter itself was a counterpart of the movement made
by Mr. Calhoun in the Senate, in 1836, to bring the Texas question
into the presidential election of that year; its arguments were
the amplification of the seminal ideas then presented by that
gentleman: and it was his known habit to operate through others. Mr.
Gilmer was a close political friend, and known as a promulgator of
his doctrines--having been the first to advocate nullification in
Virginia.
Putting all these circumstances together, I believed, the moment
I saw it, that I discerned the finger of Mr. Calhoun in that
letter, and that an enterprise of some kind was on foot for the
next presidential election--though still so far off. I therefore
put an eye on the movement, and by observing the progress of the
letter, the papers in which it was republished, their comments, the
encomiums which it received, and the public meetings in which it was
commended, I became satisfied that there was no mistake in referring
its origin to that gentleman; and became convinced that this
movement was the resumption of the premature and abortive attempt
of 1836. In the course of the summer of 1843, it had been taken up
generally in the circle of Mr. Calhoun's friends, and with the zeal
and pertinacity which betrayed the spirit of a presidential canvass.
Coincident with these symptoms, and indicative of a determined
movement on the Texas question, was a pregnant circumstance in
the executive branch of the government. Mr. Webster, who had been
prevailed upon to remain in Mr. Tyler's cabinet when all his
colleagues of 1841 left their places, now resigned his place,
also--induced, as it was well known, by the altered deportment of
the President towards him; and was succeeded first by Mr. Legare, of
South Carolina, and, on his early death, by Mr. Upshur, of Virginia.
Mr. Webster was inflexibly opposed to the Texas annexation, and also
to the presidential elevation of Mr. Calhoun; the two gentlemen,
his successors, were both favorable to annexation, and one (Mr.
Upshur) extremely so to Mr. Calhoun; so that, here were two steps
taken in the suspected direction--an obstacle removed and a facility
substituted. This change in the head of the State Department, upon
whatever motive produced, was indispensable to the success of the
Texas movement, and could only have been made for some great cause
never yet explained, seeing the service which Mr. Webster did Mr.
Tyler in remaining with him when the other ministers withdrew.
Another sign appeared in the conduct of the President himself. He
was undergoing another change. Long a democrat, and successful in
getting office at that, he had become a whig, and with still greater
success. Democracy had carried him to the Senate; whiggism elevated
him to the vice-presidency; and, with the help of an accident, to
the presidency. He was now settling back, as shown in a previous
chapter, towards his original party, but that wing of it which had
gone off with Mr. Calhoun in the nullification war--a natural line
of retrogression on his part, as he had travelled it in his transit
from the democratic to the whig camp. The papers in his interest
became rampant for Texas; and in the course of the autumn, the rumor
became current and steady that negotiations were in progress for the
annexation, and that success was certain.
Arriving at Washington at the commencement of the session of
1843-'44, and descending the steps of the Capitol in a throng of
members on the evening of the first day's sitting, I was accosted
by Mr. Aaron V. Brown, a representative from Tennessee, with
expressions of great gratification at meeting with me so soon;
and who immediately showed the cause of his gratification to be
the opportunity it afforded him to speak to me on the subject of
the Texas annexation. He spoke of it as an impending and probable
event--complimented me on my early opposition to the relinquishment
of that country, and my subsequent efforts to get it back, and
did me the honor to say that, as such original enemy to its loss
and early advocate of its recovery, I was a proper person to
take a prominent part in now getting it back. All this was very
civil and quite reasonable, and, at another time and under other
circumstances, would have been entirely agreeable to me; but
preoccupied as my mind was with the idea of an intrigue for the
presidency, and a land and scrip speculation which I saw mixing
itself up with it, and feeling as if I was to be made an instrument
in these schemes, I took fire at his words, and answered abruptly
and hotly: _That it was, on the part of some, an intrigue for the
presidency and a plot to dissolve the Union--on the part of others,
a Texas scrip and land speculation; and that I was against it._
This answer went into the newspapers, and was much noticed at
the time, and immediately set up a high wall between me and the
annexation party. I had no thought at the time that Mr. Brown had
been moved by anybody to sound me, and presently regretted the
warmth with which I had replied to him--especially as no part of
what I said was intended to apply to him. The occurrence gave rise
to some sharp words at one another afterwards, which, so far as they
were sharp on my part, I have since condemned, and do not now repeat.
Some three months afterwards there appeared in the _Richmond
Enquirer_ a letter from General Jackson to Mr. Brown, in answer to
one from Mr. Brown to the general, covering a copy of Mr. Gilmer's
Texas letter, and asking the favor of his (the general's) opinion
upon it: which he promptly and decidedly gave, and fully in favor
of its object. Here was a revelation and a coincidence which
struck me, and put my mind to thinking, and opened up a new vein
of exploration, into which I went to work, and worked on until I
obtained the secret history of the famous "Jackson Texas letter" (as
it came to be called), and which played so large a part in the Texas
annexation question, and in the presidential election of 1844; and
which drew so much applause upon the general from many who had so
lately and so bitterly condemned him. This history I now propose to
give, confining the narrative to the intrigue for the presidential
nomination, leaving the history of the attempted annexation (treaty
of 1844) for a separate chapter, or rather chapters; for it was an
enterprise of many aspects, according to the taste of different
actors--presidential, disunion, speculation.
The outline of this history--that of the letter--is brief and
authentic; and, although well covered up at the time, was known to
too many to remain covered up long. It was partly made known to me
at the time, and fully since. It runs thus:
Mr. Calhoun, in 1841-'2, had resumed his design (intermitted in
1840) to stand for the presidency, and determined to make the
annexation of Texas--immediate annexation--the controlling issue
in the election. The death of President Harrison in 1841, and the
retreat of his whig ministers, and the accession of his friends to
power in the person of Mr. Tyler (then settling back to his old
love), and in the persons of some of his cabinet, opened up to his
view the prospect of a successful enterprise in that direction; and
he fully embraced it, and without discouragement from the similar
budding hopes of Mr. Tyler himself, which it was known would be
without fruit, except what Mr. Calhoun would gather--the ascendant
of his genius assuring him the mastery when he should choose to
assume it. His real competitors (foreseen to be Mr. Van Buren and
Mr. Clay) were sure to be against it--immediate annexation--and they
would have a heavy current to encounter, all the South and West
being for the annexation, and a strong interest, also, in other
parts of the Union. There was a basis to build upon in the honest
feelings of the people, and inflammatory arguments to excite them;
and if the opinion of General Jackson could be obtained in its
favor, the election of the annexation candidate was deemed certain.
With this view the Gilmer letter was composed and published, and
sent to him--and was admirably conceived for his purpose. It took
the veteran patriot on the side of his strong feelings--love of
country and the Union--distrust of Great Britain--and a southern
susceptibility to the dangers of a servile insurrection. It carried
him back to the theatre of his glory--the Lower Mississippi--and
awakened his apprehensions for the safety of that most vulnerable
point of our frontier. Justly and truly, but with a refinement of
artifice in this case, it presented annexation as a strengthening
plaster to the Union, while really intended to sectionalize it,
and to effect disunion if the annexation failed. This idea of
strengthening the Union had, and in itself deserved to have, an
invincible charm for the veteran patriot. Besides, the recovery of
Texas was in the line of his policy, pursued by him as a favorite
object during his administration; and this desire to get back that
country, patriotic in itself, was entirely compatible with his
acquiescence in its relinquishment as a temporary sacrifice in 1819;
an acquiescence induced by the "_domestic_" reason communicated to
him by Mr. Monroe.
The great point in sending the Gilmer letter to him, with its
portents of danger from British designs, was to obtain from him
the expression of an opinion in favor of "immediate" annexation.
No other opinion would do any good. A future annexation, no
matter how soon after 1844, would carry the question beyond the
presidential election, and would fall in with the known opinions of
Mr. Van Buren and Mr. Clay, and most other American statesmen, the
common sentiment being for annexation, when it could be honestly
accomplished. Such annexation would make no issue at all. It would
throw Texas out of the canvass. Immediate was, therefore, the game;
and to bring General Jackson to that point was the object. To do
that, the danger of British occupation was presented as being
so imminent as to admit of no delay, and so disastrous in its
consequences as to preclude all consideration of present objections.
It was a bold conception, and of critical execution. Jackson was one
of the last men in the world to be tampered with--one of the last to
be used against a friend or for a foe--the very last to be willing
to see Mr. Calhoun President--and the very first in favor of Mr. Van
Buren. To turn him against his nature and his feelings in all these
particulars was a perilous enterprise: but it was attempted--and
accomplished.
