CHAPTER V

TEXAS AND OREGON

WE have already seen how the Missouri Compromise of 1820, in its attempt at a permanent adjustment of the territorial claims of slavery, allotted to the North the larger part of the Louisiana acquisition, while restricting the South to the region out of which were eventually formed only the Indian Territory and the State of Arkansas. We have now to see how the demand for more slave territory, joined to the inevitable expansion of the United States in the direction of natural boundaries, won compensation in the annexation of Texas.

In 1803 the purchase of Louisiana transferred to the United States the claims of France to territory west of the Mississippi. The western limits of Louisiana, whether as a Spanish or as a French province, had never been defined; and the language of the treaty, which, adopting the language of the secret treaty of San Ildefonso, in 1800, ceded "the colony or province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it now has in the

hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed it, and such as it should be after the treaties subsequently entered into between Spain and other States," was vague and contradictory.

The main point at issue in the later controversy was whether or not Louisiana, either as a French province or under previous Spanish rule, included any part of Texas. In 1819 the Florida treaty with Spain, negotiated on behalf of the United States by John Quincy Adams, fixed the Sabine River, the present eastern boundary of Texas, as the boundary between the United States and the Spanish possessions. There can be little doubt that Adams was in error, and unwittingly surrendered to Spain some territory to which the United States had a valid claim; but he apparently acted in good faith, and it was some years before the question was again carefully examined.

In 1821 the treaty of Cordova secured the independence of Mexico, and three years later a federal form of government was adopted, with Texas and Coahuila united as one of the States. In 1827 a Texan congress drew up a constitution, which was proclaimed, prohibiting the further importation of slaves and providing for the gradual emancipation of slaves already there. In 1828 a treaty between the United States and Mexico confirmed the boundary of 1819.

The opposition in Texas to the foreign slave trade and slavery unfortunately coincided in time with the change of attitude in the South towards protection and State rights, and with the strong movement of population into the rich cotton lands of Alabama and Mississippi. The cotton belt reaches its greatest width in Texas, and the expansion of cotton culture throughout the whole of the natural cotton area was, of course, inevitable. With the entrance into Texas of Americans, many of whom, in spite of the Texan constitution, took their slaves with them, there arose before long in the South and Southwest a demand for annexation.

In 1827 Clay, the Secretary of State, instructed the American minister to Mexico to offer a million dollars for the territory east of the Rio Grande River; but for various reasons the offer was not made. In 1829 Van Buren, Secretary of State under Jackson, authorized an offer of four or five millions for the portion of Texas east of the Nueces River, but Mexico refused to consider a proposition to sell.

The demand for annexation was not wholly economic, however. Texas was nearly four times the size of New England, and larger than Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Missouri. The acquisition of such an area, and its division

into four or five States, would effectually offset the territorial gain of the North in 1820, and assure the maintenance of the indispensable balance between the sections in the Senate.

Between Texas and the rest of the Mexican Republic, on the other hand, relations were not friendly. The first step towards independence was taken in 1833, when a new Texan constitution was framed; but as the constitution was not recognized by Mexico nor actually put into effect, the movement for the moment came to nothing. In 1835, however, a provisional government was formed, with a provisional constitution, and the long war with Mexico began. On the 2d of March a declaration of independence was issued, and two weeks later a constitution was established which recognized slavery and forbade the Congress of Texas to emancipate slaves, but at the same time prohibited the importation of slaves except from the United States. The boundary between Texas and the United States, as set forth in the constitution, was that of 1819. The president of Mexico, Santa Anna, invaded Texas, butchered to a man the garrison at the Alamo mission, near San Antonio, and committed indescribable barbarities; but in April he was defeated and taken prisoner by a Texan force under Sam Houston, the president of the new republic.

There can be little doubt that the movement for independence, however acceptable to the Texans themselves, was materially aided by Americans resident in Texas. The recognition of slavery, and the permission to import slaves from the United States only, were obviously intended to win American, and especially Southern, support.

In July, 1836, resolutions to recognize the independence of Texas were adopted by both houses of Congress. An angry debate in the House over abolition petitions, ending in the adoption of the "gag" rule, had just closed; and the presidential election was at hand. As neither of the political parties adopted a platform in that year, a formal declaration of policy was avoided. In December Jackson, who had already sent an agent to investigate the situation, urged delay, and suggested that some other government might well be allowed to extend recognition first. At the same time he protested that the conduct of the United States had been beyond reproach. On this last point Jackson knew better. Throughout the summer newspapers had reported volunteers openly proceeding to Texas; Texan recruiting officers had carried on their work in the United States without interference; armed vessels had been fitted out in American waters; and American naval vessels had saluted Texan armed vessels