omplete the
circle. Texas voluntarily steps forth, upon terms of perfect honor and
good faith to all nations, to ask to be annexed to the Union. As an
independent sovereignty her right to do this is unquestionable. In
doing so she gives no cause of umbrage to any other power; her people
desire it, and there is no slavish transfer of her sovereignty and
independence. She has for eight years maintained her independence
against all efforts to subdue her. She has been recognized as
independent by many of the most prominent of the family of nations,
and that recognition, so far as they are concerned, places her in
a position, without giving any just cause of umbrage to them, to
surrender her sovereignty at her own will and pleasure. The United
States, actuated evermore by a spirit of justice, has desired by the
stipulations of the treaty to render justice to all. They have made
provision for the payment of the public debt of Texas. We look to her
ample and fertile domain as the certain means of accomplishing this; but
this is a matter between the United States and Texas, and with which
other Governments have nothing to do. Our right to receive the rich
grant tendered by Texas is perfect, and this Government should not,
having due respect either to its own honor or its own interests, permit
its course of policy to be interrupted by the interference of other
powers, even if such interference were threatened. The question is one
purely American. In the acquisition, while we abstain most carefully
from all that could interrupt the public peace, we claim the right to
exercise a due regard to our own. This Government can not consistently
with its honor permit any such interference. With equal, if not greater,
propriety might the United States demand of other governments to
surrender their numerous and valuable acquisitions made in past time at
numberless places on the surface of the globe, whereby they have added
to their power and enlarged their resources.

To Mexico the Executive is disposed to pursue a course conciliatory in
its character and at the same time to render her the most ample justice
by conventions and stipulations not inconsistent with the rights and
dignity of the Government. It is actuated by no spirit of unjust
aggrandizement, but looks only to its own security. It has made known to
Mexico at several periods its extreme anxiety to witness the termination
of hostilities between that country and Texas. Its wishes,