It has already been shown that the letter of Mr. Gilmer was
skilfully composed for its purpose: all the accessories of its
publication and transmission to General Jackson were equally
skilfully contrived. It was addressed to a friend in Maryland, which
was in the opposite direction from the _locus_ of its origin. It
was drawn out upon the call of a friend: that is the technical way
of getting a private letter before the public. It was published
in Baltimore--a city where its writer did not live. The name of
the friend in Maryland who drew it out, was concealed; and that
was necessary to the success of the scheme, as the name of this
suspected friend (Mr. Duff Green) would have fastened its origin
on Mr. Calhoun. And thus the accessories of the publication were
complete, and left the mind without suspicion that the letter had
germinated in a warm southern latitude. It was then ready to start
on its mission to General Jackson; but how to get it there, without
exciting suspicion, was the question. Certainly Mr. Gilmer would
have been the natural agent for the transmission of his own letter;
but he stood too close to Mr. Calhoun--was too much his friend and
intimate--to make that a safe adventure. A medium was wanted, which
would be a conductor of the letter and a non-conductor of suspicion;
and it was found in the person of Mr. Aaron V. Brown. But he was
the friend of Mr. Van Buren, and it was necessary to approach him
through a medium also, and one was found in one of Mr. Gilmer's
colleagues--believed to be Mr. Hopkins, of the House, who came from
near the Tennessee line; and through him the letter reached Mr.
Brown.
And thus, conceived by one, written by another, published by a
third, and transmitted through two successive mediums, the missive
went upon its destination, and arrived safely in the hands of
General Jackson. It had a complete success. He answered it promptly,
warmly, decidedly, affirmatively. So fully did it put him up to the
point of "immediate" annexation, that his impatience outstripped
expectation. He counselled haste--considered the present the
accepted time--and urged the seizure of the "golden opportunity"
which, if lost now, might never return. The answer was dated at the
Hermitage, March 12th, 1843, and was received at Washington as soon
as the mail could fetch it. Of course it came to Mr. Brown, to whom
it belonged, and to whom it was addressed; but I did not hear of it
in his hands. My first information of it was in the hands of Mr.
Gilmer, in the hall of the House, immediately after its arrival--he,
crossing the hall with the letter in his hand, greatly elated, and
showing it to a confidential friend, with many expressions of now
confident triumph over Mr. Van Buren. The friend was permitted to
read the letter, but with the understanding that nothing was to be
said about it at that time.
_Mr. Gilmer then explained to his friend the purpose for which this
letter had been written and sent to General Jackson, and the use
that was intended to be made of his answer (if favorable to the
design of the authors), which use was this: It was to be produced
in the nominating convention, to overthrow Mr. Van Buren, and give
Mr. Calhoun the nomination, both of whom were to be interrogated
beforehand; and as it was well known what the answers would
be--Calhoun for and Van Buren against immediate annexation--and
Jackson's answer coinciding with Calhoun's, would turn the scale in
his favor, "and blow Van Buren sky high."_
This was the plan, and this the state of the game, at the end of
February, 1843; but a great deal remained to be done to perfect the
scheme. The sentiment of the democratic party was nearly unanimous
for Mr. Van Buren, and time was wanted to undermine that sentiment.
Public opinion was not yet ripe for immediate annexation, and time
was wanted to cultivate that opinion. There was no evidence of
any British domination or abolition plot in Texas, and time was
wanted to import one from London. All these operations required
time--more of it than intervened before the customary period for
the meeting of the convention. That period had been the month of
December preceding the year of the election, and Baltimore the
place for these assemblages since Congress presidential caucuses
had been broken down--that near position to Washington being chosen
for the convenient attendance of that part of the members of
Congress who charged themselves with these elections. If December
remained the period for the meeting, there would be no time for the
large operations which required to be performed; for, to get the
delegates there in time, they must be elected beforehand, during
the summer--so that the working season of the intriguers would
be reduced to a few months, when upwards of a year was required.
To gain that time was the first object, and a squad of members,
some in the interest of Mr. Calhoun, some professing friendship
to Mr. Van Buren, but secretly hostile to him, sat privately in
the Capitol, almost nightly, corresponding with all parts of the
country, to get the convention postponed. All sorts of patriotic
motives were assigned for this desired postponement, as that it
would be more convenient for the delegates to attend--nearer to the
time of election--more time for public opinion to mature; and most
favorable to deliberate decision. But another device was fallen
upon to obtain delay, the secret of which was not put into the
letters, nor confided to the body of the nightly committee. It had
so happened that the opposite party--the whigs--since the rout of
the Congress presidential caucuses, had also taken the same time and
place for their conventions--December, and Baltimore--and doubtless
for the same reason, that of the more convenient attending of the
President-making members of Congress; and this led to an intrigue
with the whigs, the knowledge of which was confined to a very few.
