3

agreed [sic] upon could then be submitted to the people of Texas, in their

popular capacity, and their votes taken thereupon at the September

election for members of our Congress. If they were approved by their

voice, then our Congress could act upon the expression given by the

people and wait for the action of the Government of the United

States. If that Government should accord in the action of this, then

Texas could more safely proceed to frame a constitution adapted to

her circumstances. The reasons for this course, to my mind, are im-

portant, and, I may add, indispensable in our present condition.

The conditions prescribed in Mr Brown’s resolutions leave

us no alternative, and I am satisfied would not have been

adopted by the Congress of the United States, apart from the amend-

ment. By the amendment, the President of the United States was

allowed an alternative, as to the mode of presenting the subject

to the Government and people of Texas for their consideration

and action. But as the alternative chosen might very materially

affect the interests of Texas, it is to be hoped and expected that

its Government will be consulted as to which should be adopted.

By the action proposed in the plan of Mr Brown’s resolutions,

Texas is denied all option as to the mode of annexation, and

is driven into servile submission—and is even required to pay

a price for her humiliation.

If Texas were to accept the conditions, as they are now

presented to the Government of Texas by the Government of

the United States, it would derange her present form of govern-

ment, and shake her institutions to their foundation, if her

constitution should not be accepted by the Congress of the United

States. And my own opinion is, that our admission by Congress

would be very doubtful, if we were to act upon the first and

second sections of the resolutions without reference to the third.

If the work of annexation is to be consummated, my

great desire is to see it done in a manner that may not only be

harmonious at present, but so that each party may hereafter,

on a review of the whole matter, have nothing to regret or

to reproach itself with.

It seems to me, also, that the conditions as to the

time to which the action of Texas is limited is too short to

enable her to give the subject all the consideration which

its importance demands. The Congress of the United States will

doubtless not adjourn its next regular session before the month

of July, 1846. Then it will have ample time to extend