Excerpt from Speech of Mr. R. W. Thompson, of Indiana, on the Reference of the President's Annual Message: Delivered in the House of Representatives of the United States, January 27, 1848 A reference to this act of admission of the State of Texas, (29th December, will Show that 'it was the State of Texas that was admitted, with a constitution already formed, affirming the declara tory statutes which defined the boundary west to the Rio Grande; and with such boundary she was admitted a State into the Union. I understood that, in the speech of the gentleman, as delivered here the other day, he first assumed that the constitution of Texas, existing at the time of her admission into this Union, defined her boundary line, in express terms, to be the Rio Grande; but that he afterwards changed his position, when the gentleman from Texas (mr. Kaufman) came to his aid, and then assumed the position expressed in the extract I have read. Let us, Mr. Chairman, look into the history of this question. If Texas had the right to pass that act, and thereby acquired the boundary claimed by it, and if the Congress of the United States did adopt that claim, of course there is now no ques tion about it. But if Texas had no right to pass that law, if she acquired no title by it, then the whole claim set up by the President in behalf of the United States, and in his own defence founded upon it, falls to the ground. Now, sir, the boundary of Texas, before her revolt against Mexico, was just as well defined as is the boundary between the District of Columbia and Maryland and Virginia. Originally the territory of Texas constituted a very small portion of what -she afterwards possessed. Having been constituted a State, with Coahuila, of the Mexican Confederacy, the boundary between Texas and Coahuila and Tamaulipas was well known to be the N uecos. How, then, did she acquire boundary beyond that river? The gentleman admitted that the Texas which revolutionized was the Texas which was admitted into this Union. Then, She acquired no title but by revo lutien - no title that she has not maintained by the sword; and, if she has maintained title to the Rio Grande by the sword, why, then the Government of the United States would be compelled to recognise that title. But Texas never did, never has, and never will, except as aided by the power of the United States, maintain title by the sword to one foot beyond San Patricio county. The Nueces was the geo graphical division between her and Tamaulipas, and San Patricio was her western county, extending originally to the Nueces; but Texas, after her revolution, ex tended that county a short distance beyond the west bank of the N ueces, so as to stake in Corpus Christi. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.