But there are
circumstances in the relations of the two countries which require us to
act on this occasion with even more than our wonted caution. Texas was
once claimed as a part of our property, and there are those among our
citizens who, always reluctant to abandon that claim, can not but regard
with solicitude the prospect of the reunion of the territory to this
country. A large proportion of its civilized inhabitants are emigrants
from the United States, speak the same language with ourselves, cherish
the same principles, political and religious, and are bound to many of
our citizens by ties of friendship and kindred blood; and, more than
all, it is known that the people of that country have instituted the
same form of government with our own, and have since the close of your
last session openly resolved, on the acknowledgment by us of their
independence, to seek admission into the Union as one of the Federal
States. This last circumstance is a matter of peculiar delicacy, and
forces upon us considerations of the gravest character. The title of
Texas to the territory she claims is identified with her independence.
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