Election of 1844. Stanwood's Elections, 140-160.

Annexation of Texas,

1845.

This was laid before the Senate for ratification. That body refused to assent to it (1844), and the controversy became the leading issue in the presidential campaign of that year.

The Democrats nominated James K. Polk of Tennessee. In their platform, they declared for the annexation or reannexation of Texas and for the reoccupation of Oregon. The latter territory was too far north for the economical development of slavery, and its addition was coupled with that of Texas to make the acquisition of this vast slave territory more palatable to the people of the North. The Whigs nominated Clay, and the abolitionists, who were now gathered into a party of their own, -the Liberty party, - also nominated

Election of 1844

a

candidate, and thereby insured the election of the Democratic nominee. In point of fact, it was difficult for an opponent of slavery to choose between the two leading candidates.

Clay did not seem to

know his own mind

on the subject; he said one thing one day, another thing another day. Polk, on the contrary, declared for annexation, and was elected. His election decided the matter; Congress at once passed a joint resolution admitting Texas to the Union as a slave state, which Tyler signed as one of his last acts as President. Texas gave its formal assent on July 4, 1845, and became a state of the American Union. According to the Texans' view of their boundaries, the new state extended northward to the forty

1846]

Mexican War

447

United States, IV, 440-451,

second parallel; the resolution admitting Texas provided, Schouler's therefore, that slavery should not exist in the new acquisition north of the line of the Missouri Compromise (36° 30'). The value of this concession was disputed by the Northern- 470, 486. ers, Greeley asserting that Texas did not approach within two hundred miles of the compromise line. The limits of Texas on the south and west were also doubtful.

Boundaries

of Texas. Schouler's United

300. Mexican War, 1846-48. - The United States and Texas contended that the new state extended as far southward and westward as the Rio Grande. This river had been the limit of Texas in 1800, when Spain ceded it States, IV, back to France, and also when the United States acquired 518. it from France as a part of Louisiana in 1803 (p. 340). As one of the states of the Mexican Republic, however, Texas had extended only as far south as the Nueces River. Polk decided to insist on the former interpretation. He ordered General Zachary Taylor, who had been sent to Texas with about four thousand men, to cross the Nueces River, and later ordered him to advance to the Rio Grande. The Mexicans, regarding this forward movement as an invasion of their rights, attacked and defeated a small detachment of Taylor's army. When the report of the conflict reached Washington (May, 1846), the President informed Congress that "Mexico has shed American blood upon American soil. War exists, and exists by the act of Mexico herself." Congress accepted War with the issue thus raised, and war followed. The Mexican War was in reality an attack on a weak nation by a strong one. It happened, however, that the United States armies in the field were always largely outnumbered. The American soldiers won renown by the splendid fighting qualities they displayed, and the chief commander gained great military reputation. The victories of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, and Buena Vista are associated with Taylor's name; those of Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, Molino del Rey, and Chapultepec with that of the commander in chief, Winfield Scott. Many of those who after

Mexico,

1846-48. Schouler's

United States, IV,

525-549,

v, 1-61.

wards played an important part in the Civil War received their training in this conflict; Grant, Thomas, Lee, Jackson, and others served with credit in various capaci

ties. While these campaigns were in progress in Mexico (1846, 1847), other expeditions seized California and New Mexico. On February 2, 1848, a treaty was signed at Guadalupe Hidalgo, which, with unimportant amendments, was ratified by both parties. This agreement pro

1846]

Mexican War

449

vided that the United States should pay fifteen million dollars direct to Mexico, and some three millions more to American citizens who held claims against Mexico. That republic, on its part, relinquished to the United States all territory north of the Rio Grande and the Gila rivers; the cession comprised Texas, in the widest sense of the word, New Mexico, California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and parts

of Colorado and Wyoming. During Polk's administration, also, the boundary of the United States on the northwest was established substantially as it is to-day.

1818-46.

Schouler's
United

301. The Oregon Treaty, 1846. - That portion of America Oregon lying west of the water parting of the Mississippi and the question, Pacific coast systems and north of the forty-second parallel was called Oregon. Its northern limit had been defined in 1824 and 1825, by treaties between Russia on the one part, and the United States and Great Britain on the other, as the parallel of 54° 40' north latitude (p. 381). The owner

States, IV,

504-513.

Title of the
United
States.

Title of
Great
Britain.

ship of this vast region had remained disputed between the
United States and Great Britain; since 1818, it had been
occupied jointly by the citizens and subjects of the two
powers. The British occupation had taken the form of fur
trading; that of the United States was actual settlement in
the fertile valleys accessible through the passes of the Cor-
dilleras. The title of the United States was extremely
vague. It was composed of many elements: (1) the dis-
covery of the Columbia River by Captain Gray in the Boston
ship Columbia; (2) the assignment under the Florida treaty
of whatever rights the Spaniards might have gained by dis-
covery and exploration; (3) the exploration of Lewis and
Clarke; and (4) actual settlement. Many other points.
were advanced, but these were the principal ones. It was
not held that any one of them constituted a valid title; but
it was argued that, taken all together, they constituted a
better title than that of any other nation. To this the
British negotiators opposed similar shadowy arguments;
for instance, they maintained (1) that Drake had sailed
along the coast before any Spaniard; (2) that the Spanish
rights amounted to little in view of an agreement as to this
coast in 1794, known as the Nootka treaty; (3) that an
English navigator had made a more thorough exploration
than Gray had undertaken, although it had, in fact, been
made later, and had been based on information furnished
by the American; and (4) that the British fur-trading
companies had practically occupied this region. These
claims were so vague that compromise was inevitable.
In 1844, however, the politicians took the matter up as
a means of propitiating the North as to Texas: the cries
of "All Oregon or none," "Fifty-four forty, or fight,"
were raised.
For a moment it seemed as if the United
States would go to war with Great Britain and Mexico at
the same time, but more peaceful counsels prevailed. For
some years the United States had been willing to continue
the forty-ninth parallel the boundary between the Lake
of the Woods and the Rockies — westward to the Pacific