something like a passion for the accomplishment of this purpose.  And I am afraid that the President of the United States[3] at that time suffered his ardent feelings not a little to control his more prudent judgment.  At any rate, I saw, in 1843, that annexation had become a purpose of the administration.  I was not in Congress nor in public life.  But, seeing this state of things, I thought it my duty to admonish the country, so far as I could, of the existence of that purpose.  There are gentlemen at the North, many of them, there are gentlemen now in the Capitol, who know that, in the summer of 1843, being fully persuaded that this purpose was embraced with zeal and determination by the executive department of the government of the United States, I thought it my duty, and asked them to concur with me in the attempt, to make that purpose known to the country.  I conferred with gentlemen of distinction and influence.  I proposed means for exciting public attention to the question of annexation, before it should have become a party question; for I had learned that, when any topic becomes a party question, it is in vain to argue upon it.

But the optimists and the quietists, and those who said, All things are well, and let all things alone, discouraged, discountenanced, and repressed any such effort.  The North, they said, could take care of itself; the country could take care of itself, and would not sustain Mr. Tyler in his project of annexation.  When the time should come, they said, the power of the North would be felt, and would be found sufficient to resist and prevent the consummation of the measure.  And I could now refer to paragraphs and articles in the most respectable and leading journals of the North, in which it was attempted to produce the impression that there was no danger; there could be no addition of new States, and men need not alarm themselves about that.

I was not in Congress, Sir, when the preliminary resolutions, providing for the annexation of Texas, passed.  I only know that, up to a very short period before the passage of those resolutions, the impression in that part of the country of which I have spoken was, that no such measure could be adopted.  But I have found, in the course of thirty years’ experience, that whatever measures the executive government may embrace and push are quite likely to succeed in the end.  There is always a giving way somewhere.  The executive government acts with uniformity, with steadiness, with entire unity of purpose.  And sooner or later, often enough, and, according to my construction of our history, quite too often, it effects its purposes.  In this way it becomes the predominating power of the government.