chapter,) to maintain the separate independence of Texas:--"We have not limited ourselves"--exclaimed he--"to a wish and a counsel that Texas should retain her freedom, but we have been led to take a part in that which I regret I am compelled to regard as nothing else than an _intrigue_, which, unfortunately for our national dignity has borne all the marks of an _intrigue_, and has met, at last, its humiliation."--Niles' Register, vol. 70, pp. 25, 26, 27, 28, and vol. 68, p. 290. FOOTNOTES: [39] See Mr. Clay's letter on the Texas question, Raleigh, N. C., April, 1844. I shall discuss the boundary elsewhere in this volume. When Texas offered herself in 1837 to the United States it was only two years after Mexico had overthrown the federal constitution, and not even one after the battle of San Jacinto. A great change however took place in the general aspect of affairs between that period and the final annexation. [40] Executive document, No. 42, H. of R., 25th congress, 1st session, contains the letters referred to. [41] Mr. Clay's letter on annexation, _ut antea_. [42] Recollections of Mexico, p. 238. [43] It was evidently the intention of Mr. Webster, whilst secretary of state, to adopt some prudent scheme for the settlement of the war between Texas and Mexico. In January, 1843, he addressed a despatch to Mr. Thompson, who was then our envoy in Mexico, in which he directs him to use his good offices with the Mexican secretary to mitigate the animosity of the government. "Mexico," says he, "has an undoubted right to resubjugate Texas, if she can, so far as other states are concerned, by the common and lawful means of war. _But other States are interested,--especially the United States, a near neighbor of both parties, are interested,--not only in the restoration of peace between them, but also in the manner in which the war shall be conducted if it shall continue._ These suggestions may suffice for what you are requested to say amicably and kindly to the Mexican secretary, _at present; but I may add, for your information, that it is in the contemplation of this government to remonstrate, in a more formal manner, with Mexico, at a period not far distant, unless she shall consent to make peace with Texas, or shall show the disposition and ability to prosecute the war with respectable forces_. Executive document, No. 271, H. of R., 28th cong., 1st sess., p. 69. For the opinions of French statesmen on this question see the debate between Guizot, Thiers, Berreyer and others, reported in vol. 70, of Niles' Register, p. 25, 26. [44] Debates in the British house of lords, Friday 18th August, 1843, reported in the London Morning Chronicle of the 19th; and see executive document, No. 271, H. of R., 28th congress, 1st session.