Speech of Hon. Daniel Webster

31 Representatives it stood, I think, about eighty Southern votes for the admission of Texas, and about fifty Northern votes for the admission of Texas. In the Senate, the vote stood for the admission of Texas twenty-seven, and twenty-five against it; and of those twenty-seven votes, constituting a majority for the admission of Texas in this body, no less than thirteen came from the free States, and four of them were from New England. The whole of these thirteen Senators, constituting, within a fraction, you see, one-half of all the votes in this body for the admission of Texas, with its immeasurable extent of slave territory, were sent here by free States. Sir, there is not so remarkable a chapter in our history of political events, political parties, and political men, as is afforded by this measure for the admission of Texas, with this immense territory, that a bird cannot fly over in a week. [Laughter.] Sir, New England, with some of her own votes, supported this measure. Three-fourths of the votes of liberty-loving Connecticut were given for it, in the other House; and one-half here. There was one vote for it in Maine, but I am happy to say not the vote of the honorable member who addressed the Senate the day before yesterday (Mr. Hamlin), and who was then a Representative from Maine in the. House of Representatives: but there was a vote or two from Maine, ay, and there was one vote for it from Massachusetts, given by a gentleman then representing, and now living in, the district in which the prevalence to some extent of free-soil sentiment for a couple of years or so has defeated the choice of any member to represent it in Congress. Sir, that body of North­

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