It is confidently believed that our
system may be safely extended to the utmost bounds of our
territorial limits, and that as it shall be extended the bonds of
our Union, so far from being weakened, will become stronger.
None can fail to see the danger to our safety and future peace if
Texas remains an independent state or becomes an ally or
dependency of some foreign nation more powerful than herself. Is
there one among our citizens who would not prefer perpetual peace
with Texas to occasional wars, which so often occur between
bordering independent nations? Is there one who would not prefer
free intercourse with her to high duties on all our products and
manufactures which enter her ports or cross her frontiers? Is
there one who would not prefer an unrestricted communication with
her citizens to the frontier obstructions which must occur if she
remains out of the Union? Whatever is good or evil in the local
institutions of Texas will remain her own whether annexed to the
United States or not. None of the present States will be
responsible for them any more than they are for the local
institutions of each other. They have confederated together 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.
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