trees in the town of San Antonio.  Instead of obeying the order to blow up the mission and retire, they held their ground until they were completely surrounded and cut off from all help.  Refusing to surrender, they fought to the bitter end, the last man falling a victim to the sword.  Vengeance was swift.  Within three months General Houston overwhelmed Santa Ana at the San Jacinto, taking him prisoner of war and putting an end to all hopes for the restoration of Mexican sovereignty over Texas.

The Lone Star Republic, with Houston at the head, then sought admission to the United States.  This seemed at first an easy matter.  All that was required to bring it about appeared to be a treaty annexing Texas to the union.  Moreover, President Jackson, at the height of his popularity, had a warm regard for General Houston and, with his usual sympathy for rough and ready ways of doing things, approved the transaction.  Through an American representative in Mexico, Jackson had long and anxiously labored, by means none too nice, to wring from the Mexican republic the cession of the coveted territory.  When the Texans took matters into their own hands, he was more than pleased; but he could not marshal the approval of two-thirds of the Senators required for a treaty of annexation.  Cautious as well as impetuous, Jackson did not press the issue; he went out of office in 1837 with Texas uncertain as to her future.

=Northern Opposition to Annexation.=—­All through the North the opposition to annexation was clear and strong.  Anti-slavery agitators could hardly find words savage enough to express their feelings.  “Texas,” exclaimed Channing in a letter to Clay, “is but the first step of aggression.  I trust indeed that Providence will beat back and humble our cupidity and ambition.  I now ask whether as a people we are prepared to seize on a neighboring territory for the end of extending slavery?  I ask whether as a people we can stand forth in the sight of God, in the sight of nations, and adopt this atrocious policy?  Sooner perish!  Sooner be our name blotted out from the record of nations!” William Lloyd Garrison called for the secession of the Northern states if Texas was brought into the union with slavery.  John Quincy Adams warned his countrymen that they were treading in the path of the imperialism that had brought the nations of antiquity to judgment and destruction.  Henry Clay, the Whig candidate for President, taking into account changing public sentiment, blew hot and cold, losing the state of New York and the election of 1844 by giving a qualified approval of annexation.  In the same campaign, the Democrats boldly demanded the “Reannexation of Texas,” based on claims which the United States once had to Spanish territory beyond the Sabine River.