ELLIOT TO ABERDEEN 201
No. 17. 202 Washington on the Brazos 21st December 1844. My Lord,
The Boat in which I left Galveston laid aground on the Bars between that place and Houston for a week, and hence my arrival here has been delayed till yesterday. But I avail myself of the first opportunity which presents itself, to report the tenor of a conversation I have this morning had with President Jones and Mr. Allen, the Attorney General temporarily charged with the State Department. They declared generally their decided opinions that the people of this Country would abandon all thought of annexation to the United States, if they could be formally certified of the recognition of their Independence by Mexico.
I believe that these are the sincere convictions of this Government, and if the Independence of the Country were recognized by Mexico, and it consisted with the power of this administration to direct or controul the subsequent course of the people of Texas, it is no doubt highly probable that the idea of annexation would soon be firmly replaced by wiser and more becoming principles. I am sure, at least, that the efforts of this Government in that sense, would be frankly and heartily made.
In making this admission I took the liberty, however, to remind the President that when General Houston first communicated to me the proposals of the Government of the United States in Ooctober 1843, I had ventured to express my inability to concur with them as to the dispositions of the people of Texas respecting annexation and my belief that they would not have it in their power to resist the popular impulses in that direction. Events had established the soundness of those impressions; and fully admitting their better means of judging of the probable movements of the people of Texas in any supposed contingency, I must confess that I was still unfortunate enough to differ from them on the point they had drawn into question, very materially indeed.
Whilst, therefore, it would be my duty to report the President's judgment to Your Lordship with whom it could not fail to have much more weight than my own, I should be compelled to add that I could not perceive there were any more sure grounds for thinking that the people of Texas were, or would be, less open to influence from the United States than they had hitherto been, and none whatever that that influence would not be actively employed in favour of annexation, or at all events against the accomplishment of settlement upon any other Views.
When, I should see both Houses of Congress joining in Resolutions, voted unanimously or by large majorities, declaring the inexpediency, not to use stronger terms, of ever entertaining further proposals from any quarter, having in view the sacrifice of the separate existence of the Country, I should admit that it was reasonable to depend upon the steadfastness of the people. And speaking for myself, I would add that I should consider such a movement to be conclusive of the whole question, for it had long been clear to me that the fate of the people of Texas was only in other hands, because they were pleased or led to leave it there.
The President knew much better than I did, that in the present temper of the public here, and so long as the annexation agitation existed in the United States it was out of the question to look for a different spirit in this quarter. He admitted that this was the case at present, but wished that Her Majesty's Government would transmit to me the proposals of which Your Lordship had spoken to Mr Ashbell Smith duly prepared for execution, with Instructions to lay them before this Government for completion, at any moment that might be judged propitious for supporting settlement upon that footing, before the people. He could not but think that such a moment would present itself, and he had a confidence that it might at once be taken advantage of for the final and durable accomplishment of a satisfactory settlement.
I had only to repeat with respect to this proposal that I really cannot speak of it's probable success or advantage in terms of confidence. And the single sure mode of preventing some very mischeivous complication for the safety of Mexico, that presents itself to my mind, is in the immediate adoption of a wise policy on the part of that Government.
Her Majesty's Government may feel assured that very earnest efforts are in course of progress in this Country, not perhaps directly addressed to the Government, but certainly to the people and their Representatives, having in view the revival of hostilities in this quarter, so that an opening may be made for the operation of a variety of schemes and devices of the most dangerous character to the security of Mexico.
I have in other places taken occasion to mention to Your Lordship my belief that the present Government of the United States was practically pledged to support this Government in the event of an invasion from Mexico, and I entertain no doubt upon further and better grounds of consideration that such a belief is well founded. I am disposed to think too that the manner of the pledge was not very different from what I suggested to Mr Pakenham it might have been.
The Government of the United States pledged themselves verbally to the Representatives of this Government before they signed the treaty, and those Gentlemen shewed the Copy of their own despatches, reporting the terms of the obligation, to the Secretary of State at Washington, who authorized them to convey his assent to the accuracy of their communication.
Charles Elliot. To The Right Honourable. The Earl of Aberdeen, K. T.
ELLIOT TO ABERDEEN 203
No 18. Washington on the Brazos. December 25th. 1844. My Lord,
On reperusing my despatch No 17 of this year, forwarded three days since, I observe a mistake, which, with Your Lordship's permission, I will now correct.
I have said in that despatch that the first Communication of the proposals of the Government of the United States made to me by General Houston was in October last, instead of October 1843. Your Lordship will probably have understood me to mean October 1843, but I have still to offer my excuse for the error, and I have the honour to be, 204
Charles Elliot. To The Right Honourable. The Earl of Aberdeen, K. T. Downing Street.
ELLIOT TO ABERDEEN 205
Secret Washington on the Brazos. December 28th. 1844. My Lord,
The President visited me a few Evenings since and spoke to me at length upon the present situation of Affairs here, and, as he wished that his views should be made known to Her Majesty's Government in a confidential way, I have adopted this mode of communication.
Before I fulfil his desire it may be convenient that I should lay before Your Lordship some means of estimating the weight due to his opinions, apart from his public claim to attention.
He came here before the rupture with Mexico in search of professional employment as a Physician, but since that event has always been engaged in public life, either as a Member of the Houses of Legislature, for some time as Minister to the United States, and during the whole of the late Administration as Secretary of State. He is of course of the same politics as General Houston, and I have no doubt that his Administration will be marked by the same abstinence from the recommendation or countenance of any of those vast but visionary schemes of policy, or speculation in point of finance, founded upon an imaginary prospective prosperity, which had gone so far to extinguish the Country before General Houston's return to power in 1841.
Unlike most other public Men in the Southern parts of the American Confederacy or here, Mr Jones is remarkably cantious and reserved, and with a moderate degree of the skill and firmness of his predecessor he will probably be able to controul affairs very materially with much less appearances of direct interposition than General Houston, and with less stormy opposition than General Houston's heats and rather free expression of his antipathies were apt to produce. In his intercourse with the European Governments I believe Mr Jones will be guided by a just appreciation that the only course which can be safe or successful is the direct. So far as I can judge he is not at all likely to make shipwreck of the fair and liberal consideration with which Her Majesty's Government in particular, will regard the necessities of his position at home, by any unworthiness either in his representations, or his reserve. In private life he is a worthy and friendly man, of a plainness of speech, and simplicity of manner which help the feeling of confidence, and I certainly know no one in Texas, now eligible for the station he fills, of sounder Judgment, more experienced in the Affairs of the Country, or generally better fitted for it.
With this information I believe Your Lordship will be able to form a judgment upon the trustworthiness of his own exposition of his situation and purposes, as well as upon the soundness of his suggestions. He expresses the belief that the Majority of the intelligent portion of this Community is aware that the best settlement for Texas is the preservation of their separate National existence. But they have seen so little reason to think that Mexico would abandon it's disquieting character of Warfare, the recent conditions and language of the Mexican Commissioners at Matamoras have so effectually broken up any hope of the recognition of Independence by Mexico, and they have so little faith in the force of the mere advice of Foreign Powers, to bring about that result that it ought to be no matter of surprise there should be a very general feeling in favour of annexation to the United States.
The result too of the late Election there, has naturally strengthened that feeling and state of expectation; and upon the whole in the present temper of the public here, I must see that this Government can only watch the turn of events, and above all things carefully abstain from any course likely to persuade the people that they are secretly working against annexation. It may be depended upon, however, that they would neither advance one step to meet or encourage it.