It was believed that the democratic convention could be the more
readily put off if the whigs would do the like--and do it first.
There was a committee within the committee--a little nest of head
managers--who undertook this collusive arrangement with the whigs.
They proposed it to them, professing to act in the interest of Mr.
Calhoun, though in fact against him, as well as against Mr. Van
Buren. The whigs readily agreed to this proposal, because, being
themselves then unanimous for Mr. Clay, it made no difference at
what time he should be nominated; and believing they could more
easily defeat Mr. Calhoun than Mr. Van Buren, they preferred him
for an antagonist. They therefore agreed to the delay, and both
conventions were put off (and the whigs first, to enable the
democrats to plead it) from December, 1843, to May, 1844. Time for
operating having now been gained, the night squad in the Capitol
redoubled their activity to work upon the people. Letter writers
and newspapers were secured. Good, easy members, were plied with
specious reasons--slippery ones were directly approached. Visitors
from the States were beset and indoctrinated. Men were picked out
to operate on the selfish, and the calculating; and myriads of
letters were sent to the States, to editors, and politicians. All
these agents worked to a pattern, the primary object being to undo
public sentiment in favor of Mr. Van Buren, and to manufacture one,
ostensibly in favor of Mr. Calhoun, but in reality without being
for him--they being for any one of four (Mr. Cass, Mr. Buchanan,
Colonel Johnson, Mr. Tyler), in preference to either of them. They
were for neither, and the only difference was that Mr. Calhoun
believed they were for him: Mr. Van Buren knew they were against
him. They professed friendship for him; and that was necessary to
enable them to undermine him. The stress of the argument against
him was that he could not be elected, and the effort was to make
good that assertion. Now, or never, was the word with respect to
Texas. Some of the squad sympathized with the speculators in Texas
land and scrip; and to these Mr. Calhoun was no more palatable than
Mr. Van Buren. They were both above plunder. Some wanted office,
and knew that neither of these gentlemen would give it to them.
They had a difficult as well as tortuous part to play. Professing
democracy, they colluded with whigs. Professing friendship to Mr.
Van Buren, they co-operated with Mr. Calhoun's friends to defeat
him. Co-operating with Mr. Calhoun's friends, they were against
his election. They were for any body in preference to either,
and especially for men of easy temperaments, whose principles
were not entrenched behind strong wills. To undo public sentiment
in favor of Mr. Van Buren was their labor; to get unpledged and
uninstructed delegates into convention, and to get those released
who had been appointed under instructions, was the consummation
of their policy. A convention untrammelled by instructions,
independent of the people, and open to the machinations of a few
politicians, was what was wanted. The efforts to accomplish these
purposes were prodigious, and constituted the absorbing night
and day work of the members engaged in it. After all, they had
but indifferent success--more with politicians and editors than
with the people. Mr. Van Buren was almost universally preferred.
Delegates were generally instructed to support his nomination. Even
in the Southern States, in direct question between himself and
Mr. Calhoun, he was preferred--as in Alabama and Mississippi. No
delegates were released from their instructions by any competent
authority, and only a few in any, by clusters of local politicians,
convenient to the machinations of the committee in the Capitol--as
at Shockoe Hill, Richmond, Virginia, where Mr. Ritchie, editor of
the _Enquirer_ (whose proclivity to be deceived in a crisis was
generally equivalent in its effects to positive treachery), led the
way--himself impelled by others.
The labors of the committee, though intended to be secret, and
confined to a small circle, and chiefly carried on in the night,
were subject to be discovered; and were so; and the discovery led
to some public denunciations. The two senators from Ohio, Messrs.
William Allen, and Tappan, and ten of the representatives from that
State, published a card in the _Globe_ newspaper, denouncing it as
a conspiracy to defeat the will of the people. The whole delegation
from South Carolina (Messrs. McDuffie and Huger, senators, and
the seven representatives), fearing that they might be suspected
on account of their friendship for Mr. Calhoun, published a
card denying all connection with the committee; an unnecessary
precaution, as their characters were above that suspicion. Many
other members published cards, denying their participation in
these meetings; and some, admitting the participation, denied
the intrigue, and truly, as it concerned themselves; for all
the disreputable part was kept secret from them--especially the
collusion with the whigs, and all the mysteries of the Gilmer
letter. Many of them were sincere friends of Mr. Van Buren, but
deceived and cheated themselves, while made the instrument of
deceiving and cheating others. It was probably one of the most
elaborate pieces of political cheatery that has ever been performed
in a free country, and well worthy to be studied by all who would
wish to extend their knowledge of the manner in which presidential
elections may be managed, and who would wish to see the purity of
elections preserved and vindicated.
