s heretofore been such a _North_ as I have described, a
North strong in opinion and united in action against slavery,--if such a
_North_ has existed anywhere, it has existed "the Lord knows where," I
do not. Why, on this very question of the admission of Texas, it may be
said with truth, that the North let in Texas. The Whigs, North and
South, resisted Texas. Ten Senators from slave-holding States, of the
Whig party, resisted Texas. Two, only, as I remember, voted for it. But
the Southern Whig votes against Texas were overpowered by the Democratic
votes from the Free States, and from New England among the rest. Yes, if
there had not been votes from New England in favor of Texas, Texas would
have been out of the Union to this day. Yes, if men from New England had
been true, Texas would have been nothing but Texas still. There were
four votes in the Senate from New England in favor of the admission of
Texas, Mr. Van Buren's friends, Democratic members: one from Maine; two
from New Hampshire; one from Connecticut. Two of these gentlemen were
confidential friends of Mr. Van Buren, and had both been members of his
cabinet. They voted for Texas; and they let in Texas, against Southern
Whigs and Northern Whigs. That is the truth of it, my friends. Mr. Van
Buren, by the wave of his hand, could have kept out Texas. A word, a
letter, though it had been even shorter than General Cass's letter to
the Chicago Convention, would have been enough, and would have done the
work. But he was silent.

When Northern members of Congress voted, in 1820, for the Missouri
Compromise, against the known will of their constituents, they were
called "Dough Faces." I am afraid, fellow-citizens, that the generation
of "dough faces" will be as perpetual as the generation of men.

In 1844, as we all know, Mr. Van Buren was a candidate for the
Presidency, on the part of the Democratic party, but lost the nomination
at Baltimore. We now learn, from a letter from General Jackson to Mr.
Butler, that Mr. Van Buren's claims were superseded, because, after all,
the South thought that the accomplishment of the annexation of Texas
might be more safely intrusted to Southern hands. We all know that the
Northern portion of the Democratic party were friendly to Mr. Van Buren.
Our neighbors from New Hampshire, and Maine, and elsewhere, were Van
Buren men. But the moment it was ascertained that Mr. Polk was the
favorite of the South, and the favorite of the South upon