soon had her revenge at the battle of San Jacin'to (1836), where General Sam Houston (hus'tun) destroyed Santa Anna's army and freed Texas. Since most of the Texans had come from the United States, it was natural that they should now wish to be annexed to their mother country.

Why annexation was opposed. In the United

States, however, there was strong opposition to the annexation of Texas. Most of the Texan colonists had come from the South and had taken their slaves with them. The North feared that several slave states would be made out of the territory of Texas, which claimed parts of the present states of New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming. Daniel Webster said that Texas was so large that a bird could not fly over it in a week. This northern opposition kept Texas out of the Union for nine years after it secured its independence.

Polk versus Clay. In the presidential election of 1844 the annexation of Texas was an issue. Henry Clay was the Whig candidate, this being the third and last time that he ran for the presidency. The Whigs were generally opposed to the annexation of Texas as a slave state, but Clay realized that many southern Whigs, as well as some in the North, favored such a step. In order to catch this vote, Clay wrote a letter saying that he would welcome annexation if it could be brought about without war or dishonor. This letter made many in the North angry, although it won him some votes in the South.

The Democrats nominated a "dark horse," that is, a man who had scarcely been thought of for the presidency. This man was

CAMPAIGNS IN THE WAR WITH MEXICO, AND TERRITORIES ACQUIRED FROM 1846

TO 1853

James K. Polk (pōk) of Tennessee, who had been speaker of the national House of Representatives and governor of his state. He and his party strongly favored the annexation of Texas. Polk was elected by a small majority over Clay and served one term (1845-1849). Polk's election caused the admission of Texas to the Union as the twenty-eighth state (1845). Other states admitted after Missouri (p. 279) and before Texas were Arkansas (1836), Michigan (1837), and Florida (1845). The admission of the slave states, Florida and Texas, was balanced by the admission of the free states, Iowa (1846) and Wisconsin (1848).

War with Mexico (1846-1848).-The Mexican state of Texas extended only as far south as the Nueces (nú-a'sás) River. The United States rightly contended that the southern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase should have been the Rio Grande (rē'ō grän'dā). This argument was offset by the fact that the United States had at the time of the Florida Purchase (p. 275) given up all right to Texas, no matter how much or how little there was of it.

Polk sent General Zachary Taylor with an army to hold the region between the Rio Grande and the Nueces, which was claimed by both Texas and Mexico. When Mexico attacked him there (1846), Polk said: "Mexico has shed American blood upon American soil. War exists, and exists by the act of Mexico herself." Congress agreed with Polk and declared war.

The North thought this war unnecessary. Abraham Lincoln introduced in the House of Representatives what was nicknamed the "Spot Resolution," because he called on the President to indicate the spot of American territory where this blood was shed. The New England poet, James Russell Lowell, wrote The Biglow Papers, First Series, as a satire on the Mexican War. A line from that poem shows what reason many people gave for the war:

"Our nation's bigger'n theirn an' so its rights air bigger."

On the other hand it is true that Mexico had imprisoned American merchants and treated some of them inhumanly. She

had delayed settling our just claims and had mistaken our forbearance for cowardice. Thus the dispute over the boundary of Texas was not the only cause of war.

Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott won great fame for their victories over larger Mexican forces. Other men, such as Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Thomas J. ("Stonewall") Jackson, and William T. Sherman, who were afterwards famous in our Civil War, were trained in fighting in the Mexican war. General Scott, our commanding general, fought his way from Vera Cruz (vā'rä krōos') to the city of Mexico, which he took in 1847. The Americans won every battle of the war.

The Wilmot Proviso (1846).—Before the United States had annexed any Mexican territory, David Wilmot, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, introduced in the House of Representatives the proviso that slavery should not be permitted in any territory that we might acquire from Mexico. The House of Representatives passed this proviso, which angered the South. As the Senate did not pass it, the proviso failed to become law, but it increased sectional feeling and was one of the steps toward our Civil War. The South saw that its problem was to retain control of the Senate.

California and New Mexico.-President Polk especially wanted California and the harbor of San Francisco, and was planning to secure that territory before war was declared with Mexico. John C. Frémont (frê-mont'), a famous explorer of the Rocky Mountain and Pacific coast region, was then (1846) in California at the head of a body of explorers. He probably had secret orders from his government to aid in getting California without breaking international law. Men associated with Frémont declared California a republic, independent of Mexican rule (June 14, 1846), and hoisted as its flag a flour sack on which had been painted a star, a bear, and the words "California Republic."

The first official action to secure the territory for the United States was taken by Commodore Sloat, of the navy. He had not