d
with zeal and determination by the executive department of the
government of the United States, I thought it my duty, and asked them to
concur with me in the attempt, to make that purpose known to the
country. I conferred with gentlemen of distinction and influence. I
proposed means for exciting public attention to the question of
annexation, before it should have become a party question; for I had
learned that, when any topic becomes a party question, it is in vain to
argue upon it.

But the optimists and the quietists, and those who said, All things are
well, and let all things alone, discouraged, discountenanced, and
repressed any such effort. The North, they said, could take care of
itself; the country could take care of itself, and would not sustain Mr.
Tyler in his project of annexation. When the time should come, they
said, the power of the North would be felt, and would be found
sufficient to resist and prevent the consummation of the measure. And I
could now refer to paragraphs and articles in the most respectable and
leading journals of the North, in which it was attempted to produce the
impression that there was no danger; there could be no addition of new
States, and men need not alarm themselves about that.

I was not in Congress, Sir, when the preliminary resolutions, providing
for the annexation of Texas, passed. I only know that, up to a very
short period before the passage of those resolutions, the impression in
that part of the country of which I have spoken was, that no such
measure could be adopted. But I have found, in the course of thirty
years' experience, that whatever measures the executive government may
embrace and push are quite likely to succeed in the end. There is always
a giving way somewhere. The executive government acts with uniformity,
with steadiness, with entire unity of purpose. And sooner or later,
often enough, and, according to my construction of our history, quite
too often, it effects its purposes. In this way it becomes the
predominating power of the government.

Well, Sir, just before the commencement of the present administration,
the resolutions for the annexation of Texas were passed in Congress.
Texas complied with the provisions of those resolutions, and was here,
or the case was here, on the 22d day of December, 1845, for her final
admission into the Union, as one of the States. I took occasion then to
say, that I hoped I had shown all proper regard for Texas; tha