About this time came an occurrence well calculated to make a pause,
if any thing could make a pause, in the working of political
ambition. The explosion of the great gun on board the Princeton
steamer took place, killing, among others, two of Mr. Tyler's
cabinet (Mr. Upshur and Mr. Gilmer), both deeply engaged in the
Texas project--barely failing to kill Mr. Tyler, who was called back
in the critical moment, and who had embraced the Texas scheme with
more than vicarious zeal; and also barely failing to kill the writer
of this View, who was standing at the breech of the gun, closely
observing its working, as well as that of the Texas game, and who
fell among the killed and stunned, fortunately to rise again.
Commodore Kennon, Mr. Virgil Maxcy, Mr. Gardiner, of New York,
father-in-law (that was to be) of the President, were also killed; a
dozen seamen were wounded, and Commodore Stockton burnt and scorched
as he stood at the side of the gun. Such an occurrence was well
calculated to impress upon the survivors the truth of the divine
admonition: "What shadows we are--what shadows we pursue." But it
had no effect upon the pursuit of the presidential shadow. Instantly
Mr. Calhoun was invited to take Mr. Upshur's place in the Department
of State, and took it with an alacrity, and with a patronizing
declaration, which showed his zeal for the Texas movement, and as
good as avowed its paternity. He declared he took the place for
the Texas negotiation alone, and would quit it as soon as that
negotiation should be finished. In brief, the negotiation, instead
of pausing in the presence of so awful a catastrophe, seemed
to derive new life from it, and to go forward with accelerated
impetuosity. Mr. Calhoun put his eager activity into it: politicians
became more vehement--newspapers more clamorous: the interested
classes (land and scrip speculators) swarmed at Washington; and Mr.
Tyler embraced the scheme with a fervor which induced the suspicion
that he had adopted the game for his own, and intended to stand a
cast of the presidential die upon it.
The machinations of the committee, though greatly successful
with individuals, and with the politicians with whom they could
communicate, did not reach the masses, who remained firm to Mr. Van
Buren; and it became necessary to fall upon some new means of acting
upon them. This led to a different use of the Jackson Texas letter
from what had been intended. It was intended to have been kept in
the background, a secret in the hands of its possessors, until the
meeting of the convention--then suddenly produced to turn the scale
between Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Van Buren; and this design had been
adhered to for about the space of a year, and the letter kept close:
it was then recurred to as a means of rousing the masses.
Jackson's name was potential with the people, and it was deemed
indispensable to bring it to bear upon them. The publication of the
letter was resolved upon, and the _Globe_ newspaper selected for
the purpose, and Mr. Aaron V. Brown to have it done. All this was
judicious and regular. The _Globe_ had been the organ of General
Jackson, and was therefore the most proper paper to bring his
sentiments before the public. It was the advocate of Mr. Van Buren's
election, and therefore would prevent the suspicion of sinistrous
design upon him. Mr. Brown was the legal owner of the letter, and
a professing friend of Mr. Van Buren, and, therefore, the proper
person to carry it for publication.
He did so; but the editor, Mr. Blair, seeing no good that it
could do Mr. Van Buren, but, on the contrary, harm, and being
sincerely his friend, declined to publish it; and, after
examination, delivered it back to Mr. Brown. Shortly thereafter,
to wit, on the 22d of March, 1844, it appeared in the Richmond
_Enquirer_, post-dated, that is to say, the date of 1843 changed
into 1844--whether by design or accident is not known; but the
post-date gave the letter a fresher appearance, and a more vigorous
application to the Texas question. The fact that this letter had got
back to Mr. Brown, after having been given up to Mr. Gilmer, proved
that the letter travelled in a circle while kept secret, and went
from hand to hand among the initiated, as needed for use.
The time had now come for the interrogation of the candidates, and
it was done with all the tact which the delicate function required.
The choice of the interrogator was the first point. He must be
a friend, ostensible if not real, to the party interrogated. If
real, he must himself be deceived, and made to believe that he
was performing a kindly service; if not, he must still have the
appearance. And for Mr. Van Buren's benefit a suitable performer was
found in the person of Mr. Hamett, a representative in Congress from
Mississippi, whose letter was a model for the occasion, and, in fact
has been pretty well followed since. It abounded in professions of
friendship to Mr. Van Buren--approached him for his own good--sought
his opinion from the best of motives; and urged a categorical reply,
for or against, immediate annexation. The sagacious Mr. Van Buren
was no dupe of this contrivance, but took counsel from what was due
to himself; and answered with candor, decorum and dignity. He was
against immediate annexation, because it was war with Mexico, but
for it when it could be done peaceably and honorably: and he was
able to present a very fair record, having been in favor of getting
back the country (in a way to avoid difficulties with Mexico) when
Secretary of State, under President Jackson. His letter was sent to
a small circle of friends at Washington before it was delivered to
its address; but to be delivered immediately; which was done, and
soon went into the papers.
Mr. Calhoun had superseded the necessity of interrogation in
his letter of acceptance of the State Department: he was a hot
annexationist, although there was an ugly record to be exhibited
against him. In his almost thirty years of public life he had never
touched Texas, except for his own purposes. In 1819, as one of Mr.
Monroe's cabinet, he had concurred in giving it away, in order to
conciliate the anti-slavery interest in the Northeast by curtailing
slave territory in the Southwest. In 1836 he moved her immature
annexation, in order to bring the question into the presidential
election of that year, to the prejudice of Mr. Van Buren; and urged
instant action, because delay was dangerous. Having joined Mr. Van
Buren after his election, and expecting to become his successor, he
dropped the annexation for which he had been so impatient, and let
the election of 1840 pass by without bringing it into the canvass;
and now revived it for the overthrow of Mr. Van Buren, and for the
excitement of a sectional controversy, by placing the annexation on
strong sectional grounds. And now, at the approach of the election
in 1844, after years of silence, he becomes the head advocate of
annexation; and with all this forbidding record against him, by
help of General Jackson's letter, and the general sentiment in
favor of annexation, and the fictitious alarm of British abolition
and hostile designs, he was able to appear as a champion of Texas
annexation, baffling the old and consistent friends of the measure
with the new form which had been given to the question. Mr. Clay was
of this class. Of all the public men he was able to present the best
and fairest Texas record. He was opposed to the loss of the province
in 1819, and offered resolutions in the House of Representatives,
supported by an ardent speech, in which he condemned the treaty
which gave it away. As Secretary of State, under Mr. Adams, he had
advised the recovery of the province, and opened negotiations to
that effect, and wrote the instructions under which Mr. Poinsett,
the United States minister, made the attempt. As a western man, he
was the natural champion of a great western interest--pre-eminently
western, while also national. He was interrogated according to the
programme, and answered with firmness that, although an ancient and
steadfast friend to the recovery of the country, he was opposed to
immediate annexation, as adopting the war with Mexico, and making
that war by treaty, when the war-making power belonged to Congress.
There were several other democratic candidates, the whole of whom
were interrogated, and answered promptly in favor of immediate
annexation--some of them improving their letters, as advised, before
publication. Mr. Tyler, also, now appeared above the horizon as a
presidential candidate, and needed no interrogatories to bring out
his declaration for immediate annexation, although he had voted
against Mr. Clay's resolution condemning the sacrifice of the
province. In a word, the Texas hobby was multitudinously mounted,
and violently ridden, and most violently by those who had been
most indifferent to it before. Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun were the
only candidates that answered like statesmen, and they were both
distanced.
The time was approaching for the convention to meet, and,
consequently, for the conclusion of the treaty of annexation, which
was to be a touchstone in it. It was signed the 12th of April, and
was to have been sent to the Senate immediately, but was delayed
by a circumstance which created alarm--made a balk--and required
a new turn to be taken. Mr. Van Buren had not yet answered the
interrogatories put to him through Mr. Hamett, or rather his answer
had not yet been published. Uneasiness began to be felt, lest, like
so many others, he should fall into the current, and answer in a way
that would enable him to swim with it. To relieve this uncertainty,
Mr. Blair was applied to by Mr. Robert J. Walker to write to him,
and get his answer. This was a very proper channel to apply through.
