Josiah Quincy: “I say there is no such thing as an exemption from the right of search by the laws of nations, and I challenge and defy…”

The argument for the annexation, or reännexation, of Texas is as gross an imposture as ever was palmed upon the credulity of an honest people.

Though conscious, being then in his seventy-eighth year, that he stood on the threshold of human life, he sought no relaxation from duty, no exemption from its performance.

The charge, therefore, that our government did really give up that important territory, when it was at its option to retain it, is purely and unqualifiedly untrue; and I now charge that it was known by Mr.

Adams replied: "I have no hesitation to say I hold that act unconstitutional and void.