which it could only be sustained, consisted

in the attacking our army within the territory

of the United States, and the declaration could

only be made true by the assumption that the

Rio Grande was the boundary of Texas, and the

territory East of it a portion of the United States.

And I am certain, that the Government of the

United States will never permit the reproach to

be recorded in history against her, that she

charged Mexico as an aggressor, and visited upon

her with the sword the fearful consequences of an

invasion of her soil, and afterwards when needing

no such pretext and seeking a different end,

she sought to repudiate the very title by which

the truth of her declaration and her justification

before the world could be established; and finally

the Congress of the United States, on the 29th day of

Dec. 1845, and by which the act of annexation be-

came final, accepted and ratified our State Constitu-

tion by which "all laws and parts of laws now

in force in the Republic of Texas, which are not

repugnant to the Constitution of the United States,

the Joint Resolutions for annexing Texas to the United

States, or to the provisions of this Constitution, shall

continue and remain in force as the laws of this

State, until they expire by their own limitations, or

shall be altered or repealed by the Legislature

thereof." This act of acceptance and ratification

cannot amount to less than that the Congress

of the United State recognize in its provisions

nothing against the Constitution of the United

States--nothing in the shape of pretentions which

that body was not willing to admit and endorse.

I have thus presented, as I conceive fairly,