The policy of the Government, and he hopes and believes of the present Congress will be to let all further advances and proposals come from the United States, reserving their own right to reject or accept them, according to their complexion. And he might mention to me in connexion with this point, that if the Texian Commissioners at Washington last Spring had obeyed their Instructions they would never have signed that treaty. It's completion upon such terms was a source of great mortification and disappointment to General Houston and himself. In his sincere Judgment, and General Houston's too, the United States had much better leave them alone to manage their own affairs. He has not much confidence in their ability to settle it in their way in their own Legislature, and for his own part he has a strong inclination to believe that parties there have made as much out of Texas as they intend just now, that they will be quite satisfied to have broken up the late Negotiations and their consciences quite at ease with the thought that there will be no further trouble from Mexico in the way of invasion.
In short foreseeing inevitable delays, and probably enough insuperable difficulties in that quarter and no long endurance of patience in this, he did anxiously hope that her Majesty's Government would use it's immediate and decisive influence with Mexico, to propose the recognition of Texas, simply and unconditionally, leaving all the terms to be matter of arrangement in the treaty of peace.
He does not doubt if it were in the power of this Government to declare to the people of Texas that such a proposal was before them, He and his friends would have strength enough to turn them aside from any further thought of annexation. He also expressed the hope (already signified in my despatches) that Her Majesty's and the French Governments would lose no time in placing their Representatives here, in a situation to conclude definitively at any propitious moment, so that everything may be irrevocably completed before disturbing movements can come back from the United States.
Mr Jones wished me to inform Your Lordship that the most violent adherence to annexation here, came from a rising Sugar growing interest. This party believed that they had tested the capacity of the lower lands of Texas to produce Sugar, at least as well as those of Louisiana, and eagerly desired annexation that they might enjoy the protection afforded to Native grown Sugar under the United States tariff. When the proper time comes, if it come soon, and before this interest had grown to any strength, he had no doubt he should be able to shew those parties that they were no losers by settlement on the footing of Independence.
I told the President that I would immediately communicate his views to Your Lordship; but with no means of forming any decided opinion upon the judgment of Her Majesty's Government, I would venture to state to him as a matter of private impression that it seemed very unlikely to me they would ever be brought to interfere as decisively as He had suggested till they should be effectually certified that they were really acting in behalf of the Government and people of a durable and bonâ fide Nation of Texas. Mexico would indeed have just right to complain if it should appear in the sequel, that Great Britain had been doing no more than facilitating the quiet transfer of an immense Mexican territory to a third party behind a thin veil, soon to be dropped; which partly the Mexican people consider to be unjust and aggressive.
The President observed to me amongst other things that I knew he was sincerely averse to a renewal of hostilities. Such a state of affairs would be in the highest degree inconvenient to this Country exhausting it of it's Means, and filling it again with a class of persons of a bad description, of whom they had now almost got rid. But still if all other hopes failed, and Mexico continued it's preparations, and threats, and incursionary warfare, he had deliberately made up his mind to retaliate. Looking to the disturbed condition of Mexico, and with General Houston's skill (and it might be depended that the weight of his name would soon collect a large force) he should not despair of soon reducing Mexico to reasonable terms.
I told him that I should be very sorry to see such a state of things for I knew how true it was that every body was strong at home, and I felt quite safe in expressing the opinion that that truth would never be more signally or disastrously manifested than in the case of Texian invasion into Mexico. He cordially hoped that no such Measures would be necessary, and they would certainly never be resorted to by him till all other means and hopes of Settlement were exhausted.
Charles Elliot To the Right Honourable. The Earl of Aberdeen, K. T.
ELLIOT TO ABERDEEN 206
Secret. Washington on the Brazos. December 29th 1844 My Lord,
I have been endeavouring during my visit here to gather some correct idea of General Duff Green's position at this place; and generally of the nature and scope of his purposes. They are very curious, and by no means unworthy of Your Lordship's notice.
He was some time since named Consul at Galveston, an office almost without duties, but probably only offered and accepted as a convenient means of placing him in this Country. Your Lordship will perhaps have heard that he was sent first to Mexico as Bearer of the Instructions which led to Mr Shannon's Correspondence with Señor Rejon; and coupling General Green's family Connexion with Mr. Calhoun and the fact of his own involvement in the annexation agitation, it may be that Señor Rejon was not much mistaken in the impression that the excitement of a quarrel might be one of the chief objects of that Correspondence, the more so as the tidings of a Misunderstanding would reach Washington just in time to be helpful to Mr Tyler's proposals for immediate Annexation.
The President mentioned to me in confidence that Major Donnelson had reminded this Government when he went to New Orleans a few days since, that General Green had no other public character than that of Consul at Galveston, and requested that all communication with him might be limited by that recollection
The President thinks the explanation of this mistrust may be that these Gentlemen belong to different Sections of the Democratic party (Major Donnelson to that of General Jackson, and, General Green to that of Mr Calhoun). But it tends to shew that even amongst the parties friendly to the Measure of annexation, there is no cordial understanding, and amongst the larger and most influential part of the party (the Northern) it will certainly have very few friends upon any terms likely to suit the South.
In short circumstances satisfy me that his true position here is that of secret agent to the unshrinking advocates of annexation, in the United States, or I should rather say of extended mischief against Mexico, for it is manifest that their objects are not limited to the annexation of Texas only. There are other purposes and wider plans in contemplation; and it is possible that it may not be the sincere wish of certain parties in the United States to see annexation affected immediately, or till they have shaped suitable devices for the accomplishment of their schemes by the means of laws passed by this Legislature. General Green's Mission seems to be rather to act upon Congress and the people than on the Government, for I think they are so little trusted by his friends, as he is by them. At all events Your Lordship may be assured that General Green has not the least weight with them. There was on the contrary an old feud between General Houston and himself in the United States, and he is certainly neither liked or trusted by this Government.
The foundation of all his Schemes. is the incorporation of a land Company, (ostensibly I suppose for the Settlement of the ungranted lands in Texas, but aimed particularly at the N. W. and Western Sections, and eventually to extend across the Rio Grande) with the management of their affairs in the hands of a Director appointed by themselves, powers to levy and maintain troops for defence against Indians, appoint their own Officers, raise and appropriate funds within the limits of the Company, privilege to collect all the import duties West of the Mouth of the Colorado, and in short with powers not unlike those of the East India Company, but with no definite legal controul left to the Executive Government, and no practical means of carrying it into effect, if the case were otherwise
The Company in consideration of these extensive powers and privileges to undertake the liability of the public debt of Texas, and to provide a certain fixed sum for the payment of the expences of the Government, or what might more properly then be called, the Nominal Government. In point of language and arrangement the Bills will of course be as guarded as may be practicable. But the real object is to transfer almost all the powers of the Constituted Authorities of this Country, with the use of it's flag, for purposes of disturbance and spoliation in Mexico, to a Confederacy of political Speculators and Capitalists in the United States, the last, probably as yet existing only, in the imagination of the parties who have devised these projects; for it is hard to believe that any men of real character and substance have already lent themselves to such proposals, and still less furnished authority to bind them to the contemplated liabilities.
The information I have received of General Green's warlike Counsels is consistent with the scheme, for it is a feature of it that the Conquests beyond the Rio Grande are to be parcelled out, and sold for the advantage of the Company. As soon therefore as all is ready to go into operation, that is the course they would desire, and in the mean time efforts are probably in contemplation or in progress to forment the disorders and discontent in the Northern Provinces of Mexico. Keeping in view General Green's implication in the Nullification Agitation, and intimate connexion with the leader of that party, the reflection will present itself that there may be in this strange Scheme some speculation of preparing for the disruption of the South from the North in the United States, and ultimately for the Establishment of a great Confederacy extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, with the possession of the Californias.
