We have seen how Oregon became a part of our country. It was settled mostly by people opposed to slavery, so that it came in as free soil. But the Southerners had already asked that Texas be allowed to join the Union as slave soil. Many people wished thus to keep the balance even.
Eight years later, Texas asked permission to join the United States. This pleased the Southern people, for although Texas had been free soil according to Mexican law, slavery was permitted in the “Lone Star Republic” when it gained its independence.
Just before President Tyler finished his four year term, Congress decided to admit Texas (1845); but as a dispute soon arose about its southern boundary, the eleventh President, James K. Polk, found himself with a war on his hands. Many good Americans say that Texas had no right to claim the land between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande, and that this was an unfair and needless war, but others claim that it was for the best.
I find it interesting that the phrase, “Polk, found himself with a war on his hands,” is markedly different from Abraham Lincoln’s assessment of the situation, after the fact, when he realized that Polk had pushed that war through congress, with much the same kind of language and sentiment that Bush pushed through the War on Iraq. Lincoln would know, since he was in Congress and voted for the war with Mexico– although he regreted it later, when he saw that it was part of a larger scheme on the part of the Democratic party to extend the area of Pro-slavery support. This can be read in a biography of Lincoln that soley used his letters as the text, with some annotation before and after chapters, or between letters to give some background information. Those letters are excellent sources for illumination.
The big question I have, is this 1899 Text book one that circulated in the North, or the South.
Josue Matos
May 19th, 2008