328.  Change in Northern Sentiment.—­All these happenings brought about a great change of sentiment in the North.  Many people, who cared little about negro slaves, cared a great deal about the freedom of the press and the right of petition.  Many of these did not sympathize with the abolitionists, but they wished that some limit might be set to the extension of slavery.  At the same time the Southerners were uniting to resist all attempts to interfere with slavery.  They were even determined to add new slave territory to the United States.

CHAPTER 32

THE MEXICAN WAR

[Sidenote:  The Mexican Republic, 1821.]

[Sidenote:  Texas secedes from Mexico, 1836, McMaster, 320-322; Hero Tales, 173-181.]

329.  The Republic of Texas.—­The Mexicans won their independence from Spain in 1821 and founded the Mexican Republic.  Soon immigrants from the United States settled in the northeastern part of the new republic.  This region was called Texas.  The Mexican government gave these settlers large tracts of land, and for a time everything went on happily.  Then war broke out between the Mexicans and the Texans.  Led by Samuel Houston, a settler from Tennessee, the Texans won the battle of San Jacinto and captured General Santa Anna, the president of the Mexican Republic.  The Texans then established the Republic of Texas (1836) and asked to be admitted to the Union as one of the United States.

[Sidenote:  Question of the admission of Texas to the Union.]

330.  The Southerners and Texas.—­The application of Texas for admission to the Union came as a pleasant surprise to many Southerners.  As a part of the Mexican Republic Texas had been free soil.  But Texas was well suited to the needs of the cotton plant.  If it were admitted to the Union, it would surely be a slave state or, perhaps, several slave states.  The question of admitting Texas first came before Jackson.  He saw that the admission of Texas would be strongly opposed in the North.  So he put the whole matter to one side and would have nothing to do with it.  Tyler acted very differently.  Under his direction a treaty was made with Texas.  This treaty provided for the admission of Texas to the Union.  But the Senate refused to ratify the treaty.  The matter, therefore, became the most important question in the presidential election of 1844.

[Illustration:  JAMES K. POLK.]

[Sidenote:  Candidates for the presidency, 1844.]

[Sidenote:  The Liberty party.]

[Sidenote:  Polk elected.]