Perceiving no valid objection to the
measure and many reasons for its adoption vitally affecting the
peace, the safety, and the prosperity of both countries, I shall
on the broad principle which formed the basis and produced the
adoption of our Constitution, and not in any narrow spirit of
sectional policy, endeavor by all constitutional, honorable, and
appropriate means to consummate the expressed will of the people
and Government of the United States by the reannexation of Texas
to our Union at the earliest practicable period.
Nor will it become in a less degree my duty to assert and maintain
by all constitutional means the right of the United States to that
portion of our territory which lies beyond the Rocky Mountains.
Our title to the country of the Oregon is "clear and
unquestionable," and already are our people preparing to perfect
that title by occupying it with their wives and children. But
eighty years ago our population was confined on the west by the
ridge of the Alleghanies. Within that period--within the lifetime,
I might say, of some of my hearers--our people, increasing to many
millions, have filled the eastern valley of the Mississippi,
adventurously ascended the Missouri to its headsprings, and are
already engaged in establishing the blessings of self-government
in valleys of which the rivers flow to the Pacific.
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