then Secretary of State. His
correspondence with Mr. Murphy, the Charge d'Affaires of the United
States in Texas, had been published. That correspondence was all before
those gentlemen, and the Secretary had the boldness and candor to avow
in that correspondence, that the great object sought by the annexation
of Texas was to strengthen the slave interest of the South. Why, Sir,
he said so in so many words--

MR. CALHOUN. Will the honorable Senator permit me to interrupt him
for a moment?

Certainly.

MR. CALHOUN. I am very reluctant to interrupt the honorable
gentleman; but, upon a point of so much importance, I deem it right
to put myself _rectus in curia_. I did not put it upon the ground
assumed by the Senator. I put it upon this ground: that Great
Britain had announced to this country, in so many words, that her
object was to abolish slavery in Texas, and, through Texas, to
accomplish the abolition of slavery in the United States and the
world. The ground I put it on was, that it would make an exposed
frontier, and, if Great Britain succeeded in her object, it would
be impossible that that frontier could be secured against the
aggressions of the Abolitionists; and that this government was
bound, under the guaranties of the Constitution, to protect us
against such a state of things.

That comes, I suppose, Sir, to exactly the same thing. It was, that
Texas must be obtained for the security of the slave interest of the
South.

MR. CALHOUN. Another view is very distinctly given.

That was the object set forth in the correspondence of a worthy
gentleman not now living,[12] who preceded the honorable member from
South Carolina in the Department of State. There repose on the files of
the Department, as I have occasion to know, strong letters from Mr.
Upshur to the United States Minister in England, and I believe there are
some to the same Minister from the honorable Senator himself, asserting
to this effect the sentiments of this government; namely, that Great
Britain was expected not to interfere to take Texas out of the hands of
its then existing government and make it a free country. But my
argument, my suggestion, is this: that those gentlemen who composed the
Northern Democracy when Texas was brought into the Union saw clearly
that it was brought in as a slave country, and brought in for the
purpose of being maintained as slave t