es not surpass, the combined production
of many of the States of the Confederacy. A new and powerful impulse
will thus be given to the navigating interest of the country, which will
be chiefly engrossed by our fellow-citizens of the Eastern and Middle
States, who have already attained a remarkable degree of prosperity by
the partial monopoly they have enjoyed of the carrying trade of the
Union, particularly the coastwise trade, which this new acquisition is
destined in time, and that not distant, to swell to a magnitude which
can not easily be computed, while the addition made to the boundaries
of the home market thus secured to their mining, manufacturing, and
mechanical skill and industry will be of a character the most commanding
and important. Such are some of the many advantages which will
accrue to the Eastern and Middle States by the ratification of the
treaty--advantages the extent of which it is impossible to estimate with
accuracy or properly to appreciate. Texas, being adapted to the culture
of cotton, sugar, and rice, and devoting most of her energies to the
raising of these productions, will open an extensive market to the
Western States in the important articles of beef, pork, horses, mules,
etc., as well as in breadstuffs. At the same time, the Southern and
Southeastern States will find in the fact of annexation protection and
security to their peace and tranquillity, as well against all domestic
as foreign efforts to disturb them, thus consecrating anew the union of
the States and holding out the promise of its perpetual duration. Thus,
at the same time that the tide of public prosperity is greatly swollen,
an appeal of what appears to the Executive to be of an imposing, if not
of a resistless, character is made to the interests of every portion of
the country. Agriculture, which would have a new and extensive market
opened for its produce; commerce, whose ships would be freighted with
the rich productions of an extensive and fertile region; and the
mechanical arts, in all their various ramifications, would seem to
unite in one universal demand for the ratification of the treaty. But
important as these considerations may appear, they are to be regarded
as but secondary to others. Texas, for reasons deemed sufficient by
herself, threw off her dependence on Mexico as far back as 1836, and
consummated her independence by the battle of San Jacinto in the same
year, since which period Mexico has attempted no se