But be the secret and ulterior purposes, what they may, and their character ever so chimerical, it is manifest that the animus falls nothing short of a conspiracy against Mexico. And that such a plot should have emanated from an Officer of the Government of the United States, in such near connexion and close confidential Correspondence with a Functionary at the head of the foreign affairs of that Country cannot fail to fix the very attentive consideration of Her Majesty's Government. Carefully perusing the late report of the Secretary of War in the United States for presentation to Congress I incline to think that this report may be connected with his proposal to establish posts towards the Mouth of the Columbia.
I know too that one of General Green's Schemes, contemplates the removal of some of the Indian Nations now within the United States to the regions between their Western border and the Rio Grande, probably with the intention of dispossessing the tribes in actual occupation, and pressing upon Mexico in that way.
I shall of course endeavour to furnish Your Lordship with an accurate synopsis of these schemes as soon as possible. But they are very carefully kept out of sight at present; and if those earliest put forward should fail in the House of Legislature where they are presented I conclude that the more important will be set aside and kept concealed
The President tells me that he hears of a test attempt in the Senate, but has no idea that it will pass, and leans to the belief that failure there will discourage further Movement.
Charles Elliot. To The Right Honourable. The Earl of Aberdeen, K. T.
ABERDEEN TO ELLIOT 207
Draft. Captain Elliot. No. 13. 208 Foreign Office. Decr. 31. 1844. Sir,
As you will by this time have returned to your Post, I transmit to you a Copy of a Despatch which, during your absence from Texas, I have received from Her Majesty's Minister in Mexico, as well as a Copy of my reply to that Despatch, on the subject of the position of Mexico with reference to Texas, and of the urgent expediency of the recognition of the Independence of Texas by the Mexican Government.
I transmit to you also Copies of four Despatches with reference to the projected Annexation of Texas to the United States, as well as to the policy proper to be pursued by Her Majesty's Government both in Mexico and the United States, with respect to that delicate question, which have been received by Her Majesty's Government from Her Majesty's Envoy in the United States, together with Copies of a Correspondence between me and Her Majesty's Ambassador at Paris upon the same subject. I add to these Papers the Copy of a Despatch which I address this day to Mr. Bankhead. 209
These Papers will put you in possession of the line of conduct which Her Majesty's Government have pursued and intend to pursue both with regard to Mexico and to the United States, with reference to Texas. That line of conduct may be summed up in a few words. It is to urge Mexico by every available argument, and in every practicable Manner, to recognize without delay the Independence of Texas, as the only rational course to be taken for securing the real interests of Mexico, to which Country, the Annexation of Texas to the United States would be ruinous, while, an the other hand, we have carefully abstained from any ostensible Act which could influence the wild and dangerous spirit which, partly from National, but more from party purposes, has been roused and sustained by demagogues in the United States, in favour of the Annexation of Texas, and which wanted but the evidence of active interference on the part of Great Britain to be kindled at once into a flame.
This policy we propose still to pursue, because, under present Circumstances, and until we can see our way more clearly with reference to the intentions of Mexico, as well as to those of the United States, under the altered circumstances which the Election of a new President may exhibit, we think a passive course, or rather a course of observation, the most prudent, and the least likely to involve us in difficulties with Mexico, or with the United States
Our feelings, however, are in no way changed with regard to the Independence of Texas. We consider that Independence of the highest importance for Mexico, for Texas herself, and even eventually for the United States, to which Country, in the opinion of Her Majesty's Government, the possession of Texas, although it might at the present Moment satisfy the peculiar interests of the South, and gratify the National vanity of all the States, would scarcely fail, in no long time, to become a serious source of Contention between the Northern and the Southern States, and, at the same time, expose the whole Confederation to great hazard.
Her Majesty's Government desire, therefore, that you should observe the greatest Caution in all your dealings and Conversations with the Authorities of Texas, and that you should in no way Commit your Government to any line of active policy with regard to that Country.
We have undoubtedly every reason to hope and believe that the present ruling Authorities in Texas will be found favourable to the Independence of their Country. Mr Anson Jones has the reputation of a Man of worth, judgment, and high minded feelings; and Mr. Ashbel Smith, who seems to be designated for the post of Secretary of State, is, to our personal knowledge, a man of excellent capacity, calm reflection, and holding sound opinions respecting the position and interests of his Country. In these two Gentlemen, therefore we could place entire confidence. But we must always remember that the tide of public opinion may be too strong for them to withstand, especially if the pressure from without be, as it is not unlikely to be, applied with great force and craft.
However decided, therefore, the opinions of the President of Texas and his Secretary of State may be in favour of non-annexation, they may be overborne especially if the folly or obstinacy of Mexico should still come in aid of the United States, and may be compelled, however unwillingly to give way to irresistible Circumstances
Under this view of the case whatever might be our prepossion in favour of actively supporting the Independence of Texas, good policy seems to point out the course I have described, at least for the present, as the only one which we can prudently pursue.
You will not fail to observe, with the utmost viligence, the progress of events, and the changes which may take place in public opinion in Texas, and to keep Her Majesty's Government correctly informed on these points.
I have no objection to Your verbally communicating the substance of this Despatch, but not of it's Inclosures, to the President and to Mr. Ashbel Smith, in whose steadiness, circumspection, and good faith I have much confidence. But you will on no account allow any Copy of it to be taken, nor will you speak of its contents to any person except to the President and Mr Smith
At the same time that you make such Communication, you will add the assurance that, although we feel confident that the threats of Invasion by Mexico are mere words, we do not the less appreciate all the injury which results to Texas from those threats, idle as they are, and shall not relax, but rather increase our efforts to induce Mexico to desist from so irrational and so prejudicial a line of Conduct
ABERDEEN TO ELLIOT 210
Draft. Captain Elliot. No. 14. F. O. Decr. 31st. 1844. Sir,
I transmit to you herewith, for your information, Copies of two Despatches 211 which I have received from H. M. Minister at Frankfort respecting a body of Germans who have gone to Texas with a view to settle in that Country.
ELLIOT TO ABERDEEN 212
No. 2. 213 Washington on the Brazos. January 2nd. 1845. My Lord,
I have the honour to acquaint Your Lordship that Mr Allen the Attorney General and Secretary of State ad interim, informed me yesterday that the President had revoked the “Exequatur” issued to General Green as Consul to the United States for Galveston, owing to circumstances known to His Excellency which rendered that step necessary for the “interests, honour, and safety of the Republic.” 214
The President himself observed to me in allusion to this event, that no act of his public life had been so difficult for him, or occasioned him so much pain; But he had maturely considered his position and obligations, and was reluctantly carried to the conclusion that he could not have adopted any less stringent Measure without a dereliction of duty.
It was a source of concern to me, both from a knowledge of the regret that the circumstance would occasion him, and other considerations, that he did not feel himself at liberty to wait the answers of the Government of the United States. But in making this observation I would by no means be supposed to cast doubt upon the necessity or propriety of any conduct which this Government may have seen fit to adopt in such a grave emergency as the tenour of the Proclamation has furnished room to suppose.
Indeed I think I should be in some sense wanting to the Government of this Country, young in it's relations with the rest of the world, if I omitted on an occasion of this kind to express my opinion, that their official intercourse whether personal or by correspondence cannot be conducted on terms of more care, or safety, or considerateness towards the proper Officers in communication with them; or at the same time in a manner more honourably mindful of that dignity and character which it is their duty to uphold.