Mr. Blair, as the fast friend of Mr. Van Buren, had the privilege
to solicit him. Mr. Calhoun, as the political adversary of Mr. Van
Buren, could not ask Mr. Blair to do it. Mr. Walker stood in a
relation to be ready for the work all round; as a professing friend
of Mr. Van Buren, though co-operating with Mr. Calhoun and all the
rest against him, he could speak with Mr. Blair on a point which
seemed to be for Mr. Van Buren's benefit. As co-operating with Mr.
Calhoun, he could help him against an adversary, though intending to
give him the go-by in the end. As being in all the Texas mysteries,
he was a natural person to ferret out information on every side. He
it was, then, to whose part it fell to hasten the desired answer
from Mr. Van Buren, and through the instrumentality of Mr. Blair.
Mr. Blair wrote as solicited, not seeing any trap in it; but had
received no answer up to the time that the treaty was to go to the
Senate. Ardent for Texas, and believing in the danger of delay, he
wrote and published in the _Globe_ a glowing article in favor of
immediate annexation. That article was a poser and a dumbfounder
to the confederates. It threw the treaty all aback. Considering
Mr. Blair's friendship for Mr. Van Buren, and their confidential
relations, it was concluded that this article could not have been
published without his consent--that it spoke his sentiments--and
was in fact his answer to the letter which had been sent to him.
Here was an ugly balk. It seemed as if the long intrigue had
miscarried--as if the plot was going to work out the contrary way,
and elevate the man it was intended to put down. In this unexpected
conjuncture a new turn became indispensable--and was promptly taken.
Mention has been made in the forepart of this chapter, of the
necessity which was felt to obtain something from London to bolster
up the accusation of that formidable abolition plot which Great
Britain was hatching in Texas, and on the alleged existence of which
the whole argument for immediate annexation reposed. The desired
testimony had been got, and oracularly given to the public, as
being derived from a "_private letter from a citizen of Maryland,
then in London_." The name of this Maryland citizen was not given,
but his respectability and reliability were fully vouched; and the
testimony passed for true. It was to the point in charging upon the
British government, with names and circumstances, all that had been
alleged; and adding that her abolition machinations were then in
full progress. This went back to London, immediately transmitted
there by the British minister at Washington, Sir Richard Pakenham;
and being known to be false, and felt to be scandalous, drew from
the British Secretary of State (Lord Aberdeen) an indignant, prompt,
and peremptory contradiction. This contradiction was given in a
despatch, dated December 26th, 1843. It was communicated by Sir
Richard Pakenham to Mr. Upshur, the United States Secretary of
State, on the 26th day of February, 1844--a few days before the
lamentable death of that gentleman by the bursting of the Princeton
gun. This despatch, having no object but to contradict an unfounded
imputation, required no answer--and received none. It lay in the
Department of State unacknowledged until after the treaty had been
signed, and until the day of the appearance of that redoubtable
article in the _Globe_, which had been supposed to be Mr. Van
Buren's answer to the problem of immediate annexation. Then it was
taken up, and, on the 18th day of April, was elaborately answered
by Mr. Calhoun in a despatch to the British minister--not to argue
the point of the truth of the Maryland citizen's private letter--but
to argue quite off upon a new text. It so happened that Lord
Aberdeen--after the fullest contradiction of the imputed design,
and the strongest assurances of non-interference with any slavery
policy either of the United States or of Texas--did not stop there;
but, like many able men who are not fully aware of the virtue of
stopping when they are done, went on to add something more, of no
necessary connection or practical application to the subject--a mere
general abstract declaration on the subject of slavery; on which Mr.
Calhoun took position, and erected a superstructure of alarm which
did more to embarrass the opponents of the treaty and to inflame the
country, than all other matters put together. This cause for this
new alarm was found in the superfluous declaration, "_That Great
Britain desires, and is constantly exerting herself to procure the
general abolition of slavery throughout the world_." This general
declaration, although preceded and followed by reiterated assurances
of non-interference with slavery in the United States, and no desire
for any dominant influence in Texas, were seized upon as an open
avowal of a design to abolish slavery every where. These assurances
were all disregarded. Our secretary established himself upon the
naked declaration, stripped of all qualifications and denials.
He saw in them the means of making to a northern man (Mr. Van
Buren) just as perilous the support as the opposition of immediate
annexation. So, making the declaration of Lord Aberdeen the text of
a most elaborate reply, he took up the opposite ground (support and
propagation of slavery), arguing it generally in relation to the
world, and specially in relation to the United States and Texas;
and placing the annexation so fully upon that ground, that all its
supporters must be committed to it. Here was a new turn, induced by
Mr. Blair's article in the _Globe_, and by which the support of the
treaty would be as obnoxious in the North as opposition to it would
be in the South.
