, as eminent lovers of the Wilmot
Proviso, as eminent Free Soil men, and who have mounted over our heads,
and trodden us down as if we were mere slaves, insisting that they are
the only true lovers of liberty, they are the men, the very men, that
brought Texas into this Union. This is the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth, and I declare it before you, this day. Look to
the journals. Without the consent of New York, Texas would not have come
into the Union, either under the original resolutions or afterwards.
But New York voted for the measure. The two Senators from New York voted
for it, and decided the question; and you may thank them for the glory,
the renown, and the happiness of having five or six slave States added
to the Union. Do not blame me for it. Let them answer who did the deed,
and who are now proclaiming themselves the champions of liberty, crying
up their Free Soil creed, and using it for selfish and deceptive
purposes. They were the persons who aided in bringing in Texas. It was
all fairly told to you, both beforehand and afterwards. You heard Moses
and the prophets, but if one had risen from the dead, such was your
devotion to that policy, at that time, you would not have listened to
him for a moment. I do not, of course, speak of the persons now here
before me, but of the general political tone in New York, and especially
of those who are now Free Soil apostles. Well, all that I do not
complain of; but I will not now, or hereafter, before the country, or
the world, consent to be numbered among those who introduced new slave
power into the Union. I did all in my power to prevent it.

Then, again, Gentlemen, the Mexican war broke out. Vast territory was
acquired, and the peace was made; and, much as I disliked the war, I
disliked the peace more, because it brought in these territories. I
wished for peace indeed, but I desired to strike out the grant of
territory on the one side, and the payment of the $12,000,000 on the
other. That territory was unknown to me; I could not tell what its
character might be. The plan came from the South. I knew that certain
Southern gentlemen wished the acquisition of California, New Mexico, and
Utah, as a means of extending slave power and slave population.
Foreseeing a sectional controversy, and, as I conceived, seeing how much
it would distract the Union, I voted against the treaty with Mexico. I
voted against the acquisition. I wanted none of her territor