Charles Elliot.
P. S. Galveston, January 15th. 1845.
Since the above despatch was written General Green has published two letters in the Newspapers which I have cut out for Your Lordship's perusal. In that of the 2nd Instant he seems to be under an impression that I had some part in the President's proceeding towards him. That is a mistake.
I ventured on the contrary (founding the liberty on my long intercourse with this Government) to suggest to the President whether it might not be possible and preferable to pause for answers from the Government of the United States before he took any steps against this Gentleman. For beyond other considerations I will not deny that I was sorry any Circumstance should occur likely to indispose General Green from the development of the Measures which appear to have formed the Subject of his private and confidential communications with the President. They probably deserved publicity and attention, but the late events have apparently shut them up.
These events however disclose one or two circumstances of some interest:—First, that he is at Washington in the confidential employment of His Government, for otherwise he could not speak as he does of expecting “to encounter the combined influence “of the British Minister and the President of Texas acting “in concert for the purpose of defeating the wishes of a “majority of the people of Texas and the United States.” And again, “I am aware of the fearful odd against me, but I am not “dismayed.” In the second letter he speaks of what I have heard now for the first time since I have been in the Country, that is the existence of any British influence on “Our Western and North Western frontier.” It appears, by the use of the word “our” that General Green considers the Country to be part of the United States, or that he is already a Texian Citizen.
The intention “to get possession of the Country between the “Nuecas and the Rio Grande for the purpose etc. etc. etc.”, is also certainly new to me, and so far as I know to every other person in this Country. But the most important feature that I observe in these letters is the care to contradict the rumour that He is to bring into Texas a large body of Indians. “So far from this, “one of the Measures which I proposed was to remove beyond “our limits the Indians that were now in Texas”. The mode of that removal is not disclosed, neither does he drop where they are to go, or who are to come in their places.
Perhaps the report of the Secretary of War in the United States may furnish some means of divining what is proposed on these points. General Green probably considers that the Cherokees, Seminoles, etc. etc. are semi-Civilized (in short they are not Indians in the Savage sense of the word) and I am very far from thinking that they would be the worst Citizens that could come into Texas, but it is not so plain that the driving back of the Comanchee and Apache tribes upon Mexico would be equally advantageous to that Republic.
This Indian project is particularly remarkable, coupled with the authority of the Government of the United States to their diplomatic Agent here to move United States troops into any part of Texas that he sees fit.
In the absence of General Green's explanation of his own Measures, privately and confidentially communicated to this Government, and with the glimpses of them that he affords, it must be admitted that they are a subject of curiosity and interest
Charles Elliot. The Earl of Aberdeen, K. T.
ELLIOT TO ABERDEEN 215
Private. Galveston, January 15th. 1845. My Lord,
A service of many years in the West Indies both in my own profession and in a Civil station connected with the Slave population, independently of my position here, have perhaps given me some qualification to form an opinion on a few of the points Mr Calhoun has noticed in the papers lately laid before Congress respecting the Annexation of Texas.
The accompanying notes were written for a private purpose that I sometimes hope to be able to accomplish; but it has occurred to me that Your Lordship may be willing to take the trouble of perusing them at the present conjuncture; and if that should be so, and it is thought they can in any way be useful to the public Service, I need not say that they are entirely at Your Lordship's disposal.
If they are of no interest or use to Her Majesty's Government, I will take the liberty, (with my excuses for the trouble to which I have exposed Your Lordship) to ask that they may be forwarded to my Sister Lady Hislop, living at No 37 Wilton Crescent Belgrave Square.
Charles Elliot To The Earl of Aberdeen, K. T.
[Enclosure] 216
Since I have been here I have carefully perused Mr Calhoun's late Instructions to Mr Shannon 217 in Mexico, as well as his despatch to Mr. King 218 at Paris dated the 12th of August.
The character of those to Mr Shannon has been stripped so bare by Señor Rejon and the press in Mr Calhoun's own Country, that they may very justly be cast out of further notice—I will make one observation about them, however, which I have not remarked elsewhere, and that is, that if they were not intended to create a misunderstanding, the tidings of which should reach Washington just in time to help forward the President's proposals for immediate Annexation, their motive is inscrutable to me. Assuredly there was no practical need to require Mexico at the end of the Month of October not to make a descent upon Texas, which Mr Shannon must have known could not be done before next Spring, on account of the State of the Country in the Winter Season, setting aside all consideration of the prospect of intestine troubles, hourly looked for at the date of Mr Shannon's Notes.
The whole Series of these papers must I think, convince every impartial person that the absorption of this Country has always been deliberately intended by certain parties in the United States, and that the acknowledgment of the Republic of Texas (so far as those parties were concerned) was only a device for the quieting of the question till they should be able to perpetrate an Act of Spoliation on Mexico, chiefly with the purpose to extend the Market for their own internal Slave Trade.
I am sensible that it would be the height of injustice to suppose that the present Scheme of Annexation will be easily carried through the Legislature of the United States. But the attempt has been earnestly made and will be strenuously prosecuted, and there is no reason to think that it will fail from any particular scrupulousness either in point of representation or means, on the part of the present Government.
Mr. Calhoun pronounces that the Measure of Emancipation in the British possessions has been a total failure, and in support of that conclusion dwells at much length in the despatch to Mr King on the diminution of the supply of Sugar, which he considers to be entirely attributable to the change from forced to free labour.
In setting out it is to be observed that it is more compendious, than a complete or accurate mode of estimating the Situation, happiness and prospects of Countries, to cipher out the sum of Sugar produced at different periods of time. The Averdupois Weight of Sugar is not decisive of such a question as Mr Calhoun has raised.
Without undervaluing that consideration it is not to be denied that more things than Sugar should have been thrown into the balances before the pronunciation of this solemn sentence, for the warning of the King of the French, that a great measure of justice had utterly failed, and that the British Government are conspiring to ruin every body else with whom they have friendly and profitable Commercial relations to redress the effects of what Mr. Calhoun seems to think was an Act of mixed folly and mischief.
Passing on from these reflections, however, I would wish to observe that it is natural Mr Calhoun should be incompletely informed as to the real Situation of those Countries, either now or formerly—But if he had not of late abated the disposition to cause men to marvel at any course that may next suggest itself to his mind, it would have occasioned great surprize that he should have chosen a subject for the better instruction of the King of the French through Mr King of Alabama, 219 on which it would be his best and certainly his manifest excuse to admit at once, that he is entirely wrong and mistaken; and it is to be hoped, heartily sorry and ashamed for what he has said and done.
The position is that the West Indies and other British possessions where Slavery existed are in a ruinous condition, that state of things being mainly deduced, to his satisfaction, from the diminished supply of Sugar. But if those possessions are in an incomparably sounder and happier condition than they were, he will of course agree that the measure has not failed, though the supply of Sugar has fallen short.
