Very respectfully yours, ~


B. F. HOFFMAN, chairman:
Col. Ri. M. JOHNSON, Kentucky. gaa

WHITE SULPHUR, Kentucky,
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|
J SIR Yours of the 4th of March is received
4proPouaaing number on9ursions to which you


requested my answers A multiplicity of engage


ments which have kept me in continual motion,
! have prevented me from giving. an earlier res
iponse and the same cause will nov forbid as4ult


answer as could desire s1t


/ AS it. in reference 10 the position which I oc.


cupy upon our national theatre that you propose


the inquiries, and with the avowed intention of
giving publicity to my answer, so shall reply


With reference to the course which should con-,
slder my duty to pursue, if acting in natiouf
character. e


Your first proposition contains four queries.
Are you iuzhYor of annexihg Texas to the Uni.
ted Slates2 lfso, upon what grounds Do you


desire it for the purpose of aiding the slave sys-


temp :. IF that system should be the main thing


benefited BY it. would you then think it expedient
to annex Texas2"


The answer to the first and second Of these Wilt
isupersede the necessity of an answerto the other
two and as the annexation of Texas is the most


absor bng question at the present moment, shall


confne my remarks princip ipaIly to that point, With


my reasons for the measure.
| am in favor ofthe annexation of Texas, as I
have heretofore stated in my letter of january last,
published in many Of the public newspapers 3
Texas was part of Louisiana, included ii The


purchase from France by the treaty Of 1905
This was asserted by Jefferson, Madison, Monroe,


Adams, Livingston, and Clay, .snd subsequently,


admitted by Don Onis, the Spanish minister with
whom the treaty was negotiated in 1890 for ce-.
ding it 10 Spain. The constitutional powerRof


Congress to acquire additional territory by neFo-
tialion. was settled in the purchase Of EoufdIara
and of Florida lis constitutional power to cede
to foreign nation territory once acquired, has


been held doubtfnl; but as it was once sanctioned


by the treaty which ceded Texas to Spain, it Gas
acquiasced in; but with the hope, in many minds,


that it might be honorably regained at some future
day MIR. Adams, Mr. Clay aud General jack
son, all desired to recover it by pdFehase from


Mexico, when it constituted part ofthat empire,
but did not succeed. Now, Texaslhag become
separate and independent State, and has offered


herself to become-what she was before the treaty


with Spain of 1920 part of the United States


Indeed she has htto demandi it Of US as trea-
tty stipulation the convention with France of 1903


having providedtha the territory ceded be recev-
ed into the federal Union upon an equal footing
with the original States The independence
of Texas has been acknowledged by England,


France, and the United States-lhe three greatest
commercial nations in the World. Since4he de-.


feat and capture of Santa Anna at San Jacinto. ir
1886, Texas has enjoyed her independence with


out interruption She has had her own Congress,


her own executive officers, her own army and
navy, been governed by her own laws and enjoy
led her independence as absolutely as the Tinted


States. Mexico has obtained peace with her By
soliciting an armistiee without formally GcknoaCL-


sdging her independence, though, in that prGract-


ed armistce, she has virtually admitted it, and Shn-
ia Anna, the President of Mexico, had upon be-
! ing captured, sofemnly acknowledged it. Where,


then can be the objection to the United States full.


filling the stipulations of the treaty Of Ieo3 by reJ


ceiving that territory as part Of our own, and,


at proper time, admitting it into the Union, up-


onsa footing with the original States7 = can see