But, again, we hear another halcyon, soothing tone, which quiets none of my alarms, assuages none of my apprehensions, commends me to my nightly rest with no more resignation.  And that is, the plea that we may trust the popular branch of the legislature, we may look to the House of Representatives, to the Northern and Middle States and even the sound men of the South, and trust them to take care that States be not admitted sooner than they should be, or for party purposes.  I am compelled, by experience, to distrust all such reliances.  If we cannot rely on ourselves, when we have the clear constitutional authority competent to carry us through, and the motives intensely powerful, I beg to know how we can rely on others.  Have we more reliance on the patriotism, the firmness, of others, than on our own?

Besides, experience shows us that things of this sort may be sprung upon Congress and the people.  It was so in the case of Texas.  It was so in the Twenty-eighth Congress.  The members of that Congress were not chosen to decide the question of annexation or no annexation.  They came in on other grounds, political and party, and were supported for reasons not connected with that question.  What then?  The administration sprung upon them the question of annexation.  It obtained a snap judgment upon it, and carried the measure of annexation.  That is indubitable, as I could show by many instances, of which I shall state only one.

Four gentlemen from the State of Connecticut were elected before the question arose, belonging to the dominant party.  They had not been here long before they were committed to annexation; and when it was known in Connecticut that annexation was in contemplation, remonstrances, private, public, and legislative, were uttered, in tones that any one could hear who could hear thunder.  Did they move them?  Not at all.  Every one of them voted for annexation!  The election came on, and they were turned out, to a man.  But what did those care who had had the benefit of their votes?  Such agencies, if it be not more proper to call them such instrumentalities, retain respect no longer than they continue to be useful.

Sir, we take New Mexico and California; who is weak enough to suppose that there is an end?  Don’t we hear it avowed every day, that it would be proper also to take Sonora, Tamaulipas, and other provinces of Northern Mexico?  Who thinks that the hunger for dominion will stop here of itself?  It is said, to be sure, that our present acquisitions will prove so lean and unsatisfactory, that we shall seek no further.  In my judgment, we may as well say of a rapacious animal, that, if he has made one unproductive hunt, he will not try for a better foray.