Concerning Mr Calhoun's Summum bonum, however, he may learn by applying to proper sources of information that the British Sugar growing possessions have very varying powers of production—And it will by no means surprize him to hear that the effect of a high protecting Duty on Sugar had been to fasten the whole energies of the proprietary almost exclusively to that product, thus inducing a destructive internal competition between Soils of extremely various capacities, at the total disregard of the plain rule that it is good to secure the means of living comfortably before men embark all their Capital in a Speculation in which there are many Competitors with equal or more advantages—He will learn that long before there was any idea of early emancipation, the proprietary in the Old and exhausted Colonies, and even in Jamacia, had been severely distressed, and many of them utterly beggared, owing to the acquisition of new and rich Countries peopled at the close of the trade in too great a degree with adult Males, that planters in the British possessions as in other parts of the World are not usually provident, and had been mistaking there, as elsewhere, profits and high prices on Capital in a fluctuating business, for steady revenue; that the peace, 220 with the consequent increased supply from other quarters, had added to the pressure upon them, that in most of the Old Colonies the Soil had become so poor from the excess of this exhausting culture as to demand heavy expense to sustain it with a diminishing return and reduced prices; that they did not feed their inhabitants, that the race of labourers in some of the rich were in a very unsound condition in point of division of the sexes, age of the Male population, force of growing children so as to leave room for disquieting reflections respecting the future condition of the Countries; that, finally, it is strictly true, that at the period of the measure of emancipation, accompanied by a noble act of justice and generosity, it had only come in good time to save the great body of the Mortgagees from following the great body of the proprietary in the road to ruin, and restoring to some of the richest Colonies in the West Indies the hope of saving their population from extinction.
This was the state of circumstances at the period of emancipation, even in that Sugar point of view which has satisfied Mr Calhoun's judgment. But the British Government felt that there were other considerations which it consisted with their duty and honour to estimate more preciously than pounds weight of Sugar, or of gold and silver. The wrongfulness of the Institution in the sight of God and Man, its debasing effects on Master as well as Slave, the temper of the Nation in respect to it, the claim of that population to the rights of British Law, and to all the reparation of which the nature of circumstances would admit for the wrongs that they and their ancestry had suffered.
Is it possible that an American Statesman, of mark, can indeed suppose that the British Government and Nation consider the measure of emancipation to be an error, and that the question now with them is how it shall be counteracted? that the feeling there is “That what has been done cannot be undone”. Is this then the state of information and belief of one of the leading Statesmen of the United States of America as to the temper of the British Government and people respecting the measure of emancipation?
What incredible ignorance; what a deplorable exposure is here!
Can a person of such training, and in such a Station, doubt the existence of the real motives which dictated this measure? Is he so ignorant of their force?—The last state of that man is worse than the first!
Mr Calhoun may learn by consulting the papers that the failure of produce was fully expected.—How little soever he may understand that any considerations should prevail over the sordid, it is nevertheless true that Great Britain was prepared to incur that loss with the other heavy burden which this measure entailed upon Her.
And wisely too, for the price, great as it was, was none too much, that purchased lasting honour for Great Britain, and mighty benefits not only for Great Britain, and the race of men that Great Britain redeemed from Slavery, but for all the Nations of the Earth still suffering from this terrific moral disease, and for the generations of men that it will save from that curse, and raise up to the Stature of human beings.
It can hardly be that Mr Calhoun, in his wiser mood, does not perceive that the example of Great Britain will, sooner or later, be followed by every Christian people in the World, not by intrigue, and indirect means, and the miserable machinery that he has imagined, so unworthily of his character and station, but by, the irresistible force of right principles, and a sense of honest shame. Cavils and strictures, and poor conceptions on such a matter from any quarter are less than naught, and will be forgotten with Mr Calhoun, and all the passing things of the hour. But history will record this measure of emancipation with its sacrifices, and the blessings which it purchased, as the worthiest deed in the most glorious career that any family of human race has yet run, the mightiest victory that any people ever achieved over their selfishness and cupidity, for the sake of justice, and the cause of the helpless and oppressed, to the end of time.
It was from the state of circumstances (briefly sketched above) respecting the state of property and the population, long before and at the period of the emancipation that, and with a large consideration of all those higher motives, and a comprehensive recollection of the vast nature of the change, and the slow but sure consequences that such a change has always produced on the human race: these were the considerations with which a just and informed person would bring to the examination of the present situation and prospects of those Countries; and the World will determine how nearly Mr Calhoun approaches to a fit condition of mind for sitting in judgment on such a case as this.
Adverting to the condition of the population, Mr. Calhoun might gather in his researches that it had not consisted with the sense of right of the English Legislature to set up a great internal Slave Trade amongst their possessions when they abolished the African, and to recruit the rich Soils and unhealthy Climates where men decay under hard toil impelled by the Whip, at the sacrifice of the population in the exhausted and comparatively speaking the healthy, where men increase, though Sugar fails. He will discover in the prosecution of his task and at no advanced stage of it, that the real state of the fact in the British possessions where Sugar is produced, is not so much that there has been any unaccountable or desperate failure of the supply since the Emancipation but that a great deal too much was wrung from the soil and people under the old system, particularly towards its close when the means of manufacturing by improvements in machinery and the use of Steam every where exceeded the amount of the fruits of the Earth that could be brought to the Mills. It is well known (and the cause is well understood) that there is a vast difference where Slavery exists, between the advance of improvement in agricultural processes, which are the work of the Slave, and the mechanical, which are the invention of free men; and hence a pressure upon the people and the soil, not at all consistent with the well understood interests of the Countries, or indeed with their durable cultivation for any steadily profitable purpose.
Mr Calhoun will deduce another conclusion from an investigation of this subject, which will be interesting to him, for it is in accordance with his principles of fiscal policy, namely; that one of the sure ways to help Countries to ruin is to blight them with high protecting duties upon particular portions of their produce
He will remark, and that too should be another pleasing discovery to him, so far as his political economy is in question that if those British possessions send much less revenue, or what might more properly be called tribute to an absentee proprietary in Europe, they take and consume a great deal more of their own produce, and of all other things both from England, and other parts of the World, his own Country inclusive.
He will find too, and that discovery will be grateful to him both as a philosopher and a Philanthropist (but perhaps I should ask his pardon for calling him a Philanthropist for I observe that he has rather repudiated that word, but nevertheless there are such people)—He will find, however, philanthropist or not, that population is rapidly increasing, that education is common amongst the children, that the vices which Slavery begets, both in the Enslaver, and in the Enslaved, are in course of slow, but sure, eradication, and lastly, that no inconsiderable number of that hue of men, who we learn, upon his authority, are to perish if they are made free in America, flourish and do credit to high station under the British Crown in the West Indies.
It will be no light stroke to Mr Calhoun if some one of them should see fit to correct his headlessness and animadvert on his less pardonable spirit. For it would not be in human nature that the lesson should be administered without stern severity; and the doctrine and matter into which he has been betrayed in his later exercitations, for the guidance of Kings and Ministers, would be roughly handled by Men of Colour in the West Indies, to the full his equals in capacity, and instruction, and character, and be it observed, that it is no disparagement to him to say so, for I speak only of very able and honourable persons.
Mr Calhoun's Mistakes and lack of information, on this subject, not only reach beyond the seas. He does not appear to have any clear conceptions of the possible, and the probable, near his own Gates.
Some of the most intelligent and experienced persons with whom I am acquainted in Louisiana and Mississippi, have assured me that they make no doubt those Countries would produce, certainly more Cotton, and probably more Sugar, (Mr Calhoun's test of the practicability of any Scheme that is to leave the Black Man the Master of his own body, and the wages of his own toil) within ten years after Slavery had quietly disappeared, at much less cost of production, and an immensely increased consumption of other merchandize and supplies
With regard to Sugar there may be less ease in the transition from slavery to free labour because of the continuous nature of the toil, and the want of sufficient labour in the market as yet to secure it at sufficiently moderate rates of wages, to leave the present rates of profit on the produce, and because too of the expensive nature of present processes, and the great proportion of Capital involved in the fixed form of costly buildings, and superfluous Machinery
But Mr Calhoun will remember that Sugar is entirely a forced production in the United States, under the effect of a high protecting duty, and if that duty were removed, as he will certainly think it should be, there will very soon be no other Sugar produced in the United States than is made on small farms, by economical processes; and at no more than average rates of profit. In that way, however, and under circumstances in which it would be out of the question to work large gangs of Slaves, or Slave labour at all at any profit, I firmly believe that more Sugar will soon come to be produced in the United States than is the case under the present system. But to revert to Cotton for a moment, which is the great staple of Slave labour in America, prices have fallen so low that the time has very nearly arrived when it can only be produced to profit, in the United States, on small farms in an inexpensive way, and by free labour, always cheaper, because better than Slave labour. That it may be produced in that way, I suppose even Mr Calhoun will not deny. At all events it is certain that a considerable amount of the Cotton brought to market in Texas is the produce of the labour of the free man, either in part or entirely. If Mr Calhoun has recently visited the great Cities of the South, he can hardly fail to have been struck at every hour of the day with some remarkable proof of the rapid pace with which free labour is displacing that of the Slave; and if he really imagines that Her Majesty's Government suppose that the peaceful and gradual emancipation of Slavery in the United States would be attended with disastrous consequences to the wealth and happiness, and strength of the Country, it is good proof that his mistakes are very deeply rooted, but nothing more. Her Majesty's Government, I am very sure, can have no share in such extremely fallacious opinions, and if they entertained those evil designs against the prosperity of the United States which Mr Calhoun has imputed to them, they can desire nothing better than his Councils and their consequences should prevail.
They who strive for the illimitable continuance, and extension of the field of Slavery in the United States are no sound friends of the strength, happiness, and integrity of that Confederacy.
Mr Calhoun has resorted largely in his advice to the King of the French, to a very excellent and able Magazine published in England, and though it has not been his safe “letter writer” on this occasion, for reasons which it would not be hard to explain, he might, nevertheless, apply himself attentively and with advantage to a good deal of the doctrine expounded in those pages.
In reference, for example, to this particular subject, it would have reminded him in an hundred eloquent and instructive passages (better worthy of being drawn under the notice of the King of the French by Mr King than the Bill of parcels which Mr Calhoun collected, for His Majesty's attention) that civil and religious freedom, and instruction made Mr Calhoun and his Ancestors, and his Country what they are, not in the half Century; the yesterday which has succeeded the Signing of the Declaration of Independence, but in the slow growth of the Centuries which preceded it; and that the one thing which contributes most to the ruin of all the Great Empires of the past, was Slavery. Does Mr Calhoun indeed wish to consider this subject of British emancipation largely and attentively? Let him carry his thoughts forward two hundred years, and then let him suppose, if he will, that these wise and generous efforts of himself and his friends have saved this cherished institution for their Country so long.
What does he think would be the condition of his Country of South Carolina, and its races of Slave holder and Slave, and the race of the free black Man in the West Indies at the end of that time. It is hard to say what change the Colour of their faces might have undergone, but in every other respect their condition would be worse than reversed. For freedom and religious instruction will raise the hardy Slave labourer to a higher station in no long lapse of time; But all experience has proved that it takes ages of oppression and of the gradual growth of resistance which oppression induces, to harden the fibre and unlift the character of an effeminate and subjected Master Class; and it has been the lot of all Master Classes of Slaves to become feeble and enslaved. It would be painful indeed to pursue such an enquiry, and unnecessary, for there is no rational ground to believe that such a curse is reserved for any of the people of our blood and race as the protraction of Slavery, let Mr Calhoun, and the rash and heedless Advocates of the System say and do what they may.
Mr King, it is apprehended, found it hard to persuade the King of the French (notwithstanding the date of the despatch, and the state of circumstances existing at that time) that because Sugar had fallen off in the West Indies, and because Mr Calhoun cannot divest himself of the imagination that the British Nation desire to ruin their Neighbors, (and I suppose to consume all their Manufactures themselves) and to come to the point, because the Annexation of Texas had been made an issue in the pending Presidential Election, that His Majesty should approve of an Act of Spoliation on Mexico, with all its certain and dangerous consequences.
His Majesty is a Gracious Prince. But Mr King must have certainly subjected the Royal Countenance to a hard trial when he had frankly entered upon the task of persuading the King that it was for the safety of Mexico to render the United States conterminous with that Country, by the advance of the U. S. line several hundred miles nearer to the Pacific!
It is not for me to speculate upon the thoughts or words of the King of the French on the occasion of this dashing attempt at a surprize by the American Minister at Paris. But it is at least certain that the very last thing His Majesty would do, would be to countenance an Act of rapine on a weak Nation, from motives of groundless hatred to a powerful one, and the intention to extend the market for the internal Slave trade of the United States.
But leaving the thoughts of Princes, Mr Calhoun must know that there are enough of Plain men in his own Country, and elsewhere, who will exercise their right to speak to this point (for he cannot enslave them and send them to Texas to be sold) and they will tell him something to the following effect
This Scheme of Annexation is founded on mixed feelings of ill will and envy against Great Britain, and a rapacious spirit against Mexico, and it may be, a dangerous purpose against the integrity of the present Union, and, assuredly, in no trifling degree, by sordid motives, and impulses of personal ambition, on the part of many of its most ardent supporters.
The Fathers of the United States when they imagined, and shaped the Scheme of society under which that people live, and might live so fluorishing and respected, knew that it could only subsist by the maintenance and improvement of the great and good qualities of the race from which they sprung.
There was no hatred, no malice, or uncharitableness in their hearts towards Great Britain, or any Country. They desired that their descendants should emulate what was right, and avoid what was wrong, in England, and everywhere. They might have had too little regard to some considerations, and hoped too sanguinely on other points, but it is their just praise, and it will remain to them, let the fate of the United States be what it may, that their Scheme was based on the generous principle that men can be so just, and so honest, and so true to themselves, and to all the World, as to be trusted with the unchecked direction of their own affairs.
They knew well, indeed, what would follow from the prevalence of envy, and aggression, and cupidity, and dishonest fulfilment of engagements, and political intrigue, and the vulgar devices of Electioneering knavery, and the postponement of the claims of the great and the good to the clamour of demagogues. They knew that if there should come to be a substitution of the things glaring, and fulsome, for the things, just, and sound, in the Counsels of the Government to the Legislature, in the press, in the oratory of the political Arena, and the public meetings of the people; they knew, and predicted, and warned the people that, when that virtue and simplicity, and sound practice in the business of self government, which the bye gone system had trained them in, should decay or degenerate, into the tyranny of an uncontrolled democracy, and when all those other evils should grow up in the stead of regulated freedom, and plain words, and pure morals, and just purposes, they would be worm and moth in their Charter, and reduce it to dust, before the wax, with which it was sealed had melted away.
Watchful observers in the United States and elsewhere, must remark with anxiety that the race of their great Statesman is rapidly passing away, that their influence is almost gone, that men of incomparably meaner dimensions are taking their places, and that there are other painful evidences of the grave truth that whilst the elements of durable power and happiness are of slow growth in Nations, as in Individuals, the decay of lights, and virtue, and the spirit of compromise is fearfully rapid.
But solicitously as these things are regarded in England (as they are too in the United States) Mr Calhoun manifests very erroneous and poor conceptions of the feeling of the British Government and Nation towards the North American Confederacy.
They desire nothing but happiness, peace, honour and prosperity, for the United States abroad and at home, for they well know that any convulsion in that System, or any great misfortune or shame arising out of it would be, in the words of a living English Statesman on another point, “a heavy blow and a great discouragement,” to the cause of human freedom and rights.
For my own part, and a varied experience of men and affairs may give me some claim to offer an opinion, I will not deny that I see more reason to hope for the improvement and safe keeping of the principles of true freedom, and real liberality certainly in Prussia, or even in Australia, or Russia, than in the United States of America. I mean that freedom which is largely regardful of the rights of others, be they ever so weak, and that liberality which considers and respects the opinions of the minority, be they ever so few. The course of those Countries is one of improvement in the way of public right, at a various rate of progress indeed, but still of sure improvement. The course of the United States is not one of improvement in the things essential to the maintenance of their scheme of society, and it is well known that the wisest and best Men in that Country are casting their thoughts upon the past with regret, for it is hard to recede, and upon the future with anxiety, for it is impossible to stand fast.
Desperate public Men in the United States have ceased to address themselves to the reason of their fellow Citizens, their attack is upon their passions. What the consequences may be, or how soon, no man can tell.
Mr Calhoun's strong prejudices and political eagerness have blinded his judgment, not only as to the feelings of Great Britain, towards the United States, generally, but with regard to Slavery, particularly—If he had been contented to take his stand on the position, that great as the evil of Slavery is, and much as it is to be desired it should be removed, no fair comparison can be instituted between the situation of Great Britain, in this particular, and that of the United States, every reasonable man would admit that Statement. But what is to be said of a high functionary of a great Republic, founded on an Instrument bristling with declarations of equal rights, who frights the world from its propriety (mero motu too, for there was no need to touch the subject) with the astounding doctrine that freedom is not a good thing per se, for the laboring people of the darker hue, and that it has been found to be particularly injurious to the eyes and limbs, and understandings of the enfranchised black people!
What can be adequately said of such a course by such a man, and in such a station, and in the division of feeling that exists upon the subject in this Country, but that like the desperate Malay he is “running amuck”, stabbing at friend and foe, and probably ending his wild race, a self mangled victim.
If freedom produces this mischief on black people, it must in some dgree do so, upon white. That has not been ascertained to be the fact, and I am inclined to believe that Mr Calhoun has collected his (black) statement from some very inaccurate statistics. At all events it is no satisfactory thing to have remarked that there are fewer deformed or helpless coloured people in a state of slavery than in a condition of freedom. The inference is painful
Let it not be supposed that I am one of these persons who cast general blame on the Slave holding proprietary of the United States. Nothing can be farther from my feeling and purposes. I am well acquainted with many of these gentlemen, and I know that their people are humanely treated, and lightly worked, and well clad, and lodged and fed: And much more than all this, that the responsibility of their training for better things is deeply felt, and most honourably discharged at large pecuniary sacrifice, and in the beginning at no trifling amount of suspicion and ill will on the part of their neighbours; giving way now (as all such feelings will, before right motives and firm conduct) to the sounder spirit of assent, and laudable emulation. The whole Country is their Debtor. But the manifest error of these worthy persons is that they judge of the system from their own practice, forgetting that it constitutes the exception to the rule.
I will freely admit, however, that the Slave population of the United States of America appears to me to be better cared for, and in an incomparably more advanced condition in point of intelligence than any other that I have ever seen (and I have had a long and extensive experience on this subject). But this observation only convinces me more firmly that there is no ground for the arguments of the persons who resist further change and improvements, and who would continue to subject a people to the purchase and sale conditions of Cattle, arrived long since at the condition of an intelligent peasantry.
I remember to have read a Speech of Mr McDuffie's 221 delivered some years since in the Senate) connected with this subject, which seemed to me to be pregnant with truth and soundness up to a certain point; but thenceforward falling lamentably short of any just practical advice.
He dwelt with perfect truth, and beaming pride on the progress that this race had made on this Continent, he contrasts their situation with the state of the race on the Coast of Guiana; he compared it with that of several of the peasantries of Europe. In due succession it might have been supposed that he would have concluded with an assertion of their rights, as well as fitness, and with earnest advice to adopt at once some safe principles for their gradual emancipation from a state of things, totally incompatible with their present stature in the scale of humanity, at utter variance with the fundamental principles of the society in which they live, and full of danger to the well being of the Country.
Mr McDuffie, however, did not appear to see that length, and for any thing I could observe to the contrary in his very remarkable speech, he would have the system stand where it was, till time, and the course of circumstances had obliterated all vestige of the black race, and the fields were full of Slaves of the same Colour as their Masters.
The imputation to which the Slave States are justly liable is, not that they do not at once emancipate the Slaves, for that cannot be done with safety, but that they make no preparation to do so by prohibiting the future exportation of such persons as merchandize, and by the establishment of schools for the Children, and by all the means of preparation which did so much to pave the way in the British Colonies, and, above all, by the establishment of liberal principles for the gradual introduction of the people of Colour (under proper guarantees of good conduct, and steady employment, and perhaps a property qualification) to the full privileges of Citizenship. Till this is done the United States have no just pretension to be called a land of freemen.
The great stain, however, of the Old Slave States, and it is a terrible one (and to the honour be it said, of a great portion of the Inhabitants, terribly felt) is the internal Slave Trade. Moderate men do not reproach them that they have Slaves: That is their misfortune, and it is not to be denied that Great Britain shared deeply in the original sin. But the heavy charge against them is that they desire to get rid of them by foreign traffic, and that some of their Statesmen are striving, heart and soul, to extend the market for this deeply wicked traffic.
For my own part, who have had the unhappiness to see many of these unfortunate people, traveling in chains to the Southern Market through the land of Washington and the greatest spirits that America ever produced, I could not but reflect how extensively that race had contributed to the happiness and strength of these Countries, and thus directly to the fostering of the very men who achieved Independence; and here was their reward!
I have not the least hesitation in declaring my own feeling that such a Slave trade is incomparably more indefensible than the African. In the one, men are selling the people and the descendants of people like Cattle, who have lived with their Fathers, or been born and brought up by the side of their Children, who have rejoiced with them, and sorrowed with them, and toiled for them, and whose final lot is the swamp, and the burning sun of the Banks of the Mississippi, where they too often languish and die in the very year of their arrival, under a new and hard task, in a climate as strange to them as to the Whites, with whom they were reared.
In the other, men at least are not adding the sin of ungratefulness, to the meanness of cupidity. The African is nothing to him, or he to the African, but the recollection of the gangs of people, who I have seen travelling through Virginia in Chains, will never pass away from me. It happened to me to be then perusing Mr Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, and I could not but feel the force of his eloquent lines upon the subject of Slavery very strongly. When he thought of it he trembled for his Country! Nothing that ever fell from his pen does more honour to Mr Jefferson than that striking page, and I greatly fear that there are rash Councils in operation in the United States, which may render it little short of prophetic.
Mr Calhoun remarks for the instruction of the King of the French, that to form a correct conception of what would be the result of freedom to the Blacks in the United States, (brought about by the influence of Great Britain,) we must cast our looks not to Jamaica, but to Saint Domingo. This influence of Great Britain, of which Mr Calhoun speaks so often may be very good matter to help the polls in the United States, but it is not exactly calculated for the Royal Cabinet of the Tuileries. It must be perfectly understood in that quarter to be no more than a creation for certain political objects in the United States. The King and all the rest of the World know that Great Britain has used no other influence, than the influence of example, and that to be sure is forcible enough. It will do its work in time, and peacefully, not to the injury, but to the incalculable advantage of the United States. But it may be asked, if real efficacy should be given in the United States to the principles which prevailed in Jamaica, (duly modified according to the circumstances) why the King of the French should not be suffered to cast his eyes towards Jamaica, rather than Saint Domingo, in forming a judgment upon the probable result?
