The next resolutions, sir, are the third and fourth, which, having an immediate connection with each other, should be read together:
THIRD—Resolved, That the western boundary of the state of Texas ought to be fixed on the Rio del Norte, commencing one marine league from its mouth, and running up that river to the southern line of New Mexico, thence with that lineeastwardly, and continuing in the same direction, to the line as established between the United States and Spain, excluding any portion of New Mexico, whether laying on the east or west of that river.
FOURTH—Resolved, That it be proposed to the state of Texas that the United States will provide for the payment of all that portion of all the legitimate and bona fide public debts of that state, contracted prior to its annexation to the United States, and for which the duties on foreign imports were pledged by the said state to its creditors, not exceeding the sum of —— dollars, in consideration of the duties so pledged having been no longer applicable to that object after the said annexation, but having thenceforward become payable to the United States; and upon the condition, also, that the said state shall, by some solemn and authentic act of her legislature, or of a convention, relinquish to the United States any claim which it has to any part of New Mexico.
Mr. Clay did not intend to go into the complex question as to what were the due limits of Texas. His opinion was that Texas has not a good title to any portion of what is called New Mexico; but he was free to admit that, looking at the ground which her senators assumed, the law of Texas of ’35, the treaty with Santa Anna, and so on—looking to all these facts, but not yielding to them all the force which gentlemen claimed for them, he must say that there was plausibility in the claim which she sets up. He proposed then, that whether the Neuces or the Bravo is, or is not, the boundary of Texas, that her western limit shall be on the Del Norte, from its mouth to the mouth of the Sabine. He proposed also, in connection with this decision of the question of boundary, that congress shall pay the debts of Texas, for the liquidation of which the duties on foreign goods imported into Texas were pledged prior to annexation.
After some remarks relative to the circumstances connected with the contraction of these debts by Texas, Mr. Clay said, in his humble opinion, he thought if there was justice or truth, we owe to the creditors of Texas the duty of reimbursing them for money loaned upon the pledges of those revenues, which were cut off by annexation. He proposed, also, that Texas should, for the consideration mentioned, relinquish any claim she may have to any portion of New Mexico. He was willing to give something for even an imperfect claim of this kind for the sake of peace.
The fifth and sixth resolutions were as follows:
FIFTH—Resolved, That it is inexpedient to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, whilst that institution continues to exist in the state of Maryland, without the consent of that state, without the consent of the people of the District, and without just compensation to the owners of slaves within the District.
SIXTH—Resolved, That it is expedient to prohibit within the District the slave trade in slaves brought into it from states or places beyond the limits of the District, either to be sold therein, as merchandise, or to be transported to other markets without the District of Columbia.
The first of these, said Mr. Clay, simply asserted that slavery ought not to be abolished in the Federal District, except on the conditions named. The sixth resolution expressed the expediency of prohibiting the slave trade in the District. He did not mean to interferewith the sale of slaves, from one family to another in the District; the slave trade which he proposed to prohibit was that which Mr. Randolph, forty years ago, pronounced an abomination. It was a mistake on the part of the North, if they supposed that the people of the South generally looked upon the slave trader, or his occupation, with complacence. The slave dealer was frequently excluded from association with the respectable and worthy in the South. He proposed that the slave trader should go to other parts to pursue his calling—that he should not be permitted to erect his prisons here, and put on his chains, and sometimes shock the feelings by their trains of manacled beings through our streets and avenues. Neither should they bring them here. There was no necessity for it, and it ought to be prohibited.
The seventh resolution related to a matter now under discussion in the senate, and he would refrain from any general remarks upon it. It was as follows: