The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1893-08-02


Were home seekers aud home-maker-,
rather than adveutureTs seeking the
phantom Of political empire. Inc
Au-tius were the men OF destiny for
that wild. lnyrl--= s.:.,!! 55!0JJ,i stained
region. They builded better than
they knew; they planted the germ
which was destined within few
years to grow into an American
state
But the days OF her trouble were not
ended. Mexican rule over an Anglo
Saxon population meant only mis-
rule, jealousy, oppression, wrongs I'M
speakable. Texas revolted, and under
the leadership of Gen. Sam Houston
won her independence at the battle OF
San Jacinto April u, 1886.
On July 4th the convention of Texas
met to consider the act OF annexation,
ratified the same, and before it ad-
journed prepared a constitution for
admission as a state into the Federal
Union. The annexation was COM
pleted by joint resolution of Congress
December %, 1915.
But this was not accomplished with
out violent opposition. The wing
party, then in the zenith of its power,
saw in this acquisition OF empire only
the expansion of slave territory.
Great Britain and France looked
askance at the movement, because
they were jealous of our growth, and
they had hoped to take the young
republic under their own protection.
With Mexico it meant war. Her pre-
text was the old subject of disputed
boundary-Texas claimed to the Rio
Grande, Mexico claimed to the
Nueces. But it would have been war
had there been no dispute about the
boundary. Notwithstanding the OPP
position of the wings to the measure,
they gave their vigorous aid to the
war, both in congress and in the field.
One of the great whig leaders, Clay,
lost a son at the battle of Buena Vista,
and it is a curious fact, if the annexa-
ton had a political significance, that
the war with Mexico gave one wing
president so the country and another
wing candidate for the high office in
the persons of Taylor and Scott.
THE CALIFORNIA CONQUEST.
Our next acquisition of territory
comprised the vast region lying west
and northwest of Texas, and stretch
ing thence to the Pacific ocean, and it
was the natural result of the Mexican
war. The region comprised all of
what is now California, Nevada, Utah
and part of Colorado, Arizona and
New Mexico. There have been people
who thought it wrong on the part of
the United States to take this terri
tory from Mexico and keep it.
This acquisition rounded out and
gave symmetry to our possessions,
and under the circumstances it would
have been little short of a national
sin to have failed of its accomplish
ment. Our government agreed to
give Mexico $15,O00,000 for this ces-
sion, and the purchase was doubly
fortunate for our country, from the
fact that within a very short time
thereafter came the wOrld-famous gold
discoveries, which added many mill
lions to our wealth, and within little
more than three years from the time
when California was a revolution
ridden Spanish province gave her adj
mission as n state in the Federal
Union.
THE GADSDEN PURCHASE.
Again the ever-recurring question of
q disputed boundary came up between
our country and Mexico. The latter
country claimed that the boundary de-
filming the southern line of what is now
Arizona should be the ella river, while
the United States claimed considerable
territory south of that stream. The
matter was finally settled by treaty
with Mexico, concluded in 1858, by
which we agreed to give SlO,OO0,OoO
for the country south of the ella river.
The price would seem eXtravagant for
that patch of desert when we consider
the two empires which we bought for
SIS, 100000 each.
TY-FOUR-FORTY OR FIGHT"
MI
origin in the agitation growing out of
the disputed boundary of the north
west. 1t was one of the rallying cries
of the democrats in the presidential
contest of 1914, which resulted in the
election of James X. Polk. 1t is said
that William Allen, of Ohio, then a
senator in congress, first gave it cur
rency. Our claim to that line arose
in this manner. 1t seems that in the
year 1924 our country concluded a
treaty with Russia, which was then
the owner of n large territory by dis
covery and occupancy in the north
western portion of the continent. No
defined boundary was established be-
tween that country and our own, but
it was agreed in the treaty aforesaid
that Russia would form no settlements
south of latitude fifty-four degrees and
forty minutes north and that our
country should establish no settle
ments north of that line.
1t seems that the Hudson's Bay Fur
Company did not consider this rather
non committal agreement as in any
manner affecting their rights, and by
the year 1927 it was found that citi-
zens of the United States and subjects
of Great Britain were both in actual
possession of the country and claiming
the same by right. The country was
in that early day considered so remote
and perhaps of so little value that
neither of the claimants cared to re-
sort to extreme measures, and so TO
settle the matter temporarily they
agreed to a joint occupancy of the dis
puted territory, and that singular state
of affairs continued for nearly twenty
years.
An attempt was made to settle the
matter in the Ashburton treaty of
1912, but failed. Finally, by treaty of
June Is, 1916, the dispute was ended
by the agreement to extend the line
along the forty-ninth parallel from
the Rocky mountains to Puget Sound,
and thence to the ocean. We gave
up territory sufficient to have formed
another state north of the present
state of Washington, but our claim to
it was DerhaOS no better than that of