It must have been a strange despatch for a British minister to
receive--an argument in favor of slavery propagandism--supported
by comparative statements taken from the United States census,
between the numbers of deaf, dumb, blind, idiotic, insane, criminal,
and paupers among the free and the slave negroes--showing a large
disproportion against the free negroes; and thence deducing a
conclusion in favor of slavery. It was a strange diplomatic
despatch, and incomprehensible except with a knowledge of the
circumstances in which it was written. It must have been complete
mystification to Lord Aberdeen; but it was not written for him,
though addressed to him, and was sent to those for whom it was
intended long before he saw it. The use that was made of it showed
for whom it was written. Two days after its date, and before it had
commenced its maritime voyage to London, it was in the American
Senate--sent in with the treaty, with the negotiation of which it
had no connection, being written a week after its signature, and
after the time that the treaty would have been sent in had it not
been for the appearance of the article (supposed to speak Mr. Van
Buren's sentiments) in the _Globe_. It was no embarrassment to Mr.
Van Buren, whose letter in answer to the interrogatories had been
written, and was soon after published. It was an embarrassment to
others. It made the annexation a sectional and a slavery question,
and insured the rejection of the treaty. It disgusted northern
senators; and that was one of the objects with which it had been
written. For the whole annexation business had been conducted with a
double aspect--one looking to the presidency, the other to disunion;
and the latter the alternative, to the furtherance of which the
rejection of the treaty by northern votes was an auxiliary step.
And while the whole negotiation bore that for one of its aspects
from the beginning, this _ex post facto_ despatch, written after the
treaty was signed, and given to the American public before it got
to the British Secretary of State, became the distinct revelation
of what had been before dimly shadowed forth. All hope of the
presidency from the Texas intrigue had now failed--the alternative
aspect had become the absolute one; and a separate republic,
consisting of Texas and some Southern States, had become the object.
Neither the exposure of this object nor the history of the attempted
annexation belong to this chapter. A separate chapter is required
for each. And this incident of the Maryland citizen's private
letter from London, Lord Aberdeen's contradiction, and the strange
despatch of Mr. Calhoun to him, are only mentioned here as links
in the chain of the presidential intrigue; and will be dismissed
with the remark that the Maryland citizen was afterwards found out,
and was discovered to be a citizen better known as an inhabitant
of Washington than of Maryland; and that the private letter was
intended to be for public use and paid for out of the contingent
fund of the State Department; and the writer, a person whose name
was the synonym of subserviency to Mr. Calhoun; namely, Mr. Duff
Green. All this was afterwards brought out under a call from the
United States Senate, moved by the writer of this View, who had been
put upon the track by some really private information: and when the
Presidential Message was read in the Senate, disclosing all these
facts, he used an expression taken from a Spanish proverb which had
some currency at the time: "_At last the devil is pulled from under
the blanket._"
The time was approaching for the meeting of the democratic
presidential convention, postponed by collusion with the whigs (the
managers in each party), from the month of December to the month
of May--the 27th day of it. It was now May, and every sign was not
only auspicious to Mr. Van Buren, but ominous to his opponents. The
delegates almost universally remained under instructions to support
him. General Jackson, seeing how his letter to Mr. Brown had been
used, though ignorant of the artifice by which it had been got from
him, and justly indignant at finding himself used for a foe and
against a friend, and especially when he deemed that foe dangerous
to the Union--wrote a second Texas letter, addressed to the public,
in which, while still adhering to his immediate annexation opinions,
also adhered to Mr. Van Buren as his candidate for the presidency;
and this second letter was a wet blanket upon the fires of the first
one. The friends of Mr. Calhoun, seeing that he would have no chance
in the Baltimore convention, had started a project to hold a third
one in New York; a project which expired as soon as it got to the
air; and in connection with which Mr. Cass deemed it necessary to
make an authoritative contradiction of a statement made by Mr. Duff
Green, who undertook to convince him, in spite of his denials, that
he had agreed to it. In proportion as Mr. Calhoun was disappearing
from this presidential canvass, Mr. Tyler was appearing in it;
and eventually became fully developed as a candidate, intrusively
on the democratic side; but his friends, seeing no chance for him
in the democratic national convention, he got up an individual or
collateral one for himself--to meet at the same time and place; but
of this hereafter. This chapter belongs to the intrigue against Mr.
Van Buren.