repeating the rule originally laid down by Jefferson, "that the vessel being American shall be evidence that the seamen on board are such," adding, as the present and future principle of the American government, that "in every regularly documented American merchant vessel, the crew who navigate it will find their protection in the flag. which is over them." In short, every difficulty was settled by the treaty, or by the accompanying negotiations, except one, the boundary of Oregon, on which no serious difference had as yet appeared. "I am willing," said Webster in the Senate, nearly four years subsequently, "to appeal to the public men of the age, whether, in 1842, and in the city of Washington, something was not done for the suppression of crime, for the true exposition of the principles of public law, for the freedom and security of commerce on the ocean, and for the peace of the world."

Republic The field was now clear for renewing the agitaof Texas. tion of a measure that had been planned for many years. On the south-western frontier, there lay a province of Mexico, unoccupied until emigrants from the United States began to settle there under Mexican authority, (1821.) Time and prosperity increased their numbers, and they formed a constitution, with which they sought admission, as a federal state, into the republic of Mexico, (1833.) The Mexican government refused, and sent a force to arrest the officers who had been elected under the constitution, and to disarm the people. War, or revolution, or both, ensued. The Texan Lexington was Gonzales, where the first resistance was made, (September 28, 1835.) The Texan Philadelphia was a place called Washington, where a convention declared the independence of the state, (March 2, 1836,) and adopted a constitution, (March 17.) The Texan Saratoga and Yorktown, two in one, was on the shores of the San Jacinto, where General

Houston, commander-in-chief of the insurgents, gained a decisive victory over the Mexican president, Santa Anna, (April 21.) Six months afterwards, Houston was chosen president of the republic of Texas, (October.)

Project

In his inaugural speech, he expressed the desire of of annex- the people to join the United States. Nothing could ation. be more natural. With few exceptions, they came from the land to which they wished to be reunited. It was but natural, for the same reason, that a large number of those whom they had left behind them should wish their return. There were other motives. Though the Florida treaty of 1819 acknowledged the Spanish claim to Texas, the United States government did not lose its desire to possess the region, and twice attempted to buy it from Mexico, into whose possession it had passed. It could now be had without buying. Above all, Texas had established slavery where Mexico had abolished it, and where the interest of the American slave states, as they thought, required it to exist. It was more certain, they reasoned, to exist if Texas became one of them. But though these impulses were strong, others were stronger for a time. That portion of the American people which was set against the extension of slavery was, therefore, set against annexing Texas. That larger portion which adhered to public principle, and knew that to annex Texas was to despoil Mexico, also stood out against annexation. The independence of Texas was recognized by the United States, (1837.) But the same year its application for admission to the Union was rejected and withdrawn.

Revived.

It was frequently revived. As the anti-slavery movement deepened, nothing seemed more fit to stem it than the increase of slaveholding territory; and this lay close at hand in Texas. If it were not taken, it might cease to be slaveholding; for Great Britain, as the great

abolitionist power, was supposed to entertain the design of getting Texas under her control, and abolishing slavery there. 'Few calamities," wrote our secretary of state, Upshur, in 1843, "could befall this country more to be deplored than the abolition of domestic slavery in Texas." "To this continent," wrote Upshur's successor, Calhoun, in 1844, the blow would be calamitous beyond description." It thus became more and more of a settled purpose with the south to force Texas upon the north, or, as one of the South Carolina districts presented the alternative, "either to admit Texas into the Union, or to proceed peaceably and calmly to arrange the terms of a dissolution of the Union." But to this there was something to be said on the northern side; and it was said earnestly, that the character of the Union as a republic, founded for freedom and for free institutions, would be lost by acquiring territory expressly for slavery. A fresh conflict for and against slavery ensued, in which the numbers against it were evidently on the increase. What the abolitionists could not do, the slaveholders and their adherents did, by opening the eyes of the people and showing them how near they were to the brink of the precipice.

Effected

The majority went forward blindly. A treaty of annexation, concluded by Calhoun as secretary of state, was rejected by the Senate in June, 1844. Its supporters instantly carried the measure into the presidential election of that year, casting aside Van Buren, who was a candidate for renomination by the democratic party, and nominating James K. Polk, chiefly because he was committed to immediate annexation. The whigs nominated Clay because he had opposed annexation, and when he wrote a letter showing himself to be halting between two opinions, the life was taken out of his party, and they lost the election. As soon as Congress met, resolutions

to annex Texas were proposed. Even southern whigs objected. "A dangerous and revolutionary precedent," said Rives of Virginia. "At the sacrifice of the peace and harmony of the Union," said Berrien of Georgia. "If we admit that the general government can interpose to extend slavery as a blessing, we must also admit that it can interfere to arrest it as an evil," said Rayner of North Carolina. What the north, or the true representatives of the north, had to object, need not be repeated. The joint resolutions of the two houses of Congress were adopted, (March 1, 1845,) approved by the president, (March 2,) and accepted by Texas (July 4,) which was finally admitted to the Union, (December 29.) No other shadow crossed the triumph of slavery than a merely verbal provision that in any states formed out of Texan territory north of the Missouri Compromise line, "slavery shall be prohibited." As Texas had no territory north of the Compromise line, the prohibition had no value.

Causes.

CHAPTER VIII.

WAR WITH MEXICO.

As soon as the United States government resolved to annex Texas, the Mexican minister at Washington demanded his passports. "War was the only recourse of the Mexican government." A few months later, (August, 1845,) American troops were moved to Corpus Christi, and, six months afterwards, (March, 1846,) to the Rio Grande, with orders "to repel any invasion of the Texan territory which might be attempted by the Mexican forces." On the other side, Mexico protested altogether against the line of the Rio Grande. The River Nueces, according to Mexican authority, was the boundary of Texas. Even supposing Texas surrendered by the Mexicans, which it was not, they still retained the territory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande a territory containing but few settlements, and those not Texan, but purely Mexican. In support of this position, the Mexican General Arista was ordered to cross the Rio Grande and defend the country against the invader, (April, 1846.)

Hostili- As the American troops, some three thousand ties. strong, under General Taylor, approached the Rio Grande, the inhabitants retired; at one place, Point Isabel, burning their dwellings. This certainly did not look much like Taylor's being on American or on Texan ground. But he, obedient to his orders, kept on, until he took post (385)

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