38 menace, no indication of purpose, which shall interfere or threaten to interfere with the exclusive authority of the several States over the subject of slavery, as it exists within their respective limits. All this appears to me to be matter of plain and imperative duty. “ But when we come to speak of admitting new States, the subject assumes an entirely different aspect. Our rights and our duties are then both different. * * * “ I see, therefore, no political necessity for the annexation of Texas to the Union—no advantage to be derived from it; and objections to it of a strong, and, in my judgment, of a decisive character.” Mr. Webster. I have nothing, sir, to add to, nor to take from, those sentiments. That speech, the Senate will perceive, was in 1837. The purpose of immediately annexing Texas at that time was abandoned or postponed; and it was not revived with any vigor for some years. In the meantime it had so happened that I had become a member of the Executive Administration, and was for a short period in the Department of State. The annexation of Texas was a subject of conversation, not confidential, with the President and heads of Departments, as well as with other public men. No serious attempt was then made, however, to bring it about. I left the Department of State in May, 1843, and shortly after I learned, though by means which were no way connected with official information, that a design had been taken up of bringing Texas, with her slave territory and population, into this Union. I was in Washington at the time, and persons are now here who will remember that we had an arranged meeting for conversation upon it. I went home
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