=Annexation.=—­The politicians were disposed to walk very warily.  Van Buren, at heart opposed to slavery extension, refused to press the issue of annexation.  Tyler, a pro-slavery Democrat from Virginia, by a strange fling of fortune carried into office as a nominal Whig, kept his mind firmly fixed on the idea of reelection and let the troublesome matter rest until the end of his administration was in sight.  He then listened with favor to the voice of the South.  Calhoun stated what seemed to be a convincing argument:  All good Americans have their hearts set on the Constitution; the admission of Texas is absolutely essential to the preservation of the union; it will give a balance of power to the South as against the North growing with incredible swiftness in wealth and population.  Tyler, impressed by the plea, appointed Calhoun to the office of Secretary of State in 1844, authorizing him to negotiate the treaty of annexation—­a commission at once executed.  This scheme was blocked in the Senate where the necessary two-thirds vote could not be secured.  Balked but not defeated, the advocates of annexation drew up a joint resolution which required only a majority vote in both houses, and in February of the next year, just before Tyler gave way to Polk, they pushed it through Congress.  So Texas, amid the groans of Boston and the hurrahs of Charleston, folded up her flag and came into the union.

[Illustration:  TEXAS AND THE TERRITORY IN DISPUTE]

=The Mexican War.=—­The inevitable war with Mexico, foretold by the abolitionists and feared by Henry Clay, ensued, the ostensible cause being a dispute over the boundaries of the new state.  The Texans claimed all the lands down to the Rio Grande.  The Mexicans placed the border of Texas at the Nueces River and a line drawn thence in a northerly direction.  President Polk, accepting the Texan view of the controversy, ordered General Zachary Taylor to move beyond the Nueces in defense of American sovereignty.  This act of power, deemed by the Mexicans an invasion of their territory, was followed by an attack on our troops.

President Polk, not displeased with the turn of events, announced that American blood had been “spilled on American soil” and that war existed “by the act of Mexico.”  Congress, in a burst of patriotic fervor, brushed aside the protests of those who deplored the conduct of the government as wanton aggression on a weaker nation and granted money and supplies to prosecute the war.  The few Whigs in the House of Representatives, who refused to vote in favor of taking up arms, accepted the inevitable with such good grace as they could command.  All through the South and the West the war was popular.  New England grumbled, but gave loyal, if not enthusiastic, support to a conflict precipitated by policies not of its own choosing.  Only a handful of firm objectors held out.  James Russell Lowell, in his Biglow Papers, flung scorn and sarcasm to the bitter end.