people." The Speaker refused to
receive the motion, or even allow it to be read, on the ground that it
was not in order. Mr. Adams repeated substantially the same motion in
June, 1838, then adding "that any attempt by act of Congress or by
treaty to annex the Republic of Texas to this Union would be an
usurpation of power which it would be the right and the duty of the
free people of the Union to resist and annul." The story of his
opposition to this measure is, however, so interwoven with his general
antagonism to slavery, that there is little occasion for treating them
separately.[9]

[Footnote 9: In an address to his constituents in
September, 1842, Mr. Adams spoke of his course
concerning Texas. Having mentioned Mr. Van Buren's
reply, declining the formal proposition made in
1837 by the Republic of Texas for annexation to the
United States, he continued: "But the
slave-breeding passion for the annexation was not
to be so disconcerted. At the ensuing session of
Congress numerous petitions and memorials for and
against the annexation were presented to the House,
... and were referred to the Committee of Foreign
Affairs, who, without ever taking them into
consideration, towards the close of the session
asked to be discharged from the consideration of
them all. It was on this report that the debate
arose, in which I disclosed the whole system of
duplicity and perfidy towards Mexico, which had
marked the Jackson Administration from its
commencement to its close. It silenced the clamors
for the annexation of Texas to this Union for three
years till the catastrophe of the Van Buren
Administration. The people of the free States were
lulled into the belief that the whole project was
abandoned, and that they should hear no more of
slave-trade cravings for the annexation of Texas.
Had Harrison lived they would have heard no more of
them to this day, but no sooner was John Tyler
installed in the Presiden