The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-28
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TcCCINcQ WtNu ChthuSidBnu the Union. The Legislature of Connec- ticut was the first to advocate the rec ognition of Texan independence. The President was empowered by Congress to extend to the new State the official sanction of the United States, and Eng land. France and Belgium, influenced by commercial motives, soon followed. When, however. a movement for the annexation of the Texan territory came forward, a movement strengthened with the approval of the Texan leaders, the question assumed a more serious as- pect. At the outset the Government was held back by the undesirability of offering so grievous affront to a neigh
 boring frisndly State, which refused to regard the achievement of Texan in dependence as an accomplished fact so long as such an acknowled cement was likely to result in an extension of American territory. But as the strug- gle for annexation progressed, these purely diplomatic cons.d erations be- came of relatively less importance, and
 with the rise of the anti-slavery p-opa- ganda in the North. the Texas question assumed increasing importance and came to constitute the pivotal center
 about which the embittered and ire concilable conflict of sectional issues revolved.
 Left to Her Own Resources.
 For nearly q decade the young Re-
 public of Texas was left to her own devices. It was not until the adminis- tration of Tyler that the waning in- huence of the North in thc councils of the Executive, marked by the retire. mont of Webster from the Department of State and the succession of his great opponent. Calhoun, permitted the Gov ernment formally to surrender itself into the hands of the annex ationists. Even then the task was difficult of execution. The desires of the President met with the determined opposition in the Ma tional Legislature. and 1t was only when the question had been submitted to popular decision in the election of lS44 that a newly constituted Congress,
 by act of March 1. 1S45, empowered the Executive to welcome Texas to the privileges and duties of American statehood.
 By this act of annexation the United States had assumed the responsibility
 of defending the newly acquired terri tory against the claims of Mexico, a task rendered the more difficult from the fact that the independent govern
 ment of Texas had claimed and occu- pied the territory to the Rio Grande, although the area actually occupied by the emigrants had not extended beyond the Nueces. The further claim the | United States was more willing to as- | sume since the act of annexation It. self had been carried out against the i protests of Mexico and was formally declared by her to be an act of war. | President Polk. elected upon plat | form which demanded the "reannexa- | ton of Texas" with all its conse- | 4saA at "A ,rNn the burdens which the situation lrn- posed. Responding to the demands of Texas for derense against a supposed | renewal of hostility on the part of
 Mexico. he dispatched General Taylor
 with a body of troops to the disputed | belt betweeen the Nueces and the Rio
 Grande. In March. 1S46. General Tay- | Tor moved from Corpus Christi. on the | right bank of the Nueces near Its
 mouth. to a point in the extreme south
 western portion of the territory claim
 ed by Texas. opposite Matamoras. That this act was irritating to the Mexican popula tion of the Lower Rio Grande
 is beyond question; that 1t was intend ed to irritate Is almost as evident. The American government had failed to re- establish diplomatic relations with its humiliated neighbor. and was now convinced that war or the threat of
 war was the only solution of the diff
 culty. In order to perfect our title to
 Texas a treaty was necessary. and no treaty oi the kind was to be obtained
 with peaceful measures.
 Could Not Ignore It.
 The temper of the Mexicans on the
 Rio Grande was unable. to ignore the challenge implied in General Taylor :
 strategy. An aggressive movement
 ha rf1
 sulting in the shedding of American
 blood. threw the nation into the hands of the war party and gave occasion for President Folks ringing war message, in which an interminable series ot Mexican outrages seemed about to meet wltn nnaI chastisement at the hands O.
 q justly indignant nation, The wal
 advanced with an unbroken succession or brilliant achievements against an
 unequal foe. Begun for Texas. 1t in-
 volved the permanent occupation Of
 the Southwest to the Pacific. The
 treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Febru- ary ?, 1S48. established the kso Granje as a boundary and wrested from de-
 feated Mexico :he territory which. with the subsequent Gads jen purchase of 1853 now constitutes the States of New
 Mexico. Arizona and California, to- tai area of 591. .398 square miles.
 In all this spoilation. which. in fact, has little justification but that of force and utility the loss of MeXco was rath-
 CT sentimental than material Through out this region her rule has been but
 the shadow of power. Nor was she Cealt with after the refined methods
 of modern conquerors. So far from paying the expenses of the~war in ad-
 dition to her loss of territory. she re- ceived a partial recompense of $l5,000- 900 ana tho cancellation of claims t. the amount of S3.500.000. And, more over. she obtained. with all this sacr!
 flee. a natural boundary against the aggression of a powerful neighbor. 9
 boundary which. under the conditions at present governing the utilization of land. is not likely to be disregarded.
 (Copyrsht. l900)