[Illustration:  %CAMPAIGN OF GEN.  SCOTT%]

%365.  The “Wilmot Proviso."%—­In 1846 the Mexican War was very hateful to many Northern people, and as a new House of Representatives was to be elected in the autumn of that year, Polk thought it wise to end the war if possible, and in August asked for $2,000,000 “for the settlement of the boundary question with Mexico.”  This, of course, meant the purchase of territory from her.  But Mexico had abolished slavery in 1827, and lest any territory bought from her should be made slave soil, David Wilmot of Pennsylvania moved that the money should be granted, provided all territory bought with it should be free soil.  The proviso passed the House, but not the Senate.  Next year (1847) a bill to give Polk $3,000,000 with which to settle the boundary dispute was introduced, and again the proviso was attached.  But the Senate rejected it, and the House then gave way, and passed the bill without the proviso.

%366.  Conquest of New Mexico and California.%—­While Taylor was winning victories in northeastern Mexico, Colonel Stephen W. Kearny was ordered to march into New Mexico.  Leaving Fort Leavenworth in June, 1846, he went by the Upper Arkansas River to Bents Fort, thence southwest through what is now Colorado, and by the old Santa Fe trail to the Rio Grande valley and Santa Fe (p. 330).  After taking the city without opposition, he declared the whole of New Mexico to be the property of the United States, and then started to seize California.  On arriving there, he found the conquest completed by the combined forces of Stockton and Fremont.

%367.  The Great American Desert.%—­But how came Fremont to be in California in 1846?

If you look at any school geography published between 1820 and 1850 you will find that a large part of what is now Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Texas is put down as “THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT.”  Many believed it was not unlike the Desert of Sahara, and that nobody would ever want to cross it, while there was so much fertile land to the eastward.  This view made people very indifferent as to our claims to Oregon, so that when Thomas H. Benton, one of the senators from Missouri, and one of the far-sighted statesmen of the day, wanted Congress to seize and hold Oregon by force of arms, he was told that it was not worth the cost.  “Oregon,” said one senator, “will never be a state in the Union.”  “Build a railroad to Oregon?” said another.  “Why, all the wealth of the Indies would not be sufficient for such a work.”

[Illustration:  ROUTES OF THE %EARLY EXPLORERS% of the West]