If there are none of the antecedents of the dismal story of Saint Domingo, in the measure of emancipation in the United States, it is reasonable to think that there will be none of the events. Let us hope there may be none of those antecedents, for that tale is full of warning, and may be summed up in a few words.
Saint Domingo was lost to France by the madness of the people. It was saved to her, or might have been saved (but for an Act of perfidy and cupidity of which the world has seen few worse examples) by the wisdom and conduct of a Black Man, and it was cast again into utter desolation from which it has never recovered by the rashness of Napoleon, at the cost of the flower of the French Army.
St Domingo is not a desert because Black Men are free, or idle, or because of any of Mr Calhoun's prejudices against the rights of that race. The history of that Country will prove that those people are as susceptible of improvement, by freedom and Christian Instruction, as any other in the world.—It will shew that great Men can have black faces, and unhappily that white Men can have black hearts; that the virtues of generosity, and constancy, and courage were as freely displayed by blacks as whites in that memorable struggle, and lastly, that the true curse of St Domingo has been pronounced of old, and came to pass by the neglect of the sacred warning, that the sins of the Fathers shall be visited on the Children to the third and fourth generation. The great Calamity of St Domingo is the hatred and jealousy between the mixed and black races, springing originally from the vices of the Whites, formented afterwards by their dark policy, and now reckoned against them by men of that Colour who have occasioned almost the whole burden of misery and wretchedness which has fallen upon that land. Let Mr. Calhoun assure himself that the fairest race of men in this planet, exposed to analogous disasters, and outrages, and calamities of all kinds, would have fallen as low as these unfortunate people; and still more should he bring himself to acknowledge that the single sound treatment for such a state of things is to help them with counsels to cherish their freedom ardently, and to regulate it wisely, and to heal their differences, and, above all things, to instruct their Youth in the fear of God.
He would agree that it was only by such means that a fallen White people could be raised, and where is the wisdom, or justice, of this finger of scorn against an unhappy race of Black Men. Victims of desperate crimes and calamities, not of their creation?
St Domingo was no pleasing subject to draw under the notice of the King of the French, neither, I must say, is it at all to be detected that Mr Calhoun was better able to instruct His Majesty therein, than on any of those other points which Mr. King was desired to expound.
His Majesty's course with respect to the Slave Colonies of France, and His remedies for the disastrous state of things in St Domingo, would probably be of a totally different character from any that He would collect from Mr Calhoun. It is indeed to be believed that He would rather cast his looks Jamaica-wards, in any contemplated changes on this point, than to any direction that Mr Calhoun would indicate.
It may be observed in conclusion, that Mr Calhoun has rushed into an extremely unfortunate situation, on this whole subject.
He has unjustly attacked Great Britain; failed in an attempt to create coldness between France and that Power, in a moment of some crises; most unnecessarily aggravated the distrust and dislike with which he has long been regarded by a large part of the people of the United States, and, at the same time, contrived by his late Councils and correspondence, to do more injury to the cause which it was his purpose to sustain, than the whole host of Abolitionists in the United States could have effected in years of agitation. I certainly am one of those persons who regret the vexation and chagrin he has brought upon himself, for I have the honour of some slight acquaintance with him, and I cordially respect his high private character, and distinguished abilities.
Charles Elliot. Galveston, January 14th. 1845. [Endorsed] In private letter from Capn Elliot of Jan. 15/45.
202. F. O. Texas, 9. Elliot to Aberdeen, No. 16, December 20, 1844, has been omitted. It transmitted a printed copy of President Jones' message of December 16, 1844, and a copy of The Texas National Register, December 14, 1844.
203. F. O., Texas, Vol. 9.
204. Elliot was mistaken in thinking his dispatch No. 17 stated the wrong date.
205. F. O., Texas, Vol. 9.
206. F. O., Texas, Vol. 9.
207. F. O., Texas, Vol. 9. The letter is unsigned. The enclosures cover the more important diplomatic communications passing between Aberdeen and British representatives in the United States, France, and Mexico, relative to the plan of preventing annexation. These despatches explain the reasons for the giving up of that plan, and for the adoption of the passive policy here outlined to Elliot. For detailed statement and quotations from despatches, see Adams, British Interests and Activities in Texas, ch. VIII; Smith, The Annexation of Texas, p. 404.
208. Aberdeen's despatches to Elliot after No. 5, January 31, to No. 13, December 31, 1844, were all on routine business and have been omitted. They are in F. O., Texas, 9, and by number and date were:
No. 6, February 3, 1844, acknowledging receipt of despatches.
No. 7, April 3, 1844, acknowledging receipt of bills satisfying the “Eliza Russell” claims.
No. 8, April 3, 1844, acknowledging receipt of despatches.
No. 9. April 18, 1844, acknowledging receipt of despatches.
No. 10, April 18, 1844, granting Elliot leave of absence.
No. 11, November 4, 1844, transmitting claims of Mr. S. Merana upon Mexican government, and documents relating thereto.
No. 12, Addington to Elliot, November 4, 1844, relating to the “Little Penn” claims, with copies of correspondence with Lizardi and Co.
209. The enclosures here listed are all to be found in F. O., Texas, 20, being copies transmitted to Elliot, and preserved by him in his archives. Taken in the order named by Aberdeen, they are as follows:
Bankhead to Aberdeen, No. 54, July 31, 1844.
Aberdeen to Bankhead, No. 30, September 30, 1844.
Pakenham to Aberdeen, No. 74, June 27, 1844.
Pakenham to Aberdeen, No. 76, June 27, 1844.
Pakenham to Aberdeen, No. 123, November 13, 1844.
Pakenham to Aberdeen, No. 127, November 28, 1844.
Aberdeen to Cowley, No. 202, July 18, 1844.
Cowley to Aberdeen, No. No. 371, July 22, 1844.
Cowley to Aberdeen (Confid.), No. 568, December 2, 1844.
Aberdeen to Bankhead, No. 49, December 31, 1844.
210. F. O., Texas, Vol. 9. The letter is unsigned.
211. Not transcribed.
212. F. O., Texas, Vol. 13.
213. F. O., Texas, 13, Elliot to Aberdeen, No. 1, is missing from the archives.
214. The President's objection to Duff Green was largely due to the latter's public accusation that the Texan government's policy was being moulded by Elliot. The matter was smoothed over after Green had written a letter of disclaimer and apology. For details and correspondence, see Garrison, Diplomatic Correspondence of the Republic of Texas, II, 332-337, 346-351, in Am. Hist. Assoc. Report, 1908, II. Also Reeves, American Diplomacy under Tyler and Polk, 183, note 44.
215. F. O., Texas, Vol. 13.
216. F. O., Texas, Vol. 13.
217. In U. S. Docs. Ser. No. 449, Doc. 1, correspondence accompanying Tyler's Message of December 3, 1844.
218. In Ibid., 39.
219. William Rufus King. Member of Congress from North Carolina, 1810-1816. United States Senator from Alabama. Minister to France, 1844. Elected Vice-President of United States in 1852. Died, 1853. (Appleton, Encyclopedia of Amer. Biog.)
220. That is, the peace of 1815 after the Nepoleonic wars.
221. George McDuffie. Member of Congress from South Carolina, 1821-1834. Governor of South Carolina, 1834-1836. United States Senator, 1842-1846. (Appleton, Cyclop. of Amer. Biog.)
How to cite:
"BRITISH CORRESPONDENCE CONCERNING TEXAS XVIII ", Volume 019, Number 4, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 405 - 439. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v019/n4/article_4.html
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